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Persecution of Falun Gong refers to claims by Falun Gong it has been persecuted by the government of China. The qigong-based movement was founded by Li Hongzhi who introduced it to the public in May 1992, in Changchun, Jilin. Falun Gong was banned by the government of China on 22 July 1999. The movement has been called an "evil cult" by the official Chinese press.

Use of media

Since the organization's ban by the government of China on 22 July 1999, the state-controlled media identify Falun Gong as an "evil cult" that spreads superstition. By 30 July 1999, people.com.cn reported confiscation of over 1.5 million Falun Gong books. Associated publishers, wholesalers, and booksellers were also shut down.

Elizabeth Perry reported similarities between the ban and its aftermath to "the anti-rightist campaign of the 1950s the anti-spiritual pollution campaigns of the 1980s." The evening news broadcast images of huge piles of Falun Gong materials being crushed or incinerated. She reported that the media focused on those who had kicked the Falun Gong habit; relatives of Falun Gong "victims" spoke of the tragedies that had befallen their loved ones; former practitioners confessed to being "hoodwinked by Li Hongzhi and" expressed "regret at their gullibility"; physical education instructors suggested healthy alternatives to Falun Gong practice.

According to CNN's Willy Lam, state media stated that Falun Gong was part of an "anti-China international movement". As it did during the Cultural Revolution, the Communist Party organised rallies in the streets and stop-work meetings in remote western provinces by government agencies such as the weather bureau to denounce the practice. Xinhua published editorials on PLA officers declaring Falun Gong "an effort by hostile Western forces to subvert China," and vowing to do their utmost to defend the central leadership and "maintain national security and social stability."

Circulars were issued to women's and youth organisations encouraging support for the ban. Both the Youth League and the All-China Women's Federation called for greater use of science education to combat "feudalistic superstition." Xinhua reported speeches of Youth League officials. One speaker said "This reminds us of the importance and urgency of strengthening our political and ideological work among the younger generation, educating them with Marxist materialism and atheism, and making greater efforts to popularize scientific knowledge". The Women's Federation stated the need to "arm our sisters with scientific knowledge and help improve their capability to recognize and resist feudal superstition" A group of PLA veterans who had joined in the 1930s and 1940s issued a statement that "Only Marxism can save China and only the Chinese Communist Party can lead us to accomplish the great cause of reinvigorating the Chinese nation."

Internet and press restrictions

Analyst James Mulvenon of the Rand Corporation stated that the Chinese Ministry of Public Security uses cyber-warfare to attack Falun Gong websites in the United States, Australia, Canada and England, and blocks access to internet resources about the topic.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China have complained about their members being "followed, detained, interrogated and threatened" for reporting on government actions in banning Falun Gong. Many foreign journalists attending a news conference organised by practitioners which took place in Beijing on 28 October 1999, were accused by the Chinese authorities of "illegal reporting." Others have been punished for communicating with the foreign press or for organising the press conferences. Journalists from Reuters, the New York Times, the Associated Press and a number of other organisations were interrogated by police, forced to sign confessions, and had their work and residence papers temporarily confiscated. Correspondents also complained that television satellite transmissions were interfered with while being routed through China Central Television. Amnesty states that "a number of people have received prison sentences or long terms of administrative detention for speaking out about the repression or giving information over the Internet.."

The 2002 Reporters Without Borders' report on China states that photographers and cameramen working with foreign media were prevented from working in and around Tiananmen Square where hundreds of Falungong followers have demonstrated in recent years. It estimates that at least 50 representatives of the international press have been arrested since July 1999, and some of them were beaten by police; several Falun Gong followers have been imprisoned for talking with foreign journalists." Ian Johnson, The Wall Street Journal correspondent in Beijing, wrote a series of articles which won him the 2001 Pulitzer Prize. Johnson left Beijing after writing his articles, stating that "the Chinese police would have made my life in Beijing impossible" after he received the Pulitzer.

2001 Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident

On the eve of Chinese new year, 23 January 2001, five people attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. According to the official Chinese press agency, Xinhua News Agency, the five were members of Falun Gong did so to protest the perceived unfair treatment of Falun Gong by the Chinese government. However, the Falun Dafa Information Center denied that the self-immolators were practitioners, on the grounds that the movement's teachings explicitly forbid suicide and killing. Footage was broadcast nationally in the People's Republic of China by China Central Television (CCTV). A 2001 article in Time observed that Falun Gong failed to acknowledge it was possible that the five might have been misguided practitioners. The incident and its handling by Falun Gong damaged public opinion and increased support for the Chinese authorities, which had previously been perceived to have "gone too far" in its banning of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong related media outlet New Tang Dynasty Television, produced a video programme of the incident, False Fire, which claimed a number of inconsistencies in the state's version of events. Human Rights Watch (HRW) believed the incident was among one of the most difficult stories for reporters in Beijing at the time to report on because of a lack of independent information available.

