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Systematic
Suppression of 100 Million People
It began in the
middle of the night, July 20, 1999. Across China under the veil of
dark, police and security dragged hundreds of ordinary people from
their beds. Many would be taken to holding centers and jails, others
beaten, and some, reportedly, would be executed.
What had they done?
Nothing more than to practice Falun Gong, a traditional form of Chinese
exercise and meditation that had grown immensely popular.
Police were acting on
orders from the top, from Communist Party head Jiang Zemin, who ordered
the group crushed. By most accounts, Jiang was resentful of the popular
group – numbering 100 million – and wished to make a show
of power. (page 6) |
From Ancient China to
Wall Street
How
Falun Gong Enriched My Workplace
After working on Wall
Street for several years, I joined a startup firm in 1997. Two years
later we completed development of a software system that raised the bar
in the enterprise project management arena. As we had hoped, the
industry leader sat up, took notice, and by the spring of 1999 set out
to acquire us.
One afternoon that
spring while I was preparing for one of several reviews by the
acquiring company, Kevin, a technical lead and longtime friend, placed
a book on my desk and said, “You should check this out.”
The book was Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Gong. (page 3) |
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Art Show Depicts
Horror, Hope
Artists Who Experienced Torture,
Abuse Take Up Brushes to Convey Falun Gong Persecution
For 63-year-old
artist Kunlun Zhang,
the New York showing of “Uncompromising Courage” has
special meaning.
Much of the anguish—as with the hope and valor—depicted in
the art
exhibit, it turns out, Zhang experienced first hand.
Zhang was for months
a prisoner of conscience in China, where he was
arrested and tortured for his practice of Falun Gong meditation. Zhang
was crippled for months from repeated beatings and electricshocks by
prison guards. (page 6) |
Defending New York
From China’s Worst
Local
Attorney Part of International Legal Effort
Books and notepads
overflow off the desk to the chairs and floor in her
small office in New York City – subtle deliberate organization
evident
among the mountains of files and notes.
She works in a small
team, usually without funding or staff.
Occasionally she wakes from a brief night’s sleep at her desk
only to
continue her labor anew. She is dedicated to a cause she knows to be
profoundly worthy. (page 10) |
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Cases of Murder
The directive to
“eradicate Falun Gong” is applied nationwide in China,
while information about torture victims and resultant deaths is treated
as a “state secret.” As of Dec. 10, 2004, 1,157 deaths of
Falun Gong practitioners from abuse or torture have been verified.
According to Chinese Government sources, the true death toll is well
over 5,000. (page 2)
Brainwashing &
Psychiatric Wards
Falun Gong
practitioners are forced to attend Brainwashing “classes”
where they are usually tortured to force them to renounce their
beliefs. Businesses and universities must send any employee or student
known to practice Falun Gong to brainwashing classes. Mentally healthy
practitioners are held and often tortured with nerve-damaging drugs in
at least 100 psychiatric hospitals throughout China. (page 4)
Torture & Sexual
Assault of Women
Women of Falun Gong
who have been released from detention centers or labor camps tell
wrenching tales of physical and sexual abuse in captivity. They have
been sodomized with brooms sticks or electric batons causing bleeding
from the vagina. They have been stabbed with sharp instruments and
beaten about the breasts and genitals. Many have been raped or gang
raped. (page 6)
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Torture Methods
Human rights workers
have documented over 100 torture methods used to force Falun Gong
practitioners into renouncing their beliefs. These methods include
shocking with high-voltage electric batons, burning with hot irons,
force-feeding feces, brutal beatings, sexual assault and rape. There
are over 38,000 documented cases of severe abuse or torture of Falun
Gong practitioners. (page 3)
Detention Centers
& Labor Camps
There are between
200,000 and 2 million Falun Gong practitioners held in detention
centers and labor “re-education” camps throughout China.
Under inhumane conditions, detainees are forced to do up to 18 hours of
labor a day. Those who don’t comply are typically beaten,
tortured, or starved. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, have died in the
camps. (page 5)
Children Orphaned
Many children in
China, perhaps ten thousand or more, have lost their parents, who have
either been killed or thrown into labor camps amidst the violent
suppression of Falun Gong. While some of these children find refuge
with grandparents or other relatives, many are left to fend for
themselves. In some cases, the children have also been detained with
their parents and abused.(page 7)
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Misled?
Are your Chinese coworkers
unwittingly spreading Beijing’s lies about Falun Gong?
Anne Yang, 25, sat
staring at the news displayed across her computer screen. Then,
quietly—lest her coworkers hear—she began to cry.
It was at that moment that she realized she could no longer deny what
many of her American friends had told her.
The Chinese government had been lying to her, and Yang now knew it.
Lying to her, that is, her entire life. But most alarming of all, Yang
recalls, was that she had unwittingly become part of the lie.
Despite a privileged, university-level education in China and much
exposure to the outside world, Yang was still misled by her government
as to basic realities of history and the world today. And, emboldened
by a sense of nationalism, she was led to promote her
government’s political propaganda abroad, in America.
What makes Yang’s story so important is that it could be the
story of many Chinese-Americans. And indeed, that story has played out
many times across New York City. (page 1)
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Today's CCP Exposed
Disguise and sanitize violence as
it may, it’s still the same old CCP
Blood sprayed
everywhere as the young man’s head fell to the ground and rolled.
The children’s chorus of song gave way to hysterical screams and
sobs, utter horror gripping each boy and girl. Their teacher, prepped
for the grisly scene, kept the beat and insisted the children’s
songs go on...Their screams, wails, and vomiting were met with scolding
by their teacher, who lined them up stoically and marched them back to
school. This, their fi rst lesson in state-sponsored killing, was
complete. (page 6)
A Chinese Renaissance
Through Falun Gong, people are
rediscovering their heritage, and finding joy in sharing it.
“The practice
is deeply rooted in the ancient Chinese world,” offers Erping
Zhang, a Mason Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of
Government. “The idea that a person can do
‘self-cultivation’ to physically and mentally remake
himself into someone more whole, healthy, or enlightened—that
idea is
very basic, very key, to Chinese culture.”
Many have made the same connection. Irwin Cotler, Canada’s
Minister of Justice and Attorney General, declared once that,
“Falun Gong represents the very best of Chinese culture and
values.”
But tragically, before Falun Gong came along, much of that traditional
culture was lost, Zhang explains. Beijing’s Communist rulers felt
threatened by it. “They wanted to do away with tradition and
Chinese heritage, because to them it undermined or competed with their
[European] Marxist ideology, which was not in any way Chinese.”
(page 1)
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