Nishika Patel | 01 Apr 2008
World Politics Review
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=1875
HONG KONG -- As Beijing cracks down on protestors in Tibet
in the run up to the Olympics, adherents of Falun Gong -- a banned
religious movement that draws from Buddhism and Taoism -- are also facing
the heavy hand of the Communist regime.
Falun Gong members claim
Chinese authorities are stepping up their crackdown on the group, branded
an "evil cult" by Beijing, by using Olympic security as an
"excuse."
In early March, the U.S.-based Falun Dafa Information
Center announced that 1,878 practitioners from 29 provinces had been
arrested since January 2008 and that cash rewards of up to $360 were being
offered by the government to identify members.
Followers believe
the recent arrests were triggered by a secret order issued by former
Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang to provincial security forces in
February this year. According to Amnesty International, the order was
couched as crucial to "successfully" holding the Olympic Games.
"We
must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic
separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and . . . the Falun
Gong," Zhou ordered, according to an Amnesty International translation of
the document.
"The Olympics seem to have given the Beijing regime a
new incentive, and excuse, to hasten its abuses of citizens' rights. The
arrests make a mockery of the regime's promise to improve its dismal
record on human rights," said Erping Zhang of the the Falun Dafa
Information Center, which collected the details of the
arrests.
Dozens of members have been rounded up from Beijing's
Chaoyang District, which will host the beach volleyball and tennis events,
and the city's Shunyi district, the site of the Olympic rowing and
kayaking venues. About 156 followers were seized in Beijing alone, the
center claims.
In some cities, announcements of cash rewards are
posted in neighborhood administration offices or Web sites run by the
security bureau.
The systematic nature of the arrests suggests
that the authorities are using a previously compiled list of local
followers, Falun Gong adherents say.
There is a widespread fear for
the lives and safety of the arrested members, who are thought to have been
sent to re-education labor camps until after the end of the Olympics. Some
were arrested in their workplaces or homes for holding Falun Gong
literature.
The arrest, disappearance and torture of Falun Gong
members has been widely reported by human rights groups. Seven years after
landmark protests in Tiananmen Square in 1999, a two-month investigation
by a former Canadian Secretary of State and a Canadian human rights lawyer
concluded that the organs of some arrested Falun Gong members had been
harvested.
Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa spokesman Kan
Hung-cheung told World Politics Review that the increased arrests of
practitioners is part of a drive to "stamp out'' the movement. Falun Gong
members say the government's effort to eradicate the movement began in
1999 under former president Jiang Zemin, who they say vowed to accomplish
that goal in three months.
"The Falun Gong will be in deep trouble
over the next few months," said political commentator James Sung Lap-kung
of Hong Kong City University. "Beijing considers the Falun Gong to be a
partner in the recent Tibet riots. As the Olympics draw closer, Beijing
will be trying to identify dangerous forces that are planning to
jeopardize the Games."
But Kan said the recent arrests will not
scare or deter practitioners from "telling the world the
truth."
"Falun Gong is the first target of Beijing because it is so
afraid that we will tell people the truth about the persecution, even
though we are peaceful," he said. "In the run up to the Olympics we won't
miss the chance to tell people about our suffering, including those from
other countries. But this doesn't mean we will disrupt any activities of
the Olympics.''
There are no firm plans for the group to protest in
Beijing during the Olympics. Instead they will work with their foreign
members to contact Western governments, parliament members and human
rights groups to pressure Beijing.
The Human Rights Torch Relay, a
global campaign to call attention to human rights abuses in China, has
already started its journey to 40 countries and 150 cities. And recent
events in Tibet are likely to make the government even more anxious of
critical voices.
"Tibet shows the violence exercised by the Chinese
Communist Party and that they will use bloodshed to stop the uprising of
the Tibetans," said Kan. "The CCP won't let go of their power,'' said
Kan.
The suppression of the Falun Gong began soon after the
movement first sprung to life in 1992. It soon became a thorn in the side
of the Communist regime, which saw the group's estimated 100 million
members worldwide as a threat to their socialist ideology and to the
Communist Party. According to party sources, the Chinese Communist Party
has about 70 million members, about the same number of members Falun Gong
claims in China.
Chinese state-run media has played a significant
role in the Chinese government's campaign to discredit the movement.
Chinese media reports made much of an incident in Tiananmen Square
in 2001, when some supposed Falun Gong members immolated themselves in
front of a CNN camera crew. Later investigations by Western media outlets
cast doubt on Chinese government claims that the suicide victims were
members of Falun Gong, raising suspicions in some circles that the event
had been staged as propaganda.
The Falun Gong has also been
ridiculed for belief in the supernatural and aliens, as well as claims by
its founder Li Hongzhi that he can perform miracle cures and levitate. Li
is now living in exile in New York.
But the group says their
beliefs are based on the principles of self-improvement, meditation and
good health.
Asked if Falun Gong members have grown angry by years
of persecution and the recent arrests, Kan said, "We do not have the
concept of angry. We practice on the principle of truthfulness, compassion
and forbearance -- even if they torture or beat us we will use every means
to arouse their consciousness to tell them not to persecute
us.
"The world does not know what has happened inside China," he
added. "Jiang Zemin claimed that he would destroy us within three months,
but now almost nine years have passed and we are still here."
Nishika Patel
is a Hong Kong-based
journalist.