Authoritative center for China studies runs academic seminar on Falun Gong situation

On 4 February 2000, the well known centre in the UK for study into Chinese issues, the School of Oriental and Africa Studies (SOAS) of the University of London, organised an academic seminar on the current situation of Falun Gong in China.

The three speakers are a senior China analyst from the BBC, a research fellow of the SOAS and a Falun Gong practitioner in the UK. The BBC and SOAS speakers pointed out that Falun Gong is not a political organisation and they could not see it as any threat like the Taiping rebellion. They analysed and criticised the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong from legal and human rights angles. The Falun Gong representative refuted the Chinese government's allegation that Falun Gong is an Aum-like cult by analysing their key differences. He then directed the discussion to the so-called 1400 death cases by revealing the Chinese government's fabrication in the Ma Jinxiu case and the fabrication in the suicide case reported in the NuBao and other newspapers. The practitioner also described the fundamental reason and the trigger for the persecution and argued that the 10000 strong gathering in Beijing in April 99 was not because of an article in a local youth journal but a result of many years of suppression, sparked off by mass arrests and beatings.

The Chinese Embassy official invited to the Seminar was the first to ask questions and he used the opportunity to show some gruesome pictures and repeat the propaganda of mansions, birthday etc. People in the audience commented that without independent investigation, these allegations would not be credible. Some said that after listening to the presentations, they believe Falun Gong is not a cult, others said that the evidences given by the Chinese government are as cheap as "two a penny" and should not be taken seriously.

The seminar was much larger than the organiser expected and they at one stage had to suspend the seminar to re-arrange the seating to allow people standing outside the door to come in. Following the seminar many people approached the Falun Gong practitioner for more information and offered warm words of support.