China Crisis News Bulletin #49

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: [e-mail]

• CHINA JAMS FALUN DAFA RADIO BROADCAST
• CHINESE SECRET AGENTS POSE AS FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS, EMPLOY SPLIT TACTICS
• FORMER "RE-EDUCATED" CONTACT PERSON COMES BACK TO FALUN DAFA

CHINA JAMS FALUN DAFA RADIO SIGNAL

(BBC MONITORING) 7/3/2000 The banned Falun Gong spiritual movement began daily Chinese-language radio broadcasts aimed at mainland China on 1st July, in a bid to counter Beijing's year-long crackdown... The opening announcement in the first broadcast by World Falun Dafa Radio, also carried on the station's web site (http://www.falundafaradio.org), said: "Dear listeners and friends, greetings! World Falun Dafa Radio will officially begin broadcasting from today. The broadcast time is every evening 2200 to 2300 Beijing time [1400 to 1500 GMT] on the shortwave frequency of 9.915 MHz. "The broadcast went on to say that during the last eight years, "the teachings of Falun Dafa have spread to China and the whole world..." Falun Gong says that its radio station aims "to broadcast information about the movement and clarify facts about the Falun Gong issue to people in the Chinese mainland". Falun Dafa, which means the Great Law of the Dharma Wheel, is another name for the Falun Gong movement, which combines meditation with a doctrine rooted loosely in Buddhist and Daoist teachings...

Falun Dafa Radio's producers and editors... say the Chinese-language broadcasts are being directed at northern and central China and are aimed at letting ordinary people there know about what the movement calls the widespread persecution of its members. The Falun Gong radio broadcast was confirmed on 1st and 2nd July on the shortwave frequency of 9915 kHz. However, on both occasions it was subject to interference from a China National Radio 2 transmission on the same frequency. According to a report by the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, citing what it described as "internal documents from the Chinese Communists," more than 50 million people in mainland China tune in to foreign radio stations for information they cannot hear from Chinese sources. The authorities in China have periodically jammed transmissions of the BBC, Voice of America and the US-funded Radio Free Asia. China also continues to block web sites it regards as politically sensitive.

CHINESE SECRET AGENTS POSE AS FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS, EMPLOY SPLIT TACTICS

HONG KONG, Jul 5, 2000 -- (BBC Monitoring) Secret agents from the mainland's shadowy State Security Ministry (SSM) are infiltrating Falun Gong organizations in Hong Kong and overseas in an attempt to split them, says Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa convenor Kan Hung-cheung. Mr. Kan said the infiltration represented the second major crisis faced by the movement - which promotes an exercise regime with elements of meditation, Buddhism and Taoism - after the mainland banned it as an "evil cult" last year. "Some of the SSM agents infiltrating overseas Falun Gong organizations have been identified," Mr. Kan said. "There have been two to three in Hong Kong, four in Japan and three in the United States." "But in China, the figures are unknown." He said the agents would join the organizations as ordinary practitioners and then spread rumours that defamed the movement's US-based master, Li Hongzhi, or tell practitioners he should not be trusted. "Sometimes, the agents would distribute fake scriptural articles to confuse the practitioners," Mr. Kan said. "In China, some agents use violence or encourage other practitioners to use violence to oppose the government, giving the authorities an excuse for suppression. "In one instance, someone used a large photograph of their master (Mr. Li) to cover a picture of late chairman Mao Zedong. "On some occasions, spies have provoked the use of force by law-enforcement officers." Mr. Kan said about 100 mainland practitioners were arrested after agents urged them to hold a meeting and they were ambushed by security officers. "In Hong Kong , some agents have been infiltrating the group, but they can do nothing as our practitioners have been told about their conspiracy," he said. The infiltration technique is called implosion, which is widely used when the mainland government wants to bring down an organization that is proving difficult to suppress. Secret agents join the organization and create conflicts between its members through agitation, blowing the organization apart.

DISTRUST OF PARTY "REFORMS" MOUNTS IN CHINA AS DO PROBLEMS

BEIJING -- Washington Post Foreign Service. Saturday, July 1, 2000. Despite 20 years of economic development, China risks falling further behind the West. Unemployment is rising. The Communist Party could lose power over corruption. A spiritual vacuum afflicts many people. Surrounded by a democratizing Taiwan, a diminished Russia and an India that never seems to fulfill its promise, the party needs a new model to leaf China through the 21st century. This pessimistic assessment is what the elders who run the world's biggest Communist country are giving the rank and file of the 60 million-strong Chinese Communist Party. And not just any elder: the party leader and president, Jiang Zemin.

In a campaign that echoes attempts a decade ago to rescue the Soviet Communist Party, China has launched a crusade to reform its ruling party. Kicked off by speeches by Jiang during a trip to southern China earlier this year and followed in May with publication of a 74-page booklet, "A Great Program for Comprehensively Strengthening Party Building," the campaign aims to penetrate every cell, every committee. Jiang's term as president and party chief will probably end after the party congress in 2002. But he apparently wants to continue to wield power behind the scenes, much as Deng did. Without a major contribution to China's Communist history, that role will be difficult. To that end, every day, media throughout China call the campaign a "brilliant theoretical conclusion made by the party Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin as the core." Every new day brings another article quoting a party figure backing Jiang's "breakthrough." Hu Jintao, Jiang's anointed successor, is leading the campaign, which observers here have interpreted as another sign the president is as concerned about his legacy as he is about the party's fate.

CHINA ROUND UP

(Falun Dafa Web Sites) [Shandong Province]

Former "Transformed" Contact Person Comes back to Falun Gong, Chinese Authorities embarrassed...

Zhang Shouqiang, a former contact person of Falun Gong, was arrested on the morning of July 20 in 1999 in the government's countrywide crackdown on Falun Gong. Facing torture and persecution, he decided to succumb to the government's demands, and recant his belief in Falun Gong, against his conscience. He criticized Falun Dafa in the central Chinese TV programs and the local Shandong Provincial TV programs. Recently, however, Zhang surprised the government by going once again to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Since Zhang had been selected as a "role model" by the government for publicly slandering Falun Dafa, it would be embarrassing for the government to sentence him or to send him to a labor camp. He is currently under surveillance.

Practitioner Beaten by Police, Suffers Fractured Spine.

Zhao Xin, a 32 year-old lecturer in Economics at the Beijing Business University, went to a local park on June 19th to practice the Falun Gong exercises. She was arrested and beaten by police, and then sent to Haiding hospital to undergo surgery for a spinal injury involving several crushed vertebrae. The next time her friends could visit her, she was unable to walk or speak, and was completely dependent upon a breathing machine. There is no word of her having regained consciousness since the surgery, and her current status is unknown. The medical records are being withheld from family members. For more accounts from inside China: http://www.minghui.ca.

NEW DOCUMENTARY VIDEO AVAILABLE: "Falun Gong: The Real Story, Part II" ... For information about a screening in your area, or to obtain a copy, please contact the 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: [e-mail]