Truth in China

'Berlin Twitter Wall' Blocked in China

2009-11-06T07:56:30+01:00

By Genevieve Long
Epoch Times Staff
Nov 4, 2009

A screenshot of the website showing 'tweets' about the Berlin Wall. Before the site was blocked in China, most were in Chinese. (berlintwitterwall.com)

A virtual wall created for Twitter users to express their thoughts and hopes on the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been blocked in China.

The “Berlin Twitter Wall,” as it’s called, is an initiative of KulturProjekte Berli, a not-for-profit organization that promotes networking and mediation of art and culture.

Launched on Oct. 20, according to the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the virtual wall was blocked by Chinese authorities after almost 2,000 Chinese Internet users left Twitter messages there. The wall currently has just over 4,000 tweets posted on it, mostly in Chinese.

“Chinese Internet users must not be prevented from accessing the Berlin Twitter Wall,” said Reporters Without Borders in a statement released Tuesday morning. “Initiatives like these are important platforms for the promotion of freedom of speech as well as for critical voices and protest.”

RSF added that many foreign news outlets and social-networking sites remain inaccessible to Chinese users.

Twitter account holders can post comments that appear automatically on the berlintwitterwall.com site by using the hashtag #fotw (fall of the wall).

The site exhorted users to “share your thoughts on the Fall of the Berlin wall now or let us know which walls still have to come down to make our world a better place!” Chinese on twitter drew comparisons between the Berlin Wall and the Great Firewall of China (GFW), the name given to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s program of pervasive Internet censorship.

“Overturning the GFW is an urgent priority, communism is just a red terror that deceives people,” one user wrote.

“The Berlin Wall has a Chinese version. German friends have given us a rallying point to overturn the GFW!” a writer identified as cx0878 wrote.

“Why is getting on the net now to say true words so hard?” another user said, calling themselves guozili.

The Golden Shield Project, often called the Great Firewall of China, is a censorship and surveillance project operated by China’s Ministry of Public Security. It is intended to increase up the Chinese Communist Party’s control of the Internet in China. It includes tens of thousands of personnel who monitor and delete content deemed subversive, as well as an elaborate system for making Web sites inaccessible.

Last Updated
Nov 4, 2009

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A Pyramid Inside the Heart

2009-11-03T14:13:45+01:00

Understandings on Cultivation

Author: Guan Ming

(PureInsight.org) When I was young, my grandmother told me a story that I still remember clearly to this day. The story was about an active young boy who lived in the East several hundred years ago. He lived on a mountain, and everyday he climbed up to the top of the mountain to look out at the sea far away. He was told that on rare occasions, one could see a golden pyramid rising from the sea that is as glorious as a fairyland. He told his mother that someday he would travel to and live inside the golden pyramid after he had grown up. His mother always smiled when hearing that. She would reply, “All right. I hope you will grow up soon.”

On the day the boy turned 18 years old, he told his mother that he would leave to search for the golden pyramid. His mother was surprised: “Son, that story is just a legend. There is no such pyramid in this human world.” But the boy was determined: “Mother, trust me. I will find the golden pyramid.” After traveling a long distance and encountering many hardships, the young man persevered every day in walking in the direction of the pyramid. One day, he finally reached the sea that he had viewed from his mountain home. Although, he couldn’t see the pyramid that he was searching for, he still believed that he would see it some day. Day after day, he waited by the sea.

As I grew older, I also believed that there was no such golden pyramid in life. However, I kept remembering this beautiful story. One day, I casually entered a Chinese bookstore and saw a copy of Zhuan Falun which was golden and shiny. This reminded me of the above story. Since then, I started to read this heavenly book and still enjoy reading it to this day. This became the golden pyramid inside my heart.

In the sweltering heat of June, people like to go and stay in places where air-conditioning is available. However, when I pick up my trumpet and practice music as a Celestial Band member, all those discomforts due to high temperatures are diminished. I believe it is because of the pyramid in my heart that helps me dissolve into in the music and enter into the state of feeling as if I am walking in the breeze.

When marching in the rain with other Celestial Band members or practicing the Falun Dafa exercises in the rain, I sometimes felt a little cold after my clothing was soaked. However, the pyramid in my heart would warm me up from dantian (point in the lower abdomen) throughout my entire body and I would become very comfortable again.

When experiencing tribulations, such as threatening or humiliating situations, this golden pyramid always shines with a light of compassion. This strengthens my determination in following the truth and makes me more diligent. I know that no test can change my determination as a Dafa practitioner.

Translated from Chinese

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Shen Yun Performing Arts "Inspires People to Have Compassion" (Photo)

2009-10-14T08:04:03+02:00

(Clearwisdom.net) Shen Yun Performing Arts graced the stage at the Canon Theatre in Toronto on Sunday for it's final presentation until it returns in January. Joining the packed theatre at Sunday's show were Mr. and Mrs. Finlason and their two children. Mr. Finlason operates a tourism business.

"It was a great show--all the colors, all the dancing and the singing--everything, it was beautiful," he said.

Mr. and Mrs. Finlason and their two children enjoyed Shen Yun.

The family was moved by the presentation of classical Chinese culture. "The cultural aspect, it's so neat, it's all storytelling--every dance tells a story. There's a lot of drumming and instruments and the costumes--it's just really neat. It's something you wouldn't really see in North American western dancing, so it's very unique," added Mrs. Finlason.

Family Travels Three Hours to See Shen Yun

Mr. Wang, who lives in a small city in southwest Ontario, traveled all the way to Toronto (a three-hour drive) to see the Shen Yun Performing Arts show at Canon Theatre on Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Wang, who brought his wife and child to the show, said he had heard so much about Shen Yun that he wanted to see it, but the family was previously deterred by the long trip to Toronto.

"That is why this is the first time we've seen Shen Yun. This time, we made up our minds to come and see it, and I feel it was well worth the trip!"

And after all the effort to come, he greatly appreciated the presentation of classical China's traditional values. "All the performers are very professional, including the dancers and singers. The show is very well done. Shen Yun makes people pursue good things, inspiring people to have compassion. That is very good," he said.

Mr. Wang described the unique backdrop as "magnificent," adding that he was also delighted by the orchestra, which combines Western and Chinese instruments.

"The orchestra is very good, they are very professional. I found that the orchestra, dancers, and the backdrops are well coordinated. I am not a professional in the arts, but to me it is very well done and coordinated."

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Handling Family Issues with Righteous Thoughts and True Compassion

2009-10-10T15:03:49+02:00

By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwidom.net) I obtained the Fa in 1997. Several years ago, I was arrested and imprisoned for four years for having distributed DVDs on the persecution of Falun Dafa.

After I was released from prison, my sisters and brother took turns watching me to make sure I was not doing Dafa work anymore. My husband, although he had been a practitioner himself, did not allow me to communicate with fellow practitioners or keep Dafa materials at home, due to the pressure from family and society and the fear of losing me again. I was left with only a copy of Zhuan Falun and allowed to do the exercises at home while I was looking after my elderly aunt.

My husband complained to me that he had endured and sacrificed a lot for our belief in Dafa over these years, and demanded that I promise not to go out to clarify the truth to people. This did not sound like what a Dafa practitioner should say and do, but more like the old forces' arrangements. Therefore, I sent forth a righteous thought, "I am Li Hongzhi's disciple, and I do not acknowledge any arrangements other than Master's." I replied my husband, "I cannot promise that to you, as I am a Dafa practitioner. I can only promise to Master to save more sentient beings, walk the path that Master has arranged for me and do the three things well."

"If thoughts are righteous, evil will collapse" (Hong Yin Volume II, "What's to Fear?") My husband became quiet. Eventually, he resumed practicing Dafa.

My elderly aunt suffered from Alzheimer's disease. She stayed in bed all the time and had been taking medication for most of her life. I told her to recite "Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good." She said, "I do believe that, because you and your husband have both become healthier than before, and don't need to take medication anymore." After having listened to Master's lectures on audio tapes, my aunt said to me, "I don't need medication, either." Thus, she stopped taking medication. Now she is 92 years old. Not only has her mind become clear, but her grey hair also has turned black again and her complexion is rosy and fair.

My younger brother is a police chief for the railroad on which Dafa practitioners often travel with Dafa materials. Some practitioners were reported to my brother, but he told the policemen not to harass Dafa practitioners.

My sisters would also help me with housework and caring for our elderly aunt when I went to the villages to distribute truth clarification materials and talk to people about the persecution.

All of my family members have quit the CCP organizations, and they also encouraged others to quit. Some have started cultivating, and others said they would cultivate after the CCP collapses.

Because I am not going to extremes like before in doing Dafa work and I help my family members with their business, my family does not restrict me in anything related to Dafa. Every day I study the Fa in the morning, and go out with fellow practitioners to clarify the truth to people in the afternoon.

People react differently based on their notions when I talk about the persecution of Falun Dafa and the CCP. I sought guidance from the Fa while asking myself, "Why didn't the people want to quit CCP organizations?" It was because I hadn't clarified the truth in the proper way so they could understand, or my heart of compassion wasn't sufficient, or my righteous thoughts weren't strong. Thus, I was not moved by ordinary people's negative reactions and would tell them with my compassion, "Maybe I am not eloquent, but if you encounter someone else telling you to quit the CCP organizations, maybe you will reconsider. It is really for your own good. We are strangers to each other and I don't have to talk to you about this. I just want you to have a good life and future." Many were touched upon hearing this and asked me to assist them in quitting the CCP organizations, and thanked me for doing so.

My understanding is that we do not pursue the quantity of people quitting the CCP organizations; rather, we should move people with the kindness and forbearance that we obtain from cultivating Dafa, so that they can be saved. Let us cultivate ourselves diligently to be worthy of Master's salvation.

September 23, 2009

Chinese version available

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New Jersey: "You Are Great!" (Photos)

2009-09-18T09:14:38+02:00

By a practitioner from New Jersey

(Clearwisdom.net) On September 13, 2009, Monroe City, New Jersey, held its 21^st Annual Town and Country Day. It was a pleasant autumn day with bright sunshine and a cool breeze. The Falun Gong booth was decorated with a row of small hanging lotus flowers. Several practitioners demonstrated the exercises under the tent. Many passersby stopped to inquire about Falun Gong.

Exercise demonstration

Introducing Falun Gong to visitors

Candidate for City Council Mr. William Hoover had his photo taken with Falun Gong practitioners

Many visitors had already heard about Falun Gong and the persecution taking poace in China and expressed their support. An older Chinese gentleman came to the booth with his Western wife. He said, "We were just talking about Falun Gong and now we meet you." His wife said, "He told me that you are great!" The man raised his thumb in approval and then pointed to a practitioner doing the meditation and said, "I can sit with both legs crossed just like her." They took some fliers and said they'd learn more about the practice online.

Mr. William Hoover is running for a position on the city council. He came to the booth and talked to the practitioners. One told him what Falun Gong is, how it is now practiced in over 100 countries all over the world, and about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Mr. Hoover said it was incredibly evil of the Chinese Communist Party to persecute Falun Gong and other faith groups. He thanked them for the fliers and had his photo taken with the practitioners.

A Chinese family passed by with lotus flowers in hand and some fliers. They said they had read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and had already withdrawn from CCP and its affiliated organizations.

Many people were intrigued to see the practitioners doing the exercises and meditating in such a noisy setting. They watched from the sidelines and then asked for more information. Some said they wanted to learn the exercises at a nearby group practice site.

Participating practitioners said they also met some Chinese that had misunderstandings about Falun Gong because of the CCP's propaganda. They refused the printed materials, and some said negative things. The practitioners said they would be more compassionate in making more efforts to clarify the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong in China to those people so that they could recognize the CCP's lies.

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Mr. Sun Changjun Dying in Jilin Prison

2009-09-18T08:57:42+02:00

Name: Sun Changjun
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: Unknown
Most recent place of detention: Jilin Province Prison
City: Jilin
Province: Jilin, China
Persecution Suffered: Beatings, solitary confinement

(Clearwisdom.net) (By a correspondent from Jilin Province) Mr. Sun Changjun is one of the eight Falun Dafa practitioners that took part in tapping into the Changchun City cable TV network in March 2002. Of those eight practitioners, only two are still alive. One is Mr. Sun and the other is Mr. Liang Zhenxing, who is incarcerated in Shiling Prison located in Siping City, Jilin Province. Mr. Sun is currently confined to the Aged and Crippled Ward in the Jilin City Prison. The long-term brutal mistreatment has left him with a severe case of tuberculosis, and he is as thin as a skeleton and dying.

