Sunday, September 28, 2008

Legal Scholar: Peng Keyu Faces Deportation

SOH: Posted by Denis Wu on Friday, September 26th, 2008

American Chinese language newspaper Mingbao published a report on September 15 on Peng Keyu and the Flushing incident where Falun Gong practitioners were heckled and physically attacked by pro-communist supporters. The news paper cited the New York Post which said the U.S. State Department is currently considering whether to deport Peng Keyu, the Chinese Consul General in New York.

According to former law lecturer Liu Guo Hua who was speaking at the third New York Anti-CCP Infiltration Conference in Flushing on Sunday September 21st, it is likely that Peng will be deported.

Liu Guo Hua said he was very excited to see the news as it indicates that the US State Department has confirmed that Peng Keyu has participated in the Flushing incident in his position as a foreign diplomat.

A spokeswoman for the State Department indicated that while it has taken no actions so far, pulling Peng’s credentials was an option. Liu Guo Hua says that a decision such as this would not be made abruptly with no prior notice, and that the media will often catch wind of it first. Liu said he believes that Peng is facing an 80-90% chance of being deported.

Liu commended Falun Gong practitioners on their conducts during the Flushing incident. He says the Peng Keyu event shows that Falun Gong practitioners have done very well to give out information, and have very quickly given all relevant details to the UN, the US government, and various organisations around the world. Liu says that the recipients of the information are shocked, and that should Peng Keyu be deported, it implies that the United States is supporting Falun Gong on a national level.

Liu believes the Chinese Communist Party has suffered unprecedented damage on the issue of Peng Keyu, saying the incident will not only be of tremendous effect to the final conclusion of the Flushing incident, it will also act to stop and prevent the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP around the world. He says it will also be a heavy blow to the CCP, the severity of which has not been experienced by the CCP since the start of its persecution until now.

The above news is brought to you Chen Yue, Yia Mei and Denis Wu for Inside China Today on the SOH Radio Network.

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

China puts the lid on milk scandal during Olympic Game

The Australian: JIAN Guangzhou of the Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai has received widespread applause for being the journalist who first named famous Chinese dairy brand Sanlu as being responsible for the nationwide milk powder poisonings of thousands of babies.

But it is a sorry triumph, because the reporting of China's worst food disaster of recent years -- with at least 53,000 babies suffering from kidney problems and four dying -- has remained constrained by party controls.

The first local media reports on the disaster were published and broadcast in July, but were not followed up. That was because a blackout was imposed.

The central party propaganda department delivered a 21-part instruction to all Chinese media before the Beijing Olympics, preventing any critical reporting to ensure a positive mood during the Games. The eighth clause stated that "all food safety issues are off limits".

So the milk poison stories were not to be reported until after the Games. By then, the crisis was so widespread it was impossible to suppress entirely.

But in the meantime, immense additional damage was done to babies' kidneys. For even though Sanlu's board was told about the disaster shortly before the Olympics, the poisonous products were not recalled until afterwards -- ensuring the Games remained a period of harmony and national pride.

Jian explained that in the Hubei, Hunan and Gansu provinces, doctors had earlier drawn the attention of local journalists to a sudden rush of babies admitted with kidney failure, which the medical staff soon started to associate with the only food most of the babies had been consuming -- milk powder.

So stories appeared in local newspapers and on a cable TV channel in Hunan, and eventually Jian -- looking at their websites -- realised this was developing as a national problem. In each place, he discovered, Sanlu was the main brand being consumed by the sick babies.

He then decided to name it as the guilty party. "I hesitated a lot," he said, "as to whether to use the name.

"And Sanlu is a well-known brand, with a history of half a century, an 18 per cent market share of powdered milk, and advertised as 'the milk chosen by Chinese astronauts'.

"I didn't sleep well the night after I posted the story online, after contacting the company for its response. Sanlu denied any problem with quality, and said the Gansu's quality inspectors had tested its formula and found nothing wrong." Jian added: "In a dream, I saw Sanlu's people accusing me fiercely of irresponsibility, charging me in court. Might I be destroying a good brand wrongly?

"When I got to the office the next morning, a colleague told me that Sanlu had already called several times, insisting I withdraw the story from the website. I didn't aim to be zealously moral, I just wanted to speak the truth."

The story stayed up for a while -- but Jian's own blog, explaining how and why he wrote it, was soon deleted by the internet portal.

Jian has said he is considering suing the portal, Tianya.cn. He was informed the posting failed to conform to Tianya's rules. "But I don't think I've written one sentence that crossed the line, I've been objective in my writing."

The South China Morning Post editorialised: "In Hong Kong and other developed economies, repeated complaints ... about a food product would have attracted the attention of the media. Public pressure would have compelled the authorities and companies involved to take prompt action. But in the absence of a vibrant civil society on the mainland, such problems often have deadly or tragic consequences."

China's state-owned media strive to place a positive gloss on such stories. Typically, a story by Xinhua news agency revealed that about 15 per cent of all milk powder batches, produced by 20 per cent of all China's producers, were found to contain the poisonous chemical melamine. But the headline said: "Most companies' baby milk powder safe in China, says State Council".

Body: Media around the country have been advised to restrict their coverage of such a controversial issue to the stories produced by the central agencies like Xinhua and China Central TV, and not commission their own investigative writers.

Controversy has also raged about the role of dominant search engine, Baidu and its smaller rivals Sina and Sohu, which have been accused of filtering out negative material. Baidu has rejected this charge.

Popular TV host Liu Yiwei wrote in his Shanghai newspaper column that authorities imposed far stricter controls over media than over food. He said: "Films don't injure people or take their lives. Why can't officials inspect baby formula as strictly as they censor films?"

Yet on Saturday, Premier Wen Jiabao said in in Tianjin: "When this kind of problem of food safety occurs, we do not cover it up. We face it candidly." OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Friday, September 26, 2008

Beijing Resident Killed During Olympics for Practicing Falun Gong


Neighborhood security agent confirms death, wife still in labor camp

NEW YORK (FDI) – An elderly Falun Gong practitioner from Chaoyang district in Beijing, home to the Bird’s Nest Stadium, died from injuries incurred in custody two days before the close of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Falun Dafa Information Center reported on Wednesday.

Mr. Wang Chongjun (王崇俊), age 65, died at home on August 23, 2008 after being injected with an unknown drug in a Beijing labor camp, according to sources in China. His wife, Ms. Wang Zhiqin, remains illegally detained and is unaware of her husband’s death.

