Rights Abuses Throw Shadow on China Conference

Human rights advocates against visit of acting Chinese Vice Premier

By Alexander Hamrle
Epoch Times Germany Sep 12, 2008

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Helmut Steckel, spokesperson for the Tibet Initiative in Germany, Hamburg Section, on the left, and Ulrich Delius, representative for Asia for the German Society for Threatened People [Gesellschaft fuer Bedrohte Voelker], right. (Alexander M. Hamrle/Epoch Times)

Visitor Zhang Dejian symbolizes state censure and oppression, said Ulrich Delius, and asks whether Hamburg's mayor Ole van Beust had learned his lessons concerning open discussion topics of law and justice in meetings between the sister cities Hamburg and Shanghai, "and now someone arrives from China who is responsible for mass arrests of Falun Gong practitioners, and for censuring information relating to catastrophes."

Mr. Delius, of the German Society for Threatened People, demands of mayor Beust that he raise additional human rights questions during the sister city partnership meetings that are beginning today, and are sponsored by The China Times.

Mr. Speckel from the Tibet Initiative in Hamburg commented that he cannot imagine the doings of Mr. Zhang, being unknown to anyone during his visit, and is astonished that his actions for the past few years are swept under the carpet. Doing so and permitting such an individual to arrive in Hamburg in the first place. "throws a shadow over the China Conference." Hamburg should have resorted to a person from China whose life history is devoid of such sinister acts.

Sued for Torture and Murder

A lawsuit claimed that Zhang was the responsible authority for at least 33 persecution-caused deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in China during his tenure as CCP Secretary for Guangdong Province between 2002 and 2007. He was served with a lawsuit during a state visit to Australia in 2005, the summons charged him with torture and murder.

To better foster and integrate human rights situations during sister city events, the German delegation in China ought to be given access to forced labor camps to arrive at their own conclusions. "This would not guarantee an objective picture, because China would ‘prep’ the camps prior to any official visit, but would afford better access to Chinese citizens."

Germany had invited Zhang for a visit. He arrived last Sunday. Besides a reception with Chancellor Merkel, he is slated to inspect/visit several German enterprises.

Zhang and German Foreign Minister Steinmeier will officiate at the opening ceremony of the economic "Hamburg Summit: China Meets Europe."

S Korea deports Falun Gong pair

By John Sudworth BBC News, Seoul

China pressures Asian countries to support its ban on Falun Gong.

South Korea has sent two members of the Falun Gong spiritual group back to China after they had their applications for political asylum turned down.

A further 31 Chinese nationals also face the risk of deportation following a court ruling that they cannot prove that they face persecution back home.

Falun Gong, which combines meditation with Buddhist-inspired philosophy, is banned in China.

The movement's members say they face arrest and abuse in China.

South Korea deported the two Chinese members of the Falun Gong spiritual group in July after they lost their battle for refugee status.

In March this year South Korea's Supreme Court upheld a ruling denying asylum to a group of more than 30 Falun Gong members.

It said that they could not prove that they had been persecuted in China and nor could they show that they had played leading roles in spreading Falun Gong teachings.

Their supporters claim that South Korea is acting under pressure from the Chinese government and that the actions make a mockery of Seoul's condemnation of China's forced repatriation of North Korean refugees.

But a ministry of justice spokesman denied any political interference, saying that the government cannot grant asylum without clear evidence of the risk of persecution.

Campaigners for the two Falun Gong members sent home so far say that they have been unable to make contact with them.

They say two other members of the group are being held in an immigration detention centre in South Korea and are in imminent danger of being repatriated.

Exposing the increase of Murder + Torture because of the Chinese Olympics

via Jana's blog: A true Chinese renaissance.

Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group exposes Deaths of Falun Gong Practitioners in Police Custody prior the so called peaceful Olympics (Photos)

The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group (FalunHR, headquartered in California) issued an appeal to world governments and media on August 22, 2008, to pay attention to the Chinese Communist regime's recent mass arrests of Falun Gong practitioners, particularly the cases in which the practitioners died shortly after they were arrested.

It said in part: "...the Chinese government not only refused to fulfill its promise to improve human rights for the Beijing Olympics, but, in fact, used security concerns for the Olympics as a pretext to cleanse the whole country. As a result, a large number of innocent people have suffered incarceration and torture, and many have been killed, making them victims of the Beijing Olympics." "In the past few months, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been rounded up in various cities in China, and many have been tortured to death after only a few weeks in custody. The arrests have been so widespread that many citizens and residents of other countries have had their relatives arrested in China. Considering that only a very small percentage of Chinese people have overseas connections, the situation is really very severe."

The following are a few examples of Falun Gong practitioners recently tortured to death and included in the appeal letter:

Bai Heguo

Mr. Bai Heguo, 45, lived in Dongguangshan Village, Liutiao Town in Dengta City, Liaoning Province. The police from the Tongerpu District Police Department sentenced him to 11 years in the Liaoning Province Huazi Prison. Because he remained firm in his faith, he was then taken to Nanguanling Prison in Dalian City, where he was tortured to death in less than two weeks. His body was covered with bruises; he had a bump on his head and a cut on his tongue, which protruded from his mouth; his leg was broken; his testes had been crushed; and he was emaciated. He was clearly tortured to death. The authorities hurriedly cremated his body.

