Critical Questions on China for U.S. Presidential Candidates

22 Oct 2012

NEW YORK — Recent in-depth analysis of the current political turmoil in China demonstrates that the systematic persecution of Falun Gong has divided the Communist Party leadership at the highest levels, with far-reaching ramifications throughout China and beyond (analysis). At the same time, an explosive new video details how, for the past ten years, Chinese military hospitals have been operating a multi-million dollar human trafficking business that murders Chinese citizens to sell their organs –what renowned human rights lawyer David Matas dubbed “a new form of evil on this planet.” (video online)

Given the level of economic engagement between the U.S. and China, as well as Beijing’s ongoing attempts to exert influence internationally, there are several questions that should be at the forefront of any discussion about U.S. foreign policy, especially as it pertains to China.

Question #1: Today, hundreds of thousands of prisoners of conscience—most of them practitioners of Falun Gong—are detained arbitrarily in Chinese labor camps and prisons. Credible reports estimate that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed, many from torture, but most so that their organs could be extracted and used to fuel a booming organ transplantation business. With 100 million people across China practicing Falun Gong in 1999, this persecution campaign has had devastating effects throughout Chinese society, causing the rule of law, media freedoms, and citizens’ rights to revert backwards. If elected, what would your administration do to secure the release of innocent men and women whose lives are at risk on a daily basis?

Question #2: As noted in the annual report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China released earlier this month, Chinese citizens have become increasingly vocal and firm in asserting their basic freedoms, even at great risk to themselves. Yet, Communist Party leaders have ignored their calls for change. The United States relationship is not only with the Chinese government, but more importantly, with the Chinese people. How would you lend moral and practical support to Chinese people peacefully fighting for their rights and freedoms? Would you personally meet with Chinese activists, including former Falun Gong prisoners of conscience?

Question #3: The Communist Party has used various tactics in an attempt to extend its persecution of Falun Gong onto U.S. soil, including encouraging harassment of U.S. citizens who practice Falun Gong, engaging in cyber attacks and espionage, and in some instances, possibly hiring thugs to assault Americans who practice Falun Gong. A 2003 Congressional Resolutioncondemned such activities and those immediately responsible have been prosecuted, but to date, no Chinese diplomat has been formally censured for implicitly or explicitly supporting such suppression. What would you do as president to investigate such attacks and protect the rights of U.S. citizens and residents from intimidation and repression by a foreign authoritarian regime?

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Contacts: Gail Rachlin (+1 917-757-9780), Levi Browde (+1 845-418-4870), Erping Zhang (+1 646-533-6147), or Joel Chipkar (+1 416-731-6000)

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CATEGORY: Opinion & Perspectives

http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/10/23/136007.html

Shandong Province Police General Hospital Persecutes Falun Gong Practitioners to the Brink of Death

November 02, 2012 | By a Minghui correspondent from Shandong

(Minghui.org) Shandong Province Police General Hospital for police officers is responsible for treating policemen who work in the Shandong Province prison system. In fact, it is part of Xinkang Prison. Falun Gong practitioners who are tortured in prisons in Shandong Province until they are on the brink of death are often sent to the hospital for so called medical treatment when prison guards become fearful of being held responsible for their deaths. In reality, the “treatment” is an extension of the persecution. Many practitioners who were tortured to death died in the hospital. Very few convicts are sent to this special prison, thus what happens inside is seldom exposed.

Shandong Province Police General Hospital

Dire Living and Medical Conditions

Practitioners sent to Xinkang Prison for medical treatment are accompanied by criminal convicts. Most of the time, the accompanying convicts are rude, impatient, and irresponsible towards the sick person, and often abuse and berate the patient. Prison doctors don’t regard the ill practitioner or convict as normal patients. In addition, medical and living conditions are exceptionally bad. Some patients’ conditions have deteriorated instead of improving after being sent there for treatment.

There is no price shown on items for sale and expenditure accounts are not public, consequently the prisoners treated there have no idea where their money has gone. The quality of food is extremely bad and causes those who eat it to contract diarrhea. Most of the ill convicts are not given enough food. The attendants are very lazy and no one cleans the toilets or other areas of the hospital, thus even the corridors stink. One ward has no window screens and many mosquitoes were seen in it. The screens in another ward have not been cleaned or changed for five or six years, so the mesh holes are filled with dust and there is no air circulation at all. In summer, severely ill patients lie on smelly beds all day and even the attendants refuse to enter the room.

Worse still, patients with contagious diseases are not separated from other patients. Thus in the same ward there are cancer patients, tuberculosis patients, and hepatitis patients all sharing water and other necessities. Patients are fearful of catching other illnesses even before they have recovered from their original sicknesses. Such disregard for the most basic patient care is a violation of medical ethics.

Hospital Participates in Persecuting Falun Gong Practitioners

According to convicts who were previously treated at Xinkang Prison, on June 20 2009, the No. 11 Division of Shandong Province Prison sent the body of practitioner Lu Zhen, who had already been beaten to death, to the hospital in a car. To fabricate false evidence, they put his body on an intravenous drip then did an ECG and took photos of his body. This took nearly two hours. They finally declared that he’d had a relapse of a heart attack and died after efforts to save him failed. Over 50 convicts were present and saw wounds as well as bruises all over Lu Zhen’s body.

