Talk:Persecution of Falun Gong/Resources

'''Subversion Trials Due for Leaders of Sect in China Seth Faison. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Aug 25, 1999. pg. A.1'''

"A Hong Kong-based human rights monitor said lawyers in Beijing had been told to get official permission before taking on cases involving Falun Gong members, and to report any instances of Falun Gong members approaching them for advice."

"Tens of thousands of Falun Gong followers were detained as the Government ordered a huge campaign that reached down to every state-run workplace in the nation and has dominated the nation's media for weeks."

"China issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Li last month and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. Interpol rejected a request from Beijing for help in apprehending Mr. Li, saying the request was politically motivated."

"Alarmed to discover that several senior military officers were also Falun Gong followers, Chinese leaders have conducted a crackdown in the army to root out any Falun Gong members."

"Today's order advised work teams to treat most Falun Gong followers as victims who were unaware of the political goals and motives of the movement's leaders. The same attitude will probably extend to more than 1,000 Government officials who were identified during the first week of the crackdown as Falun Gong followers and were detained in Communist Party schools and forced to renounce any belief in the movement."

"First the authorities outlawed the movement and accused it of threatening social stability, illustrating their assertions with testimony of former adherents who described how harmful it was, causing some members to die from refusing medical treatment and others to commit suicide in fits of delusion.

Next, the authorities expanded their campaign with accounts that purported to show how Falun Gong was organized for political purposes, with the ultimate aim of overthrowing the Government.

The final stage of the campaign is now expected to publicize the punishment of the movement's leaders as an example to anyone considering ways to challenge the authority of the Communist Party. It is likely to be wrapped up in the coming weeks, before Oct. 1, when the party is planning a huge celebration of its 50 years in power."

'''If It's a Comic Book, Why Is Nobody Laughing? Seth Faison. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Aug 17, 1999. pg. A.4'''

"For the ordinary Chinese citizen who may be tiring of the Government's relentless crusade denouncing Falun Gong, the spiritual movement that was outlawed last month, there is now an easy-to-read version: the comic book.

Full of cartoons that try to ridicule Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong's founder, the new comic books drip with so much political venom that they capture the labored nature of the campaign in a way that verges on parody. The comic books recently went on sale here for 75 cents each.

The anti-Falun Gong campaign, the largest and broadest political campaign in a decade, is both as thorough and as stilted as Government-orchestrated movements from decades past, when access to information was limited and ordinary people swallowed what they were told more easily."

"A central feature is a demonization of Mr. Li, who now lives in New York. A deafening barrage of broadcasts and articles in the state media each day portray Mr. Li as a charlatan and an evil genius, though not a very smart one."

"The comic books distill the Government's claims against Mr. Li into their simplest form. Even the title of the first such book, Li Hongzhi: The Man and His Evil Deeds, carries the kind of political defamation that the Communist Party mastered in previous campaigns."

"The look of these comic books is distinctly reminiscent of the cartoons that were drawn about the Gang of Four, the leftist radicals who were arrested after the death of Mao in 1976 and blamed for pushing China into chaos in the 1960's and 70's. Oddly, the characters in the new cartoons wear clothing styles that were popular 20 and 30 years ago."

"They look so strange, said a Chinese businessman who expressed amazement at the old-fashioned nature of the anti-Falun Gong campaign. It's as though we are reliving a bad dream."

"Recent reports have ridiculed Mr. Li for stressing the merits of frugality and simple living to his followers while he bought a fancy house in Changchun, his hometown in northeastern China, though when shown on television it did not look more luxurious than an ordinarily comfortable two-bedroom apartment."

"Yet some attacks have been so vicious and loaded with extreme political comparisons that they seem to veer close to farce. A recent issue of Southern Weekend, a Guangzhou-based newspaper, likened Mr. Li to a despotic tyrant like Hitler, and then indulged in parallels to favorite Communist Party villains of the 1960's."

"To many Falun Gong followers, the official attempts to defame Mr. Li are so patently slanted as to be absurd." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Asdfg12345 (talk • contribs) 03:28, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

'''China and the Sect: More Talk Than Action Seth Faison. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Aug 6, 1999. pg. A.8'''

"Rather than retreating in fear, as the targets of previous political campaigns did, many Falun Gong practitioners are continuing to speak out against the crackdown as a misguided effort that will never shake their beliefs."

"Ordinary Falun Gong followers say they reject official media reports demonizing Mr. Li, who founded the movement in 1992, and intend to continue to follow his teachings.

It has taught me to be a better person, said a coal company executive named Han, who said he was a Communist Party member. ''They say we are a political organization, but I just bought the book and read it myself. Where is the organization there?''

Mr. Han, like several other followers, said he did not mind losing his job if need be in order to continue practicing Falun Gong. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Asdfg12345 (talk • contribs) 04:27, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

'''Followers of Chinese Sect Defend Its Spiritual Goals Seth Faison. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Jul 30, 1999. pg. A.4'''

The crackdown on Falun Gong appears to be a classic clash of ancient Chinese culture with the grim modern reality of Communist Party politics.

On one side is an army of ordinary people -- many of them retired women and laid-off workers -- yearning for spiritual fulfillment. On the other is an increasingly paranoid crew of Communist Party leaders who feel threatened to their core by a movement aimed at countering the soulessness that has infected a country whose official ideology has grown stale and pointless.

...

His friend Mr. Liang is a Communist Party member, but said he saw no conflict between practicing Falun Gong and believing in the party.

They are both about serving the people, Mr. Liang said. ''If I have to choose, I will remain a member of Falun Gong.

Leaders should like people like me, he continued. ''In any environment, I am going to act well, because my behavior comes from the heart. I am not just following what someone told me to do.''

...

How can we be an organization if we don't even have a headquarters ? asked a fourth member, an astrophysics professor at a university in Beijing. ''We have no income, no legal status. We don't want any; we don't need it. All we want is to be able to practice Falun Gong in peace.'' —Preceding unsigned comment added by Asdfg12345 (talk • contribs) 09:49, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

'''Chinese Officials Held in Campaign against Vast Sect Seth Faison. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Jul 27, 1999. pg. A.1'''

As part of an expanding political campaign that could affect China's economic reforms, Chinese authorities have detained about 1,200 government officials who are members of Falun Gong, the spiritual movement that was officially outlawed last week, a human rights group reported today.

The cadres were taken over the weekend to schools in a city in northern China, where they are being required to study Communist Party documents and to renounce any allegiance to the movement, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.

...

If the crackdown appears to be heavy handed, carried out on a spiritual movement with no discernable political goals, it is gradually taking on the recognizable characteristics of a broad Communist Party-style political campaign.

Government organizations and quasi-governmental groups have been instructed to come forward to denounce Falun Gong, and to hold political study sessions to recite Marxist theory that few officials, and fewer ordinary people, believe in any more. In a front-page commentary today, the Communist Party newspaper, The People's Daily, urged all officials who have practiced Falun Gong to quit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Asdfg12345 (talk • contribs) 12:18, 24 February 2008 (UTC)