Vive Le Canada - China 610

China 610
Daniel Thomson

As the Athens Olympiads reach their conclusion, we start looking forward to Beijing in 2008 – especially if your name is Perdita Felicien. Remember now that Beijing narrowly beat out Toronto for the right to the host the games. At the time critics of the IOC, which there are many, cried foul. How could a country with such a disastrous human rights record host the games? Have we not been constantly reminded these last two weeks that the Olympics are a time to celebrate humanity not to trample all over it as China apparently does on a daily basis?

After Paris lost the bid to hose the 2008 Olympics Alain Madelin, leader of France’s right-wing Liberal Democracy party, was “ashamed for the Olympics and ashamed to see the Olympics go to Beijing which has already won medals in all the categories of repression and human rights violations.” (1) Olympic organizers have curtailed this criticism by claiming the Olympics will help to improve China’s human-rights record. Wang Wei, Secretary General of the Beijing Organizing Committee, has been quoted as saying "we are confident that the Games coming to China not only promotes our economy, but also enhances human rights." (2) In an interview with BBC in April of 2002 IOC Presidente Jacques Rogge claimed that “we are convinced that the Olympic Games will improve human rights in China.” (3) So far, the Beijing Olympics have done little to uphold basic human rights in the host country on the contrary, as the Geneva based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions claims, they have led China to inhumanely evict 300, 000 people from their homes in Beijing in preparation for the games. (4)

China’s human rights transgressions are numerous and well documented. The most notable being the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, the ruthless occupation of Tibet and oppression of its religious leaders, its refusal to grant Taiwan independence and threatening military force on the tiny island and most recently the tainted blood scandal that has engulfed the country. Not to mention the SARS outbreak and subsequent secrecy last year. These violations are only a handful of heinous crimes that have come under western eyes. Handfuls abound of other odious and abysmal acts the country has committed, Human Rights Watch has compiled a long list of China’s human rights abuses. Including using the U.S led ‘war on terror’ to gain international support, or at least a turned eye, on its military operations against the Uighurs, a group of Turkic Muslims, in the northwestern Xinjiange Uighur Autonomous Region. The continued discrimination and under representation of women in Chinese society and the plight of the Chinese work force, multinational corporations have flocked to China seeking cheap labour, and the government has only too happily responded. Most workers lack adequate wages, minimal health and safety protections, and the right to organize independent unions to improve their conditions. (5)

One foil of China’s that has received little to no attention in the western world is the repression of the Falun Dafa or Falun Gong. I was blissfully unaware of this issue until my twin sister brought it to my attention quite recently. My sister, who is living in Taiwan, has recently become a convert to the practice of Falun Dafa. You may be asking yourself, what exactly is this Falun Dafa? Simply put, it is best understood as a form of qigong – a self-healing exercise that combines physical movement and mental meditation. Specifically, its practitioners describe it as “an ancient practice for refining the body and mind, moral and spiritual elevation in accordance with the universal principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.” Since its introduction to the general public by Li Hongzhi in the early 90's Falun Dafa has quickly become a globally phenomenon boasting tens of millions of practitioners in almost every country around the world. The practice distinguishes itself from other forms of qigong by stressing not only physical exercise or ‘cultivation’, but also the ‘cultivation’ of ones moral character according to the principals preached by Li Hongzhi, which are found in his two books Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun. (6)

Because Falun Gong is spiritual in nature it is in direct opposition to the atheist ideology of Maoist China. Like Tibetan Buddhism or the Islam practiced by the Uighurs, Falun Gong is discouraged and repressed by China’s central government. Li Hongzhi’s books have been outlawed and the practitioners of his qigong are routinely discriminated against. The breaking point came in the spring of 1999, on April 25 in excess of ten thousand Falun Dafa practitioners gathered outside the Chinese governmental leadership building, Zhongnanhai, in Beijing. This mass gathering was organized in protest of reports of violence committed against Falun Dafa followers in Tianjin and the ban on Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun. The protest was the largest since Tiananmen Square and like that fateful day in 1989 the government’s responded with repression and savage brutality. (7)

Shortly after, the police arrested hundreds of Falun followers and the practice was officially declared illegal. This was followed by the creation of the infamous 610 Office; the sole purpose of this agency is the suppression of the Falun Dafa. The 610 Office has far reaching powers and has been likened to the Gestapo and the NKVD of Stalin’s Russia. The 610 Office has carried out large propaganda campaign of defamation against Falun Dafa, effectively deceiving and brain washing the entire populace of China. They have been responsible for the torture, murder, detention, brainwashing and fining of tens of thousands of Falun Dafa followers and their family members. The 610 Office deprives all Chinese citizens of their right to information, not only censoring information on Falun Dafa in the traditional media of radio, newspapers, and television, but also establishing a system of Internet police to block websites and news about Falun Dafa. This very Orwellian institution is even known to arrest and torture people for visiting Falun related sites. Similar to oppressed Tibetans, followers of Falun Dafa have responded to such brutal treatment with only non-violent, peaceful, and legal means to appeal. (8)

During the Republican National Convention this week up to 45, 000 will travel to Manhatten to protest China’s brutal oppression. They plan torture demonstrations to show the people of New York and Republicans how they are suffering under the Chinese persecutions. (9) Despite worldwide outrage and appeal the Chinese government continues its repression of Falun Dafa. As the Olympics draw closer and closer, one would hope that China would have to stop its human rights violations are risk being embarrassed on a world stage. In the words of Amnesty International we “welcomes the intense spotlight that will be focused on China in the four years until 2008…severe abuses of fundamental human rights are a daily occurrence in China. If this spotlight can curtail or even end these abuses, then the Olympic Charter, with its commitment for the ‘preservation of human dignity’ might be relevant in China by 2008.” (10)

NOTES

1 “Beijing’s successful Olympic bid draws mixed reactions,” ABC News Online, http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGASA170442004 , 14 July 2001.
2 “China: Olympic Games and Human Rights,” Amnesty International, http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGASA170442004 , 27 August, 2004.
3 Jaques Rogge, Hard Talk, BBC Radio, 24 April 2002.
4 “Forced evictions reach crisis levels leaving millions homeless worldwide,” Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Media Release 25 February 2004.
5 “Human Rights Overview: China,” Human Rights Watch, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/12/31/china7001.htm , 1 January 2004.
6 Falun Dafa UK website, http://www.falungong.org.uk/ .
7 Falun Dafa UK website, http://www.falungong.org.uk/ .
8 “General Report on the 610 Office,” Worldwide Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, http://www.upholdjustice.org/English.2/investigation_of_610.htm .
9 “Falun Gong Practitioners to Hold Public Appeals in New York City During the RNC,” Falun Dafa Information Center, http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=8909 , 30 August 2004.
10 “China: Olympic Games and Human Rights,” Amnesty International, http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGASA170442004 , 27 August, 2004.