"Falun Gong says six members die in Chinese custody"

(Reuters, September 19, 2001)

BEIJING - Six more adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have died in Chinese custody following severe abuse, the group's U.S.-based information centre said on Wednesday.
The four women and two men were held in labour camps or police custody around China during or before their deaths, the Falun Dafa Information Centre said in a statement.
Police and government officials in most of the six cities where the deaths were reported to have occurred were not available for comment.
"When you ask about these matters, nobody is ever quite clear," said a police officer in Daqing city in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, where the statement said one woman was reported by police to have jumped off a train.
"You would need to find your own way of getting information," the officer told Reuters.
Relatives of the six reported they had been beaten or tortured, although the bodies of three of those who died had still not been recovered, the information centre said.
The information centre said local government officials gave 30,000 yuan ($3,625) to the family of a woman from the eastern province of Shandong in a cover-up attempt.
The family of the woman -- whose spine was broken and lower limbs paralysed -- was forced to sign a statement saying: "Li Mei died of suicide. Her death has nothing to do with others", the information centre said.
Chinese authorities have acknowledged several deaths of Falun Gong members in custody, but say most resulted from suicide or illness.
One of the victims was arrested for circulating Falun Gong material and the others for their beliefs, the centre said.
Falun Gong has said more than 50,000 practitioners have been sent to prisons, labour camps and mental hospitals since China banned the group in 1999.
The information centre says it has details of 278 Falun Gong adherents who have died from torture during detention in China and estimates the actual death toll exceeds 1,000.
Falun Gong, branded an "evil cult" by Beijing, was banned in 1999 after stunning top leaders with a mass protest around the Zhongnanhai leadership compound to demand official recognition of their faith.
China says the group is trying to overthrow the Communist Party and has caused the death of at least 1,800 people by suicide or refusal of medical treatment.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, follows a mixture of Taoist and Buddhist beliefs and traditional Chinese physical exercises.

"China jails two for inciting subversion"

(Reuters, September 19, 2001)

HONG KONG - A Chinese court has sentenced two key leaders of the banned Zhong Gong spiritual group to two and a half years in jail for "inciting the subversion of state power," a Hong Kong-based rights group said on Wednesday.
Ju De, 46, and Ye Yaonian, 36, from central Henan province were arrested in September 1999 after they sent letters to fellow members in the province criticising the authorities for cracking down on the movement, said the Information Centre for Human Rights & Democracy.
They did not appeal their sentences which were handed down on August 28.
Some 600 members of the movement have been arrested since the end of 1999, the rights group said.
Another key member, Zhou Xinyang of central Hunan province, was given a seven year jail sentence on August 30 for tax evasion. Zhou is appealing the sentence.
The founder of the sect, Zhang Hongbao, was granted U.S. asylum in June despite demands from Beijing that he be repatriated to face rape charges.
The sect, started in 1987 in China and which boasted a following of some 38 million followers by 1990, has repeatedly denied the rape accusations.

"Falun Gong Followers Strive to Bring Attention to Cause"

by John Mulligan ("Knight Ridder News Service," September 12, 2001)

WASHINGTON -- They awaken with the birds in a ragged city park. They sit cross-legged on purple mats and do slow-motion calisthenics designed, apparently, for maximum simplicity.
This gentle tableau is the outward look of the Falun Gong, a movement that has drawn the Chinese government's sharpest crackdown since the bloody suppression of the student protests at Tiananmen Square.
As unheralded as the massing of 10,000 silent protesters outside a government building in Beijing one morning in 1999, a tiny cadre of hunger strikers appeared outside the Chinese Embassy here last month.
One of them was Amy Cheng of Hope Valley, R.I., whose experience links some of the world's most ancient spiritual traditions to the lightning powers of the Internet Age.
"The cultivation of Falun Gong has answered a lot of my questions about the universe and about life," said Cheng, a 38-year-old computer programmer and mother of two. She feels obliged, she said, to do her bit to call attention to the persecution of Falun Gong's followers in China.
Cheng and her compatriots seem so modest in demeanor, yet grand in their claims and ambitions.
The protesters are right in step with some all-American traditions -- the old-time religious revival, the New Age self-help group, the right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition their government for the redress of grievances. And they are totally wired to the Web -- a wellspring of the power that the Chinese government has found so threatening.
The magnitude of the spiritual force behind the physical regime is what sets Falun Gong apart from other disciplines in the Buddhist and Taoist traditions, according to Cheng, who has returned to Rhode Island after a five-day fast.
The Chinese government asserts that the movement is an evil cult, as evidenced by the public self-immolation of several practitioners in China this summer. Li Hongzhi, the Falun Gong founder who now lives in New York, has raised eyebrows by describing the practice, in part, as a response to the threat that aliens pose to humanity.
Cheng said the self-immolation might have been staged by the government and was contrary to the principles of the Falun Gong.
This is, in any event, a movement that has rippled more dramatically through international politics and diplomacy than any run-of-the-mill cult or protest group.
For Cheng, the proof is in the pudding: Falun Gong has so improved her life that she is willing to go to great lengths to protest its suppression. She has traveled to Geneva, Hong Kong (where she says the government denied her entry at customs), and now to the hunger strike in Washington, seeking news coverage at every opportunity.
She pays her own way, she said. She teaches weekly Falun Gong classes at Roger Williams Park and she touts the cause at fairs and festivals around Rhode Island. She and her colleagues have snagged Falun Gong features on local cable TV, maintained a Web site and petitioned town governments around the state for recognition of the Falun Gong.
The next great goal of the followers is to catch President Bush's eye before he makes his first state visit to China next month. But their momentary aim is rather small, according to Eugene Cui of Atlanta, the first of the hunger strikers to arrive Aug. 17. He fasted for 11 days, longer than Cheng and most of the rest.
If more protesters want to fast, he said, they will simply appear at the scruffy park across from the Chinese Embassy. They will stand their watch against the persecution and they will move on. And they will pass the word on the Net.

