| Revision as of 02:33, 6 March 2010 view sourceDilip rajeev (talk | contribs)5,244 edits Kindly see talk. Around 50 additional sources and centrally relevant material added. THe previous article did not cite a single ahuman rights source for the persecution it was being made to seem as← Previous edit | Revision as of 03:05, 6 March 2010 view source Colipon (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers25,815 edits I don't see how anyone will ever be convinced that the previous version conforms to WP:NPOV.Next edit → | ||
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| ''']''' was introduced to the general public by ](李洪志) in ], ], in 1992. For the next few years, Falun Gong was the fastest growing '']'' practice in Chinese history and, by 1999, there were between 70 and 100 million people practicing Falun Gong in China.<ref name=Stats> Source of Statistical Information, , accessed 01/01/08</ref> Following the seven years of wide-spread popularity, on ], ], the government of the ] began a nationwide persecution campaign against Falun Gong practitioners, except in the special administrative regions of ] and ].<ref>Faison, Seth (April 27, 1999) ''New York Times'', retrieved June 10, 2006</ref><ref>Kahn, Joseph (April 27, 1999) ''New York Times'', retrieved June 14, 2006</ref> In late 1999, legislation was created to outlaw "heterodox religions" and retroactively applied to Falun Gong.<ref name="Leung"> Leung, Beatrice (2002) 'China and Falun Gong: Party and society relations in the modern era', Journal of Contemporary China, 11:33, 761 – 784</ref>] states that the persecution is politically motivated with "legislation being used retroactively to convict people on politically-driven charges, and new regulations introduced to further restrict fundamental freedoms."<ref name="Leung"> Leung, Beatrice (2002) 'China and Falun Gong: Party and society relations in the modern era', Journal of Contemporary China, 11:33, 761 – 784</ref><ref name=Amnesty1>, The Amnesty International</ref> | |||
| {{Refimprove|date=October 2009}} | |||
| '''''Persecution of Falun Gong'''''<ref name="CRSChinaFG">{{cite web|url=http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/67820.pdf|title=Congressional Research Service-The Library of Congress: Report for Congress: China and Falun Gong|last=Lum|first=Thomas|date=May 25, 2006 (updated)|publisher=]|quote=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.|accessdate=2009-10-16}}</ref> refers to claims by ] it has been persecuted by the government of China. The '']''-based movement was founded by ] who introduced it to the public in May 1992, in ], ].<ref name=chronicle>{{cite web|url=http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/8/53286.html |title=A Chronicle of Major Historic Events during the Introduction of Falun Dafa to the Public |publisher=Clearwisdom.net |date= |accessdate=2009-10-31}}</ref> Falun Gong was banned by the government of China on 22 July 1999.<ref name=PDO990730/> The movement has been called an "evil ]"<ref name="lawsuretobeat">{{cite news|url=http://english.people.com.cn/special/fagong/1999122900F102.html|title=China Bans Falun Gong: Law Sure to Beat Cults: Article |date=December 29, 1999|publisher=] Online|accessdate=2009-10-16}}</ref> by the official Chinese press. | |||
| == Use of media == | |||
| The nature of Chinese Communist Party rule is considered a central cause of the persecution. According to David Ownby, Falun Gong's popularity,<ref name="Ownbyworld">David Ownby, "The Falun Gong in the New World," European Journal of East Asian Studies, Sep2003, Vol. 2 Issue 2, p 306</ref> traditional roots,<ref name="Ownbyming">Ownby, David, "A History for Falun Gong: Popular Religion and the Chinese State Since the Ming Dynasty", Nova Religio, Vol. ,pp. 223-243</ref><ref>Barend ter Haar, '''' </ref> and distinction from marxist-atheist ideology were perceived as a challenge by the Chinese government.<ref name=lestz>Michael Lestz, , Religion in the News, Fall 1999, Vol. 2, No. 3, Trinity College, Massachusetts</ref> Reports suggest that certain high-level Communist Party officials had wanted to crackdown on the practice for some years,<ref name=XIX /> but lacked pretext or support--until a number of appeals and petitions to the authorities in 1999, in particular, a 10,000 person silent protest at Zhongnanhai on April 25th.<ref name=XIX>Julia Ching, "The Falun Gong: Religious and Political Implications," ''American Asian Review'', Vol. XIX, no. 4, Winter 2001, p. 12</ref><ref name="Amnesty1">, Amnesty International</ref> Reportedly many high-ranking members of the politburo were opposed to the persecution, and some analysts consider ] personally responsible for the final decision and the ensuing "Mao-style political campaign."<ref name=lamsupp /><ref name=Saich>Tony Saich, ''Governance and Politics in China,'' Palgrave Macmillan; 2nd Ed edition (27 Feb 2004)</ref> Suspected motives include personal jealousy of ]'s popularity,<ref name=Peerman>Dean Peerman, , Christian Century, August 10, 2004</ref> and a manufactured ideological struggle to enforce allegiance of both the populace and the party members to himself and the leadership.<ref name=XIX /><ref name=Peerman /> | |||
| ] | |||
| Since the organization's ban by the government of China on 22 July 1999,<ref name=PDO990730/> the state-controlled media identify Falun Gong as an "evil cult"<ref name="lawsuretobeat"/> 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.<ref name=PDO990730>People's Daily Online, , 30 July 1999</ref> | |||
| 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.<ref>Elizabeth J. Perry, Critical Asian Studies 33:2 (2001), p. 173</ref> | |||
| The persecution is considered a major violation of human rights, and international human rights groups have called on the Chinese government to end the persecution<ref name="HRW1">, Human Rights Watch</ref> and release practitioners sentenced to detention for peaceful activities.<ref name="HRW2">, Human Rights Watch</ref> Reports state that every aspect of society was used by the Party to persecute Falun Gong, including the media apparatus, police force, army, education system, families, and workplaces.<ref name=wildgrass>Johnson, Ian, ''Wild Grass: three portraits of change in modern china'', Vintage (March 8, 2005)</ref> An extra-constitutional body, the ] was created to "oversee the terror campaign,"<ref name=morais>Morais, Richard C., ''Forbes'', February 9, 2006, retrieved ] ]</ref> driven by a large-scale propaganda through television, newspaper, radio and internet.<ref name=Leung/> Propaganda urged families and workplaces to actively assist in the campaign, and practitioners were subject to severe torture to have them recant.<ref name=dangerous>Mickey Spiegel, , Human Rights Watch, 2002, accessed Sept 28, 2007</ref> There are acute concerns over reports of torture,<ref name=heretical> (23 March 2000) , Amnesty International</ref> illegal imprisonment, forced labour, and psychiatric abuses.<ref>United Nations (], ]) , retrieved ], ]</ref> Falun Gong practitioners comprise 66% of all reported torture cases in China,<ref name=nowak66>, Manfred Nowak, United Nations, Table 1: Victims of alleged torture, p. 13, 2006, accessed October 12 2007</ref> and at least half of the labour camp population, according to the United Nations and US State Department respectively.<ref name=USstate> , ], Sept 14, 2007, accessed 28th Sept 2007</ref> In July 2006, an investigative report by Canadian ex-Secretary of State ] and Human Rights Lawyer ] concluded that there exists an ongoing practice of systematic ].<ref name=KMRR></ref> This has been met with concern from the United Nations Committee on Torture, who called for China to schedule an independent investigation and prosecute those guilty of such crimes.<ref name=AmnestyFactSheet >Amnesty International,, </ref><ref name=marketwireun2>MARKET WIRE via COMTEX, , May 8, 2008, accessed 16/6/08</ref> | |||
| According to CNN's Willy Lam, state media stated that Falun Gong was part of an "anti-China international movement".<ref name=lamsupp>Willy Wo-Lap Lam, , CNN.com, 9 February 2001</ref> As it did during the ], the ] 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 ] 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."<ref name=lamsupp /> | |||
| Falun Gong practitioners around the world continue to protest against the persecution, and have initiated lawsuits against Chinese officials alleged to be chiefly responsible, in particular Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan.<ref name="HRW1" /> | |||
| 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 ] 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".<ref name=xinhuamass>''People's Daily Online'', , 25 July 1999. Retrieved 12 October 2007.</ref> 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"<ref name=xinhuamass /> 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 ] can lead us to accomplish the great cause of reinvigorating the Chinese nation."<ref>People's Daily Online, , 25 July 1999. Retrieved 12 October 2007.</ref> | |||
| ==Onset of the persecution == | |||
| === Internet and press restrictions === | |||
| ''See further: ]'' | |||
| ] | |||
| <div class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 95%; background:#ffffgc; color:black; width:45em; max-width: 58%; padding: 1em 1.5em 1.5em"> | |||
| ===Jiang Zemin's role=== | |||
| Julia Ching from the ] suggests that it was the Zhongnanhai incident which led to "fear, animosity and suppression."<ref name=XIX/> Jiang Zemin had allegedly received a letter from the former director of the ], "a doctor with considerable standing among the political elite," endorsing Falun Gong and advising high-level cadres to start practicing it.<ref name=XIX /> Jiang also found out that Li's book, ''Zhuan Falun'', had been published by ] press, and that possibly seven hundred thousand Communist Party members were practitioners. "Jiang accepts the threat of Falun Gong as an ideological one: spiritual beliefs against militant atheism and historical materialism. He wishes to purge the government and the military of such beliefs."<ref name=XIX/> | |||
| 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,<ref>Eric Lichtblau, , ], 25 April 2002</ref> Australia, Canada and England, and blocks access to internet resources about the topic.<ref name=morais>Morais, Richard C., ''Forbes'', 9 February 2006. Retrieved 7 July 2006.</ref><ref>Associated Press, . Retrieved 19 September 2007.</ref> | |||
| ], Buddhism scholar at ], said the regime was frightened by Falun Gong and "went nuts, revealing its weakness and self-doubt for all the world to see." Thurman claims that Jiang "became obsessed and drove around Zhongnanhai to observe the protesters through the smoked glass of his limousine. That night, seemingly in the grip of a spiritual crisis, he wrote to the Politburo: 'I believe Marxism can triumph over Falun Gong.' He mutters incessantly to Western envoys about the troublesome movement."<ref name=natreview/> | |||
| 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.<ref name=Amnesty1>. The Amnesty International</ref> 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.."<ref name=Amnesty1/> | |||
| The ] reported sources saying that not all of the ] shared Jiang's view that Falun Gong should be eradicated.<ref name="ReidG"/> Through a ]-style purge of Falun Gong, Jiang forced senior cadres "to pledge allegiance to his line," thus boosting his authority to enable him to dictate events at the pivotal ], a Communist Party veteran later told ]'s Willy Lam. "As with campaigns dating from the 1960s, the standard ritual of ideological sessions held in party units, factories, and colleges the past few years is that participants make public declarations of support for the Beijing line—and for the top leader."<ref name=lamsupp /> | |||
| The 2002 ]' 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." ], '']'' correspondent in Beijing, wrote a series of articles which won him the ]. 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.<ref>, Reporters Without Borders</ref> | |||
| Jiang's campaign has been criticized for its Maoist-style approach. Lam reports a mid-level official saying that "The leadership is obsessed with the Falun Gong and have put its eradication as a top priority this year."<ref name=lamendgame>CNN.com, , August 21, 2001</ref> Tony Saich agrees that the campaign was used by Jiang to serve as a loyalty test to his individual leadership.<ref name="Saich"/> The size and reach of Jiang's anti-Falun Gong campaign surpassed that of many previous mass-movements.<ref name=lamsupp>Willy Wo-Lap Lam, , CNN.com, February 9, 2001</ref> | |||
| </div> | |||
| ==2001 Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident== | |||
| On ], ] the Party established an extra-constitutional body charged with overseeing the persecution, referred to as the "]."<ref name=CER></ref><ref name=CER/><ref name=AmIR></ref> Agents were sent to every province, city, county, university, government department and state-owned business in China, according to Reid.<ref name="ReidG"/> In the Kilgour-Matas report, a Party official is quoted saying that in 1999, more than 3,000 officials of the 6-10 Office united at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to discuss the campaign,<ref name=bloodyharvest>David Kilgour & David Matas, , accessed 26th of September</ref> where Li Lanqing, then head of the 6-10 Office, is said to have verbally announced the Party's policy on Falun Gong, passed on by Jiang: "defaming their reputations, bankrupting them financially and destroying them physically".<ref name=bloodyharvest/> | |||