The hospital also has undeniable responsibility for Li Xiuzhen’s death. According to convicts present, Li Xiuzhen was sent to the hospital because she went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Her monitor treated Li Xiuzhen badly despite her extremely weak condition, beating and scolding her. The doctors and police officers present did not stop the mistreatment. Several days before her death, a monitor lifted Li Xiuzhen, who had been reduced to skin and bones, and forced her to walk with great difficulty to the toilet to empty the spittle bucket. She lifted Ms. Li by her collar, as though she were a dog, and half dragged and pushed her, making her empty the bucket.

Practitioner Bi Jianhong who was on the brink of death was locked up by attendants in a tiny black room and beaten.

Chinese version available

CATEGORY: Accounts of Persecution

Ms. Yang Hong Disabled in Liaoning Province Women’s Prison

November 02, 2012 | By a Minghui correspondent in Liaoning Province, China

Name: Yang Hong (杨虹)
Gender: Female
Age: 57 (Born in 1956)
Address: Dongmen District, Huludao City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Former employee at Huludao Petrochemical Plant
Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 25, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Liaoning Province Women’s Prison (辽宁省女子监狱)
City: Shenyang
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, illegal sentencing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, torture, force-feedings, fired from job

(Minghui.org) Ms. Yang Hong, a Falun Gong practitioner in Huludao, Liaoning Province, was abducted on Feb. 25, 2008, and was sentenced to nine years in prison. Ms. Yang was forced to do slave labor in Liaoning Province Women’s Prison and broke her right leg. The prison refused to release her for medical treatment even though she is now disabled.

Ms. Yang had been very weak from tortures, but she was still forced to intensive labor for extended periods of time. On Oct. 8, 2012 she tripped over a wooden board in the workshop and broke her right leg. When her family visited her, she was in a wheelchair. Her family requested her release for medical treatment. However, the prison used all kinds of excuses to refuse the request.

Ms. Yang Hong started practicing Falun Dafa in 1995. She served as a volunteer assistant at a group exercise site in Huludao. Since the persecution of Falun Gong was launched thirteen years ago, she has been subjected to brutal persecution, including being fired from her job, arrested, thrown into forced labor camps twice and thrown into prison. Her daughter was expelled from school. Due to the enormous pressure from the Chinese Communist Party her husband and father became ill, and both of them passed away. Ms. Yang’s health has been devastated during her term in Masanjia Labor Camp.

Full story: “Eight Years of Persecution for Falun Gong Practitioner Yang Hong and her Family (from Huludao City, Liaoning Province)”http://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2007/10/20/90659.html

Ms. Yang was severely tortured by jailers and inmates in Liaoning Province Women’s Prison. She was locked up in a small room. Her mouth was taped shut and she was beaten until her entire body was covered in injuries and became scarred. Her face and neck were scratched. Bruises covered her hands and feet because the persecutors stomped heavily on her feet. Her thighs and legs were injured. She felt very dizzy and weak. She lost a lot of hair and she could hardly sleep. Her feet became so swollen that no socks would fit. The bottoms of her feet festered.

Despite Ms. Yang’s fragile physical condition, the prison forced her to do slave labor from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and sometimes until 10 p.m. Weak and injured, she tripped while working and broke her leg.

Ms. Yang is still suffering in Liaoning Province Women’s Prison. We are calling on all people of justice to help rescue Ms. Yang.

Chinese version available

CATEGORY: Imprisonment & Forced Labor

Japan: Falun Gong Practitioners in Nagoya Raise Awareness about Persecution

October 28, 2012 | By a practitioner in Japan

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners in central Japan held an activity on October 20-21, 2012 in Sakae, the most bustling area in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. They wanted to raise awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China. An 80-year-old man encouraged the practitioners, “You’ve worked hard, please keep it up! Good luck!”

Banners and display boards hung in Sakae, the most bustling area in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, to spread Falun Dafa and expose the CCP’s atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners

People view the displays to learn the facts

People learn about Falun Dafa

The annual Nagoya Festival parade was held on the weekend. The parade procession would pass Sakae, so the number of people on the street was greater than usual.

Practitioners unfolded banners in Japanese: “Falun Dafa Is Good,” “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” and “Disintegrate the CCP, Stop the Persecution.” They also hung display boards depicting the spread of Falun Dafa around the world and the CCP’s horrific acts of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in China. Many passersby were drawn to the display.

As soon as practitioners unfolded banners on the morning of October 20, a gentleman came over and said that he knew Falun Gong, and he used to work in Shanghai, China. He showed great sympathy for Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China. Before leaving, he insisted on giving the practitioners 1,000 Japanese Yen to make more informational materials for people to learn about Falun Gong.

A young man in his 20s viewed the display that afternoon, and wanted to learn to practice Falun Gong. He learned the five sets of exercises and didn’t want to leave.

An 80-year-old man came over on the second afternoon. He accepted informational material from a practitioner, and said, “I know Falun Gong, you’ve worked hard, please keep it up! Good luck!”

During the two-day event, practitioners also encountered many Chinese people and overseas Chinese students. Some of them took photos of the banners and display as soon as they saw them. Practitioners told them about the grand tide of quitting the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Some Chinese people declared their resignation from the CCP organizations on the spot.

Chinese version available

Japan, Nagoya: Praktizierende informieren über die Verfolgung (Fotos)

CATEGORY: Community Events