Press group protests in Beijing, accuses China of failing to live up to Olympic pledges

USA Today: By Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press Writer
BEIJING — Police detained journalists at a rare protest Monday in Beijing, staged by a free-press advocacy group that accuses the government of failing to meet promises for greater media freedom one year ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.

The detentions, which came during a visit to China by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, followed the unfurling of posters depicting the Olympic rings made from handcuffs members of Reporters Without Borders on a pedestrian bridge outside the headquarters of the Beijing Olympics planning committee.

The Paris-based group said China continues to restrict press freedoms and lock up journalists, political dissidents and activists who publish on the Internet - despite pledges to liberalize made when bidding to stage the games.

"Most important is that we didn't come to call for a boycott," said Vincent Brossel, a member of the group. "We are calling for concrete achievements, the release of political prisoners, opening of Web access and an end to radio jamming."

The Beijing Olympics, which begin Aug. 8, 2008, are a huge source of pride for China. In bidding for the games back in 2001, Chinese leaders promised International Olympic Committee members that the Olympics would lead to an improved climate for human rights and media freedoms.

Foreign journalists were promised "complete freedom to report."

Yet uniformed and plainclothes police physically restrained reporters coming down from the pedestrian bridge, pushing and pulling them, seizing IDs and refusing to allow them to leave the scene. Reporters were detained in a parking lot directly opposite the Olympics office tower, facing the Beijing 2008 logo and Olympic rings on the outside of the building.

Journalists were allowed to leave after about two hours, with no explanation from police about why they were detained.

A woman in the spokesman's office of the Foreign Ministry said she did not know about the case and would look into it. Liu Wei from the information office of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee said she was not aware of the situation and had no comment.

Brossel and other members of the group went apparently undetected by police and said they had returned to their hotel without incident. They were booked on flights out of China on Tuesday.

A long list of domestic and international groups are keen to use the Olympic spotlight to publicize their grievances with Beijing, ranging from human rights organizations to the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect and activists trying to pressure China to use its influence with Sudan to end the suffering in Darfur.

Chinese police and government research organs are reported to compiling dossiers of scores of groups and individuals that could cause disruptions at the games.

Authorities have also tightened up visa issuing regulations, the American Consulate in Shanghai said Monday. Since July, it has not been possible to convert tourist and exchange visas to other types, or receive express visa issuance, the consulate said. Many types of visas that used to be handled by a representative must now be applied for in person, it said.

China has also shown no sign of relaxing its strict controls on domestic media and the Internet, blocking many foreign Web sites deemed to carry politically sensitive content and imprisoning people who mail, post online, or access such information within China.

Reporters Without Borders says 50 Chinese "cyber dissidents" are currently in prison, along with 32 journalists.

While foreign journalists are generally safe from such punishment, a survey of 163 China-based foreign reporters last month found that 67 percent said they felt China had yet to allow "complete freedom to report" and 40 percent reported experiencing some form of interference in their work since Jan. 1, including in some cases surveillance, detention, reprimands and intimidation of sources.

Under a regulation announced last year, foreign reporters were exempted from the usual demands to apply for permission to travel and conduct interviews in China from Jan. 1 until mid-October 2008. The temporary freedoms do not extend to local Chinese journalists.

In a June letter to Rogge, Reporters Without Borders urged him to demand Beijing release political prisoners or risk tarnishing the image of the games.

"Who will say that the Olympic Games are a great sports event when thousands of prisoners of conscious are languishing in Chinese detention centers," the group said in the letter.

David Matas Reflects on Organ Harvesting and the Olympics

This is an excerpt from an interview with David Matas, co-author of 'Bloody Harvest' - a report on organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China.

Epoch Times: August 6, 2007 - ET: Speaking of consent, is there such a thing as consent for organ donation from a prisoner?

DM: No and this is something that the Transplantation Society has been very good at. They have put out a statement saying that there is no such thing as meaningful consent from a prisoner. Because of the restrictions of liberty in a prison environment, it is impossible to ascertain whether prisoners are truly free to make independent decisions, and thus an autonomous and informed consent for donation cannot be obtained. Therefore the Transplantation Society is opposed to any use of organs from executed prisoners. Obviously if you are dealing with Falun Gong practitioners, there is no consent, but whether it is a Falun Gong practitioner held prisoner or a death row inmate, it is unethical to take organs from either one of them.

ET: My final question, are you advocating a boycott of the Beijing games?

DM: Well what I'm advocating is an end to organ harvesting in China from Falun Gong practitioners, Now, I'm prepared to support any effort that would help that. If a boycott of the Olympic Games is used for that purpose, to advocate an end to this practice, I would say yes. To me it is inconsistent to the Olympic spirit to ignore this. There are different ways the Olympic games can be used to put the issue across, I would like to see the Olympic committee… well, as you know, there are a number of people in China who cannot participate in the Olympic games in any way, including Falun Gong practitioners. They can't compete, they can't coach, they can't attend, they can't even be in the neighborhood. I think the Olympic committee should be protesting that.

The Olympic games represent a form of contact with China, I think that we should take advantage of that contact to raise this issue, no matter who is being contacted and no matter in what context. This is happening because the people in China and the government of China are allowing it to happen, and if there is enough protest from enough people, both in and outside of China, it'll stop. The Olympic Games represent a way to get the message in or out—that this is happening. I think a boycott is one way of doing this.

ET: Thank you very much!

US Resolution on 2008 Olympic Boycott

Three cheers to Dana Rohrabacher for submitting this resolution to Congress on the Olympic boycott. Go here for the link at the Library of Congress or here via FOFG

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Government should take immediate steps to boycott the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008 unless... (Introduced in House)

HRES 608 IH

110th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. RES. 608

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Government should take immediate steps to boycott the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008 unless the Government of the People's Republic of China stops engaging in serious human rights abuses against its citizens and stops supporting serious human rights abuses by the Governments of Sudan, Burma, and North Korea against their citizens.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

August 2, 2007

Mr. ROHRABACHER (for himself, Mr. PITTS, and Mr. SHIMKUS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

---

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Government should take immediate steps to boycott the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008 unless the Government of the People's Republic of China stops engaging in serious human rights abuses against its citizens and stops supporting serious human rights abuses by the Governments of Sudan, Burma, and North Korea against their citizens.

