The Epoch Times
Feb 12, 2005
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Caption: American Catholic University professor Nieh Sen speaks Feb. 9 at a press conference of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Mr. Nieh's office phones were deluged with harassing phone calls targeted at worldwide practitioners of Falun Gong and outspoken critics of the Chinese Communist Party. (Epoch Times News Photo)
Investigations have begun into what is an apparent worldwide telephone campaign aimed at harassing Falun Gong practitioners outside of Mainland China.
Reports from around the globe indicate that, starting around the Chinese Lunar New Year, a simultaneous coordinated deluge of harassing phone calls was received mainly by Falun Gong practitioners as well as other overseas public figures who have been vocal in their opposition to the Chinese Communist Party's political power. Police from multiple countries are involved in investigating the calls.
Police have so far been unable to confirm if the source of the calls is a public figure, but it has reportedly been determined that the perpetrator is on a blacklist and has organized a harassment and threat operation in the past. There are commentaries that recognize this act as the first beyond-the-limits war" in global communication history.
On Wednesday, Feb. 9, Falun Gong practitioners of Washington, D.C., held a press conference to expose the large-scale telephone harassment of practitioners around the world. They said the frequent harassment not only disrupts an individual's daily life but creates an atmosphere of terrorism. They requested all concerned American departments investigate immediately to prevent similar occurrences.
According to Radio Free Asia, Falun Gong practitioners from countries in Asia, Europe the Americas and Australia received the phone calls. In the majority of cases, those receiving call have been unable to determine the phone number of the caller.
The content of the phone calls has been consistent; mainly patriotic Chinese songs, recordings related to the discredited Tiananmen Square self-immolation event and attacks on the practice of Falun Gong. There are separate Chinese and English versions, with each call lasting a little less than 4 minutes.
The Falun Gong spokesman in the United States, Gregory Xu, a computer engineer in New Jersey, told Radio Free Asia that he began to receive the calls Feb. 6. "Around 1:20 a.m. on Sunday morning, I received a phone recording. I know that there are roughly a dozen people from the metropolitan New York area who have received calls."
Taiwan University economics professor Zhang Qingxi, a person in charge of the Taiwanese Falun Gong association, said that the harassing phone calls received in Taiwan have reached more than 1,000 people, according to preliminary estimates.
On Feb. 9, Zhang said: "Today is the Chinese New Year, and the phone harassment started early yesterday morning and they called all day long. There was only one call received today, which was less than yesterday, probably because they are also going on a break. I know that calls have been received from the North all the way to the South. The phones at Taiwan's [Falun Gong] practice sites are public and they've received about a thousand hits."
According to Radio Free Asia, Falun Gong practitioners from Europe, Oceania and other places, including Israel and Sri Lanka, have also received similar phone calls. Shao Li, a Falun Gong practitioner in England who is a lecturer at Nottingham University, said: "I have received calls since last Sunday [Feb. 6]. The most were on February 7th, and the calls started before I even woke up in the morning. One call followed another. Before it was even noon, the answering machine tapes at home and in my office were filled. In the end, there were at least 30 to 40 calls."
Falun Gong practitioners interviewed by The Epoch Times said they had reported this to local police and requested investigation of the calls. The source of the calls remains unknown at this point, however, a Falun Gong practitioner in Denmark said that her phone's caller ID showed the source of a harassing call on her phone as Mainland China. "Of the two numbers on my caller ID, one of them starts with 0086, which is China's area code, and the other starts with 008613. These two calls were recorded on Sunday, February 6th," she said.
Li Ding, a counselor for Political Affairs of China, said the simultaneous attack on global phone communities, has showed that the aggressor is widely monitoring the Falun Gong situation, and amounts to a terrorist threat. What the Chinese Communist Party does both domestically and abroad, he said, constitutes a "beyond-the-limits war."
In 1999, the CCP's military publishing house distributed a book called "Beyond-the-Limits War," written by two senior air force colonels. The book systematically, comprehensively and creatively summarized "Using all methods, including military force or non-military force, the army or no army, killing or not killing, to (gain victory in a beyond-the-limits war). According to the author's definition, the beyond-the-limits war is "going beyond all demarcation lines and limited war."
Li noted that the perpetrator has disregarded U.S. Congress' passage of Resolution 304 on Oct. 4. The resolution requested the Chinese government stop interfering with the freedom of religion and politics of people in the United States, including the right to practice Falun Gong. If the harassing calls were to be confirmed as coming from the CCP, he said, then it means that the CCP is able to, at anytime, initiate a media war -- the beyond-the-limits war -- in any country.
Source http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-2-12/26399.html
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