In a telephone call made to the Longzhuashu village community police working site near their home on September 9, a member of the neighborhood watch group confirmed Wang’s death.

“He died. Isn’t Wang Chongjun dead?” said a Mr. Li who picked up the phone. When the investigator asked if Wang’s family had received compensation, Li said: “I don't know. He died at home...I listen to my boss. I'm from out of town.” (see transcript excerpt and link to a recording of the phone conversation below)

The Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) had first reported the arrest of Wang and his wife in July 2008 (news). The couple were among over 8,000 adherents detained in a nationwide round-up that occurred in the months preceding the Olympics and has continued since the closing ceremonies as well.

“The tragic case of Wang and his wife are typical of the horrific abuses Falun Gong practitioners continue to face in China, abuses that worsened with the Olympics” says Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson Erping Zhang. “While Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is speaking at UN headquarters this week in New York City, countless innocent Chinese citizens are languishing in labor camps and in grave danger. It is up the international community—including governments, media, and human rights groups—to ensure that the thousands of adherents still in detention don’t meet the same fate as Wang.”

Case Details

On the evening of April 14, 2008, local security agents raided Wang’s home without a warrant and arrested the elderly couple. The detention followed more than a week of intensified harassment and surveillance of the family, reportedly on the orders of Yang Fengling, head of the village 610 Office. Yang ordered the surveillance after Ms. Wang refused to renounce her practice of Falun Gong during a previous meeting. After their arrest, the couple was taken to Chaoyang District Detention Center. Their family was denied access to visit them.

On June 20, 2008, the couple’s family members received notices from the dispatch center at Beijing’s Tuanhe “Re-education through Labor” (RTL) Camp (more about Tuanhe Labor Camp). The documents stated that Wang Chongjun had been sentenced to two years of RTL on May 22, 2008, and was being detained in the First Ward of the dispatch center. His wife, Wang Zhiqin, had been sentenced to two and half years of forced labor on May 20, 2008, and was being held in the Tenth Ward.

According to sources inside China, while at the camp, guards injected Mr. Wang with an unknown drug, an increasingly common torture technique used on Falun Gong, that led to 11 deaths in 2007. The drug reportedly caused his skin to turn a yellowish color for him to become emaciated. Seeing that Wang was on the verge of death, the camp authorities released him so as not to be held responsible for his dying in their custody.

Upon receiving notice from the camp, Wang’s family picked him up and took him to the hospital for medical treatment. Nevertheless, Wang died at home on the afternoon of August 23, 2008. His wife had meanwhile been transferred to Shanxi Province RTL Camp not long before the start of the Olympics. According to sources close to the couple, she has yet to be informed of her husband’s death.

“We call upon the international community and media based in Beijing to use every resource available to investigate the facts for themselves,” says Zhang. “This persecution must end, lest more innocent people die.”

Transcript of call confirming Wang’s death:

The following is the transcript of a call made to the Longzhuashu village community police working site in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on September 9, 2008. An audio recording is available here (the voice of the investigator has been changed to protect their identity).

Male (A): My name is Li. I am on duty. I am not a policeman.

Investigator (Q): What is Wang Zhiqin's home phone number?

A: Her home phone is not working anymore.

Q: Did you go there when they arrested him in April?

A: I was probably there.

Q: Did you go to see him after his release?

A: He died. Isn't Wang Chongjun dead?

Q: Does anyone still live in his home?

A: He has a son who works somewhere else. I don't have his phone number.

Q: Have things been taken care of? Has his family gotten any compensation?

A: I don't know. He died at home. You can ask her . I listen to my boss. I am from out of town, I am not a local.

Q: How much do you get paid every day?
A: 20 Yuan per day.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Olympic activist detained by China police


HENRY SANDERSON | September 26, 2008 06:15 AM EST | AP


HP: BEIJING — A Chinese activist who applied to protest in special zones set up for demonstrations during the Beijing Olympics has become the latest applicant to be detained by police, a rights group said Friday.

Ji Sizun disappeared Aug. 11, three days into the Olympic Games, and hasn't been seen since, the overseas Chinese Human Rights Defenders group said. On Thursday, police from Fuzhou City in southeastern Fujian province told a friend of Ji's that he had been detained, the group said.

It was not clear when he was taken into police custody.

A man surnamed Teng at the legal department of the Fuzhou City public security bureau said he did not know of Ji's case. He said his bureau only deals with people once there is a case against them, and Ji might have been detained by lower-level agency.

The five other local police bureaus in the city said they had not heard of Ji's case.

Detentions in China can last weeks or even months and do not always lead to a person being arrested or criminally charged.

In July, China said those who applied would be allowed to protest during the Olympics in three parks far away from the main venues. But no applications were approved and China detained some who applied, even threatening to send two elderly women to a labor camp.

Ji went to a Beijing police station on Aug. 9 to apply for a permit to protest social and political problems but was told that because it was a Saturday he could not apply. He returned two days later to apply and has not been seen since, according to the rights group.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders said another activist, Liu Xueli, had been under surveillance since he applied to protest at the Olympics and was dragged into a police car Tuesday in central Henan province.

The group said Liu was told he would be sent to a re-education camp. It said he was not given the reason for his punishment or presented with a written order.

The group did not say how it was told about Liu.

The re-education system allows police to sidestep a criminal trial or a formal charge and directly send people to prison for up to four years of penal labor. Critics say it is misused to detain political or religious activists, and violates suspects' rights.

The director of the legal office of Song County's public security bureau, in Henan province, surnamed Tai, said he did not know who was handling Liu's case and did not know if Liu had been detained.

The Chinese government has said the Olympics were a resounding success, but New York-based Human Rights Watch has said the games led to a surge in arrests, detentions and harassment of government critics.

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Thursday, September 25, 2008

No Way Out: A report on the human cost of China’s economic miracle

Author: China Labour Bulletin and Rights & Democracy [Canada]
Dated: 24 Sep 2008
[The] new report...draws extensively on CLB’s litigation in defence of worker’s rights. The report...explore[s] the many ways in which enterprise restructuring and privatization violated the human rights of laid-off workers; including their systematic exclusion from official channels of redress, the criminalization of labour protests, and the denial of workers’ rights to social security, to an adequate standard of living, to freedom of association and to freedom from arbitrary detention...Huge numbers of laid-off SOE employees sought redress, both through the official Complaints and Petitions (xin-fang) system and through the labour arbitration and court systems, but in most cases to no avail...Workers’ leaders who fought for the rights of their colleagues have been persecuted, silenced or imprisoned, while the grievances of those they represented have been all but ignored by the authorities...