Whereas the Games of the XI Olympiad in Berlin in 1936 showed that the integrity of the host country is of the utmost importance so as not to stain the participating athletes or the character of the Games;

Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China regularly denies the right to freedom of conscience, expression, religion, and association;

Whereas Chinese Government also holds thousands of political prisoners without charge or trial, including democracy activists, lawyers, human rights defenders, religious leaders, journalists, trade unionists, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighurs, `unofficial' church members, Falun Gong practitioners, and political dissidents;

Whereas the Chinese Government has long-standing economic and military ties with Sudan and continues to strengthen these ties, including providing military assistance, in spite of the ongoing human rights abuses amounting to genocide in Dafur, Sudan;

Whereas the Chinese Government has long-standing political, economic, and military ties with Burma and continues to strengthen these ties in spite of serious human rights abuses and house arrest of Noble Peace Price winner Daw Aung Saan Suu Kyi;

Whereas China also vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on human rights in Burma;

Whereas according to Amnesty International, China holds more than a quarter of a million people under the `Re-Education through Labor' detention system in labor camps, without benefit of charge or trial;

Whereas local police officers in China are empowered to imprison people under this detention system;

Whereas in the face of a serious food shortage and political repression, thousands of North Koreans have fled across the border to China;

Whereas hundreds, possibly thousands, of North Koreans have been detained by the Chinese authorities and forcibly returned across the border where they face arbitrary detention, torture, and even summary execution;

Whereas China continues to hold the 11th Panchen Lama, who was selected by the Dalai Lama;

Whereas the Panchen Lama was only 6 years old when the he was taken away by the Chinese authorities and is held in a secret location;

Whereas according to Amnesty International, China continues to execute political prisoners and nonviolent offenders, and accounts for over 80 percent of all executions documented in the world, and China also harvests organs from executed prisoners, frequently without consent;

Whereas China continues to allow forced abortion and sterilization to enforce its `One Child' policy, as per family population control measures;

Whereas according to United States Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, the Chinese Government's birth planning policies retain harshly coercive elements in law and practice;

Whereas the laws restrict the rights of families to choose the number of children they have and the period of time between births;

Whereas the penalties for violating these laws are strict, leaving some women little choice but to abort pregnancies;

Whereas in addition, the implementation of these laws by local officials has resulted in serious violations of human rights;

Whereas reports of forced sterilization and abortions, in violation of the national law, continue to be documented in rural areas;

Whereas in 2007, officials in Chongqing municipality and in Fujian Province reportedly forcibly sterilized women;

Whereas according to the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, the Chinese Government consistently blocked access to Internet sites it deemed controversial, such as sites discussing Tibetan independence, underground religious and spiritual organizations, democracy activists, and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre;

Whereas the Chinese Government at times blocked access to selected Internet sites operated by major foreign news outlets, health organizations, and educational institutions;

Whereas China's Internet control system reportedly employs tens of thousands of persons;

Whereas according to the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, sexual and physical abuse and extortion were reported in some detention centers;

Whereas Falun Gong activists reported that police raped female practitioners, including an incident in November 2005 at the Dongchengfang police station in Tunzhou City, Hebei Province, in which two women were raped while in detention;

Whereas according to Amnesty International, China executes political prisoners from the Uighur ethnic minority in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region;

Whereas there are concerns that abuses committed against Uighur ethnic minority could amount to genocide;

Whereas according to the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, the Chinese Government has not provided a comprehensive, credible account of all those killed, missing, or detained in connection with the violent suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations;

Whereas there are nongovernmental organization reports of hundreds, if not thousands, who died during the crackdown against the Tiananmen demonstrations;

Whereas according the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, since the crackdown on Falun Gong began in 1999, estimates of the numbers of Falun Gong adherents who have died in custody because of torture, abuse, and neglect range from several hundred to a few thousand;

Whereas in March 2006, United Nations Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of victims of alleged torture while in custody by the Chinese Government;

Whereas according to the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, regulations for committing a person into the psychiatric facility at Ankang, China, were not clear;

Whereas credible reports indicate that a number of political and trade union activists, underground religious believers, persons who repeatedly petitioned the Chinese Government, members of the banned China Democratic Party, and Falun Gong adherents were incarcerated in such psychiatric facilities during 2006;

Whereas China is preparing to host the Summer Olympic Games in August 2008, the most honorable, venerated, and prestigious international sporting event, and China has selected `One World, One Dream' as a slogan for those games;

Whereas China should act consistently with the Olympic standard of preserving human dignity for its citizens and for the people of the Dafur region of Sudan, Burma, and North Korea;

Whereas the spirit of the Olympics, which is to bring together nations and people from all over the world in peace, is incompatible with Chinese actions; and

Whereas China continues to seriously abuse the rights of its citizens and continues to assist Sudan, Burma, and North Korea in committing human rights abuses against their citizens: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That--

(1) it is the duty and responsibility of the United States to take effective steps to stop serious human rights abuses by the Government of the People's Republic of China against its citizens and to stop the Chinese Government from supporting serious human rights abuses by Sudan, Burma, and North Korea against their citizens; and

(2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Government should take immediate steps to boycott the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008 unless the Chinese Government stops engaging in serious human rights abuses against its citizens and stops supporting serious human rights abuses by the Governments of Sudan, Burma, and North Korea against their citizens.

HRW: Human Rights Abuses Shadow Countdown to 2008 Beijing Games

By Human Rights Watch - Aug 2, 2007 - 12:27:05 PM

Boxun: (New York, 2 August 2007) - China's dire human rights record and a renewed crackdown on media freedom may spoil the government's hopes of a successful "coming out party" at the Beijing Olympics, which begin in a year, Human Rights Watch said today.

A year before the August 8, 2008 opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government shows no substantive progress in addressing long-standing human rights concerns. Instead, apparently more worried about political stability, Beijing is tightening its grip on domestic human rights defenders, grassroots activists and media to choke off any possible expressions of dissent ahead of the Games.

"Instead of a pre-Olympic 'Beijing spring' of greater freedom and tolerance of dissent, we are seeing the gagging of dissidents, a crackdown on activists, and attempts to block independent media coverage," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The government seems afraid that its own citizens will embarrass it by speaking out about political and social problems, but China's leaders apparently don't realize authoritarian crackdowns are even more embarrassing."

China has a well-documented history of serious human rights abuses, including widespread torture, censorship of the media and internet, controls on religious freedom, and repression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

China continues to lead the world in executions. The government classifies the number of people executed as a state secret, but it is believed that China executes many more people than the rest of the world combined each year. Most trials are deeply flawed, as the accused often do not have access to adequate defense counsel, trials are usually closed to the public, evidence is often obtained through torture, and the appellate
process lacks needed safeguards. China's courts lack independence, as they remain controlled by the government and ruling Chinese Communist Party.

But the staging of the Olympics is exacerbating problems of forced evictions, migrant labor rights abuses, and the use of house arrests to silence political opponents. The government is continuing its crackdown on lawyers, human rights defenders and activists who dedicate themselves to rule of law and the exposure of rights abuses. Fear of citizen activism has led to government obstruction of local activists and grassroots organizations working to stem China's HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Fears of harm to China's national image have even led Chinese officials to stop prominent activists from leaving the country. Among them, Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, a husband-and-wife team of human rights activists, have been clamped under house arrest and travel restrictions since May on unsubstantiated suspicions of "harming state security." Dr. Jiang Yanyong, a courageous surgeon who exposed the government's cover-up of the 2003 SARS outbreak, has been denied permission to travel to the US in December to receive a New York Academy of Sciences human rights award.

The victims of government retribution against perceived "troublemakers" often include those who devote themselves to defending some of China's most marginalized and vulnerable citizens. Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-educated lawyer who documented abuses of China's family planning law, was convicted in August 2006 of instigating an attack on government offices in a sham trial in which his lawyers were physically attacked and then detained by police to prevent them from attending. Gao Zhisheng, an outspoken advocate of the rights of human rights abusers said in April 2007 that he agreed to write a confession to charges of sedition leveled at him in December 2006 only after he had been tortured and security officials had
threatened his wife and children.

"Political repression is not in keeping with the behavior of a responsible power and Olympic host," said Adams. "The Chinese government shouldn't waste this unique opportunity to use the 2008 Games to demonstrate to the world it is serious about improving the rights situation in China."