Books and articles in the press; governmental, NGO, and academic reports; have considered the possibilities that the incident was staged by Chinese authorities or undertaken by misguided practitioners, and contain criticism of the handling of the incident by both Chinese government and Falun Gong. Three of the survivors, and two others accused of being involved in the incident, were put on trial in mid-2001 for intentional homicide. Four of the five were found guilty and given sentences ranging from seven years to life. One of the accused, Liu Baorong, was "exempted from sentence" as the court said she had "acknowledged her crime". Two of the survivors, Hao Huijun and her daughter Chen Guo, were "totally disfigured" and did not appear in court.

Academic restrictions

According to Falun Gong lobby group World Organization for the Investigation Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), examinations contained questions with anti-Falun Gong content, and incorrect answers had serious repercussions. WOIPFG claimed that students who practiced Falun Gong were barred from schools and universities and from sitting exams, and that "guilt by association" was assumed: family members of known practitioners were also denied entry. There were anti-Falun Gong petitions.

Alleged abuses

Forced labor

Robert Bejesky, writing in the Columbia Journal of Asian Law, wrote that China uses forced labor to re-educate those seen as "disrupting social order," "endangering national security," or "subverting the socialist system". Such forced labor is outside the criminal justice system, and is intended to rehabilitate "agitators". Up to 99% of long term Falun Gong detainees are processed administratively through this system. Outside access is not given to the camps. Prisoners are forced to do heavy work in mines, brick factories, and agriculture. A figure from 2004 set the number of Falun Gong deaths in these institutions at 700, according to Bejesky.

Torture

A 2001 Washington Post reported that police and neighborhood groups used verbal and physical abuse, beatings and torture to force Falun Gong practitioners first to renounce and abandon the organization, then to reeducate other practitioners. The Post reported that some practitioners were sent to forced labor camps, and that the camps were used as a threat to ensure that reeducation was effective.

Falun Gong says it has documented 44,000 cases of alleged torture which have resulted in 2,804 deaths. Falun Gong reports over 100 forms of torture to have been used, including shocks, stress positions, branding, force-feeding, and sexual abuse. Its website reports effects including impaired mental, sensory, physiological and speech faculties, paralysis, or death. Amnesty believes Falun Gong overstate the toll.

Since 2000, the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations highlighted 314 cases of the alleged torture, representing more than 1,160 individuals, to the Government of China. Falun Gong comprise 66% of all such reported torture cases, 8% occurring within Ankangs.

An article on the Association for Asian Research website describes torture of men and women at the Dalian Labor Camp in China. Gao Zhisheng, a Beijing-based human rights lawyer, in his third open letter to the Beijing leadership criticised criminal behaviour of 6-10 Office staff and the police for cases of abduction, assault and torture.

Organ harvesting

In March 2006 the Falun Gong-affiliated Epoch Times published a number of articles alleging that the China was conducting widespread and systematic organ harvesting of living Falun Gong practitioners. The website alleged that practitioners detained in labour camps, hospital basements, or prisons, were being blood and urine tested, their information stored on computer databases, and then matched with organ recipients. Within one month, third party investigators including representatives of the US Department of State, said that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation. Former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas were commissioned by Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong to investigate the allegations. In July 2006, they published "Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China", which concluded that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners were victims of systematic organ harvesting throughout China, whilst still alive.

In August 2006, a Congressional Research Service report said that some of the key allegations of the Kilgour-Matas report appeared to be inconsistent with the findings of other investigations. In November 2008 the United Nations Committee Against Torture called for the Chinese state to immediately conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims of organ harvesting, and take measures to ensure that those responsible for any such abuses are prosecuted and punished.

Psychiatric

Falun Gong and human rights observers began reporting widespread psychiatric abuse of mentally-healthy practitioners since 1999, a claim that is supported by journalist Danny Schechter. Falun Gong says that thousands have been forcefully detained in mental hospitals and subject to psychiatric abuses such as injection of sedatives or anti-psychotic drugs, torture by electrocution, force-feeding, beatings and starvation. It also alleges that practitioners are involuntarily admitted because they are unwilling to sever their ties with Falun Gong. Others are admitted because detention sentences have expired or the detainees have not been successfully “transformed” in the brainwashing classes. In 2001 Amnesty International published details of cases in which practitioners, alone or in groups, were detained for long periods of time and forced to take drugs.