| {{Main|Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident}} | |||
| On the eve of ], 23 January 2001, five people attempted to set themselves on fire in ].<ref name=breakingpoint/> According to the official Chinese press agency, ], the five were members of Falun Gong.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009|if the news agency said it, it should be sourced to them, not Falun Gong}} However, the Falun Dafa Information Center denied that the ] were practitioners.<ref name="FDI_PressRelease">{{cite web |url=http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2001/jan/23/vsf012301_3.html |title=Press Statement |publisher=Falun Dafa Information Center |publisher=Clearwisdom |date=23 January 2001 |accessdate=9 February 2007}}</ref> Footage was broadcast nationally in the People's Republic of China by ] (CCTV).{{Citation needed|date=October 2009|previous citation was to a book about Guatemala...removed}} A 2001 article in ''Time'' observed that Falun Gong failed to acknowledge it was possible that the five might have been misguided practitioners. The journal noted that 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.<ref name=breakingpoint>{{cite news|first=Matthew|last= Gornet|url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,165163,00.html|title= The Breaking Point|publisher= ]|date=25 June 2001|accessdate=October 31, 2009}}</ref> China's media campaign against Falun Gong gained significant traction after the event.<ref name=breakingpoint/> One western diplomat commented that the public changed from sympathising with Falun Gong to siding with the Government, popular consensus seemingly shifted by human-interest stories and accounts of rehabilitation efforts of former practitioners.<ref name=ansfield>{{cite news |first=Jonathan |last=Ansfield |publisher=Reuters |url= |title=After Olympic win, China takes new aim at Falun Gong |date=23 July 2001}}</ref> | |||
| By ], ], the persecution campaign had begun. Under orders from the ], churches, temples, mosques, newspapers, media, courts and police were all mobilized to follow the Party line to "crush" Falun Gong, "no measures too excessive."<ref name=wildgrass/> Falun Gong was “condemned” in the media, with books shredded and videotapes bulldozed for TV cameras.<ref name="Leung"/> Within days a “wave of arrests” swept across China. The arrest of other Falun Gong practitioners across the country also began, with police breaking into the homes of hundreds and taking them to prison in the middle of the night.<ref name="Porter"/> By the end of 1999, practitioners were dying in custody,<ref name=wildgrass> ibid., Ian Johnson, ''Wildgrass'' (2005) p 283</ref> and by February 2000, 5,000 were detained across China.<ref name="Leung"/> | |||
| The incident continues to serve as a significant reason for disputing the methods of Falun Gong in China. Posters, leaflets and videos were produced, detailing the supposed detrimental effects of Falun Gong practice.<ref name=oneway>{{cite news |first=Philip P. |last=Pan |url= |title=One-Way Trip to the End in Beijing |work=International Herald Tribune |date=5 February 2001|accessdate = 9 February 2007}}</ref> The media incited 8 million students to join the ''"Anti-Cult Action by the Youth Civilized Communities Across the Nation"''.<ref name=dangerous/> The IHT reported that Chinese media were attacking Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi every day. Meetings took place in factories, offices, universities and schools to educate people about Falun Gong. The Government announced that religious leaders from across the country had delivered denunciations of Falun Gong.<ref name=oneway/> Twelve million children submitted writings disapproving of the practice.<ref name=dangerous/> Within a month of the incident, authorities issued a glossy pamphlet entitled ''The whole story of the self-immolation incident created by Falun Gong addicts in Tiananmen Square'', featuring colour photographs of charred bodies.<ref name=dangerous/> The ]'s "Office for the Prevention and Handling of Evil Cults" declared after the event that it was now ready to form a united front with the global anti-cult struggle.<ref name=dangerous/> | |||
| On ], ] the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs issued an official statement banning Falun Gong. Charges imposed ranged from "organizing illegal gatherings" to "threatening political stability."<ref name=Amnesty1/> On the same day, Human Rights Watch in New York issued a statement that "strongly condemned the Chinese government's nationwide ban on the practice of Falun Gong" and urged the release of practitioners "arbitrarily detained in a nationwide sweep aimed at suppressing the group." Human Rights Watch called on the international community to protest the ban, and urged Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to intervene with Chinese officials at the highest levels.<ref name="HRW2">, Human Rights Watch, New York</ref> | |||
| Falun Gong related media outlet<ref name=svlawrence>{{cite web |first=Susan V. |last=Lawrence |title=Falun Gong Adds Media Weapons In Struggle With China's Rulers |work=Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition) |date=14 April 2004 |page= B.2I }}</ref> '']'', produced a video programme of the incident, ''False Fire'', which claimed a number of inconsistencies in the state's version of events.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.falsefire.com |work=NTDTV |year=2001 |title=False Fire: China's Tragic New Standard in State Deception |format=DVD}}</ref> Hackers gained access to broadcast satellites and the video was broadcast on some Chinese television stations.<ref name=zhao>Yuezhi Zhao, "Falun Gong, Identity, and the Struggle over Meaning Inside and Outside China", in Contesting Media Power, 2004</ref><ref name="clearwisdom.net">, ClearWisdom.net, 20 January 2004</ref> 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.<ref name="autogenerated2003">, ], 30 December, 2003</ref> | |||
| Amnesty International states that despite the persecution, many Falun Gong practitioners continued to hold exercise sessions in public, usually as a form of silent protest against the persecution and imprisonment. Some of these silent protests were held outside important seats of government or in places of political significance, such as Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Amnesty says that they were attended by large numbers of people, including significant numbers of elderly people and women, and that they were entirely peaceful.<ref name=Amnesty1>, The Amnesty International</ref> The Party declared the sessions to be "illegal assemblies" and the practitioners were put under detention or sent to forced labor.<ref name="HRW1"/> Amnesty states that among the thousands detained were ordinary workers, farmers, teachers, academics, university students, publishers, accountants, police officers, engineers, people from a variety of other professions, and government officials.<ref name=Amnesty1/> Ian Johnson cites information stating that over 35,000 Falun Gong practitioners had been arrested in ] alone.<ref>Ian Johnson,, 25 April 2000, ] Page A21</ref>. | |||
| The Falun Dafa Information Center has documented details of over 3000 confirmed cases of deaths of Falun Gong practitioners, caused by torture and violence in police custody.<ref>Minghui/Clearwisdom,, Falun Gong, retrieved ] ]</ref> Falun Gong related human rights organizations state that realistic estimates of deaths could be above 30,000.<ref>, The Falun Dafa Information Center </ref> | |||
| == Academic restrictions == | |||
| ==Mechanics of the persecution campaign== | |||
| 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.<ref name=woipfgedu>WOIPFG, , 2004. Retrieved 12 October 2007.</ref> 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.<ref name=wsjwhatif>Hugo Restall , The Asian Wall Street Journal, 14 February 2001</ref> There were anti-Falun Gong petitions.<ref name=dangerous>Mickey Spiegel, , Human Rights Watch, 2002. Retrieved Sept 28, 2007.</ref> | |||
| ==Allegations and reports of abuse== | |||
| According to Human Rights reports, a variety of techniques have been employed by the Chinese government in its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. These include physical and psychiatric abuses; "re-education" through forced labor, where detained practitioners are forced to renounce the practice; and a widespread media campaign to turn public opinion against practitioners.<ref name=KMRR/> Every aspect of society was turned against Falun Gong practitioners, according to ], including the media apparatus, police force, army, education system, families, and workplaces.<ref name=wildgrass/> An extra-constitutional body, the ] was created to "oversee the terror campaign,"<ref name=morais/> driven by a large-scale propaganda through television, newspaper, radio and internet.<ref name=Leung/> Propaganda urged families and workplaces to actively assist in the campaign, while practitioners themselves were subject to severe torture to have them recant.<ref name=dangerous/> Kilgour and Matas state that the "6-10 office" established itself every province, city, county, university, government department and government-owned business to spearhead the crackdown. Local governments were given unlimited authority to implement Beijing's orders in 1999 and afterwards.<ref name=KMRR /> | |||
| ===Forced labor=== | |||
| <div class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 95%; background:#ffffgc; color:black; width:35em; max-width: 35%; padding: 1em 1.5em 1.5em"> | |||
| 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".<ref name=bejesky>{{cite journal|author=Robert Bejesky|title=Falun Gong & Re-Education Through Labor: Traditional Rehabilitation for the "Misdirected" to Protect Societal Stability within China's Evolving Criminal Justice System|journal=]|volume=17|issue=2|date=Spring 2004|pages=147-189|url=https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=17+Colum.+J.+Asian+L.+147&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=dfc3d80dcaf40bb049db1797de4754c7|accessdate=}}</ref> Up to 99% of long term Falun Gong detainees are processed administratively through this system.<ref name=bejesky/><!--p. 178 - maybe use HARVNB--> 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.<ref name=bejesky/><!--p. 179 - maybe use HARVNB--> | |||
| ''Immeasurable capital and police resources are being poured into this campaign for no reason, turning society in chaos, all just to suppress Falun Gong practitioners—people who peacefully do their practice in order to cultivate their hearts and minds, and improve their health. What is being done to them is an absolute crime and a violation of basic human rights. There is no excuse for you not to take immediate action to change the situation.'' -- Prominent human rights lawyer ] in an open letter to ] and ].<ref>Gao Zhisheng, A China More Just, Broad Press USA, 2007</ref> | |||
| </div> | |||
| Human Rights organizations also point to retroactive use of legislation to legitimatize the persecution.<ref name =Amnesty1/>. The campaign's first emphasis on rule by law was a statute legislation outlawing "heterodox religions," which was then retroactively applied to Falun Gong,<ref name=lum/> thus granting the persecution of Falun Gong, and that of other spiritual groups, an air of legitimacy.<ref name=Leung/>Beatrice Leung states that Falun Gong had "obtained legal status as one of China's many qigong groups," since it had been registered with the China Qigong Science Research Society in 1992; its literature had been approved by the Ministry of Culture and its books were printed through a state-license. She suggests that this retroactive application of law, which saw the press which printed Falun Gong's books punished and bookshop-owners arrested for acts which were not illegal at that time, "defies normal concepts of legality." | |||
| ===Torture=== | |||
| Amnesty states the official directives and legal documents issued for the purge "undermine rights set out in the Chinese constitution as well as international standards."<ref name=Leung/><ref name=heretical/>Kilgour and Matas point out that only "later in 1999 did the National People's Congress pass new laws targeting Falun Gong retroactively and purporting to legalize a long list of illegal acts" against practitioners.<ref name=KMRR/> | |||
| An article by 2001 John Pomfret and Philip P. Pan appeared in the ]. They 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 article also stated that some practitioners were sent to forced labor camps, and that the camps were used as a threat to ensure that reeducation was effective.<ref name=torturebreak/><ref name=torturebreak>{{cite news|coauthors=John Pomfret; Philip P. Pan|title=“Torture Is Breaking Falun Gong, China Systematically Eradicating Group”|publisher=Washington Post|date=August 5, 2001|page=A01|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/77023325.html?dids=77023325:77023325&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+05%2C+2001&author=John+Pomfret+and+Philip+P.+Pan&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Torture+Is+Breaking+Falun+Gong%3B+China+Systematically+Eradicating+Group&pqatl=google|accessdate=31 October 2009}}</ref> | |||
