April 15, 2001

PORTSMOUTH - A group of Seacoast residents are using truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance to protest human rights abuses in China - exactly what they say can get you beaten, imprisoned, raped or killed in a nation trying to join the world's economic leaders.

Five Seacoast practitioners of Falun Gong joined a larger group from Boston and spent a week last month at the 57th Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. While the recent spy plane snafu brought U.S.-China relations under an international microscope, Falun Gong practitioners believe all eyes should focus on how the Asian nation treats millions of its people.

David Li, 36, of Portsmouth, is a native of Beijing, China. He last visited his homeland in October 1999. He said it was a visit shrouded in terror because of an order issued in July 1999 from Chinese president Jiang Zemin to crush Falun Gong practitioners without mercy.

"Jiang issued a very vicious order orally to crack down on Falun Gong," said Li, who practices with his wife Ming Liu. "To make them economically bankrupt and to defame the practitioner."

"And to eliminate their bodies," added his wife, also a native of Beijing. "Those were his three orders."

Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is an ancient form of qigong - the practice of refining the body and mind through exercises and meditation. It is different from most other qigong practices because it goes beyond health and fitness to seek wisdom and enlightenment. At its heart are the principles: truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance.

Falun Gong, founded nine years ago by Li Hongzhi, has become the most popular form of qigong in Chinese history. An estimated 70 to 100 million of China's 1.3 billion people actively practice the belief, which emphasizes one's moral character in daily life.

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In February, CNN reported government institutions, including primary and secondary schools, were ordered to report Falun Gong practitioners to police and state security units.

Earlier this week in Geneva, Falun Gong practitioners issued a statement. In condemning actions of the Chinese government, the group detailed how people are abused for participating in a peaceful practice, as permitted by the Chinese constitution.

The Seacoast representatives included Li and Liu, as well as Martin Fox, 59, of Kittery; Mary Byrom, 48, and Marcus Gale, 49, both of Kittery; and Bridget McKeon, 44, of York.

The group participated in peaceful demonstrations that included the meditative exercises held in front of the U.N. office.

"More and more of the public is becoming aware of the brutality going on in China," Fox said. "When you talk to a Westerner, it's hard for them to believe that it's going on. But it is."

Tens of millions of women are subject to punishment for their peaceful beliefs, the statement further reads. The group repeated a story first reported in the Wall Street Journal last April. It told of a 58-year-old Chinese woman who refused to renounce her faith in Falun Gong and died at the hands of her punishers.

Chen Zixiu was repeatedly jolted with an electric cattle prod and ordered to run barefoot in the snow. Two days of torture left her bruised and bleeding, according to cell mates who witnessed the incident. Zixiu crawled outside, vomited, collapsed and died.

The statement also said women are subject to gang rape by male prisoners and guards, and pregnant women have not escaped the crackdown.

Liu Qiuhong, 25, of Shandong province, was arrested at home for practicing Falun Gong. While in custody, she was forced to have an abortion, even though she was eight months into her term.

Amnesty International reported Zixiu's case and several others, but Chinese officials deny any wrongdoing, claiming the woman died of a heart attack.

Li and Liu say such is the modus operandi of the Chinese government. And Li likened the government's actions to that of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis' persecution of Jews and Gypsies in Germany in the late 1930s.

"If police persecute a practitioner to death, the (state-controlled) media reports it as a suicide or heart attack," Liu said.

"Or that they jumped out of a train or a building," Li added. "Or they died of a hunger strike. Died from not eating.

"They use all kinds of ways. You just can't imagine. You just can't imagine."

Amnesty International reports about 30 practitioners were reported dead in police custody due to torture a year ago. This year, it reports the number increased to more than 180.

If true, the human rights violations would go against the constitution of the People's Republic of China, adopted in 1982. It says: Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief; no state organ, public organization, or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion; and, the state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state.

The Chinese government has claimed human rights in the country have never been better. During Jiang's visit to the United States in October 1997, PBS' Jim Lehrer asked the president about China's human rights record during an interview.

Jiang said China does not feel it has done anything wrong in the field of human rights.

"China has a tradition of 5,000 years," Jiang told Lehrer, "and different countries have their different history and culture."

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Liu scoffs at the government's denial of mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners. She said her family in Beijing was investigated by officials from the Chinese Security Bureau.

"They warned my mom," she said. "They told her if she practiced, something would happen to her and to persuade us to stop practicing."

Falun Gong practitioners say freedom of expression and association in China are threatened by a government yet unable to reach international standards for human rights. And the group that joined together in Geneva feels China should be denied favorable trade status until it proves such abuses no longer take place.

China is currently negotiating to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), which administers multilateral trade rules. Acceptance could bring an economic windfall to China and several other countries, including Germany and the United States.

Several final hurdles remain before China is officially accepted into the WTO. Among them is an upcoming U.N. vote that could lead to China being censured by the organization, which could impact the WTO membership.

"We, as Americans, are in a good position to speak out against China's human rights abuses," said Mary Byrum. "As a world power, it would be nice to see us take a step against this."