List item: 1


OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Scientist accused of selling rocket data to China


USA Today: NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A scientist who heads a high-tech company in Newport News has been charged with illegally selling rocket technology to China and offering bribes to Chinese officials, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Shu Quan-Sheng, 68, made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and is being held in jail until a bond hearing Monday.

Shu, the president of AMAC International Inc., is charged with two counts of violating the federal Arms Control Act and one count of bribery. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years on each arms count and five years for the bribery charge.

It could not be determined whether Shu has hired a lawyer. A phone message left at his company was not returned.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday, Shu sold technology to China for development of hydrogen-propelled rockets. The Chinese government is developing a space launch facility in the southern island province of Hainan that will house liquid-propelled launch vehicles designed to send space stations and satellites into orbit.

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

China warns against Nobel Prize

Sep 25, 2008 9:29 PM

TVNZ: China warned on Thursday that it would not be happy if a Chinese dissident won this year's Nobel Peace Prize, as suggested by two prominent Norwegians.

The winner of the 2008 peace prize, worth $1.5 million, will be announced in the Norwegian capital Oslo on Oct. 10 in a year marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Stein Toennesson, the head of Oslo's International Peace Research Institute, said his top choice would be jailed Chinese democracy, environment and AIDS activist Hu Jia.

Janne Haaland Matlary, professor of international politics at Oslo University, agreed that the time was ripe to award a Chinese citizen who had fought for human rights, though she said a Russian rights activist could be chosen instead.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that such an award would not be welcomed by Beijing. "I don't know where this news comes from, but we think that the Nobel Peace Prize, if it awarded to somebody who really protects world peace, should be given to the right person," he told a regular news conference.

"So we hope that related parties make the correct choice on this issue and do not do anything that hurts the feelings of the Chinese people."

It is 19 years since Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, won the only award linked to China in the 107-year history of the prize.

China condemns the Dalai Lama as a separatist who foments unrest in Tibet, a charge he denies.

Geir Lundestad, secretary to the Norwegian committee, said in a speech in 2001 the committee should speak out about the lack of democracy in China "sooner rather than later".


OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Beijing Resident Killed During Olympics for Practicing Falun Gong


Neighborhood security agent confirms death, wife still in labor camp

NEW YORK (FDI) – An elderly Falun Gong practitioner from Chaoyang district in Beijing, home to the Bird’s Nest Stadium, died from injuries incurred in custody two days before the close of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Falun Dafa Information Center reported on Wednesday.

Mr. Wang Chongjun (王崇俊), age 65, died at home on August 23, 2008 after being injected with an unknown drug in a Beijing labor camp, according to sources in China. His wife, Ms. Wang Zhiqin, remains illegally detained and is unaware of her husband’s death.

In a telephone call made to the Longzhuashu village community police working site near their home on September 9, a member of the neighborhood watch group confirmed Wang’s death.

“He died. Isn’t Wang Chongjun dead?” said a Mr. Li who picked up the phone. When the investigator asked if Wang’s family had received compensation, Li said: “I don't know. He died at home...I listen to my boss. I'm from out of town.” (see transcript excerpt and link to a recording of the phone conversation below)

The Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) had first reported the arrest of Wang and his wife in July 2008 (news). The couple were among over 8,000 adherents detained in a nationwide round-up that occurred in the months preceding the Olympics and has continued since the closing ceremonies as well.

“The tragic case of Wang and his wife are typical of the horrific abuses Falun Gong practitioners continue to face in China, abuses that worsened with the Olympics” says Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson Erping Zhang. “While Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is speaking at UN headquarters this week in New York City, countless innocent Chinese citizens are languishing in labor camps and in grave danger. It is up the international community—including governments, media, and human rights groups—to ensure that the thousands of adherents still in detention don’t meet the same fate as Wang.”

Case Details

On the evening of April 14, 2008, local security agents raided Wang’s home without a warrant and arrested the elderly couple. The detention followed more than a week of intensified harassment and surveillance of the family, reportedly on the orders of Yang Fengling, head of the village 610 Office. Yang ordered the surveillance after Ms. Wang refused to renounce her practice of Falun Gong during a previous meeting. After their arrest, the couple was taken to Chaoyang District Detention Center. Their family was denied access to visit them.

On June 20, 2008, the couple’s family members received notices from the dispatch center at Beijing’s Tuanhe “Re-education through Labor” (RTL) Camp (more about Tuanhe Labor Camp). The documents stated that Wang Chongjun had been sentenced to two years of RTL on May 22, 2008, and was being detained in the First Ward of the dispatch center. His wife, Wang Zhiqin, had been sentenced to two and half years of forced labor on May 20, 2008, and was being held in the Tenth Ward.

According to sources inside China, while at the camp, guards injected Mr. Wang with an unknown drug, an increasingly common torture technique used on Falun Gong, that led to 11 deaths in 2007. The drug reportedly caused his skin to turn a yellowish color for him to become emaciated. Seeing that Wang was on the verge of death, the camp authorities released him so as not to be held responsible for his dying in their custody.

Upon receiving notice from the camp, Wang’s family picked him up and took him to the hospital for medical treatment. Nevertheless, Wang died at home on the afternoon of August 23, 2008. His wife had meanwhile been transferred to Shanxi Province RTL Camp not long before the start of the Olympics. According to sources close to the couple, she has yet to be informed of her husband’s death.

“We call upon the international community and media based in Beijing to use every resource available to investigate the facts for themselves,” says Zhang. “This persecution must end, lest more innocent people die.”

Transcript of call confirming Wang’s death:

The following is the transcript of a call made to the Longzhuashu village community police working site in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on September 9, 2008. An audio recording is available here (the voice of the investigator has been changed to protect their identity).

Male (A): My name is Li. I am on duty. I am not a policeman.

Investigator (Q): What is Wang Zhiqin's home phone number?

A: Her home phone is not working anymore.

Q: Did you go there when they arrested him in April?

A: I was probably there.

Q: Did you go to see him after his release?

A: He died. Isn't Wang Chongjun dead?

Q: Does anyone still live in his home?

A: He has a son who works somewhere else. I don't have his phone number.

Q: Have things been taken care of? Has his family gotten any compensation?

A: I don't know. He died at home. You can ask her . I listen to my boss. I am from out of town, I am not a local.

Q: How much do you get paid every day?
A: 20 Yuan per day.