| Falun Gong alleges it has documented 44,000 cases of torture which have resulted in 2,804 deaths.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} Falun Gong claims over 100 forms of torture to have been used, including ], ], ], ], and ]. Its website reports effects including impaired mental, sensory, physiological and speech faculties, paralysis, or death.<ref>{{cite web | title = Norway: Practitioners hold an Anti-Torture Exhibition and Receive Positive Media Coverage (Photos)| publisher = Falun Dafa Clearwisdom.net | url = http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/8/4/51010.html|date=4 August 2004 | accessdate = 12 February 2007}}</ref>Corinna-Barbara Francis of Amnesty says Falun Gong's (death toll) figures seem a little high because they are not the result of formal executions.<ref name=morais/> | |||
| Analysts opine that officials grew impatient with the constant flow of protesters into Beijing, and decided that “drastic measures were needed.” Johnson, in his work ''Wild Grass'', described the framework set up by Beijing that led to killings.<ref name=wildgrass/> This was a cascading responsibility system to push the responsibility for meeting central orders down onto those enforcing them: central authorities would hold local officials personally responsible for stemming the flow of protesters. A typical “study session” of police and government officials was held in Weifang; the central government's directive to limit protesters was read aloud, no questions were asked as to how it was to be achieved—“success was all that mattered.”<ref name=wildgrass> ibid., Ian Johnson, ''Wildgrass'' (2005) p 285</ref><!-- Commented out because image was deleted: ] --> | |||
| Since 2000, the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations highlighted 314 cases of 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 '']''.<ref name=nowak66>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/docs/62chr/ecn4-2006-6-Add6.doc|title= Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: MISSION TO CHINA|author=Manfred Nowak|publisher=United Nations|page=13|year=2006|accessed=12 October 2007}}{{Dead link|date=October 2009}}</ref> | |||
| The Party has also used a variety of extra-legal mechanisms to stamp out public practice and protest, according to Human Rights Watch.<ref name=dangerous/> Work units would summarily fire people identified as practitioners. Job loss often meant lost housing, schooling, pensions, and a report to the police. If brought to the attention of police or Party officials, even doing the Falun Gong exercises at home proved dangerous.<ref name=dangerous/> Local officials would detain active practitioners and those unwilling to recant, and were expected to "make certain" that families and employers keep them isolated.<ref name=dangerous/> | |||
| <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=16777&Cr=rights&Cr1=China |title=Torture, though on decline, remains widespread in China, UN expert reports |publisher=www.un.org |accessdate=2010-02-04 }}</ref> | |||
| An article on the ] website describes torture of men and women at the Dalian Labor Camp in China.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2571.html|title= China genocide suit on U.S. Supreme Court steps Victims of Atrocities Urge Court to Uphold “Inalienable Rights”|publisher=]|date=29 March 2005|accessdate=31 October 2009}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | title = Gao Zhisheng's third open letter to Chinese leaders | publisher = Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China | url = http://cipfg.org/en/index.php?news=290 | accessdate = 8 March 2007}}</ref> | |||
| === |
===Organ harvesting=== | ||
| {{Main|Organ harvesting in the People's Republic of China}} | |||
| ] | |||
| In March 2006 the Falun Gong-affiliated '']'' published a number of articles alleging that the China was conducting widespread and systematic organ harvesting of living Falun Gong practitioners.<ref name=epoch1>{{cite web|url=http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-3-10/39111.html|title=Worse Than Any Nightmare—Journalist Quits China to Expose Concentration Camp Horrors and Bird Flu Coverup|date=March 10, 2006|accessdate=31 October 2009|publishre=]}}</ref> The website alleged that practitioners detained in ]s, hospital basements, or prisons, were being blood and urine tested, their information stored on computer databases, and then matched with organ recipients.<ref name=epochgeneral>{{cite web|url=http://en.epochtimes.com/211,111,,1.html|title=Organ Harvesting in China's Labor Camps|accessdate=2008-06-13|publisher=]}}</ref> Within one month, third party investigators including representatives of the US Department of State, said that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation.<ref name=lum>Congressional Research Service report, http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL33437.pdf, page CRS-7, paragraph 3</ref> 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",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.david-kilgour.com/2006/Kilgour-Matas-organ-harvesting-rpt-July6-eng.pdf|title=Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China|date= 6 July 2006|coauthors=David Matas and David Kilgour|accessdate=31 October 2009}}</ref> which concluded that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners were victims of systematic organ harvesting throughout China, whilst still alive.<ref name=news24>{{Cite news|url=http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1964180,00.html|title=China 'harvests live organs'|publisher=News24.com|accessdate=7 July 2006}}</ref> | |||
| In August 2006, a ] report said that some of the key allegations of the Kilgour-Matas report appeared to be inconsistent with the findings of other investigations.<ref name="lum"/> 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.<ref name=UNCAT>United Nations Committee Against Torture, , Forty-first session, Geneva, 3-21 November 2008</ref> | |||
| Anti-Falun Gong propaganda from state controlled media has played a central role in the persecution, according to scholars and journalists. Kilgour and Matas state that by inciting the population to hate Falun Gong practitioners, it justifies the policy of persecution, recruites participants in the persecution, and forestalls opposition.<ref name=KMRR/> | |||
| === Psychiatric === | |||
| Elizabeth J. Perry describes media reports inundating the evening news at the early stages of the crackdown: "For weeks... each night, pictures were broadcast of huge piles of Falun Gong materials that had been... confiscated in police raids on bookstores and publishing houses," including the People’s Liberation Army Press. "Some were disposed of in gigantic bonfires, others were recycled..." Media reports would focus on the testimonies of relatives of Falun Gong "victims", who would talk about the "terrible tragedies" that had befallen their loved ones; former practitioners would confess being "hoodwinked by Li Hongzhi and... expressing regret at their gullibility"; "happy pictures of those who had kicked the Falun Gong habit" and were now pursuing other pass-times were broadcast; physical education instructors suggested "healthy alternatives" to Falun Gong practice, including badminton, ballroom dancing, bowling. Perry writes that the basic pattern of the offensive was similar to "the anti-rightist campaign of the 1950s the anti-spiritual pollution campaigns of the 1980s."<ref>Elizabeth J. Perry, Critical Asian Studies 33:2 (2001), p. 173</ref> | |||
| Falun Gong and human rights observers began reporting widespread psychiatric abuse of mentally-healthy practitioners since 1999, a claim that is supported by journalist ]. 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.<ref>{{Citation | title = Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured in Mental Hospitals Throughout China | publisher = Falun Dafa Information Center | url = http://www.faluninfo.net/hrreports/PsychAbuse.pdf |format=PDF| year = | accessdate = 10 March 2007}}</ref> 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.<ref name=sunnygalli/> 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.<ref name=Amnesty1/> | |||
| Robin J. Munro, former Director of the Hong Kong Office of Human Rights Watch, drew worldwide attention to the abuses of ] in China in general, and of Falun Gong practitioners in particular.<ref name=sunnygalli>''ibid'' Lu & Galli</ref> Munro says that large-scale psychiatric abuses are the most distinctive aspect of the government’s protracted campaign to "crush the Falun Gong."<ref>''ibid'' Munro (2002), p. 270</ref> ] professor Alan Stone disagreed, saying that the allegations were constructed from "layman's reading and tendentious extrapolations of Chinese psychiatric publications".<ref name=stone47816>{{cite journal |url=http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/47816?pageNumber=4&verify=0 |date=1 November 2004 |journal=Psychiatric Times |volume=vol. 21 No. 13 |title=The Plight of the Falun Gong |first=Alan A. |last=Stone}}</ref> 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 family members who felt threatened by the authorities.<ref name=stone47816/> | |||
| Falun Gong was branded by state-media as part of an "anti-China international movement," according to CNN's Willy Lam.<ref name=lamsupp /> In a throw-back to the Cultural Revolution, the Party organised rallies in the streets and stop-work meetings in remote western provinces by irrelevant government agencies such as the weather bureau to denounce the practice. Xinhua published editorials on ] 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."<ref name=lamsupp /> | |||
| 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.<ref name=stonecrisis>{{cite web |url=http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=164303114 |date=1 May 2005 |first=Alan A. |last=Stone |work=Psychiatric Times |title=The China Psychiatry Crisis: Following Up on the Plight of the Falun Gong |quote=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}}</ref> 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"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=164303114 |date=1 May 2005 |first=Alan A. |last=Stone |work=Psychiatric Times |title=The China Psychiatry Crisis: Following Up on the Plight of the Falun Gong }}</ref> | |||
| Circulars were issued to women's and youth organisations encouraging support for the crackdown. Both the Youth League and the All-China Women's Federation trumpeted the "greater use of science education" to combat "feudalistic superstition." Xinhua would report speeches of ] officials: "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."<ref name=xinhuamass>People's Daily Online,, July 25, 1999, accessed October 12, 2007</ref> 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."<ref name=xinhuamass /> After having "earnestly studied" Jiang's speeches on Falun Gong, the PLA also recognised 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."<ref>People's Daily Online, , July 25, 1999, accessed October 12, 2007</ref> | |||
| The campaign entered educational institutions, with anti-Falun Gong propaganda incorporated into high-school and primary school textbooks.<ref name=woipfgedu>WOIPFG,, 2004, accessed October 12, 2007</ref> WOIPFG claimed that students who practiced Falun Gong were barred from schools and universities and from sitting exams; a policy of "guilt by association" was adopted, such that direct family members of known practitioners were also denied entry; schoolchildren were taught anti-Falun Gong poems;<ref name=wsjwhatif>Hugo Restall , The Asian Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2001</ref> anti-Falun Gong petitions were organised on a mass scale;<ref name=dangerous /> university professors, lecturers and students who refused to renounce Falun Gong were expelled and faced consequences such as arrest, forced labour, rape, and torture, sometimes resulting in death; students were forced to watch videos or attend seminars attacking Falun Gong;<ref name=dangerous /> defaming banners and posters were placed around schools and universities, reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution;<ref name=dangerous /><ref name=woipfgedulet>WOIPFG,, accessed October 12 2007</ref> viewing Falun Gong websites could result in arrest; examinations contained questions with anti-Falun Gong contents—incorrect answers could result in reportedly violent repercussions.<ref name=woipfgedu /> | |||
| According to ''The Washington Post'', neighborhood officials compelled the elderly, people with disabilities, and the ill to attend the classes denouncing Falun Gong; universities sent staff to find students who had dropped out or been expelled for practicing Falun Gong and brought them back for the brainwashing sessions.<ref name=torturebreak> John Pomfret and Philip P. Pan, “Torture Is Breaking Falun Gong, China Systematically Eradicating Group”, ] Foreign Service, Sunday, August 5, 2001; Page A01</ref> | |||