Human Rights Watch said that China's close relationship with dictatorships and rights- abusing governments in places like Sudan, Burma, Cambodia and Zimbabwe will also come under close scrutiny in the coming year.

With one year to go before the Olympics launch, "The starting gun has been fired on the assessment of China's commitment to rights at home and abroad," said Adams. "Just as Chinese citizens will be rooting for their athletes to win medals, we are rooting for the Chinese government to move up in the league tables on rights protection."

Olympics-Taiwan torch relay to spotlight China 'abuses'

By Benjamin Kang Lim
REUTERS - 12:06 a.m. August 2, 2007

TAIPEI – A group of Taiwanese critics of China on Thursday announced a plan to launch a rival torch relay to highlight human rights abuses on the mainland, months after the island rejected the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch.

The announcement came as New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said China's dire human rights record and a renewed crackdown on media freedom may spoil the Chinese government's hopes of a successful coming-out-party at the Olympics.


Advertisement
Taiwan and China have been at loggerheads over whether to take the Olympic torch relay to the self-ruled democratic island, over which Beijing has claimed sovereignty since their split in 1949 at the end of the Chinese civil war.

'The (rival) human rights torch relay will expose the inside story of the bloody Olympics,' Lai Ching-Te, a deputy of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, told a news conference.

The human rights torch will be lit in Athens on Aug. 9 and the relay will cover about 100 cities worldwide.

'No human rights, no Beijing 2008,' read a banner on display at the news conference venue.

Abuses listed by Lai and other China detractors included the 'persecution' of Tibetans and adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned by Beijing as a cult in 1999.

The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China, a non-governmental organisation, quoted a Chinese Ministry of Public Security classified document as saying 43 types of 'hostile' people would be barred from the 2008 Olympics.

China has lumped Falun Gong followers, Chinese defectors, pro-democracy activists, religious 'extremists and infiltrators', exiled Tibetans and Moslem Uighurs together with 'terrorists' on its persona non grata list, a spokeswoman for the coalition said.

Chow Meili, president of Taiwan Friends of Tibet, an NGO, urged Taiwanese to show support for 14 exiled Tibetans on hunger strike to press China to stop human rights abuses.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment when reached by telephone.

Human Rights Watch said Beijing is more worried about political stability and tightening its grip on domestic human rights defenders, grassroots activists and media to choke off any possible expressions of dissent ahead of the Games, the group said.

'Instead of a pre-Olympic 'Beijing spring' of greater freedom and tolerance of dissent, we are seeing the gagging of dissidents, a crackdown on activists, and attempts to block independent media coverage,' said HRW Asia director Brad Adams.

'The government seems afraid that its own citizens will embarrass it by speaking out about political and social problems, but China's leaders apparently don't realise authoritarian crackdowns are even more embarrassing.'

China's human rights a charade

A brilliant piece by Tung Chen-yuan, vice chairman of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council.

Taiwan Journal: Publication Date：07/27/2007 Section：Commentary
Since 1991, China's State Council has issued eight human-rights reports, and, in 1998, China became a signatory to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, though its parliament, the National People's Congress, has yet to ratify the signing. Most recently, in November 2006, the Chinese government held an "Exhibition on Human Rights in China" in Beijing and, in March 2007, issued for the eighth consecutive year a report on the "Human Rights Record of the United States," which criticizes the U.S. government for serious violations of human rights.

Unlike other governments, Beijing is unique in its unceasing efforts to prove to the international community that the "Chinese Communist Party is a strong advocate for human rights, and the Chinese people enjoy human rights." While this represents progress of a sort, it also exhibits the hypocrisy of the Chinese government in its persecution of human rights. Former President Jiang Zemin said, "Keeping 1.3 billion people well fed and warmly clothed is one of the greatest human-rights achievements in China."

Indeed, China has significantly improved its people's lives, but the nation's wealth is concentrated in the hands of a minority of people, many of whom are high-ranking party cadres and government officials. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences calculated that China's Gini coefficient has now worsened to 0.496, far surpassing the international warning line of 0.4 and representing an increase of 0.26 points over the same period in 2005. Official surveys in China indicate that there are 3,220 people with personal assets exceeding US$13.2 million, but 2,932 of these are children of high-ranking CCP cadres and government officials. In comparison, at the end of 2004, nearly 200 million farmers had lost their land due to Chinese authorities' unjust expropriation.

These problems arise from the unrestricted privileges party cadres and officials enjoy while insufficient political protection is given to the rights and interests of the general public. China's Constitution stipulates that citizens aged 18 or above have the right to vote and stand for election. At present, however, the Chinese people are only allowed to cast a direct vote in elections for village heads and neighborhood committee chairpersons.

Of more than 70 million members of party and government agencies, only 32,000 non-CCP members hold political positions at or above county-chief level. Moreover, only 19 non-party members hold positions in the central government, and the great majority of these are in positions without administrative power. This demonstrates the that CCP's monopoly of political power is the fundamental reason for China's extremely unfair distribution of wealth and officials' unbridled abuse of power and privileges.

In addition to its power in the real world, the CCP tries to control the people's spiritual world. Chinese laws contain clear provisions protecting religious freedom, yet over 40 million people have been persecuted in China due to their participation in what the government brands "underground churches" and "evil cults." Currently, at least 17 bishops belonging to Catholic underground churches are missing, or have been arrested or forced into living under segregation. In 2006, at least 650 pastors of house churches were arrested and many churches were demolished. Since July 1999, the Chinese government has cruelly persecuted several hundred thousand Falun Gong practitioners, and several thousand have died in police custody.

Chinese people are also deprived of the right to freedom of speech. Reporters Without Borders has indicated there are at least 31 journalists and 51 online authors currently serving prison sentences in China. The Ministry of Public Security has over 30,000 Internet police officers censoring online communications of Chinese citizens. Under coercion by the Chinese government, major Internet companies Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Cisco Systems have blocked access to and self-filtered Chinese networks and Web sites, and have provided Web users' personal data to the authorities. The Chinese government also stipulated that release of news and information in China by foreign news agencies must undergo a review and ratification process by the Chinese authorities.

Without democracy, freedom of religion and speech, there will be no true human rights in China. With regard to China's publication of human-rights white papers and holding of exhibitions, these represent nothing but its hypocrisy over human-rights persecution. Beijing's criticism of the human-rights situation in the United States only further highlights its guilty conscience and absurdity in this regard. In February 2007, the U.S. magazine Parade published a list of the "World's 10 Worst Dictators" based on reports by global human-rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and the U.S. Department of State. Chinese President Hu Jintao ranked fourth on its list, up two places from 2006. As Hu's ranking rises on the list, the human-rights situation in China worsens.

Olympic Dreams--and Nightmares

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom examines the good, the bad and the ugly. "Will the Olympics change China?"

The nation: Excerpt - The Olympics always provide a unique platform for the world's finest athletes. The 2008 Games will also provide one for Hu Jintao and company in their ongoing quest to convince domestic audiences that they have made China great again; they seek to persuade international audiences that they are steering their country and its booming economy down the right path. But this platform can't be controlled--and China's leaders are shrewd enough to realize the risk of trying too hard to keep the unexpected from happening. Their hope of having the 2008 Games remembered as China's great global coming-out party could crumble, not just as a consequence of protests but of ham-handed security measures that end in making the 2008 Games memorable less for their grandeur than for the tightly monitored nature of the proceedings.

