FALUN GONG

 Former Falun Gong Practitioners Write Letter to Ministry of Justice

("People's Daily, " July 29, 2001)

Some 110 former Falun Gong practitioners recently wrote a letter to China's 
Ministry of Justice, expressing their gratitude to the ministry for saving 
them from the clutches of the cult.

The letter says that they had been brainwashed by cult leader Li Hongzhi's 
fallacious preaching and had done things to violate Chinese laws. However, a 
re-education program by the government has helped them realize the error of 
their ways.

The ministry sent workers to counsel the practitioners, who are now living in 
a re-education institute in the northern city of Tianjin, the letter says.

At first, some of the followers described the ministry workers as "demons," 
but finally they were convinced the workers were good people after the 
workers explained to them the values of life.

Some workers even bought medicine for practitioners who were ill, and 
arranged entertainment activities for them, according to the letter.

Such generosity caused the practitioners to regard the workers as friends -- 
even family -- and their words and actions have touched the followers at 
their emotional core, the letter adds.

"It is they who let us know the principle of serving the people 
wholeheartedly, and the importance of maintaining a peaceful society," the 
letter says.

The authors of the letter, on behalf of all Falun Gong practitioners, called 
on all of Chinese society to learn from their experiences, and to distance 
themselves from Li Hongzhi's theories.

Tortured Member of Banned Chinese Sect Recovering in Houston

(AP, July 28, 2001)

HOUSTON  A member of the Falun Gong sect tortured in China before a 
harrowing escape to the United States was due to be released from a Houston 
hospital Saturday after treatment for severe burns.

Tan Yongjie, who hitchhiked to Houston after escaping to Hong Kong and 
stowing away aboard a California-bound cargo ship, was admitted to Park Plaza 
Hospital July 13 after his wounds opened.

"He's had extensive skin graft surgery on his legs," said Jack Xiong, a 
member of the Houston Falun Gong community, adding that doctors expect Tan to 
make a full recovery.

Tan was expected to return to the Star of Hope homeless shelter, where he was 
living before his admission to the hospital. Xiong was hopeful the estimated 
100 to 200 local Falun Gong members could help Tan.

Through translators, Tan said his story began as a factory worker in Baoan, 
Guangdong Province, where he began practicing Falun Gong since June 1998. 
China banned the sect in 1999, and Tan said he was detained 15 days for 
different times, each time refusing to renounce his beliefs.

Tan said he was arrested April 26 for distributing fliers calling for an end 
to government persecution of Falun Gong members. He said he was beaten, then 
sent without trial to a labor camp in Baluo County.

After repeated torture sessions, Tan said he was hung by handcuffs for more 
than five hours. On June 2, Tan said he was tied to a post and burned about 
his legs 13 times with a red-hot iron rod, urging him to give up Falun Gong.

Tan escaped the camp soon after and fled to Hong Kong, where he sneaked 
aboard a cargo ship headed to Long Beach, Calif.

"He didn't even know where the ship was going," Xiong said.

After two weeks of living in a crate at sea, Tan said he caught a ride with 
someone headed to Florida on Interstate 10 and was dropped off in Houston. 
Houston police directed him to the Star of Hope shelter.

Falun Gong attracted millions of followers in the 1990s with a blend of 
slow-motion exercises and ideas drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and the group's 
exiled leader, Li Hongzhi.

Thousands of followers are in jails and labor camps and tens of thousands 
have been arrested and pressured to renounce the group in the government 
crackdown. Falun Gong says many followers have been tortured and that 250 
have been killed, including 50 in the last month.

The government banned Falun Gong as a threat to Communist Party rule and 
Chinese society.

"On one hand, we'd like people (in Houston) to help Mr. Tan, but also we'd 
like everyone to know what is going on in China," Xiong said. "We hope this 
will spur some kind of action to alleviate the situation in China."

Xiong said Tan intends to return to China some day. His immigration status in 
the United States is uncertain, but Xiong said he is hopeful Tan can stay 
based on religious persecution by his native government.

"Basically, he is not sure quite what to do," Xiong said. "His plans are not 
very definite."

One voice, a thousand names

by Michael Wells ("Messenger Post," July 26, 2001)

In many ways, the last two years of Louise Huang's life has mirrored the plot 
lines of George Orwell's novel, "1984."

A totalitarian state tried to erase her spiritual belief system. Her 
disillusion quickly provoked virulent cruelty. Her purported crime? State 
subversion.

Huang practices Falun Gong, benevolent spiritual teachings derived from 
Chinese traditions. On July 20, 1999, the communist Chinese government 
outlawed its doctrines.

From that point on, China unleashed unbridled and vehement repression; blows 
of fist and feet, pervasive surveillance, detainment, brainwashing, brisk 
pressure to renounce subversive beliefs, and for some, death.

China is bent upon squeezing Huang and other Falun Gong practitioners into 
submissive control.

Huang refuses to relinquish. She endured imprisonment and torture for the 
decision, but found a way out last summer. In July 2000, she fled China and 
came to live with her brother and his family in Fairport.

Two years later, countless more remain in her native country and the 
repression continues.

"Their basic rights of existence are in danger," Huang said of her fellow 
practitioners in China. (Her brother, Weidong Huang, translated for his 
sister). "But I have the forum for them. I can stand up to speak for them."

@Subhed:The world looks on

@Body Copy:Huang is driven in her responsibility to her fellow mainland 
practitioners.

She walked from New York City to Washington, D.C., over the past weeks, 
sharing her stories with those she passed. Over the weekend in D.C., she 
joined thousands who protested the two-year anniversary of China's crackdown 
on Falun Gong and its peaceful practitioners.

They beseeched their representatives to stop the injustice.

Huang's brother, his wife, and Penfield practitioner, Helen Chou, left for 
the Washington protest Wednesday from Perinton Park. They presided over a 
brief ceremony, calling attention to the problem.

Amnesty International sponsored the local send-off. The organization has 
called for the immediate release of all of the jailed practitioners in China.

"This is such an important issue because the persecution of the practitioners 
of Falun Gong in China is so severe," said Chris Dygert, coordinator for the 
Rochester Chapter of Amnesty International.

Sally Poole Gonzalez, a local resident, said she first learned of the problem 
a year ago from a Wall Street Journal article. The article exposed the death 
of a practitioner while in police custody. She said she was appalled.

"I wanted to see what I could do as an American to help out," she said of her 
attendance at the event.

More than 250 practitioners have died in police custody, the victims of 
brutality and deprivation, Huang charges. The Chinese authorities have said 
the deaths are the result of medical ailments.

A Web site listing recent deaths flashes portraits of mainly young, innocuous 
looking Chinese citizens.

The situation is urgent, Huang said. Banners reading, "SOS Urgent: Rescue 
Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted in China," and pins could be seen 
throughout the Washington protest.

Locally, about 10 people gathered to call attention to the situation.

"When I heard about the persecution and abridgement of human rights of the 
practitioners of Falun Gong, I felt it was important to make my voice and our 
community's voice known," Brighton Town Supervisor Sandy Frankel said at the 
local event.

A step toward amity

Huang journeyed nearly 200 miles on foot to make her voice known. She left 
from New York City July 3.

Those she met offered support. Some knew nothing of her situation. Many were 
incredulous.

A man in his 50s cried after he read a flyer Huang handed him. It described 
the death of a Chinese women and her 8-month-old child while in police 
custody. He hugged her.

Another women stopped her car and shook Huang's and her marching companion's 
hands. Restaurant owners offered free drinks and food to those on the trek.

"Even though I can't understand English, I could obviously see from their 
hearts they are kind hearted and righteous minded," Huang said.