"Falun Gong followers trek across Taiwan"

(Reuters, September 11, 2001)

TAIPEI - A group of members of the Falun Gong, the spiritual movement outlawed in China as a cult, kicked off a 400-km (250-mile) trek walk across Taiwan on Tuesday, calling for the release of jailed Chinese adherents.
Wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the sign "SOS", 21 Falun Gong practitioners set off on the two-week walk from the island's capital Taipei to the southern port city of Kaohsiung.
"We hope China will stop persecuting Falun Gong members and release them," the group's Taiwan leader Chang Ching-hsi told Reuters.
"We want to expose China's evil deeds," said Chang, a professor of economics at the elite National Taiwan University.
The group has intensified its activities overseas in recent months and staged a walk across the United States and a hunger strike in Hong Kong.
Falun Gong says more than 50,000 practitioners in China have been sent to prisons, labour camps and mental hospitals since Beijing banned the group in 1999.
Human rights groups estimate some 200 Falun Gong adherents have died from torture during detention.
Beijing says the group is trying to overthrow the Communist Party and caused the death of at least 1,800 people by suicide or refusal of medical treatment.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, mixes traditional Chinese breathing exercises with Taoist and Buddhist elements of meditation and philosophy. Its practitioners extol its powers of healing both physical and emotional ailments.
Beijing outlawed Falun Gong in 1999 after thousands of members laid siege to the Zhongnanhai leadership compound to demand official recognition.
Falun Gong says it has about 100,000 followers in Taiwan.

"Chinese Immigrants Discuss Exercise Program, Persecution"

by Dan Springer ("The Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan," September 10, 2001)