On March 5, 2002, eight channels of the Changchun City cable TV network broadcast the programs "Falun Dafa Spreads Throughout the World," "Self-Immolation or Deception?" and others, lasting 40-50 minutes. This incident shook the whole world and enabled many people to learn the truth about Falun Gong being persecuted in China. Jiang's regime was stunned and, in a frenzy of revenge, arrested more than 5,000 people. At least six practitioners were beaten to death in March 2003. One of the participants, Mr. Hou Mingkai, was on the 610 Office most wanted list with a 50,000 yuan reward. He was arrested on August 21, 2002, and dead as a result of torture two days later.

In mid-September 2002, 15 practitioners were sentenced to between 4 and 20 years in prison due to their involvement in the many cable TV tapping incidents. Mr. Sun Changjun was sentenced to 17 years and taken to the 40th Ward in Jilin Province Prison. Upon his arrival that same night, guard Li Yongsheng instructed prisoners Wu Shaochen, Cui Lijun, and Han Mingjun to beat Mr. Sun with rubber hoses, fracturing a rib on his left side.

On September 23, 2003, Mr. Sun wrote a solemn declaration to denounce any and all statements he had made while being brutally tortured in prison, stating they were null and void. Tenth Ward guards Wei Xianghui and Caui Longzhe put Mr. Sun under "strict-control" for more than 70 days, which resulted in his losing 50 pounds.

In July 2004, guard Wang Yuanchun tried to force Mr. Sun to talk with Jilin Province 610 Office agent Zhang Anshan, but Mr. Sun refused. Wang threatened Mr. Sun, saying that he would put him under "strict control" again.

In July 2005, Mr. Sun vomited blood due to having pleural cavities on both lungs, which indicated his tuberculosis was already in the late stages. He should have been bailed out for medical treatment a long time prior. From November 2007 to the present, Mr. Sun has suffered from fluid in his chest and abdomen, but the prison administration still refuses to release him.

September 10, 2009

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Belgium: Falun Gong at the Sfinks International Music Festival (Photos)

2009-09-02T09:24:37+02:00

(Clearwisdom.net) The Sfinks Festival (International Music Festival) was held during the last weekend of July. At this year's festival, Falun Gong practitioners introduced Falun Gong to the festival visitors.

Practitioners demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises behind informational display boards

Festivalgoers stopped to read the information boards and watch the exercise demonstration

This year, the festival was held in a large open area. There were dances, games, food and a small market. Several volunteer organizations also participated the event. From July 24 until July 26, there were over 30,000 visitors to the festival.

Falun Gong practitioners set up a tent with display boards about the worldwide spread of Falun Gong and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of the practice. In the tent, Falun Gong books and other materials were displayed amid beautiful hand-made paper lotus flowers.

People learning about Falun Gong

This was the third time that Belgian practitioners participated in the Sfinks Festival. Their wish was to promote Falun Dafa and give more people the opportunity to benefit from the practice.

Falun Dafa Inspires Conscience

Rita, a Belgian woman, told a practitioner after watching the exercise demonstration, "I like Falun Gong very much.. I have read some books about Buddhism and understand [the relationship between the] body and karma." When she found out that there were Falun Gong books for sale, she bought Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong. She also said that she would check for information about the local practice site.

Buying Falun Gong books

One man told the writer that he had come to the festival with his family the day before, but he came back again the next day just to buy some Falun Gong books. He wished to learn the meditation.

Freedom belongs to Falun Gong

A Belgian practitioner named Uria, who just graduated from university, is part of a family of practitioners. She, her parents and her brother all practice Falun Gong.

Uria told the writer this story. A young man and his friend came up and told her that they had already learned about Falun Dafa because they had seen the practitioners' demonstration at the festival last year. He said knew that Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted in China. Uria related,

"I could see the sorrow deep in his eyes. But when I told him how graceful Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is, and how it can help people improve health and uplift morality, his eyes sparkled with happiness. I was so pleased that he knows about Falun Dafa."

Another gentleman, who was in his thirties, said to Uria after reading the informational boards, "[Reading about] The organ harvesting made me cry. I have come across Falun Gong practitioners several times. I know what is happening in China and how brutal the persecution is. I have been wondering what I can do to help Falun Gong and help end the persecution."

When he saw the postcards with the message, "Freedom Belongs to Falun Gong," he asked for a dozen of them. He said he will mail them to Belgian leaders and give them an opportunity to learn about the persecution and to provide help to end it.

Louis Band, a Swiss singer from Columbia, asked a lot about the persecution. He said, "I know how the Cuban communist party persecutes Cubans. That is why I know how the CCP persecutes Falun Gong." He expressed his best wishes for Falun Gong to succeed in ending the persecution.

A young Tibetan, Zelang, and his friends, in their twenties, were visiting Belgium from mainland China. After watching the practice demonstration, Zelang asked, "Are you paid for doing this?" He found it hard to believe that a great deal of the materials are handmade by practitioners and the others are donated by practitioners. He said, "What I heard in China about Falun Gong is completely different. It looks like the information in China is not true." He then said that when he saw how peaceful the practitioners were when they were doing the meditation, he felt that they were Bodhisattvas.

Another gentleman wanted to buy the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party after reading through the informational boards. A Russian lady bought the Nine Commentaries and said that she wanted to know more about the persecution.

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Twelve Contestants Enter Semifinals in Chinese International Violin Competition

2009-08-31T14:37:36+02:00

By Minghui Correspondent Kelly Huang

(Clearwisdom.net) The preliminary round of the NTDTV Chinese International Violin Competition, sponsored by NTDTV, was held at the Kaufman Center's Merkin Concert Hall in New York at 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 27, 2009. Participants from Europe, America, and Asia entered the competition. Twelve contestants will move on to the semi-finals.

Judge Chia-Chi Lin said the contestants did an excellent job today. They played Mozart concertos with individual style and showed great potential. The next round would be even better and more competitive. She wished them great performances on the next day.

Contestants

Chinese and Western classica; music was selected for the preliminary, semi-final, and final competition. Contestants had a choice of selections from one of three Mozart concertos--No. 3, 4, or 5--during their preliminary round.

Ms. Ma Lijuan, Chair of NTDTV's Nine Competitions Committee, said the nine competitions aims to restore classic culture and provide a platform of cultural exchange for the Chinese around the world. Every contestant has made his contribution to this cause.

Judge Chia-Chi Lin said that skill isn't the only criterion. Judges also look at the character of the contestant. A good musician not only has great skill but also great inner qualities. Each musician puts different feeling into the same piece of music. Music is a language a musician speaks to the audience. A musician should express what is most beautiful in his heart and take the audience into consideration. Those who listen to beautiful music will give up bad thoughts and feel uplifted and purified. If a musician can reach such realm, he is successful.

Ms. Zhang Yi from Taiwan is a PhD student at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of Music. She tours around the world to give performances every year. She said it is not easy to play Mozart, because the music is so perfect and simple that it tests one's true skill.

Cai Chenhan, a PhD student of music at the Eastman School of Music, won the Outstanding Performance Award at the competition last year. He said he learned a lot from last year's competition, so he is participating again this year. The music is hard this year, but he doesn't care too much about his ranking. He just wants to do his best, share music with others, and learn from the competition.

Ling Xianyou, a Masters student in Rice University, started learning violin from the age of five. He thinks the NTDTV competitions are great. He wants to present his talent on a world level stage.

NTDTV Chinese International Violin Competition Semifinalists:

Alissa Cheung: Alberta, Canada
Richard R. Lin: USA
Yuncong Zhang: New York, USA
Nancy Zhou: Texas, USA
Shu Cheng Yang: Quebec, Canada
Andrew Ling: Texas, USA
Shih-Kai Lin: New York, USA
Andrew Eng: Massachusetts, USA
Shelly Ren: California, USA
Chen Han Tsai: New York, USA
Zhangtong Song: California, USA
Christopher Wang: Saxony, Germany

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Practitioners Participate in Boston Ethnic Festivals (Photos)

2009-08-28T09:56:05+02:00

By Clearwisdom correspondent Cheng De

(Clearwisdom.net) On August 16, 2009, Falun Gong practitioners participated in the 40^th Mid-Autumn Festival in Boston's Chinatown, and the 2009 Indian Festival in a theater. They introduced Falun Dafa and exposed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s ten-year-long brutal persecution.

There were 130 booths at the Mid-Autumn festival. The Falun Gong booth was eye-catching, and many people came to learn about Falun Gong. Ms. Falma Ujur from Arlington and Ms. Mary Tarshi from Lawrence learned the exercises on the spot with their daughters. They said they would continue to learn at nearby practice sites.

Falun Gong practitioners introduce Falun Gong at the Mid-Autumn Festival in Boston's Chinatown

Practitioners teach the exercises at the Mid-Autumn Festival in Boston's Chinatown

Many people come to learn about the facts about Falun Gong at the Mid-Autumn Festival

Mr. Tianyu Zhang from China learned the facts about Falun Gong and hoped more Chinese people would realize the CCP's true nature and not be deceived by its lies.

A young man and woman from Nanjing, China came to the booth. The young man said he knew Falun Gong was a good practice, and brought better health. He recommended that the young woman, whose back was in pain, learn Falun Gong.

A Chinese lady whose ancestors were from Guangdong, China said she was interested in Falun Gong. She did not speak Chinese, so she bought the English version of the book Zhuan Falun and said she would like to learn Falun Gong.

At the 2009 Indian Festival, the Falun Gong booth drew the attention of many visitors. People stopped to watch the Falun Gong exercise demonstration, some learned to fold paper lotus flowers, and many learned the facts about Falun Gong.

Many people learn about Falun Gong at the Indian Festival

Tony from India said that the lotus is the flower of India, and it symbolizes peace, dignity, and holiness. He knew that lotus flowers grow in the mud but nonetheless thrive. He admired Falun Gong practitioners' uncompromising courage in following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

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Why the Journalist Did Not Appeal

2009-08-27T13:41:26+02:00

Beijing Office of Letters and Calls fails to give justice and now no longer accepts petitions

By Heng He
Epoch Times Staff

Aug 25, 2009

Qiu Mingwei, deputy director of the People's Forum, part of the People's Daily Web site, fled to Hong Kong on July 30, and is now in Macau. (Xu Xia/Epoch Times)

The appeals office in Beijing was never an option for Mr. Qiu Mingwei, and now the central appeals office is no longer an option for any Chinese.

When Qiu, an assistant manager at the Internet Forum of People’s Daily, returned from Hong Kong, he didn’t know that he was in deep trouble and had to run for his life. Qiu had gone to Hong Kong in late June to attend the International Federation of Journalists’ conference. During his stay, out of curiosity and the desire for first-hand experience, he attended the July 1 march for democracy and human rights, a protest rally held annually since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.

After returning to Beijing, he was charged with “participating in the Hong Kong July 1 rally, possessing secret state documents, and speaking to outside sources without permission.” Instead of trying to go through the formal processes to clear his name, Qiu chose to run. He fled to Hong Kong on July 30.

Qiu, at 34 years of age and working for the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (CCPCC), could still have had a promising career inside the system if he had been able to clear his name. Now he is facing the painstaking process of asylum and an uncertain future.

There are two options in China for someone like Qiu who wants to clear his name. If formally charged he can defend himself in court, by himself or through his lawyer. Or he can go to the appeals office, formally called the Office for Letters and Calls.

When Qiu knew he was in trouble, his first thought was that he could hire a lawyer to defend him, or, at worst, spend a few years in jail. But his friends who had worked for the Public Security Bureau asked him if he could withstand constantly being slapped in the face, for seven days and nights. He finally decided not to risk going to court.

As for the other choice, Qiu has never mentioned the appeals office during interviews with the media. It would be surprising if he did. Even though thousands of people go to the central appeals office in Beijing every day, officials inside the system, either Party cadres or state officials, hardly ever do so.

According to Mr. Guo Guoting, a former human rights lawyer in China who sought asylum in Canada in 2005, the Office for Letters and Calls was created by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), “Because the CCP wants to keep all power in its own hands, taking power away from the judicial courts. The courts don’t have any authority, and the Office for Letters and Calls is totally controlled by the CCP.”

The people of China go to the appeals office, according to Guo, “because the people have no other place to go.”

Those inside the system understand that the appeals office functions as a safety valve for the regime, giving hope that official misconduct could be redressed, but almost never resolving the cases brought before it.

According to Guo, “The Chinese people don’t really understand the law with regard to petitioning, or how the law is actually carried out. They don’t get it. In reality, where petitioning can actually solve the problems is in less than 0.1 percent of cases.”

Safety Valve Closed

On Aug. 18, Xinhua News Agency published a Q & A for the “Opinions on Enhancing and Improving the Work of Letters and Calls Concerning Law and Litigation” (the Opinions) by the Political and Judiciary Committee of CCPCC. The Opinions terminate any petition to the central level, that is, the Office of the State Bureau of Letters and Calls in Beijing.

