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Washington Times Editorial Reveals How the Jiang Regime Persecutes Falun Gong Practitioners by Depriving Them of Employment
(Clearwisdom.net) In the past four years, Jiang and his followers have
given orders to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners, specifically to "ruin
their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically."
Countless Falun Dafa practitioners have been fired, arrested and jailed. The
Jiang regime has been depriving Dafa practitioners of their employment in order
to eliminate Falun Gong. As a result, millions of practitioners have lost their
jobs and cannot support themselves; many practitioners and their family members
were forced to leave their homes and go from place to place, and their formerly
happy families were cruelly separated. The Washington Times posted a guest editorial on this subject on December
3, 2003. Below are portions of this article. In August, Mary Kay Inc., the American cosmetic giant headquartered in
Dallas, required each of its sales associates in the People Republic of China to
sign a standard statement. In the statement, the signer promised never to
practice or to advocate for Falun Gong. Although Mary Kay reportedly is in the process of revising the statement, and
denied an earlier report that several employees were fired for refusing to sign,
the damage was done. By simply linking the term Falun Gong and the threat of
employment termination together, the company delivered a strong message to the
Chinese people: Corporate America was ready to give in to the demand of the
Chinese authorities, and, thus, to participate directly in the persecution of
dissident groups. The message is extremely alarming. For more than half a century, Chinese authorities have routinely denied the
right of employment to citizens who fall into the categories of government
enemies. Millions of people have been deprived of basic means of living because
they hold political or religious beliefs considered by the government as
subversive. These victims and their families have to endure extreme poverty and
starvation. Indeed, depriving them of employment has been one of the cruelest
punishments to dissidents and their families. Year after year, reports from
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. State Department have
presented to the world a lengthy list of people in China, including
intellectuals, workers, Christian leaders, and Falun Gong practitioners, who
have been fired for political causes. For decades, the pro-democracy Chinese have been setting their hope on
foreign investment, expecting the arrival of private business from the
democratic world to take away this powerful means of persecution from the
government. This hope has become reality to a limited degree. As a matter of
fact, some dissidents have found employment in the private sector and in foreign
business in the past decade. This gives them encouragement and more strength to
hold on to their beliefs. However, with the cooperation of private business, the Chinese authorities
can easily reverse this positive change. As soon as foreign corporations in
China such as Mary Kay begin to exclude people from employment eligibility
simply because the Chinese authorities ask them to do so, they become
accomplices of the Chinese government in suppressing human rights and political
freedom. To single out Falun Gong practitioners and supporters is particularly
disturbing, since the persecution of Falun Gong is generally regarded by
international human rights organizations as the most severe human rights
violation conducted by the Chinese government in recent years. Thousands of
Falun Gong practitioners have been fired, arrested and jailed. Reports from
China reveal that hundreds died in government custody after being brutally
tortured. It is despicably unconscionable for an American company to add more
pain to the victims by shutting the door in their faces. It is understandable that American corporations are eager to enter a market
of 1.3 billion consumers or a nation with hundreds of millions of cheap
laborers. However, with their investment, American corporations will also create
their own legacy in China. They can either gain notoriety by collaborating in
political persecution or gain respect by being independent and humane. This
should not be a difficult choice, even for corporate America. [...] http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20031202-083457-5426r.htm |