Gu Jianmin

Ms. Gu Jianmin, 53, lived in the 13th Building-Apt. 601, 400 Lane, Yangguangxincun Neighborhood, Qishan Street, Pudong New District, Shanghai. Although she was perfectly healthy, she died just 13 days after the police from the Yangjing Police Station in Pudong New District arrested her on March 1, 2008. On the day of her death, the authorities asked her husband to process a medical parole. However, when he finally saw her, her eyes were protruding, her pupils were enlarged, and she was bleeding from the mouth. No one was taking care of her. He begged the doctors to save her. They made a quick attempt and then declared her dead.

Gu Qun

Mr. Gu Qun, 50, worked for the Xigang District Industrial and Commercial Bureau in Dalian City, Liaoning Province. On the afternoon of March 16, 2008, officers from the Tianjin Street Police Station arrested Mr. Gu while he was distributing Falun Gong materials. The next day they took him to the Yaojia Detention Center. After 2: 00 p.m. on April 9, his family was notified that he had died. He died less than three weeks after his arrest.

Sun Guanzhou

Mr. Sun Guanzhou, 62, lived in Yuzhou City, Henan Province. He was a professor at Yuzhou City Education College. On March 3, 2008, Domestic Security agents arrested him. Shortly after his arrest, the authorities took him to the hospital where the doctor said he should not remain in detention. They then demanded 25,000 yuan to release him, but the family didn't have that much. He died on March 9. His family was notified to go to Beiguan Hospital. When they arrived, they saw Mr. Sun's corpse. Mr. Sun died within a week of his arrest.

Ms. Zong Xiuxia lived in the Fangzi District in Weifang City, Shandong Province. The police arrested her at 9:00 a.m. while she was shopping. She died after only four hours in police custody.

The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group will continue to pay attention to the mass killing of Falun Gong practitioners happening in China, and will follow up and expose these crimes.

Posting date: 9/9/2008
Original article date: 9/9/2008
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/9/3/185233.html

Lies no more, China’s economy in crisis

by Wang Zhicheng

Asia News.it: The Shanghai stock exchange is in a free fall. Some 67,000 companies have gone belly up. Foreign companies are rushing to leave. Real estate and the banking sector are going under. An economic analyst shows the emptiness behind the images of power. In Mao’s time people died of hunger; today they die of bankruptcy.

Beijing (AsiaNews) – In China nothing is real or simple. Many thins appear great on the outside but are empty and false on the inside. This was the case with the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The event was attended by more than 80 foreign leaders who in doing so saved the government’s face (after the Tibet crackdown). Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had threatened a boycott of the Games, relented in the end and came.

Just a few days after the glory, the hidden truth was revealed. The spectacular giant footprint fireworks were computer-generated, the little girl sang in lip-synch, and even the 56 children dressed in different ethnic clothes were all ethnic Han Chinese.

The same is true for China’s economy. Ever since its “reform and opening up” policy was adopted 1978 in the wake of Deng Xiaoping’s proclaimed support for market economy theories, the mainland economy has developed at a record-breaking pace before the eyes of a world increasingly alarmed by China’s rise.

Some reputable scholars have suggested that this growth is likely to continue until 2020. So many people have accepted their views at face value. Let us take a look instead at the real face of China’s economy.

Stock exchanges in crisis

The Shanghai Stock Market index fell dramatically from 6,124 points in October 2007 to 2154 on 8 September 2008, a drop of 64.8 per cent.

About 100 million Chinese shareholders are currently tied up in the market and are paying quite a heavy price. So much so that even the rich have seen their dreams shattered.

The “weatherglass” stock market is experiencing sharp drops, a sign that China’s economy is facing difficulties. Last year for example China listed companies showed a strong rise in profits; this year they are facing either profit surges or heavy deficits. They have become the government’s tool to circle money.

According to government sources, about 67,000 small- and medium-sized enterprises collapsed in the first half of the year, pushing some 20 million people into unemployment. Of course, the actual number could have been worse.

The size of this collapse shows that in the course of rapid economic development some serious problems were neglected and are only now coming to the fore. And there are few doubts that the chain effect will soon hit even large-sized enterprises.

The appreciation of the yuan, the increasing price of raw materials, higher labour costs, lower exports, fewer migrant workers and power shortages are cutting into corporate profits. And the difficulty in earmarking large funds and high-interest loans is driving enterprises to the edge.

The deltas of the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers (respectively near Shanghai and Guangdong) have been the “factories” of the world upon which China founded its initial economic growth. Nowadays they are almost on their way towards bankruptcy as many foreign companies pull out and many Chinese companies go under.

With the US subprime mortgage crisis unfolding and expected to last till 2010, consumer demand is down in Europe and around the world with the net result that China’s exports are going through tough times.

Real estate bubble bursting

China is a socialist state where land is state property. As landowners local governments have sold land to real estate developers at very high prices, allowing them to pay off 80 per cent of the cost through bank loans. Ordinary people have been able to borrow from banks as well in order to purchase their home. This has become common place in China’s real estate market.

