Dear Mr. Kofi A. Annan,
Mrs. Mary Robinson,
China has accused the United States of interfering in its crackdown against the banned
Falun Gong spiritual movement by granting asylum to an unnamed practitioner, an apparent
reference to the group's founder Li Hongzhi. Fearing the group's popularity and its
organizational ability to mobilize thousands of supports in protest, Chinese leaders
banned Falun Gong in July and asked Washington to hand over Li, who left China for New
York in 1998.
Chinese leaders want to control everything that can not let other leaders
handle the popularity and organizational ability, the only reason is "against the
Chinese law would make instability in country's security."
Newsweek, Nov. 8, 1999, by Melinda Liu and Katharina Hesse ---
It's sometimes best to hide in a public place. Liu Zhanguo slipped into a Beijing
Starbucks last Tuesday for a quiet rendezvous. A Communist Party member from northern
Fushun city, Liu wanted to tell NEWSWEEK why he was willing to risk his life in a show of
support for Falun Gong. The state had arrested thousands of his fellow believers in an
effort to smash what authorities call an "evil cult." Liu, 50, credits its
mystical blend of Buddhism, Taoism and deep-breathing exercises with curing his
hypertension and his wife's psychological problems. A teacher of the discipline, he was
about to join a public protest against the crackdown. "It doesn't matter if I live or
die," said Liu. Gesturing around the upscale coffeehouse, he added: "The
next time we talk it may not be here. Maybe I'll be in jail. After we finish talking I
plan to go to the square to be arrested."
Fatalism hung in the air the next morning, as Liu and more than 20 other Falun Gong
followers prepared to depart for Tiananmen Square. They gathered at an abandoned farmhouse
south of the capital. In slow motion, eyes closed in concentration, they went through
deep-breathing and yoga-like exercises. One of several devotees who flew in from Japan for
the protest tore up his Japanese residency card and declared, "It doesn't matter
anymore."
Then they joined hundreds, some claimed thousands, of Falun Gong members converging on
Tiananmen. Many had flocked to Beijing in cars to avoid checkpoints set up to stop them in
airports and rail stations. For five days, the devotees mixed with sightseers in the
square, silently protesting the crackdown. Accosted by police, they readily identified
themselves as Falun Gong protesters. Hundreds were hauled away to detention centers while
party leaders attacked the group as a threat China's stability. President Jiang Zemin,
touring in Europe, compared Falun Gong to bloodstained cults like Aum Shinrikyo of Japan,
and said "no responsible government" could let such a menace
"go unchecked." Liu was arrested on Thursday.
Falun Gong has been checked with a vengeance. Jiang apparently views Falun Gong as an
echo of the millennial uprisings that have often augured the death of Chinese dynasties.
Last April, after some analysts attacked the movement's leader, Li Hongzhi, as a fraud and
a profiteer, about 10,000 Falun Gong members gathered near Beijing's leadership compound
to protest the insult and demand official recognition. Stunned, Jiang unleashed the
crackdown. Now Falun Gong followers are being put on trial and expelled from jobs, schools
and the Communist Party. They descended on Beijing last week hoping to prove they are a
peaceful movement, just as the National People's Congress was legislating even tougher
suppression of "cults." Monitoring the crackdown via modem and phone, overseas
supporters claim that at least three Falun Gong devotees have died in detention --- two
while trying to escape from moving trains. "They have nowhere to go now," says
Rping Zhang, spokesman for Falun Gong in New York. "You cannot practice
in the work place. You cannot practice at home. They are cornered."
What may worry communist elders most is that so many party members have joined Falun
Gong. Founded in 1992, the movement has attracted more than 2 million followers (Li claims
70 million), with an estimated one third of the total from within the ruling party. Many
communists find renewed purpose in Falun Gong at a time when faith in their old ideology
is dying. On Tiananmen Square followers seemed to find one another effortlessly. They need
no secret signals, one explained: "Followers of Falun Gong exude a special radiance,
so it's easy for us to recognize each other."
Fu Jiangying was easy to spot. The 28-year-old university grad says he worked at the
party Propaganda Department until last summer. Then his bosses noticed his Falun Gong
lapel pin and expelled him from the party and his job. Now Fu says Falun Gong members
actually practice the professed ideals of communism, sharing "our money, our homes
and our high morality." His faith rests in Li Hongzhi. "I saw his face in the
sky" during the April demonstration, says Fu. "Other people saw his writings in
the sky, too. In fact if you practice long enough and open your celestial eye you can see
him whenever you want." (Fu was also detained after.)
This devotion has made Li an unlikely public enemy. Now lying low in New York, he has
been accused by Beijing of stealing government secrets --- potentially a capital crime.
Authorities attacked his movement last week as an "antiscience and antisociety
cult." An anti-Falun Gong advocate addressed a gathering of the Foreign
Correspondents' Club to ridicule Li as a failed hotel receptionist, a "loser in
life" who turned in despair to spiritual quackery. Jiang compared Falun Gong to
suicide cults and said Li may be responsible for the deaths of 1,400 followers.
With many of its leaders in jail, Falun Gong is trying to rally support
abroad. Last Friday (Nov. 5, 1999) the group held a clandestine Beijing
press conference for foreign journalists, pleading for an end to the persecution. In
earlier interviews with NEWSWEEK, a dozen members told of harassment. Construction boss
Zhang Zhaofeng said police beat him in detention and extorted more than $1,200 from his
wife in exchange for his release. Yan Yuling said police at a detention center forced her
daughter, 17, to strip and then doused her with cold water more than 100 times. Beijing
officials deny claims of police abuse. But their basic dilemma persists: the mass arrests
have only provoked more protests. Instead of combating the perceived threat of Falun Gong,
the crackdown is deepening it.
In our views, the suppression of Falun Gong is the Chinese communist
government's persecution of faith and freedom to which the public is entitled. It also
marks a step backwards in Beijing's efforts to revamp its poor image for protecting human
rights. Any countries have responsibility to protect "human rights" and freedom
in its people. If countries leader can't protect its people from chaos of
"violence", they need to put aside traditional refusal to interfere in each
other's affairs.
Many leaders in the world feared of lost their political advantage, put people's rights
under terroristic control. They called it as non-intervention principle or gave a weird
reason to keep its leading role in maintaining peace and security in the region.
Communist China would to be a rich country, but the issue of human rights
and religious crackdown are reflected in the case of non-interventionist doctrine.
Every country could play a leading role in changing the non-interference principle, to
help restore East Timor. Unfortunately, there are very few countries can say
something with serious warning in the affairs of communist Chinese's violence that aggress
its people with force.
We should maintain credibility in the world community, and created powerful global
village. Never let country's leader use political power or military force to hurt its
people.