The most interesting Olympic event to watch could turn out to be one not recognized by the International Olympic Committee: The tightrope-walk China's leaders attempt when the global media are more focused on Beijing than they have been since 1989--a fateful year when, as we know and Hu Jintao knows too, international audiences were alternately inspired by images of youthful Chinese protesters and appalled those of menacing Chinese tanks. (more)

Olympic games for the hollow men

Taipei Times: By J. Michael Cole 寇謐將; Thursday, Jul 26, 2007, Page 8

`What will constitute a shift will be the requirement to cooperate with Beijing on intelligence matters.'

Ask anyone who has been involved in the preparations for Olympic Games about the immensity of the challenge the endeavor represents -- especially since Sept. 11, 2001 -- and you will be served a seemingly endless list of sundries, from logistics to security.

Having been privy to and, for a short while, a participant in the security aspect of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, I had the opportunity to see some of the principal tasks that face today's organizers of global events.

In a so-called age of terrorism, it is no surprise -- albeit disheartening -- that security has become one of the main worries of Olympics organizers. From the Salt Lake City games in 2002, which turned the otherwise quiescent Mormon heartland into a virtual battlefield -- what with the anti-aircraft batteries girding the premises and the peremptory presence of soldiers and security officers -- to the games in Athens, where security was the remit of no less a power than NATO, the threat of violence, or more explicitly of a terrorist attack, was ever-present in the minds of officials.

Efforts have inherently been geared toward addressing those threats, based on likelier scenarios and potential perpetrators.

Athens continued this trend, with Islamic terrorist organizations as the main source of the perceived threat, followed by anti-globalization groups known for their violent predisposition. Certain flagged individuals were barred from entry into Greece, while others were closely monitored, with unprecedented cooperation from intelligence services around the world. Threat and risk assessments were produced and shared, while daily international security meetings were held.

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, however, promise to bring the organizers' sense of siege to a whole new, genre-defining level, and, judging by the preparations its domestic intelligence services and various governmental bureaus have made, no stone will be left unturned.

Already, a list of potential targets for monitoring by security officials has been drawn, which includes "enemies of the Games" as varied as Chinese Muslims, US Christian groups, human rights advocates, environmentalists, Tibetan independence supporters, critics of China's role in Darfur's genocide in the making -- in all, anyone, state-based to nongovernmental, that dares criticize Beijing.

Given the precedent set by previous Olympics, it can be expected that international cooperation on security matters will be no different this time, as intelligence services are responsible for the security of the athletes from their own countries. The attractiveness of closely cooperating with Beijing, given the cornucopia of promised riches that playing along with China implies, can only encourage this.

This, then, raises a very serious question, as in the lead-up to the games next summer Beijing will be increasing its collection of intelligence both domestically and abroad. Chinese foreign intelligence services -- and individuals in their pay -- will redouble their monitoring abroad, gathering information on groups and individuals, from Taiwanese to Tibetans to Falun Gong practitioners, as well as the various issue groups Beijing perceives as threatening to its "security."

The real dilemma, however, lies not in intelligence collection abroad, as this is a practice other countries -- even allies of China -- have long been used to. The US, Canada, Britain and other European countries have all stated that China is the main source of espionage, both economic and political, in their territories. Even if these activities become more frequent -- and they will -- countering Chinese espionage, though a daunting task, does not represent a departure for these countries' domestic spy agencies.

What will constitute a shift will be the requirement to cooperate with Beijing on intelligence matters. It is easy to imagine that, as the event approaches, Beijing's main weapon -- trade -- will focus on a new commodity, that of cooperation on security. Following this logic, countries that, for one reason or another, refuse to cooperate with China on that sector will be subjected to blackmail of the kind we have seen time and time again at the UN and other international institutions. Unfortunately, the lure of future trade with China, which Beijing will never decouple from the supposedly apolitical Olympic Games, means that most countries will choose cooperation over morality.

The consequences of this decision will be that intelligence services the world over will become proxies of the Chinese apparatus, whether they like it or not. Beijing will send what are known as "trace requests," or requests for information on suspected individuals to its sudden international allies, who will look into their database, perhaps launch investigations of their own, and whatever information is found will find its way back to Beijing. Through this process, flags will be affixed to the files of countless individuals who will either be barred from entering China or, if they do, face the risk of imprisonment.

In the name of cooperation, in the spirit of the Games, various intelligence agencies will thus become complicit in repression. Terrorism will be redefined, if only temporarily, as anything that opposes the authoritarian practices of the government in Beijing. Unless the world's security services take the moral path -- a very unlikely possibility, sadly -- those will be Games for individuals who have given in to tyranny.

The marathoners will run, the swimmers will swim and the cyclists will cycle, but around them, cheering, will be the architects of a repressive regime and an army of hollow men, leaning together.

J. Michael Cole is a writer based in Taipei.

China gathering intelligence on activists it thinks might disrupt 2008 Olympics

AP Exclusive: The Associated Press; Published: July 23, 2007 - BEIJING: China's intelligence services are gearing up for next year's Beijing Olympics, gathering information on foreigners who might mount protests and spoil the nation's moment in the spotlight.

Government spy agencies and think tanks are compiling lists of potentially troublesome foreign organizations, looking beyond the human rights groups long critical of Beijing, security experts and a consultant familiar with the effort said.

They include evangelical Christians eager to end China's religious restrictions, activists wanting Beijing to use its oil-buying leverage with Sudan to end the strife in Darfur, and environmental campaigners angry about global warming.

The effort is among the broadest intelligence-collection drives Beijing has taken against foreign activist groups, often known as non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. It aims to head off protests and other political acts during an Olympics the communist leadership hopes will boost its popularity at home and China's image abroad.

"Demonstrations of all kinds are a concern, including anti-American demonstrations," said the consultant, who works for Beijing's Olympic organizers and asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The government, he said, was "trying to find out what kinds of NGOs will come. What are their plans?"

While foreign governments often monitor potentially disruptive groups ahead of big events, Beijing this time is ranging farther afield, targeting groups whose activities would be considered legal in most countries.

As such, the move carries risks for Beijing. Evidence that the communist government is withholding visas or engaged in heavy-handed policing to suppress protests would likely draw negative press and could unnerve the International Olympic Committee and corporate sponsors.

Scott Kronick, the president of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide's China operations, said he raised concerns about the way protests might be handled when an official with the Beijing Olympic organizing committee asked him about the possibility of activists disrupting the torch relay.

"I said, 'People will understand that. That's the way different groups act. What you need to worry about is what your response is going to be and how you will act,'" said Kronick, whose clients include Adidas, an Olympic sponsor.

The Ministry of Public Security, the national police agency which runs some domestic spying networks, declined to comment as did the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. Phone numbers for the main spying agency, the Ministry of State Security, are not published, and the Cabinet's main information office would not provide them.

Concerns about foreign protesters are a reminder of how the Beijing games differ from most previous Olympics. Aside from the hefty US$40 billion (€29 billion) price tag and the government's outsized political ambitions, security poses a different challenge, complicated by Chinese leaders' repressive policies at home and growing profile abroad.

"They are worried about a larger number of things and they are worried about keeping the lid on," said Arnold Howitt, who runs crisis-management training programs for Beijing officials at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Like all Olympic hosts since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, China's security services are concerned about terrorism. Attacks by militant Islamic groups, some of them homegrown, top the list of scenarios the police and the military are preparing for, Chinese and foreign security experts said.