Chinese immigrants now living in Brookings stopped in Yankton Saturday to spread the word about the benefits of an ancient relaxation exercise program -- and to discuss how even this seemingly sublime practice has led to persecution back in their homeland of China.
Cuinong Ren, his wife Sue Jiang and daughter Selena took time Saturday morning to tell Yanktonians about the Falun Gong. At the same time, they posted displays that told how thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been imprisoned, terrorized and killed for refusing to stop the practice they say helps them relax and be better people.
Ren, an assistant professor in plant science at South Dakota State University, said Falun Gong has changed his life and has helped him be a more productive person, better husband and father.
"Before I learned Falun Gong, I suffered from stomach problems. I had severe abdominal pain all the time. I was very uncomfortable," he said. "Now I practice Falun Gong every day I can and I haven't had any more problems."
Falun Gong is a practice that has brought better health and inner peace to millions around the world, Ren said.
But since the Chinese givernment banned the practice of Falun Gong, Ren said, 279 Falun Gong practitioners have been murdered and hundreds more are struggling to get out of mental hospitals that are run by the government.
Practitioners worldwide have condemned the Chinese government for the anti-Falun Gong actions. Some practitioners in at least one Chinese labor camp have undertaken a hunger strike to protest the treatment of practitioners.
Ren said the government banned the practice over fears that anti-government propaganda was being spread from person to person while meditating.
"The communist government bans all religion anyway and they claim that this is a religion," he said. "This is not a religion at all. That is false."
According to the website www.falundafa.org, Falun Gong is a cultivation practice that helps bring about improvement of one's heart and mind through the careful study of universal principles based on truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance. Practitioners do exercises and meditation to energize the body.
The program, which is based on centuries old practices, was reintroduced to the Chinese in 1992. Through word-of-mouth alone, it spread throughout the country and around the world. It is now practiced in 40 countries and in every state in the United States, Ren said.
But even though Falun Gong does not encourage any religious beliefs, it has been labeled as a cult by the Chinese government which has outlawed its practice.
Jiang, who was detained in a Chinese prison for 24 days earlier this year, said it is another way China's community government controls its people by controlling the information that is distributed.
"They control everything. They do this to cover up the truth. They not only control the media in China but they also try to control what is being said in other parts of the world," she said. "They called this a cult to scare people into not practicing Falun Gong, but it is not a cult. It merely teaches us how to relax and how to be good people, not evil."
Ren said he and his family are traveling throughout eastern South Dakota to spread the word about the practice and offering to teach anyone interested in learning more about Falun Gong.
"We want to tell everyone about Falun Gong because we believe in it so much," Ren said. "If anyone wants information on it they can call us and we will get them any information they need."
Falun Gong training is free of charge. According to the program's website, all books and other information may be downloaded for free and anyone who teaches Falun Gong is forbidden from benefiting financially.
Ren said that by spreading the word about Falun Gong and the horrible misdeeds being done by the Chinese government, he hopes the rest of the world can pressure government leaders to change their past of abusing basic human rights.
"Falun Gong teaches us people how to become good people. There's nothing wrong to society. But the Chinese government views this totally wrong. We are offering people a peaceful way to solve their problems," Ren said. "A lot of countries have condemned the Chinese government and I hope that will convince the government to change their minds."

"China jails sect member for tax evasion-HK group"

(Reuters, September 10, 2001)

HONG KONG - A Chinese court has sentenced a key member of the banned Zhong Gong spiritual group to seven years in jail for refusing to pay taxes, a Hong Kong-based rights group said on Monday.
Zhou Xinyang, 46, of central Hunan province was arrested in October 1999 for "subverting state power," but was prosecuted and jailed on August 30 for the apparently less serious offence, said the Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy.
Zhou is appealing the sentence, it said.
The founder of the sect, Zhang Hongbao, was granted U.S. asylum in June despite demands from Beijing that he be repatriated to face rape charges.
The sect, started in 1987 in China and which boasted a following of some 38 million people by 1990, has repeatedly denied the rape accusations.

"Falun Gong asks Bush to plead follower's case"

(Reuters, September 7, 2001)

WASHINGTON - Banned Chinese spiritual group Falun Gong on Friday called on President George W. Bush to use his visit to China in October to plead the case of one of its jailed followers, permanent U.S. resident Teng Chunyan.
"We fully expect President Bush to use all possible means to ensure Dr. Teng's freedom, including the leverage afforded by his visit to China next month," Falun Gong's main spokesman Erping Zhang told a news conference.
"We think this will be a good opportunity for our president to bring Dr. Teng's case to Chinese leaders," he said.
The State Department has complained about the detention of Teng, a New York-based doctor who practiced and taught traditional Chinese medicine, along with those of several China-born academics detained in China in the past year.
The release in July of U.S. citizen Li Shaomin, convicted of spying for Taiwan, and U.S. residents Gao Zhan and Qin Guangguang, detained on similar charges, was believed to be due in large part to pressure from U.S. officials.
Bush even brought up the cases of detained U.S.-connected scholars in a telephone conversation with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in early July, the State Department said, although it declined to disclose the names of those discussed.
Bush will meet Jiang face to face for the first time in Shanghai at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum before moving on to Beijing for a state visit.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, mixes traditional Chinese exercises with Taoist and Buddhist elements of meditation and philosophy. Its practitioners extol its powers of healing both physical and emotional ailments.
Beijing banned the movement in 1999 after it surprised China's leaders by staging a mass protest around the Zhongnanhai leadership compound.
Since then more than 50,000 practitioners have been sent to prisons, labor camps and mental hospitals, according to Falun Gong figures that cannot be confirmed. Human rights groups estimate some 200 Falun Gong adherents have died from torture during detention in China.
Teng, who went to China to try to document alleged abuses of Falun Gong practitioners in mental hospitals, has been charged with illegally providing state information to foreigners because she gave some of the data she collected to Western journalists.

"Handful of Falun Gong followers walk across U.S."