With US$ 500 billion in profits from exports, China has bought large parts of US debt. More than half of bank loans, or about 1 billion US, has been invested in joint-ventures with real estate developers. This sparked a real estate gold rush, pushing prices through the roof, five to six times higher than what they were just a few years ago.

The building frenzy that took hold of the construction industry can be seen in the buildings and skyscrapers that propped up everywhere in China.

Real estate developers have come to represent more than half of the people ranked in the “China Rich List”, and have not shied away from using the power of different local governments to seize land and resources from weak communities and peasants.

They have often resorted to violence to divert large amounts of wealth from the population at large into the hands of a few people. Their power is such that more than half of local government revenues depend on the real estate industry.

With demolitions taking place all over China, many people are becoming homeless. For example, in Shi Jiazhuang (Hebei), the local government adopted a policy dubbed “Big changes in three years”.

At the same time low salaries and high housing prices have forced many people to work hard for their entire life just to get a small apartment.

Now the real estate market seems to be a bubble ready to burst. Flipping properties to push up prices is coming to an end as agents are forced into various gimmicks to prop up sales. Still one survey indicates that only a 50 per cent cut in prices might revive the real estate market.

Just like the stock market China’s real estate market is facing an inevitable and steep decline. This in turn is going to negatively impact the banks and thus lead to an economic crisis.

Environment, natural disasters and the Olympics

Against this economic backdrop other major problems must be addressed.

– During 2008 China endured all sorts of natural disasters—from snow storms to the Sichuan earthquake, from hail and heavy rainfalls to floods—and its economy has been damaged. According to government’s estimates, the cost of rebuilding Sichuan alone will add up to a trillion RMB (about US$ 140 billion).

- Decades of fast-paced development have also put severe strains on the environment. The weather is getting warmer and dangerously high levels of pollution are affecting the quality of the air and the country’s rivers.

Although reports about global warming have focused on the melting of the ice-cap in Antarctica, it is likely that the future will have even more critical consequences in store. China will have to pay a very hefty price to clean up its environment and will have to get used to working with other countries.

The Beijing Olympic Games were not only a waste of labour and money but have wrecked China’s economy. According to official figures China invested 300 billion RMB (more than US$ 40 billion) on Olympic infrastructures. The 2008 Games will go down in history as the most expensive in history. By comparison, eight years ago the Sydney Olympics were a net cost to the public of US$ 1.5 billion. The Los Angeles Games cost no more than 500 millions.

Due to tight security, the Games attracted only 400,000 foreign tourists, far below the two million tourists that had been expected. Although all 5-star hotels were fully booked, the occupancy rate in four-star hotels or below was only 30-40 per cent. Similarly, many businesses suffered as a result of the Games; restaurants lost up to a third of their custom. Now the question is what to do with the new Olympic venues.

The looming recession in the United States, stagnation in Europe and negative growth in Japan are tale-tell signs of a coming worldwide economic recession, which might even be worst than that of 1929.

In Mao’s time millions of people died of hunger; today many “die” of bankruptcy.

In the end as an integral part of the world economy China is bound to be sucked into the whirlwind of economic depression.

China may leave media doors ajar ... hmmm!

• Mary-Anne Toy, Beijing
• September 11, 2008

The Age: WITH the Olympic spotlight on China fading, speculation is increasing about whether controls on foreign journalists, relaxed in the lead-up to the Games, will be allowed to expire next month.

The more relaxed rules allowing foreign, but not domestic, reporters to travel virtually anywhere in China and interview anyone on almost any topic, came into effect on January 1, 2007.

They are due to expire on October 17, about three weeks after the Paralympic Games end in Beijing.

Previously, foreign journalists needed Government permission to travel outside Beijing and conduct interviews, or risked being detained, and put at risk Chinese citizens who spoke to them.

The requirements were widely flouted — and this was increasingly tolerated by the authorities, who have focused more on controlling domestic media and the internet. But the Olympic rules were seen as a significant improvement by foreign media, other governments and human rights groups.

Asked on Tuesday whether the regulations would expire next month, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: "I think when the time comes, we will tell everyone what the arrangement will be. But I want to reiterate to everyone that the spirit of opening up will continue."

Last December, a Foreign Ministry official suggested that the looser regulations would continue after the Olympics. In March, ministry spokesman Qing Gan said: "China's opening-up will be continuously pressing ahead. The door has been opened already. It will never be closed again."

But a Government-approved backlash by Chinese citizens here and overseas — against perceived pro-Tibet foreign media bias — signalled that some in the Government backed a return to harsher controls.

Implementation of the temporary rules had already been patchy, with Beijing having to intervene sometimes to tell local officials to cease interfering.

Access to the Tibet Autonomous Region remained controlled. Access to other Tibetan communities in Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai was also banned after the March torch relay riots.

