"When they came for the Jews, I did not speak up for I was not a Jew85 when they came for me, there was no one left to speak up for me." -- Protestant pastor Martin Niemoller, during the Holocaust, in a warningá for future generations against silence in the face of persecution.

CHINA CRISIS NEWS BULLETIN #80 á[03/02/2001] Monitoring News of the Persecution of Falun Gong
FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080 , Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-912-3301. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/
  • BEIJING BLOWS ITS TOP OVER U.S. HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT & UN COMMENTS
  • BISHOP WARNS TREATMENT GIVEN TO FALUN GONG COULD EXTEND TO CHURCH
  • 37 MORE PRACTITIONERS SENTENCED TO JAIL

CHINA BERATES U.S., U.N.; CALLS LABOR CAMPS "BENIGN WELLNESS CENTERS"

Chicago Tribune, Feb. 28, BEIJING - In an extraordinary day of rhetorical attacks and diplomatic brush-offs that illustrated the political gulf between China and the West, Beijing yesterday defended the use of labor camps it calls benign wellness centers and angrily denounced the United States as being hypocritical on human rights. Expressing sentiments that have been said before but rarely with such intensity, China's government lashed out at a growing chorus of criticism about its poor human-right s record by denying it has problems and lambasting the United States forá meddling. Beijing argued that life in China has never been better and that America is so filled with injustice that it has no grounds to criticize anyone else. Calling American democracy "a myth" and "a fairy-tale," China's government painted the United States as a morally bankrupt society s o focused on criticizing other countries that it hadn't noticed its own failures. China's outburst came in response to two events Monday: the release of the annual State Department report on human rights, which was very critical of China, and the visit to Beijing by Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who called on China's government to abolish re-education labor camps. ... In reacting to the State Department report and Robinson's comments, Beijing seemed to boil over. Using two new s conferences and numerous official statements on state-run media, Chinaá defended its human-rights position, turned Robinson's comments aside andá lit into the United States. ... In a news conference that introduced a new Cabinet office in charge of combating cults, a Chinese official compare d Falun Gong members to drug addicts who need treatment, and suggested that adherents who have been detained in labor camps are getting the care t hey need. "The authorities treat those people receiving re-education like teachers treat students, like doctors treat patients and like parents treat children," said Liu Jing, head of the State Council Office for Prevention and Handling of Cults. The New York-based group Human Rightsá in China said in a report last week that conditions in the 300 re-education camps are "generally abusive, with overcrowded unsanitary living condiequate food and excessive working hours."

CATHOLIC BISHOP: WHO'S NEXT?

February 19, 2001, (International Commentary, From The Asian Wall Streetá Journal) Abridging freedoms is a slippery slope. That's the danger Catholic Bishop Joseph Zen warns must be heeded in official persecution of the Falun Dafa. In the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, singling out a peaceful and lawfully registered religious group for special attention , as the government has already done, points to dangerous fault lines iná the "one country, two systems" political arrangement that granted Hong Kong specified rights of political autonomy. Bishop Zen, the second-ranking member of the Catholic hierarchy in Hong Kong, wrote in yesterday's diocesan newspaper that Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa's labeling of Falun Dafa (or Falun Gong) as an "evil cult" is "very alarming, not only for Falun Gong, but for all of us." The bishop pointed to the shallow criteria use d by Beijing to brand the spiritual movement as evil: "Falun Gong has become more political, has connections with 'foreign elements' and is targeting the Beijing government." According to the bishop, the SAR governmentá is toeing the Beijing line. After all, "if Falun Gong is an evil cult oná the mainland how can it not be such in Hong Kong?" The important theme the prelate mentions and others have neglected is the threat of escalated persecutions on an increasing number of religions. Given the criteria, nearly any group merely seeking to defend its right to a free conscience isá a potential target. After all, the Falun Dafa's only political activity h as been to protest its own persecution. Will the Catholic Church, which h as underground priests in China, find itself under attack in Hong Kong? During the Holocaust, Protestant pastor Martin Niemoller wrote a warning for future generations against silence in the face of persecution. "When they came for the Jews, I did not speak up for I was not a Jew," he confessed. Mr. Niemoller noted that unpopular groups were victimized first,á but eventually the net grew larger, until finally, "when they came for me , there was no one left to speak up for me." Bishop Zen has shown heá isn't going to make the same mistake.

CHINA SENTENCES 37 MORE FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS TO PRISON

BEIJING, Mar 1, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) China said Thursday 37 key members of the banned Falun Gong movement have been sentenced to jail in the latest wave of trials in its sustained campaign against the sect. On e person, named as Xue Hairong, received a seven year sentence for downloading and distributing material from the internet, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Xue was sentenced alongside four others at the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court. Some 11 members, including one namedá as Hang Xue, received sentences at the Fengtai District People's Court for "organizing illegal gatherings of Falun Gong cult followers, and printing and distributing materials propagating the Falun Gong cult doctrine,"á the agency said. A further 21 members accused of similar activities received unspecified sentences at the People's Courts of Haidian, Fangshan and Tongzhou.... The crackdown on the Falun Gong has resulted in several hundreds being sentenced to up to 18 years, while at least 10,000 have beená placed without trial in re-education through labor camps, human rights group say. Some 120 Falun Gong followers are known to have died while in police custody, with beaten and mistreated, according to the Hong Kong-base d Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

NEWS FROM INSIDE CHINA

[Anqiu City, Shandong Province] Local police use force-feeding as a torture technique Every day, Cheng Shuping (the head of the Political Security Division ofá the Anqiu Police Department) and Zhang Yuanting (the deputy head of the Anqiu Police Department Detention Center) force-feed those practitioners w ho are conducting hunger strikes to protest their illegal detention. They mix together three small spoons of powdered milk, a handful of salt, and a bunch of medicine tablets to produce a green-colored concoction. After the force-feeding, the practitioners experience a painful tightening of their stomachs, numbness in their hands and feet, and cramps. Some practitioners throw up after they are force-fed, and the vomit is collected an d forced down their throats again. Each force-feeding session lasts as long as five hours. Practitioners Du Tiening and Song Yanshan have been force-fed so many times that their noses are filled with blood. Since February 3rd, the policemen have inserted feeding tubes through their noses directly into the stomachs of the two practitioners 24 hours a day, while handcuffing their hands behind their backs.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-912-3301. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net.

Category: Falun Dafa in the Media