July 27, 2007 - www.faluninfo.net
Monitoring the Falun Gong Human Rights Crisis in China
Student Organizations or Government Front?
WASHINGTON DC - Recent months have witnessed increasing belligerence across the United States by Chinese student groups, expressed in particular as harassment, even threats of violence, toward students who practice Falun Gong, according to speakers at a Friday forum held at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Ten speakers, many of them former Chinese student group leaders themselves, described how clubs around the world serve as front organizations for communist China's diplomatic missions. These university organizations are financially supported by Chinese embassies and consulates, plan their activities according to orders from PRC diplomats, and provide Beijing with intelligence reports, panelists said.
Xia Yiyang, senior researcher for the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), introduced a new report on this topic. Xia said that, according to the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, these Chinese students are in violation of U.S. law. The organization's findings show that Chinese student associations are on the payrolls of Chinese embassies and consulates and leaders act as de facto spies while obtaining prestigious U.S. degrees.
Full story: http://faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9498
New WOIPFG report: http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=176&pop=1&page=0
Activities in DC, Around the World Mark Eight Years of Persecution
WASHINGTON DC - Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and supporters from around the world gathered in Washington, DC last week for a grand parade, large-scale public practice of Falun Gong's exercises, candlelight vigil, rally, and other events marking eight years since the persecution of the spiritual discipline began in China on July 20, 1999. Similar activities were held in dozens of cities worldwide.
A July 19 rally on the lawn in front of the Capitol Building was attended by Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ), Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and directors of centers for religious freedom and democracy at several leading think tanks, among other prominent speakers. They called for an end to the persecution and respect for Chinese people's freedom of belief, and expressed hope that there will be no need for such a rally next July.
Rally participants held banners in Chinese and English that read: "Stop the Genocide Against Falun Gong," as well as photos of Falun Gong adherents who have lost their lives due to persecution in China. On the lawn's northern side, scenes of torture in Chinese jails were re-enacted. One emotional moment came when Congressman Payne hugged Dr. Charles Lee, a Falun Gong practitioner who had been jailed in China for three years whom Payne had worked to rescue.
The entire rally and special interviews with the speakers were broadcast live by http://www.youmaker.com, enabling people in China to watch online events that would otherwise never receive airtime in Chinese media.
Photos: www.faluninfo.net/pictures/FDI_Press/070727/
Falun Gong Practitioners have Audience with Taiwanese President
A group of Falun Gong practitioners met with the Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian on July 12 to discuss the refusal of entry and forced deportation of 500 Taiwanese Falun Gong adherents from Hong Kong. The incident took place in the days leading up to protests scheduled on July 1, the ten-year anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty. Inside sources indicate that PRC Vice President Zeng Qinghong had ordered that Falun Gong practitioners be barred from entering Hong Kong and making their presence felt during the anniversary (news). While persecuted in mainland China, Falun Gong is practiced freely everywhere else, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.
President Chen told practitioners that he believed the world cannot have peace as long as the Chinese Communist Party remains in power, and expressed his admiration of, and support for the persistent efforts of Falun Gong practitioners to stop the persecution in China.
Petroleum Field Worker Tortured to Death within Two Days of Arrest
Falun Gong practitioner Sha Naiyu, in his forties, worked at the Jilin Petroleum Field before he was arrested on July 12, 2007 for distributing informational materials aimed at exposing the persecution of Falun Gong on his motorcycle. The next day, police took him to the Da'an City Police Department. Mr. Sha's family members went to visit him a day later, on July 14, but discovered he had already been tortured to death.
Below are phone numbers of individuals with positions of responsibility related to Mr. Sha's murder:
- Da'an City Communist Party Political-Legal Committee Secretary Liu Yuhua (male): 86-13843635008 (Cell), 86-436-5255378 (Home)
- Da'an City Police Department Deputy Director Chu Guojun (male): 86-13904365237 (Cell), 86-436-5053005 (Office), 86-436-5226110 (Home)
- Da'an City Liangjia Town Police Station: 86-436-5356433
- Da'an City Liangjia Town Police Station Director Wang Yufeng (male): 86-13384463888 (Cell)