| The ''Post'' reported the story of a Beijing university student, Alex Hsu, who was kidnapped on his way to a computer lab. It was reported that they drove him to a hotel near a labour camp, where 20 other practitioners were detained, including students, teachers, university staff and retired professors. At the hotel three former practitioners still detained at the camp tried to persuade him to abandon Falun Gong for 12 hours a day.<ref name=torturebreak/> The ''Post'' reports Hsu saying "It was mental torture... The pressure just kept growing ... And the threat was always there. You could see these people all had suffered, and you knew what would happen to you if you didn't give in too."<ref name=torturebreak/> The ''Post'' reported that practitioners are forced to remain in the classes until they renounce their beliefs, in writing, and then on videotape. They report Hsu saying, "It was very painful. They forced us to lie. We knew Falun Gong is good, but they forced us to say it was evil."<ref name=torturebreak/> Hsu wept after giving in, and later dropped out of school and went into hiding. “Those who refuse to submit in the classes are sent to the labor camps, where members face a more systematic regime of violence than in the past, according to practitioners and government sources. On average, the government adviser said, most people abandon Falun Gong after 10 to 12 days of classes, but some resist for as long as 20,” The ''Post''reported.<ref name=torturebreak/> | |||
| Anne-Marie Brady of the University of Canterbury gives Falun Gong as an example of the CCP's use of new technologies as propaganda tools. "If you do a web search in China using Chinese Google on Falun Gong, all that you'll get is all the government sites." She says that relevant western companies doing business in China are made to participate in this censoring system.<ref>Antony Funnell,, Radio National Australia, accessed 2/6/08</ref> According to James Mulvenon of the Rand Corporation, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security uses cyber-warfare to attack Falun Gong websites in the United States,<ref>Eric Lichtblau,, ], April 25, 2002</ref> Australia, Canada and England.<ref name=morais/><ref>Associated Press, , accessed September 19, 2007</ref> | |||
| In July 2001, as part of House Concurrent Resolution 188, the ] denounced the "notorious" ] which oversees the persecution through "organized brainwashing, torture and murder," and stated that propaganda from state-controlled media "inundated the public in an attempt to breed hatred and discrimination." The Resolution was passed by a 420:0 vote, calling on China to "cease its persecution and harassment of Falun Gong practitioners in the United States; to release from detention all Falun Gong practitioners and put an end to the practices of torture and other cruel, inhumane treatment against them and to abide by the ] and the ]."<ref> U.S. Congress (] ]) , ''Library of Congress'', retrieved ] ]</ref> | |||
| ====Intimidation of foreign correspondents==== | |||
| Amnesty International has documented intimidation and harassment of foreign correspondents reporting on the crackdown on Falun Gong. Many foreign journalists attending a news conference organized covertly in Beijing on 28 October, 1999, by practitioners, were accused by the Chinese authorities of "illegal reporting." Later on, journalists from a number of news organizations, including ''Reuters'', the ''New York Times'' and the ''Associated Press'', were questioned at length by police, obliged to sign a "confession of wrongdoing," and had their work and residence papers temporarily confiscated. Several of the reporters were put under police surveillance. | |||
| Foreign correspondents also complain that television satellite transmissions were interfered with while being routed through China Central Television.<ref name=Amnesty1/> 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. Others have been punished for communicating with the foreign press or for organising press conferences."<ref name=Amnesty1/> | |||
| The 2002 ]' report on China states that "Since Falungong was banned in July 1999, Chinese authorities have harassed foreign journalists investigating this issue. Photographers and cameramen working with foreign media are prevented from working on and around Tiananmen Square where hundreds of Falungong followers have demonstrated in recent years. Reporters Without Borders estimates that at least 50 representatives of the international press have been arrested since July 1999, and some of them were beaten by police. Finally, several Falungong followers have been imprisoned for talking with foreign journalists." | |||
| Zhang Xueling, whose name was cited in a series of articles by Ian Johnson, Wall Street Journal's correspondent in Beijing, was arrested on 24 April 2001. Johnson had reported Zhang Xueling, a Falun Gong practitioner's account of her mother, who was also a practitioner, being tortured to death by the police. She was sentenced to a few weeks and later to three years in a labour camp. Ian Johnson left Beijing after writing his articles about the persecution, stating that after he received the Pulitzer Prize for his articles "the Chinese police would have made my life in Beijing impossible."<ref>, Reporters Without Borders</ref> | |||
| On November 10, 1999, the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) of China sent a letter of protest to the Chinese Foreign Ministry about official "intimidation and harassment" of foreign correspondents trying to report the persecution of Falun Gong. The letter said that "members have been followed, detained, interrogated and threatened."<ref name=Amnesty1/><ref name=schechter/> Amnesty also noted that "several of the reporters were put under police surveillance."<ref name=Amnesty1/> | |||
| ====Use of the cult label as a tool of repression==== | |||
| The 'cult' label was first used against Falun Gong by the Party three months after the onset of the persecution, according to the ]. A November 1999 report by the ''Post'' states, “It was Mr. Jiang who ordered that Falun Gong be branded a ‘cult,’ and then demanded that a law be passed banning cults.”<ref>John Pomfret, Sect Is Dividing China's Leadership, Washington Post Service, Paris, Tuesday, November 9, 1999</ref> | |||
| Human rights groups and scholars have criticized use of the term to justify violence. David Ownby, Director of the Centre of East Asian studies at the University of Montreal, stated in response that Falun Gong is "by no means a cult." <ref>David Kilgour, notes for address At a conference of the International Society for Human Rights, Konigstein (near Frankfurt), Germany, 30 March 2007</ref> Former Canadian Secretary of State ] and human rights lawyer ], authors of investigative reports on organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China, profess that the label "is a manufactured tool of repression, but not its cause." They state that the label was used to incite hatred and dehumanize practitioners and served to create a pretext for the government's policy of persecution.<ref name=KMRR/> | |||
| ] of the ], and ] ] for his writing on the plight of Falun Gong practitioners, writes that declaring Falun Gong a cult was the most "brilliant" move, cloaking the crackdown with the "legitimacy of the West's anti-cult movement," forcing practitioners to prove their innocence.<ref name=wildgrass>Johnson, Ian. ''Wild Grass: three stories of change in modern China''. Pantheon books. 2004. pp 23-229</ref> Julia Ching opines that calling Falun Gong a "cult" after the crackdown had already begun attempted to make previous illegal arrests and imprisonments constitutional. She states that "cult" was defined by an atheist government "on political premises, not by any religious authority, without defining what a good cult, or a good religion would be."<ref name=XIX>p. 9</ref> | |||
| A 2001 Amnesty report states that "the word 'cult' has been frequently used in English to translate the label recently put by the Chinese government on the Falun Gong and other similar groups. However, this translation is misleading. The expression used in China for this purpose, "xiejiao zuzhi", refers to a large variety of groups and has a far broader meaning than "cult." "Xiejiao zuzhi" is the expression used in Chinese legislation, official statements and by the state media to refer to a wide range of sectarian and millenarian groups, or unorthodox religious or spiritual organizations, and other groups which do not meet official approval."<ref name=Amnesty1/> | |||
| Johnson notes that the purported "victims" were never allowed to be interviewed independently, making the state's claims "almost impossible to verify"; "the group didn't meet many common definitions of a],"<ref name=wildgrass/> since Falun Gong practitioners do not live isolated from society; they marry outside the group; they have non-practitioner friends; they hold normal jobs; they do not believe that "the world's end is imminent"; they do not give over large amounts of money for Falun Gong, they believe that "suicide is not accepted, nor is physical violence."<ref name=wildgrass/>. Johnson further points out that during the greatest period of Falun Gong book sales in China, Li Hongzhi never received any royalties because all publications were bootleg.<ref name=wildgrass/> ] notes that, as Falun Gong's popularity grew, "Li Hongzhi made it clear that his mission was to bring the practice to everybody because it is beneficial, and that he was not in it for the money. After this investigation, I found the group to be very anti-materialist in its orientation--spiritualist not materialist."<ref></ref> | |||
| ==="Re-education" through forced labor=== | |||
| According to the Ministry of Public Security, "]" is an administrative measure imposed on those guilty of committing minor offences, but who are not legally considered criminals.<ref name=dangerous /> In late 2000, the Party began to use this method of punishment widely against Falun Gong practitioners in the hope of permanently "transforming recidivists," who would often be immediately sentenced to re-education for up to three years.<ref name=dangerous /> Terms could also be arbitrarily extended by police. Practitioners may have ambiguous charges levied against them, according to Robert Bejesky, writing in the Columbia Journal of Asian Law, such as "disrupting social order," "endangering national security," or "subverting the socialist system."<ref name=bejesky>Robert Bejesky, “Falun Gong & reeducation through labour”, ''Columbia Journal of Asian Law'', 17:2, Spring 2004, pp. 147-189</ref> Up to 99% of long term Falun Gong detainees are processed administratively through this system, and do not enter the formal criminal justice system.<ref name=bejesky>p. 178</ref> Outside access is not given to the camps, prisoners are forced to do heavy work in mines, brick factories, and agriculture, and physical torture, beatings, interrogations, inadequate food rations, and other human rights abuses take place, according to Human Rights Watch.<ref name=dangerous /> A figure from 2004 sets the number of Falun Gong deaths in these institutions at 700, according to Bejesky.<ref name=bejesky>p. 179</ref> | |||
| There are estimates of at least 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners having been officially sentenced to reeducation from the beginning of the crackdown,<ref name=dangerous /> and that at least half of the 250,000 total recorded inmates in China's reeducation camps are Falun Gong practitioners, according to the US State Department.<ref name=USstate /> Upon completion of their reeducation sentences, practitioners are sometimes then incarcerated in "legal education centers," another form of punishment set up by provincial authorities to "transform the minds" of practitioners," according to Human Rights Watch, which delivered a comprehensive report on the persecution, including extensive references to state-media and official statements.<ref name=dangerous /><ref name=USstate /> While Beijing officials initially portrayed the process as "benign," a harder line was later adopted; "teams of education assistants and workers, leading cadres, and people from all walks of life" were drafted into the campaign. In early 2001 quotas were given for how many practitioners needed to be "transformed." Official records do not mention the methods employed to achieve this, though Falun Gong and third party accounts indicate that the mental and physical abuses could be "extraordinarily severe."<ref name=dangerous /> | |||
| ===Use of torture=== | |||
| {{See|Reports of organ harvesting from Falun Gong in China}} | |||
| ] | |||
| David Ownby writes that the Chinese authorities have harassed and detained "tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands" of practitioners in China, and that authorities have extended the harassment to family members and friends of practitioners also.<ref name=Ownby2008>David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China, 2008</ref> Falun Gong sources, accepted as accurate by human rights agencies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch according to Ownby,<ref name=Ownby2008/> have documented over 3000 confirmed cases of deaths from torture in police custody. Reports of torture documented by the sources exceed 50,000. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as other NGOs monitoring the treatment of Falun Gong by the Chinese government, have also published reports on the torture and mistreatment of practitioners. Since 2000, the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations reported 314 cases of torture, representing more than 1,160 individuals, to the authorities. According to the UN Special Rapporteur, Falun Gong comprise 66% of all such reported torture cases, 8% occurring within '']'', which are psychiatric facilities.<ref name=nowak66/> The US State Department cites estimates that practitioners may account for half of the labour camp population,<ref name=USstate/> while Amnesty International notes that practitioners in detention are at a "high risk of torture or ill-treatment."<ref name=Amnesty2006></ref> <ref name=InterviewSurvivors> Both have since died as a result of the persecution.</ref> | |||