The Letters and Calls Office is a system unique to China. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. In ancient China, the head of the local government was also the judge. If someone thought that he didn’t get justice at the local level, he had the option of appealing to higher levels of administration, all the way up to the emperor.

Appeals came at some cost. For example, the petitioner would roll over a wood board full of nails with the sharp ends up (Gun Ding Ban in Chinese) to prove that he was wrongfully accused and was willing to suffer that much to seek redress. The most famous case in the Qing Dynasty involved a couple whose case was reversed by the Empress Dowager Cixi herself, with the corrupt officials being punished. The case was portrayed in a classic play called Yang Naiwu and the Small Colza.

In 1911, the petition system disappeared along with the Qing Dynasty. The Nationalist government adopted the Western legal system and the administrative and the judicial systems were separated. When the CCP took over China in 1949, however, it considered re-establishing the petition system outside the legal system as necessary, in order to show how tightly the Party was linked to the people. After the Cultural Revolution, the CCPCC re-established the Office of the State Bureau for Letters and Calls in Beijing with the same idea, without realizing the difficulties the office would enmesh the regime in.

For the past decade or more, social injustice has increased as the economy has developed. Farmers who have lost their lands, city residents who have lost their homes, and state enterprise workers who have lost their jobs are being mistreated by the local Party and state officials, the police, and the courts. After months or even years of fighting with the local legal system and the local appeal offices in vain, individuals come to Beijing to the Office of Letters and Calls, their last hope for finding justice.

The most famous incident happened 10 years ago, in April 1999, when more than ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners showed up outside Zhongnanhai, the administrative offices and living quarters for the top Party officials. The practitioners had actually attempted to go to the Office of State Letters and Calls, which is down the street from Zhongnanhai, but police had diverted them, arranging it so that they were made to surround Zhongnanhai.

A report by the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), “Silencing Complaints: Human Rights Abuses Against Petitioners in China,” quotes the mainland newspaper Southern Weekend as saying that “According to official statistics there were ten million petitioning cases in China” in 2003.

The report goes on to observe that “Considering that the Chinese government has a tendency to adjust downward numbers that may reflect negatively on its performance, there is reason to believe that the number of petitioning cases, and therefore the number of petitioners, could be several tens of millions.”

Petitioners in Beijing seek cheap lodgings near the South Train Station, or live in makeshift shacks constructed on open ground, or become homeless, sleeping under bridges or on the streets. According to CHRD, there are reports of petitioners dieing during Beijing snowstorms.

They regularly go to the appeals office to press their case and often hold impromptu protests on Tiananmen Square or elsewhere in downtown Beijing.

In order to try to gain control over the swelling crowd of petitioners, the State Council issued a new regulation on the Office of Letters and Calls in 2005. That regulation put very tight restrictions on petitions.

Now, only four years later, the CCPCC has now issued another regulation, the Opinions, which goes even further, ending petitions in Beijing.

The issuing of the Opinions has the appearance of following legal form, but in fact violates the legal institutions of China. The Party has no legal right to issue such a regulation, which is supposed to come from the State Council.

But the reality of the legal system in China regularly differs from appearances. On paper the legal system is independent, in actuality, the Party calls the shots. This time the Party has chosen to close off the safety valve the Party had built into the regime.

This at least clarifies things. The people now know they can no longer expect Qing Tian. “Qing Tian” means blue skies, and in ancient China referred to the justice brought by a good official in a bad system. That hope is now gone for China.

Additional reporting by Matthew Robertson
Last Updated
Aug 25, 2009

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Story of Practitioner Started to Practice Falun Gong in Prison

2009-08-20T08:10:16+02:00

By a practitioner illegally detained in prison

(Clearwisdom.net) This particular practitioner started to practice in April 2000 when he was held at a detention center. The persecution was most rampant at that time and many practitioners were being held at that detention center. In addition to paying attention to Fa-study and doing the exercises, this practitioner directed all his efforts to saving sentient beings. During the past nine years, he has experienced many things. Below are some stories about his assisting in the salvation of sentient beings in prison.

There were more than 300 people detained in a certain prison. About 35 practitioners were detained in 16 divisions, with one to three practitioners in each division. Each practitioner had inmates assigned to them to monitor their activities 24 hours a day. Therefore, it was difficult for practitioners to see each other and share understandings. Ever since this practitioner was sent to prison in 2004, he persistently opposed the persecution. Every day he kept studying the Fa and doing the exercises, and created opportunities to meet practitioners in other divisions. After discussing with fellow practitioners, he found their biggest difficulty was studying the Fa. In the past several years, he had hand-copied several dozen copies of Fa, along with other Falun Gong books. With the books available, fellow practitioners had stronger and stronger righteous thoughts. More and more practitioners stepped forward to clarify the truth. During the process of hand-copying Zhuan Falun, he encountered difficulties; oftentimes, prison guards came to do inspections. After the practitioners opposed the persecution one time after another with righteous thoughts and righteous actions, the environment began to improve.

Currently, this practitioner gets up at 2 a.m. and does the exercises for one hour, followed by three hours of sitting meditation, until it is time for sending forth righteous thoughts at 6 a.m. During breakfast, he speaks with fellow practitioners and clarifies the truth to others. During the daytime, except for going out to do labor, he spends all his time transcribing by hand or reciting the Falun Gong books. He also sends forth righteous thoughts once every hour. He clarifies the truth to everyone he encounters, whether it is a police guard, inmate or visitor. He also asks everyone in his division, one by one, to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Most of the people he talks to have agreed. As time went on, more and more people have come to know the truth. In this way, most people have read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. Some of them even help Falun Gong practitioners to pass on or protect Falun Gong materials.

The environment in the prison is tightly regulated and people from different divisions are not allowed to interact with each other. Because time is short, he often directly asks them about quitting the CCP. He then writes down the names of the people who want to quit. Very often a person may decide to quit the CCP in just a few minutes.

During discussions, he has often said that the environment in prison is different. If a person misses an opportunity in society, there could be other opportunities for this person to know the truth. In prison, however, one might stay there for ten years or even longer and there is hardly any chance for them to hear the truth. Therefore, we are the only hope for them and we cannot miss anyone. I was touched by these words from him. I could see the gap between myself and him, which has made me realize the importance and urgency of saving sentient beings.

For practitioners who are still detained, let us strive harder to save sentient beings in this difficult environment. Although we are being persecuted, let us do our best in any environment. I hope all practitioners will cherish this period of time to study the Fa well and save sentient beings.

August 7, 2009

Chinese version available

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Shen Yun 'very special': US Legislator

2009-08-04T15:35:53+02:00

Curtain call at Sunday evening's performance. (Dai Bing/The Epoch Times)

WESTCHESTER, N.Y.—Lois Bronz, the 8th District's County Legislator in Westchester, went to see Shen Yun Performing Arts' sell-out show at SUNY Purchase College on August 2, and came out a different woman.

New York-based Shen Yun portrays China's divinely-inspired cultural heritage in classical Chinese dance and music, a "marvelous link with the history of China," Ms. Bronz said.

She was attending the show with her friend Alfreda Williams, former Town Clerk of 14 years for Greenberg who is running for Ms. Bronz's seat.

Ms. Bronz, is retiring after 16 years as a Westchester legislator.

An excited Ms. Bronz said the show was "very informative, very spiritual [with] a distinct message of hope."

Unique to Shen Yun are story-based dances of ancient legends of heroism like Monkey King, modern tales of courage [the persecution of Falun Gong today in China] and folklore traditions that portray an ancient Chinese belief that good is rewarded and evil punished, even if not in this lifetime.

Ms. Bronz said the legends "were just great," the professionalism "was just wonderful," including the dancing, the color and the singing. "What marvelous voices," she added.

There was more to Shen Yun however, than all those qualities, Ms Bronz said."There is a message that as a culture, the Chinese people have found peace—there’s a serenity, and a sensitivity in everything that you do and say. You’re just not the same person you were when you came. You have an opportunity to reflect on some of the goodness in people and the spirit. You leave this place with that inner spirit and a little bit of peace that perhaps you didn’t have before."

The spiritual element in the show was like a gift, she said. "It gives you something to take away with you—very special.”

Former Town Clerk: 'Truly Inspiration'

Ms. Williams was delighted to be invited by her friend to see the awe-inspiring Shen Yun performance.

"The dancers are so very graceful and talented and you can see that they are dancing from their hearts. ... It was really wonderful—a really inspiring performance."

The two friends said despite the cultural differences between China and The US, Shen Yun offered something for everyone.

"Wonderfully talented, the costumes, the choreography all of it was very inspiring. I think that young people of either Chinese origin, or any origin would enjoy seeing them and watching their dedication and learn something from it. The last piece was truly inspirational.”

New Tang Dynasty TV is a contributor of this article.

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts will be performing two shows in Birmingham, Alabama, on August 21 and 22 at the Concert Hall, Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. Then a five-run show will be held at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center Opera House from August 26 to 30. For more information please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour.

Last Updated
Aug 4, 2009

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Open Letter to South Korean Consulates/Embassy(07292009)

2009-08-02T03:58:25+02:00

July 29th, 2009

RE: Urgent Meeting Request to Discuss Expulsions of Falun Gong Practitioners

Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners (GMR) is appalled to learn that your government expelled two Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Bibo Li and Mr. Zhongshi Li on July 28, 2009. This is the second accident that your government deported Falun Gong practitioners, following the secret expulsion of Mr. Qilong Wu on July 1st.

Practiced by many Koreans, Falun Gong is an ancient mind-body-spirit practice based on the principles of Truth, Compassion and Forbearance. Although Falun Gong followers seek only to exercise internationally-recognized fundamental human rights, including freedom thought, conscience, and religion, the Chinese communist regime could not tolerate the popularity of Falun Gong and it launched the largest religious persecution in the world in July 1999. Massive propaganda campaigns were launched to demonize Falun Gong, to humiliate practitioners, and to compel them to renounce their faith. For the past 10 years, Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to arbitrary detention, beating, torture and “transformation through reeducation”. To date over 3,000 Falun Gong deaths have been documented, as well as over 63,000 accounts of torture. Yet an estimate puts the actual death toll in the tens of thousands.

The expulsion of the three Falun Gong practitioners puts their life in direct jeopardy.

We understand that the Chinese communist regime has been exporting its hate campaign towards Falun Gong across the borders, and we believe that Beijing has been flexing its muscles to coerce Korea into becoming an accomplice to its hate crime. However, for decades, the Korean people have strived to build Korea into a sovereign, democratic nation.

We ask your government to do the Korean people proud, to use all diplomatic means to protect the three deported Falun Gong practitioners, and to immediately reopen and re-consider the refugee applications of those Falun Gong practitioners in Korea. As a beacon of democracy in Asia, please shine your light to give hope to the oppressed in China and North Korea.

Yours truly,

Li Li

Executive Director

Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners

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Announcement on Forceful Deportation of Falun Gong Practitioner by South Korean Ministry of Justice

2009-08-02T03:29:03+02:00

July 4th, 2009

GMR(Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners) is shocked to learn that on July 1st of 2009 South Korean Ministry of Justice forcefully deported Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wu back to China. To this, Global Rescue expresses our astonishment and presents our protest to South Korean Ministry of Justice !

Due to the brutal persecution against Falun Gong practitioner communities in mainland China, Mr. Wu was forced to expatriate overseas. After his petition to refugee status in South Korea was denied, Mr. Wu was secretly deported on July 1st back to China. His whereabouts is now unknown.

Falun Gong practitioner Xu Jun of Tumen City in Jilin province was kidnapped on June 11th of 2008 from his sister’s house by the State Security Brigade of Helong City in Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture and the local police station of West Town in Helong City to the police station of West Town for torture and interrogation. Xu Jun suffered beating every 2 hours. Around 5 o’clock in the afternoon on June 12th , Xu Jun was illegally imprisoned at county detention center of Helong City; on June 25th, he was sentenced illegally to labor camp at Ying Ma He labor camp, Jiu Tai county of Jilin province where he was enslaved to suffer extreme strenuous and long time physical labor. He was thus persecuted to death on February 17th of 2009. Since the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, Xu Jun had been illegally imprisoned many times. His wife Liu Shuyuan was also illegally sentenced to 10 years to prison because of practicing Falun Gong and she is now imprisoned in Chang Chun Women’s Prison.

When he was in teens, Xu Jun’s son had no parents to take care of him for so long, he has been hurt greatly both physically and mentally. Because of no money for school, he had to quit school when still in middle school; now the child has lost his father, once a happy and perfect family is thus destroyed. Ying Ma He labor camp, Jiu Tai county of Jilin province is the base for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, where several Falun Gong practitioners died from persecution. Starting from April of 2009 this labor camp forced Falun Gong practitioners who have already been so brutally persecuted into strenuous slave labor of pulling carts of bricks and unloading bricks, with such a backbreaking strenuousness more than an ordinary person can withstand.

