Divine Performing Arts European Tour Opens in Frankfurt Germany

By Maria Zheng, Epoch Times Staff, Feb 21, 2009 -

FRANKFURT, Germany— The large auditorium of Frankfurt’s Jahrhunderthalle (Century Hall) gives the feeling of stepping out-of-doors. The Jahrhunderthalle, with its distinct white dome, was the venue for the opening show by the New York-based Divine Performance Arts (DPA) 2009 World Tour, playing in Frankfurt Feb. 21 to 22.

Before the curtain opened, a long line of people waited to get tickets. More than 80 percent of the seats had already been sold, beginning months before opening night, and Sunday’s show is almost sold out. One could feel the excitement as theatergoers waited to buy last-minute tickets or to enter the hall.

Two members of the audience had won their tickets through a raffle by the Rheinischen Zeitung (the Rhenish Newspaper). They had also read in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Frankfurt General Newspaper, also known as F.A.Z.) about interference by the Chinese Consulate, which had tried to block DPA from performing in Frankfurt. For information about the interference see Theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/12369/

Undeterred by the Chinese Consulate’s attempted interference, the two looked forward to the show with high anticipation: “We searched the Internet about the performance and were delighted about what we read. The descriptions are so great and the costumes so dazzling that nothing could stop us from seeing that show,” one of them said.

Another theatergoer, standing in the long line at the box office and holding a flyer about the DPA show, said, “I want to see the actual performance on stage because of the description [in the flyer]. I want to personally experience what I have read. And I’m so glad that there are so many people in the audience despite the depression.”

- The Epochtimes

Divine Performing Arts Greeted By Hundreds of Fans in Taiwan

By Daina Lih & Censih Wu, Epoch Times Staff, Feb 20, 2009 -

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Divine Performing Arts (DPA) International Company arrived in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Feb. 19 to present DPA 2009 World Tour to audiences in Taiwan for the next month.

Upon the performers’ arrival, more than a hundred fans greeted them at the airport.

“Taiwan gives me a familiar feeling. The audiences are very enthusiastic. I know there are many Taiwanese studying Chinese classical dance. So I truly hope to bring the most beautiful, most authentic Chinese classical dance to them,” said Jennifer Su, principal dancer of DPA International Company.

Although hit by the global financial crisis, throughout Taiwan DPA tickets were sold out—more than 90,000 tickets were sold, double the number of last year.

“What we’ve done is unprecedented. DPA’s influence around the world is accelerating at a wonderful rate. Especially during such an economic time, people need to learn the truth,” said Guimin Guan, tenor and vice company director of DPA International Company.

Some people in Hong Kong and the mainland have bought tickets to the show in Taiwan. They are ready to fly to Taiwan to see DPA performances despite the fact that the Chinese communist regime has tried to stop people from going.

“Traditionally Chinese people believe in the existence of divine beings, which contrasts with the Chinese Communist Party’s atheism. Our mission is to revive traditions, China’s authentic culture. We want the entire world to know what’s genuine Chinese culture. I hope all those who watch the show can learn the truth,” said Mr. Guan.

DPA International Company will stay in Taiwan for the next month, showing in six cities, including Tainan, Taipei, Chia-Yi, Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, and Taichung.

- The Epochtimes

Clinton Remarks Undermine Rights Reform in China

Human Rights Watch-

(New York, February 20, 2009) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comments en route to China that contentious issues such as human rights “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises,” send the wrong message to the Chinese government, Human Rights Watch said today. Secretary Clinton also suggested that on human rights issues it “might be better [for the US and China] to agree to disagree.”

Human Rights Watch stressed, as it did in a letter to the secretary last week, that progress in each of these key areas is inseparable from securing progress in human rights. Freedom for the press, whistleblowers, and critics is essential to preventing environmental damage and defective products that threaten China and the world; labor rights abuses and the lack of rule of law destabilize China’s economy which is part of a global economy; and unconditional aid to highly abusive governments destabilizes international peace and security.

“Secretary Clinton’s remarks point to a diplomatic strategy that has worked well for the Chinese government – segregating human rights issues into a dead-end ‘dialogue of the deaf,’” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “A new approach is needed, one in which the US engages China on the critical importance of human rights to a wide range of mutual security interests.”

In recent years, the Chinese government has made some progress on human rights issues, including enshrining in the Constitution the state’s responsibility to protect and promote human rights, the adoption of new labor protections, and the relaxing of restrictions on foreign journalists inside China. These and other gains were made partly as a result of sustained international pressure; conversely, some of the issues on which the Chinese government has refused to improve are ones rarely raised publicly by other governments, such as human rights abuses committed by the Chinese government in the name of suppressing terrorism.

“A successful strategy for the US doesn’t entail ‘agreeing to disagree,’ but rather convincing China it is in its own interest to protect dissent, peaceful protests, and the creation of a truly independent legal system,” said Richardson. “Most importantly, ordinary people, workers, intellectuals, and even government and party representatives in China will also appreciate hearing the United States raise human rights issues in ways that echo their own day-to-day concerns about rule of law and government accountability.”

- Human Rights Watch

Activists ‘shocked’ at Clinton stance on China rights

AFP, Feb. 20, 2009-

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.

Paying her first visit to Asia as the top US diplomat, Clinton said the United States would continue to press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet.

“But our pressing on those issues can’t interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis,” Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing.

T. Kumar of Amnesty International USA said the global rights lobby was “shocked and extremely disappointed” by Clinton’s remarks.

“The United States is one of the only countries that can meaningfully stand up to China on human rights issues,” he said.

“But by commenting that human rights will not interfere with other priorities, Secretary Clinton damages future US initiatives to protect those rights in China,” he said.

Students for a Free Tibet said Clinton’s remarks sent the wrong signal to China at a sensitive time.

“The US government cannot afford to let Beijing set the agenda,” said Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of the New York-based advocacy group.

China has been pouring troops into the Himalayan territory ahead of next month’s 50th anniversary of the uprising that sent Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama into exile in India.

“Leaders really need to step up and pressure China. It’s often easy to wonder whether pressure makes a difference. It may not make a difference in one day or one month, but it would be visible after some years,” Dorjee said.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had sent a letter to Clinton before her maiden Asia visit urging her to raise human rights concerns with Chinese leaders.

Before she left, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said human rights would be “an important issue” for Clinton and that she would “raise the issue when appropriate.”

China has greeted President Barack Obama’s administration nervously, believing he would press Beijing harder on human rights and trade issues than former president George W. Bush.

- AFP

China issues call to crush Tibetan ‘separatists’

AFP, Feb 19, 2009-

BEIJING (AFP) — China has ordered government and security forces in Tibet to crush any signs of support for the Dalai Lama, state media said Thursday, as the tense 50th anniversary of an anti-Chinese uprising nears.

A conference of Tibetan leaders ordered authorities to “mobilise and fully deploy” to maintain stability, the Tibet Daily said, in a possible indication China fears unrest ahead of the March 10 anniversary.

“The meeting called on the party, government, military, police and public in all areas… to firmly crush the savage aggression of the Dalai clique, defeat separatism, and wage people’s war to maintain stability,” the paper said of the meeting in Lhasa.

The report gave no details on any security measures.

It said the order was aimed at ensuring stability for the 50th anniversary of social reforms introduced to supplant the Dalai Lama-led Buddhist system.

However, those reforms followed the failed uprising that began on March 10, 1959, and forced the Dalai Lama to flee into exile.

China is maintaining ultra-tight security on the Himalayan region ahead of the anniversary of the uprising, which was crushed by Chinese forces. The Tibetan government-in-exile says the Chinese army killed 87,000 people in the crackdown.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending troops in to “liberate” the region from serfdom.

The Tibetan security meeting said the overarching task for Tibetan authorities this year was to “resolutely go toe-to-toe in a battle against all destructive separatist activities to maintain stability.”

A separate editorial by the Tibet Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s main mouthpiece in Tibet, also called for a toughened stance.