Yet China also faces a plethora of disaffected domestic groups — Tibetans eager to cast off Chinese rule, farmers upset at land confiscations and Falun Gong, a once-popular spiritual movement the government suppressed as a cult. A research institute involved in crisis-planning for the Olympics has looked into possible unrest by unemployed workers, analysts at the think tank said.

China has long been wary of NGOs, fearing they might be acting as agents for foreign governments or encouraging defiance of the Communist Party.

Those worries grew in recent months as a multiplying number of foreign groups mounted public campaigns to tie causes as varied as promoting labor rights and protecting sharks to the Beijing games.

The Darfur campaigners, who threatened to re-brand the games the "Genocide Olympics" if China does not pressure Sudan to stop the conflict, particularly alarmed Beijing.

"As far as the Chinese side is concerned, NGOs are a destabilizing factor," said the security consultant.

Though Chinese leaders believe a boycott is unlikely, successful protests by foreigners would not only tarnish the games but could also embolden domestic critics, Chinese foreign policy experts and activists said.

After four Americans unfurled a banner calling for Tibetan independence on the Chinese-controlled side of Mount Everest in April, China tightened access to Tibet for foreigners, especially Americans, Western diplomats in Beijing said.

In trying to neutralize foreign NGOs, Beijing is in part building on methods used to quash Falun Gong. After declaring the spiritual movement illegal in 1999, Beijing infiltrated the group and identified many among its millions of followers, both within China and overseas.

As with Falun Gong, the security consultant said government agencies were compiling lists of foreign NGOs and their members. He declined to specify whether electronic surveillance or infiltration, a textbook tactic for China's police and spying agencies, were being used.

Part of the research into NGOs, including into Darfur groups, was being conducted by the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security that also has an Olympic security task force, the two analysts said.

Officials in China's overseas diplomatic missions are also being tasked to gather information on groups, the consultant said.

When The Associated Press reported in May on plans by U.S. and other Christian groups to proselytize at the Olympics, the press officer at China's U.N. mission contacted the AP seeking more information.

"Africa, global warming, Darfur," said the security consultant, "without the Olympic Games, Beijing would not be paying attention to these things."

Answering China

Prof. Peter Morici teaches at Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland.

Global Politician: Prof. Peter Morici - 7/20/2007
The rash of dangerous Chinese imports, ranging from defective tires to tainted toothpaste, makes apparent the perils in U.S. and EU policies toward China. Since President Nixon, the United States has sought constructive engagement to encourage economic and political reform. By opening commerce, the United States seeks to expose Chinese citizens to democratic values, instigate systemic change, and eventually add another responsible, prosperous state to the community of western nations.

The United States is betting that opening American markets to China's products, through membership in the World Trade Organization, will lift millions from poverty and create a government that respects human rights. The Communist Party is betting it can manipulate WTO rules to its unique advantage, accomplish export-led growth, and deliver prosperity that allows it to hold on to power indefinitely.

China's economic miracle is giving capitalism a bad name. By offering manufacturers export subsidies through a 40 percent undervalued currency, cheap bank loans, generous tax rebates, lax product-safety and environmental enforcement, and technology extorted from western multinationals seeking Beijing's permission to sell products in China, China is flooding U.S. and EU markets with artificially cheap, and too often dangerous, products.

Aside from wholly corrupting the notion of free trade based on comparative advantage, these policies have created a profits-at-any-cost culture.

Chinese factories exploit workers, purposely endanger consumers, transform lakes and rivers into noxious reservoirs of industrial waste, and create the filthiest air on the planet. Lacking the accountability imposed by open elections and a free press, Beijing ignores these abuses until U.S. public outrage occasionally puts an export markets at risk. Even worse, provincial governments encourage this degradation.

China has tough national environmental laws, but Communist Party officials in Beijing and the provinces are rewarded for meeting growth targets, not enforcing abatement standards, and the resulting corruption offers them great opportunities to amass personal wealth.

To limit dissent, Beijing censors the internet, with the cooperation of principled western companies like Google. It jails political activists and members of "subversive religions," such as Falun Gong. Prison and military hospitals harvest organs for the lucrative transplant market. The atrocities Beijing encourages are endless and beyond shame.

China, with the third largest GDP among nations, holds $1.2 trillion in hard currency and securities. Yet, Beijing says it is too poor to provide clean drinking water, sewers and decent housing for its rural population. The income gap between rural areas and large coastal export centers grows each day, as sure as the pollution and poisons spewed from its factories multiplies.

All we get from Beijing are vague promises, vacant of transformative actions. Meanwhile, leaders in Washington counsel diplomacy instead of concrete steps, and apologists among U.S. multinationals profiting from the China's criminal behavior warn against disruptive consequences of curbing the peculiar enterprise called U.S.-China free trade.

China's behavior is not without its consequences for U.S. and other western economies. Its export juggernaut is closing factories in the United States and EU, and casting into unemployment workers that would be competitive but for China's mercantilism. For example, technology-intensive autoparts factories, semiconductor plants and software development labs moving to China gain little from cheap labor. The resulting lost productivity in the United States comes to nearly $2000 each year for every employed American, has helped create a $6 trillion foreign debt, and is lowering sustainable U.S. GDP growth from about 4 percent a year to about 3 percent.

By 2008, China will be the world's largest source of greenhouse gases, and its reckless industrialization strategy is adding the equivalent of one new Japan to the global warming equation every two years. At that pace, the United States and EU, even by adopting the most aggressive emission curtailment programs, could do little to derail global warming.

It is high time for the United States and EU to exclude, on a broad and comprehensive scale, Chinese products that are heavily subsidized, that are made in factories that poison the atmosphere, or that are potentially dangerous to consumers regardless of where they live. Only then can the West hope to instigate positive change in China.

If the Americans and Europeans do not act, eventually China will become too strong to resist, and our shared future will darken.

Civilizations do not collapse under the weight of age. They fail when they become too complacent to act on real threats.

RBW, the Rose Parade and the CCP float

Here is an enlightened letter from Reporters without Borders to the Chairman of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses about the CCP communist float participating in the parade. Look here for a report by Pasadena Weekly Joe Piasecki on this topic and here for a report by Epoch Times Dan Sanchez. It would be quite a coup for the CCP if this was to happen. Send your letters to the Pasadena Weekly to protest--they publish most of the letters: kevinu@pasadenaweekly.com

Mr. C.L. Keedy
Chairman of Pasadena Tournament of Roses
391 S. Orange Grove Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91105

July 10, 2007

Mr. Chairman,

As you prepare the next Rose Parade, to be held on January 1, 2008, Reporters Without
Borders feels compelled to write to you to raise the issue of human rights in China. We are
surprised and disappointed to learn the presence of a Beijing Olympic float at the upcoming
Parade. The 2008 Summer Olympics are due to start in Beijing in just over a year’s time
but the Chinese government, despite its explicit promises, refuses to make improvements in
basic rights and freedom.

Throughout the world, concern is growing about the holding of these Olympics, which have
been taken hostage by a government that balks at taking action to guarantee freedom of
expression and respect for the Olympic Charter’s humanistic values.