Beijing's Foreign Correspondents Club of China has documented more than 334 cases of reporting interference since January 1, 2007, including 63 during the Olympic period. The club's media freedom spokeswoman, Jocelyn Ford, yesterday urged the Government to make its intentions clear and its decision-making more transparent.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post yesterday reported that mainland financial websites had been told to ease up on negative news as the Government tries to prevent social unrest caused by plummeting local sharemarket

Rioting in rural China over fraud and land grabs

Irish Times: CHINA: THE PAST few days in China have seen a number of outbreaks of violence in rural areas over property disputes and real estate frauds, the latest in a series of confrontations over grievances about perceived abuses of power, corruption and land grabs, writes Clifford Coonan in Beijing.

In Henan province in central China, thousands of students attacked a county government office, smashing windows and clashing with riot police. Students from a local high school took to the streets to try and stop a developer from building apartments on their sports ground.

Tensions spilled over into violence after two girls were injured in the scuffles with police, and the students surrounded the government building at noon, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Last week, large numbers of soldiers and armed riot police were sent to quell two major protests. In central Hunan province, 5,000 soldiers and armed police converged on a furious crowd of up to 10,000 demanding money back from an alleged fundraising fraud relating to real estate.

The disturbances took place in Jishou city, and 50 people were injured in rioting and police arrested 20 people, the Hong Kong-based rights group said.

Local government officials said they had launched an investigation into the Fuda Real Estate Company, which was behind the fundraising. Images of the unrest were widely available on popular web portals in China, causing quite a stir. Images showed rows of riot police carrying shields on railway lines and on the roads.

State media reported that executives of the company were "controlled", which presumably means arrested, and the petitioners dispersed after registering their investments with local authorities.

In the booming industrial region of Ningbo on the east coast, up to 10,000 people gathered around a factory after a young boy was injured, apparently after being thrown out of a factory window. The government insisted that the boy had jumped from a window after workers found him hiding in the factory, adding he was in hospital in a stable condition with a broken leg.

There were up to 20 injuries in the clashes, including one policeman, after officials arrived to clear the area. A yawning wealth gap in China leads to thousands of protests every year, but there have been some particularly intense clashes in recent months.

Often the causes of the riots are rumours of injustice which become exaggerated and turn into widescale rioting.

In June, thousands of residents rioted and torched police and government buildings in Guizhou province, after claims spread that police covered up the rape and murder of a girl.

In the Olympics’ Aftermath, China at War with Germany

Xinhua News Agency Sanctions Lawsuit Against the German Media

By Matthias Kehrein
Epoch Times Staff Sep 6, 2008

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The Chinese regime’s Xinhua news agency presented its case for suing the German media, citing large-scale defamation of China. In Xu Boyan’s article, “View of Germany’s Freedom of the Press,” Boyan argues that “we must teach the German media a lesson for attacking us so unscrupulously."

Xu did not like it one bit that the German media had nary a good word to say about China, maintaining that "the world media gives the impression at the moment that the whole world loves China…but in spite of the praise, there have also been shrill voices of complaint, particularly from the German media."

Such reporting about China seems to be a thorn that continues to fester in the side of the state-run propaganda machinery, because as early as August 24, 2008, the ruling regime's media sources had already run a headline, "Presumptuous ARD (Allgemeine Rundfunk Deutschland - German Radio) must be sued." And on August 29th, the regime’s media mouthpieces published references to a "nazi ideology."

"People Who Live in Glass Houses…”

All this Xinhua posturing seems to be centered around an incident with Zhang Danhong, who holds a position as editor for the "Deutsche Welle," a German media source. She had said what she called "a few appropriate words for [on behalf of] China,” which resonated as profoundly negative and inappropriate in German media circles and among politicians. This reaction provided fodder for Xinhua to use against Germany.

According to Xinhua, her "appropriate words" amounted to this analogy in which she likened the Chinese regime’s Internet censorship of Falun Gong and Free Tibet to the restrictive measures of censorship in Germany — for anyone there to open child pornography sites.

The Chinese regime’s response to those who were denied Internet access during the Olympic games, but who still persisted in voicing their opinions was, "the German media’s anti-China sentiments amount primarily to comments of how the Chinese regime tramples and damages human rights. Those who point fingers at others and verbally abuse them must first set an exemplary moral example" — being a reference to how the German press did “ruthlessly abridge Ms. Zhang's freedom of expression."

Nevertheless, Ms. Zhang still retains her position in the editor's office, and she has merely been positioned away from the microphone, until this matter is cleared up.

Re-establishing a Good Reputation

Xinhua continued to justify the Chinese regime’s viewpoint, "The German media criticized our lack of freedom of expression, in that it is not yet been formally established, and that we need to learn from the West. Granted, we must enlarge the scope of our social democracy; that won't be a problem. But it is a mistake to assume that we should take the West as a role model. This incident will also teach a few people in our nation a lesson."

The German media does not dread an onslaught of lawsuits, because it realizes that any hate-inciting propaganda slogans by China’s regime are primarily a means to pull the wool over the eyes of the Chinese populace. The call for lawsuits is Xinhua's way to save face by pointing an accusing finger back at Germany, thereby re-establishing its "good reputation."