Many asked what they could do to help. Huang directed them to write to their 
congressmen, sign petitions and stay informed.

"They all said, 'Don't be afraid in our country, because you have the freedom 
to practice your belief,'" she said.

Freedom revoked

Huang attempted similar outward protest in her native China. Chinese 
authorities were not as welcoming. They offered no hugs or handshakes, only 
imprisonment and brutality.

When the Chinese government first announced its ban on Falun Gong in July 
1999, she left her native Guangdong province and traveled to Beijing to 
protest the decision. She planned to file a formal appeal with the 
government, a right Huang said is guaranteed under the Chinese constitution.

She arrived in Beijing and booked a hotel room. She never made it to the 
appeal office.

"The police basically broke into the hotel and arrested me because they 
thought I was a practitioner," she said.

Authorities shipped her back to the Guangdong province, where local 
authorities interrogated her for seven hours upon her arrival. She was in a 
small room surrounded by five policemen. They asked her for names of other 
practitioners, and how many she knew within the area.

They tried to force her to write a confession, agree not to appeal the 
state's crackdown and not to practice Falun Gong.

"They told me I can no longer have my belief," she said.

She would not acquiesce. She remained indignant.

"I feel I didn't commit any wrongdoing as a citizen. All the things I did, 
did not violate the law," she said. "I feel I'm a law-abiding citizen. I 
refused to answer their questions."

Police threatened to send her to jail. In the interrogation, Huang said she 
realized police had tapped her phones. She signed a quasi-statement, she 
said, simply to get out of there.

A work supervisor escorted her home.

She would continue to practice, she would continue to appeal, and she would 
continue to suffer for it.

Enduring persecution

Huang said she was never left alone again.

Police monitored and harassed her. At work, where she coordinated activities 
for the Communist Youth Party, supervisors asked her to write a statement of 
thoughts denouncing Falun Gong. She told them she must write for the truth, 
she said.

She asked for vacation days, and a supervisor informed her the police said 
she was not allowed to leave the area. Thousands of other practitioners 
endured the same treatment. The government began a caustic propaganda 
campaign against the practice.

Huang's frustration mounted. By October of that same year, she made another 
appeal. She would be detained nearly a month this time.

"I decided to go to Beijing again to appeal for the unjustified situation," 
she said.

She made it to the appeal office, but she never reached an official. Police 
confronted and arrested her in the building. They sent her to a local 
detention center.

Authorities detained her for 12 days. Huang and other cell mates staged a 
hunger strike during the ordeal. Shortly after the detained refused to eat, 
police came into the cell and pulled out a white-haired older woman from 
Beijing who was participating in the hunger strike.

Police later returned the women with blood dripping from her nostrils. Huang 
said authorities had shoved two plastic tubes up her noise and forced a salt 
water solution into her stomach through the tubes.

"Her face was paper white," Huang recalled.

The women was their example to stop the hunger strike.

Huang was transferred to another cell. She watched as police beat a male 
practitioner in that cell, she said.

She was sent home and held in a detention center there for another 15 days.

Enduring faith

Her spirit would not be broken.

"No matter how much trepidation or difficulty I will go through, I firmly 
believe Falun Gong is good," Huang said.

After her release, she was expelled from the Communist Party. She lost her 
job. The authorities asked her family, with whom she lived, to sign a letter 
attesting she would not appeal government decisions again. Huang said her 
family had little choice but to sign.

Police warned her if she appealed again, she would be sent to labor camps.

Yet, she continued to practice Falun Gong.

Two months after her release, she sat in the home of a fellow practitioner. 
They conversed and prepared a meal. Police broke through the door, Huang 
said, and charged each person in attendance with disturbing the public order.

Authorities sent her to a labor camp for 15 days. She weaved baskets at the 
camp, and was forced to walk 15 to 16 hours a day, she said. The prison 
uniforms were dirty and unwashed, she said. She ate rice and a few vegetables.

"The conditions were cruel," she said.

She was arrested so suddenly, her family didn't know what had happened to 
her. They went to local authorities to ask of their daughter. The police told 
them nothing, Huang said.

"This time, I could feel we are losing more and more of our rights to 
practice Falun Gong," she said.

The crackdown increases

In America, her brother watched and read the reports coming out of China. The 
crackdown had increased at the beginning of last year, and so too had his 
worry.

"We knew the persecution was brutal," Weidong Huang said.

He called her at home, but decided it was too risky because of police taps. 
In China, his sister was about to undergo the harshest of her detainments.

She traveled to Tiananmen Square in June 2000. She ruled out another appeal, 
and decided to protest by conducting Falun Gong exercises in the square.

She was quickly arrested, and thrown into jail - again.

There, the violence reached its harshest tone. She watched as police 
forcefully beat a male practitioner in her cell.

The practitioner refused to give his name. A group of four police officers 
began punching and kicking him, she said. The beating continued for 10 
minutes. Police dragged the man to another room and continued beating him, 
Huang said.

He screamed in pain, calling for help in desperation, she said. Police 
brought the man back to the room. He was bloody and bruised, hunched over and 
vomiting, Huang said.

Police transferred her to a basement room. About 30 others were in the room. 
The males were handcuffed to a water pipe. Police asked Huang her name. She 
refused to tell it. They told her to face the wall and spread her legs apart.

"He punched my back with his fist," she said of her interrogator.

She wouldn't talk.

"I didn't tell them my name because I refused to bow to the violence," she 
said.

She was jailed for two days. Police recognized her accent and sent her back 
to her providence.

Escape

Huang had not told her parents she left for Tiananmen Square. When their 
daughter returned, the family planned a trip out of town. They worried for 
her safety.

The Public Security Bureau denied Huang's visa. Huang was not allowed to 
leave the country. She plotted a clandestine escape, but would not provide 
details because she said she did not want to incriminate those who helped her.

By July, she was free and at her brother's Fairport home.

Her voice has only grown louder in America.

"One voice is small," she said. "One hundred voices is still very small. Ten 
thousand voices you can maybe just start to hear. One million voices, then 
everybody around the world will hear."

Falun Gong is an ancient form of qigong, the practice of refining the body 
and mind through special exercises and meditation.

It consists of self-improvement through studying founder Li Hongzhi's 
teachings, and performing five gentle exercises, including seated meditation. 
At the heart of the practices are the supreme principles of the universe; 
truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance.

Through a combination of studying the books and performing the exercises, 
practitioners strive to become better people by embodying these principles in 
everything they do.

Falun Gong members meet in La. to raise awareness of persecution

by Amy Wold ("The Advocate," July 15, 2001)

Beijing's selection as host of the 2008 Summer Olympics Friday stirred mixed 
emotions for Dakun Sun.

As a Chinese citizen, Sun said it is an honor.

"But on the other side, I'm very worried about the Falun Gong practitioners," 
said Sun, a Dallas resident who has lived in the United States for six years.

Sun was one of eight Falun Gong practitioners who stopped in Baton Rouge on 
Saturday en route to Washington, D.C. The group, traveling from Houston, will 
be meeting other Falun Gong practitioners Friday in the nation's capitol to 
raise awareness about alleged persecution. July 22 is the two-year 
anniversary of the People's Republic of China's ban on the spiritual group.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, practices meditation and exercise and 
espouses the principals of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. It was 
started in 1992 by Li Hongzhi.

"This practice was very popular in China and it grew too fast for the Chinese 
government," Sun said. The size of the group--2 million members at one point 
by China's own count--is what led the government to ban it, Sun said.

Since the government ban in 1999, there have arrests, harassment and 
deportations to "reeducation" camps where Falun Gong members are beaten and 
killed, Sun said. The Chinese government has said any deaths have been the 
result of suicides and that the Falun Gong is a cult that endangers the 
welfare of the state and the general public.

