Dalian City Authorities Step Up Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners Ahead of World Economic Forum Meeting

(Clearwisdom.net) On August 14, 2007, the Dalian City Police in Liaoning Province arrested 36 Falun Gong practitioners, including some women who were recent college graduates. The police also closed down the Dalian Xincheng Accounting Firm. The arrested practitioners' homes were searched and several homes were broken into. The reason used by the police was that the World Economic Forum (WEF meeting) is going to be held in Dalian City.

In June, the Dalian City Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee and the City Politics and Law Committee ordered the Police Department, the National Security Bureau, all enterprises and non-profit organizations, and all neighborhood committees to step up the monitoring of Falun Gong practitioners to "guarantee a successful Davos meeting (the World Economic Forum conference)." From June 18 to 21, many practitioners were arrested, including Mr. Li Dejun (presiding judge of the Dalian Ganjingzi District Court), Ms. Zhang Yaru (attorney from Liaoning Province's Lancheng Law Firm), Mr. Yang Chuanjun (who has been arrested and tortured many times), Mr. Yang Guancheng (retired veteran whose wife Bi Taihong was tortured to death in 2005).

Prior to the arrests and in preparation for the meeting, the authorities in charge of hosting the World Economic Forum conference called out for volunteers from Dalian University of Technology and Northeast University of Economics. One of the requirements was that volunteers should not have personal beliefs, which is a brazen infringement of the Chinese constitution on citizen's freedom of belief.

To prepare for the WEF meeting, the Dalian City authorities spent large amounts of money and massive manpower persecuting Falun Gong practitioners who pose no threat but who benefit society. They deployed over 7,000 policemen and secret agents and used all kinds of expensive high tech equipment (including telephone interception, Internet monitoring, following, global positioning, disguising, fingerprint collection, and opening private letters at the post office). The authorities have stepped up the intensity of the persecution. They have deployed Internet police to install a so-called "green network" Internet traffic monitoring system into computers in hotels, restaurants and office buildings, attempting to monitor and block people from visiting sensitive overseas web sites. They have installed a lot of cameras on major streets of the city to catch practitioners who distribute Falun Gong materials. The equipment and manpower that should be used to prosecute real criminals is being utilized to persecute law abiding citizens, causing the crime rate to escalate continuously. According to incomplete statistics, 84 practitioner have been arrested in the first half of 2007. The sitting CCP committee secretary of Dalian City, Zhang Chengyin, began his career climbing up the political ladder by participating in the massive persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. The Internet monitoring specifically designed against practitioners was done under his direct order.

Two consecutive mayors of Dalian City, Bo Xilai and Xia Deren, have both been sued for crimes against humanity and genocide in multiple countries outside of China.

August 18, 2007

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