“We must maintain heavy pressure on criminal violators from start to finish,” said the editorial, which focused on the “separatist” threat.

China maintains that the Dalai Lama, who remains revered by Tibetans, is a dangerous separatist bent on independence for Tibet, a charge he denies.

But the Tibetan spiritual leader this month warned of a possible uprising in his homeland amid anger over a Chinese crackdown put in place after violent anti-Chinese riots erupted across Tibet on last year’s anniversary.

“It is so tense that the Chinese military have their hands on the trigger when they carry weapons… So long as there is a Chinese military presence, there will be tension,” he said in Germany.

In a sign of the tension, police clashed with Tibetans in neighbouring Sichuan province this week after protests in support of the Dalai Lama, according to witnesses and activist groups.

The unrest in Litang county was the first reported major outbreak of violence ahead of the anniversary and led to up to two dozen arrests, the activist groups said.

Chinese authorities regularly accuse the Dalai Lama of inciting separatist unrest in Tibet, but he says discontent stems from what he calls Beijing’s campaign to extinguish traditional Tibetan culture.

Another Tibet Daily report said the Tibet branch of the state Buddhist Association of China on Wednesday revised its charter to require all nuns and lamas to reject the Dalai Lama.

The revision calls on monks to “see clearly that the 14th Dalai Lama is the ringleader” of Tibetan separatists and “a loyal tool of anti-China Western forces, the root cause of social unrest in Tibet, and the biggest obstacle to building up Tibetan Buddhism.”

- AFP

RSF calls for thorough investigation into stabbing of well-known China blogger

Reporters Without Borders, Feb. 18, 2009-

Reporters Without Borders condemns an assault on popular blogger Xu Lai (http://blog.ifeng.com/1738385.html) on 14 February and urges the authorities to quickly identify his two assailants. He is being treated for two stab wounds to the stomach in Beijing’s Chaoyang Hospital, where doctors say his life is not in danger.

Also known by the blogging name of “Qian Liexan,” Xu was attacked in one of the bathrooms of a Beijing bookshop where he had just given a reading. His assailants reportedly told him they had come to “take revenge.”

“We call for a thorough investigation that establishes the motive for this stabbing,” Reporters Without Borders said. “If it turns out that Xu was attacked because of what he has posted online, this act of violence would be a particularly serious and disturbing for all Chinese bloggers and would need to be punished accordingly.”

Immediately after giving a reading with the theme of “Xu Lai’s Tastes” in Beijing’s Dan Xiang Jie bookshop, Xu was accosted by two men in the bookshop’s bathroom. One stabbed him twice in the stomach. The other tried to cut off one of his hands with a cleaver.

Reporters Without Borders added: “Certain critical observers are reaching a large audience through the Internet. Chinese bloggers are becoming commentators on daily life and this irritates some of their compatriots. Xu’s blog is widely read in China and his celebrity status may have prompted this criminal attack.”

One of Xu’s friends, fellow blogger He Caitou, described Xu’s comments as “nuanced.” Others acknowledged that his blog entries were sometimes “annoying” for the authorities. Some said the motive for the attack may also have been jealousy, as Xu has gradually become very well known.

China has 298 million Internet users – more than any other country in the world. It is also the world’s biggest prison for cyber-dissidents. A total of 49 people are currently detained for expressing their opposition to the ruling Communist Party in one form or another online. The Internet is closely monitored by the government, which launched a major filtering offensive on 5 January with the declared aim of combating pornography.

According to a Reporters Without Borders tally, more than 2,500 news and information websites were blocked last year because of their political content. Article 35 of the Chinese constitution nonetheless guarantees the right to free expression.

- Reporters Without Borders: Call for thorough investigation into stabbing of well-known blogger

US – China tensions rise amid financial chaos: experts

AFP, Feb. 18, 2009-

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Tensions between the United States and China are set to increase during current financial turmoil but any trade war can adversely impact the two key drivers of global growth and the rest of the world, experts warn.

Trade frictions will erupt as the United States enters deeper into recession and China’s economic growth shortfall worsens, the experts said.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has already accused China of manipulating its currency to gain trade advantage while “Buy America” provisions have slipped into Washington’s nearly 800-billion-dollar economic stimulus package.

The currency charge was met with a strong response in Beijing while the Buy America move drew Chinese allegations of trade protectionism.

“As the US unemployment rate now mounts in an ever-deepening recession, the politics of trade frictions may well gather greater support,” Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said at a Washington forum Tuesday on China and the current global economic downturn.

“If these two nations end up at odds with one another, they will both suffer — with dire consequences for the rest of a crisis-torn global economy,” he said. “The stakes are enormous. There is no margin for error.”

More than 40 pieces of anti-China trade legislation were introduced in the US Congress in recent years amid a ballooning trade deficit with China but none of the bills have been adopted.

“That may change,” Roach warned as both countries grapple with the worst crisis in decades.

Tensions between the two economies “are likely to intensify at this time of worldwide economic distress,” predicted Eswar Prasad, a former head of the China division in the International Monetary Fund……. (AFP)

Report: Prison-like High-Tech Sweatshop in China Producing for HP, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and IBM

NEW YORK, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – Today, Charles Kernaghan and the National Labor Committee (NLC) are releasing a 60-page report, High Tech Misery in China, documenting the grueling hours, low wages and draconian disciplinary measures at the Meitai factory in southern China. The 2,000 mostly-young women workers produce keyboards and other equipment for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and IBM. Along with worker interviews, photographs of primitive factory and dorm conditions and extensive internal company documents were smuggled out of the factory.

Full report: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=613

• Workers sit on hard wooden stools as 500 computer keyboards an hour move down the assembly line, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with just two days off a month. The workers have 1.1 seconds to snap on each key, an operation repeated 3,250 times an hour, 35,750 a day, 250,250 a week and over one million times a month. The pace is relentless.
• Workers are paid 1/50th of a cent for each operation they complete.
• Workers cannot talk, listen to music or even lift their heads to look around. They must “periodically trim their nails,” or be fined.
• Workers needing to use the bathroom must learn to hold it until there is a break. Security guards spy on the workers, who are prohibited from putting their hands in their pockets and are searched when they leave the factory.
• All overtime is mandatory and workers are at the factory up to 87 hours a week, while earning a take-home wage of just 41 cents an hour. Workers are being cheated of up to 19 percent of the wages due them.
• Ten to twelve workers share each overcrowded dorm room, sleeping on metal bunk beds and draping old sheets over their cubicles for privacy. Workers bathe using small plastic buckets and must walk down several flights of stairs to fetch hot water.
• Workers are locked in the factory compound four days a week and prohibited from even taking a walk.
• For breakfast the workers receive a thin rice gruel. On Fridays they receive a small chicken leg and foot to symbolize “their improving life.”
• Workers are instructed to “love the company like your home”…”continuously striving for perfection” …and to spy on and “actively monitor each other.”
• China provides large subsidies to its exporters. In 2008, the U.S. trade deficit with China in advanced technology products is expected to reach $74 billion. There are 1.4 million electronic assembly jobs left in the U.S. — paying $12.72 to $14.41 an hour — which may be lost due to China’s low wages and repression of worker rights.

Young women cue up in the factory cafeteria

One Metai worker summed up the general feeling in the factory: “I feel like I am serving a prison sentence…The factory is forever pressing down on our heads and will not tolerate even the tiniest mistake. When working, we work continuously. When we eat, we have to eat with lightning speed… The security guards are like policemen watching over prisoners. We’re really livestock and shouldn’t be called workers.”

Charles Kernaghan, director of the NLC commented, “God help us if the labor-management relations being developed in China become the new low standard for the rest of the world. The $200 personal computer and $22.99 keyboard may seem like a great bargain. But they come at a terrible cost. The low wages and lack of worker rights protections in China are leading the race to the bottom in the global sweatshop economy, where there are no winners.”