"Falun Gong is a doomsday cult in China," said Chen Ligang, consul at the 
Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Ligang said the group has caused death, 
committed fraud and held illegal demonstrations. "Under the people's demand, 
the government banned this group," he said.

Ligang said the Falun Gong practitioners' activities in the United States, 
including the Washington rally, are attempts "to fool the American public."

"The American people only know the second part of the story," Ligang said.

Sun and other practitioners, who met Saturday outside the State Capitol, 
weren't surprised by the allegations.

"There are many lies over there that can easily be proven wrong," Sun said. 
Sometimes, he said, tapes are altered, confessions are faked and wrong 
information is released to the public. "All the state media is tightly 
controlled by the government," Sun said.

In fact, several practitioners on Saturday gave their accounts of persecution 
before coming to the United States.

Until 1999, Amy Lee was a wife, mother and fashion designer in China. 
However, after the Falun Gong ban, Lee said she was arrested several times 
for practicing her beliefs. After one of the arrests, Lee said she was sent 
to a camp, forced to work 15 hours a day, taken to a mental hospital several 
times, force fed (although she wasn't on a hunger strike) and repeatedly 
questioned and beaten.

"There were a lot of scars on her face and body and she asked for a medical 
check on her body and they said, "We'll just say you're choosing suicide," 
Lee said through Sun's translation.

After she was released, Lee said she lost her job and her family. Yet, she 
refused to signed the papers renouncing her beliefs like others had.

"After they're released, they feel bad because it's against what they 
believe," Lee, who lives in New York, said through Sun's translation.

Falun Gong adherents protest in Phila. 
Members of the religious order object to their treatment by Chinese leaders.

by Jennifer Lin ("The Philidelphia Inquirer," July 11, 2001)

From afar, the 15 out-of-towners in sun hats and walking shoes looked like 
lost tourists making their way to the Liberty Bell via Frankford Avenue.

But these visitors knew what they were doing and where they were going. From 
a starting point in Boston, they were passing through Philadelphia on their 
way to Washington to call attention to human-rights abuses in China.

The 15 protesters, walking in single file toward Center City, were followers 
of Falun Gong, an outlawed spiritual movement in China.

Sweating from the morning heat, they carried signs and handed out leaflets to 
explain the plight of Falun Gong practitioners in China. In the past two 
years, as many as 200 followers have died in police custody in the country, 
while thousands more have been beaten or detained.

"It takes a stretch of the imagination to understand what is going on in 
China," said Hao Wang, 16, of Boston.

In a statement last week, the U.S. State Department called reports of 
violence against Falun Gong practitioners at one labor camp "chilling." On 
June 20, more than a dozen died at that camp.

"China has murdered a lot of Falun Gong followers," said 55-year-old Cao 
Jian, a marcher from Princeton.

The protest walk, which began June 26, has passed through Providence, R.I., 
New York City and Trenton.

Today, marchers and local followers will gather at the Liberty Bell, with a 
larger rally planned for July 19 in Washington.

China's repression of the Falun Gong movement is its most brutal crackdown 
since the silencing of pro-democracy advocates following the 1989 Tiananmen 
Square massacre. President Jiang Zemin has set out to eradicate the movement, 
which he views as a cult and a threat to his authority.

Started in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, a former government grain clerk, Falun Gong is 
an amalgam of exercises similar to tai chi, meditation, and Li's own view of 
the cosmos, drawing on the traditional teachings of Buddhism and Taoism.

In China, Falun Gong followers were thought to number as high as 70 million. 
Many practitioners are hiding, but a number still make public protests. Five 
followers set themselves on fire last spring in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. 
One died.

Li, who lives in New York City, has made few public appearances and shuns all 
interview requests. But at a rare public appearance last May in Canada, he 
called China's leaders an "evil political gang of scoundrels" who must be 
eliminated.

Li's reclusiveness makes some U.S.-based human rights activists uneasy. 
Although they renounce the group's persecution, they privately would like to 
know more about the man whose followers are putting their lives on the line.

Li Sihui, a 28-year-old marcher from Rochester, N.Y., said she had 
experienced the Chinese government's repression of Falun Gong firsthand. A 
native of Guangzhou in southern China, Li came to the United States last year 
after being beaten and detained by police on three occasions.

As Li marched along Frankford Avenue, she said she had started practicing 
Falun Gong eight years ago. "The Chinese government is making a mistake, 
because Falun Gong teaches truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance," she 
said. "And that's good for society."

by Phil Brennan ("News Max," July 10, 2001)

China's war against the Falun Gong organization is going global.
Already engaged in a vigorous drive at home to destroy the huge 
quasi-religious group, Beijing is taking steps overseas to disrupt the 
activities of Falun Gong abroad.

"Chinese diplomats are seeking to discredit the sect and undermine its image 
in the United States, Australia and other countries by pressing public 
officials not to have dealings with the group or allow its participation in 
local activities," wrote Associated Press correspondent Helen Luk. 

According to Center for the Study of New Religions (CESNUR) 
(http://www.cesnur.org/testi/falung101.htm), Falun Gong is a form of the 
Bhuddist concept of Qi Gong. The movement's leader, "Master Li describes the 
Falun in terms derived from both Buddhism and Taoism as a microcosm 
containing all the secrets of the universe."

To Beijing, however, the group which teaches Bhuddist-style physical and 
spiritual exercises is subversive and constitutes a threat to the Chinese 
communist leadership. As such it must be stamped out.

What frightens China's leadership, is the ability of Falun Gong to attract 
huge throngs of followers. According to the AP, "the group was once estimated 
to have up to 100 million followers in China, or more than the Communist 
Party's 64.5 million." 

In the latest domestic incident involving Falun Gong, some imprisoned woman 
practitioners died at a labor camp in the northeastern province of 
Heilongjiang in June. Official Reports say as many as 14 female prisoners 
hanged themselves in a mass suicide, but Falun Gong insists its teachings 
prohibit suicide, and charged that Chinese authorities had fatally beaten 15 
inmates to death. 

The domestic crackdown on Falun Gong spread to Hong Kong, where the sect is 
legal.

Officials there barred about 100 Falun Gong practitioners from entering Hong 
Kong in early May during a visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

On a worldwide scale, Falun Gong's largest number of practitioners are in 
Taiwan, where the membership is estimated at 100,000. According to Falun Gong 
it has about 500 members in Hong Kong, 3,000 in Australia, 10,000 in the 
United States, 1,000 in Singapore and 3,000 in South Korea. There are also 
small communities in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan. 

Chinese Dictatorship Interferes in U.S.

Beijing has now taken aim at the U.S., going after local officials in the 
drive to destroy the organization. The AP reports that Beijing's "attempts to 
use diplomatic pressure to silence Falun Gong have enraged members and 
government officials in the United States."

A former mayor of Saratoga, Calif., Stan Bogosian told the AP that late last 
year, a few days after he signed a proclamation declaring Falun Gong week, 
two officials from the Chinese consulate urged him to rescind it. 

When he refused, Bogosian reports, the Chinese asked him to remain neutral 
and questioned him about his position on Taiwan. Enraged Bogosian called a 
news conference to denounce the Chinese regime for ``highly irregular'' 
actions. ``The Chinese government should not be interfering in the political 
process,'' Bogosian told the Associated Press. ``The issue of whether Falun 
Gong is a cult or not is not important. For me, these are basic human 
rights.'' 

Bogosian and many others see Falun Gong as a harmless group whose adherents, 
clad in their yellow T-shirts, practice controlled breathing exercises and 
move slowly to ethereal music in parks. 

