The Epoch Times: The Chinese Regime's Intense Crackdown on Falun Gong (Photo)

Epoch Times Washington, D.C. Staff
Jul 24, 2006

(Clearwisdom.net)

WHY SO SEVERE?: Dr. Sherry Zhang of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) testifies before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington, Thursday, July 20, on the especially intense persecution of Falun Gong in China. (The Epoch Times)

WHY SO SEVERE?: Dr. Sherry Zhang of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) testifies before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington, Thursday, July 20, on the especially intense persecution of Falun Gong in China. (The Epoch Times)

While it is well-known that the human rights situation in China is bad, it is particularly so if you practice Falun Gong. The Chinese communist regime pulls out all stops in making your confinement intolerable. This was the frequent testimony at a briefing by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus held in the Rayburn Office Building on the situation of Falun Gong. The day of the briefing, July 20, marks the seventh anniversary of the banning of Falun Gong by the Chinese communist regime.

Dr. Sherry Zhang, a talk show host and spokesperson for Falun Gong, gave testimony to the extent to which the suppression is built upon control of information. When the ban went into effect in July 1999, initial measures included the seizure of all Falun Gong materials, and the banning of all Falun Gong writings related to the practice and any promotion of Falun Gong ideas. This denied any voice practitioners might have had.

At the same time, "propaganda marathons were launched on Chinese state-run television and air-waves," while print media offered blistering denunciations of Falun Gong. "In just the first month of the ban, for example, The People's Daily ran more than 350 articles criticizing the meditation practice." ( The People's Daily is wholly controlled by the Chinese communist regime.)

Zhang continued that the propaganda achieved the end of becoming "the sole representative of Falun Gong in China." It served to justify the regime's violent and unlawful measures. And it had the effect of "dehumanizing practitioners of Falun Gong."

Zhang told a story of a woman in her sixties named Liu Xinjuan, who was repeatedly picked up by the police and beaten for her appealing to local authorities for seizing her home. Once when the police were beating her in the streets, a small crowd gathered and confronted the police for beating an elderly lady.

"The police responded to the crowd that the woman was a practitioner of Falun Gong, at which point everyone in the crowd went silent."

Ms. Liu in fact did not practice Falun Gong. But the story demonstrates the effectiveness of the Communist propaganda against Falun Gong. By labeling someone as a Falun Gong practitioner, "the police had unlimited power to persecute them and the public would not say anything."

The lack of personal dignity and respect accorded to a Falun Gong practitioner was particularly evident in Charles Lee's testimony. An American citizen, Dr. Lee was arrested and "in a sham trial" sentenced in Jan 2003 to three years.

"They ordered 10 to 12 inmates, who were from Mainland China, to watch me 24 hours a day. Wherever I went, whatever I did, there would be always two inmates sandwiching me. I had no personal space at all. The inmates who followed me were brutal, vicious, tall, bulky and yet snakelike. They forced me to attend the brainwashing sessions, and if I refused, they would push me, beat me, slander me, and yelled at me."

They tried to force Lee to confess to the crime he was charged with. He was forced to sit on a little stool from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in a fixed position. The longest time was 48 days straight, when his heart problem surfaced as a result.

Lee said the mental torture of this kind is unimaginable and unique to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

T Kumar representing Amnesty International (AI) and himself a torture victim, who served a five year sentence in Sri Lanka, noted the particular intensity with which Falun Gong is persecuted within China compared to other persecuted groups. He mentioned tens of thousands were arrested immediately after the ban in 1999.

Kumar observed that Chinese officials who might be prone to abolishing the labor camps as a matter of reform are reluctant to do so because they say they need it in the future to use against Falun Gong. Kumar was at a loss to explain the "special" treatment inflicted upon Falun Gong.

Erping Zhang (no relation), another spokesperson for Falun Gong, provided two reasons for the particularly severe persecution. A 1998 Chinese government survey showed that between 70 and 100 million Chinese people were practicing Falun Gong, which outnumbered the entire membership of the Communist Party.

"Fearing Falun Gong's widespread popularity was overshadowing his own legacy, the Chinese [dictator] at the time, Jiang Zemin, ordered the practice 'eradicated'."

The second reason Mr. Zhang cited was that since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has suppressed traditional Chinese culture and value systems through destructive political campaigns like the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and the campaign against Confucianism, and the like.

"The Chinese Communist Party began as a foreign import into China from the Soviet Union and its leadership has always felt the need to suppress Chinese culture in order to establish its own legitimacy," said Mr. Zhang.

Erping Zhang told of a horrifying form of torture being used in the Jianxin Labor Camp called the "Black Coffin." It is made of thick wooden boards that are 50cm in length, 40 cm in width, and 1.89 meters in height. The box has only a small hole in front. Zhang said, "There is essentially no room for movement."

"A prisoner is stuffed inside and generally locked in for seven to ten days although some endure up to two weeks at a time. Officials first set the "coffin" upright, then turn it sideways, face up, face down, and even upside down."

Zhang described in more detail how Falun Gong practitioners are permanently crippled by the "Black Coffin."