Russia, China, Trust in God and keep your powder dry

By Arlie Hoover

Guest Columnist
Reporter News: Sunday, September 7, 2008

Remember when the Cold War ended just a few years ago?

There was great rejoicing in most of the world and especially in the United States of America. I watched with great satisfaction the Berlin Wall come down and the Warsaw Pact disintegrate. I watched the Soviet Union fall apart and chuckled to myself, "Reagan was right -- into the dustbin of history with your accursed communism!"

Pundits of all kinds issued shrewd philosophical observations on the occasion. The most famous came from the pen of Francis Fukuyama who opined that, "At the end of history, there are no serious ideological competitors left to liberal democracy."

Boy, was he wrong! History is back, folks, and with a vengeance. The Russians have invaded the tiny state of Georgia, and it looks like they are prepared to stay there for a long time. The Bear is on the move again. He looks like he wants to get back his empire. And people told me that there was a "new world order" just around the corner.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Where did we go wrong? We made some naive assumptions.

First, we assumed that with the fall of communism, there was no more cause for war in the world. We were wrong. We forgot about that ancient phenomenon called nationalism -- "ethnocentrism" if you want to show off your vocabulary -- which has caused wars since humans invented politics.

Second, we wagered that since Russia and China were getting rich experimenting with capitalism and free enterprise, they would slowly turn democratic. We hoped that rising prosperity would very likely produce political liberalism in those former communist nations. We hoped that those folks would become nice progressives, at home and abroad.

We were wrong again. The growth of the Russian and Chinese economies has not produced the political liberalization we expected. It was rather naive of us to believe that rising prosperity inevitably produces political liberalism. The autocratic regimes of Russia and China have discovered the secret of allowing free enterprise while suppressing political activity. Enrich yourselves, but don't join the Falun Gong, and by all means don't flaunt your Christianity! You are free to get rich, up to a point, but don't demand any other freedoms. The government controls all newspapers, TV programs, movies, books, journals and the Internet.

There are certain times in history when a nation decides that democracy is not the main thing it wants. National pride is more important. Vladimir Putin is popular in Russia for handling the problem of Chechnya. Now he is reaching for a greater prize: the restoration of the Soviet Union. How convenient that some Russian nationals were left in Georgia, so that Putin could complain about their mistreatment by the Georgians and have a pretext for invasion. We recall that Adolf Hitler used the same tactic in 1938 just before he took over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told news sources that he was tired of being "bullied" by Washington. "We know there is only one superpower," he said, "but we don't need to be hit over the head with it every day." National pride.

So what can we do? Not much right now. We are tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan. The European Union, the body that should have the greatest interest in Georgian independence, is poorly equipped to respond to a problem such as this. The Europeans never expected to face this kind of challenge at the "end of history." But something must be done. We can orchestrate a lot of noise in the U.N. We can work to get Russia expelled from the G8 group and to prevent them from joining the World Trade Organization.

In the meantime, as Oliver Cromwell advised: "Trust in God, and keep your powder dry!"

Arlie J. Hoover is a professor of history at Abilene Christian University.

China, Russia military expansion threats hit

Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008

Kyodo News

Japan remains vigilant of China's growing military power, including its development of an antisatellite laser, but is less apprehensive than last year about Beijing's stand against Taiwan, according to an annual defense review released Friday.

The Defense of Japan 2008, endorsed Friday by the Cabinet, also expresses caution about Russia's military activities around Japan and refers to the possibility of North Korea developing downsized nuclear warheads in a short time span.

In the wake of scandals involving the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces since last year, the 425-page report devotes 22 pages to describing reform measures.

On China, the report repeats a call for more transparency on the country's military spending. China's published defense expenditures have marked double-digit year-to-year growth for 20 years in a row, with the fiscal 2008 budget totaling around 409.9 billion yuan (about $60 billion). The growth during this period translates into "a pace that nearly doubles every five years," the report says.

It argues that the priority in China's military modernization is to acquire the capability to deter Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, from seeking independence, and also to deter "foreign military forces" from providing support to Taiwan. The report, however, waters down the rhetoric on these reiterated points compared with the 2007 report.

The 2008 review offers for the first time detailed references to China's growing military capabilities in space, including the reported development of a laser aimed at disabling satellites. It also mentions reported Chinese drills against cyber attacks.

A Man Betrayed

Whistleblower still looking for justice

By Pam McLennan
Epoch Times Ottawa Staff Sep 3, 2008

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Brian McAdam kept meticulous records of his investigations when he discovered corruption in the Canadian Embassy in Hong Kong from 1989 to 1993. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)

Brian McAdam wanted to do the right thing and he expected that his government would stand behind him.

However, when he revealed widespread corruption in Canadian government offices in Hong Kong and what he says was infiltration of every level of Canadian government by Chinese criminal forces in Canada, the opposite happened.

Rather than being rewarded for his efforts to expose the corruption within the Canadian Foreign Service, McAdam says he was treated like a pariah, pressured into leaving his job, and then slandered.

In other words, he was hung out to dry while the bad guys whistled all the way to the bank. And in this case the bad guys were the triads (Chinese mafia), the Chinese Communist regime, which McAdam says is linked to the triads, and even some Canadian officials.