But Bogdosian's experience was not unique. AP says that at least a dozen 
other mayors of cities in California, Illinois, Washington, Maryland and 
Michigan have been pressured by Chinese officials, who often try to tie their 
anti-Falun Gong position to U.S.-Chinese trade relations. 

``The whole thing sounded like a propaganda pitch to me,'' said Tod 
Satterthwaite, mayor of Urbana, Ill., who ignored the Chinese demands. 

But some mayors have given in to Chinese pressures. In 1999, mayors in 
Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Baltimore - all important east-west 
trade centers - revoked proclamations honoring Falun Gong. 

In Australia, Falun Gong members reveal that Chinese officials have sent 
letters to civic leaders describing the group as ``an out-and-out heretical 
sect, which is anti-science, anti-humanity and anti-society in nature.'' 

``The letters were sent to local government offices in order to try and 
persuade them to disallow perfectly legal activities being conducted in the 
area,'' Michael Molnar, a spokesman for Australia's Falun Gong, told the AP. 

According to the Australian government, the Chinese Embassy had denied 
sending the letters. Rebecca Tromp, spokeswoman of Blacktown City Council, 
said officials from the Chinese consulate in Sydney raised the issue of Falun 
Gong participation in a festival sponsored by the city government. 

``We advised them that any participation Falun Gong has is within our 
festival and that is what they do and we would continue to allow them to 
participate,'' Tromp told the AP.

Falun Gong is headquartered in New York, where its founder, Li Hongzi, 
established his peculiar brand of Qi Gong in 1992. In 1998, Li moved 
permanently to New York City, from where he oversees the expansion of Falun 
Gong internationally. Small groups exist in the major metropolitan areas of 
the U.S. and Canada, and in some 30 other countries.

According to CESNUR, the Chinese regime launched a campaign against spiritual 
and religious groups in 1999, and Falun Gong was targeted as a superstitious 
and reactionary group by a media campaign. Unlike other groups, Falun Gong 
responded by staging an unauthorized demonstration of more than 10,000 
followers outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai, the residence of China's top 
leaders. It was the largest such demonstration in recent Chinese history.

Beijing was especially alarmed by its intelligence service's failure to 
prevent the demonstration, and by the disturbing news that some of China's 
medium-level political and military leaders were adherents of Falun Gong. 
"The authorities started an unprecedented public campaign against the 
movement - and hundreds of local leaders and members were arrested," CESNUR 
reported. China also asked the U.S. to arrest and extradite Li, a request the 
U.S. quickly rejected, asking the Chinese instead to stop what the outside 
world saw as religious persecution.

Although the persecution has driven many members underground, millions remain 
in China and several thousand abroad. Exactly how many "members" Falun Gong 
has is a matter of dispute (the government uses a figure of 2 million; Li 
claims 100 million), and "membership" might not be an entirely applicable 
concept. Although the movement recommends a nine-day introduction course and 
frequent contacts with local centers, it also states that everybody can 
simply start practicing Falun Gong by following the instructions from one of 
the many books, cassettes and Web sites quickly available in a variety of 
languages.

Despite ban on Falun Gong, China finds sect still a force to

be reckoned with

by Sheryl Ubelacker ("Calgery Herald," July 10, 2001)

TORONTO (CP) - Every weekday morning and Saturday evening, at least 20 people 
gather outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, where they silently begin a 
series of slow, rhythmic movements.

Men, women and often children, mostly Chinese-Canadians, come to practise the 
meditative exercises of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that began a decade 
ago in China and has spread around the world.

Despite the tranquillity of those assembled, their presence has a more 
pressing motive, proclaimed by placards exhorting the Chinese government to 
"Stop Persecuting the Falun Gong," replete with grisly photos of alleged 
victims.

Adherents have accused China of torturing thousands of their members and 
killing more than 250 since 1999 when the Communist government began a 
crackdown on what it called an "evil cult." China blames Falun Gong for 
causing the deaths of 1,600 followers by encouraging them to forgo medical 
care and leading them to suicide.

Last week, it was disclosed that up to 14 female practitioners died in a 
Chinese labour camp in June. The movement says they were tortured to death. 
China's government says they hanged themselves.

News of the latest deaths came at a critical time. On Friday, the 
International Olympic Committee will announce which city - Beijing, Toronto 
or Paris - will host the 2008 Summer Games. Beijing has been seen as the 
front-runner but concerns over human rights in China may hinder its bid.

"The persecution is escalating," says Joel Chipkar, a Toronto practitioner 
who likens Chinese President Jiang Zemin's targeting of the Falun Gong to 
Hitler's persecution of the Jews. "We are out calling for an international 
investigation into the deaths and torture."

So just what is Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, and why is China so 
afraid of it?

Roughly translated, Falun Gong means "power of the wheel." Falun refers to a 
cosmic intelligence symbolized by the wheel. Gong refers to a practised skill 
- physical or mental. Through the exercises, meditation and a life of 
"truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance," practitioners believe they can 
connect with the cosmic entity and reach enlightenment after death.

Falun Gong owes its existence to one man, Li Hongzhi, who began disseminating 
his ideas in 1991 when China relaxed religious controls. Careful never to 
call it a religion, Li preached his philosophy - dubbed "McBuddhism" by one 
writer for its mixed bag of Buddhist, Taoist and other beliefs - to growing 
crowds.

The number of his adherents snowballed in China, reaching an estimated 100 
million, including top-ranking Politburo members. Li, feted across China, was 
honoured even by the government.

But with his followers outnumbering Communist party members two to one, and 
his ability to mobilize them for rallies, the Chinese government began to 
view the sect as a powerful threat. In July 1999, Li was declared an enemy of 
the people and Falun Gong was outlawed.

Li fled to the U.S., where he is said to be living in New York. But his 
followers have continued the movement in China and abroad. There are groups 
across Canada, although membership is hard to determine.

Li Ming, a Chinese Consulate spokesman in Toronto, calls Falun Gong a 
dangerous cult led by a man who has "concocted a series of fallacies and 
heresies to deify himself and to deceive and control followers."

China accuses Li Hongzhi of defrauding adherents of more than $7 million Cdn 
and inciting them to besiege schools, the media and government offices.

"We adhere to the policy of educating, persuading and helping Falun Gong 
followers get rid of this kind of spiritual control," the consulate spokesman 
says. "The Chinese government isolates and punishes only those diehard, core 
members who have violated Chinese laws."

While adherents maintain there is no central organization, just groups coming 
together to practise and learn, many believe Li or his inner circle operate a 
well-oiled organization, communicating with members worldwide through the 
Internet.

"Everything in Falun Dafa is absolutely volunteer-based," insists Jillian Ye, 
who became a practitioner about six years ago when her family moved from 
China to join her in Toronto.

"How Falun Dafa has been spreading in China and around the world has always 
been family through friends, friends to colleagues . . ."

"We all feel . . . a kind of upgrade on the body, mind and spirit," says Ye, 
35. "We take the tribulations in daily life more lightly. . . . so we have a 
more positive, kind and open-minded attitude."

Ye stresses there are no rituals, places of worship or godhead, and the 
collection of money is forbidden. Li's teachings can be downloaded from the 
Internet or purchased to lend to others.

Ian Adams, co-author of the book Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong 
Revolution, dismisses the notion that Falun Gong is a cult. "There's no drive 
to create masses of wealth for the leader, the leader is not exhorting his 
people to go out and carry out terrorists acts."

"Our analysis was that he appeared to be at the right place at the right time 
with the right kind of stuff," says Adams, dubbing Falun Gong a "McBuddhism" 
that struck a familiar chord with the Chinese.

"Very simply, it came down to the fact that after 60 years of communism and 
Marxism, people were starved for a spiritual dimension to their lives."

