February 14: Falun Gong News Bulletin

News on events inside China

FDIC: Human Rights Lawyer who Defended Falun Gong Beaten in Chinese Prison
FDIC: Guizhou Pharmacist Dies in Prison after Being Disabled by Torture
FDIC: On Ten Year Anniversary, Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation Continues to Be Deadly Frame-up
FDIC: Ten Things to Know about China as Hu Jintao Arrives in the United States
Amnesty International: Urgent Action: Falun Gong practitioner at risk of torture: Guo Xiaojun
The Epoch Times: At Chinese New Year, a Torrent of Greetings Praising Falun Gong

News on events outside China

FDIC: Who is Running the Show in NYC’s Chinatown?
CNN: Congressman Rohrbacher cites Falun Gong as among most egregious rights abuses in China
The Epoch Times: Falun Gong parade float attacked in Mexico City
Associated Press: German prosecutors indict alleged Chinese spy for observing Falun Gong movement
The Epoch Times: South Korea Deports Falun Gong Refugees for Political Reasons

FDIC: Human Rights Lawyer who Defended Falun Gong Beaten in Chinese Prison

Feb. 2: “A human rights lawyer from northeast China who was sentenced in November 2009 to seven years in prison for taking Falun Gong practitioners as clients has been beaten and held in solitary confinement, sources inside China have told the Falun Dafa Information Center.

Wang Yonghang (???), a lawyer from Liaoning province, has been held in Ward No. 18 at Shenyang’s No.1 Prison since April 2010. Sources inside China report that on October 11 and 12, 2010, several prison guards incited criminal inmates to badly beat Wang. He was then reportedly placed in solitary confinement… Amnesty International reported Wang’s imprisonment and has qualified him as a prisoner of conscience.”

For more information, see: /article/1115/?cid=84

FDIC: Guizhou Pharmacist Dies in Prison after Being Disabled by Torture

Feb. 14: “A 39-year-old pharmacist held at a prison camp in Guizhou province died in custody in mid-January after years of torture that reportedly left him unable to walk, the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) learned recently. Hu Dali (???) from Xiuwen county is the first Falun Gong practitioner known to have been killed by the Chinese authorities in 2011.

“As millions of families across China celebrate the new year together, Hu Dali’s is faced with the sudden news that their son, brother, and cousin is never coming home,” says FDIC Executive Director Levi Browde.

Hu had worked at the local traditional Chinese medicine hospital. Hu was abducted again and in August 2003, sentenced in a secret, sham trial to ten years in prison. During his time in custody, Hu’s family members were repeatedly denied access to him. However, others imprisoned with Hu informed them that he had been severely tortured and, as a result, lost almost complete use of his legs, forcing him to walk with crutches.On January 19, 2011, personnel from Dujun City No. 4 prison called Hu’s family and told them to come to the prison to pick him up. When three of his siblings arrived, they learned that Hu was already dead.

For more information, see: /article/1117/

FDIC: On Ten Year Anniversary, Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation Continues to Be Deadly Frame-up

Jan. 19: “Ten years ago, a deadly piece of stagecraft unfolded on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. At the behest of the Communist Party, five people set themselves on fire with cameras rolling.

China’s state-run media immediately pronounced that the individuals were adherents of Falun Gong, claiming they had been driven to suicide by the spiritual practice. Two of the participants died in connection with the self-immolation. The event was used to turn public opinion against Falun Gong, and to justify the mass imprisonment and torture of its adherents.

The Falun Dafa Information Center and other organizations quickly uncovered significant holes and inconsistencies in the official story, and pointed out that Falun Gong strictly forbids killing, including suicide. Soon, the story unraveled further, as a wealth of evidence was uncovered suggesting that the Chinese authorities had staged the self-immolation as a propaganda piece. Reporting for the Washington Post on February 4, 2001, Philip Pan traveled to the hometown of two of the participants who had died. He found that they had never practiced Falun Gong.

For more information and links to Pan’s article as well as a video deconstructing the state-run television footage, see: /article/1114/?cid=84

FDIC: Ten Things to Know about China as Hu Jintao Arrives in the United States

Jan. 17:

   1. The Chinese Communist Party is engaged in a widespread, systematic campaign against tens of millions of innocent people.
   2. The Chinese Communist Party’s campaign involves a deliberate top-down strategy to use extraordinary levels of violence.
   3. Falun Gong practitioners are the largest group of prisoners of conscience in the world, numbering in the hundreds of thousands at any given time.
   4. Every three days, a new case of a Falun Gong practitioner dying from abuse in police custody is reported.
   5. The victims of these atrocities are people from every walk of life in Chinese society.
   6. Falun Gong practitioners are not the only victims; all Chinese people are affected.
   7. The Communist Party has gone to great efforts to cover up and deflect attention from these crimes.
   8. A large-scale, grassroots Samizdat-like effort is informing Chinese people about persecution occurring in their neighborhoods, towns and cities.
   9. International public pressure does protect people in China.
10. Communist Party officials have sought to expand the persecution of Falun Gong beyond China, including to the United States.”

For more details, see: /article/1113/?cid=84

Amnesty International: Urgent Action: Falun Gong practitioner at risk of torture: Guo Xiaojun

Dec. 15: “Falun Gong practitioner, Guo Xiaojun, a former lecturer at Jiaotong University in Shanghai, is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment in prison. He was convicted solely on charges which relate to his practice of Falun Gong and based on a confession he says was extracted through torture.