“I wanted to stop Chinese criminals and spies from trying to destroy our country,” McAdam says, referring to his investigations into a visas-for-sale racket while working as counselor in consul in Hong Kong from 1989 to 1993.

A recent series of articles in the Ottawa Citizen (part three has yet to be published) marks the first time his story has been published “in its entirety, in mainstream media, in Canada,” says McAdam. “Parts were published before but it has been difficult for me to tell the story, plus it is complicated. It needs a book.”

He adds that the Canadian media “have been very remiss and they have perpetuated a lot of the myths about China and not dealt with the reality. So there has been incredible underreporting of events in China, which I think has enabled this Communist regime to become as powerful as it has.”

While in Hong Kong McAdam noticed that illegal visas were being issued and all of his intelligence information was being removed from his computer. After he returned to Canada, “seven RCMP officers investigated for seven years and said they could not [identify the problem].”

He says that at the time he was dismayed as he watched the corruption continue without any consequences, as his notes and research “disappeared” followed by a smear campaign that left him without a job or allies.

Possibly the worst part of all was his betrayal by those in the American embassy, members of the RCMP, former colleagues, and his former managers. In the end, he suffered a mental breakdown from the severe pressure he was under.

McAdam says the whistleblower legislation introduced by the Conservatives that he lobbied so hard for turned out to be a disappointment. Although they tried, he says, the government hasn’t yet got it right.

“They still ended up with legislation that protects the government and government ministers from embarrassment rather than protecting the whistleblowers. The proof is that the legislation has been in place for a year and yet they haven’t dealt with one whistleblower case and not one person has been prosecuted.”

McAdam believes the government should be investigating every allegation of corruption in the Canadian Embassy in Hong Kong, the Foreign Affairs department, the RCMP, and CSIS as he has repeatedly asked it to do.

In the 15 years since he first blew the whistle, McAdam has campaigned to educate the government and the police about the insidious schemes he says the Chinese Communist regime carries out on Canadian soil.

However, he is still waiting for even an acknowledgment that problems of corruption and criminal infiltration of government and businesses exist, let alone a sign that Ottawa is willing do something about it.

As Paralympics Launch, Disabled Face Discrimination

Hiring Bias, Harassment of Disabled Organizations Undermine Laws

HRW - (New York, September 5, 2008) – Despite recent positive steps, discrimination against persons with disabilities continues in China and organizations for the disabled face government pressure and harassment, Human Rights Watch said today on the eve of the September 6 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

The Chinese government deserves praise for enacting laws and ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. But so far these protections have meant little to persons with disabilities and their advocates in China who struggle to promote their rights and, in particular, to fairly compete for employment. Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

Related Material More on human rights in China and Tibet Country Page China: Hosting Olympics a Catalyst for Human Rights Abuses Press Release, August 22, 2008 More on health and human rights Thematic Page Beijing 2008: China's Olympian Human Rights Challenges Special Focus Free Email Newsletter

“The Chinese government deserves praise for enacting laws and ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “But so far these protections have meant little to persons with disabilities and their advocates in China who struggle to promote their rights and, in particular, to fairly compete for employment.”

The Chinese government has in recent years enacted a variety of new laws including the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, Regulations on the Education of Persons with Disabilities, and the Regulations on Employment of Persons with Disabilities, which on paper provide impressive protections of the rights of China’s estimated 82.7 million persons with disabilities. Human Rights Watch applauded the Chinese government’s August 1, 2008, ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Human Rights Watch said that the new laws have not ended discriminatory employment practices. In June 2007, shocking images of workers who had been held in slave-like conditions in Shanxi brick kilns were published; many of the workers proved to have mental disabilities. Over the next two months, authorities endeavored to free 1,340 people from similar working conditions in kilns, mines, and other forced labor situations. In August 2007, the State Council, China’s cabinet, announced that 367 of those freed had mental disabilities, underscoring that this population remains highly vulnerable to such exploitation.

A 2007 survey by the China University of Political Science and Law of 3,454 people in 10 cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Nanjing, among others, revealed that 22 percent of the respondents said their physical disabilities had prompted employers in both the public and private sectors to reject them for jobs. Those attitudes may have contributed to unemployment of the disabled. Official statistics show that more than 8.58 million employable people with disabilities did not have jobs in 2007 and that this number rises by 300,000 per year. Although the government has imposed a mandatory quota requiring that people with disabilities comprise a minimum of 1.5 percent of all employees of government departments, enterprises, and institutions, there is little evidence of official efforts to enforce that quota.

Human Rights Watch called for the Chinese government to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Optional Protocol, and to loosen restrictions on grassroots civil society organizations dedicated to assisting people with disabilities. Citizens of states which join the Optional Protocol can seek redress at the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities after they exhaust domestic legal remedies for convention violations.

The Chinese government has only in the past two decades begun to tolerate grassroots civil society organizations, which operate outside official bureaucracy and control of the Chinese Communist Party. However, such organizations, particularly those devoted to addressing the needs of China’s HIV/AIDS and chronic hepatitis B sufferers, continue to be targets for repression by Chinese security forces suspicious of such groups.