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

New Yorkers Protest Wen Jiabao, Number Two of Chinese Regime

By Joshua Philipp
Epoch Times Staff Sep 23, 2008
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PARK AVENUE PROTESTS: Protesters outside the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where Chinese official Wen Jiabao is staying. (Mingguo Sun/The Epoch Times)
NEW YORK—Arriving for the U.N. General Assembly's 63rd session, Chinese second-in-command, Wen Jiabao, was met by groups protesting the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) numerous human rights abuses.

Nearing the United Nations Plaza in Manhattan on Sept. 23, police stood at the corner of nearly every street, while lines of police cars patrolled the roads. Growing closer, the shouts of protesters could be heard from groups gathered near where the annual meeting of world peace was being held.

It is the first appearance by a high-ranking Chinese official following the Olympics, so protesters pointed to human rights abuses during the Olympics, which added to the CCP’s already-lengthy list of atrocities. Some lined up in quiet protest, holding signs and meditating, others waved flags, while others staged performing arts pieces portraying their concerns.

Just a few blocks from the U.N. building, along Park Avenue, protesters from Falun Gong, Tibetan groups, and others had also gathered in front of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where the Chinese second-in-command will be staying. Some waved Tibetan flags, others passed out information packets, and each side of the road was lined with banners highlighting various human rights issues.

Banners from Falun Gong banners read, "Immediately Release Jailed Falun Gong Practitioners in China," and "China Stop Persecuting Falun Gong," while others called for the arrest of other CCP leaders deemed responsible for the worst abuses, saying, "Bring Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Liu Jin, Zhou Yongkang to Justice."

Former Canadian Official Corroborates Deadly Acts

Speaking at a rally, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia Pacific, David Kilgour, discussed the extent of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, a meditation practice that is based in the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. Teamed with international human rights lawyer David Matas, Kilgour has conducted an independent investigation into allegations that the CCP has been killing Falun Gong practitioners and selling their vital organs.

“We amassed a substantial body of evidence and became convinced beyond any doubt that this crime against humanity has occurred and is still happening as I speak here today,” Kilgour said.

Kilgour explained that, in order to justify the persecution of Falun Gong to the Chinese people, the CCP has conducted a propaganda campaign to spread false information about the practice. “Before the persecution of Falun Gong began there were 70 to 100 million practitioners. The Party State of China began its propaganda in 1999 and it has demonized, dehumanized, and vilified the Falun Gong community across China since,” said Kilgour.

According to numerous witnesses, political prisoners and prisoners of conscience inside China are often sent to forced labor camps where they are made to manufacture products such as chopsticks and Christmas decorations exported to western countries. Kilgour commented on the issue: “This of course constitutes both corporate irresponsibility and violations of World Trade Organization rules. It’s pretty hard for Americans, Canadians, and others to compete with products from forced labor camps"

Tibetan Protests

Across the road, Tibetans had also come to protest Wen's arrival. According to the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, since Mar. 10, leading up to the Beijing Olympics, more than 209 Tibetans were killed and over 5,714 were arrested while trying to protest the CCP’s suppression of their people.

“Hundreds of Tibetans are still in jail, still missing,” said Tenzin Dorjee, a member of Students for a Free Tibet. “As a result of the crackdown the cost was immense to the Tibetan people. Thousands of Tibetans were imprisoned and tortured, and hundreds were killed during the Chinese crackdown on the Tibetan people this year.”

Dorjee explained why the Tibetans had come to protest Jiabao’s arrival in the U.S. “This is not a protest against the Chinese people,” said Dorjee. “This is a protest against the Communist leaders and the Chinese government, which is not only oppressing the Tibetans, but also oppressing their own people. “

“We want to tell the world that they shouldn’t believe China’s lies. They shouldn’t believe the propaganda spin that Wen Jiabao is so good at putting on while he will address the U.N.,” said Dorjee.OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Monday, September 22, 2008

U.S.: Chinese targeted religious groups before Olympics

Sept. 19, 2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Chinese government increased its harassment of religious minorities before the Olympic Games, according to a U.S. State Department report released Friday.

A Tibetan Buddhist monk in southwest China's Sichuan province.

A Tibetan Buddhist monk in southwest China's Sichuan province.

The State Department's Annual Report on Religious Freedom singled out China, Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan to "blacklist" because they are "countries of particular concern" when it comes to religious oppression.

Over the past year, "repression of religious freedom intensified in some areas" in China, including in the Tibetan region and in Xinjiang province, where the Uighur Muslims live.

As the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games approached, some unregistered Protestant religious groups in Beijing reported intensified harassment from government authorities and said the government cracked down on home churches, the report says.

The State Department found that over the past year, Chinese officials also detained and interrogated several foreigners about their religious activities, alleged that the foreigners had engaged in "illegal religious activities" and canceled their visas.

The government also undertook a "patriotic education campaign," which required monks and nuns to sign statements personally denouncing the Dalai Lama. As a result, the reports says, protests led to violence in Lhasa, Tibet, in March, and the government detained an unknown number of monks and nuns or expelled them from monasteries.

In addition to its continued crackdown on groups such as the Falun Gong, which China considers a "cult," the government harassed Uighur Muslims and confiscated some of their passports to prevent their taking part in the hajj, the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Once again, the U.S. criticized the government of Myanmar, saying its "repressive, authoritarian military regime" had "imposed restrictions on certain religious activities and frequently committed abuses of the right to freedom of religion."

Most followers of registered religions were permitted to worship as they chose, but the government infiltrated and monitored activities of virtually all organizations, including religious ones.

The report says that although the North Korean constitution provides for religious freedom, "genuine religious freedom does not exist, and there was no change in the extremely poor level of respect for religious freedom" over the past year.

In Iran, the report says, "continued deterioration of the poor status of respect for religious freedom" last year.

"Government actions and rhetoric created a threatening atmosphere for nearly all non-Shia religious groups, most notably for Baha'is, as well as Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, and members of the Jewish community," the report says. "Government-controlled media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, particularly the Baha'is. Reports of imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on religious beliefs continued."

The State Department found some progress in Saudi Arabia.

"While overall government policies continue to place severe restrictions on religious freedom, there were incremental improvements in specific areas," the report says.

However, the report goes on to note that "Non-Muslims and Muslims who do not adhere to the government's interpretation of Islam continued to face significant political, economic, legal, social, and religious discrimination."

It also criticizes U.S. allies in Pakistan and Jordan for aggressiveness toward religious minorities.