(Reuters, September 6, 2001)

WASHINGTON - A handful of Falun Gong followers started a walk across America on Thursday in their latest effort to draw attention to the plight of practitioners they say are held and persecuted in labor camps in China.
The latest protest by the Falun Gong spiritual group, outlawed in China as an evil cult, drew about 25 practitioners to the U.S. Capitol building in their trademark yellow T-shirts.
The walk, which follows on from a hunger strike scheduled to end on Thursday in front of the Chinese Embassy, aimed to call for the release of practitioners jailed for violating the ban.
The group has intensified its activities overseas in recent months and has staged walks and hunger strikes in several countries and cities including Hong Kong, Macau and New York.
Chinese government officials have denounced the events as ploys to recruit new members as the group loses credibility.
Falun Gong says more than 50,000 practitioners have been sent to prisons, labor camps and mental hospitals since China banned the group in 1999.
Human rights groups estimate some 200 Falun Gong adherents have died from torture during detention in China.
Chinese authorities, meanwhile, have acknowledged several deaths of Falun Gong members in custody, but say most resulted from suicide or illness.
Most of the walkers who set out on Thursday planned to stop after three days to a week but one, David Lee Jerke, planned to go all the way to Los Angeles, a 3,000-mile (4,829 km) journey. He hopes other followers will join him along the way.
"I tell you, this is not a political issue, nor is this a Chinese issue. This is a human issue, and these are crimes against humanity," Jerke said in a speech.
Among the practitioners being held is Teng Chunyan, a permanent U.S. resident sentenced to three years in a labor camp whose case has been raised with Beijing by the administration of President George W. Bush.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, mixes traditional Chinese exercises with Taoist and Buddhist elements of meditation and philosophy. Its practitioners extol its powers of healing both physical and emotional ailments.
China says the group is trying to overthrow the Communist Party and has caused the death of at least 1,800 people through suicide or refusal of medical treatment.
Beijing banned the movement in 1999 after it staged a mass protest around the Zhongnanhai leadership compound to demand official recognition.

"Human rights to be raised with Chinese"

by Deaglán de Bréadún ("The Irish Times," September 3, 2001)

Trade and human rights are expected to feature prominently in discussions between the Government and a delegation led by the Chinese Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, which has arrived in Ireland for a four-day visit.
China is a key element in the Government's "Asia Strategy", which is aimed at maximising foreign earnings from the region. For the past three years an inter-departmental group has been working on ways of increasing the level of trade and investment; in that time, trade with Asia has doubled.
Along with its EU partners, Ireland is engaged in dialogue with China on political issues, including human rights. It is understood the Chinese have indicated that they would have no objection to discussing human rights issues during their visit.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said that Ireland had a "mature political relationship" with China and the Government believed that a policy of engagement rather than confrontation on human rights issues would bring about "the necessary progress which we would like to see".
Mr Zhu and his 175-member delegation arrived at Dublin Airport yesterday and were greeted by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and his partner, Ms Celia Larkin.
Also present were Mr Cowen; the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke; the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Tom Kitt; the Chinese ambassador to Ireland, Madame Zhang Xiaokang; the Irish Ambassador to China, Mr Declan Connolly; and officials.
Mr Zhu was accompanied by his wife, Madame Lao An; China's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Tang Jiaxun; the Minister for Culture, Mr Sun Jiazheng; and two other senior ministers, Mr Li Rongrong and Mr Shi Guangsheng.
The Chinese Premier reviewed a guard of honour before departing for the State guest house at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park. A small group of supporters of imprisoned members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement protested outside Farmleigh.
Security for the visit is tight.
The Taoiseach and Mr Zhu will hold talks this morning at Farmleigh and there will be a brief joint press conference.
In the afternoon, Mr Zhu will make a courtesy call on the President, Mrs McAleese, the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, Mr Seamus Pattison, and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Mr Brian Mullooly.
An official dinner in Dublin Castle tonight, hosted by Mr Ahern and Ms Larkin, is expected to include Cardinal Desmond Connell.
A Fine Gael MEP, Mr John Cushnahan, who has "expert" status in the European Parliament on matters relating to China and Hong Kong, warned yesterday that trade issues must not be allowed to take precedence over human rights. He said: "China has an appalling human rights record and the Taoiseach must use the opportunity of the meeting with the Chinese Premier to make our views known."
The Tibet Support Group (Ireland) raised the imprisonment of Tibetan religious leaders and claimed that more than 280 members of the Falun Gong movement had been "tortured to death in custody over the past two years".
The group's statement continued: "Should Ireland be supplying IT technology to a regime that will certainly use it for totalitarian ends? And should Ireland be importing Chinese goods made by forced labour in prisons, education through labour camps and People's Liberation Army-owned and controlled factories?"

