Guardian: Chinese whispers surround Falun Gong trial

Tuesday August 21, 2001

Chinese justice is a secretive affair. The proceedings in Beijing against a group of alleged Falun Gong followers had been going on for a month but we only heard about it on the final day - when the official Xinhua news agency said that it had been a "public trial." The four sentences that were handed out ranged in length from seven years to life: all were convicted of "intentional homicide" in connection with the suicide attempt staged by supposed [group] members in January.

The proceedings on this last "public" day moved very fast. By mid morning the agency was putting out a full report of the verdicts; by late afternoon the official People's Daily had produced its own verdict in the shape of a fierce commentary denouncing the "[Jiang's slanderous term omitted]."

By the evening, filmed extracts from the trial were being shown on the country's main TV channel. The camera focused on the burn marks on the face of 50-year-old Wang Jindong - the only one of the four who attempted suicide - and then panned to the other defendants.

There were shots of the plastic bottles in which Liu and six other suspected believers carried petrol to Tiananmen Square last January, on the eve of Chinese new year.

A fifth conspirator, who had suggested using Sprite bottles, was "exempted from sentence": the court said she had "acknowledged her crime". The main organiser, Liu Yunfang, received a life sentence; Mr Wang was given 15 years; the other two lesser sentences.

In the brief filmed excerpt, Liu Xiuqin (seven years) smiled slightly as she answered questions. The others looked calm. Mr Wang, we know from earlier reports, went on hunger strike in hospital and said he had no regrets. (His wife and daughter were taken to a reform camp, where after two months they repudiated what he had done.)

Was that a smile of defiance from Ms Liu? Did the defendants refuse to enter a plea and why did the trial take a month? The defence lawyers were appointed by the court. No one is expecting to be briefed by them.

Eight months after the event, the tragic affair, in which a mother and her 12-year-old daughter died, remains as obscure as ever. The trial, unsurprisingly, has clarified nothing.

The Falun Gong abroad continues to insist that the seven who attempted suicide were not genuine members and suggests that it was some kind of set-up job.

It has produced a video that analyses, in slow motion, film released by the Chinese authorities of the incident. Some of it is clearly shot from a rooftop surveillance camera, but there are also close-ups taken by a cameraman on the ground.

The Falun Gong regards this as suspicious, yet it is common practice (not just in China) for police camera operators to be on hand when a public disturbance is anticipated.

It looks from the video as if one of those who set herself on fire (and later died) was hit with some object by a plain-clothes man. This may be true: the police are notoriously heavy-handed, but the fact remains that she had deliberately burned herself.

Is it possible that the authorities had advance warning of the self-immolation plan and let it go ahead, anticipating (correctly) that it would rebound against the Falun Gong?

Perhaps, though the fact that the police were armed with fire extinguishers is not conclusive. Those which were used were small-scale canisters of the type carried in public vehicles - such as the police vans routinely to be seen on the square.

[...]

What is clear is that the Chinese government will use the trial to reinforce the message that it communicated to its own people very effectively after the self-immolation.

[...] In a bizarre attempt to illustrate the point, the Xinhua news agency accompanied its report on the trial with a file picture of Falun Gong supporters allegedly "disturbing public order".

It showed a peaceful demonstration held last month in the city of Taiyuan. Several dozen people are seen sitting quietly on the road in meditative posture, while pedestrians walked freely along the adjacent pavement. It is hardly the most appropriate picture with which to prove the point.

On the contrary, it shows the great courage with which Falun Gong supporters continue to profess their beliefs, knowing they may face brutal treatment, even torture and death, in the reform camps.

Beijing could be in danger of overselling the one-dimensional message which it tries too hard to hammer home.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,540215,00.html