But Adams doesn't buy the argument it's non-political.

"As soon as you tell people to stand up for what you believe in, that's a 
political act. I think it's a way to try and deal with a very repressive 
regime."

"I think (Falun Gong) is an incredible phenomenon," says Adams. "This 
anonymous guy becomes the leader of 100 million people. Li (Hongzhi) locked 
into something."

"The phenomenon exists, and after two years, the Chinese government has not 
been able to crush him."

Immigrants turn to Falun Gong to help kids behave
U.S. freedoms have a price, parents say

by Laura Vozzella ("Baltimore Sun," July 9, 2001)

The meditation and exercise practice called Falun Gong can lead to arrest and 
prison in China. But it is said to have quite the opposite result in the 
United States, where a small but growing number of immigrant parents say it's 
helping kids stay out of trouble.

Concerned about violence, casual sex and drugs in American culture, they see 
Falun Gong as a way to keep their sons and daughters on the straight and 
narrow.

Children are receiving instruction in small, informal groups at a Howard 
County park, in a rented Silver Spring elementary school cafeteria and 
elsewhere. About 30 students, ages 3 to 17, attend a new Falun Gong school in 
Rockville, said to be the first of its kind in the world.

"[The majority of] people try to introduce Falun Gong to adults. Because I'm 
a mother, I'm thinking differently," said Judy Chao of Columbia, who helped 
establish the school and believes the practice has improved the behavior of 
her own children.

"If we start them young, we probably don't need policemen anymore," she said.

Falun Gong combines meditation with a series of slow, controlled movements 
similar to those used in tai chi. It is based on qigong, the ancient practice 
of perfecting mind and body with exercise and spirituality.

A former Chinese government clerk named Li Hongzhi developed Falun Gong and 
began teaching it in 1992. Li and his followers insist the practice is not a 
religion or a political movement, but it has been wildly popular, alarming 
the Chinese government. The movement claims 100 million practitioners 
worldwide.

In April 1999, 10,000 followers surrounded the Communist Party's Beijing 
compound in a bid for government recognition. The government responded 
instead by banning the practice. Chinese officials call Falun Gong a 
dangerous cult, pointing to the attempted suicide of five purported followers 
who set themselves ablaze in Tiananmen Square in January. Falun Gong 
supporters have questioned whether the five were actually followers.

Amnesty International estimates that tens of thousands of Falun Gong 
practitioners have been detained, some of them sent to mental hospitals and 
labor camps for up to three years. Human rights groups estimate that more 
than 100 practitioners have died from torture and beatings while in police 
custody.

The difficulties that afflict followers in China are in stark contrast to the 
scene on the grassy shores of Columbia's Lake Elkhorn one recent morning.

Sitting in a circle, eyes closed, legs folded in the lotus position, arms 
suspended in midair for minutes at a time, nine men, women and children 
practiced Falun Gong in peace.

A bright yellow banner strung across a picnic table announced what they were 
doing to passing dog-walkers and summer camp kids, who didn't appear to pay 
them much attention. Followers set out brochures, listing 56 chapters across 
the United States, including 14 in Maryland, Virginia and Washington. They 
had bumper stickers on their cars.

But the freedom that followers enjoy in the United States comes with a price, 
immigrant parents say. Many worry about the downside to American freedom, 
fearing the permissive culture will lead their children astray. They look to 
Falun Gong to keep that from happening.

"I can tell you from the TV and everything, all these teen-agers [have] 
problems," said Chao, 48, a graphic designer who came to the United States 
from her native Taiwan 30 years ago.

"I really don't want them to get into that," she said. "I see they go to 
school and [are] exposed to this. ... I really want them to know right from 
wrong."

With Falun Gong, she said, "good philosophy" is being put in their heads. 
"For their whole life, they will benefit from it."

After an hour of exercise and meditation, Chao and the others who meet at 
Lake Elkhorn every weekday morning usually spend a second hour reading from a 
book of Li's teachings. It stresses three principles: truthfulness, 
compassion and tolerance.

"Every human should follow those principles," said Mallik Basoor, a software 
engineer from Savage who participates with his wife and 14-year-old son. 
Basoor, an Indian immigrant, said Falun Gong suits his native culture and the 
goals of his son, Tejaswi.

"He said he wants to be a good man in life, not attach too much to worldly 
things," said Basoor, 44. "He wants to be a good person, good moral 
character. ... He doesn't have a girlfriend. He doesn't have any habits like 
smoking or anything."

Kokuei Chen, 15, of Columbia has been practicing Falun Gong with his mother 
since last summer.

"It teaches higher moral values for everyone," said Chen, a Taiwanese native.

He said Falun Gong has led him to stop watching violent TV shows and has 
helped him turn away from potential fights with classmates at Long Reach High 
School, where he will be a sophomore in the fall. "My friends were goading me 
into fights and stuff," he said. "I just ignored them until they cooled off."

In Baltimore, Catherine Tsai takes her 1-year-old son along when she 
practices Falun Gong with four to six people every Saturday and Sunday at the 
Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus. She said she will begin formal 
instruction for her son, Borong, when he gets a little older.

"It definitely helps the children to be more aware of their own behavior, to 
be more responsible, not only in the family, to be a better son or daughter, 
but also in school, to be a better student, and in society, to be a better 
person," said Tsai, 29, a homemaker and Singapore native whose husband is a 
graduate biomedical engineering student at Hopkins.

In a Silver Spring elementary school cafeteria, about six young children join 
their parents for Friday night Falun Gong. Among them is Graciela Borda and 
her 14-year-old son.

"I feel like it was good for him so that way, he [could] learn how to behave 
better," said Borda, 52, a clerical worker who grew up in Bogota, Colombia. 
"Other kids want to be wild, and they want to make my son wild."

In addition to straightening out wayward kids, followers credit Falun Gong 
for giving them better health and curing serious illnesses. But none of this 
is automatic, they say.

There's no guarantee that sitting in the lotus position will turn someone's 
life around, practitioners said. A troubled teen who goes through the motions 
won't be changed, they said. The follower must "change from inside, from 
their heart," for Falun Gong to work, Chao said.

For that reason, Chao said, followers cannot promise that the practice will 
help troubled children, especially those who don't want to be helped.

She said people have approached her about sending their troubled teens to the 
new Falun Gong school, which opened in January in space rented in Rockville's 
Richard Montgomery High School.

"We can try," Chao tells them.

She said some guidance counselors from area public schools have expressed 
interest in referring problem students to the school, which is free and in 
session on weekends. But so far none has done so.

Thirty kids, from preschoolers to high school students, spend four hours 
every Saturday at Ming Hui School, named with the Chinese words for 
understanding and wisdom. They practice exercises and meditation and talk 
about how to live according to Li's principles.

Chao said the practice has made a difference in her own children, Lian, 12, 
and Leon, 14. They are more apt to listen to her, she said, when she tells 
them not to wear ripped jeans or watch violent TV programs.

"Of course, we have those moments, believe me," Chao said. "But it's easier 
to handle situations. It becomes a good cycle instead of a vicious cycle. 
Instead of parents and children not getting along, [it gets] better and 
better."


Falun Gong: Cult, spiritualism or McBuddhism? 

("Toronto Star," July 9, 2001)

Every weekday morning and Saturday evening, at least 20 people gather outside 
the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, where they silently begin a series of slow, 
rhythmic movements.

Men, women and often children, mostly Chinese-Canadians, come to practise the 
meditative exercises of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that began a decade 
ago in China and has spread around the world.

Despite the tranquillity of those assembled, their presence has a more 
pressing motive, proclaimed by placards exhorting the Chinese government to 
''Stop Persecuting the Falun Gong,'' replete with grisly photos of alleged 
victims.