The governments of Iraq and Afghanistan were praised for endorsing religious freedom, but the State Department found that the war-torn countries have problems.

In Afghanistan, "the residual effects of years of Taliban rule, popular suspicion regarding outside influence of foreigners, and weak democratic institutions hinder the respect for religious freedom."

In Iraq, "violence conducted by terrorists, extremists, and criminal gangs restricted the free exercise of religion and posed a significant threat to the country's vulnerable religious minorities."

In releasing the report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States is "concerned by efforts to promote a so-called defamation of religions concept," which has been the focus of numerous resolutions passed at the United Nations.

She was referring to the Organization of Islamic Conference, a grouping of 57 Muslim states that does not recognize the right of individuals to freely change their religion and has prevented consensus on resolutions at the United Nations that would prohibit defamation of all religions, not just Islam.

"Despite a pretense of protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, the flawed concept attempts to limit freedom of religion and restrict the rights of all individuals to disagree with or criticize religion, in particular Islam," the report says.

"Instead of protecting religion practice and promoting tolerance, this concept seeks to limit freedom of speech, and that could undermine the standards of international religious freedom," Rice saidOLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Beijing Tune-Out

This show was taped on August 12, during the Olympics, and shown on public-access cable TV in Manhattan. It was part of a series by the same producers, called "Beijing Tune-Out." Most of the first 5 minutes of the video are a tape from U.S. movie star Mia Farrow when she was in Darfur and the balance is an interview with Epoch Times' John Nania.

You can watch the video here.


OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

China’s Paralympics Shame

By Gisela Sommer
Epoch Times Staff
Sep 14, 2008
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Related articles: Opinion > Thinking About China

Falun Gong practitioners display poster to raise awareness of the forced organ harvesting for profit from Falun Gong practioners in China. Jul. 18, 2008, Washington DC. (Gisela Sommer/The Epoch Times)
While China has once again dazzled the world with a glittering ceremony and opened the Paralympics with the message that all life has value and dignity, many western reporters have noted that China is a nation in which the handicapped have long suffered discrimination.

Moreover, the Chinese communist regime itself has been, and still is, the perpetrator of unnatural deaths and mass disability upon ordinary Chinese citizens. Numerous campaigns aimed at gaining control through terror which have resulted in tens of millions of civilian deaths, have become the legacy of the Chinese communist regime. Violent police interrogations, forced brainwashing and confessions through torture are still a daily reality in today’s China.

Mao’s Cultural Revolution during the 1960s and 70s was a blood bath to eliminate all and any opposition to communist rule, taking the lives of tens of millions of Chinese people of all classes. It left a severe trauma on the Chinese people’s psyche and made them careful not to stray from the Party line lest it might bring them disaster.

About every ten years the regime has reinforced this message in the minds of the next generation of Chinese citizens. In 1989 the Tiananmen students were shot in the backs and run over by tanks. In 1999 the persecution of Falun Gong began. Practitioners were being tortured to death and locked up in labor camps to work as slaves or supply organs for the booming tourist organ transplant market.

The crack-down, murder and mistreatment of Tibetan monks and nuns, Uigurs, underground Christians, human rights lawyers and more, fall into the same category. They are all victims of conscience, ordinary citizens persecuted by the communist regime for their choice of worship or their defense of that right.

Chinese leader Hu Jintao claimed on the day of the Paralympics opening, "We stand for equality, oppose discrimination, care for the vulnerable and respect human rights." Unfortunately, the history and ongoing human rights abuses of the Chinese regime expose his words as lies and will bring condemnation and shame to the regime and its leaders.

Tiananmen Massacre Survivors Not Welcome at Paralympics

Ben Blanchard, in a Sept. 6 Reuters article said, “Conspicuously absent from the Games are several survivors of the Tiananmen pro-democracy protest crackdown in 1989, including a former wheelchair discus and javelin champion, who were left disabled after troops rolled in to put down the demonstrations.”

Blanchard continued to say, “Fang Zheng, who lost both legs after they were mangled by a tank during the unrest, has been a living testimony to the use of brute force and an embarrassment to the government.”

Practitioners of Falun Gong Not Welcome Either

The Tiananmen Massacre was almost 20 years ago. It was the first time the world was actually able to watch on worldwide television the Chinese communist regime’s disregard for its own citizens. China blocked media coverage after only a few days.

Ten years after the Tiananmen Square Student Massacre the next massive campaign began to eliminate another group of ordinary Chinese citizens. This time the target was the benign Falun Gong exercise and meditation practice, a majority of which are elderly retired persons.

The internet blockade was put in place by the communist regime to prevent the world from learning about its crimes against humanity, and also to keep the Chinese people blocked from learning the truth.

Reports on Clearwisdom.net Recount Grizzly Tortures by Chinese Regime

Using sophisticated software, many Chinese citizens are able to circumvent the Chinese regime’s internet blockade. Every day Falun Gong practitioners in China post reports on Clearwisdom.net (English translation of Minghui.net) about the persecution.

The following is a list of reports posted on Sept. 11. It is representative of what is posted for any day of the year for the past few years, and brings focus on the reality of China’s human rights abuses.

Thursday, September 11, 2008 - Facts of the Persecution

Over-70-Year-Old Practitioner Dies as a Result of Relentless Persecution.

Businessman Chen Xibu Dies as a Result of Persecution.

Witnessing the Mistreatment of Falun Gong Practitioners, a Non-practitioner Asks "Where Is the Justice in China?"

Ms. Wu Suqiong and Her Fifteen-year-old Daughter Arrested, Beaten and Forced to Undergo Brainwashing.

The Persecution of Dafa Practitioner Mr. Zhang Delong.

Ms. Wang Haiqing Arrested and Brutally Tortured Mentally and Physically.

Ms. Li Fengzhen of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, Loses Her Memory As a Result of Persecution (Photo).

CCP Officials in Baishan City Harass Falun Dafa Practitioners in the Name of "Protecting the Olympic Games."

57 People Declare their Intention to Resume Practicing Falun Gong.

Journalist’s Walking Guide to the Persecution of Falun Gong in Beijing

Before the Olympic Games, the Falun Dafa Information Center www.faluninfo.net/ published a Journalist's Walking Guide to the Persecution of Falun Gong in Beijing, listing detention centers within walking distance of Olympic venues, hotels, and prominent landmarks.