The Chinese authorities promised in Moscow in 2001 to improve the human rights
situation. The representative of the Beijing Candidate Committee said: “By entrusting the
holding of the Olympic Games to Beijing, you will contribute to the development of human
rights.” Six years later, Reporters Without Borders has registered no lasting improvement
in press freedom or online free expression. Foreign journalists obtained a temporary
improvement in their status on 1 January but that will end in October. Strong pressure
would have been needed to get the government to abandon the authoritarian and suspicious
habits that make China one of the most backward countries for the international press.

China continues to be by far the world’s biggest prison for journalists, press freedom
activists, cyber-dissidents and Internet users. Nearly 100 of them are serving sentences
imposed without due process. Most of them are being held in terrible conditions. The
journalist Shi Tao, for example, is forced to work in the prison where he is serving a 10-year
sentence. How can you accept that Chinese who have campaigned for more freedom will
have to impotently watch the world’s most important sports event from their cells?

China’s journalists continue to have to accept the dictates of the Propaganda Department,
which imposes censorship on a wide range of subjects. The state maintains broad control of
news and uses authoritarian laws to punish violators. Charges of subversion, divulging state
secrets and espionage continue to rain down on journalists and editors working for the most
liberal media. Self-censorship is the rule in editorial rooms. Chinese-language media based
abroad are blocked, harassed or jammed, preventing the emergence of any media pluralism,

The laws governing the Internet have been made even tougher in the course of the past six
years, turning the Chinese Internet into a space that is subject to surveillance and
censorship. These restrictions also apply to foreign Internet companies.

Who will be able to say that the Olympic Games are a great sports event when thousands of
prisoners of conscious are languishing in Chinese detention centres? Who is going to be
able to believe in the 2008 Olympics slogan “One World, One Dream,” when Tibetan and
Uyghur minorities are subject to serious discrimination? What will you tell the relatives of
Chinese dissidents in jail when they will learn about the presence of Beijing 2008 amidst the
Rose Parade’s festivities?

The Chinese government and Communist Party attach the utmost importance to the success
of the Olympic Games for their own sakes, but without keeping any of the promises they
have made.

Mr. Chairman, it is not too late to get the Chinese organizers, who are for the most part also
senior political officials, to release prisoners of conscience, reform repressive laws and end
censorship. It is time to add your voice to the international pressure and to say clearly to the
Chinese authorities that you will not allow the Rose Parade to be associated to the Olympics
and to have the celebrations marred by the human rights violations committed in China.

Reporters Without Borders knows the strength of sports and entertainment when they are
put at the service of peace and democracy. Mr. Chairman, we do not doubt your
commitment to freedom of expression. We believe that your convictions and those of the
Rose Parade board members will enable you to quickly do what everyone is expecting of
you – to take action on behalf of freedoms in China and to refuse to pay tribute to the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games till the promises made by the Chinese authorities are not kept.
We feel sure you will take account of our comments. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Robert Ménard
Secretary-General

Ex-Diplomat Says China Using Culture to Crush Unwanted Influence

Chinese dissident Chen Yonglin outlines how Beijing controls the diasporas and spies on the U.S. through Canada and Australia.

Embassy by Lee Berthiaume - June 13, 2007 - In the spring of 2001, about 40 Chinese-Canadian associations delivered to then-prime minister Jean Chrétien a petition opposing Falun Gong activities in Canada.

Around the same time, related organizations in Australia were delivering a similar complaint to the mayor of Sydney.

While neither leader took action against the religious group, a Chinese diplomat-turned-dissident says the petition campaign was actually the brainchild of the Chinese government and represents one of the most subtle means by which the Asian country's Communist government is trying to influence the world.

"That's considered a success in mobilizing the local community for China's interest," Chen Yonglin told Embassy in an interview last week during a Falun Gong-sponsored visit to Ottawa.

"The group lodged a petition, but the petition was actually drafted by the embassy. In Sydney, we did the same thing."

On May 26, 2005, Mr. Chen walked out of the Chinese consulate in Sydney, where he had been responsible for monitoring Chinese political dissidents, after 14 years in the Asian country's foreign service.

Since then, he has reported extensively on China's international activities, including its widespread network of spies around the world, its efforts to steal technological secrets and inventions, and its attempts to crackdown on dissidents living abroad.

Upon his defection, Mr. Chen revealed that about 1,000 Chinese spies were operating within Australia's borders, a number he believes is similar in Canada.

Last month, Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Jim Judd told a Senate committee that as many as 15 countries have spies operating within Canada, and that China "pretty much" ranked as the top country sending agents to Canada, with "close" to 50 per cent of all agents in the country.

Mr. Chen said the Chinese government aims to eliminate what it refers to as the "five poisonous groups," essentially any activity that promotes Falun Gong, the legitimacy of Taiwan, Tibet, Uighur, and democracy in China.

The Communist country employs subtle and sophisticated tactics in its war on what are essentially five challenges to single-party rule, Mr. Chen said.

For example, the Chinese style of writing is different on the mainland than in Taiwan or Hong Kong, and by promoting it in such places as the new Confucius Institutes, which are Chinese government-sponsored institutions that are being established around the world, it hopes to promote closer cultural ties to the mainland and the Communist Party's ideology.

"The main aim is to squeeze the space of Taiwan influence," he said. "They will have a closer link to mainland China instead of Hong Kong or Taiwan. This is a cultural campaign."

The Canadian Press reported late last month that CSIS considers the institutes, one of which recently opened in Vancouver, with more slated for Montreal, Moncton, N.B., and Waterloo, Ont., a form of "soft power" with the aim of generating goodwill in the West towards China.

Pro-Communist China satellite channels, newspapers and other communications strategies, predominantly aimed at the Chinese diaspora, are all part of the strategy, Mr. Chen said.

"It's focused on cultural change to convince people that the power in China is legitimate, it's helping people, serving the people, and there should be no objection and no democracy is necessary. One-party democracy is good."

When he first joined the Chinese foreign service in 1992, Mr. Chen was assigned to the Department of North American and Oceanic Affairs. At the time, Lu Shumin, now China's ambassador to Canada, was deputy director of the U.S. division. He was later promoted to director general of the department, and Mr. Chen accused him of following the party line and policies, including efforts to stop the five poisonous groups.

The Chinese Embassy did not return repeated phone calls.


Government Involved in Diasporas

The Chinese government considers Chinese communities abroad as its property and helps friendly diaspora members establish organizations that ostensibly represent the local Chinese community, but are essentially lobbyists for the Chinese government.

A few months ago, representatives from New Tang Dynasty Television accused the Chinese government, with supporting documents that had been taken from the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa when the wife of a diplomat defected, of trying to stop the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) from granting it a licence to operate in Canada.

Mr. Chen said one main group overseas all other local associations, and the head of that group is appointed by the embassy.

Anyone who establishes an association, which can often have only one member but may appear to have a much larger presence, can get preferential treatment in business dealings and other relations with China.

"The Chinese government shows how to organize and gives instructions," Mr. Chen said. "And if they set up this organization, they get special treatment."

Not only do the associations lobby the Canadian government, they also try to infiltrate dissident groups and tarnish their reputations, Mr. Chen said.

While many of China's efforts focus on working with and trying to influence the local community, and by extension federal, provincial and municipal governments, it also relies on diplomats and other official Chinese officials stationed in the country, Mr. Chen said.