Adherents have accused China of torturing thousands of their members and 
killing more than 250 since 1999 when the Communist government began a 
crackdown on what it called an ''evil cult.'' China blames Falun Gong for 
causing the deaths of 1,600 followers by encouraging them to forgo medical 
care and leading them to suicide.

Last week, it was disclosed that up to 14 female practitioners died in a 
Chinese labour camp in June. The movement says they were tortured to death. 
China's government says they hanged themselves.

News of the latest deaths came at a critical time. On Friday, the 
International Olympic Committee will announce which city - Beijing, Toronto 
or Paris - will host the 2008 Summer Games. Beijing has been seen as the 
front-runner but concerns over human rights in China may hinder its bid.

''The persecution is escalating,'' says Joel Chipkar, a Toronto practitioner 
who likens Chinese President Jiang Zemin's targeting of the Falun Gong to 
Hitler's persecution of the Jews. ''We are out calling for an international 
investigation into the deaths and torture.''

So just what is Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, and why is China so 
afraid of it?

Roughly translated, Falun Gong means ''power of the wheel.'' Falun refers to 
a cosmic intelligence symbolized by the wheel. Gong refers to a practised 
skill - physical or mental. Through the exercises, meditation and a life of 
''truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance,'' practitioners believe they can 
connect with the cosmic entity and reach enlightenment after death.

Falun Gong owes its existence to one man, Li Hongzhi, who began disseminating 
his ideas in 1991 when China relaxed religious controls. Careful never to 
call it a religion, Li preached his philosophy - dubbed ''McBuddhism'' by one 
writer for its mixed bag of Buddhist, Taoist and other beliefs - to growing 
crowds.

The number of his adherents snowballed in China, reaching an estimated 100 
million, including top-ranking Politburo members. Li, feted across China, was 
honoured even by the government.

But with his followers outnumbering Communist party members two to one, the 
Chinese government began to view the sect as a powerful threat. In July 1999, 
Li was declared an enemy of the people and Falun Gong was outlawed.

Li fled to the U.S., where he is said to be living in New York. But his 
followers have continued the movement in China and abroad. There are groups 
across Canada, although membership is hard to determine.

Li Ming, a Chinese Consulate spokesman in Toronto, calls Falun Gong a 
dangerous cult led by a man who has ''concocted a series of fallacies and 
heresies to deify himself and to deceive and control followers.''

China accuses Li Hongzhi of defrauding adherents of more than $7 million Cdn 
and inciting them to besiege schools, the media and government offices.

''We adhere to the policy of educating, persuading and helping Falun Gong 
followers get rid of this kind of spiritual control,'' the consulate 
spokesman says. ''The Chinese government isolates and punishes only those 
diehard, core members who have violated Chinese laws.''

While adherents maintain there is no central organization, just groups coming 
together to practise and learn, many believe Li or his inner circle operate a 
well-oiled organization, communicating with members worldwide through the 
Internet.

''Everything in Falun Dafa is absolutely volunteer-based,'' insists Jillian 
Ye, who became a practitioner about six years ago when her family moved from 
China to join her in Toronto.

''How Falun Dafa has been spreading in China and around the world has always 
been family through friends, friends to colleagues . . .''

''We all feel . . . a kind of upgrade on the body, mind and spirit,'' says 
Ye, 35. ''We take the tribulations in daily life more lightly. . . . so we 
have a more positive, kind and open-minded attitude.''

Ye stresses there are no rituals, places of worship or godhead, and the 
collection of money is forbidden. Li's teachings can be downloaded from the 
Internet or purchased to lend to others.

Ian Adams, co-author of the book Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong 
Revolution, dismisses the notion that Falun Gong is a cult. ''There's no 
drive to create masses of wealth for the leader, the leader is not exhorting 
his people to go out and carry out terrorists acts.''

''Our analysis was that he appeared to be at the right place at the right 
time with the right kind of stuff,'' says Adams, dubbing Falun Gong a 
''McBuddhism'' that struck a familiar chord with the Chinese.

''Very simply, it came down to the fact that after 60 years of communism and 
Marxism, people were starved for a spiritual dimension to their lives.''

But Adams doesn't buy the argument it's non-political.

''As soon as you tell people to stand up for what you believe in, that's a 
political act. I think it's a way to try and deal with a very repressive 
regime.''

''I think (Falun Gong) is an incredible phenomenon,'' says Adams. ''This 
anonymous guy becomes the leader of 100 million people. Li (Hongzhi) locked 
into something.''

''The phenomenon exists, and after two years, the Chinese government has not 
been able to crush him.''

China Expands Falun Gong Campaign

by Helen Luk (Associated Press, July 8, 2001)

HONG KONG (AP) - While forging ahead with its attempt to eradicate the Falun 
Gong movement at home, China is taking its campaign against the spiritual 
group abroad.

Chinese diplomats are seeking to discredit the sect and undermine its image 
in the United States, Australia and other countries by pressing public 
officials not to have dealings with the group or allow its participation in 
local activities.

Critics of the Beijing regime say Hong Kong authorities are caving in to the 
anti-Falun Gong campaign. They contend officials weakened the enclave's 
autonomy by barring about 100 Falun Gong practitioners from entering in early 
May during a visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Falun Gong remains legal in Hong Kong, under Western-style freedoms left 
behind by the British. But its active presence here has provoked much local 
friction as members lash out against China's suppression.

The conflict between China and the sect escalated last week over the deaths 
of some imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners at a labor camp in the 
northeastern province of Heilongjiang in June.

Chinese officials offered conflicting numbers, with some saying three deaths 
and others 14, but all said the women hanged themselves in a mass suicide. 
Falun Gong, which says its teachings prohibit suicide, insisted Chinese 
authorities had fatally beaten 15 inmates to death.

China's government is drawing criticism for its efforts to weaken Falun Gong 
overseas.

In the United States, some mayors have complained that Chinese diplomats 
attempted to stop them from giving public recognition to Falun Gong.

Falun Gong members in Australia accuse the Chinese Embassy of spreading 
distorted information about the group and attempting to persuade Australian 
officials to ban its participation in local events such as village festivals.

China's government fears Falun Gong's organizational abilities - the group 
was once estimated to have up to 100 million followers in China, or more than 
the Communist Party's 64.5 million.

Because the sect has no formal membership, it is hard to gauge the number of 
practitioners worldwide. Taiwan is believed to have the biggest following 
outside China, with 100,000 adherents.

Falun Gong says it has about 500 members in Hong Kong, 3,000 in Australia, 
10,000 in the United States, 1,000 in Singapore and 3,000 in South Korea. 
There are also small communities in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan.

Beijing's attempts to use diplomatic pressure to silence Falun Gong have 
enraged members and government officials in the United States.

Stan Bogosian, the former mayor of Saratoga, Calif., said that a few days 
after he signed a proclamation late last year declaring a week in honor of 
Falun Gong, two officials from the Chinese consulate urged him to rescind it.

When he refused, Bogosian said, the Chinese asked him to remain neutral on 
the issue and asked about his stance on Taiwan, which Beijing considers a 
renegade province. Angered, Bogosian called a news conference to denounce the 
Chinese government for ``highly irregular'' actions.

``The Chinese government should not be interfering in the political 
process,'' Bogosian told The Associated Press. ``The issue of whether Falun 
Gong is a cult or not is not important. For me, these are basic human 
rights.''

To Bogosian and many others, Falun Gong is a harmless qigong group, whose 
adherents, clad in their yellow T-shirts, practice controlled breathing 
exercises and move slowly to ethereal music in parks.