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Of Chinese Products, Powdered Milk Not the Only Poison


By Zhang Jianhao
Epoch Times Staff
Sep 20, 2008
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Infants in Wuhang, who ingested tainted milk, wait for Type B supersonic examination on September 17, 2008. (China Photos/Getty Images)

The Chinese authorities have been hurriedly inspecting factories across China since the Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu company, which supplies nearly a fifth of China's market with baby formula, was exposed just over a week ago knowingly selling tainted milk.

Twenty-two more Chinese companies have been discovered with melamine-tainted powdered milk products since the story broke, according to information from the China General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

The contaminated milk has caused the death of three babies, more than 6000 infants have become ill, and more than 150 children have developed serious kidney problems, according to reports from officials.

Many famous domestic powdered and fresh milk producers are among the 23 companies, who were found selling melamine-contaminated products during the recent inspections.

To make matters worse, the Sanlu company had received complaints and concerns about the quality of its powdered milk back in March, but the poisonous milk was not recalled until September 11.

The tainted powdered milk is the latest in a line of contaminated products coming from apparently unethical Chinese producers.

January, 2008, Poisonous Dumplings in Japan

Frozen Chinese dumplings from Tianyang Food Processing Plant poisoned 10 people in Chiba and Hyogo in Japan at the end of January.

Japan’s National Police Agency and China’s Police Department launched investigations in to the poisonings, but both sides denied that the pesticide was mixed into the dumplings in their country. The truth of the incident remains unclear.

February, 2007, Lipsticks Containing Sudan Red

The China General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine found a carcinogenic dye, called Sudan red, in lipstick in February last year.
Sudan red is a yellowish-red colored lysochrome azo dye that can cause contact dermatitis.

Authorities suspect that some of the contaminated lipstick might have been exported to Hong Kong.

March, 2007, Poisonous Animal Food in United States

Up to 85000 cats and dogs in the US died in early 2007 after eating pet food contaminated by melamine.

The US Food and Drug Administration found that the deaths were caused by melamine in gluten products from China.

Chinese merchants had purposely mixed melamine in wheat bran to increase its nitrogen content. Later, melamine was also found in pig, chicken and fish food across the US.

May, 2007, Poisonous Toothpaste and Cough Syrup in Panama

US media widely reported at of end of April last year the deaths of about 365 people died in Panama after after taking cough syrup from China.

The cough syrup contained false glycerin, and in 100 of the cases autopsies revealed the poison as the cause of death.
On October 13, 2006, an egg peddler at a roadside in Hetian City in Xinjiang Province attempts to attract customers by showing the egg yolk’s fresh-looking orange color. (AFP/Getty Images)


On May 19, custom officials in Panama spot-checked Excel and Mr Cool toothpaste from China and found 6000 tubes of toothpaste containing poisonous diethylene glycol. A short time later, Australian customs officials and the FDA in the US also found poisonous toothpaste from China.

May, 2007, Poisonous Textiles

In May 2007, the Australia Wool Testing Authority found excessive formaldehyde in textiles from China.

The amount of formaldehyde in the textiles was 10 times the safety standard of most countries, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Actil Commercial, a division of a renowned home product company Sheridan Australia, who imported the tainted products, had to quarantine eight containers of wool blankets that had just come from China.

August, 2007, Poisonous Toys

According to China’s Central News Agency, Fisher-Price, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the famous Mattel Inc was collectively sued by parents for selling Chinese toys contaminated with lead.

Mattel had to recall tens of millions of toys and parents were left wondering how Chinese vendors could commit such a heartless crime.

November, 2006, Poisonous Eggs Containing “Sudan”

The carcinogenic industrial dye, Sudan red, was discovered in salted eggs in Hebei Province in November 2006. Investigations later also found the dye in fresh eggs in Hubei Province.

China’s Southern Metropolis Daily listed other major food-safety scares in November 2006 which included:

“Big-head baby” powered milk was found in 2003 through until April 2004 in Fuyang City in Anhui Province. More than 100 infants were ill with enlarged heads after consuming poor-quality powdered milk. Some infants died.

Guanghai salt fish, a product special to Taishan City, was contaminated with a pesticide called dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate, or DDVP in 2004. This pesticide is known for its acute toxicity.

In March 2004, workers and their families at a brickyard in Jiaxing City in Zhejiang Province were poisoned after eating pork marinated in table salt. Many people vomited and fainted after eating the meat. A three-year-old girl died and 57 people were sent to hospital.
OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

BRIC Countries: China

(2008-09-15) by David John Marotta

Mens News Daily: In mid-September, the Chinese observe the Moon Festival. Timed to the moon’s fullest and brightest phase, the festival celebrates the abundance of the summer’s harvest. In recent years the Chinese economy has been waxing toward ascendance. It passed Japan in November 2007 and began to rival the brightness of America.

One in every five people in the world lives in communist China. Unlike other BRIC countries, the Chinese lack representative government, the rule of law administered by independent judges, basic human rights, freedom of the media, independent universities and the right of workers to move freely. Even the constitution makes clear that the government has no limits or accountability to the Chinese people.

China began its experiment of mixing explosive free-market economics with totalitarian control and repression in 1978 when Deng Xiaoping took power.

After having been purged once by Mao and a second time by the Gang of Four, Deng did not deify Mao. Rather he declared the leader to be “seven parts good, three parts bad.” Understanding that Chinese Marxism needed to be reinterpreted to allow market forces, Deng argued that “socialism does not mean shared poverty.” His most famous quote clarifies his utilitarian nature: “I don’t care if it’s a white cat or a black cat. It’s a good cat so long as it catches mice.”

Deng abandoned centralized planning and protected the unrestricted flow of goods throughout the country. The resulting competition between provinces led to significant growth in China’s standard of living. Unlike Gorbachev, who tried to institute his own reforms in the top-down approach of perestroika, Deng simply allowed freedom at the bottom. Then he sanctioned and took credit for whatever reforms worked.

Much of China’s innovation has been an investment in infrastructure. The country is spending about 12% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on infrastructure, which accounts for 43% of emerging market investments. Greater investment in infrastructure reduces the cost of moving goods and allows freer trade within the country. Estimates suggest that a 1% increase in a country’s infrastructure boosts its GDP by 1%.

So the resulting economic growth in China has been explosive. But containing an explosion is difficult if not impossible.

Free markets thrive when a country guarantees property rights and the rule of law. China possesses neither of these. All land is state owned and can only be leased. The state also owns the banks, either directly or indirectly. A majority of judges are retired military officers and directed by the party. As a result, enforcement of contracts is impossible. Party officials are effectively police, prosecutor, judge and jury for any case of importance.