| In its "''United Nations Reports on China’s Persecution of Falun Gong" (2004)'',<ref name="UN2004">{{Citation | title = The United Nations Reports on China’s Persecution of Falun Gong (2004)| publisher = The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group | url = http://flghrwg.net/reports/UN2004/UN2004.pdf |format=PDF| year = 2004}} The document is compiled and published by the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group (FLGHRWG), who also wrote the introduction and appendix on torture methods. It contains excerpts from the 2004 annual reports of the ]’s Special Rapporteurs referring specifically to acts committed against Falun Gong practitioners.</ref> Falun Gong sources report numerous cases of extreme psychological and physical torture, accompanied by testimonies and details of identities of the victims, resulting in impaired mental, sensory, physiological and speech faculties, mental trauma, paralysis, or death. Over 100 forms of torture are purported to be used, including ], ], ], ], and ], with many variations on each type.<ref>{{cite web | title = Norway: Practitioners hold an Anti-Torture Exhibition and Receive Positive Media Coverage (Photos)| publisher = Falun Dafa Clearwisdom.net | url = http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/8/4/51010.html|date=2004-08-04 | accessdate = 2007-02-12}}</ref> The main purpose of the torture is ostensibly to have Falun Gong practitioners renounce or denounce the practice and their teacher, Li Hongzhi. <ref>CBC News (July 6, 2006) , ''CBC News'', retrieved July 6, 2006</ref> The Special Rapporteur refers to the torture scenarios as "harrowing" and writes that "The cruelty and brutality of these alleged acts... defy description."<ref>Asma Jahangir,, Report of the Special Rapporteur, United Nations, 2003, accessed October 15, 2007</ref> | |||
| John Pomfret and Philip P. Pan wrote in the ''Washington Post'' that the Party gained the upper hand in its protracted battle against Falun Gong by expanding its “use of torture and high-pressure indoctrination.”<ref name=torturebreak/> They report that, according to sources, in 2001, after a year and a half of difficulty in suppressing the practice, “the government for the first time this year sanctioned the systematic use of violence against the group, established a network of brainwashing classes and embarked on a painstaking effort to weed out followers neighborhood by neighborhood and workplace by workplace.” They repeat the reports of practitioners being beaten, shocked with electric truncheons, and being “forced to undergo unbearable physical pressure, such as squatting on the floor for days at a time... Many adherents are also sent to intensive classes where the teachings of Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi are picked apart by former believers, sometimes friends who have already been tortured into submission.”<ref name=torturebreak/> | |||
| They cite three main ingredients, according to a party apparatchik: violence, a high-pressure propaganda campaign, and brainwashing classes. "Each aspect of the campaign is critical," the ''Post'' reports their source saying, "Pure violence doesn't work. Just studying doesn't work either. And none of it would be working if the propaganda hadn't started to change the way the general public thinks. You need all three. That's what they've figured out."<ref name=torturebreak/> | |||
| </ref>]] | |||
| They write that some local governments had tried brainwashing classes before, but only in January 2001 did the “secret 610 office, an interagency task force leading the charge against Falun Gong, order all neighborhood committees, state institutions and companies to start.”<ref name=torturebreak/> Pomfret and Pan write that no practitioner was to be spared, and that according to their source the most active are sent directly to labor camps, “where they are first 'broken' by beatings and other torture.”<ref name=torturebreak/> | |||
| The ''Post'' reported the story of James Ouyang, who was arrested for the second time protesting in Tiananmen Square. After he was arrested, “police methodically reduced him to an 'obedient thing' over 10 days of torture ... Ouyang was stripped and interrogated for five hours. 'If I responded incorrectly, that is if I didn't say, 'Yes,' they shocked me with the electric truncheon,' he said.”<ref name=torturebreak/> After he was put in a labor camp in west Beijing, the ''Post'' reported, “the guards ordered him to stand facing a wall. If he moved, they shocked him. If he fell down from fatigue, they shocked him ... By the sixth day, Ouyang said, he couldn't see straight from staring at plaster three inches from his face. His knees buckled, prompting more shocks and beatings.”<ref name=torturebreak/> Eventually he gave in to the guards demands, and denounced Falun Gong shouting into the wall, “Officers continued to shock him about the body and he soiled himself regularly. Finally, on the 10th day, Ouyang's repudiation of the group was deemed sufficiently sincere. He was taken before a group of Falun Gong inmates and rejected the group one more time as a video camera rolled.”<ref name=torturebreak/> They report that he left jail and then entered brainwashing classes, “Twenty days later after debating Falun Gong for 16 hours a day, he 'graduated.'” | |||
| ] states that while "it is unknown how many Falun Gong practitioners are being executed by the Chinese authorities, ...various sources indicate China may be executing between 10,000-15,000 people a year."<ref>Amnesty International Fact Sheet on Persecution of Falun Gong, </ref> ] commented that most of the information available to it are from either official Chinese government or Falun Gong sources, stating that "There is no sure way of checking the information from either source, making it impossible to fully assess competing claims about the numbers of judicial sentences, reeducation through labor terms, deaths in custody, and so on. "<ref name=dangerous/> David Ownby, in his 2008 "Falun Gong and the future of China," vouches for the veracity of Falun Gong sources, and says they are well-respected and regarded as accurate by human rights groups. | |||
| Chinaview, an independent website focused on human rights abuses in China, says that the Gaoyang Forced Labour Camp was the first to begin force-feeding Falun Gong practitioners with human urine and excrement in the summer of 2003, and that “…the Chinese government awarded them for this innovation, and sent labour camp staff from around the country to learn this procedure.”<ref>{{cite web | title = Torture Methods 05 / Force-Feeding| publisher = Chinaview | url = http://chinaview.wordpress.com/2007/01/12/photo-china-modern-torture-methods-5-force-feeding/| accessdate = 2007-03-08}}</ref> | |||
| Amnesty International's ''"Falun Gong Persecution Factsheet"'' lists ] among the forms of torture Falun Gong practitioners are subject to.<ref>{{cite web | title = FALUN GONG PERSECUTION FACTSHEET| publisher = Amnesty International | url = http://web.archive.org/web/20070129054422/http://www.amnesty.org.nz/web/pages/home.nsf/dd5cab6801f1723585256474005327c8/83fba691f912206bcc2571d3001824ed!OpenDocument | accessdate = 2007-03-08}}</ref> ], a Beijing-based human rights lawyer, in his third open letter to the Beijing leadership stated his shock of the "unbelievable brutality, ...the immoral acts ...of 6-10 Office staff and the police. Almost every woman's genitals and breasts or every man's genitals have been sexually assaulted during the persecution in a most vulgar fashion. Almost all who have been persecuted, be they male or female, were first stripped naked before any torture."<ref>{{cite web | title = Gao Zhisheng's third open letter to Chinese leaders | publisher = Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China | url = http://cipfg.org/en/index.php?news=290 | accessdate = 2007-03-08}}</ref></blockquote> The Association for Asian Research reports that victims in the Dalian Labor Camp were tied up in a spread-eagle position as torturers repeatedly thrust foreign objects (toilet and shoe brushes, and long rods) into their vaginas.<ref>, Association for Asian Research, March 29, 2005</ref> | |||
| ==Reports of organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners in China== | |||
| {{main|Reports of organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners in China}} | |||
| <!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: ] --> | |||
| In March 2006 '']'' published a number of articles alleging that the ] and its agencies, including the ], were conducting widespread and systematic organ harvesting of living ] practitioners.<ref name=epoch1>, Epoch Times, March 10, 2006</ref> It was alleged that practitioners detained in ] camps, hospital basements, or prisons, were being blood and urine tested, their information stored on computer databases, and then matched with organ recipients.<ref name=epochgeneral>The Epoch Times, Special Category:'''', accessed 13/6/08</ref> When an organ was required, it alleged, they were injected with drugs to stop the heart, their organs removed and later sold, and their bodies incinerated.<ref name=epochgeneral/> | |||
| The first series of allegations were based on apparent eye-witness testimony of two individuals, and directed specifically at the ] in ], ]province.<ref name=epoch2>Ji Da, , Epoch Times, March 17, 2006</ref> The story received some deal of media attention. Within one month, some third party investigators, including representatives of the US Department of State, said that there was insufficient evidence to support this specific allegation.<ref name=lum>Congressional Research Service report, http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL33437.pdf, page CRS-7, paragraph 3</ref> A few months after the Sujiatun incident, in July 2006, former Canadian Secretary of State, ], and Human Rights Lawyer ], published a report of their investigation into the reports of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Their report titled concluded that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners are victims of systematic organ harvesting, whilst still alive, throughout China and that the practice is still ongoing.<ref name=bh> Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, by David Matas, Esq. and Hon. David Kilgour, Esq. 31 January 2007</ref> Kilgour and Matas state that several pieces of evidence contained in their reports are publicly verifiable. <ref name=bh /> | |||
| Investigative reports from Sky News and BBC add evidence to the findings of the Kilgour-Matas report.<ref name="Suspicions Raised Over Organ Donors">Sky News,, accessed 1/12/07</ref> The Christian Science Monitor says the report’s evidence is circumstantial but persuasive.<ref>The Monitor's View (August 3, 2006), ''The ]'', retrieved August 6, 2006</ref> The Chinese Embassy in Canada dismissed the Kilgour-Matas report soon after its release as "rumors and totally groundless," though their response was met with strong skepticism from Amnesty International.<ref name="Falun Gong Persecution Factsheet">Amnesty International,, </ref> On August 2006, a ] report said that some of the report’s key allegations appeared to be inconsistent with the findings of other investigations, though the report does not provide details.<ref>CRS Report for Congress (August 11, 2006), '']'', retrieved November 12, 2007</ref> The US state department maintains that "ndependent of these specific allegations, the United States remains concerned over China’s repression of Falun Gong practitioners and by reports of organ harvesting."<ref name=usgov1></ref> Kilgour and Matas maintain that the issue has yet to be properly addressed, while commentators speculate that the media silence is related to China's prominent role in the international community, which western governments and media are afraid to compromise. | |||
| U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak, in December 2007 said "The chain of evidence they are documenting shows a coherent picture that causes concern."<ref></ref> In November 2008, the United Nations Committee Against Torture made a strong statement on the matter, citing Nowak's note that an increase in organ transplant operations coincides with “the beginning of the persecution of ” and who asked for "a full explanation of the source of organ transplants." The Committee stated that it is concerned with the information that Falun Gong practitioners "have been extensively subjected to torture and ill-treatment in prisons and that some of them have been used for organ transplants." They called for the state to immediately conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims of organ harvesting, and take measures to ensure that those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and punished.<ref name=UNCAT>United Nations Committee Against Torture,, Forty-first session, Geneva, 3-21 November 2008</ref> | |||
| ==The Tiananmen Square "self-immolation" incident== | |||
| {{main|Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident}} | |||