Website: http://www.nlcnet.org/
Website: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=613/

Intel to close China Shanghai plant amid global crisis: statement

SHANGHAI (AFP) — The world’s largest chip maker Intel Corp said Thursday it would shut down an assembly and test factory in Shanghai and move it to a city in China’s far west due to the global economic crisis.

The move will affect about 2,000 employees, who will be offered jobs in the western city of Chengdu or other Chinese locations where Intel operates, the US-based company said in a statement.

The consolidation, which will take place over the next 12 months, came “as a result of current economic conditions”, the statement said.

“The economic downturn has had an enormous impact on the semiconductor sector, forcing companies to take measures to cut costs,” said Liu Liang, an analyst with Industrial Securities, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.

“Moving operations from Shanghai, a high-cost city, to a cheaper place like Sichuan might be an effective way to cope with the financial crisis,” he said.

Intel plans to keep a research and development centre in Shanghai, which will also remain the China headquarters for the company.

It said it was still going ahead with the construction of a plant in the northeast Chinese city of Dalian. The cost of this plant was previously given as 2.5 billion dollars.

Intel last month announced plans to close facilities in Malaysia, the Philippines and the United States. Those moves were expected to affect between 5,000 and 6,000 employees worldwide, the company said.

- AFP, Feb. 5, 2009

World Leaders Must Call for Release of Gao Zhisheng, End to Falun Gong Persecution in China: Rights group

Faluninfo.net, 12 Feb 2009 -

NEW YORK – Chinese security forces’ severe torture and disappearance of leading human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Gao Zhisheng highlights the life-threatening danger facing Falun Gong adherents and those who come to their defense in China and must prompt a strong international response, the Falun Dafa Information Center said Thursday.

“Gao Zhisheng has repeatedly risked his life to stand up against injustice. He has been abducted and tortured largely for defending Falun Gong adherents publicly, exposing the atrocities they have suffered and calling upon the regime’s leadership to end its campaign against this large group of ordinary Chinese seeking to practice their faith in peace,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesman Erping Zhang.

“His horrific treatment for doing so should be a wake-up call to the international community of the Chinese regime’s disregard for human rights and the rule of law. Gao’s case shows clearly that absent international pressure with teeth, China’s leaders cannot be depended upon to uphold the basic dignity and rights of their own people.”

Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese rights lawyer featured on the front page of the New York Times in 2005 and listed among the top three candidates for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, relayed the brutal torture he suffered in police custody in 2007 in a statement released on his behalf on Monday and published by the China Aid Association and Human Rights in China. (statement)

Several days before the letter was made public, on Feb. 4, Gao was again abducted by Chinese authorities. His current whereabouts remain unknown and he is at severe risk of torture.

Torture Account

In the statement released Monday, Gao describes the treatment at the hands of Chinese security agents after he was abducted on September 21, 2007 for writing a letter to the U.S. Congress detailing abuses surrounding preparation for the Olympic games.

Gao describes in great detail being stripped naked, thrown to a concrete floor where several officials beat him and shocked him with electric batons all over his body, including on his genitals and in his mouth. On other occasions, Gao was pinned down while torturers pierced his genitals with sharp objects. During the abuse, his torturers repeatedly linked his treatment to that of Falun Gong, whose persecution he is known for publicly condemning:

“The 12 courses [of torture techniques] we’re going to give to you were practiced on the Falun Gong,” Gao recounts one torturer named Wang saying. “We can torture you to death without your body being found.”

The torture lasted for 50 days. Gao says he was threatened that if he were to reveal the torture he had suffered, he would be abducted again and tortured in front of his wife and small children.

Gao was eventually moved to a regular prison cell where several officials suggested that he write articles attacking Falun Gong and praising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that he could “charge whatever you want,” implying the government would pay him large sums of money to do so. Gao refused.

International Appeal

Gao’s letter closes with a few thoughts directed at foreign governments and his fellow citizens: “Finally, I want to say a few words which won’t be liked by some folks. I want to remind those so-called global ‘good friends’, ‘good partners’ called by the CCP that the increasing degree of brutality and coldness against the Chinese people by the CCP is the direct result of appeasement by both you and us (our own Chinese people).”

China watchers frequently point to economic and political relationships with the Chinese regime and suggest that taking a strong stance on cases such as Gao’s or Falun Gong may damage the advancement of interests in other areas such as the economy, energy and the war on terror.

Zhang, however, says such views are shortsighted. “Free countries have never really benefited from appeasing nations ruled by tyranny,” says Zhang. “In the end, it always comes back to haunt us, and often in the worst of ways. The best partner for the international community would be a China in which decent, courageous individuals like Gao Zhisheng are honored, not tortured.”

“The decision to detain and torture such a high-profile figure could only originate near the top on the Chinese regime’s hierarchy. The Chinese leadership clearly evaluated the pluses and minuses of doing this to Gao and determined they could take these actions with relative impunity. It is time for the international community to tilt the balance of that cost-benefit analysis with a strong response.”

The Falun Dafa Information Center calls for:

• The Chinese regime to immediately and unconditionally release Gao Zhisheng.
• President Barack Obama and other world leaders to make a personal, public appeal to the Chinese authorities to release Gao.
• The United States and other nations to take an unequivocal and public stance against the persecution of Falun Gong in China, which has further escalated recently. (news)

Additional background on Gao Zhisheng:

Beginning in 2004, Gao, a devout Christian, was the first of China’s high-profile human rights attorneys to speak publicly against the persecution of Falun Gong. Gao also authored several open letters to Chinese leaders (letter 1 / letter 2 / letter 3) as well as the U.S. Congress (letter) detailing his own investigation into atrocities against Falun Gong. In 2007, Gao published a book, A China More Just, detailing his life and work defending a gamut of China’s vulnerable groups.

- THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER

Canada Holds China to Task for Abuses

By Matthew Little, Epoch Times Staff Feb 11, 2009 -

Human rights groups charge the ruling communist regime in China white-washed its human rights abuses at a recent United Nation review. Canada is among the nations holding the regime to task for such abuses.

China’s recent response to its first review by the United Nations Human Rights Council was to deny Chinese citizens were ever abused and to declare people there were free to voice their opinions in the media. The regime also says it opposes torture.

Human rights groups around the world consistently name the Chinese regime as one of the worst rights abusers in the world.

Canada was noteworthy among the countries that spoke out against the regime’s rights infractions.

“Canada is deeply concerned about reports of arbitrary detention of ethnic minorities members, including Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols, as well as religious believers, including Falun Gong practitioners, without information about their charges, their location and wellbeing,” said Louis-Martin Aumais, Canada’s representative at the hearings.

He said the regime should speed up judicial reforms relating to the death penalty and administrative detention whereby Chinese citizens are detained without trial.

“Canada recommends China abolish all forms of administrative detention, including ‘Re-Education Through Labour.’ Canada recommends China eliminate abuse of psychiatric committal,” he said.

However, the regime did have some countries defend its human rights record: Iran, Burma, Zimbabwe and Sudan, each of which is also criticized by rights groups for severe abuses in their own countries.

This latest review before the U.N. follows on the heels of a review by the organization’s Committee on Torture last December.

In what observers described as a rare move, the torture committee told the regime to arrange for an investigation into the organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and for the prosecution of those responsible for deaths associated with the gruesome business of illicit organ transplants.

A report by two highly-regarded Canadian human rights lawyers, former MP and Secretary of State for Asia Pacific David Kilgour, and sometimes U.N. delegate and recipient of the Order of Canada David Matas, concluded that as many as 40,000 detained Falun Gong adherents had been killed for their organs. Falun Gong is a Chinese spiritual discipline that emphasizes cultivating truthfulness, compassion and tolerance and includes a meditation practice.

The torture committee demanded the regime answer questions about their re-education-through-labour system, the widespread use of torture, harassment of defense lawyers, harassment and violence against human rights defenders and petitioners, etc.