Guo Xiaojun was taken from his home in Shanghai by eight plainclothes police and security officers on 7 January, 2010. They forced their way into his home, without a warrant, and pushed him to the ground in front of his wife and four year old child, cutting his head. The police then ransacked his home, finding only a few books relating to Falun Gong. … He was later charged with ‘using a heretical organization to subvert the law’ based on allegations that he had distributed Falun Gong materials.

…During the course of the case Guo’s family hired five lawyers, each of whom dropped the case after being threatened with negative consequences by local authorities….After his first trial on 7 July, Guo was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, upheld at an appeal hearing in October.”

The Epoch Times: At Chinese New Year, a Torrent of Greetings Praising Falun Gong

Feb. 7: “Thousands of Chinese New Year greetings, in prose and poetry, in calligraphy, e-cards, and bright Flash animations, have streamed into the main Falun Gong website Minghui.org (‘Clear Wisdom’ in English), wishing a happy Chinese New Year to Li Hongzhi, the founder of the Chinese spiritual discipline. The greetings also provide a snapshot of a vibrant community of believers in China who are gaining support among the Chinese people in spite of 11 years of persecution. Minghui editors report receiving over 10,000 submissions. The greetings come from small towns and big cities and from every corner of China.

[Some greetings sent are by non-practitioners.] An attorney in Beijing said anonymously: ‘It was not until I started to represent Falun Gong practitioners that I understood the essence of Falun Gong. I would like to thank Falun Gong for its efforts to meet the Chinese people’s longing for truth. I would like to strongly condemn the persecution that has not ended. I would like to express my respect for Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong.’

One government official from the northeast writes: ‘As the traditional Chinese New Year is upon us, I represent those government officials who know the truth to wish a happy new year to Teacher Li! We all hope that this persecution of good people will soon end. We hope that Teacher Li will come back to the mainland soon and teach Falun Gong.'”

For more information and a slideshow of several elaborate cards among those sent, see: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/50754/

FDIC: Who is Running the Show in NYC’s Chinatown?

Feb. 6: “The long arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has influenced the make-up of today’s Chinese New Year parade in New York City’s Chinatown with disturbing ramifications for both the Chinese community as well as the freedoms enjoyed by Americans more broadly.

Despite running an advertisement in Chinese language media indicating that everyone is welcome to participate, an application from the local Falun Gong association to participate in the parade was rejected by parade organizers, saying the rejection was “due to the unsettled conflict your organization has with numerous community groups.”

However, Falun Gong has always been a peaceful and integral part of the Chinese community. The only “conflict” arose when, beginning in July 1999, the Chinese regime launched a violent campaign to stamp out the practice in China.”

To read more, see: /article/1118/
See also: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/50586/

CNN: Congressman Rohrbacher cites Falun Gong as among most egregious rights abuses in China

Jan 19: In a CNN interview with Eliot Spitzer during Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States, Congressman Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) called the Chinese Communist government a “ganster regime that murders their own people” and included the following in his response to a question on the most serious human rights abuses in China today:

“In China, what you have is an ongoing repression of religion. People like the Falun Gong, who are nothing more than people who believe in yoga and meditation, are being thrown into prison by the thousands and there’s all sorts of evidence suggesting that they are being beaten to death in order to steal their organs and sell their organs. It doesn’t get much more ghoulish than this.”

To view the full interview, see: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/01/19/ps.china.hu.gangster.cnn

The Epoch Times: Falun Gong parade float attacked in Mexico City

Feb. 8: “As the three women in traditional Chinese outfits stood meditating, half a dozen thugs were tearing apart their golden Chinese New Year float behind them.

Practitioners of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) in Mexico City’s Chinatown face a difficult enough time owing to the control exerted in the area by the Chinese Embassy, but Feb. 5 was the first time the embassy had hired thugs to suppress them in broad daylight. The thugs, who witnesses said were transported in vans belonging to the government of Mexico City’s Cuahutemoc District, struck on Independence Street, next to Chinatown. A three-minute long video of the incident made by La Razon newspaper in Mexico has been uploaded to YouTube.”

To read more and for a link to the video, see: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/50788/

Associated Press: German prosecutors indict alleged Chinese spy for observing Falun Gong movement

Jan. 31: “Federal prosecutors say they have indicted a man for allegedly spying on the Falun Gong movement in Germany for China’s intelligence service.

Germany’s top prosecutors said in a statement Monday the 54-year-old German citizen, identified only as Dr. John Z., is accused of reporting activities and confidential data from the spiritual group’s German section to the agency between 2006 and 2010.”

To read more, see: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gA_38Xg0ZmkVJ8GCMQ9TZ3I8Gimg?docId=5812067

The Epoch Times: South Korea Deports Falun Gong Refugees for Political Reasons, Group Says

Jan. 30: “The South Korean government quickly and quietly deported three Chinese refugees on Jan. 22; there, they face jail and torture. The individuals were all practitioners of Falun Gong…

The Korean Falun Dafa Association believes the deportations were instigated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who exerts political pressure on the South Korean government…

During the press conference Ms. Xu, the sister of one of the deportees, said that she found out about the deportation during a phone call with friends and family in China; she was not notified by the South Korean authorities until two days after the deportation, which is not a standard practice.”