Falun Gong practitioner Liu Qinghua of Siping City of Jilin province, was released for medical parole from Panjin Prison on December 31 of 2008 and passed away on February 23rd of 2009, as young as only 47 years old. On May 4th of 2007, Liu Qinghua and Meng Xiangchen were defamed when they were distributing truth materials about Falun Gong at Liu Jiazi village of Mao Jia Dian town, Chang Tu county of Liao Ning province. They were both kidnapped by the Brigade Commander Liu Jianxing of State Security Brigade of Chang Tu county police department, Police Station Director Zang Lei of Ma Jia Dian town, detained illegally at Chang Tu county detention center for five to six months, where they were both illegally interrogated many times by Liu Jianxing, suffered inhuman beatings and brutal torture. Liu Qinghua started to have symptoms of Cirrhosis, afterwards both he and Meng Xiangchen were illegally prosecuted and sentenced to three years by Chang Tu county’s Procuratorate and District Court. Meng Xiangchen was first imprisoned in Kang Ping prison of Liao Ning province, later transferred to Huo Long Cai prison of Xi Hu district of Ben Xi city in Liao Ning province. Liu Qinghua was transferred from Shen Yang prison city to Panjin prison, was illegally locked up first in the 5th prison section and then the patient section in the prison. Liu Qinghua’s illness took a downturn, and his family came to Panjin prison and the provincial prison administration bureau demanding release and medical parole for Liu, but Panjin prison wouldn’t grant medical parole on the excuse that Liu Qinghua wouldn’t write “Letter of Assurance” and that he wouldn’t give up practicing Falun Gong. When Panjin prison’s evil deed was exposed, it received denouncement and condemnation from people in various areas in China and overseas. In order to avoid responsibility for their criminal behavior, on April 17th of 2008, Panjin prison transferred Liu Qinghua from the patient section to the elder and disabled section in the prison, continuously persecuting Liu till his illness reached critical condition.

A 34 years old Falun Gong practitioner Xu Dawei of Qing Yuan county, Fu Sun city of Liao Ning province, suffered imprisonment in four prisons for over eight years by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was locked up in Da Bei prison of Shen Yang, Lin Yuan No. 1 prison, Fu Sun No. 2 prison, Dong Ling prison of Shen Yang for brutal brain washing torture, wearing handcuffs and shackles and chains all year round, suffered brutal torture, hanging , forceful feeding, beaten with rubber rope, needle punches, electric baton shocks and so on. Eventually, he was tortured by Dong Ling prison of Shen Yang into a skeleton, white-haired, with purplish complexion, mentally disordered, unable to eat any food. Two weeks after he was released home, he died on February 16 of 2009, with a mass of bruises covering his whole body. Xu Dawei’s daughter just turned 8 this year. When she was born, Xu Dawei was suffering tortures in prison. The brief meeting between father and daughter turned out to be their last. The family members of Xu Dawei were all honest and plain country folks. In the face of relentless persecution of Dong Ling prison of Shen Yang and CCP, the family members of Xu have nowhere to petition their wronged verdict and from old to the young in the family, their tears have already run dry.

Persecution cases like the above are countless during the ten year persecution by CCP on Falun Gong. South Korean Ministry of Justice disregards human life, forcefully deporting Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wu back to China under such circumstances, which has violated the promise to protect human rights that a democratic and law-governing country has made and also violated the United Nations international human rights chapter. We are greatly regretful that this behavior to sell out human rights to CCP by the seduction of profit has brought a negative impact to both South Korea and the world.

According to the incomplete statistics of Global Rescue, during the brutal ten year persecution of Falun Gong by CCP, up to now at least 5690 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death.

Global Rescue hopes that South Korean Ministry of Justice should have a correct understanding of the brutal persecution that Falun Gong practitioners suffer in China, and take positive action to protect Falun Gong practitioners and their personal interests which they should have, prevent incidents of deportation of Falun Gong practitioners from reoccurrence and work together with the international community to fulfill the obligation of a democratic and law-governing country.

GMR shall wait to see and reserve the right to make further reactions.

Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners

www.globalrescue.net

July 4th, 2009

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The Intelligent Water Container and the Talking Corn Plant

2009-07-28T02:52:26+02:00

Author: Jing Ran

(PureInsight.org) In Zhuan Falun, it states, "It is not that we are unable to see something microscopic. It is not that man does not have this ability. In fact, man is endowed by nature with such an ability and is able to see things microscopic."

A few days ago, I was a little restless. It was possible that the bad stuff was getting to the surface, but I felt pretty good otherwise. I just wanted to vent my anger but, inside of me, I did not want to do that.

On that day I was in my bedroom and I was angry with someone else. I really wanted to throw something to vent my anger. When that notion appeared in my head, I thought about throwing the light green water container with a lid that my god father gave me. Immediately the water container appeared to me as a five-year-old girl, her tears streamed down her cheeks and she said, "Oh, please don't toss me away. I had to endure great hardship in order to reincarnate." She continued to sob sadly. After seeing her shedding so many sad tears, most of my anger was gone by then. I decided that I would not throw it. She seemed to know that I had changed my mind and disappeared.

It was daytime, but the whole event caught me by surprise. I sat on my bed for quiet a while. I knew then that everything has intelligence and I should not throw things around any more. I knew that the existence of any thing cannot to explained with a few sentences and all things also exist in a different dimension. Besides, everything has Buddha nature and demon nature. Its Buddha nature wants to assimilate to great Fa of the universe and thus it reincarnates back to the human world. It is a really rare opportunity to be able to come to the home of a Dafa disciple and at the time of the Dafa spreading era. Looking at everything around me, I pondered for a long while and understood the good intentions of our creator.

I had a dream that was like a fairy tale: It was around 2001 and it was drizzling. I was back to my old home town. In that dimension I was a teenager. All a suddenly, a corn plant was uprooted by the rain water. I saw it about to be blown away by the wind. I got a small shovel, dug a hole, and put it back into the dirt. I poured some water and pressed down the dirt. I did not think much about it and only wanted to help. The corn plant smiled and said, "Thank you." I said, "You are welcome." I looked at it with a child's innocence. In that dimension a plant can talk and its notion is simple, pure, and without any bad element. After I woke up, I realized that it was a really strange dream, but I did not tell anyone. Later I read Zhuan Falun and understood that I had entered another dimension.

The universe is too mysterious, just like Master said in Essentials for Further Advancement, "The vastness of the universe and the enormity of the cosmic bodies can never be understood by humans through exploration; the minuteness of matter can never be detected by humans. The human body is so mysterious that it is beyond human knowledge, which can merely scratch the surface. Life is so abundant and complex that it will forever remain an eternal enigma to mankind."

Only when we walk on the path of cultivation, return to our true selves, assimilate to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, will the truth of different levels in this universe be shown to us. Let's follow our Master's teachings, "If human beings can change their rigid mentality and have a new understanding of themselves and the cosmos, they will make a leap forward. "Buddha Law" can provide humankind with an insight into the immeasurable and boundless worlds for them. Throughout the ages, nothing but "Buddha Law" can give a perfect and clear exposition of humankind beings, all different spaces of material existence, life and the whole cosmos."

Translated from Chinese

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A Decade of Courage (Video)

2009-07-17T13:35:38+02:00

A Decade Of Courage Promo

The Protest that Changed China

Soul of a Nation

China's Hidden Holocaust

China's Deadly Harvest

ADecadeOfCourage.com

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World Media Follow Beijing's Lead in Xinjiang Reporting

2009-07-08T13:07:45+02:00

Matthew Little
Epoch Times Staff
Jul 8, 2009

Chinese riot police get ready to hit ethnic Uygur women as they protest in Urumqi in China's far west Xinjiang province on July 7, 2009. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)

When violence erupted in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, home to the Uyghur Muslim minority, China’s state media rushed to “cover” the news, and Western media followed their lead.

"The clashes between ethnic Muslim Uighurs and China's Han majority in Xinjiang that left more than 150 dead signaled a new phase in a region used to seeing bombings and assassinations by militant separatists but few mass protests," wrote Associated Press.

“The death toll from violent ethnic riots in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region has risen to 156, and police on Monday dispersed ‘rioters’ in a second city, the official Xinhua news agency said early on Tuesday,” reported Reuters.

But media experts and Uyghur activists say that China’s state-controlled media are working to frame the story in favor of the regime, a strategy one Hong Kong-based Chinese media expert calls “Control 2.0.”

“By getting the information out, officials can get the ‘peripheral media’ (influential portal news sites, and commercial newspapers) to work for them,” writes David Bandurski editor of the China Media Project Web site in his analysis of the earlier riots in Shishou.

“These media feed off of the original Xinhua reports, amplifying their effect. Those same reports, with only slight permutations in many cases, become AFP, Reuters, and AP reports.”

Using this method, Bandurski says the Chinese regime can kill negative information and keep “rabble-rousing professional media away.”

While Chinese state media set the tone for reporting, the regime worked to cut uncontrolled information from escaping the region.

Tala Dowlatshahi, with Reporters Without Borders in New York, said more than 50 Uyghur-language Internet forums were closed yesterday and communications were cut down.

“The people of that region are completely cut off from the rest of the world,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of answers for you but I can tell you that we are not getting the real story.”

Uyghurs in Canada say that friends and family have disappeared off instant messenger services, don’t answer their cell phones, and don’t reply to e-mails.

While early reports of the riots in Xinjiang relied heavily on Chinese media sources few, if any, of those reports, mentioned that these same state media are regarded as propaganda tools of the regime.

“[News media] should be greatly concerned about the accuracy of any reports by Chinese state media because Chinese state media reports one side,” she said, noting that all coverage serves the regimes political interests,” Dowlatshahi said.

Xinhua has also worked hard to frame the story as a clash of Han and Uyghur ethnicities fueled by terrorists within the Uyghur minority. But Uyghur experts are saying the tension there is caused mainly by longstanding grievances related to the Chinese regime’s occupation of the region.

The Uyghur people have suffered a fate similar to Tibetans after their region was taken over by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949. Thousands were killed, their religious institutions were destroyed, their language banned, and recent policies have seen Uyghur families coerced to send their children to inland schools and their young women to work in inland cities. Few of the women ever return and Uyghur activists say they are forced into prostitution.

Amnesty International says that since the 1980s, “the Chinese government has mounted an aggressive campaign that has led to the arrest and arbitrary detention of thousands of Uyghurs on charges of ‘terrorism, separatism and religious extremism’ for peacefully exercising their human rights.”

Although international media reports were skeptical when the Chinese regime portrayed riots in Tibet before the Olympics as a plot cooked up by the Dalai Lama, they have been far more willing to accept and reprint the regime’s line on the situation in Xinjiang, say Uyghur activists in Canada and the United States.

“Most of the media just show Chinese side, take the Chinese media’s pictures and photos,” said Rukiye Turdesh, president of the Uyghur Canadian Society.

Chinese state media reports focused on Han Chinese, she said, and presented Uyghurs as violently attacking Han Chinese people. Western media then followed suit, said Turdesh.

“They don’t show any pictures of how Uyghurs are killed. They don’t say anything about the Uyghurs, what happened to the Uyghurs, they just say the Chinese were beaten, the Chinese were killed. What is this, it is not fair, right? They just copy the Chinese media,” Turdesh said.

“Uyghurs are helpless, they don’t have soldiers, they don’t have guns, they have nothing, the Chinese have everything and the Chinese blocked the information, we don’t know what is happening over there right now. Even if China killed all of them, massacred all of the Uyghurs, nobody could know.”

Turdesh said that watching footage of Uyghurs being attacked and killed that got out of the region before the regime cut it off from the outside world was unbearable for her.

Alim Seytoff, general secretary of the Uyghur American Association, the umbrella group that the Chinese regime accuses of orchestrating the riots, said later coverage of the riots has improved, with more media talking to Uyghur sources, but he is still concerned too many news sources give credence to Chinese state media.

“It is wrong for the international community to take words coming out of the Chinese media as facts, they should be cautious about that because it is always prejudiced and one-sided.”

Xinhua and CCTV, China’s most influential and pervasive media, which smaller Chinese outlets take as guides for their own reporting, have been framing the riots in Xinjiang eerily similarly to those in Tibet in March 2008.

While the Dalai Lama was blamed for orchestrating the riots in Tibet, Rebiya Kadeer, a leading Uyghur activist and President of World Uyghur Congress is being blamed for the current riots.

Like Tibetans, Uyghurs are consistently portrayed as “barbaric, lazy, and stupid,” said Alim.

The Chinese regime has gone a step further in trying to manage the media by inviting overseas reporters to Xinjiang for guided tours of hospitals and riot areas.