| On the eve of the ], January 23, 2001, five people apparently attempted to set themselves on fire in ]. Seven days later, footage was broadcast nationally in the People's Republic by the state controlled ] (CCTV) which claimed the immolators were practitioners.<ref name=schechter/> Initially, western news organizations disseminated the story as given by], without the possibility of verifying it independently, given the tight ]. Falun Gong in New York emphatically denied that these people could have been practitioners, pointing out that the teachings explicitly forbid suicide and killing.<ref name="TheIssueOfKilling"> from ], ]</ref> On the very same day of the incident, Falun Gong in New York issued a press statement stating that the incident was "yet another attempt by the PRC regime to defame the practice of Falun Gong" and called for the "PRC regime to allow the world media and international human rights groups to investigate this case to clarify the facts."<ref name="Press Statement dated January 23, 2001 "> from The Falun Dafa Information Center, New York</ref> Danny Schechter notes that CCP's claims are "unsubstantiated by outside parties" | |||
| Falun Gong<ref name="falsefire.com"></ref>, Human Rights Activists <ref name="kilgourmatas"> Bloody Harvest: Kilgour Matas Report on Allegation of Organ Harvesting from Falun Gong Practitioners in China, 14 August 2001</ref> and third-party commentators have pointed out discrepancies in the government's version of events, and assert that the incident was staged in order to turn public opinion against the practice<ref name="unhchr"> Statement by United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, 53rd session, 14 August 2001</ref> and build public support for its persecution.<ref name="Sunderland">Judith Sunderland. From the Household to the Factory: China's campaign against Falungong. Human Rights Watch, 2002. ISBN 1564322696</ref><ref name="Beyond The Red Wall"> - The Persecution of Falun Gong, CBC Documentary</ref> | |||
| In August, 2001, Human Rights Organization, IED ( International Educational Department), stated in its report at the United Nations that they discovered the incident "in fact, had been staged" and requested that the international community and the UN Subcommission urgently address the situation. <ref name="unhchr"/> | |||
| <!--] image of one of the self-immolators at the scene]]--> | |||
| According to analysts, the Government's media war against Falun Gong capitalized on the incident. A six-month campaign that followed attempted to portray Falun Gong as an "evil cult"<ref name=breakingpoint>Matthew Gornet, , ], June 25, 2001</ref> through repeated broadcasts of images of scene.<ref name=pomfret>John Pomfret and Philip Pan, Washington Post, 5 Aug 2001 at A1, , October 2004, retrieved July 8, 2006</ref> The campaign is thought to be the government's first effort to gain public support for the crackdown of Falun Gong, and is "reminiscent of communist political movements -- from the 1950-53 ] to the radical ] in the 1960s."<ref name=tense>{{citeweb|url = http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/24/asia.falun.03/|title = Tiananmen tense after fiery protests|author = Staff and wire reports|publisher=CNN|date=24 January 2001|accessdate = 2007-02-09}}</ref> <ref name="Rutgers03">Smith, Chrandra D. (] ]), ''Rutgers J. of L. & Relig. New Dev.66'', retrieved ] ]</ref><!-- Commented out: the source says nothing of the sort <ref name="Rutgers03">Smith, Chrandra D. (] ]) , ''Rutgers J. of L. & Relig. New Dev.66'', retrieved ] ]</ref> --> | |||
| Falun Gong related sources pointed out several apparent discrepancies in the Chinese government's version of the incidents in a video titled "False Fire"<ref name="falsefire.com"/>. Western media correspondents were denied access to the purported victims. A CNN official confirms that one of his teams was arrested that day near Tiananmen Square and that police confiscated their videotapes. <ref name=RSF></ref> Danny Schechter notes that CNN videotapes of the incident are confiscated, never aired... China's charges are unsubstantiated by outside parties."<ref name=schechter/> | |||
| In a CBC documentary Clive Ansley, Chair of CIPFG and China Country Monitor for Lawyers Rights’ Watch Canada states "You've got Falun Gong people this country.. oppressed over and over again, they are not allowed to speak, they are not allowed to assert any of their rights as citizens and the level of frustration must be terribly high... I can understand people doing that.. that does not mean.. the movement is evil. But, ironically, we ultimately found out that it was a fraud anyway. It wasn't real, the people involved weren't Falun Gong members, it was completely staged by the government."<ref name="Beyond The Red Wall"/> | |||
| ==Reports of psychiatric torture== | |||
| Soon after the onset of the persecution, Falun Gong and human rights observers began reporting widespread psychiatric abuse of mentally-healthy practitioners. 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.<ref>{{Citation | title = Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured in Mental Hospitals Throughout China | publisher = Falun Dafa Information Center | url = http://www.faluninfo.net/hrreports/PsychAbuse.pdf |format=PDF| year = | accessdate = 2007-03-10}}</ref> Schechter states that as the persecution progressed, the "authorities came up with a new tactic, throwing those arrested into mental hospitals."<ref name=schechter/> | |||
| Abuse of political dissidents in China is well documented by international Human Rights organizations. Human Rights Watch has documented 3,000 cases of psychiatric punishment of political dissidents since the early 1980s.<ref>Joseph Kahn, , ], ]</ref>In 2002, ] and the Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry issued a report which alleged that Chinese dissidents, independent labour organisers, whistle-blowers and individuals who complain about official misconduct have been labelled "political maniacs" and locked up in mental hospitals simply for opposing the government.<ref>John Gittings, , '']'', ], ]</ref> | |||
| Danny Schechter notes that "use of psychiatric institutions to imprison Falun Gong practitioners is becoming an international issue." The American Psychiatric Association, at its May 2000 meeting in Chicago, discussed this concern. The Committee on Misuse and Abuse in Psychiatry unanimously passed a resolution asking that the American Psychiatric leadership request the World Psychiatric Association to investigate this problem. Schechter notes that the body's intervention had helped prevent a similar practice in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.<ref name=schechter/> | |||
| ===Political abuse of psychiatry=== | |||
| A 2001 report by Amnesty International states that "Several cases have been reported in which Falun Gong practitioners, alone or in groups, were taken by police to mental hospitals where they were detained for periods varying from a few days to several weeks, and often forced to take drugs against their will.<ref name=Amnesty1/> | |||
| Robin J. Munro was the first clinician to draw worldwide attention to the abuses of ] in China in general, and of Falun Gong practitioners in particular.<ref name=sunnygalli>Sunny Y. Lu, MD, PhD, and Viviana B. Galli, MD, “Psychiatric Abuse of Falun Gong Practitioners in China”, ''J Am Acad Psychiatry Law'', 30:126–30, 2002</ref> Munro says that large-scale psychiatric abuses are the most distinctive aspect of the government’s protracted campaign to "crush the Falun Gong." | |||
| Sunny Y. Lu and Viviana B. Galli credit Jiang Zemin with reversing the declining trend of using mental hospitals as places of government-directed torture in China, as part of a comprehensive and brutal campaign to eradicate Falun Gong. They draw comparison with political abuse of psychiatry by the ] aimed at ] and nonconformists, but point out that Falun Gong practitioners were "neither political nor nonconformists."<ref name=sunnygalli/> | |||
| Lu and Galli assert that the authorities began forcing sane Falun Gong practitioners into psychiatric facilities not long after the crackdown began. In cases where hospitals expressed reluctance to admit mentally healthy persons, the government would apply pressure through police. Without formal legal procedures for commitment, local police officers and members of the 6-10 Office arbitrarily commit Falun Gong practitioners to psychiatric institutions, with lengths of detention ranging from days to years. Lu and Galli state that “the perversion of mental health facilities for the purpose of the torture of Falun Gong practitioners is widespread”; the targets are from all tiers of society, including physicians, nurses, judges, military personnel, police officers and school teachers.<ref name=sunnygalli/>Their crimes were practising Falun Gong, passing out flyers against the persecution, appealing and petitioning to the government, and refusing to renounce the practice. Diagnoses may include ], “mental problems induced by superstition” and also the newly coined the “evil cult-induced mental disorder” (邪教所致精神障碍) --which Munro describes as a “politically opportunistic... hyperdiagnosis", and a throwback to the model found in Soviet forensic psychiatry.”<ref name=munro2002>p .105</ref> | |||
| {{rquote|left|''If the practitioners continue to perform the exercises in the hospital or refuse to renounce their beliefs, medication dosages are increased as much as five to six times the initial dose until the “patient” loses the ability to move or communicate... they are tortured by being tightly bound with ropes in very painful positions, beaten and shocked with electric batons, deprived of food or sleep, force fed through gastric tubing, and shocked with high voltage through acupuncture needles.''|Lu and Galli}} | |||
| Munro writes that detained practitioners are tortured and subject to ], painful forms of electrical ] treatment, prolonged deprivation of light, food and water, and restricted access to toilet facilities in order to force "confessions" or "renunciations" as a condition of release. Fines of several thousand yuan may follow.<ref name=munro2002>p. 107</ref> Lu and Galli write that dosages of medication up to five or six times the usual level are administered through ]s as a form of torture or punishment, and that physical torture is common, including binding tightly with ropes in very painful positions. Effects of this treatment, including drug or chemical toxicity, are loss of memory, migraines, extreme weakness, protrusion of the tongue, rigidity, loss of consciousness, vomiting, nausea and seizures.<ref name=sunnygalli>p. 128</ref> | |||
| Lu and Galli say that the Chinese government uses extreme measures to prevent investigation of the alleged abuses: threats, bribes, summary cremation of victims' bodies, arbitrary detention of potential whistleblowers, censorship of the internet, restricted access for western media and humanitarian organisations, and detention, harassment, deportation of journalist or revoking their licenses etc.<ref name=sunnygalli>p. 128</ref> | |||
| The '']'' also the reported in the issue: "The old Soviet Union pioneered the misuse of psychiatry against political dissidents; China has followed suit..." The Post recounts the story of 32-year-old computer engineer Su Gang as "dramatic". Su had been repeatedly detained by the security department of his workplace for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. Following a protest trip to the capital, on May 23, 2000 his employer, a state-run petrochemical company, authorized the police to "drag him off to a mental hospital." According to his father, doctors injected Mr. Su twice a day with an unknown substance. "When Mr. Su emerged a week later, he could not eat or move his limbs normally. On June 10, the previously healthy young man died of heart failure."<ref>Washington Post Editorial,'''', 6/23/00</ref> | |||
| Reports state that practitioners are involuntarily admitted because they practice Falun Gong exercises, for passing out flyers, refusing to sign a pledge to renounce Falun Gong, writing petition letters, appealing to the government etc. Others are admitted because detention sentences have expired or the detainees have not been successfully “transformed” in the brainwashing classes. Some have been told that they were admitted because they had a so-called “political problem”—that is, because they appealed to the government to lift the ban of Falun Gong.<ref name=Psychatricabsue1></ref> | |||
| Amnesty reports of a case where, Yang Yong, a spokesman for a police station in Beijing, confirmed to a foreign journalist that around 50 Falun Gong had been incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital near Beijing. Yang Yong reportedly said that his police force was responsible for Falun Gong practitioners, the majority of them women, held at the Zhoukoudian psychiatric hospital. He told the journalist that the practitioners "are not patients, they are there to be re-educated... most of them are Falun Gong 'extremists' who have been to Beijing to protest at least 10 times".<ref name=Amnesty1/> | |||
| ===Response to the reports=== | |||
| Lu and Galli state that since September 1999, the police have forced mentally healthy Falun Gong practitioners into psychiatric facilities. They point out that such a commitment requires no formal legal procedure. Members of the 6-10 Office — an extraconstitutional body created for the sole purpose of terrorizing Falun Gong—the local police, or even the security forces of local factories can arbitrarily commit Falun Gong practitioners. Human rights groups now estimate that there are 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners being held against their will in mental hospitals. The actual number is very likely many times higher. The lengths of these detentions range from a few days to 1.5 years.<ref name=Psychatricabsue1/> | |||
