Sunday, September 21, 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

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