Monitoring News of the Persecution of Falun Gong

PRC INTERFERENCE IN GENEVA - A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS GENEVA, Switzerland.

Next week marks the final days leading up to the UN vote to bring China's decaying human rights record to the floor for discussion in Geneva. The press is invited to attend Falun Gong events in and around Geneva next week, and cover the growing peaceful appeal by Falun Gong practitioners to the UN body. Additionally, the press is encouraged to investigate and expose the many attempts, both hidden and overt, by the 500-member PRC delegation from China to thwart Falun Gong's press events, demonstrations, and other activities in Geneva during this time. In Geneva, please contact Gisele Chablias; 022-736-9685.

U.S. URGES UNITED NATIONS TO BREAK SILENCE ON CHINA'S RIGHTS RECORD 3/30/2001 GENEVA

(Reuters) - The United States said on Friday that the United Nations could not remain silent as China steps up repression of the Tibetan minority and members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. U.S. ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli also called on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to scrutinise the record of Cuba, whose Communist government she charged was systematically violating basic civil and political freedoms. In a wide-ranging speech, she ... [said] China's "already poor human rights record worsened (over) the last year, particularly with respect to religious minorities and the Tibetan people," the U.S. envoy said. "We seek no blanket condemnation of China," she said. "(But) by speaking out the Commission can best serve the cause of human rights and fundamental freedoms. It should not be silent when the Chinese authorities demolish Christian churches and Buddhist temples and brutally repress Falun Gong practitioners exercising rights to freedom of belief and expression." ...

PRC AUTHORITIES WARN WESTERN & CHINESE MEDIA: TOE THE PARTY LINE

3/31/2001 BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese media must remain the "mouthpiece" of the Communist Party regardless of market changes, propaganda chief Ding Guangen was quoted as saying Saturday. Media can compete for readers in an expanding market but the state must maintain primary ownership and control content, the Beijing Youth Daily quoted Ding as saying. "No matter what, their nature as mouthpiece of the party and the people cannot change," the paper quoted Ding as saying.... Media must "adhere to the party's basic line, serve the people, socialism, and serve the work of the nation and party," Ding was quoted as saying during his visit. Reforms must "take account of our country's national characteristics and fully consider the special needs of ideological work," he said. Party propaganda officials dictate content and squelch reporting of sensitive political and social issues in China's 2,000 newspapers, 1,800 television stations and 300 radio stations. Last year, Ding ordered the media to be in "strict agreement" with the party line on issues such as the campaign against the Falun Gong spiritual movement and attitudes toward Taiwan and the U.S. Though media remain mostly docile, the government has not hesitated to rein in those testing the limits. A spokesman labeled media "irresponsible" last month for reporting parents' claims that students were forced to make fireworks at a school where an explosion killed 42 people. The government claimed the explosion was caused by a lone madman. Last year, three newspaper editors in central China were dismissed after approving independent reports on the explosion of an army vehicle carrying artillery through a crowded urban area. Ding, a member of the party's guiding politburo, has closed dozens of publishing houses that printed books deemed too sensitive or risque. China has sought to contain the threat from satellite television and the Internet, banning satellite dishes and blocking Web sites it considers offensive. Rules introduced last year prohibited Internet sites from offering news not approved by the government...

CHINA FORCING PRACTITIONER INTO EXILE

NEWS FROM INSIDE CHINA: WOMAN AND INFANT SON DIE IN LABOR CAMP

Wang Lixuan, female, believed to be about 30 years old, lived in Xixia, Yantai in Shandong Province. Since July 20, 1999, she had gone eight times, while pregnant, to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa; she felt it was that important to tell the government the truth from her own experience. Her faith in Dafa never faltered despite all the times she was arrested, and all the vicious beatings and mistreatment she had been subjected to. The last time she was arrested was in September 2000; the exact date is unknown. She was later unlawfully transferred to Beijing Tuanhe Labor Re-Education Camp. Her family never received any notification that she had been sent for "re-education" through labor, but in October, they suddenly received a death notification from the camp for both Wang Lixuan and her infant son. It stated that the two "had committed suicide by jumping off a building." Wang Lixuan and her son apparently went through all kinds of torture in the labor camp. The baby wasn't even 8 months old. His ankles bore clear marks from handcuffs and had wounds all over his body. This is a real life example of the policy of "beating to death is to be counted as suicide" that has been laid down by Jiang Zemin. All five members of Wang Lixuan's family are Dafa practitioners and all of them have suffered from this persecution. Her sister, Wang Lihui, is now in a labor camp because she practiced Falun Dafa at Yantai University, and her brother has also been sent to a labor camp for practicing Falun Gong at Jinan Industrial College.

Posting date: 4/8/2001
Original article date: 4/8/2001
Category: Weekly Crisis Bulletins

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