| According to Lu and Galli, documented cases include "physicians, nurses, an associate professor, a judge, a computer engineer, military personnel, police officers, teachers, and others. They are known to have functioned at high professional levels in society before incarceration."<ref name=Psychatricabsue1/> | |||
| Lu and Galli state that the Chinese government uses extreme measures to block any investigations by Western media and that many foreign journalists who have attempted to investigate these matters (or, in some cases, merely cover Falun Gong) in the past year have been detained, harassed, and had their licenses revoked and in some cases have even been deported from China. China has also blocked attempts at investigation by international organizations such as Amnesty International and has not responded to the World Psychiatry Association’s request to send international experts to investigate psychiatric abuse in China.<ref name=Psychatricabsue1/> Munro brings attention to the 'coincidence' between the very sizeable increase in Falun Gong admissions to mental hospitals, and the onset of the government's persecution campaign. <ref name=munro2002> Robin J. Munro, "Judicial Psychiatry in China and its Political Abuses", ''Columbia Journal of Asian Law'', ], Volume 14, Number 1, Fall 2000, p 114</ref> | |||
| In 2002, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) scheduled an investigation with the involvement of the Chinese Society of Psychiatrists' (CSP) to examine alleged abuses of Falun Gong practitioners who were sent to Chinese psychiatric hospitals and clinics as punishment. In April, several days before it was to start, the investigation was postponed indefinitely, at the Chinese government's insistence.<ref name=hausman>Ken Hausman, , Psychiatric News, WPA, August 6, 2004</ref> | |||
| Dr. ], Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at New York Medical College and former president of The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, states "The allegations of psychiatric abuse in China involve mistreatment, torture, and fraudulent diagnoses in the case of large numbers of political dissidents and Falun Gong practitioners and should not be dismissed as mere `failures in accurate diagnosis.'" Schechter notes Halpern, who is also a former civil rights activist who worked with Martin Luther King Jr, as stating "the government needs to hospitalize, wrongfully, non-mentally ill dissidents because this will help them in their efforts to paint the Falun Gong practitioners as not being against the government policy, but as being mentally ill. So even if they were to hospitalize a small number, word would soon spread that Falun Gong practitioners are crazy."<ref name=schechter/> Halpern has also called on his colleagues worldwide to speak out on the issue.<ref name=schechter/>. Halpern also notes that "Deliberate hospitalization, wrongful hospitalization, is only part of the problem. They then make it very difficult for practitioners to get out of the hospital by demanding that their families pay exorbitant amounts of money for their 'treatment' in the hospital. So there's no question that this type of conduct, government-sanctioned, is a serious violation of human rights. And we'd like to stop it early rather than wait until large number of dissidents are placed in hospitals,as occurred in case of Soviet Union." <ref name=schechter/> | |||
| Munro maintains that the few cases of psychiatric torture of Falun Gong practitioners he mentions are typical of the “several hundred such accounts that have so far been compiled and published by the Falun Gong,”<ref name=munrores2002 /> and that "<nowiki></nowiki>ndependent investigations by foreign journalists… have confirmed the Falun Gong’s version of events in the cases that have been examined."<ref name=munrores2002>p. 270</ref> He responds to Lee and Kleinman's doubts by saying that they, in their own published work, relied on the very same documentation, drawn from facts, commentary, and decades of survey material written and compiled by Chinese psychiatrists and law-enforcement officers published in China’s officially authorized professional literature on psychiatry and the law. He opines that since they do not make any substantive rebuttal of his evidence, they must have no answer to it.<ref name=munrores2002>Robin Munro, , ''The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law'', 2002, 30:2, pp. 266–274</ref> | |||
| Munro contends that decades-long political abuse of psychiatry by the Party, directly preceding the section on Falun Gong, transfers the burden of proof "squarely back onto the Chinese authorities."<ref name=munrores2002>p. 270</ref> | |||
| ==International response== | ==International response== | ||
| The ] has considered resolutions <ref>{{cite web|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.CON.RES.304.EH: |title=House Resolution 304EH |publisher=Thomas.loc.gov |date= |accessdate=2009-11-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.CON.RES.188.EH: |title=House Resolution 188EH |publisher=Thomas.loc.gov |date=2002-07-24 |accessdate=2009-11-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.CON.RES.218.EH: |title=House Resolution 218EH |publisher=Thomas.loc.gov |date=1999-11-18 |accessdate=2009-11-17}}</ref> condemning treatment of Falun Gong by the Government of the People's Republic of China.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.specialtribunal.org/reports/us_congress/ |title=US Congress Resolutions expressing the sense of COngress that Persecution of Falun Gong must be ceased |publisher=Specialtribunal.org |date= |accessdate=2009-10-31}}</ref> | |||
| Human rights organizations, including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, have raised acute concerns over reports of torture and ill-treatment of practitioners in China and have also urged the UN and international governments to intervene to bring an end to the persecution.<ref name=Amnesty1>. The Amnesty International</ref><ref name=HRW1/> David Ownby notes that human rights organizations "have unanimously condemned China's brutal campaign against the Falungong, and many governments around the world, including Canada's, have expressed their concern." <ref name=KMRR/> | |||
| == Response from Falun Gong == | |||
| Governments around the world, including United States and Canada have called upon the Chinese government to bring a complete end to the persecution.<ref name=KMRR/> The United States Congress has passed five resolutions - , ,, and- where Congress expresses that oppression of Falun Gong by the Government of the People's Republic of China in the United States and in China should be ceased.<ref></ref>. The first, Concurrent Resolution 217, was passed in November, 1999.<ref>http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/download/infopack/res_218.html House Concurrent Resolution 217</ref> | |||
| Con. Resolution 188, passed unanimously (420-0) by the US Congress states: "Falun Gong is a peaceful and nonviolent form of personal belief and practice with millions of adherents in the People's Republic of China has forbidden Falun Gong practitioners to practice their beliefs, and has systematically attempted to eradicate the practice and those who follow it....this policy violates the Constitution of the People's Republic of China as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights... propaganda from state-controlled media in the People's Republic of China has inundated the public in an attempt to breed hatred and discrimination;... official measures have been taken to conceal all atrocities, such as the immediate cremation of victims, the blocking of autopsies, and the false labeling of deaths as from suicide or natural causes'... several United States citizens and permanent resident aliens have been subjected to arbitrary detention, imprisoned, and tortured." | |||
| ===Response from Falun Gong=== | |||
| ''See also: ]'' | ''See also: ]'' | ||
| ]]] | |||
| Li Hongzhi, in response to accusations made against Falun Gong by the Chinese government, stated on July 22, 1999: | |||
| {{cquote|''Falun Gong is simply a popular qigong activity. It does not have any particular organization, let alone any political activities. I am a cultivator myself, and I have never been destined to be involved in political power. I am just teaching people how to practice cultivation. If one wants to practice qigong well, he/she must be a person of high moral standards... | |||
| Falun Gong practitioners and supporters report torture and ill-treatment of practitioners in mainland China.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clearwisdom.net |title=Clearwsidom.net Website |publisher=Clearwisdom.net |date= |accessdate=2009-10-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faluninfo.net |title=Falun Dafa Information Center Website |publisher=Faluninfo.net |date= |accessdate=2009-10-31}}</ref> 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 ], and initiated a worldwide ]. The video "False Fire: Self-Immolation or Deception?", was broadcast on Chinese television by hackers.<ref name=zhao>Yuezhi Zhao, "Falun Gong, Identity, and the Struggle over Meaning Inside and Outside China", in Contesting Media Power, 2004</ref><ref name="clearwisdom.net">, ClearWisdom.net, 20 January 2004</ref> 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.<ref name="autogenerated2003"/> | |||
| ''We are not against the government now, nor will we be in the future. Other people may treat us badly, but we do not treat others badly, nor do we treat people as enemies. | |||
| == Further reading == | |||
| ''We are calling for all governments, international organizations, and people of goodwill worldwide to extend their support and assistance to us in order to resolve the present crisis that is taking place in China.''<ref name=briefstate> Li Hongzhi, , July 22 1999, accessed 31/12/07</ref>}} | |||
| *{{cite book |first=Mickey |last=Spiegel |url=http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=klyC1eH97pQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=He+Zuoxiu+%22beijing+television%22&ots=Us-tQbKfPT&sig=5NI1Z1PLT4QuKYm89HmMu23D_1Q#v=onepage&q=isbn&f=false |title=Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong |publisher=Human Rights Watch |year=2002 |accessdate= 28 December 2009 |isbn=1-56432-269-6}} | |||
| * {{cite book |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=H80YZqSj7EEC&pg=PP1&dq=Jude+Howell+Governance+in+China.#v=onepage&q=After%20seven%20years%20of%20toleration&f=false |title=Governance in China |editor= Jude Howell |first=Clemens Stubbe |last=Østergaard |pages=214-223 (Governance and the Political Challenge of Falun Gong) |date=2003 |isbn=0742519880}} | |||
| Falun Gong practitioners and supporters have set up human rights organizations to report torture and ill-treatment of practitioners in mainland china.<ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
| * {{cite book |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RXeuibmD2dsC&pg=PA241&dq=%22Falun+Gong+challenges+the+CCP%22&lr=&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=&f=false |title=9. Falun Gong challenges the CCP |pages=241-295 |work=Qigong fever: body, science, and utopia in China | |||
| |first= David A. |last=Palmer |year=2007 |isbn=0231140665 }} | |||
| After the persecution in 1999, practitioners began holding frequent protests, rallies, and appeals outside mainland China. | |||
| * {{cite web |url=http://atimes.com/china/CA27Ad01.html |title=Part 1: From sport to suicide |first=Francesco |last=Sisci |work=Asia Times |date=27 January 2001}}; ; | |||
| * {{cite journal |url=http://molta.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Colleges/College%20of%20Business/Communication%20and%20Journalism/ANZCA%202008/Refereed%20Papers/Kavan_ANZCA08.pdf |title=Falun Gong in the media: What can we believe? |first=Heather |last=Kavan |author=Department of Communication, Journalism and Marketing |work=Massey University |page=13 |journal=E. Tilley (Ed.) Power and Place: Refereed Proceedings of the Australian & New Zealand Communication Association Conference, Wellington. |date=July 2008}} | |||
| Some Falun Gong support groups and Human Rights activists outside of China responded to the crackdown by publishing ], and initiating a worldwide ]. Since it began on Dec 3, 2004, over 44 million members of the ] and its subordinate organizations (the ] and the ])have publicly denounced the CCP as of Aug 04, 2008, according to The Epoch Times. | |||
| * {{cite journal |url=http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/reprint/30/2/266.pdf |title=On the Psychiatric Abuse of Falun Gong and Other Dissenters in China: A Reply to Stone, Hickling, Kleinman, and Lee |first=Robin |last=Munro |journal=The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law |year= 2002 |volume=30:2, |pages= 266–274}} | |||
| * {{Cite journal |author=Sing, Lee, & Kleinman, Arthur |url=http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/reprint/30/1/120.pdf |title=Psychiatry in its political and Professional Contexts: A Response to Robin Munro" |journal=The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law |volume=30:120–5 |year=2002 |page= p122}} | |||