In this latest review before a U.N. body, the regime has again raised the ire of human rights groups. Many human rights advocates were incredulous that the regime outright denied abuses that are common knowledge around the world.

“China’s government report omits reference to the on-going crisis in Tibet, the severe crackdown on Uyghurs in China’s Western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the on-going persecution of various religious practitioners, including Falun Gong members,” says a statement from Amnesty International.

Amnesty noted that the regime’s self-assessment completely omitted mention of widespread administrative detention, in which up to several hundred thousand individuals may be incarcerated without trial or access to a lawyer.
The rights group urged the U.N. to push the regime to abolish this world’s largest system of administrative detention.

“China’s “re-education through labor” system violates the rights of citizens, especially those relating to protection from arbitrary deprivation of personal freedom and a fair trial,” the group said.

It added that torture and other “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” is also used in the labour camps.

- The Epochtimes

Matas / Kilgour condemn party-state in China for rejecting UN UPR recommendations

www.david-kilgour.com, February 11, 2009 -

David Matas and David Kilgour expressed regret that China has chosen to reject so quickly so many basic recommendations made in the report of the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, released today. David Matas stated:

“We are dismayed China has chosen systematically to reject those recommendations which would prevent the killing of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs to be used in transplants and which would make possible the bringing to justice any perpetrators of this abuse.”

Matas and Kilgour condemned the Government of China for its refusal (Report paragraph 117) to support the UPR recommendations to:

1. guarantee all citizens of China the exercise of religious freedom, freedom of belief and freedom of worshipping in private [paragraph 43(h)]. As Canada in its statement to the Working Group noted, respect for this freedom includes respecting the freedom of belief of the Falun Gong;

2. publish death penalty statistics [paragraph 28(c), 31(b), 42(b), 56(c), 86(b), 96(a)]. As the UN rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak and UN rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Asma Jahangir have both pointed out, the provision of these statistics is necessary to determine if any explanation can be given for the discrepancy in the number of transplants between the years 2000 to 2005 and the numbers from identifiable sources of organs for transplants other than Falun Gong practitioners.

3. abolish all forms of arbitrary detention [paragraphs 28(d), 43(a), 82(e), 92(c)]. The detention of large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners without charge and without information about their location facilitates their abuse.

4. implement the recommendations of the Committee against Torture of November 2008 [paragraph 28(g)]. The Committee had recommended that China conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims that some Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to torture and used for organ transplants and take measures, as appropriate, to ensure that those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and punished,

5. take effective measures to ensure that lawyers can defend their clients without fear of harassment [paragraph 79(a)]. Lawyer Gao Zhisheng who has defended Falun Gong clients has been tortured and disappeared. He was released briefly last week and, after he released a statement about his torture, was rearrested.

David Matas and David Kilgour are co-authors of the report “Bloody Harvest: Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China” released in revised form in January 2007. David Kilgour is a former Minister of State for Asia an the Pacific in the Government Canada. David Matas is an international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; he attended the fourth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review February 2 – 13, 2009 in Geneva.

For further information contact David Matas at or 001-204-944-1831.

- http://www.david-kilgour.com/

China’s state-run CCTV network gets little sympathy after hotel fire

Public anger had been simmering over the TV network’s spending and government-slanted news coverage. The fire at the Mandarin Oriental site in Beijing offers an outlet for the rage.

By Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times, USA, February 11, 2009 -

Reporting from Beijing — Even before it was revealed Tuesday that an unauthorized fireworks display organized by China Central Television caused the spectacular fire that destroyed one of Beijing’s new glass-and-steel landmarks, the state-run broadcaster was already the subject of its own firestorm on the Internet.

The inferno at CCTV’s new, still-unoccupied headquarters complex laid bare simmering anger and resentment toward the network both for spending public money on grand construction projects and for continuing to broadcast government propaganda.

“As long as there aren’t any injuries, let it burn. They don’t need so many buildings [in]the first place,” wrote one typical anonymous poster at the popular news portal Sohu.com. “CCTV enjoys too much luxury already. They will always have enough buildings, even though this building is down.”

Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of a website that tracks Chinese media, said that among China’s young, educated and urban, the stodgy network has long been a subject of ridicule, both for its low production values and its propagandistic news coverage.

But the fire — which engulfed what was to be the Mandarin Oriental hotel, a dramatic, angular tower that stands next to the now-iconic CCTV building — provided a new touchstone for critics, prompting the government to move quickly to mute the outrage.

By Tuesday morning, Beijing’s propaganda ministry had ordered all Chinese news media to stop reporting their own versions of the fire story and to use only the account provided by the official New China News Agency.

Newspapers were told not to use photos of the fire, or to do any in-depth reporting.

A similar notice went out to news websites, which were told to shut down blogs and discussion groups on the subject.

“Many people were very happy and rejoiced at the fire. Some said it’s good that it burned,” said Li Datong, a former editor at the Communist Party newspaper China Youth Daily, who was fired three years ago for criticizing government censorship. “The government isn’t happy with these kinds of emotions, so they strictly controlled all reports.”

Many websites quickly deleted critical postings, but the government’s blunt tools were unable to completely stem the deluge.

One independent blogger named Zola posted an online poll in which 30% supported the statement “I hate CCTV, not just for this day. It has been fooling us for many years. It’s definitely good for it to be self-immolated.”

Forty-three percent supported a more subdued view, expressing sadness for the loss of state property.

In the afternoon, CCTV took the rare step of issuing a public apology for the fire, saying it was “deeply distressed” by the damage to state property and the disruptions caused to those living and working near the complex.

“CCTV expresses its sincere apology,” the network said in a letter read on air by an anchor.

Beijing authorities said an investigation was underway, including a review of CCTV’s own videotapes of the incident. The network said it would cooperate.

According to city fire officials, the blaze erupted after CCTV’s large-scale fireworks display, for which government permission had not been obtained, erupted into a fireball, sending flames down the face of the asymmetrical building.

State-run news media on Tuesday also released more information about the lone person to die, 30-year-old firefighter Zhang Jianyong. He was among the first on the scene and died of smoke and gas inhalation, the media reported. Five other firefighters and one CCTV employee were injured, but hospital officials told the state-run media that none of the injuries were life-threatening.

Witnesses said firefighters arrived long after the blaze began and did little to battle it until it reached the lower floors because they lacked equipment to reach the upper stories.

In its apology, CCTV appeared to lay the blame on a mid-level official responsible for the site’s management, who hired the fireworks company for Monday night’s show.

The display was timed for the close of the Lunar New Year.

Fireworks are normally banned in the capital, but they are allowed for the New Year festival, and the skies of Beijing were aglow Monday night.

- Los Angeles Times

China milk scandal firm bankrupt

BBC News, 12 February 2009 -

A Chinese food group at the centre of a contaminated milk scandal which killed six babies has been declared bankrupt with debts of $160m (£113m).

Sanlu, which had been one of China’s most trusted brands, was the first of 22 firms found to have sold the milk.

More than 300,000 children were made ill by the milk, to which melamine had been added to boost protein readings.

The chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, Tian Wenhua, has already been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Other Sanlu executives received sentences of five to 15 years. Two other men were sentenced to death.

But anger among the Chinese population was not only directed at Sanlu. As the scale of the deadly scam became known, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao gave a rare public apology for failing to prevent the crisis.

Chinese product safety regulators have now announced they are investigating whether a unit of the French Danone group also used the toxic chemical.

- BBC News

Economics ‘masking China rights record’

BBC News, Feb. 11, 2009-

Ahead of the UN Human Rights Council recommendations to China, the BBC’s Michael Bristow examines whether the country’s growing economic power is forcing world leaders to mute their criticism of human rights violations.

When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Europe recently, it was the global economic crisis that topped the agenda.

European leaders seemed keen to hear how the world’s third-largest economy could help them recover from the economic slowdown.

Once, China’s human rights record might have been the main talking point, but that issue does not now seem as important.