Currently China is ranked 52.8% free, “mostly unfree,” in the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. Although it ranks 126 out of 157 countries, China does place highest among the communist countries, beating Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and North Korea.

Freeing selective market forces produces impressive economic gains until bottlenecks in the existing monuments to centralized power hinder progress. Without a free press and working court system, the resulting internal totalitarian monopoly of economics can’t be called capitalism. As a result, most of China’s growth stems from its participation in free-trade agreements.

Thanks to China’s growth, it will pass the U.S. economy in the near future. But because of its huge population, its average citizens will still be economically poor by American standards. And they will be politically destitute.

The Communist Party in China worries most about religious movements, which pose the greatest threat to the party’s supremacy. In 1999, about 10,000 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement surrounded the Chinese Communist Party headquarters in Beijing. They silently meditated to protest their rejection as an accepted spiritual movement. As a result, China severely repressed Falun Gong’s leaders and practitioners.

Religious groups are obligated to register in China. Their leaders must be trained and approved by the government. Sermons and teachings are monitored to ensure they do not confront government decree. Thus spiritual movements such as the Falun Gong and unregistered house church movements provide the biggest challenge to the party’s supremacy and power.

Movement toward democracy, freedom and the rule of law is not inevitable. Since the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, government leaders have used force to remind the population of their control. China has its own gulag where labor camps reeducate, terrorize and torture. According to Amnesty International, human rights violations are pervasive in China where nearly half a million people currently endure punitive detention without charge or trial.

Although movement toward freedom is not inevitable, the yearning for freedom is universal.

China exemplifies how the free flow of information allows a developing nation to leverage other countries’ knowledge and double its per capita GDP in a decade or less. And yet China fears this freedom. It is nearly impossible to stop the flow of information, but the government continues to try. Dubbed the “Great Firewall of China,” over 60 sets of broad regulations restrict Internet content.

The returns on investments in China have been impressive, averaging 23.8% over the past five years. Despite these returns, we don’t recommend selecting China for specific emphasis. It is a component of the Emerging Market Index, which should be a small part of your portfolio. Think twice before investing in China because investments there won’t always go up. In fact, over the past year China’s return has been down 26.1%.

But you don’t need to invest directly in China to benefit from a growing Chinese appetite for goods and services. Several countries in the Far East both engage in significant trade with China and also offer exceptionally open markets. Among economically free countries in the region, Hong Kong at 42.6% reports the highest percentage of its exports with China. Australia is also significant at 8.4% of its exports. Even “mostly free” Taiwan (14.9%) or Japan (12.2%) would be preferable to direct investments in China.

from http://www.emarotta.com/article.php?ID=301

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Olympics party is over. Now China has to clean up

The Guardian UK: The games showed off the country's power and apparent wealth, but its pollution and hidden poverty must be faced

Lavish parties tend to leave a hangover as the problems of daily life, put aside for the celebrations, come crowding back. China's Olympic party is not likely to prove an exception. The full legacy of the extraordinary events of 2008 in the People's Republic of China will take many years to emerge, but in the short term, a number of pressing problems are clear.

The Olympics, with its political project of displaying China's power as much to its own population as to the rest of the world, has been the prime focus of domestic propaganda for several years, rallying people behind the nationalist theme with the promise to situate China as a restored power. It worked: recent opinion polls have reported a strong feelgood effect, with high levels of satisfaction with the government and the direction of the country.

But when the Paralympics closes, the leadership might feel the absence of the mobilising appeal of the whole event, with its power to galvanise the country's patriotic instincts and minimise the growing divisions in income, prospects and privilege that are the breeding ground of discontent.

A colder, greyer, post-Olympic world is coming into focus, a world in which most of China's customers are cutting back on spending, inflation at home is running at least at 10% with no relief in sight, eroding the country's competitiveness, and in which China must face the new challenges of maintaining high growth and social stability with the constraints of limited resources, energy shortages, concern over climate change and environmental exhaustion.

For the past decade, China's cheap manufactured goods have helped its customers - in particular, the developed economies - to keep inflation low. Now, with its manufacturing costs rising, China is more likely to be a contributor to increasing prices internationally. Neither energy nor raw materials are likely to get cheaper, and the cost of migrant labour - hitherto the cheap input that has fuelled everything from rebuilding China's cities to servicing its coastal factories - has risen sharply as industrial zones have spread inland and workers have found jobs closer to home. Employees have already made gains in wages and conditions, and many manufacturers, including Chinese firms, are looking at cheaper production sites.

Planners know China's development model to date, while impressive in its results, is unsustainable: it is too carbon-intensive, too polluting and too inconsistent in its effects. Like every Asian tiger before it, China, the biggest tiger on the planet, has to meet the challenge of moving up the value chain, from T-shirts to hi-tech, from low-end production to high-value innovation, from energy-intensive to climate-friendly production. In recent years the early coastal industrial zones have begun to enter that stage, with waves of factory closures the harbingers of a new phase in the country's development.

Managing the transition will be a formidable task, and a race against the clock. It will demand action on the distortions created by the expensive energy subsidies that militate against efficiency and other anomalies in China's hybrid economy, all at a time when real incomes - the source of much of the satisfaction registered with the state - are being squeezed. Meanwhile, time is running short in other ways: the future pensions and labour headache of the world's most rapidly ageing population; an acute water crisis and a gathering health bill from chronic air and water pollution - these are only the most conspicuous items on the list.

A recent report found 70% of the villages surveyed in north China facing increasing water shortages, with ground water falling rapidly and agricultural production being severely constrained. Two-thirds of the cities, too, are short of water. Air quality, according to a World Bank report censored by the Chinese government, causes more than 600,000 premature deaths a year.

The great efforts to clean up Beijing for the games allowed the city's residents to rediscover the lost pleasures of clean air. But the emergency measures that proved necessary in Beijing cannot be sustained. A longer, nationwide cleanup is urgent or the cumulative costs - in health, lost production and environmental damage - will be huge.

There is potentially another unintended consequence of the Olympics. Millions of people around the world watched a display that presented China as modern, powerful, energetic and rich. The opulence of the ceremonies, the magnificence of the venues and the sheer scale of games were designed to impress, and will have changed the perception of China for many, precisely as the government intended.