Meng Weina, founder of China’s Huiling Community Services, a nongovernmental organization which assists disabled people in eight major Chinese cities, complained of harassment by Shanghai police in a letter to the International Olympic and Paralympic Committees. A group of Meng’s mentally disabled students were harassed en route to the Special Olympics in Shanghai on October 11, 2007; Meng described the incident as evidence that Chinese police “believe that events initiated by civil society must be ‘dangerous’ and ‘destructive.’”

“Until the Chinese government tolerates a civil society which operates without threat of official repression and improves ordinary citizens’ access to justice, its commitments on paper to people with disabilities will remain limited,” Richardson said.

Human Rights Watch said that the Beijing Paralympics also offer the Chinese government an opportunity to fulfill its Olympics-related commitments to media freedom and internet access. During the August 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese government continued to obstruct media freedom and to restrict foreign journalists’ access to the internet.

“The Paralympics are the Chinese government’s last chance to live up to the Olympics-related human rights commitments made to the international community, but which were repeatedly violated during the Beijing Games,” Richardson said.

Human Rights Torch Still Burns inside China

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:26:00 - Watch video here.

NTDTV

CHAN: Even after Beijing's Olympic flame has extinguished, the Human Rights Torch Relay continues. It's still being passed around underground inside China, and has gotten lots of support from Chinese who had been hoping the CCP would improve its human rights situation. STORY: The Human Rights Torch Relay is a global grassroots campaign to raise awareness of and stop the Chinese regime's human rights abuses. After the Olympics, many Chinese are still unhappy with what they see as the regime having made little or no progress on human rights, despite promises it made. We interviewed some Shanghai residents who are using the Torch Relay to petition for greater rights and freedom. "What we need are human rights and freedom. We hope the government takes more action with less empty talk. Give the Chinese people a stable, peaceful and harmonious living environment." "The UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was signed more than a decade ago. But it's still not approved by the People's Congress. We are supposed to be the owners of the nation. But since we don't have human rights, our property can be taken away easily. For high level Chinese officials, corruption has become part of their culture. It's terrifying." "The government uses suppression rather than laws. They demolish people's houses with force and violence. They don't allow people to complain, either. If they do, they'll be punished." "We welcome the Human Rights Torch Relay to Shanghai! We want freedom! We want human rights! We want houses! We want to live with dignity! Down with the illegal prison system!" Inside China today, the Human Rights Torch takes the form of posters and petitions, since a physical torch could draw attention—and arrests—from Chinese police. Nonetheless, for many Chinese, this symbolic torch can still bring to light the abuses they're suffering under the Communist Party.

The Failure of the Beijing Olympics

Stephen Gregory Sept. 2, 2008
Epoch Times

Chinese security personnel ask for no photos to be taken in front of Tiananmen Gate, near Tiananmen Square, one of China's most politically sensitive sites where the military crushed pro-democracy protests in 1989, in Beijing on August 17, 2008. (Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images)

The Olympics Games are now behind us. For anti-Communists, the regime's clampdown on free and foreign press is no real surprise. Nor are MSM's blind assertions that the Games were "a resounding success" for the cadres.

The real shock is that said assertions were wrong. These Olympic Games failed to do what the Communists asked of them.

Every praiseworthy comment about the opening ceremony was matched with condemnation for the blackballing of Wang Peiyi. Their success in winning more gold medals than anyone else (although the United States won the overall medal count) was tarnished by the gymnastics scandal. Add to that the fact that so many rural Chinese tuned the Games out, and what you have is something far less than the propaganda extravaganza the cadres wanted.

Even those who acknowledged a well-run show were put off: Tom Boswell (Washington Post) called it "soulless" while Tom Humphries (Irish Times) referred to it as "hermetically sealed."

Then, to top it off, the final day came with a message from Washington ripping the cadres for refusing "to demonstrate greater tolerance and openness" (London Telegraph)—definitely not the send-off the regime wanted.

For the Communists, the question is as follows: was it worth it? Was it worth the ruined lives and angry citizens? Was it worth the inevitable corruption scandals? Based on the above, the answer is clearly No.

These Olympics will do nothing to stop Falun Gong from demanding the right to practice without prison, torture, or murder-for-organs. They will not silence investors furious over the cadres fleecing them. They will not make people forget about Tibet.

If anything, the Games have led the rest of the world to pay more attention to Communist China's military ambitions and espionage activities—exactly where the cadres did not want any prying eyes.

A perfect example of this was the lawsuit by Israeli victims of a terrorist attack against a regime-owned bank that aided said terrorists.

The details of the lawsuit reveal a multi-level scheme designed for the Communists to help the terrorists without appearing to do so. As reported in The Epoch Times:

According to the charges, the Bank of China transferred regularly, over a period of time, amounts of about US$100,000 to the private bank account of a senior Hamas official located China. The latter used the money to buy merchandise which he shipped to Gaza. In Gaza, this merchandise was resold by senior Hamas officials and the profit was used to fund terrorist activities.

