Media in Taiwan and Hong Kong Report Activities Protesting the Persecution of Falun Gong

(Clearwisdom.net) Taiwan United News reported on July 18 that July 20 would be the fifth anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Several thousand practitioners in Taiwan gathered in Taipei the previous day to expose the long-term persecution by the Chinese government against Falun Gong practitioners.

According to the report, Taiwan practitioners held a mourning ceremony and an "anti-torture exhibition" at Zhongzheng Memorial Hall Square yesterday. They used real people to exhibit the torture of Falun Gong practitioners by Chinese police.

Liu Binghua, secretary of the Taiwan Association for Rescuing Tortured Falun Gong practitioners, said that practitioners in mainland China have been persecuted, and many Taiwan practitioners who visited or traveled to China have been detained there. There are also cases of mainland practitioners married to Taiwanese spouses who were detained when they went back to China to visit their families.

Representing a legal group, Taiwan lawyer Zhu Wanqi issued a statement saying that the group, composed of seventeen lawyers from four continents, will file lawsuits against Jiang Zemin and twelve other Chinese governmental officials in eleven countries for persecuting Falun Gong. Meanwhile, they will appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and Torture Committee.

China Times also reported that the Falun Dafa Association marked the fifth anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong. Practitioners held an exhibition demonstrating eleven brutal torture methods used against Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China, such as burning with a hot iron, inserting bamboo sticks under the fingernails, and force-feeding with excrement. More than one thousand practitioners have been tortured to death. Human rights groups have criticized the Chinese government for the persecution.

The exhibited tortures included intense labor, hanging up by handcuffs and beating, injecting unknown drugs, tying up with ropes, burning the skin, inserting bamboo sticks under the finger nails, the tiger bench, forced-feeding, locking up in a tiny cage, handcuff and shackle torture, and applying intense pressure to the body. Next to the exhibition was a photo display of practitioners who have died as a result of these particular tortures.

For example, one torture involves burning the skin with a red-hot iron rod. Practitioner Gao Rongrong, 36, who worked at the financial office in Shenyang Luxun Fine Arts Institute, was sent to a labor camp this May. Her beautiful face was deformed and ruined as a result of electric shocks administered for nearly seven hours.

Injection of unknown drugs is a torture method administered under the guise of mental care. According to the Falun Dafa Association, over one thousand practitioners have been labeled as being mentally ill and sent to mental hospitals or rehabilitation centers, where they were forced to receive injections of substances that damaged their central nervous systems.

Liu Binghua pointed out that according to statistics from inside the Chinese government, as of October 2001, sixteen hundred detained practitioners had died. At least six thousand practitioners have been illegally sentenced, and over one hundred thousand have been sent to labor camps.

Radio Free Asia reported on July 18 that several hundred practitioners in Hong Kong marched to the Chinese government liaison office in Hong Kong that Sunday to protest the five-year-long persecution against Falun Gong.

The report said that there was a press conference before the parade. One speaker emphasized that the persecution is not legal, and he requested an end to it. Another speaker, Ms. Chen, shared the experience of her father being detained by the security office and forced to sign a paper acknowledging guilt when he traveled to China. She requested that the Chinese government release her father.

Kan Hung-cheung, the spokesperson for the Hong Kong Falun Gong association, said that the Chinese government launched the persecution in this month five years ago. They thus picked this date to hold a parade protesting the persecution.

Kan Hung-cheung said that Falun Gong was spread to Hong Kong in 1994, and people can still practice Falun Gong freely in Hong Kong and hold activities. He said that although practitioners in Hong Kong have not been harassed by gangster-like violence, it is gradually becoming an issue of concern.

Mr. Kan said that due to pressure from the Chinese government, Falun Gong-related activities have been interfered with in Hong Kong. During the past several years, overseas practitioners planning to attend Falun Gong activities have often been denied entry to Hong Kong by the Hong Kong government. Such pressure has become more and more prominent.

Taipei Times reported on July 17 that Taiwan Falun Gong practitioners gathered in front of Taipei Zhongzheng Memorial Hall the previous day. They formed the Chinese characters representing the phrase "The Fa rectifies heaven and earth" to support practitioners who have been persecuted for the past five years in mainland China.

A Central News Agency report on July 19 stated that Falun Gong practitioners in France protested the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong. The report said that in July 1999, former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin issued an order to prohibit Falun Gong gatherings. In July of every year since, Falun Gong practitioners all over the world have gathered together to protest the persecution and raise awareness of what is happening in China. The photo showed Falun Gong practitioners in France protesting the persecution.

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