“The important phrase is ‘guided tours.’ They did the same thing in Tibet itself,” said D.J. McGuire, co-founder of the China e-Lobby and author of Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror.

“The problem is that people have already been preconditioned to not believe what the cadres say on Tibet, so there was something of that in the Tibet coverage,” said McGuire, referring to the fact that media coverage on the Tibet riots was very sympathetic to the Tibetans, and those guided tours were largely seen as a farce.

“People understood that, but they don’t understand that as much with what is going on in Urumqi [Xinjiang’s capital].”

The fact that Uyghurs are Muslim further conflates the issue, he said.

“After 9/11 it became much easier to paint any Muslim resistance as terrorist and anti-Western than it is to do the same with any resistant in Tibet, so that is what colors the coverage,” he said.

The regime was caught trying to frame Uyghurs for terrorist attacks when evidence emerged months after that a reported machete attack in Xinjiang just before the Olympics was actually played up by state media. Chinese paramilitary officers were also discovered to have staged an anti-terror raid in Urumqi in 2008.

Last Updated
Jul 7, 2009

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A Young Woman's Plea Touched Finland's Media

2009-07-06T02:41:29+02:00

June 24, 2009

Zhaoyu Jin is a Chinese girl in her twenties. She met her Finn husband Tommi in China in 2004. July 2008, Zhaoyu came to Finland to visit Tommi’s family. However, just as she arrived in Finland, her mother was arrested in China right before the Beijing Olympic Games because her mother practices Falun Gong. The Chinese policemen broke into their house to search for Falun Gong literatures. After that, Zhaoyu’s younger sister was the only person left home. In early 2009, Zhaoyu’s mother Chen Zhenping was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Zhaoyu Jin holding poster with her mother's picture

Tommi is a good and honest Finn. He lived in a village in northern Finland. When he heard Zhaoyu’s mother had been sentenced to 8 years in prison, he became emotionally instable. Growing up care-free, he never experienced such pressure and pain. He almost had a nervous breakdown.

Zhaoyu and her husband Tommi being interviewed by reporter

The biggest newspaper in Northern Finland Lapin Kansa sent a photographer and a reporter to interview Zhaoyu.

Zhaoyu grew up with her mother who had been ill for many years. Zhaoyu witnessed how her mother’s health and spirit tremendously improved after she started practicing Falun Gong. She vowed to reveal the terrible injustice and rescue her mother from prison. In summer or winter, she went to the streets to collect petition signatures for mother. From ordinary people to members of parliament, she met with many. Her thin figure aroused people’s sympathy. They applauded for her strong will.

Chinese policemen broke into the house and searched for Falun Gong literatures.

One day, a woman signed her petition but would not leave. She stayed and helped her to clarify the truth and collect more signatures. She even called her family members to join her until they finished that day. One day, the temperature was over ten degrees below zero, a man signed her petition and continue to help her to explain to the people passing by.

Zhaoyu’s spirit touched Tommi. He became stronger everyday. He helped Zhaoyu to contact the media so that more Finns can learn the true story about Falun Gong and the persecution in China.

The biggest newspaper in Northern Finland Lapin Kansa sent a reporter and a photographer to interview Zhaoyu. They were shocked by the brutal persecution stories. They were also touched by Zhaoyu’s rescue campaign. Therefore, the newspaper published a long report about Falun Gong, and the Chinese communist party’s organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. Later, another newspaper POHJOLAN SANOMAT carried these stories with full page. And a magazine called ME NAISET also interviewed Zhaoyu.

Finland newspaper carried Zhaoyu's story with a full front page.

Right now, Zhaoyu still do not know her mother’s whereabouts, because she had been transferred to another prison. She called many times to the Xinxiang Women’s Prison in Henan Province where her mother was detained, but no response. The money she sent to the prison was returned. Her younger sister was chased by the infamous 610 office and managed to escape after being caught at the airport. Now her sister has become homeless and therefore nobody can go to the prison to visit her mother any more.

Old pictures of Zhaoyu and her mother and sister.

Zhaoyu Jin and her younger sister Zhaoheng Jin

http://www.globalrescue.net/

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Experienced Power of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance

2009-07-01T06:53:25+02:00

Author: A Dafa practitioner from China now living in Toronto

Experience sharing from the 2009 Canada Fa Conference

(PureInsight.org)
Greetings, Respected Master,
Greetings, Fellow practitioners,

In “Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006,” Teacher said: “Dafa has been established in human society, and your form of cultivation has you conform to ordinary society to the maximum extent. Many people think it's about being lenient with and making things convenient for our cultivation, but diligent students don't see it that way. It is, rather, the path that Dafa disciples must take as they cultivate. So everything that you do, be it your balancing well your family relationships while you live among ordinary people, balancing well your relationships in society, how you perform at your workplace, how you conduct yourself in society, etc., none of these are things you can just go through the motions on. All of these are part of your cultivation format, and are serious matters.”

I came to Canada in 2004. As I was persecuted in China, my family members wanted me to have a stable life when I finally got to Canada. Going to school seemed to be the first step in getting established in Canada. However, my memory had been damaged from the persecution I suffered at a forced labor camp. I had difficulties remembering the English words I had learned, not to mention learning new words. I had to take the English exams twice for the University of Toronto and failed them both, but somehow I was accepted into the master’s program in Urban Design. The course load was very heavy at U of T and I didn’t know how I could face the two years of study with my poor English. But I thought, since Dafa gave me an opportunity to study, I was determined to validate Dafa and save the sentient beings in this particular environment.

I used all the opportunities I had at school to clarify the truth to my classmates. In one of my history courses, we had to do a presentation on selected topics. One of them was Marxism. In western universities, communism is still poisoning the students. So, I decided to use this issue to clarify the truth. It was a difficult topic for me, but I thought it would be a good opportunity. I borrowed the books from the bibliography and found that they were of the same tone as the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). According to the professor’s requirements, we should first of all give a summary of the literature. But I decided to give a presentation with content contrary to what the books said. This might irritate my professor, and with my poor English, I may not have been able to argue my point eloquently, but I did not care about my marks. I just didn’t want communism to continue to poison sentient beings. So, I collected many posters from the Cultural Revolution period and a picture of how the CCP persecuted a white nun, along with my X-rays showing the injuries that I sustained as a result of the persecution. These pictures helped me to illustrate my points. All of my classmates were engaged by my lecture. As soon as the class was over, my classmates said to me, “You are so brave. You spoke very well. I have learned a lot.”

When my roommates and I got back to our studio, we had more discussions about my presentation. They asked me about Falun Gong and why the persecution was happening. They were really shocked when I told them the truth. My classmates from Iran were especially shocked. They said, “We thought only the Iranian government was so brutal. Many anti-government people have gone missing. The Chinese government is even worse than the Iranian government because it even persecutes those who are not against it. They wanted me to show them the Falun Gong exercises. However, some of my classmates from India were not convinced of the benefits of Falun Gong. They thought Yoga was better. I decided that I would talk with them further at another time.

I have used all the opportunities that I had in my courses to expose the Chinese Communist regime. Students and professors have learned about the forcible demolition of people’s homes in China, the environmental pollution in China, and the Chinese government control of the Internet. They were amazed at the absurdity of the regime.

As time went by, conflicts arose among my classmates during group projects. This was especially so between different ethnic groups and even among the same ethnic group, such as the Iranians. It made it very difficult for people to complete their assignments. I was affected and many of my classmates complained to me.

I think that everyone I meet has a predestined relationship with me. My environment mirrors my heart. Their problems are reflections of the shortcomings that I have in my dimension. I enlightened to the fact that, first of all, I cannot be affected by them. No matter who is right or wrong on the surface, I would not get involved. In addition, as I am a Dafa practitioner, I should use the Fa principles to help them solve their problems so that they can feel the compassion of a Dafa practitioner. So every time they complained to me, I would talk to them using Fa principles in a way that they could understand in order to help them put things in perspective. I tried to tell them to look at things from others’ perspective. Usually, after I talked to them, they felt better.

As well as completing school work, my husband and I also have to do a lot of Dafa work. Time is tight. However, many classmates asked for my help with their assignments, such as what do to for their thesis or an idea for a design. It was time consuming for me to come up with even my own ideas and it was almost impossible for me to help others. Sometimes I was really annoyed and thought, “I am just your classmate” or, “I am not your teacher. Why don’t you go ask your teacher? Don’t you know that I am also tired? Why are you so selfish?” But then I realized that I should not be deceived by this illusion of ordinary people. They would rather talk to me than their teacher because their knowing side wanted to hear the truth. This was also an opportunity for me to guide them with Fa principles and righteous thinking. Think about how hard it was for Teacher to save us and we know how much Teacher suffered. As a practitioner, with a mission to save sentient beings, why should I be concerned about being tired? So I tried very hard to help them. They were all very appreciative.

Towards the end of the second semester, I was even busier with Dafa work, but I did not want to give up my studies or to appear abnormal to other people. Teacher said: “Don't go to extremes with anything; do things rationally and with a clear head. That is the mighty virtue of a Dafa disciple. Whoever manages to remain steady while following this ordinary-society cultivation format, that person is truly doing what's best in this format of cultivation. If with this format someone exhibits behavior that is out of line with this format and at odds with it, then perhaps that person hasn't done well enough. Since Dafa disciples' cultivation is conducted with a format like this, this format is able to forge Dafa disciples, and it can create incredibly high future Attainment Statuses. Departing from this format or not conforming to it will obstruct your cultivation; those things are actually the product of attachments.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital, 2006”)

In the third semester of my program, we planned to go to Chile’s capital city. Prior to our departure, one class was rescheduled and one of my classmates had to do a presentation, which she was not prepared for. I had also been very busy with Dafa work and had also not studied. While many of our classmates were packing, I decided to stay with my friend. She was desperate. She said, “Cindy, help me. I only read the article once.” I told her, “Say to yourself that Falun Dafa is good.” To my surprise, she opened her mouth and started shouting from St. George Street to College Street and then Harbour Street. A miracle happened as she memorized everything. She did not even have to refer to the originals when she did her presentation.

In the last semester of 2008, I had several courses and also needed to work on my thesis. At this time, the CCP had started to round up Falun Gong practitioners. I was very busy with Dafa work. I didn’t have time to be with my classmates. I wanted them to see the Shen Yun Divine Performing Arts performance, but although they were very interested, they did not go. I thought that my classmates were interested in the arts but the economy was not good and they did not have money for it. Although I didn’t have a lot of money, I thought it was important to invite all of them and so I paid for their tickets. They all dressed up for the occasion and they were very impressed with the show. Some of them were interviewed by the Epoch Times. They expressed their appreciation for traditional Chinese culture and their support for Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance and that they are against the persecution. They were very pleased to see their interviews on the Epoch Times website. They said that they finally understood where my beautiful color schemes came from. Some of them even got their color inspirations from the Shen Yun show for dressing up during their graduation thesis.

The proposal for my thesis was rated number one during the third semester. But when I finally presented my thesis to the committee, it was rejected by some of the advisors due to their notions. My supervisor suggested that I refer to the designs of a famous modern architect. I have always liked traditional designs, as if they have existed in my mind for a long time. In the five years I studied modern design in university, I could not understand how such designs came into being. After I studied Dafa, I understood that traditional architectural culture is the orthodox culture and modern design is the products of aliens. I think in order for me to be able to cultivate Dafa, my mind had been protected so I did not focus on modern urban design. But then I had problems fitting into ordinary society. As my supervisor wanted me to model modern design architecture to create my own design, I talked about it with my husband from the Fa perspective and finally understood that looking from above, the geometrical shapes of modern designs look like huge air stations. If one travelled in the air in a UFO, it would be very clear. So I came up with several designs and each of them captured the essence of modern design, which surprised all of my committee members. However, modern design is not from civilizations of human beings; it does not concern itself with human life and it is even in conflict with nature. So I modified it so that my design would merge into the natural environment and integrated human life into the design as well. When I had my oral defence, my department invited specialists to sit in the committee, including a person in charge of the urban design program of Harvard University. The specialists had a lot to say after my classmates presented. But they were silent after my presentation. After a short while, one professor said, “Let me say something. You have done a lot of work on your design and you solidly established your thesis. You have been very successful in using examples of modern design and you have proved the values of your creativity.” This is the professor who was against my design in the first place.

Two days later, although I was tired, I invited everybody to come to my class for a get-together to teach them Falun Gong. One of the western practitioners also came to help us. All of my classmates came with their spouses and children. They learned the exercises and everyone picked up a copy of the truth-clarification materials and CDs. My husband and I prepared a nice Chinese dinner for them. At the party, people who did not talk to each other started to talk, and a male student from India proposed to a female student from Iran, whom he didn’t like at first. The positive energy of Dafa cultivators rectified the environment and everything was harmonized.