Some believe China’s growing economic might has forced world leaders to soften their criticism on this issue.

Hong Kong political commentator Frank Ching said: “I think a lot of the criticism aimed at China is superficial.

“Foreign leaders want to show their public that they are raising this issue, but they do not want to provoke China.”

Strong allegations

Beijing has for some time drawn criticism because of what many perceive to be a lack of respect for human rights.

Even the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has concerns about China’s record in this area.

In a report prepared for the UN review of China’s human rights situation this week, the commissioner’s office makes several damning points.

The report says there are concerns about allegations of torture, ill-treatment and the disappearance of numerous people.

Ethnic Tibetans and Uighurs – many of whom question Chinese rule over their regions – are particularly vulnerable groups, the report says.

This kind of human rights record has in the past led to harsh words and the threat of action from Western countries.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games last August following unrest in Tibet.

In the end the French president – along with leaders from most of the world’s major countries – attended the Olympic opening.

Less audible

But the apparent lack of public criticism of China’s human rights record does not mean foreign leaders are not putting on pressure behind the scenes. …… (more details from BBC News)

Bird flu outbreak in North-west China

AFP, Feb. 11, 2009-

BEIJING (AFP) — China has reported its first bird flu outbreak among poultry this year, with thousands of fowl destroyed in the nation’s far northwest to prevent an epidemic.

The alert was raised after 519 fowl died in the Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia, the agriculture ministry said in a statement posted on its website late on Tuesday.

They were confirmed on Tuesday to have died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu that is responsible for killing about 250 people around the world since 2003.

Emergency measures were introduced in Xinjiang, which included killing 13,000 more fowl, the ministry said, without specifying if the animals were chickens or other types of poultry.

The ministry said the situation was under control. Officials at the ministry’s media department were unavailable on Wednesday to comment further.

China previously reported that eight people were infected with bird flu across the country this year, five of whom died.

However until Tuesday, authorities said no outbreaks of bird flu had been detected in poultry, raising questions as to how people contracted the disease.

Experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, rather than from poultry to humans, with the potential to kill millions in a pandemic.

But there has been no evidence yet of this happening.

The fourth person to die of bird flu in China this year, a 31-year-old woman, was living in a city neighbouring Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi and contracted the disease on January 10, officials said previously.

However the outbreak among poultry reported on Tuesday was in Moyu county, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away, indicating no obvious connection.

Twenty-five people have died from bird flu in China since the disease re-emerged in 2003, according to World Health Organisation figures.

- AFP

China: Human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng’s account of 50 days of torture by Police (2)

By Gao Zhisheng, via The Epochtimes, Feb.10, 2009- (Cont’d)

(Note: this is a recent disclosed article written by Mr. Gao Zhisheng, noted Chinese human rights lawyer, in 2007, regarding his more than 50 days  kidnapping and torturing by Chinese police. – Chinaview)

<< previous

After being tortured for days, I often lost consciousness and was unable to determine the passage of time. I don’t know how long had passed. A group of them were preparing to torture me again.

Another guy came in, though, and rebuked them. I could hear it was a deputy director from the Beijing PSB. I had seen him many times before. I thought him to be a good person.

I could not see him though, because my eyes were still swollen. My whole body was beaten and unrecognizable. He sounded angry because of my condition. He found a doctor to attend to me. He said he was appalled and surprised. He said, “This torture doesn’t represent the Communist Party!”

I asked him, “Who directed this?”

He didn’t reply. I asked to be sent back home or even just back to prison. He didn’t reply. He brought my torturers back into the room and rebuked them. He ordered them to buy clothes for me and give me a blanket and food. He told me he would try his best to either get me back to prison or back home.

As soon as the deputy left, Wang began cursing me. “Gao, you even dream to go to prison? No, that is too easy. You won’t have any chance to do that as long as the CCP is still in power. Don’t even think about that.”

That same night, I was transported to another location, but I didn’t know where, since I had a black hood over my head again. I was continuously tortured there again for another 10 days.

Then one day, they put the hood on me again, and I was put into a vehicle. My head was forced in between my legs, and I had to remain that way for more than an hour. The suffering was more than I could stand, and I wanted to die.

After another hour, at a new location, the hood was removed. Four of the previous five torturers were not there. But, I saw the same group of secret police who used to follow me.

From then on, the physical torture stopped, but emotional torture continued. I was told the 17th Communist Party Congress was starting and that I had to wait for the higher authorities’ opinions about my case.

During that time, some officials came to visit my cell. Their attitude was softer, and I was also allowed to wash my face and brush my teeth.

Some officials proposed to me to use my writing skills to curse Falun Gong instead, and that I could charge whatever I wanted for doing that. I said it is not a technical problem but an ethical problem.

“So, if that is too hard, then write articles praising the government, and again charge whatever you want,” they suggested.

Finally, they proposed, “If you write what we direct and that you were treated well after prison and that you were fooled by Falun Gong and Hu Jia, things will go well. Otherwise, how can you find an end to your suffering? Think of your wife and children.”

In exchange, I did write an article that said the government treated my family well. In that article, I explained that I wrote the open letter to the U.S. Congress because I had been fooled by Falun Gong and Hu Jia.

Before I was released to go home, though, I was brought to Xian city. I was brought to call Geng He (my wife). On the date of the mid-autumn festival, the authorities asked me to call my wife and comfort her since she was holding a protest and trying to commit suicide over the government’s treatment of our family.

The content of the call was all designed by the authorities. (Later I learned that my wife’s response was also choreographed.) I could still not open one of my eyes at that time and since the call was being taped, I was told to explain that it was from a self-inflicted wound.

In the middle of November 2007, after I got home, I learned that my house had been thoroughly searched again, without a single document or search warrant having been produced. During those more than 50 days of torture, I had many strange feelings. For example, sometimes I could really hear “death” and sometimes I could really hear “life.”

On the twelfth or thirteenth day of my kidnapping, when I could again partially open my eyes, I saw my body was in a horrifying condition. Not a single square centimeter of my skin was normal. It was bruised and damaged over every part.

Every day while I was being held, the experience of “eating” was unusual. Whenever I was at the point of starving, they would bring up “mantle” [steamed bread] and offer it to me. If I would sing one of the three famous revolutionary Communist Party songs, I could have some bread.

My deepest desire was that I wanted to live until that was no longer possible. My death would be torturous for my wife and children, but at the same time I didn’t want to dirty my soul. But in that environment, human dignity has no strength. If you don’t sing these songs, you will continue to be starved, and they will continue to torture you, so I sang.

When they used the same tactic, though, pressuring me to write articles attacking Falun Gong, I didn’t do it. But I did compromise by writing my statement saying the government didn’t kidnap and torture me and that they treated my family well. I did sign that document.

During these more than 50 days, more horrible evils were committed than I have told here. Those evils are not even worthy of any historical records by any human governments. But those records will further enable us to see clearly how much further the leaders of the CCP are willing go in the CCP’s evil crimes against humanity in order to protect its illegal monopoly on power! Those evils are so dirty and disgusting that I don’t want to mention them at this time and perhaps will never mention them in the future.

Every time when I was tortured, I was always repeatedly threatened that, if I spelled out later what had happened to me, I would be tortured again, but I was told, “This time it will happen in front of your wife and children.”

The tall, strong man who pulled my hair repeated this over and over during the days I was tortured. “Your death is sure if you share this with the outside world,” he said. This was repeated many times. These brutal, violent acts are not right. Those that did it, themselves, knew this clearly in their hearts.

Finally, I want to say a few words that won’t be liked by some folks. I want to remind those so-called global “good friends,” “good partners,” so-called by the CCP, that the increasing degree of brutality and coldness against the Chinese people by the CCP is the direct result of appeasement by both you and us (our own Chinese people).

