1. A Dialog with a friend and writer at Chinese Academy of Social Science
(Ring Ring ...)
A: Hello!
B: Kan, did your group write those articles criticizing Falun Gong that were recently published by Xinhua News Agency?
A: What's wrong?
B: Even my son, who is in primary school, couldn't stand reading it. He asked me to call uncle Kan, to find out "What on earth are they trying to convey?"
A: (Sigh.) We didn't want to write it. It was a compulsory assignment from a higher authority.
B: Let me ask you by the way: Have any of your people read Zhuan Falun from cover to cover, even once?
A: None of us have read the book. What's wrong?
2. "Improvement"
A friend of mine "Y" really looks down on Xinhua News Agency because this organization dares to print all kinds of lies. Yet "Y" has to read Xinhua's newspapers daily. Her job also includes summarizing and quoting the main news. Lately Xinhua published a few so-called "uncovering and criticizing Falun Gong" articles that she said gave her a headache.
That day, "Y" announced to us all of a sudden: "Xinhua has been improved." People looked at her either confusedly or sarcastically. "Y" said seriously: "The articles that criticize Falun Gong now contain more quotes from original Falun gong articles. Though these criticisms are quoting out of context and misrepresenting the author's meaning, they give the readers an opportunity to filter out the false and retain the true."
June 6, 2000