Robin J. Munro, former Director of the Hong Kong Office of Human Rights Watch, drew worldwide attention to the abuses of forensic psychiatry in China in general, and of Falun Gong practitioners in particular. Munro says that large-scale psychiatric abuses are the most distinctive aspect of the government’s protracted campaign to "crush the Falun Gong." Harvard professor Alan Stone disagreed, saying that the allegations were constructed from "layman's reading and tendentious extrapolations of Chinese psychiatric publications". Stone said that the pattern of hospitalisation varied from province to province, and did not suggest any uniform government policy was in force. After having been given access to and examining several hundred cases of specific Falun Gong practitioners in named psychiatric hospitals, the medical personnel), He also noted the role played by local security forces and the local authorities, rather than psychiatrists. Some were taken at or on their way to protests in Beijing and brought in groups to psychiatric hospitals, others were brought by worried family members.

Following his visit to China in February 2005 as part of a World Psychiatric Association delegation, Stone noted that divergent standards of training, economic pressure, and the absence of central government control and command regulation all suggest fundamental differences with the Soviet model of abuse. Although Falun Gong practitioners were misdiagnosed and mistreated in psychiatric hospitals across China, Stone said the Ministry of Health or Security in Beijing were not responsible. Furthermore, he found no evidence that "an influential group of forensic psychiatrists carried out this psychiatric suppression of the Falun Gong"

International response

• The United States House of Representatives has considered resolutions condemning treatment of Falun Gong by the Government of the People's Republic of China.

Response from Falun Gong

See also: Falun Gong outside the People's Republic of China

Falun Gong practitioners and supporters report torture and ill-treatment of practitioners in mainland China. After 1999 practitioners also began holding frequent protests, rallies, and appeals outside The People's Republic. Some Falun Gong support groups and activists outside of China published "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party", and initiated a worldwide "Three Renunciations" Campaign. The video "False Fire: Self-Immolation or Deception?", was broadcast on Chinese television by hackers. Liu Chengjun, named as the instigator of the television hacking, was sentenced to 19 years in prison. The Falun Gong website stated that he died after 21 months in Jilin Prison, on 26 December, 2003.