But China is also engaged in the global negotiations for the post-Kyoto regime, and its participation is essential if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided. Like other developing countries, China is pressing the developed world to finance its move to a low-carbon model, an unprecedented deviation from business as usual for a country at China's stage of development. Under the Kyoto principle of the polluter pays, developed countries - which are responsible for most past emissions - acknowledge this obligation, but it was never going to be easy to persuade sceptical taxpayers to deliver.

Before the Olympics, for most western taxpayers China was a huge and rapidly developing country of which they knew virtually nothing. After the show, the abiding impression is not of the poverty that continues to afflict much of the nation: those images of deprivation in parts of China that do not measure up to the dream were not on view.

Any nation wants to present its best face at such a time, but it may prove counterproductive. If China is rich enough to stage that show, western taxpayers may ask, why do they need our money to pursue a track of clean development? Western politicians struggling to make the case for the kind of radical resource transfers required may find themselves wishing the Olympic party had been just a little less opulent.

· Isabel Hilton is editor of chinadialogue.net
isabel.hilton@guardian.co.uk

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

Legacy of the 2008 Beijing Olympics



By Donna Ware and Gary Feuerberg, Epoch Times Washington, D.C. Staff Sep 14, 2008
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Related articles: China > Democracy and Human Rights

GOLD ROOM: Representative Chris Smith speaks at the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office building in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 12. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times )

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The largest gathering of leaders of Asian human rights organizations in the nation’s capital gathered in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office building on Sept. 12, to discuss the post-Olympics human rights situation in China and throughout Asia.

Event speakers painted a picture of worsening human rights conditions in Asia post-Olympics. Abuses cited included ethnic cleansing, religious persecution, infanticide, territorial disputes, and genocide. China, in particular, was singled out by several of the attendees for the gap between its promise of a more open China sensitive to human rights and its record during the Olympics of increased religious persecution.

The event was hosted by Representatives Ed Royce (R, CA), Loretta Sanchez (D, CA), Chris Smith (R, NJ), and Frank Wolf (R, VA, and Co-Chair of the Human Rights Caucus), and co-sponsored by several organizations representing human rights abuses in China, Vietnam, Burma, Tibet, East Turkistan, Cambodia, and Laos.

Among the speakers addressing the groups were Congressmen Ed Royce and Chris Smith, Harry Wu of the Laogai Foundation, T. Kumar of Amnesty International, and Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang.

The overall view of China just prior to, and during the Olympics, was recently summarized by Yang Jianli, founder and president of Initiatives for China, who writes:

“…although Beijing’s Olympic Organizing Committee had designated three public parks for protestors, no permits were actually issued, and many of those who were naive enough to apply for permits were instead detained by the Chinese government. A 79-year-old petitioner was interrogated for 10 hours and then sentenced to a year of 're-education through labor.'”

He continued, “The Foreign Correspondents Club of China, based in Beijing, announced 10 cases of journalists being beaten or roughed up by police who sometimes smashed their cameras. The Beijing games also took place under virtual martial law, with the revival of Mao Zedong’s ‘peoples warfare’ vigilante and the spying functions of the neighborhood committees in full effect.”

Erping Zhang said at the caucus that to put up a benign image in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympic Games, the regime wanted the international community to believe that Falun Gong has disappeared in China. “…the evidence suggests otherwise. Every day, reports of torture, abuse, abductions, disappearances, and deaths continue to leak out of China,” said Mr. Zhang.

Zhang cited mass arrests of 12,000 practitioners in China, and interference with foreign reporters covering taboo topics in China.

Zhang also told of China’s attempts to export its brand of repression to American shores as evidenced in (1) the disruption of U.S.-based New Tang Dynasty Television’s signal to China and parts of Asia since seven weeks prior to the Olympic games and (2) the assaults of Falun Gong practitioners on the streets of Brooklyn, Flushing, and Manhattan, NY Chinatowns prior to the games.

Mr. Zhang cited one graphic example of China’s policies during the Olympics.

Yu Zhou, a popular music star, had won a following among young Chinese for his “mellow folk ballads” and that his group had released two popular CDs.

“Yu was arrested on January 26 while returning home from a concert in Beijing. His family was called to the Qinghe district emergency centre on Feb. 6 to view his body, which was covered in a white sheet. Mr. Yu died of torture as part of the pre-Olympic purge against Falun Gong,” said Zhang.

Representative Smith said to an Epoch Times reporter, that it was a “mystery why the Chinese government has such hatred for Falun Gong.” He said he had seen videos of the violence in Flushing, New York where he said secret police were intimidating and maybe even hurting Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong has become “an obsession with the Chinese government,” said Rep. Smith. Instead of indicating strength, he said it shows “a manifestation of weakness on the part of the government to resort to such brutish and thuggish methods of beatings…”

Representative Chris Smith, who made a trip to Beijing in July to “see whether the Government was living up to its pre-Olympic commitments,” raised concern over China’s “manipulation of technology through its high-tech surveillance and censorship system as well as the post-Olympic shakedown of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”

A representative spoke on behalf of Ms. Rebiya Kadir, who is the spokesperson for the Uyghurs in East Turkestan but was unable to attend the event. She expressed the Uyghur Human Rights Project’s concern that Uyghur children are being targeted post Olympics.

In one case, 160 Uyghar children ages 8-14 years old were arrested by public security police for “participating in illegal religious activities.” The children’s parents were forced to pay 20 yuan for their release. Many parents could not pay, and most of the children remain under arrest.

Increased military action, prohibition on religious practice, and an increase in prisoner executions were cited as examples in East Turkestan of abuses immediately following the Olympics.

The head of the Free China Movement Foundation cited the 1948 United Nations Convention against genocide, which became U.S. Federal law in Dec. 1988, when accusing China of ethnic genocide in the case of the Uyghurs, cultural genocide in the case of Tibet, and religious genocide in the case of Falun Gong.

T. Kumar of Amnesty International expressed disappointment in China’s “arrogance and determination to abuse its own citizens.” According to Kumar, the best thing that could come out of the caucus is that the next administration will face a new challenge: “The unified countries of Asia.”

Jim Geheran of Initiatives for China echoed Kumar’s remarks. He expressed the need for caucus attendees to seek out a common agenda and become a more formidable force. He noted the Brookings Institution event, which featured a delegation from China led by the Directorate of Religious Affairs that has been making the rounds in Washington this week. He described how media from around the world had been gathered as one after another of the delegation spoke about the supposed great religious freedom in China.

An attendee from the Department of State’s International Labor and Corporate Responsibility expressed support for the gathering, but disappointment that policy recommendations and clear cut objectives were not defined by the caucus.

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008