Tribune de Genève: FALUN GONG: THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY FOR CHINA?

Deputy, Grand Council of Geneva

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party has re-elected its political bureau, which will be directed by the new Secretary-General, successor to Jiang Zemin. Is this political reshuffle, with responsibility for developing economic reforms, a step in the direction of democracy or a re-enforcement of the regime under the iron hand of the party? China, with its 1.2ábillionáinhabitants and their deeply-rooted traditions, given over to capitalist frenzy in a communist dictatorship, is in a transition period with its consequent risk of destabilization.

Falun Gong became widespread in 1992 in such a climate of mounting tension. This method of Qiágong, deeply rooted in Chinese tradition and composed of slow and harmonious exercises, is open to all and calls for the application in one's daily life of the universal principles: Truth (to be true, genuine), Benevolence (Compassion) and Tolerance (patience and perseverance); in other words it cultivates the "qualities of the heart".

The Chinese Government, at the outset, supported and even encouraged this method, noting that those who practised it proved to be altruistic, selfless and without need for police surveillance at their peaceful meetings. An official inquiry in 1999 revealed that there were between 70 and 100 million practitioners from every level of society. Such numbers made the authorities fearful and they broadcast the presentiment of "deviation" and danger of destabilization to justify the bloody repression, which then became a priority. To date, thousands of Chinese men, women and children have been the victims of persecution, arrest, torture and other cruel treatment and summary proceedings, not to mention capital punishment, in contempt of the international conventions.

After having crushed members of associations, syndicates and religious minorities, the dictatorship eliminates physically all that it cannot control: it is taking it out on 100 million people who claim that they have found well-being and serenity by working to develop their conscience. Have they been manipulated? According to numerous informed observers such as the American journalist Danny Schechter or dissident activist Harry Wu, we are dealing with people who choose this way in freedom and follow it as individuals, without control or coercion. It seems we have on our hands a new and massive phenomenon: that by changing the individual within, the perception of the world changes, activity in daily life changes, the world itself changes.

Be that as it may, and whatever the line taken by the new leadership of the Party, the desire to eradicate Falun Gong is totally absurd and doomed to failure. Inner freedom cannot be destroyed, even by the most powerful tools of suppression. Consequently, why not take a gamble: to transform this inner strength and the determination of millions into an opportunity for the future of aácountry trapped in the turmoil of opening up to the world capitalist market (with its resulting social price and tremendous dangers)? Faced with commercial frenzy and the enormous financial stakes stirring the country, one hundred million people - almost 10ápercent of the Chinese population - are able to create a factor for inner stability.

It is in this same spirit of appeal and openness that the resolution voted on by the Grand Council of the Republic and canton of Geneva in October 2002 can be understood. It denounces the "violation of human rights in China, among others of the practitioners of Falun Gong" and invites the Swiss authorities to continue the dialogue. The international city of human rights sends a clear signal to China: that it seize the opportunity to allow its economic development to advance hand in hand with respect for human rights and with China's opening up to diversification.