References

1. Lum, Thomas (May 25, 2006 (updated)). "Congressional Research Service-The Library of Congress: Report for Congress: China and Falun Gong" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 2009-10-16. In the 109th Congress, H.Res. 608, introduced on December 14, 2005, would condemn the "escalating levels of religious persecution" in China, including the "brutal campaign to eradicate Falun Gong." H.Res. 794, introduced on May 3, 2006, would call upon the PRC to end its most egregious human rights abuses, including the persecution of Falun Gong. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. "A Chronicle of Major Historic Events during the Introduction of Falun Dafa to the Public". Clearwisdom.net. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
3. ^ People's Daily Online, China Bans Falun Gong, 30 July 1999
4. ^ "China Bans Falun Gong: Law Sure to Beat Cults: Article". People's Daily Online. December 29, 1999. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
5. Elizabeth J. Perry, Critical Asian Studies 33:2 (2001), p. 173
6. ^ Willy Wo-Lap Lam, China’s sect suppression carries a high price, CNN.com, 9 February 2001
7. ^ People's Daily Online, China Bans Falun Gong: Major Mass Organizations Support Falun Gong Ban, 25 July 1999. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
8. People's Daily Online, China Bans Falun Gong: PLA, Armed Police Support Government Ban on Falun Gong, 25 July 1999. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
9. Eric Lichtblau, CIA Warns of Chinese Plans for Cyber-Attacks on U.S., LA Times, 25 April 2002
10. ^ Morais, Richard C."China's Fight With Falun Gong", Forbes, 9 February 2006. Retrieved 7 July 2006.
11. Associated Press, China Dissidents Thwarted on Net. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
12. ^ The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called heretical organizations. The Amnesty International
13. China annual report 2002, Reporters Without Borders
14. ^ Gornet, Matthew (25 June 2001). "The Breaking Point". Time. Retrieved October 31, 2009.
15. "Press Statement". Clearwisdom. 23 January 2001. Retrieved 9 February 2007.
16. Li, Hongzhi. "The Issue of Killing". Zhuan Falun. Falun Dafa.
17. Lawrence, Susan V. (14 April 2004). "Falun Gong Adds Media Weapons In Struggle With China's Rulers". Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition). p. B.2I. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
18. "False Fire: China's Tragic New Standard in State Deception" (DVD). NTDTV. 2001.
19. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. "Responses To Information Requests "CHN43081.E"". UNHCR. Retrieved 6 February 2007. In a 23 November 2004 telephone interview with the Research Directorate, the senior researcher on China for HRW asserted that it would not have been possible for independent organisations to conduct an independent investigation of the incident. According to the senior researcher, the incident was among one of the most difficult stories for reporters in Beijing at the time to report on because of a lack of information and difficulties in ascertaining the extent of control of the information
20. Ownby, David (2008). Falun Gong and the future of China. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-19-532905-6.
21. Barend ter Haar, Chair of Chinese History at Leiden University (Sinological Institute) Retrieved 29 September 2009
22. Haar, Barend ter (2001). "Part One: Introductory remarks". Barend ter Haar, Leiden University. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
23. Sisci, Francesco (2002). "The burning issue of Falungong". Asia Times.
24. Gittings, John (21 August 2001). "Chinese whispers surround Falun Gong trial". The Guardian.
25. "Organizers of Tian'anmen Self-Burning Incident Sentenced". Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States. 17 August 2001. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
26. WOIPFG, Chinese Ministry of Education Participating in the Persecution of Falun Gong: Investigative Report, 2004. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
27. Hugo Restall What if Falun Dafa Is a ‘Cult’?, The Asian Wall Street Journal, 14 February 2001
28. Mickey Spiegel, "Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong", Human Rights Watch, 2002, accessed Sept 28, 2007
29. ^ Robert Bejesky (Spring 2004). "Falun Gong & Re-Education Through Labor: Traditional Rehabilitation for the "Misdirected" to Protect Societal Stability within China's Evolving Criminal Justice System". Columbia Journal of Asian Law. 17 (2): 147–189.
30. ^ ""Torture Is Breaking Falun Gong, China Systematically Eradicating Group"". Washington Post. August 5, 2001. p. A01. Retrieved 31 October 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
31. "Norway: Practitioners hold an Anti-Torture Exhibition and Receive Positive Media Coverage (Photos)". Falun Dafa Clearwisdom.net. 4 August 2004. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
32. Manfred Nowak (2006). "Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: MISSION TO CHINA". United Nations. p. 13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessed= ignored (help)
33. "China genocide suit on U.S. Supreme Court steps Victims of Atrocities Urge Court to Uphold "Inalienable Rights"". Association for Asian Research. 29 March 2005. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
34. "Gao Zhisheng's third open letter to Chinese leaders". Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China. Retrieved 8 March 2007.
35. "Worse Than Any Nightmare—Journalist Quits China to Expose Concentration Camp Horrors and Bird Flu Coverup". March 10, 2006. Retrieved 31 October 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publishre= ignored (help)
36. "Organ Harvesting in China's Labor Camps". Epoch Times. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
37. ^ Congressional Research Service report, http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL33437.pdf, page CRS-7, paragraph 3
38. "Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China" (PDF). 6 July 2006. Retrieved 31 October 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
39. "China 'harvests live organs'". News24.com. Retrieved 7 July 2006.
40. United Nations Committee Against Torture, CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 19 OF THE CONVENTION: Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture, Forty-first session, Geneva, 3-21 November 2008
41. Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured in Mental Hospitals Throughout China (PDF), Falun Dafa Information Center, retrieved 10 March 2007
42. ^ ibid Lu & Galli
43. ibid Munro (2002), p. 270
44. ^ Stone, Alan A. (1 November 2004). "The Plight of the Falun Gong". Psychiatric Times. vol. 21 No. 13. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
45. Stone, Alan A. (1 May 2005). "The China Psychiatry Crisis: Following Up on the Plight of the Falun Gong". Psychiatric Times. With a population of 1.3 billion citizens, China has only 4,000 qualified psychiatrists and a total of 14,000 doctors working in its psychiatric hospitals
46. Stone, Alan A. (1 May 2005). "The China Psychiatry Crisis: Following Up on the Plight of the Falun Gong". Psychiatric Times.
47. House Resolution 304EH
48. House Resolution 188EH
49. House Resolution 218EH
50. "US Congress Resolutions expressing the sense of COngress that Persecution of Falun Gong must be ceased". Specialtribunal.org. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
51. "Clearwsidom.net Website". Clearwisdom.net. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
52. "Falun Dafa Information Center Website". Faluninfo.net. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
53. Yuezhi Zhao, "Falun Gong, Identity, and the Struggle over Meaning Inside and Outside China", in Contesting Media Power, 2004
54. Details on How Liu Chengjun, Who Tapped Into the Changchun Cable Television, Was Tortured to Death in Jilin Prison, ClearWisdom.net, 20 January 2004
55. Falun Gong hacker 'died in jail', BBC News, 30 December, 2003

External links

• zhuichaguoji.org "World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong" English home page
• eBook Poisonous Deceit at Deep Six Publishing
• pulitzer.org - The 2001 Pulitzer Prize Winners: International Reporting: Wall Street Journal: Ian Johnson
• clearharmony.net "An Overview of Legal Cases Filed by Falun Gong Practitioners Around the World"

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from October 2009
• Falun Gong
• Political repression in the People's Republic of China
• Religious persecution
• Political abuses of psychiatry
• Campaigns of the Communist Party of China