At least a dozen other mayors from cities in California, Illinois, 
Washington, Maryland and Michigan have reported pressure from Chinese 
officials who often pointedly mention the importance of U.S.-Chinese trade.

``The whole thing sounded like a propaganda pitch to me,'' said Tod 
Satterthwaite, mayor of Urbana, Ill., who ignored the Chinese demands.

Others have yielded. In 1999, mayors in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles 
and Baltimore - all important shipping centers - revoked proclamations 
honoring Falun Gong.

Falun Gong adherents in Australia say Chinese officials have sent letters to 
civic leaders describing the group as ``an out-and-out heretical sect, which 
is anti-science, anti-humanity and anti-society in nature.''

``The letters were sent to local government offices in order to try and 
persuade them to disallow perfectly legal activities being conducted in the 
area,'' said Michael Molnar, a spokesman for Australia's Falun Gong.

The Australian government said the Chinese Embassy had denied sending the 
letters.

Rebecca Tromp, spokeswoman of the Blacktown City Council, said officials from 
the Chinese consulate in Sydney raised the issue of Falun Gong participation 
in a festival sponsored by the city government.

``We advised them that any participation Falun Gong has is within our 
festival and that is what they do and we would continue to allow them to 
participate,'' Tromp said.

Seeing behind Beijing's veil of lies

by Chang Ching-hsi and Chang Chin-hwa ("Taipei Times," July 7, 2001)

In order to prove to the outside world that it was not persecuting Falun Gong 
practitioners, Beijing recently invited Western reporters -- as well as 
reporters from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau -- to visit the Masanjia   
"education-through-labor" camp in Liaoning Province and the Tuanhe   
camp in Beijing.

China has also said that accusations about its labor camps by overseas 
members of the Falun Gong are all fabrications. During the visit, reporters 
from Taiwan found no gloomy atmosphere at the labor camps. In fact, they they 
did not even look like labor camps. The South China Morning Post described 
the visits as "a spectacular show performed in a dreamlike prison." Reporters 
saw a humane scene, with soft music, fresh air and tame little deer strolling 
around in rose gardens and chickens and rabbits everywhere.

After journalists reported what they saw, we cannot help but feel concerned. 
China has strictly limited news gathering by reporters. So what "truth" did 
China's labor camps reveal when they were opened to the media? Over the past 
two years, have reporters from China and overseas had the freedom to 
interview Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested, detained, imprisoned, 
beaten and cruelly persecuted? We can get an answer from the following 
examples.

During the Chinese New Year, China announced that seven Falun Gong 
practitioners had burned themselves to death. Officials used the announcement 
to launch an anti-Falun Gong movement nationwide. Beijing not only forbade 
the foreign media from interviewing the burned survivors or their families, 
but also forbade their families from visiting the injured. What kind of 
country is it that deprives people of their freedom of speech, their right to 
know, and even their most basic right to care for their families? Why did 
China restrict news coverage on the event? Were those people who burnt 
themselves really Falun Gong practitioners? What was the truth?

Falun Gong's international Web site has listed 222 practitioners tortured to 
death at police stations, detention centers, labor camps and prisons all over 
China. The website provides the names of those victims, as well as details 
about what happened to them. There were even pictures of livid, swollen or 
deformed body parts. These victims were beaten savagely, given electric 
shocks, forced to take drugs that damaged their brains, or subjected to other 
extreme cruelties.

If those kinds of things happened in a free society, it would immediately 
become headline news and shock the entire world. In China, however, the Falun 
Gong practitioners had to die behind layers and layers of concealment just 
because they believed in the teachings of Falun Gong: truthfulness, 
benevolence and forbearance. Even their families were not allowed to find out 
the truth. No lawyers dare file a petition on behalf of Falun Gong followers. 
They have no channels whatsoever for petitions. The Chinese media will not 
and dare not report these.

Apart from the stage-managed visits, what other freedoms do reporters from 
the free world have in China?

Certainly, not all the truth has been concealed. Ian Johnson, a Wall Street 
Journal correspondent in Beijing, won this year's Pulitzer Prize for 
international affairs reporting for his in-depth coverage of the Falun Gong. 
This series of reports was about how Chen Zixiu (Òø?l¬q), a retired female 
employee of an auto parts company, was tortured to death by police. The 
reports were published on April 20, 2000.

Johnson also wrote a story about how a follower took risks to spread the 
Falun Gong teachings, and how Chen's daughter tried in vain for six months to
persuade police to issue a death certificate for her mother. Chen's daughter 
was not a Falun Gong follower, according to recent reports, but after knowing 
what her mother had gone through, she too became a follower and was detained.

The Wall Street Journal's managing editor, Paul Steiger, commented that 
Johnson's reports were "a tremendous example of courage and determination to 
get a story in the face of strong police pressures against the reporting, 
combined with very sensitive and powerful writing." He also pointed out that 
in order to prevent police surveillance and harassment, Johnson often had to 
make detours around other cities, constantly change his cellphone numbers and 
live in common family homes.

Finally, he was able to tell the world a tearful, blood-stained story about 
how common people are tortured and oppressed by China's state machine. After 
completing the reports, Johnson left China, where he can never again be a 
correspondent.

If we observe the history of natural or man-made disasters in China, we can 
see a three-step method that Beijing has used to deal with them.

The first step is to conceal the truth from the public and impose a news 
blackout, or to allow only the Xinhua News Agency to report the "official 
version."

The second step is to accuse the media and critics of "conspiring to 
overthrow socialism." If that does not keep a lid on things, China will come 
up with accusations of "colluding with anti-Chinese forces overseas and 
pro-Taiwan independence forces." Then, all criticism will become as silent as 
a cicada in winter.

The last step is to pretend to pacify people or to show that the government 
has fulfilled its responsibility to take good care of the people. To clarify 
responsibility and pursue those responsible is something Beijing has never 
done.

We can see the same method in China's suppression of the Falun Gong movement 
over the past two years, as well as in its treatment of the Qiandao Lake 
(?d¨q«˜) robbery and mass murder case in 1994 and the explosion at the 
Fanglin (»ò»L) elementary school in Jiangxi Province in March.

International human rights organizations have time and again investigated and 
condemned China's suppression of the media and human rights.

According to a human rights report released by the US State Department this 
year, China's human rights record was one of the poorest among the 195 
countries. For many years, China's President Jiang Zemin has been 
one of "the Worst Enemies of the Press" listed by the Committee to Protect 
Journalists. The committee said in a report that the Jiang regime used harsh 
prison sentences as a method to maintain its iron grip and that China had 
detained more reporters than any other country in the world.

In another development, at the UN Human Rights Committee meeting in Geneva 
this year, psychiatrists from the US and UK condemned China for using 
psychiatric hospitals for political persecution. Their study revealed that 
more than 1,000 healthy Falun Gong practitioners have been detained at 
psychiatric hospitals, where they are given drug injections or electric 
shocks aimed at forcing them to give up their beliefs. There have been 
reports of people being tortured to death.

Where is the truth about these people? Was what was seen during the 
stage-managed visits to the labor camps real or just a lie? Ultimately, the 
truth cannot be suppressed. Certainly, in the near future, more journalists 
with a sense of justice will reveal more to the world. We look forward to 
this.

Chang Ching-hsi is a professor of economics at National Taiwan University. 
Chang Chin-hwa is an associate professor of journalism at the same 
university. Both are Falun Gong practitioners.