Written on November 28, 2007, at my besieged home in Beijing. Authorized to be released to international community on February 9, 2009

(END)

This letter was first published by the China Aid Association. The Epoch Times gratefully acknowledges permission to use China Aid’s translation, which The Epoch Times has edited. Gao Zhisheng provided this letter with the title: “Dark Night, Dark Hood and Kidnapping by Dark Mafia—My account of more than 50 days of torture in 2007.”

- The Epochtimes

China: Human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng’s account of 50 days of torture by Police (1)

By Gao Zhisheng, via The Epochtimes, Feb.10, 2009-

(Note: this is a recent disclosed article written by Mr. Gao Zhisheng, noted Chinese human rights lawyer, in 2007, regarding his more than 50 days  kidnapping and torturing by Chinese police. – Chinaview)

Dark Night, Dark Hood and Kidnapping by Dark Mafia

My account of more than 50 days of torture in 2007

These words from me today will be finally revealed one day. They will expose the true face of today’s China and will disclose the unimaginable heart and characteristics of the “ruling party” in China.

Of course, these words will inevitably bring unpleasant and even disturbed, embarrassed feelings to those global “good friends” and “nice partners” of today’s Chinese Communist Party—IF these global “good friends” and “nice partners” still have some concern in their hearts for the value of human conscience and morality.

Today, the suddenly well off CCP has not only gained more and more global “good friends” and “nice partners” but also has spoken more and more loudly such perverted slogans as “China is a country with rule of law.” Both will be disastrous to the progress and development of the human rights of the Chinese people.

Around 8 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2007 the authorities notified me orally that I should go for a mind re-education talk. I found there were some unusual things happening this time. The secret police, who used to follow me very closely, kept a greater distance. I was walking down the street that day and, when I turned a corner, about six or seven strangers started walking towards me. I suddenly felt a strong blow to the back of my neck and fell face down on the ground. Someone yanked my hair and a black hood was immediately pulled over my head.

I was brought to a vehicle and was put in it. Although I couldn’t see, it seemed to me that it had two benches with a space in the middle. I was put in the space in the middle on the floor. My right cheek was on the ground. All of a sudden a boot was put on my face holding me down. Many hands started searching all over me. My belt was pulled off and then used to tie my hands behind my back. At least four people put their feet on me holding me down.

About 40 minutes later I was dragged out of the car. My pants were falling down around my knees and I was dragged into a room. No one had said anything at all to me until that time. The hood was pulled off of my head at this time. Immediately men began cursing and hitting me. “***, your date of death has come today. Brothers, let’s give him a brutal lesson today. Beat him to death.”

Then, four men with electric shock prods began beating my head and all over my body. Nothing but the noise of the beating and my anxious breathing could be heard. I was beaten so severely that my whole body began uncontrollably shaking.

“Don’t pretend to do that!” shouted a guy I later learned is named Wang. Then a very strong and tall (approximately 6’ 1”) man grabbed my hair and pulled me up off the ground. Then Wang began beating me on the face terribly.

“***, you are not worthy to wear black clothes. Are you a Mafia leader? Pull off all of his clothes.”

All my clothes were pulled off and I was totally naked. Wang yelled again, and someone kicked me in the back of my legs, and I collapsed to the floor. The big guy continued to pull my hair and forced me to lift my head to see Wang.

At this time, I could see that there were five people in the room. Four of the men were holding electric prods, and one was holding my belt.

“You listen, Gao, today your uncles want nothing but to make your life worse than death. I tell you the truth, your matter is not only between you and the government.

“Look at the floor! There is not a single drop of water. After a while the water will be above your ankles. After a while you will learn where the water will come from.”

While Wang was saying this, the electric shock prods were put on my face and upper body shocking me.

Wang then said, “Come on guys, deliver the second course!” Then, the electric shock batons were put all over me. And my full body, my heart, lungs and muscles began jumping under my skin uncontrollably. I was writhing on the ground in pain, trying to crawl away. Wang then shocked me in my genitals.

My begging them to stop only resulted in laughing and more unbelievable torture. Wang then used the electric shock baton three more times on my genitals while shouting loudly.

After a few hours of this I had no energy to even beg, let alone try to escape. But my mind was still clear. I felt my body was jerking very strongly when the baton touched me. I clearly felt some water sprinkled on my arms and legs as I was jerking. It was then I realized that this was sweat from me, and I realized what Wang had meant about the water.

It seems that the torturers themselves were also tired. Before the dawn came, three of them left the room. “We will come back later to give him the next course,” Wang said.

The two left in the room, put a chair in the middle of the room and pulled me up and set me in the chair. One of them had five pieces of cigarettes in his mouth. One man stood behind me and the man with the cigarettes was in front.

The man behind grabbed my hair and pulled my head forward and down. The other man used the cigarettes to fill my nose and eyes with smoke over and over. They did this with the utmost patience. After a while I didn’t have any feeling except for some tears dropping on my legs.

This continued for about two hours. Then some other guys came in replacing the previous two. My eyes could not see because they were now swollen shut.

The new guys started talking, “Gao, are you still able to hear with your ears? I tell you the truth, these guys are experts in cracking down on Mafia guys. They are heavies. This time they are chosen specifically and carefully by the higher authorities for this purpose.

“Can you hear who I am? My last name is Jiang. I followed you to Xiajiang after you were released last year.”

“Are you the one from Penglai City, Shandong?” I asked.

“Yes, your memory is still good. I told you, you would come back sooner or later. When I saw you the way you behaved in Xiajiang, I knew you would be back. You even looked down upon our police.

“Shouldn’t we help you have a better lesson? You wrote that letter to American congressmen. Look at you, you traitor. What could you be given by your American lord? The American Congress counts for nothing. This is China. It is the Communist Party’s territory.

“To capture your life is as easy as stepping on an ant. If you dare to continue to write your stupid articles, the government has to make its attitude clear. Now, did you see that attitude tonight?” Jiang spoke slowly.

I asked, “How can you face the beating of Chinese and use Mafia tactics on Chinese taxpayers?”

“You are an object to be beaten,” said Jiang. “You know that in your heart better than most. Taxpayers count for nothing in China. Don’t talk about this term ‘taxpayers.’”

While he was saying this, someone else entered the room. I recognized the voice to be Wang’s. “Don’t talk to him with your mouth. Give him the real thing. Your uncles have prepared 12 courses. We only finished 3 last night.

“Your chief uncle doesn’t like to talk and so after a while you will see that you will have to eat your own S*** and drink your own piss. A toothpick will touch your light [sexual organs].

“Don’t you talk about torture by the Communist Party yet, because we will give you a comprehensive lesson now!

“You are correct, we torture Falun Gong. Everything is right. The 12 courses we’re going to give to you were practiced on the Falun Gong. To tell you the truth. I am not afraid of you if you continue to write. We can torture you to death without your body being found.

“You stinky outsider [meaning, not from Beijing]! What are you thinking even being here?”

In the following hours of torture, I passed out several times because of lack of water and food, and heavy sweating. I was lying down on the cold floor naked. I felt several times someone come and open my eyes and shine a flashlight in them to see if I was still alive.

When I would come to, I smelled the strong odor of stinky urine. My face, nose, and hair were filled with the smell. Obviously, but I don’t know when, someone had urinated on my face and head.

This torture continued until around noon on the third day. I don’t know where I got the strength to endure, but somehow I struggled to get away from their grasp and began to beat my head on the table.

I was shouting the names of my two children (Tiangyu and GeGe) and trying to kill myself. But my attempt did not succeed. I thank Almighty God for this. It is He who rescued me. I truly felt God drag me back from that state and give me my life.

My eyes were full of blood, though, because of my head-banging. I fell on the ground. Immediately, three people sat on my body. One was on my face. They were laughing. They said I used my death to try to scare them. They said they have just seen this too many times.

They then continued the torture again until that night. I could not see anything with my eyes anymore. I could still hear my torturers though, and again they gathered after they had dinner.

One of them came and pulled my hair, dragging me up. “Gao, are you hungry? Tell us the truth!”