During this process, I enlightened to what Teacher said: “As a Dafa disciple in this society, no matter what kind of setting or corner of society you find yourself in, you are playing a positive role. Regardless of whether you are clarifying the truth and validating the Fa or doing things not so directly connected to Dafa, you are nonetheless saving sentient beings and are playing huge roles, and that is because your righteous thoughts and compassionate field are having a positive effect.” (Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital, 2006)

Looking back at the past two years, when I was clarifying the truth or getting along with ordinary people, I tried to follow the standards of cultivators so that ordinary people could see the beauty of Dafa and be impressed with Dafa. It was a difficult process. But it was worth it.

My English is the worst in my class and yet I got an “A” in most of the subjects. During the two years of my study, I was a top student in my class. I also assisted all of my classmates to get their degrees on schedule. This is a miracle of Dafa. I experienced the power of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.

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Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens, 2009

2009-06-28T13:13:23+02:00

Hello,Mr Censor of the Chinese Governmental Department,

We’re the anonymous netizens.For so long a time we’ve discerned your doings of unreasonable blockage of the freedom of expression,your hostility towards the advanced internet technology,your distortion of the sober truth colluding with the propaganda,your envenomation of the public opinion using those network commentators……all these doings have deeply countermarked in our memory.Along with the recent notice of compelling installation of the so called “Green Dam” and the evil-minded slander towards Google,your ugly face of a complete censorship and control of internet has been clearly showed up.So we anonymous netizens declare,we’ll start an all-round attack on your censorship system in all over the world from the day of July 1,2009.

To defend the freedom of internet,to improve the tendency of cyberization,and to protect our own right,we’ll make a series of attacks which will give you the lesson of how chickenshit your censorship system is in front of the real network strength.You’re the public enemy No 1, we’ll stay the course whatever you befool the public opinion through the propaganda.Your stark means, your culture-revolution dated slogan clamour,your ignorance of internet,your false lecture of “for the sake of the next generation”……all these have been knolling the passing bell for your final disaster.You couldn’t escape or be saved by the nation violence,we’re everywhere and whenever a fellow slip up another ten would join with that.We clearly realize that you may use your confirmed trick of interclass struggle to attach a label of “unwitting masses” at first to delimit us from the ordinary people, then to attach another label of “lawbreaker fewness” to cast in a bone between ourselves which intends to destroy all of us one by one at last.We know it---in fact,we encourage it.The more you look on the people in this way,the more beautiful the emperor’s new suit speaks for itself.

The obsolescence ideology of the preponderant ruling class who is hostile to the cyberization has been the resistance of the historical improvement.The slander and crackdown,enmity and blockage has only indicated their terror and will be the last flounder before they’re washed out from the historical stage.Who tries to kick against the pricks will only lie in the bed made by himself.Even you’re slowly reinforced by some digital immigrants,you still couldn’t understand the internet in the foreseeable future.We also have a mood of reminiscence,we’ll enjoy your performances of the cabal-theory opinion and the culture-revolution style of writing which have been unchangeable towards the dissident and even the different for decades of years.We’ll also laugh at your ridiculousness of intending to draw a national boundary on the internet which will be a joke definitely recorded in the history.But then,we can frankly tell you that:

Nobody wants to alternate your regime,we have no interest in your timeworn political power concept and your rotten pickles like ideology.You can’t understand why the magnificent recounting clears up in front of the historical tide of internet,you can’t understand why the concept of country and nation will fall to pieces,you can’t change your unwisdom towards the internet.Your regime won’t be our real enemy.We’re neither a friend nor an enemy of whichever a country or an organization.The biggest enemy who is digging the perish and catabolic tomb for you is just yourself. We have no interest in the things which will be soonly threw away into the dustbin. You couldn’t block the cyberization trend which has been a future direction.In fact,we don’t oppose to your actions of snatching the absolute information control by cutting off the Pacific benthal cable---the more you counteract the historical improvement and deepen the conflicts,the more drastical the social movement will accordingly be, this kind of countermarch will only speed up your own course of being catabolized and replaced.The sun of tomorrow won’t shine on the person who is afraid of it.

We’re the anonymous netizens.We’re the global netizens’ summation.We’re integrative.We dominate the internet.We’re without number.Every member’s slipup means another ten fellows’ joining in.We’re everywhere.We’re super abled.We can’t be held back.We have no weakness.We make use of all weakness.We’re the humanity concealing behind the every mask.We’re the mirror of humanity.We’re born equally.We’re born free.We’re a field army.We don’t forgive.We don’t forget.

Freedom leads the internet.

We’re coming.

Translated by QXBBS.ORG from Chinese

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Chinese Regime-Hired Gang Attack Demonstrators During Hu Jintao's Trip to Slovak

2009-06-22T03:08:39+02:00

By Huang Qin
Epoch Times Staff
Jun 21, 2009

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Su, who was pushed down over 20 steps by thugs hired by the Chinese Communist Party, told Slovak media, "They tried to kill us only because we said 'Falun Dafa is good.' " (Guan Yuanfang/The Epoch Times)

BRATISLAVA, Slovak Republic—On June 18, the first day of Chinese chairman Hu Jintao’s visit to the Slovak Republic, several hundred activists peacefully protested in front of the presidential palace. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent about two hundred overseas Chinese and spies to disrupt the protests. The spies attacked and injured several Falun Gong practitioners, and police arrested nine men hired by the CCP for disturbing public order.

“All the local Chinese stores were closed and there was a welcoming committee organized up by the CCP to welcome Hu Jintao,” said Ms. Zhang, a demonstrator at the presidential palace. “We asked a Chinese man in the welcoming committee if he received any benefits for participating, and he replied that he did. At about 3:00 p.m., when Hu arrived, my friend and I were standing at the exit of a large tunnel and holding a banner which read “Falun Dafa Is Good.” CCP-hired thugs first tried to block our banner with theirs, and then one of them just grabbed our banner and ran away. They also threatened to take our camera if we tried to take pictures of them.”

“Each of us still had a small banner, so we displayed these as best we could and we shouted ‘Falun Dafa Is Good’ very loudly together. There were three CCP-hired thugs behind us, and one of them said, ‘You two do not shout anymore, I will buy you dinner if you stop shouting.’ We ignored him, and then they pushed us down over 20 steps. Fortunately, I fell on a pedestrian so I was not injured too much. However, my friend, Ms. Su, was wounded badly. There was blood all over her body and on the ground; her arms and wrists were also injured.”

Although Zheng was injured, she still stayed there to protest. She said, “When we were practicing exercises quietly beside presidential palace, those thugs came over and yelled at us. Even the police couldn’t stand them anymore and pushed them away,” Zheng continued.

“Those CCP-hired thugs attacked people in public, but they couldn’t achieve their goal. On the contrary, their actions exposed themselves to the media.”

Read original article in Chinese.
Last Updated
Jun 21, 2009

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Chinese Delegation Attacks in Slovakia Spark Public Outcry

2009-06-22T02:38:44+02:00

By Peter Sedik
Epoch Times
Staff Jun 20, 2009

Chinese agents in dark suits (left) charging at the human rights activist holding the yellow banner. After they attacked him and seized his transparent, the activist was arrested by the Slovak police for violating public order. (Peter Sedik/The Epoch Times)

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia—Chinese Chairman Hu Jintao left Slovakia on Friday to visit Croatia during his European tour. While the top Slovakian leaders expressed satisfaction over strengthening bilateral ties with China, heated discussion continued in the Slovakian media and public over the clashes between human rights activists and pro-communist demonstrators in front of the Presidential palace that occurred on Thursday.

About one hour before the arrival of the Chinese chairman, human rights activists approached the Presidential palace where the two heads of state were to meet. As soon as they unfolded their transparent signs, they were assaulted by a Chinese delegation allegedly there to welcome the president. Some of the activists were physically attacked as the pro-communist Chinese tried to grab their banners and tear them down.

To everyone’s surprise, the Slovak police didn't initially protect the human rights group. Instead, they allowed the Chinese agents to continue their abuse. The police didn't step in until the demonstrating participants made multiple calls for help.

Mrs. Xu bleeding from an injury to her forehead after a member of the Chinese delegation pushed her down some stairs. (Peter Sedik/The Epoch Times)

"The square in front of the Presidential palace was occupied by Chinese cops and Chinese Communists, who crudely and violently acted against the citizens of this country [Slovakia], in a foreign territory. And this state and its organs didn't prevent this; on the contrary, they hampered us, the citizens of this country, from standing for freedom in China," Slovak publicist Stefan Hrib summed the events.

Violence of the Chinese Delegation

Several people witnessed the violence in the walk-through on Hodza Square where the demonstrations were happening. When two women held a banner reading "Falun Dafa is good," a Chinese activist suddenly pushed their backs, causing the women to roll down some stairs. After they landed on the marble floor of the passageway, one of them was bleeding from a wound on her forehead caused by her breaking glasses.

The attacker tried to hide in the crowd. According to the CAS daily newspaper, the Slovak police already have proof that the perpetrator was a member of the Chinese delegation. If convicted, he could face up to two years in prison for causing bodily harm.

Chinese agents also beat up the Deputy rector of the Comenius University, Peter Osusky, who ended up with a torn shirt.

Men in Black

The controversy arose around the Chinese "men in black" with blue nametags and walkie-talkies, who acted like security personnel, and instructed the Chinese pro-communist demonstrators to attack the human rights activists and to steal their signs.

Deputy rector of Comenius University, Peter Osusky, in a torn shirt, after being beaten by the Chinese pro-communist demonstrators. (Kamil Rakyta/The Epoch Times)

Some of these agents participated in the fights. One dark-suited man was caught by a journalist trying to surreptitiously throw a stolen banner in a wastebasket.

"Who were they and what exactly was their role in the conflicts in front of the Presidential palace when their compatriots aggressively attacked the Slovak human rights activists?" asked the SME daily.

Former Interior Minister Vladimir Palko points out, that if those men were Chinese secret agents or the Chinese President’s guards, their acts could be classified as an infringement on the Slovak Republic’s sovereignty.

"Man in black" running away with the human rights activist's banner. Former Interior Minister Vladimir Palko asked if the Chinese agent's acting against Slovakian citizens constitutes infringement on the Slovak Republic's sovereignty. (Kamil Rakyta/The Epoch Times)

Slovak MPs from the opposition SDKU-DS party asked the Interior Minister Robert Kalinak to explain to the extraordinary session of the Defense and Security Parliamentary Committee why the police were so slow to intervene and protect the human rights activists. Mr. Kalinak defended the police actions and dismissed the media’s opinion that the Chinese agents were deployed against Slovak citizens.

The incidents will be discussed in the Slovak parliament next week.

Last Updated
Jun 20, 2009

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Rape Case Reveals Flawed Legal System

2009-06-20T01:32:55+02:00

Rape Case Reveals Flawed Legal System

By Fang Xiao
Epoch Times Staff
Jun 16, 2009

Chinese legal expert Yuan Hongbing (Chen Ming/The Epoch Times)

According to Chinese legal expert Professor Yuan Hongbing, the public should not only focus on the legal procedures of the rape case of Deng Yujiao, but also take note of China’s autocratic infrastructure. He says China’s legal system is an inherently flawed system designed to protect the interests of government officials.

“Looking at the case from the perspective of a bad legal system will only lead to confusion,” Yuan explained. “The real problem is that the communist legal system was created to protect corrupt officials, while sacrificing the safety and wellbeing of ordinary people like Deng Yujiao.”

The Deng Yujiao rape case has caused a hurricane of protests throughout China, both on the Internet and in the streets. Deng, an entertainment center waitress in a small town in central China’s Hubei Province, stabbed a government official to death and injured another when they tried to sexually assault her on May 10. Initial efforts by local authorities to imprison the rape victim resulted in a wave of protests from all levels of Chinese society. On June 16 Deng was finally released from detention after a closed-door court hearing.

Yuan said he has also paid close attention to Deng’s court proceedings, as well as pubic opinion regarding the case.

“The public has been calling for justice, but most people miss that the bigger problem is the autocratic legal system itself. They have lost sight of the real cause of this tragedy,” Yuan said.

“It is useless to base our discussion and judgment on the laws and legal procedures laid down by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” Yuan remarked. “Because of this flawed system, tragedies will continue to befall people like Deng Yujiao.”

Yuan explained that this is why so many government officials dare to relentlessly bully people—they know the CCP has established a system that protects the privileged class and encourages the abuse of power.

“Take the Deng case for example,” said Yuan. “The CCP’s court completely ignored the appeals from Deng’s lawyers to investigate the injured official who was allegedly connected to the sexual assault.”

“Deng Yujiao could only rely on her own physical strength to defend herself,” Yuan continued, “because the political system does not protect her with just laws.”

