05/11/2002

Sending clear but tactful advice to Gov. Jesse Ventura as he prepares for a trade mission to China next month, a state Senate committee approved a resolution Friday urging him to "convey to [Chinese] government leaders" Minnesotans' concerns about human-rights abuses.

The resolution has no binding power, and a spokeswoman for the administration's trade office said Ventura will use "his own judgment" about whether to say anything in China about human rights.

Minnesota representatives from two groups, exiled citizens of Tibet and from the Falun Gong movement, recounted stories at the committee hearing of repression, torture and systematic persecution at the hands of the Communist government.

[...]

Mr. Zhau and John Nania, followers of the Falun Gong, a movement based on meditation and spiritual exercises, said that since 1999 China has conducted a widespread effort to suppress the group. As many as 50,000 Falun Gong have been arrested and more than 400 followers have died in custody, they said.

Nania, a U.S. citizen and Minneapolis resident who runs an information technology consulting business, said he and about 35 other Falun Gong followers were arrested in Beijing in November after they unfurled a banner with the group's [principles]. The group, which included citizens from 12 Western countries, were arrested, roughed up in interrogations and eventually deported, he said.

The treatment of Chinese citizens in Falun Gong is much worse, Nania said.

Ventura, in a meeting earlier this week with Asian-American community leaders, said in response to a request from Nania to speak out that "one person like me is not going to change human rights. . . . We're not going to change them without having a relationship with them."

[...]

Nevertheless, the resolution was approved unanimously by the committee. Its sponsor, Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, said that she expects it to be approved by the full Senate, adding that she was "not trying to stop trade with China or interfere with the relationships our businesses are trying to set up."

However, Anderson said she thinks the administration's cool response to the resolution suggested that "the governor is concerned only with the bottom line."

"He apparently has no concern for his one opportunity to have impact on people being persecuted," she said.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/2827896.html

Category: Falun Dafa in the Media