I said, “I am very hungry.”

“Do you want to eat? Tell us the truth!”

I said, “I want to eat.” Instead, they slapped my face repeatedly, a dozen times or more, and I again collapsed to the ground. A boot stomped on my chest, and someone shocked me on the chin with the baton. I screamed. Then someone put the baton into my mouth.

“Let’s see how different your mouth is from others. Don’t you want to eat? You said you are hungry. Are you worthy?” The baton was in my mouth but was not turned on. I didn’t know what they wanted to do.

“Gao, do you know why we didn’t destroy your mouth?” Wang said. “Tonight your uncles want you to talk the whole night. We want you to talk about nothing except about how you are a womanizer. You are not allowed to say you are not one. You are not allowed to say there are just a few women, either. Don’t forget any details. You can’t leave any details out. Your uncles like this. We have slept and eaten enough, it’s your time to talk.”

“Why didn’t he talk? Beat him up brothers!” Wang shouted. Three batons began shocking me. I was crawling all over trying to get away and was still naked. After more than 10 minutes, I was shaking uncontrollably again.

I begged them. “I didn’t have an affair. It’s not that I don’t want to tell you.” I heard my voice was quivering.

“Are you becoming a fool?” said Wang. “Let’s use the baton to light you and see if you start talking.”

Then two people stretched out my arms and pinned them to the ground. They used toothpicks to pierce my genitals. I can’t use any language to describe the helplessness, pain, and despair that I felt then. At a point like that, language and emotion do not have the power to explain. Finally I made up stories, telling them about affairs that I had with four women. After more repeated torture, I had to describe how I had sex with each of these women. This continued until dawn the next day.

At that time, I was dragged to where I had to sign the transcript of my confession about my affairs. “If we send this out, you will become stinky dog’ s *** in half a year,” Wang said loudly.

After I was released, I learned that the day after the torture the interrogator named Sun Huo informed my wife of “the truth” they had learned about my affairs. My wife told them it was none of their business. She said, “I still trust Gao.” …… (to be cont’d)

——————————

Note: Written on November 28, 2007, at my besieged home in Beijing. Authorized to be released to international community on February 9, 2009

This letter was first published by the China Aid Association. The Epoch Times gratefully acknowledges permission to use China Aid’s translation, which The Epoch Times has edited. Gao Zhisheng provided this letter with the title: “Dark Night, Dark Hood and Kidnapping by Dark Mafia—My account of more than 50 days of torture in 2007.”

- The Epochtimes

China: Return to outdated rules for Hong Kong and Macau journalists

Reporters Without Borders, 6 February 2009 -

Reporters Without Borders deplores the fact that the more relaxed regulations for the foreign press that were introduced for the Olympic Games will no longer apply to Hong Kong and Macau journalists visiting the mainland although they have been maintained for foreign journalists. The Chinese authorities have told the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) that reporters from Hong Kong and Macau must obtain a press card from an official body in order to work on the mainland and must request permission from the authorities before every trip into the interior, much as they did before the more new regulations took effect.

“Why are journalists from Hong Kong and Macau being treated less well than foreign journalists?” Reporters Without Borders asked. “It is inexplicable. We urge the Chinese authorities not to return to the past in this way, reversing one of the few positive effects of the Olympic Games.”

Reporters Without Borders has just published an evaluation of the human rights situation in China six months after inauguration of the Olympic Games on 8 August.

It was the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of China’s State Council that today announced that journalists from the two special administrative regions would no longer enjoy the freedoms that were introduced for the Olympic Games period. They will now have to obtain a press card from the All-China Journalists Association (the official union) before working on the mainland, and they will have to show the card before interviewing Chinese citizens. The will also have to notify the authorities before travelling.

According to the government news agency Xinhua, the new regulations state that: “Journalists from Hong Kong and Macau must abide by national laws and journalism ethics and should carry out coverage objectively and fairly.”

Mak Yin-ting, a journalist and former general secretary of the HKJA, said: “In principle, it is unfair. In practice, it will depend on the good will of the authorities. In either case, it is not normal that this should be worse than the Olympic regulations”. Tam Chi-keung, the HKJA’s current chairperson, told Reuters: “This is returning to the old ways … this cannot fulfil the actual needs of Hong Kong and Macao journalists.”

A Hong Kong journalist who often visits the mainland told Reporters Without Borders: “The impact on our work depends on the way the local authorities apply it. I fear that, as regards sensitive stories, this will prevent us from doing our reporting properly. There could be a restrictive attitude during this coming year, which is a sensitive one.” The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) told Reporters Without Borders that, if confirmed, this decision would be very disturbing and contrary to the open attitude displayed by the Chinese authorities during and after the Olympic Games.

- Reporters Without Borders

Divine Performing Arts Chinese Show Korea Tour Ends with Stunning Performance

The Epoch Times Staff  Feb 9, 2009 -

SEOUL— The final performance of the Divine Performing Arts (DPA) 2009 World Tour in Seoul reached a crescendo as an impassioned audience begged for five curtain calls.

DPA is inspired by the spirit of ancient China before its culture eroded under communism. The shows have been sensational in South Korea from its opening in Daegu on Jan. 30. Amid thunderous applause and calls for more, the curtain finally fell on the final eleventh show performed on Sunday, Feb. 8 at the Universal Arts Center in Seoul.

The appreciative audience included many celebrities from Korean literary and art circles, who grabbed the opportunity to see the lavish performance while they had the chance.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) threatened to stop the shows by putting pressure on theaters in Daegu and Seoul to break their venue contracts, but to no avail.

According to the show’s promoter, the Chinese embassy threatened theater staff at the Universal Arts Center with non-issues regarding visas, extending it’s threat to South Korea’s business investments in China should the show go ahead.

However, DPA was cleared to perform after the Seoul Local Court ruled in its favor on Feb. 3.

Rumors also began in local Chinese communities that, “Chinese people will get fined should they go to the show,” and the blame was laid at the feet of the communist regime.

A Chinese immigrant, Mr. Han, discovered this as he purchased show tickets and asked staff as to why the “ridiculous rule” was set. When he learned the CCP was using tactics to fool and threaten people, he responded angrily, “I’m over 70 years old now, I’ve experienced too many things. I am not afraid. I want to see the show.”

The CCP’s tactics didn’t stop other Chinese people either. Many came to the show excited to share in the experience.

Chinese mainlander Wang Zhen (an alias to protect her identity) told an Epoch Times reporter with a sigh, “Now, I see … there are maybe a lot of people still deluded by the communist regime, but there are certainly more people who have already seen through its evil nature, and are standing on the side of the truth.”

Ms. Wang has been living in Korea for two years: “I am so moved after watching the show, I want to tell all my friends to come see it.”

Mr. Yu, who migrated to Korea three years ago said, “I am extremely moved after watching the show. I don’t even want to blink my eyes so I won’t miss any details. I feel so relaxed, peaceful, and calm. I forgot all my worries.”

Mr. Jin, a construction contractor from mainland China, told the reporter, “It is a magnificent show—truly beautiful. How should I put it? It is extremely heartbreaking. The things I did not believe in the past, I feel it today—feel it very deep down in my heart. I am totally changed because of the show. It’s really moving. I say it from the bottom of my heart.”

The show in Seoul was only finalized a day before the performance due to the CCP’s interference. The show’s promotion was done in a very limited time, but it still created a huge impact among the people. Many celebrities from the arts, culture, and entertainment circles were deeply touched by DPA’s “excellent performance.”

Korean Movie Performer Association chair, Mr. Yoon Yangha, praised the show as “remarkable work.” Renowned Korean actress Ms. Yu Ungye said, “People should not just watch the Divine shows with their eyes, they should remember it, deep down in their memory. Everyone should watch the show.”

Ms. Yu is well known among Chinese audiences for her acting part as the court lady Jung in the famous Korean TV series Dai Janggeum.