He added that people are entitled to the right to defend themselves from tyranny.

Before the June 16 court hearing, Chinese authorities announced that Deng Yujiao was found to have mental problems and she was charged with partial criminal liabilities. Based on this determination, Yuan predicted on June 15 that the court would either sentence Deng for a minor offence or release her without punishment due to public pressure. “After all, they have to appease the enraged public who barely tolerate these corrupt CCP officials anymore,” he said.

Read this article in Chinese.
Last Updated
Jun 17, 2009

Chinese Professor Questions Rape Case Result

By Fang Xiao
Epoch Times Staff
Jun 19, 2009

Deng Yujiao at the June 16 court hearing. (The Epoch Times)

On June 16, a court concluded that Deng Yujiao, victim of the widely publicized rape case, was guilty of assault. The court then released her without sentence on the grounds of a claimed “mental disorder.” While some celebrate Deng’s release, many challenge the legitimacy of the court’s decision.

Chinese professor He Weifang wrote in a web article that the real criminal in this case had not been brought to court as a defendant. He argued that Deng’s stabbing the officials was not an independent incident, but a defensive action following an attempted rape. ”The court should have first investigated the sexual assault before placing any charges on Deng,” said He.

“As a matter of fact, the court should first investigate the rape suspect, Huang Dezhi,” He said in the article. “If Deng stabbed the officials while resisting rape, then the court should be handling a rape case. But now the court is judging Deng’s behavior without mentioning the attempted rape.”

As for the mental disorder claim, He said it was a cunning excuse for blaming Deng without having to punish her, and for letting the rape suspects walk free.

The volunteer legal support group for Deng stated on June 17 that the verdict of guilty was not acceptable. “We believe that Deng is not guilty as her actions were made in self-defense,” the group said in a statement to the press. “The guilty charge is by no means legitimate.” The group also proposed to make May 10, the day Deng stabbed the officials, Self-Defense Day, and to use this day as an occasion to educate the public about self-defense and other legitimate ways to defend their own legal rights.

Read this article in Chinese.

The Epoch Times

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Tear Down This Cyberwall!

2009-06-19T17:46:01+02:00

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: June 17, 2009

The unrest unfolding in Iran is the quintessential 21st-century conflict. On one side are government thugs firing bullets. On the other side are young protesters firing “tweets.”

The protesters’ arsenal, such as those tweets on Twitter.com, depends on the Internet or other communications channels. So the Iranian government is blocking certain Web sites and evicting foreign reporters or keeping them away from the action.

The push to remove witnesses may be the prelude to a Tehran Tiananmen. Yet a secret Internet lifeline remains, and it’s a tribute to the crazy, globalized world we live in. The lifeline was designed by Chinese computer engineers in America to evade Communist Party censorship of a repressed Chinese spiritual group, the Falun Gong.

Today, it is these Chinese supporters of Falun Gong who are the best hope for Iranians trying to reach blocked sites.

“We don’t have the heart to cut off the Iranians,” said Shiyu Zhou, a computer scientist and leader in the Chinese effort, called the Global Internet Freedom Consortium. “But if our servers overload too much, we may have to cut down the traffic.”

Mr. Zhou said that usage of the consortium’s software has tripled in the last week. It set a record on Wednesday of more than 200 million hits from Iran, representing more than 400,000 people.

If President Obama wants to support democratic movements on a shoestring, he should support an “Internet freedom initiative” pending in Congress. This would include $50 million in the appropriations bill for these censorship-evasion technologies. The 21st-century equivalent of the Berlin wall is a cyberbarrier, and we can help puncture it.

Please go on to read the whole story at nytimes.com.

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Predestined Relationship with Heaven: Coming Down to Human World Together

2009-06-10T14:46:18+02:00

Cultivation Stories

Author: Xiao Lian

[PureInsight.org] In our life, we meet all sorts of friends. Among my friends is a couple that has been married for several years. They have a boy who is shy. Whenever someone comes to visit them, the boy is always in the outer room. He sweeps the floor or cleans the table; he always seems to be busy doing something. Their daughter is an adolescent who also doesn’t talk much. However, she gives people a feeling of trustworthiness. I like her naïve personality, so I have cultivated a friendship with her.

For two years, I have known the story of the predestined relationship of the brother and sister, but did not want to share it until now. Today, I write their story.

In a far away universe, there is a very splendid world. It is the world of a phoenix. The Fa King there had the image of a female phoenix. Her image was the most beautiful and sacred thing in that world. She also had a boy in the image of a child. For many years the boy could be seen always accompanying the Fa King.

Later, the Fa King found that her world had become less pure. She decided to leave, accompanied by the boy, in search of the Great Law that could save the sentient beings in her world. The sentient beings there bade her goodbye and greatly anticipated her return.

The two passed through many levels, searching for the Great Law. But despite their combined wisdom and divine capabilities, they did not know how to find the Great Law that would solve the deviation and corruption of sentient beings throughout the universe.

They met many deities and asked them about such a Law, but no one had heard about It. They endured much hardship. When they were about to give up all hope, they met a deity who used his supernormal abilities to help them go to higher levels to search for It. They arrived at an extraordinarily magnificent main hall where lanterns hung around the doorway. One of the lanterns dropped to the Fa King’s feet. It split open by itself and there inside was a scroll of silk. The boy picked it up and spread it open before the phoenix Fa King.

The scroll read roughly, “Sentient beings and all matter have deviated and become corrupt. These problems can only be corrected at the lowest level – the human world. Anyone who is willing to assimilate to the Great Law, Dafa, can go there. But the human world is very deviated and corrupt. To guide you, there will be a round object and a flower that will act as a sign. When you see the sign, you will know what to do to save sentient beings.” Upon reading this, the Fa King and the boy decided to go down to the human world in order to save all sentient beings.

They continued down toward the human world. On the way, they met Teacher and many enlightened beings of the cosmos who had also vowed to save sentient beings.

The Fa King and the boy went through many reincarnations and suffered much hardship in order to obtain the Fa in this lifetime. In the end, they had the good fortune of obtaining the Fa and becoming Dafa disciples during the Fa rectification period.

Fellow practitioners, let us cherish this hard-to-come-by opportunity.

In this lifetime, the Fa King is the adolescent girl and her boy is her younger brother. With all his heart, the boy strives to treat her well and care for her. This is their story here in the human world.

Chinese

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Rally in Front of UN Calls for Stop to CCP's Persecution

2009-06-08T09:23:51+02:00

New York: Rally in Front of United Nations Calls for Stop to the CCP's Persecution of Falun Gong in China (Photos)

By Huang Kaili

(Clearwisdom.net) On June 5, 2009, the New York Falun Dafa Association and the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) held a rally on the square in front of the United Nations in New York. They called on the international community to help stop the CCP's ten-year-long persecution of Falun Gong.

It was raining heavily in New York. Several hundred Falun Gong practitioners and people from all walks of life stood in the rain, holding banners with the message, "Disintegrate the Chinese Communist Party, Stop the Persecution" and other truth-clarification messages. They also acknowledged the thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have lost their lives in the persecution. Ms. Martha Flores-Vazquez, a community leader in New York, Chinese scholar Yanjun Sun, democracy advocates Boqiao Tang, Jun Wang, and Kexue Zheng, and quite a few people who were persecuted in China participated in the rally.

On June 5, 2009, Several hundred Falun Gong practitioners and people from all walks of life participated in a rally in the rain on the square in front of the United Nations. They called on the international community to stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China and help bring an end to the tyrannical CCP.

"We cannot let such crimes continue"

Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang said, "Ten years ago, the CCP used its entire state machinery and initiated an unprecedented, brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. To force practitioners to give up their belief, the CCP applied various tortures and even conducted live organ harvesting [of incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners] for lucrative profit."

Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang said, "We cannot let such crimes continue."

It is estimated that over the last ten years of persecution, at least several thousand Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death. Over 3,000 of these cases have been documented. At least more than 100,000 practitioners are still imprisoned in forced labor camps and mental hospitals, suffering forced labor, brainwashing and torture.

Mr. Zhang said, "We stand in front of the United Nations to remind the international community to pay attention to the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. For ten years the persecution has not stopped but instead has escalated. We cannot let such crimes continue."

Community leader, "I always support you!"

Ms. Martha Flores-Vazquez, a community leader in Flushing

Ms. Martha Flores-Vazquez, a community leader in Flushing, called on all circles in New York and the international community to work together to end the persecution. She said, "You [Falun Gong practitioners] have the right to practice your own belief in the United Stated and in the world. I always support you."

Chinese scholar Mr. Yanjun Sun, who studies religious psychology, reminded the international community that keeping silent perpetuates the crime and disasters will follow.

Mr. Sun pointed out that when the CCP's former leader claimed he would eliminate Falun Gong within three months, no one suspected that it would be otherwise, since the docile Chinese people have gotten used to autocratic tyranny.

He said, "But Falun Gong practitioners' steadfast belief and uncompromising courage prevailed over the CCP's arrogant attempt. Ten years have passed. Falun Gong practitioners peacefully and rationally continue to protest the CCP's violence and lies. Though experiencing unimaginable torture, killing, and even genocide, Falun Gong practitioners have maintained their steadfast belief and become stronger. Now Falun Gong has spread across the world and won respect."

Mr. Sun pointed out, "Falun Gong's Truth-Compassion-Forbearance prevails over the CCP's Falsehood-Evil-Violence. Falun Gong has created a miracle in history, of peacefully protesting violence. The CCP's anti-human nature is exposed completely. Disintegration of the CCP is inevitable."

Mr. Sun said, "Human being needs to make a choice about reestablishing morality. Stopping the persecution is the beginning of such efforts to save ourselves. All righteous forces in the world must take action immediately!"

The best way to stop the persecution is disintegration of the CCP

Mr. Boqiao Tang, Chairman of the Chinese Peace and Democracy Federation, said that the CCP's bullying of the Chinese people has continued nonstop for decades. Mr. Hexiang Bian of the US League of Guardians said, "Falun Gong practitioners are the most excellent among Chinese people."

Mr. Charles Li of the World Organization to Rescue Falun Gong Practitioners Being Persecuted said that along with Falun Gong practitioners' exposing the facts and the more than 50 million Chinese quitting the CCP and its affiliated organizations, the CCP is becoming weaker.

Dr. Daying Li, Executive Director of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, pointed out, "The CCP has committed countless crimes against the Chinese people. The best way to stop the CCP's persecution is disintegration of the CCP."

Calling on the Chinese people to awaken

From 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the same day of the rally at the United Nations, nearly one hundred Falun Gong practitioners rallied in front of the Chinese General Consulate in New York in the rain. They protested the CCP's brutal persecution and recent arrests in China. They also called on the Chinese people to awaken, spread the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, get to know the real nature of the CCP, and renounce the CCP and its affiliated organizations.

Falun Gong practitioners rally in front of the Chinese Consulate in New York in the rain

Practitioners asked Chinese diplomats in the consulate to learn about the CCP's true nature and to renounce the CCP and its affiliated organizations.

Many passers-by expressed support for the practitioners' efforts to protest the persecution.

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Miraculous Light Columns Emitted from a Group of Taiwanese Dafa Practitioners

2009-06-06T14:13:23+02:00

Author: A Dafa practitioner

On May 9, 2009, some 6000 Taiwanese Falun Dafa practitioners in Southern Taiwan were preparing to sit in a group formation creating the image of a giant “Zhuan Falun” book to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day (May 13^th).

A practitioner took some photos, which it just so happened, captured images of unusual light columns atop the heads of Dafa practitioners while they were resting. The pictures below show these miraculous lights, soaring skyward, emitted from the heads of practitioners. These columns seemed to follow practitioners while they were walking around.

Falun Gong cultivates both mind and body. Certain phenomena on cultivators' bodies may be revealed only in other dimensions. Human eyes usually won’t be able to see such phenomena, but some people with supernormal capabilities may be able to see them. Sometimes photos or videos may capture a particular moment from other dimensions. The appearance of these columns is auspicious, manifesting the truth to human beings at this time.

Abstract:
On May 9, 2009, Taiwanese Falun Dafa practitioners were celebrating World Falun Dafa Day (May 13). A practitioner took some photos, which captured images of unusual light columns atop the heads of Dafa practitioners. The appearance of these columns is auspicious.

Chinese

pureinsight.org

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China Must Catch Up!

2009-06-04T09:30:32+02:00

Guenter Nooke: "Finally release all the detainees of the June 4, 1989 incident."

By Lea Zhou
Epoch Times Jun 2, 2009

"We shall overcome" - Chinese students chose the English language in 1989 and this theme to better let the world's press know their message of hope. (64memo.com)

Günter Nooke, appointee for Germany’s Federal Government Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid Office at the Foreign Office, gave an interview to The Epoch Times regarding his experience during the 1989 Tiananmen incident and East Germany's response at that time.