"Falun Gong followers decry China's stance"

by Cathy Mong ("Dayton Daily News," September 2, 2001)

DAYTON--Practitioners of a traditional Chinese form of meditation and exercise hardly appear to be enemies of the state.
Yet hundreds of Chinese have died and thousands have been tortured since 1999 because of their adherence to Falun Gong, which teaches truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.
About a dozen practitioners from Ohio and northern Kentucky sat in the lotus position in front of the Federal Building downtown Saturday to draw attention to human rights abuses and to call for the release of 130 followers on a hunger strike at the Masanjia labor camp in China.
Some of the followers are taking part in the 360-mile SOS Walk for Justice through Ohio that started Wednesday in Cincinnati and will end Sept. 17 in Cleveland.
Rick Carne, an aide to U.S. Rep. Tony Hall, D-Dayton, said Hall was "very worried and very concerned" about China's continued monitoring of Falun Gong practitioners. Carne urged citizens to contact their representatives to support House Resolution 188, which calls for the Chinese government to cease persecution of the 70 million practitioners in that country. There are an estimated 100 million followers worldwide.
The resolution says the persecution violates China's constitution, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Carne told listeners to contact President Bush, who will travel to China in October to meet with China's President Jiang Zemin.
Dr. Sunny Lu, a psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati, said the Chinese government has 610 offices throughout China used to monitor the activities of practitioners.
Followers who exercise publicly are often detained, taken to mental hospitals, given heavy doses of drugs, tortured and brainwashed, Lu said.
The form of meditation and exercise was introduced publicly in 1992 and quickly became popular.
At least 270 followers have died since July 20, 1999, when the government intervened, she said. Deaths almost always are attributed to suicide, she said, and practitioners labeled mentally ill.
"It's typical of Chinese persecution of minority groups who do not agree with the communist government and total mind control," Carne said. "There is no reason to fear Falun Gong. It is a gentle, gentle way of living."
He said Hall is against open trading with China, and said there is no way to know what products bought by U.S. consumers are made in Chinese prison camps by political prisoners.
Among those meditating and exercising Saturday was Jesse Xie, 10, a fifth-grader from Fort Thomas, Ky.
"It's really peaceful. It improves your health and tells you to be a good person," said Jesse, who has been practicing Falun Gong two hours a day for four years. "It helps me stay calm and not get angry."

"Five female Falungong followers tortured to death in China: report"

(AFP, September 1 2001)

BEIJING - Five Chinese women, all detained for following the outlawed Falungong spiritual movement, have died in custody following torture by police, the group's New York-based headquarters said Saturday.
The women, who died in detention centers or police stations in five different provinces around China, were arrested simply for possessing or posting fliers about the government's persecution of Falungong members, the Falun Dafa Information Center said in a press release.
The center cited witness accounts saying the women were severely beaten before they died.
The deaths follow the lead of government directives issued in May to punish more severely anyone caught disseminating information on Falungong or the government's suppression of the group, the center said.
Police and detention center officials contacted by AFP either said they could not comment or did not know the person or incident reported.
One woman from the southern province of Fujian died after only three days in police custody, and witnesses reported her body had received a gaping wound in the waist, the size of a fist, the center said.
Police officials hurriedly cremated her body and prevented acquaintances from viewing the corpse. Her family was pressured not to disclose her death, it added.
Another woman's corpse was covered with wounds but authorities tried to dismiss her death as a suicide, the center said. She was imprisoned after police raided her home and found books about the semi-Buddhist sect.
Police also tried to explain the death of a woman from the northern province of Jilin as suicide, alleging she jumped off a building, the center said. However a witness reported seeing what appeared to be a woman's corpse being thrown off a building.
A woman from northern Heilongjiang province died after two months of abuse at a detention center, where she was beaten unconscious several times but denied medical attention, the center also said.
And another woman from the northern province of Gansu appeared to have died from injuries sustained while being force fed, the center added. She had been on hunger strike and was beaten severely during her detention, it said.
Four of the five women died in August while the other died in July.
The deaths bring the total number of known cases of Falungong members who died in police custody to 272, the center said.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, which has been independently verifying the reports, has been able to confirm 156 deaths so far.
Tens of thousands of Falunlong practitioners have been sent to "re-education through labor" centres since the Chinese government banned the group as an "evil cult" in July 1999, while hundreds of practitioners have been given prison sentences.
Beijing considers Falungong a threat to social stability and a challenge to its authority.