| The video "False Fire: Self-Immolation or Deception?", was successfully broadcast on Chinese television in a hacking incident in the city of Changchun. The video was first posted on the Minghui Net in March 2001 and distributed widely on cassettes; it has been one of the most accessed pieces on the Falun Gong human-rights related websites.<ref name=zhao>Yuezhi Zhao, "Falun Gong, Identity, and the Struggle over Meaning Inside and Outside China", in Contesting Media Power, 2004</ref><ref name="clearwisdom.net">, ClearWisdom.net, January 20, 2004</ref><ref name="clearwisdom.net"/> Liu Chengjun, named as the instigator of the television hacking incident, was sentenced to 19 years in prison; he was reportedly tortured to death after 21 months in Jilin Prison, and his body cremated without autopsy.<ref>, ], 30 December, 2003</ref> | |||
| * {{cite journal |author=Lu, Sunny Y. & Galli, Viviana B. |url=http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/reprint/30/1/126.pdf |title=Psychiatric Abuse of Falun Gong Practitioners in China |journal=The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law |volume=30:126–30, |year= 2002}} | |||
| * {{cite book |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v20J18hL1MAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=schechter+falun#v=onepage&q=&f=false |title=Falun Gong's challenge to China: spiritual practice or 'evil cult'? |first=Danny |last=Schechter |date=November 2001 |isbn=1888451270}} | |||
| ==== Legal action ==== | |||
| ==References== | |||
| Falun Gong practitioners in the United States have filed several civil complaints in U.S. federal courts against PRC leaders for violations of the Torture Victim Protection Act, the Alien Tort Claims Act, and other crimes against humanity. Law suits have also been filed for violation of the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act of 1999. Chinese officials alleged to have taken part in human rights abuses against practitioners have become targets of legal action, particularly when they step upon foreign soil. Since 2001, there have been more than 70 legal cases launched by Falun Gong practitioners and sympathisers against those considered responsible for the persecution campaign in the Chinese government.<ref>, Justice for Falun Gong, Retrieved 2007-08-16</ref> According to ''International Advocates for Justice'', Falun Gong has filed the largest number of human rights lawsuits in the 21st century and the charges are among the most severe international crimes defined by international criminal laws.<ref name=Ownby2008/><ref> Described by Ownby as an "excellent window" into legal activities initiated by Falun Gong.</ref> | |||
| * | |||
| == References == | |||
| <!--- This section should only contain items that are referenced in the article. ---> | |||
| {{reflist|2}} | {{reflist|2}} | ||
| <!--- References above this have been verified and placed in order. ---> | |||
| == External links == | == External links == | ||
| {{portal|Falun Gong|Falun Gong Logo.svg}} | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * , Pulitzer Prize winner Ian Johnson, 2001, ] | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| {{Falun Gong}} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Persecution Of Falun Gong In The People's Republic Of China}} | |||
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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
Main article: Tiananmen Square self-immolation incidentOn 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. However, the Falun Dafa Information Center denied that the self-immolators were practitioners. 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 journal noted that 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. China's media campaign against Falun Gong gained significant traction after the event. One western diplomat commented that the public changed from sympathising with Falun Gong to siding with the Government, popular consensus seemingly shifted by human-interest stories and accounts of rehabilitation efforts of former practitioners.
The incident continues to serve as a significant reason for disputing the methods of Falun Gong in China. Posters, leaflets and videos were produced, detailing the supposed detrimental effects of Falun Gong practice. The media incited 8 million students to join the "Anti-Cult Action by the Youth Civilized Communities Across the Nation". The IHT reported that Chinese media were attacking Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi every day. Meetings took place in factories, offices, universities and schools to educate people about Falun Gong. The Government announced that religious leaders from across the country had delivered denunciations of Falun Gong. Twelve million children submitted writings disapproving of the practice. Within a month of the incident, authorities issued a glossy pamphlet entitled The whole story of the self-immolation incident created by Falun Gong addicts in Tiananmen Square, featuring colour photographs of charred bodies. The State Council's "Office for the Prevention and Handling of Evil Cults" declared after the event that it was now ready to form a united front with the global anti-cult struggle.
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. Hackers gained access to broadcast satellites and the video was broadcast on some Chinese television stations. 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.
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.
Allegations and reports of abuse
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
An article by 2001 John Pomfret and Philip P. Pan appeared in the Washington Post. They 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 article also stated 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 alleges it has documented 44,000 cases of torture which have resulted in 2,804 deaths. Falun Gong claims 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.Corinna-Barbara Francis of Amnesty says Falun Gong's (death toll) figures seem a little high because they are not the result of formal executions.
Since 2000, the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations highlighted 314 cases of 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
Main article: Organ harvesting in the People's Republic of ChinaIn 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 family members who felt threatened by the authorities.
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.
Further reading
- Spiegel, Mickey (2002). Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1-56432-269-6. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
- Østergaard, Clemens Stubbe (2003). Jude Howell (ed.). Governance in China. pp. 214-223 (Governance and the Political Challenge of Falun Gong). ISBN 0742519880.
- Palmer, David A. (2007). 9. Falun Gong challenges the CCP. pp. 241–295. ISBN 0231140665.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - Sisci, Francesco (27 January 2001). "Part 1: From sport to suicide". Asia Times.; Part 2: A rude awakening; Part 3: The deeper crisis facing China
- Kavan, Heather (July 2008). "Falun Gong in the media: What can we believe?" (PDF). E. Tilley (Ed.) Power and Place: Refereed Proceedings of the Australian & New Zealand Communication Association Conference, Wellington.: 13.
{{cite journal}}: More than one of|author=and|last=specified (help); More than one of|work=and|journal=specified (help) - Munro, Robin (2002). "On the Psychiatric Abuse of Falun Gong and Other Dissenters in China: A Reply to Stone, Hickling, Kleinman, and Lee" (PDF). The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 30:2, : 266–274.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - Sing, Lee, & Kleinman, Arthur (2002). "Psychiatry in its political and Professional Contexts: A Response to Robin Munro"" (PDF). The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 30:120–5: p122.
{{cite journal}}:|page=has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Lu, Sunny Y. & Galli, Viviana B. (2002). "Psychiatric Abuse of Falun Gong Practitioners in China" (PDF). The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 30:126–30, .
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Schechter, Danny (November 2001). Falun Gong's challenge to China: spiritual practice or 'evil cult'?. ISBN 1888451270.
References
- 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) - "A Chronicle of Major Historic Events during the Introduction of Falun Dafa to the Public". Clearwisdom.net. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- ^ People's Daily Online, China Bans Falun Gong, 30 July 1999
- ^ "China Bans Falun Gong: Law Sure to Beat Cults: Article". People's Daily Online. December 29, 1999. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
- Elizabeth J. Perry, Critical Asian Studies 33:2 (2001), p. 173
- ^ Willy Wo-Lap Lam, China’s sect suppression carries a high price, CNN.com, 9 February 2001
- ^ People's Daily Online, China Bans Falun Gong: Major Mass Organizations Support Falun Gong Ban, 25 July 1999. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
- People's Daily Online, China Bans Falun Gong: PLA, Armed Police Support Government Ban on Falun Gong, 25 July 1999. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
- Eric Lichtblau, CIA Warns of Chinese Plans for Cyber-Attacks on U.S., LA Times, 25 April 2002
- ^ Morais, Richard C."China's Fight With Falun Gong", Forbes, 9 February 2006. Retrieved 7 July 2006.
- Associated Press, China Dissidents Thwarted on Net. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
- ^ The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called heretical organizations. The Amnesty International
- China annual report 2002, Reporters Without Borders
- ^ Gornet, Matthew (25 June 2001). "The Breaking Point". Time. Retrieved October 31, 2009.
- "Press Statement". Clearwisdom. 23 January 2001. Retrieved 9 February 2007.
- Ansfield, Jonathan (23 July 2001). "After Olympic win, China takes new aim at Falun Gong". Reuters.
- ^ Pan, Philip P. (5 February 2001). "One-Way Trip to the End in Beijing". International Herald Tribune.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Mickey Spiegel, "Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong", Human Rights Watch, 2002. Retrieved Sept 28, 2007.
- 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) - "False Fire: China's Tragic New Standard in State Deception" (DVD). NTDTV. 2001.
- ^ Yuezhi Zhao, "Falun Gong, Identity, and the Struggle over Meaning Inside and Outside China", in Contesting Media Power, 2004
- ^ Details on How Liu Chengjun, Who Tapped Into the Changchun Cable Television, Was Tortured to Death in Jilin Prison, ClearWisdom.net, 20 January 2004
- ^ Falun Gong hacker 'died in jail', BBC News, 30 December, 2003
- WOIPFG, Chinese Ministry of Education Participating in the Persecution of Falun Gong: Investigative Report, 2004. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
- Hugo Restall What if Falun Dafa Is a ‘Cult’?, The Asian Wall Street Journal, 14 February 2001
- ^ 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.
- ^ ""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) - "Norway: Practitioners hold an Anti-Torture Exhibition and Receive Positive Media Coverage (Photos)". Falun Dafa Clearwisdom.net. 4 August 2004. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
- 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) - "Torture, though on decline, remains widespread in China, UN expert reports". www.un.org. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
- "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.
- "Gao Zhisheng's third open letter to Chinese leaders". Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China. Retrieved 8 March 2007.
- "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) - "Organ Harvesting in China's Labor Camps". Epoch Times. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
- ^ Congressional Research Service report, http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL33437.pdf, page CRS-7, paragraph 3
- "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) - "China 'harvests live organs'". News24.com. Retrieved 7 July 2006.
- 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
- Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured in Mental Hospitals Throughout China (PDF), Falun Dafa Information Center, retrieved 10 March 2007
- ^ ibid Lu & Galli
- ibid Munro (2002), p. 270
- ^ 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) - 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
- Stone, Alan A. (1 May 2005). "The China Psychiatry Crisis: Following Up on the Plight of the Falun Gong". Psychiatric Times.
- "House Resolution 304EH". Thomas.loc.gov. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
- "House Resolution 188EH". Thomas.loc.gov. 2002-07-24. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
- "House Resolution 218EH". Thomas.loc.gov. 1999-11-18. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
- "US Congress Resolutions expressing the sense of COngress that Persecution of Falun Gong must be ceased". Specialtribunal.org. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- "Clearwsidom.net Website". Clearwisdom.net. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- "Falun Dafa Information Center Website". Faluninfo.net. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
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"
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