Epoch Times (ET): On June 4, 1989, tanks rolled across Beijing's Tiananmen Square and ended the student's protests for a democratic China with a bloodbath. Do you remember when and how you received this information?

Guenter Nooke (GN): The night of Saturday to Sunday June 4, I sat with other opposition [anti-communism] factions in the sacristy of Berlin's Sophia Church. We were gathered around a small radio, listening to the West Berlin News and heard the first reports of the bloody ending of the students’ protests.

Our next attempt was to make contact with people among our church’s circle of friends in a place called Forst/Lauzitz, a small town close to the Polish border, between Berlin and Dresden. Our aim was to send a protest telegram to the DDR (East German) regime, the wording of which we published in our Samisdat-Blatt called "Departure." Samisdat [a Russian term] refers to the distribution of written information via hand-copied texts.

ET: What thoughts and feelings did this evoke?

GN: Of course, we were shocked by the brutal actions of the communist leadership in Beijing. But the SED's reaction- the DDR's Communist Party, particularly Egon Krenz's reaction (he later became Party chief) roused fear in us. These people heralded the "Chinese Solution" in glowing terms. This sent us a clear personal message— Sheer fright!!! On the other hand, I sensed that this "solution" would not be a long-lasting one, because even then, my political view had already been that similar responses in middle Europe and in the DDR, given the West German media and our common language, would be impossible, or at least would be of brief duration.

ET: Did the students' pro-democracy efforts under China's autocracy have an impact on, or play a role with, the Eastern Europeans' movement toward democracy?

GN: We felt mentally connected- no matter where in the world human rights and freedom are at stake. This quest for freedom is the basis for all democratic change.

ET: How do you see the Chinese power brokers' continuing silence and suppression of all things related to this event?

GN: It is completely unacceptable. A permanent reckoning is unavoidable. But it must begin quickly. Thank goodness some inside the power corridors of China's regime are beginning to voice themselves and make public their differing positions.

That leads us in the West to believe that not everything among China's elite leadership is as homogenous as it is made to appear. Many discussions are happening.

It is our task to support the Party reformers as well as the human rights advocates, and not take the "official" proclamations too seriously.

But my wish in my position as human rights designee for this 20th anniversary is simple and directed at the rulers in Beijing:

“It is time to free the June 4, 1989 detainees.”

Read original article in German

Last Updated
Jun 3, 2009

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Chinese Regime Tries to Defuse Waitress Rape Case

2009-06-04T09:07:29+02:00

By Zhou Meihua
Epoch Times Staff Jun 2, 2009

Deng Yujiao (Internet)

The legal case that has grabbed the attention of ordinary people throughout China, in which on May 10 a waitress in China’s Hubei province allegedly killed a Communist official who she said was involved in a sexual assault on her, took a surprising turn last Sunday as the Chinese authorities described the killing in what might appear to be an exculpatory manner. Legal experts, though, say the charges against her remain unchanged.

The announcement, many believe, stems from the regime’s effort to appease the public during the run-up to the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4 and occurs at the same time as measures meant to silence discussion of this explosive topic.

According to a Xinhua news release of last Sunday, on May 10 the waitress Deng Yujiao at a karaoke-spa center, “was coerced by Huang Dezhi and Deng Guida to bathe with them.” When she refused, it was said, “she was violently pulled and pushed around [by the two officials] and was also verbally assaulted.”

Under such circumstances, says the news release, the waitress’s stabbing of the two officials, which killed one and injured the other, is considered by the police “excessive self-defense.”

According to bloggers, the decision is widely seen as the Chinese authority’s attempt to alleviate the widespread anger among the people, who believe that the authority is trying to cover up a rape or attempted rape by communist officials.

Another Version

The Sunday news release offers yet another official description of what happened in the incident, in addition to three different earlier versions of the story.

Earlier, the waitress reportedly was asked by the official Huang Dezhi to provide “special service” (meaning sexual service), which was then changed to “bathing service” (a young woman giving a man a bath). Last Sunday’s version says she was coerced to “bathe with them.”

Besides, the waitress, instead of being “held down [on a sofa]” or “pushed to sit [on a sofa],” as the earlier versions said, is now said to be violently pulled and pushed around while being verbally assaulted.

No rape or attempted rape is implicated in the Xinhua statement.

The news release also says that Huang Dezhi, vice-director of the Investment Office of the town Yesanguan, has been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and stripped of all his offices because he breached Party rules through accepting his client’s dinner invitation and through forcing a waitress to bathe with him.

In addition, the third official, Deng Zhongjia, who earlier had been left out of the picture by the authorities because “he did nothing illegal,” is said to have been fired from his job for the “bad influence he may have in society.”

Reporting Denied

The May 10 case was initially widely reported in the Chinese media, and there was a strong, sympathetic response in the public for the waitress, who was called by some an “heroine” for her act of resistance.

The Chinese authorities have recently used different means to keep the public, including the media, from pursuing any information about the case.

On May 22, China’s State Council Information Office told all the media in China to “cool off” their coverage of the case. Since then, while no reporter has succeeded in contacting the relatives of the waitress, the waitress’s hometown Yesanguan has basically been inaccessible to outsiders.

According to a May 29 report on Sound of Hope Radio, two human right activists who arrived in Yesanguan on May 25 found that the town was under martial law with all the stores ordered to close by the police. One of them, Zhou Li, said they were tailed by the police, who later told them to leave.

“[The police] also told us to leave, saying that they were concerned about our safety; they also said that the Tu, Qiang, and Miao ethnic groups there were barbaric people. I think it’s really not good for them to say something like that,” Zhou said in the recording.

Her friend Wang Haizhen was heard saying, “Because we wanted to go out, they [the [police] made things up to accuse us of causing trouble, this and that…They forced upon us all the labels available.”

The media have reportedly been driven away in the same way, and at least two reporters were physically assaulted.

The two reporters, one female, one male, were from The Beijing News and Nanfang People’s Magazine. They were beaten on May 28 by 5-6 unidentified men upon interviewing the waitress’s grandparents, according to a May 29 China National Radio report.

The men who assaulted them, the report says, took away the reporters’ note books, deleted the contents in their cameras and digital recorders, and the male reporter was made to sign an agreement promising not to do reporting in the town again without official permission.

The two Beijing lawyers who volunteered to defend Deng Yujiao have also left the town. The termination of their contract with Deng Yujiao’s mother was announced on May 23 first by the Hubei authorities, causing many to believe that Deng’s mother was being controlled by public security.

The authorities then announced who Deng’s new lawyers would be.

Around the same time, the authorities also announced that the underwear Deng wore on May 10 had been washed by her mother, which, if true, very likely eliminates forensic evidence important to her defense.

Intentional Killing

Regarding last Sunday’s official statement about the May 10 case, legal experts in China warn that the charge brought against the waitress has not been changed.

Zhu Mingyong and Pu Zhiqiang, two lawyers in Beijing, have separately pointed out through bloc postings that there is no such thing as “excessive self-defense” in China’s Criminal Law, and that the criminal charge against Deng Yujiao is still “intentional killing.”

Deng, then, is still at risk of the harsh penalties in China’s penal code, including capital punishment.

In addition, the claim made by the authorities immediately after the incident that Deng has mental illness—a claim that Deng’s former lawyers deny—has not been retracted by the authorities, according to Pu Zhiqiang.

Hardly any of China’s bloggers seems to believe that the waitress, as the authorities have claimed, was not sexually assaulted on May 10 by the officials. If the bloggers are an accurate guide to Chinese public opinion, then, as the number of conflicting official accounts of the incident grows, the Chinese people are becoming more and more disappointed with the communist regime.

Last Updated
Jun 3, 2009

Related Articles

* Stabbing Death of Official Draws Attention to CCP Corruption
* Hubei Case Highlights Rapes by Party Officials
* Chinese People Continue to Support Waitress Who Killed Party Official
* Regime Seals Off Town as China Rape Case Gathers Momentum
* Badong Officials Attack Reporters Covering Deng’s Rape Case

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What Are the Chinese Police Doing?

2009-06-03T09:18:28+02:00

By a practitioner from Shandong Province

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, a popular topic on the Internet has been about a man "trying to find the killer of his mother and sister for twenty-four years; his family was shattered and he had become homeless." It is a true story of a man who bore all kinds of hardship to find the murderer of his mother and sister. After traveling to nearly twenty cities, he finally turned in the recorded evidence to the police. As a result, the killer was found. Although it is a touching story, it also exposes the corruption of the justice system in China.

There are more people who try to find justice for their loved ones but are unsuccessful after many years. Many more of them have fallen victim themselves because they offended officials. The police not only don't protect these people, but also become thugs under the control of corrupt leadership. This has made the path for those people more difficult. I believe that if these true stories were to be made public in the Chinese media, people would be outraged.

The relatives of Chen Zixiu are still being tortured

On April 20, 2000, The Wall Street Journal published a long article on the front page entitled "Practicing Falun Gong Was a Right, Ms. Chen Said, up to Her Last Day." It detailed how Falun Gong practitioner Chen Zixiu from Weifang City, Shandong Province, was tortured to death by the Chinese government. Her daughter, Zhang Xueling, a soft-spoken woman, accompanied by her five-year-old son, had exhausted every lawful channel to find justice for her mother in the year that followed. What happened to her? She not only could not find justice for her mother, but was also herself accused of "sabotaging the implementation of law using an illegal practice" and sentenced to three years in a forced labor camp by the Weicheng area Public Security Bureau in Weifang City on April 24, 2001. This sentence was given without any legal process being followed.

The Wall Street Journal reported her story in an article entitled "Daughter in China Follows Tortuous Path to Seek Justice." It detailed her experience in "a country where the most powerful organization, the Communist Party, is above the law."

During the past nine years, many of Chen Zixiu's family members have been persecuted by the police. Her sister and brother-in-law have been repeatedly arrested and detained in forced labor camps. Their home was ransacked. They were detained the night before the 2008 Olympic Games. Her nephew, Li Kisangani, was imprisoned in a forced labor camp for three years. He is in Weifang Detention Center at present.

Mother detained, her homeless son suffered hardships

Cheng Teng is twenty years old. He is from Weifang City in Shandong Province. As a result of the CCP persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, his family has been shattered. His mother, Sun Xiaomei, has been detained six times. His grandmother, Zhou Chunmei, and aunt, Sun Xiaobo, were tortured to death in 1999. Cheng himself was detained twice when he was eleven years old. He was forced to drop out of school at twelve and he became homeless at thirteen. During the past six years, he has slept on the streets and picked cabbage roots for food. He has been followed by the police, and has had to move from one place to another over sixty times.

He said, "My mother has been detained six times. I was forced to quit school at twelve and have wandered ever since. I have not seen my mom for five years."

On March 26 2009, Cheng Teng arrived in the US through Thailand as a refugee. This young Falun Gong practitioner, who has suffered so tragically for his belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance, finally has the right to seek justice for his family. Cheng Teng said that he hoped that the brutal torture against Falun Gong would end soon and that the children of practitioners could reunite with their parents and enjoy their deserved happiness.

Tragedy strikes Zhou Shufeng's family once again

Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Shufeng, 68, is from Xingshan Village, Jiazhuang Town in the Anqiu area of Weifang City, Shandong Province. She has been missing since April 13, 2009. Her family does not know her whereabouts. Since July 20, 1999, her family has endured one tragedy after another. In the past ten years, her whole family has been detained, forced to pay money, and sentenced to forced labor camps. Their home was ransacked. Her eldest daughter, Shu Baolan, was tortured to death. Her husband; second daughter, Bao Yun; and the youngest daughter, Bao Li, have been detained in prison. Ms. Zhou herself was forced to leave home and travel from place to place for years. The whole family has endured all kinds of hardships.

By July 2006, at least 121 practitioners from Weifang City had been tortured to death by the Chinese Communist Part (CCP). In 2008, 162 practitioners from Weifang City were sentenced to forced labor. In the evening before the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games, over 140 practitioners were arrested. Every practitioner who was arrested left behind parents, a wife or husband, children, and friends. Their suffering deeply hurt their loved ones, who outnumbered the practitioners by several times. Some left behind elderly parents and some little children, and others lost their homes and income. However, they don't even have the right to appeal to the tyrannical regime for justice. They only have tears and suffering. The Chinese Communist Party is responsible for this human tragedy. The police have become goons and perpetrators. They torture innocent people for their own temporary interests, shattering the lives of numerous families. We call on the international community to help obtain justice for those who are deceased, like Ms. Chen Zixiu, Ms. Zhou Chunmei, Ms. Sun Xiaobo, and Ms. Shu Baolan.

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