On the morning of February 25, the Chinese embassy in Singapore sponsored a discussion forum entitled "Respect Science, Oppose cult" in one of Singapore's famous hotels. They invited over ten famous professors, representatives from Chinese community organizations and representatives from commercial associations to give talks. They also included Singapore media reporters. There were about 150 people in total. The discussion forum was directed against Falun Gong.

First, they gave an agitated speech on so-called "opposing cult." Then they showed a video edited and directed by CCTV (China Central Television, the state-run TV station) documenting the "self immolation" incident in Tiananmen Square on January 24. After showing the propaganda video, they invited over ten people to give talks and slander Falun Gong. Even though some speakers stated that they did not understand Falun Gong very well, they seemed to be deceived by the Chinese government's lies. They intentionally or unintentionally followed the Chinese officials' wishes to state their positions.

While the evil temporarily had its way, one Falun Gong practitioner raised her hand and stood up. She loudly questioned the many suspicious points in the "self immolation" story. In order to stop the practitioner from continuing to uncover the "self immolation" conspiracy, the organizer spoke through the microphone, "The discussion forum is finished, no more questions." The practitioner loudly said, "I am not done yet." The organizer then repeated, "The discussion forum is finished, no more questions." With no delay, the practitioner loudly said, "Think about it everyone: there are so many questionable points. Could it be a setup performed by your own government?!" By this time, two security staff came over and pulled her to leave the room.

Since it was a "discussion forum," why didn't they allow participants to ask questions? Was it because they had some dark secrets that could not be known? Or were they afraid that people would uncover their conspiracy? This is called "one is afraid when being a thief!" Shouldn't this "good performance," directed by the embassy officials and ordered by a small group in the Chinese government, stimulate our thoughts? An embassy represents the government of a country. They reside in a foreign country but sponsored and gathered local celebrities in education and commercial segments, forcefully fed anti-Falun Gong viewpoints and propaganda to them to stir up local resentments towards Falun Gong. They pressured the local government [in Falun Gong related matters]. Isn't that disturbing another country's internal administration?

The sad part was that the media that were present in the forum kept silent about the incident and facts in their report in order to go along with Chinese authorities' wishes. In China, overseas media have already been harmed by Jiang Zemin and his gang, when will Singapore's media be awakened?

Provided by a Singapore Falun Gong practitioner

February 28, 2001