"In the missions in some important cities, there are one to three staff members that are working for state security," he said. "The ambassador cannot command these people. They may reject the ambassador. They are there for a special task. They don't have to necessarily listen to the instructions of the ambassador."

Mr. Chen said China has a grand strategy, the main aim being to reduce American influence around the world. Because Australia and Canada are key allies to the U.S., it is targeted by default.

"China has tried hard to weaken the United States' influence over the world by trying to reducing the intimacy between Canada and the United States, and Australia and the United States," he said.

One such way of doing this is by stealing American political and security intelligence from Australia and Canada that is shared by the U.S., which serves also to strengthen China.

"Australia and Canada have an alliance with the United States and these countries share a lot of information," he said. "China cannot get that information directly from the United States, but they can get it here."

Government operatives will also try to steal technological secrets, and recruit government-supported researchers, especially those with any connection to the Chinese mainland.

"They stay here and occasionally travel to China and work for a certain period of time," he said. "Then back to his own laboratory here which is supported by the government."

Mr. Chen said the Canadian government must stick to its policy of human rights, democracy and freedom and remain vigilant of Chinese activity in the country, "especially its influence on the mainstream.

"They use some illegal ways to control, in some parts, the mainstream," he said. "Trade with China is okay, but stick with a human rights policy, and don't remain ignorant."

lee@embassymag.ca

Letter to Bush on Organ Harvesting and the Olympics

An Open Letter to the President of The United States

Stop China's Live Organ Harvesting and Boycott Beijing Olympic Games

By Professor Li Houzhu of Future China University
Special to The Epoch Times - July 19, 2007

Honorable President Bush,

First, please allow me to pay a personal tribute to you and your family. May God bless you and your family with good health and peace. I am a Professor of Philosophy at Future China University, and am currently living in mainland China. Under the rule and tyranny of the Chinese communist regime, I know first hand under what kind of miserable conditions Chinese people must live. Owing to my belief in the United States and my pursuit of freedom and democracy, I am writing you this letter to give you the perspective of what a Chinese intellectual has heard and witnessed in mainland China. It is my hope that this can provide a reference for setting foreign policies that meet with the true wishes of Chinese people.

First, let me discuss how average Chinese people view the U.S.

The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) schools have been continually instilling its students with notions such as, "The United States interferes with other countries' internal policy making, provoking wars, and slaughtering foreigners at will. The United States is the biggest threat to the world peace. America is hostile towards China, unwilling to see it become stronger and, therefore, takes every opportunity to make trouble for China." Hearing these notions repeated throughout their education, Chinese students naturally develop hostility toward the U.S. On September 11 when average American people were attacked, when people all over the world were shocked and saddened by this atrocity, China's college campuses were filled with celebration and joy. The college students happily spread the exciting news, celebrating that the U.S. had finally been attacked. The CCP's education also misrepresents American democracy, claiming that American democracy is a false democracy. They claim that this democracy exists only within the upper classes, merely serving as a dictatorship to average people. They teach that American politics is monetary politics, pointing out how every election spends billions and billions of dollars. Under this kind of indoctrination, these students are unable to see what American democracy really is. These students have grown to accept the CCP's tyranny, and therefore view such tyranny as something natural and legal, mistakenly believing that the regime requires violence to protect its power. Likewise, they view America the same way.

Dear Mr. President, consider the most shocking Chinese phrase echoed by these students: "America is the same." The CCP has made Chinese people believe that every government commits similar atrocities, suggesting that the crimes they commit are nothing special. Students carelessly comment, "Which regime isn't this way? America is the same." Students in mainland China don't understand what press freedom is or what democracy is; neither do they really know anything about modern civilization. Their hearts are filled with hatred. Day and night, they imagine ways to instigate a war with the U.S. to defeat American imperialism. Average Chinese people know nothing about the real America, and they are hostile to the U.S. But don't blame the Chinese people who are naturally compassionate. Look to the hostile indoctrination of the CCP.

Honorable Mr. President, during the remainder of your term in office, if you are committed to building a firm foundation, upon which a Sino-America relationship will truly develop in harmony, there is much to be done. In fact, your speech at the opening ceremony for the Monument for Victims of Communism was already the first gratifying step forward toward accomplishing this goal. We are hoping that you will continue to strive to make efforts along this path. What the CCP is most afraid of is U.S. criticism. I urge you to start noting and criticizing the CCP's systematic education defaming America. This is a very practical starting point, which is closely linked to benefiting American interests. This is my first recommendation to you.

My second recommendation involves the miserable human rights situation in China.

Ever since the CCP stole power in 1949, it has continually looted the private property of Chinese people; moreover, it has deprived the Chinese people of freedom, turning billions of Chinese people into slaves who own nothing. The Tiananmen Square Massacre has been the most meaningful event for the Western world to clearly recognize the barbaric nature of the CCP. The western world can still remember this tragic event as the regime opened fire on its own people, but what the West may not realize is that the CCP has killed over 80 million Chinese people throughout its horrifying rule. This equates to creating a Tiananmen Square Massacre everyday.

After the Soviet Union dissolved, Americans have turned their attention to terrorist extremists, and dissidents with no specific national affiliation, as their number one enemy. In fact, America's biggest threat has always been the Chinese communist regime, and the CCP's national terrorists. It is sad that American people can't recognize it. American people are kind and tolerant; while the CCP is evil and wicked. If the American people remain unable to recognize the evil nature of this wicked regime, and instead continue to be blind to its motivations, then these kind people risk one day being killed by the evil.

Today America is at a crossroads. Should the U.S. continue to bravely stand up against communism, focusing its righteous power to fight the last battle against the most wicked CCP? Or should America silently consent to what they have been led to believe is the CCP's peaceful rise, turning a blind eye to the barbaric crimes of the regime? Should America continue to maintain a friendship with the CCP and provide technologies to the regime, helping this force to continue to grow stronger? As American businessmen plan how to increase their revenue through trading with the CCP, they may be unaware that nuclear weapons have already been positioned on the regime's secret launching sites. Various plans to attack America have for many years been the hottest topic of discussion on the internet in mainland China. America, shouldn't you have awoken long time ago? It's important to understand that China and America have common interests; but the CCP's interests are contrary to the benefit of America.

Mr. President, please make sure that you and your government continue to pay attention to China's human rights situation, and actively confront the threat of the CCP's national terrorism, so as to maintain the peace of the U.S. and the world; call on domestic businessmen to abandon short-term commercial benefits, and instead foster an environment of conscience, morality and justice, so as to actively support Chinese people's righteous fight against tyranny; criticize the CCP's massive domestic suppression and question its legitimacy as a real leader. This is the second suggestion I contribute to you.

Finally, I want to share with you the most shocking and terrifying thing about the CCP. I'm asking you to pay close attention to this portion for it is the major reason I wrote this letter.

