Monitoring News of the Persecution of Falun Gong
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts:
Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan
917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org
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- BEIJING HAILS TRADE VOTE, BLASTS HUMAN RIGHTS
MONITORING PLAN
- TWO NEW DEATHS OF PRACTITIONERS IN CHINA: #16
& #17
- IS NEWS OF FALUN GONG BEING SUPPRESSED BY WESTERN
MEDIA COMPANIES?
BEIJING HAILS U.S. TRADE VOTE, CALLS HUMAN RIGHTS
CLAUSE "INTERFERENCE"
(CNN) 05/25/00 - Beijing's leadership Thursday praised
the U.S. House of Representatives' "wise" decision granting
China permanent normal trade relations, but denounced a provision in the
bill establishing a commission to monitor human rights in China. On
Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 237-197 to grant China
permanent trade status. But the human rights clause, China's leaders said
Thursday, would allow the United States to meddle in China's internal
affairs. They said they would not appreciate such interference.
"China pays close attention to, and expresses strong dissatisfaction
with, this act, and reserves the right to react on the issue in the
future," Chinese Trade Ministry spokesman Hu Chusheng said.
HAS HUMAN RIGHTS TAKEN A BACK SEAT TO TRADE AND
INVESTMENTS?
(Universal Press Syndicate, Comment from Georgie Ann
Geyer) WASHINGTON - "The anti-WTO forces in America who are
complaining that China's human rights record is growing worse and worse
are, unfortunately, all too right in their analysis. Beijing's behavior
becomes more and more abominable. The country's leaders are even so
frightened by the unarmed, quasi-religious meditation sect of Falun Gong
(because of the communist certainty that any alternative source of
commitment must be destroyed) that it is carting away the sect's adherents
all over the country as they appear in the morning air doing their
mysterious exercises. On all levels, human rights conditions in China have
actually deteriorated to a marked extent, particularly since President
Clinton's 'friendship' journey to China in l998. And the same syndrome
plays itself out these days under Chinese rule in Hong Kong, where press
freedom and the rule of law have been steadily eroding. Nor does the
future look much better. Despite the over-rosy prediction by U.S.
companies in China, the fact is that the vast majority of these supposed
hard-headed businessmen are still not making a cent in that 'vast' market
(which doesn't stop them from performing obediently here as Beijing's
loyal lobby)."
MORE DEATHS IN CHINA: WERE THEY "SUICIDE"
OR MURDER?
Many media outlets carried this report without any
independent investigation or apparent awareness that Falun Gong teachings
that specifically discourage suicides by practitioners.
(AP) 05/23/00 - A Falun Gong member who was detained by police in
northwestern China committed suicide by jumping from a building, a human
rights group said Tuesday. Yao Baorong, 52, jumped from the fifth floor of
a police station in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, during
interrogation Saturday, according to the Hong Kong-based Information
Center for Human Rights and Democracy. She died at a hospital, it said.
Yao had been detained several times for refusing to renounce her beliefs
in the banned spiritual movement, the center said. Officials at the Anning
branch of the Lanzhou police, where Yao was reportedly detained Saturday,
declined comment. Police and officials with the Anning district's
law-and-order committee confirmed her death, the center said. .
(AP) 5/19/00 - Beijing: A former head of a local militia and follower of
the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement has died in a Chinese police
detention center after refusing food and water for eight days, a human
rights group reported Friday. Zhou Zhichang, 45, died May 6 in the
Shuangcheng No. 1 prison in Northeastern Heilongjiang province, the Hong
Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democracy said. He had
been imprisoned there since he was arrested in Beijing in September for
attempting to protest against the government ban, it said. Officials at
the prison refused comment.
ARE NEWS COMPANIES REPORTING OR SURPRESSING NEWS
FROM CHINA?
As the American Congress debates trade relations with
China, there are concerns that economic interests are also affecting news
from the mainland. Béatrice Turpin worked for Associated Press Television
in Beijing before being fired for being too zealous in her coverage of
activities considered oppositional. She bravely blows the whistle on
working within a repressive political environment and a hostile corporate
culture: full story on http://www.clearwisdom.net,
or contact us for a copy.
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts:
Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan
917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org