By Volunteers

(Clearwisdom.net July 3, 2003)

On July 2, 2003, Beijing Time 5:37 p.m., Xinhua Net (hosted by Xinhua News Agency) posted an article entitled "16 Beggars or Scrap Collectors* Poisoned, Suspect is a Falun Gong Practitioner--Police Successfully Cracked a Huge Spree of Serial Homicides by Poisoning in Zhejiang Province (http://www.zj.xinhuanet.com/2003-07/02/content_666441.html)." This article accused Falun Dafa practitioners of being involved in serial killings of beggars, and thus perpetuated Jiang and his regime's criminal attempts to frame Falun Dafa, while at the same time leaving to history obvious evidence of their deeds.

The article by the Zhejiang branch of Xinhua News Agency said, "500 police officers have worked hard for the past five days and finally cracked the case yesterday, arresting serial killer Chen Fuzhao, who poisoned 14 beggars and scrap collectors." The strange part is that five hours earlier, on July 2, 2003, 10:31 a.m. Beijing time , Journalist Tang Zewen published an article in the Zhejiang City News Express entitled, "14 Beggars Have Now Died in Longgang Town, Zhejing Province, Seemingly from Poisoning." In his article, the case was described in detail, but no information about the killer was ever mentioned, except once: "According to eyewitness reports, at noon, a man riding a motorcycle passed a bottle of spring water to an old lady. This lady, who seemed to be a scrap collector, drank the water and fell to the ground soon after."

Obviously, people had no clue who committed the crime at the time the article was published. "Seemingly from Poisoning" was all the police knew. But Xinhua News Agency's article said that the police solved the puzzle the day before, which is self-contradictory.

In order to find out exactly if this case had been solved, we communicated with the local Cangnan County Party Propaganda Committee. A gentleman told us firmly that this case had not been solved yet, that no one said the killer was a Falun Dafa practitioner, and that local media had never reported on this case. He also said that 500 police officers were still working hard on the investigation, and many of his friends in the police system were joining the efforts.

To be doubly sure, we communicated with the Cangnan County Broadcasting and TV Administration Office. Mr. Fu told us that local media never reported this case, and no one said it was done by Falun Gong. He suggested that we contact the local News Center, but we were not able to make the contact.

Despite our careful investigation, we could not find any other independent sources that verified what Xinhua reported, but many local media in other regions quoted Xinhua Net's "news."

Tang Zewen pointed out in his article that similar incidents have occurred before in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. "There was also a huge spree of serial killings that targeted beggars and scrap collectors in Lucheng District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. We have received information stating that police arrested suspect Chen Yongfeng, who was convicted of killing ten scrap collectors, and chopping up nine bodies." Such an out of the ordinary case of serial killing, yet the government never paid much attention and the media never reported it, just because the victims were "garbage kings."

Despite the fact that this case had the same type of victims, that local police and Zhejiang Provincial Police Chief made statements to the contrary, and that this case had not been solved yet, Xinhua Net accused a Falun Dafa practitioner of being the killer, and influenced a lot of local media to quote Xinhua's report. This exposes a systematic and strong intent to slander Falun Dafa.

We saw the article by the Zhejiang Branch of Xinhua Net at 5:37 p.m., but by 11 p.m., more than half of the article had been cut out. In addition, Tang Zewen's article, which was listed as a "Related Article," had been erased.

It is obvious that Tang's article was too different from Xinhua's. If the two were put together, it would be too easy for readers to find the loopholes. These actions by Xinhua Net were in reality revealing its lies.

In order to investigate the killer Chen Fuzhao, we called the Longgang Town government in Cangnan County, Zhejiang Province. One official, who did not dare to reveal his name, first repeated Xinhua's lies when we asked about the identity of Chen Fuzhao, and said according to what he knew, Chen committed the killings because he practiced Falun Gong. When we told him Falun Dafa forbids killing, and pointed out that people who know Chen Fuzhao know he does not practice Falun Dafa, this official quickly changed his "conclusion," and said Chen Fuzhao is "mentally ill."

This case is similar to the one where "Fu Yuban killed his father and wife," in that both killers are mentally ill, but were labeled Falun Dafa practitioners by the government, so they could be used in the propaganda.

In order to show that the killer is a Falun Dafa practitioner, the Xinhua article said, "According to the killer's confession, beggars and scrap collectors are the highest level human beings; killing beggars or scrap collectors is beneficial to cultivating 'Falun Dafa.' The purpose of his poisoning people was to upgrade gong during cultivation."

If beggars and scrap collectors are truly like what the above article said, and belong to the highest level, then joining beggars would be what upgrades levels. The point made about the purpose of his poisoning people being "to upgrade gong during cultivation," exposes that the author and the confessor are fabricating lies by following someone's incorrect instructions. The cultivation method in Falun Dafa is very simple, easy to learn, and unchangeable. What is upgraded is moral character and virtue. There is no such thing as "upgrading gong." These statements are completely ridiculous to a true Falun Dafa practitioner.

Cultivation is supernormal, with profound meaning and remote historical origins. Limited by space, we are not going to talk much about the strict requirements of cultivation. Simply by observing the actions of Xinhua Net's Zhejiang branch in reporting the "news," we can be sure that this is another rushed and orchestrated frame-up job full of flaws.

1. The serial killing of beggars and scrap collectors in Longgang Town, Cangnan County, Zhejiang Province is very similar to the Chen Yongfeng case in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, which was solved on May 24. They both targeted beggars and scrap collectors, and involved cruel means and serial killing. The only difference is that the Chen Yongfeng case was hardly noticed.

2. After the Chen Yongfeng case, seven more beggars and scrap collectors from other provinces died abnormally in Zhejiang Province, but no one paid attention at any of the government offices.

3. During half a day on June 26, 2003, another seven beggars and scrap collectors died from rat poison in Zhejiang Province. 500 police officers investigated for five whole days, but only obtained a little information, which was not enough to crack the case.

4. While these cases had not been solved yet and the Head of the Provincial Police and Provincial Party Secretary were still paying full attention to the progress of the investigation of this case, and the local news and propaganda departments had not learned about the break in the case, Xinhua Net declared the case had been solved, and publicly stated that the killer is a mentally ill person who calls himself a Falun Dafa practitioner.

5. Because the case's resolution was declared so suddenly, contradictory information appeared on the Zhejiang branch of Xinhua Net, which they had to edit out of the web page.

6. Each branch of the local media repeated Xinhua Net, quoting its fabricated case report in order to fulfill the government's intentions to persecute Falun Dafa.

This is a case of framing orchestrated by higher levels of the government, rushed through and planned in order to continue to slander Falun Dafa under the soaring condemnation of China's human rights violations from the international community. They tried to deceive the public in the same way as in previous cases. Xinhua News Agency's bosses, Jiang and his followers, only care if these kinds of cases can be used to attack Falun Dafa--they never care about the sad deaths of those 14 beggars and scrap collectors, about the personal and societal factors causing these tragedies, or about who exactly the killer is.

*Scrap Collectors are people in China who often walk door to door to collect recyclable items from people, and then take them to places where they can be exchanged for cash.

Posting date: 7/8/2003
Original article date: 7/7/2003
Category: Truth Clarification
Translated on 7/6/2003
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/7/3/53419.html

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