Sect is like smoking or drugs: Elsie

by Carmen Cheung ("Hong Kong iMail," July 6, 2001)

SECRETARY for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie yesterday became the third senior 
official to support Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's recent labelling of the 
Falun Gong as an evil cult.
She said Mr Tung had a duty to speak out on the religious sect, just as he 
had a duty to speak out on other social issues such as drugs or smoking.
She insisted during her speech at a Japan Society luncheon that the 
government ``cannot wait until actual damage is done before expressing any 
concern or exercising any monitoring over the actions of this cult in Hong 
Kong''.
Last month, during a Legislative Council question-and-answer session, Mr Tung 
said the Falun Gong was ``undoubtedly an evil cult'', although he added that 
the government did not have any plans to outlaw the group.
Since then his comments have been defended by Chief Secretary for 
Administration Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau 
Suk-yee.
Mr Tsang told journalists at the Foreign Correspondents' Club two weeks ago 
that Mr Tung was expressing a personal opinion, although an official 
statement the next day claimed this was not what Mr Tsang had said, in that 
Mr Tung's comments were the official line.
And earlier this week, Mrs Ip reiterated Mr Tung's comments of the need to 
keep a close eye on the Falun Gong but added that there was no need to enact 
an anti-cult law now.
Yesterday, Ms Leung said: ``Mr Tung has a duty to speak on a matter of public 
concern and to warn people about the problematic behaviour of an organisation 
that has reportedly caused damage in the mainland when we find its presence 
in Hong Kong.
``He has the duty to warn such an organisation not to cause any social 
disorder in the territory, just as he has a duty to speak on drugs, rave 
parties, smoking, air pollution and any apparent deficiencies in our 
educational system and other social issues,'' Ms Leung said.
She added, in the absence of malice, it was absurd to suggest that the Chief 
Executive could be sued for defamation when he expressed such concerns. ``A 
statement is not defamatory if it is true or expresses an opinion which is a 
fair comment,'' she said.
``To accuse the Chief Executive of defamation instead of examining the 
substance of the problem is a disservice to our community.''
Ms Leung explained the government's stance on any legislation. She said if 
Hong Kong had moved legally against Falun Gong when the sect was banned on 
the mainland in 1999, it would have justified claims that Hong Kong was 
``just another Chinese city''. And equally, if the SAR had followed France's 
lead when it passed an anti-cult law on May 30 ``you might say that Hong Kong 
has succumbed to pressure from the Central People's Government''. She said 
the government was displaying ``responsibility, prudence, rationality and a 
high degree of autonomy'' in the handling of the issue.

Falun Gong supporters blame President for prisoner deaths

Supporters of a meditation group banned in China are blaming China's  
President for the increasing number of their supporters dying in Chinese  
jails.

  (Australian Broadcasting Corp., July 6, 2001)

Jiang Zemin ordered the crackdown against Falun Gong two years ago.

More than 240 Falun Gong practitioners have died while in police custody  in 
China.

In most cases, police list the deaths as suicide or say they are a  result of 
natural causes.

However, human rights groups say there is evidence to suggest Falun Gong  
detainees have been routinely mistreated and abused.

In the latest case, family members say many of the 15 women who died in  a 
labour camp this week had been tortured to death.

A reporting ban is preventing any independent verification of the  official 
version of events, which says the 15 committed suicide.

Spokeswoman Sophie Xiao says President Jiang Zemin should take  
responsibility for every death because he issued the order to eradicate  the 
group.

Falun Gong supporters estimate 35 followers have died in custody in the  past 
month.

China says three dead in Falun Gong mass suicide

(Reuters, July 5, 2001)

BEIJING, July 5 (Reuters) - China said on Thursday three followers of the 
banned Falun Gong spiritual group died and eight were saved in a mass suicide 
attempt at a labour camp.

The statement by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue followed a report 
from a Hong Kong-based rights group on Tuesday that 16 people attempted 
suicide at the Wanjia Labour Camp on June 20 and 10 of them may have died.

Falun Gong followers based overseas denied on Wednesday there had been a mass 
suicide and said more than 15 female followers were tortured to death around 
June 20 at the camp in Harbin, capital of the northeastern province of 
Heilongjiang.

Zhang told a news conference the 11 women, detained for "disrupting social 
order," tried to hang themselves with ripped sheets.

"Eleven female Falun Gong practitioners at a women's dormitory in Harbin's 
Wanjia Labour Camp attempted suicide in the early hours of June 21," she 
said.

"Camp guards on duty immediately rushed the women to hospital for treatment, 
where three of them died and the rest were revived and declared safe," Zhang 
said.

In January, five people identified by Chinese officials as Falun Gong 
followers set fire to themselves on Tiananmen Square in an apparent mass 
suicide attempt. A mother and her 12-year-old daughter died.

Falun Gong followers denied the five were adherents.

SENTENCES EXTENDED

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights & Democracy said the 
Falun Gong adherents at Wanjia tried to hang themselves after their sentences 
were extended for staging a hunger strike.

But the Falun Dafa Information Centre said they were beaten and tortured, and 
could not have committed suicide as they were under 24-hour surveillance.

Falun Gong says it does not sanction killing of any sort, including suicide.

China says the group is an "evil cult" responsible for the deaths of 1,660 
people by suicide or refusing medical treatment. It says a handful of Falun 
Gong followers have committed suicide or died from illnesses while in police 
custody.

"This again shows that Falun Gong is an evil cult that destroy lives," Zhang 
said of the labour camp incident.

"The legal rights of inmates at labour camps are consistently protected by 
Chinese laws and there were no such things as persecuting and abuse against 
them as rumours had it," she said.

Followers outside China say more than 200 Falun Gong adherents have died in 
Chinese police custody since Beijing banned the movement in July 1999.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, combines meditation and exercise with 
Buddhist and Taoist teachings. The group has disavowed any any political 
aims.

China protesters take cause through region


by Amanda Cuda ("Connecticut Post," July 5, 2001)

While other kids his age were at family cookouts or chillin' with friends, 
Hao Wang, 16, was striding along Boston Avenue in Bridgeport on Wednesday, 
protesting persecution in China.

His 20-mile Independence Day walk through the region came just hours after 
Chinese authorities claimed that as many as 16 Falun Gong members had 
committed mass suicide in a prison camp in June. Supporters of the banned 
sect, however, claim they were tortured and beaten to death.

Wang, of Boston, was one of
a half-dozen supporters of the movement who marched from Orange to Fairfield 
as part of a 24-day protest walk from Boston to Washington, D.C.

The trip protests what they say is China's maltreatment of practitioners of 
Falun Gong, a group of five meditative exercises similar to tai chi that the 
Communist government considers a dangerous religious cult.

We're very concerned about the persecution in China, Wang said. The Chinese 
government is trying to stop people from speaking out.

The 450-mile walk began June 26 in Watertown, Mass., and the group entered 
Connecticut on Saturday, getting as far as Mystic that day.

China considers those who practice Falun Gong -- also known as Falun Dafa -- 
a dangerous cult and has banned it for the past two years.

Falun Gong members say the Chinese government feels threatened by the 
spiritual practice because it has become more popular than the Communist 
Party.

Wang said banning Falun Gong is absurd, because it's a legitimate way of 
attaining physical and spiritual health. It's similar to jogging in the 
morning, Wang said. No one wants to give up jogging, because there's nothing 
bad about it.

The government also vigorously clamps down on Falun Gong demonstrators, and 
has reportedly imprisoned hundreds.

On June 20, up to 16 Falun Gong followers died in a north China labor camp. 
China claims the victims, mostly women, committed suicide by making ropes 
from sheets and hanging themselves from bunk beds.

Officials said camp guards stopped another 11 prisoners from committing 
suicide.

I don't think anyone believes that, said Tracey Zhu of Bethany. I don't think 
they committed suicide.

Falun Gong followers maintain that some 220 other practitioners have died in 
police custody since the July 1999 ban. Independent sources say more than 100 
have died.

The ban came seven years after the group began operating in China.

Wang has relative