According to the plaintiffs and their attorney Nitzana, the Israeli government notified the Bank of China of the use Hamas was making of the money and demanded the bank of China to stop the transfers. Darshan-Leitner claims to have evidence proving this.

In other words, Communist China is hosting a leading member of Hamas and handing him money for use in a fundraising scheme (keep in mind, Bank of China is one of the "Big Four" regime-owned banks).

For the Communists, it's back to business as usual, including propping up the ever more embarrassing Korean colony. Whatever glow they have from these Games is pale and short-lived. These Olympics were supposed to add years to the life span of the regime; it would be lucky to get days for it.

More likely, the Chinese Communist Party will be left with embarrassments that will be remembered long after the propaganda moments have passed by an uninterested populace and into history, a litany of corruption scandals that could stain the Party like never before, and a more wary free world determined to prevent the regime from using spies, terrorists, and other methods to achieve the global power it so desperately needs to survive.

One can call that many, many things; success is not one of them.

Two Brave Men

By Ren Baiming

Special to The Epoch Times Sep 1, 2008

China's foremost tenor, Guan Guimin. (The Epoch Times)

Guan Guimin, a well-known Chinese tenor, was arguably the most famous singer in China during the 1980s. He has practiced Falun Gong for over a decade.

In 2001, his compatriot, Gao Zhisheng was listed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as one of the top ten lawyers in China and has recently been commonly referred to as "the conscience of Chinese lawyers" for speaking frankly and openly about Falun Gong—Gao is himself a Christian. Recently, both of these individuals have been targets of persecution by the CCP.

After the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Guan, in a stalwart act of protest, publicly set fire to a photograph that showed him together with former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who initiated the persecution. This act infuriated Jiang.

Soon, Guan received a phone call from the Chinese National Security Bureau at his home in the United States, telling him that he had been listed as a key target for “ideological transformation” by the Chinese communist regime. It wasn’t an empty threat.

Guan taught music to earn a living and soon his students were quitting one after the other. Many of his friends also started avoiding him.

One day, an 80-year-old woman came asking Guan for music lessons. He knew full well she was a CCP spy, but unafraid, he decided to accept her as a student.

Before long, Guan received a letter, which fully detailed his daily routines and contained a complete transcript of a conversation he had recently had over the telephone. It was a typical Gestapo like intimidation tactic employed by the CCP—intending to show persons being monitored that every move of theirs is under watch, and they could be harmed at any time.

Additionally, Guan often found punctures in his tires, and sometimes saw shadows outside his doors and windows. Most people are easily worn down under such pressure, having to worry about their safety at every moment, and eventually they give in to demands.

Seeing the goal of this harassment, Guan decided to not resist, he left his door unlocked, sending a message that they were free to do as they would and he wouldn’t be afraid. He also wrote a letter to Hu Jintao, stating, ‘If you want to take my life, feel free. If you want me to stop practicing Falun Gong, you’ll never succeed.’"

After seeing he was undaunted by threats to his personal safety, the National Security Bureau, gave Guan another call at his house. This time they told Guan, "You must think about your family in China. If you don’t give in, they’ll pay for your actions."

Guan laughed, "Listen! I've left my house unlocked for you to kill me at your convenience, how helpful could I be for my family in China? Feel free to do whatever you want. You don't need to bother asking me."

The agent on the phone was stunned and soon changed his tone. He told Guan that he was welcome to come back to China and even said. “We'll guarantee your safety."

Guan replied, "I'm afraid you cannot even guarantee your own safety, how can you guarantee mine? Isn't that a joke?!"

With this, the CCP had exhausted all of its tactics on Guan Guimin. With indignity, the National Security Bureau packed up their surveillance of Guan and left his life.

Edward McMillan-Scott (L) Vice President, European Parliament poses for pictures with Democracy Legislator Albert Ho next to a portrait of mainland jailed human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng in Hong Kong, in 2006. (Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images)

Gao Zhisheng suffered through many of the same tactics as Mr. Guan. However, unlike Guan, Gao lived in mainland China. After writing an open letter to CCP leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao that called for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, Gao’s professional life started unraveling.

He was placed under 24-hour surveillance, sometimes with as many as a dozen plainclothes “secret” agents openly tailing him and his family members. He had his license to practice law revoked, experienced several attempts on his life and was ultimately placed under house arrest.

Like Guan, Mr. Gao also let go of the thought of life and death while confronting such persecution under the CCP. Over a period of several months, he would send regular reports overseas detailing the lowly behavior of the secret agents who followed him. He spoke contemptuously many times to overseas media of the villainous actions the Chinese regime used on him. Again they were trying to defeat their victim psychologically and bankrupt him financially.

These two tactics of the regime, to threaten a person’s personal safety and his or her financial stability, were overcome by both Guan and Gao, who were fearless in the face of this pressure.

However, for Mr. Gao, the threats against his family proved too much. We learnt from Gao that when the CCP discovered he cared for his family more than he cared for himself they exploited this human virtue to extract “confessions” from Gao. Gao was imprisoned and news of his plight has recently come out of China; Gao has suffered tremendous torture and humiliation at the hands of the regime.

To read original in Chinese, please click