Consider the ancient practice of Falun Gong. Falun Gong represents the best of traditional culture from the Chinese nation. The time honored Truth-Compassion-Tolerance spirit it embodies, also accommodates the current universal principles of freedom and democracy. It represents China's true national spirit of "being kind to others in all circumstances." Yet Falun Gong is now suffering a tragic persecution in mainland China. An attorney named Gao Zhisheng wrote three letters to the highest authorities of the CCP in support of Falun Gong, but it cost him over a hundred days of secret police surveillance culminating in his illegal arrest and sentence. Because he spoke out, until recently, Gao's whole family has been under house arrest. Attorney Gao has himself suffered persecution at the hands of the CCP. President Bush, please think about it: if China's most well-known attorney is barred from providing legal support for Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China, what other channels can be exploited to effectively stop this national terrorism? With no existing legal system, and under a regime which forcefully denies personal freedoms, Falun Gong practitioners have acted bravely in their efforts to appeal to local authorities, writing to clarify their case to CCP leaders and contacting various media so that they could be better understood. However, all efforts made in pursuing these channels met with confiscation, forfeiture, condemnation, labor camp reeducation, and other forms of persecution. The policy the CCP has constructed aims to "ruin [practitioners'] reputations, bankrupt [practitioners'] financially, and destroy [practitioners'] physically."

The sad news of Falun Gong practitioners being tortured to death in local prisons and labor camps has been continuously spread to the whole world. The number of practitioners tortured to death as publicized on clearwisdom.net—a website dedicated to reporting the atrocities of this persecution— has been confirmed to have already reached over 3,000 people. Yet these cases are known to be only the tip of the iceberg. Still, with all legal channels blocked, Falun Gong practitioners continue to adopt peaceful and rational ways of spreading the truth to the world and offers solutions to the public to confront this vile persecution. You will find among residences of mainland China, in parks, on the railway, in other places of interest, flyers, banners, DVDs, and booklets which discuss the truth of Falun Gong. Even many email boxes receive regular messages clarifying the truth of Falun Gong. Overseas Falun Gong practitioners have developed software to breakthrough the CCP's Internet firewall; they have created their own media which include The Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty Television, Sound of Hope Radio and others, all in a joint effort to convey the truth to the public which becomes more aware of the evilness of the CCP everyday, and are thereby released from the lies and disinformation of the ruling Party.

In November 2004, The Epoch Times published the now famous "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," making a final judgment on the many crimes committed by this loathsome regime. The commentaries inspired a huge wave of Chinese citizens withdrawing their membership from the CCP. Peaceful disintegration and the entire elimination of the CCP is becoming a reality. As more and more people pull away from this organization, one can clearly see that the CCP's days are numbered.

Even though we have made great strides in exposing the crimes of the CCP, there are still major ordeals to confront. You may be familiar with the expression, "wild beasts become crazy when they are about to die." In the spring of 2006, people were confronted with a term (and a reality) that extends beyond any evilness in history: organ harvesting. This is the story of doctors who are supposed to heal people but instead became murderous butchers. It boggles the mind that such bloody terrorism can even exist, and the news for many has been hard to accept. However, it very much exists and the program is still in operation. Falun Gong practitioners have become cost free raw materials for a human organ factory run by the CCP's national terrorist machine. Over tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have had their organs harvested and sold for substantial profit.

How long can the universe tolerate these evil deeds? How long can the earth bear the weight of these of crimes? Humans cannot choose to be silent anymore.

The Kilgour-Matas Independent Investigation—which thoroughly explored and confirmed China's organ harvesting program , released hard evidence that shocked the world; and on its heels came the "The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China" (CIPFG); soon a human rights torch relay in support of Falun Gong practitioners will begin in Greece. They all work toward the same goal: refusing to let the Olympic Games—which is supposed to represent peace in the world—to become a Bloody Harvest Games. "It will be a great shame for the whole world if the 2008 Olympics and these crimes against humanity are both happening at the same time in China," wrote the CIPFG in their recent letter to Hu Jianto and Wen Jiabao, (Chairman and President of the CCP respectively). The letter included a schedule in which they either demand a stop to the persecution, or else a boycott of the coming games.

Mr. President, God needs America to fulfill its solemn responsibility to protect the world's people and confront Communism. Tens of thousands of illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners who live under constant threat of losing their lives would welcome a U.S. intervention. In fact, many Chinese people who are suffering great hardship under the CCP's rule need the U.S. government to extend the proverbial olive branch. Rejecting the upcoming Olympic Games and rejecting the Chinese Communist Party would be the most cost effective and practical choice to strike at the heart of the CCP's national terrorism. The time is ripe; take this opportunity to rally the support of the people. This is the chance for the world to come together and finally bury the last remaining vestiges of Communism's evil force. This is the third suggestion I contribute to you, and it is the most important suggestion of all.

I wish you and your family all the best!

Sincerely yours,

Future China Network University Professor Li Houzhu

Cc: Leaders of the Chinese Communist Regime, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao

Falun Gong and the Communist Olympics

The Persecution of Falun Gong and the Olympics

MWC: Letter published July 16, 2007 - Why have millions of peaceful Chinese people been branded as criminals by China’s worst (former) dictator Jiang Zemin and killed for their belief? The year was 1992. Before the persecution, Falun Gong practitioners enjoyed the quasi freedom to do their traditional Tai-chi-like exercises freely and peacefully. Owing to the practice’s great health benefits, practitioners enabled the government to save oodles of money in health care costs that was favourably recognized by the government at the time. Politburo officials read Zhuan Falun (Falun Gong main teachings) and were quickly becoming adepts. What went wrong? It was the 1998 government survey revealing that there were 70-100 million adherents in China, with Beijing alone having 2000 exercise sites, that spooked the dictator. Soon after that, to protest random beatings and much slandering of the faith, about 10,000 practitioners gathered at the government compound in a very orderly manner on April 25, 1999.

This unexpected 4.25 peaceful appeal no doubt came upon Jiang like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, bringing with it nuances of deja vu - think June 4, 1989 TAM massacre - and the surreality of a Tiananmen II incident manifesting right before his own eyes. Unprepared to confront his new class enemy, it wasn’t long after that, that Jiang launched a genocidal campaign against Falun Gong that went into full swing eight years ago, on July 20, 1999. His directive: "destroy them physically, defame their reputations and bankrupt them financially." This persecution is by far the most sinister form of evil occurring in China today--organ harvesting being the preferred method for eradicating practitioners from Chinese society. (Ref. Bloody Harvest; )

As Falun Gong practitioners stand strong behind their truth campaign against their brutal persecutors--the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)--China has seen 24 million nationals quit the Communist Party. This wave of resignations, triggered by the book ‘Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party’ recounting China’s history of bloodlust and merciless killing of over 90 million people, is a cause for celebration. China-watchers all agree that true peace will not occur in China until the party is completely disintegrated.

Yet sadly, China’s vast economic boom makes diplomats look the other way.

Thanks to the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), the global human rights torch relay will soon begin its peaceful journey on five continents to beam the spotlight on the persecution thus saying no to the 2008 China Olympics. So far, Beijing apologists argue that the increased international attention will cause China to improve its behaviour before the Games. Hmm! Organ harvesting of live Falun Gong practitioners is a vivid proof that it isn’t so. Furthermore, a blacklist has been distributed by the CCP, on which 43 different categories of undesirable people that should not be allowed to come to China for the Olympics are listed--among them are Falun Gong practitioners. Some improvement!

Hu Jintao, the leader of China, and the members of the IOC should be well aware by now that the Olympic games are built on the premise of fairness and justice, precisely the opposite of today's human rights situation in China. The brutal persecution of Falun Gong must be stopped and the CCP must be held accountable for their crimes against humanity. Beijing’s face lift and cosmetic laws account for naught--genocide and the Olympics cannot co-exist! Help keep the flame alive, on August 8, light a torch for human rights.

Marie Beaulieu