Renowned Korean baritone Mr. Shin Gyugon brought his family of four to the show. He said, “I feel that only the Divine shows unveil [true] human nature and the meaning of life. No other performance could compare with this. The inner meaning of the performance shows the nobility of life.”

Mr. Shin continued, “It is a show for all musicians, dance artists, actors, social life mentors, religious leaders and so on. Nowadays, people are stuck in materialism—corruption is so severe in current society. If all people see the show, society will brighten. People’s morality will be improved.”

Rising Korean movie star Lee Nagyeong told the reporter, “I think the dance program of the minority people in the deep, high mountains (Dance of the Yi) is awesome. If I were a dancer, I would like to dance with them on the stage to wear those beautiful skirts.”

After the DPA leaves Korea, they will visit Japan and perform in Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima, and Osaka.

- The Epochtimes

Journalist released from prison in China didn’t feel free until arrival in Canada

The Canadian Press, Feb. 9, 2009-

TORONTO — A Chinese journalist whose reports on government corruption saw him jailed for five years said Monday that despite being released from prison in 2006, he didn’t taste freedom until he arrived in Canada last week.

Jiang Weiping was only allowed to leave China two weeks ago when his passport was returned to him. The Canadian government granted Jiang a rare order offering him asylum if he got to the Canadian embassy in Beijing.

He was reunited last week in Toronto with his wife and 19-year-old daughter, who have been in Canada since 2004. It is their unfailing support that kept Jiang going during his imprisonment.

“My daughter sent letters and poems to me. She wrote: ‘Dad, we will be able to enjoy a blue sky after the storm,”‘ Jiang said at a news conference Monday, where he spoke through a translator.

“This gave me the courage to stand firm in my belief in the most difficult time. This morning, when I opened the window, I saw a beautiful blue sky with white clouds.”

Jiang said it was with a heavy heart that he accepts his newfound freedom. He said he can’t help but turn his thoughts to all the people still in jail in China and elsewhere simply because of thoughts they expressed or words they wrote.

“I’ve found it hard to sleep the last few days because I feel a deep sense of accountability to them,” he said.

In China, Jiang wrote about a vice mayor who gambled away the equivalent of C$5.3 million of public money and about a mayor who used public money to buy apartments for each of his 29 mistresses.

He was found guilty of revealing state secrets, instigating to overthrow state power and illegally holding confidential documents at a secret trial in 2001. He was sentenced to eight years, but was granted early release in 2006.

PEN Canada, an organization that lobbies for writers and freedom of expression at home and abroad, had pressed for Jiang’s release. His story is a reminder of how difficult and dangerous it can be to exercise free speech, said president Nelofer Pazira.

“It is very easy to talk about speaking the truth to the powers, but of course when it comes to the time when the power replies with a heavy hand, a lot of people fall silent,” said Pazira.

“The person sitting in front of us here today is one of those examples of courage and honour who actually paid a huge price, a heavy price, for not toeing the line that was drawn by the all-pervading Chinese authorities.”

Jiang said his years in jail only served to strengthen his vision for a free press in China and now more than ever believes that the voices of people suffering there must be heard above the din of the “rampant corruption.”

“The road to press freedom in China will be long and difficult and it will demand commitment from generations of journalists,” Jiang said.

“It takes enormous courage to speak out against those in power. But this is no excuse for media workers to ignore their duty. A free press is an effective means of preventing officials from abusing their power.”

Jiang said he will continue to speak out for press freedom in his homeland from his new home of Canada. He plans to write books about his experience as a journalist in China and also about his experiences in jail there.

Meanwhile, China is denying claims that it censors the news.

Chinese officials told the UN Human Rights Council on Monday that its citizens are free to voice their opinions to the press, and any harassment of journalists is punished.

The statements in Geneva contrast starkly with claims by international human rights groups, which accuse Beijing of suppressing public dissent.

- The Canadian Press

China’s repression continues after Beijing Olympics, media and dissidents fight back (5)

Reporters Without Borders, 5 February 2009 -

Would-be protesters still threatened

Some would-be protesters have been released, including the two elderly women who were given a reeducation sentence for requesting permission to demonstrate in one of the Beijing locations designated for this purpose during the Olympic Games.

But the police continue to prevent peaceful protests. For example, someone representing people who had been evicted from their land in Hubei province was arrested in mid-December for planning to go to Beijing to demonstrate.

Three Jiangsu province petition organisers were freed at the end of September after being held in illegal prisons during the Olympic Games. But according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Liu Xueli, a campaigner against forced evictions who had asked for permission to demonstrate in a designated place in August, has been sentenced to 21 months of reeducation through work. And Fuzhou-based petitioner Ji Sizun is still being held for wanting to demonstrate in Beijing during the games.

Ye Guozhu was meanwhile released in October after accepting compensation for the demolition of his home during the renovations carried out in Beijing in the run-up to the Olympic Games. He was to have been freed at the end of July, but the authorities decided to keep him in detention while the games were going on.

Finally, a Shanghai petitioner was beaten by police for daring to request assistance for his elderly mother who had to be hospitalised as a result of the stress she suffered during the games, when he was being kept under close police surveillance.

And the International Olympic Committee’s take?

“Exceptional games,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said at a news conference just before the closing ceremony. “The biggest intangible legacy of the games, and also a very important one, is that through the games, China has been scrutinized by the world, China has opened up to the world.” (END)

- Repression continues six months after Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, but media and dissidents fight back, The Reporters Without Borders

China’s repression continues after Beijing Olympics, media and dissidents fight back (4)

Reporters Without Borders, 5 February 2009 -

Internet censorship – back to the bad old ways

The authorities unblocked access to dozens of news and human rights websites when the foreign journalists who had come to Beijing to cover the Olympic Games began to complain. But once the games were over, the government bodies in charge of controlling the Internet gradually eliminated this meagre “Olympic legacy.” The Reporters Without Borders website was one of the first to be blocked again. The Amnesty International site became inaccessible again in January.

Access to the Chinese-language news sites of Asiaweek (http://www.yzzk.com/cfm/main.cfm), Mingpao (http://www.mingpao.com/) and Voice of America (VOA) and the Hong Kong (http://www.hk.youtube.com) and Taiwanese (http://www.tw.youtube.com) versions of the video-sharing website YouTube was blocked in December.

The leading international news media have also seen their websites blocked again. The Chinese-language sites of the BBC World Service, Radio France Internationale and the New York Times are all now inaccessible.

Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (刘建超) explained that “some websites” had content that “violates Chinese laws,” adding that “I hope the websites will practice self-restriction in terms of what they publish.”

A few weeks later, on 5 January, the government introduced new regulations aimed at combating “vulgar content” and “protecting privacy” -goals which are nonetheless being used as a screen for imposing additional restrictions on online free expression. More than 90 websites have already been blocked, some of which have nothing to do with porn or invasion of privacy.

The police closed the Chinese website Zhongguo Nongchanpin Shichang Zhoukan (中国农产品市场周刊) in September because of its articles on the contaminated milk power. The Hi.baidu.com website was blocked by the authorities in November. Finally, the political blog portal Bullog.cn was closed in January. The directive issued by the authorities was very clear: “The www.bullog.cn website is publishing a lot of negative information in the public domain. We already asked it to correct this, but the site has still not taken any effective measures. It is now necessary that the hosting organisation block the domain name – HOLD domain name bullog.cn.”

The government’s reaction to Charter 08’s circulation on the Internet has been virulent. The webpolice have had the manifesto removed from thousands of websites and blogs. When Chinese Human Rights Defenders did a Chinese-language search with Google three days after Charter 08’s launch, they found that the authorities had blocked 86 per cent of the websites that had posted it.

But some Internet users have fought back. Wang Zhaojun (汪兆钧), for example, filed a complaint before the supreme court in January against Sina.com, a leading portal, for closing down his blog after he posted an article about the changes in Chinese society to come in 2009.

Despite the relentless censorship, China’s 210 million Internet users have been the protagonists or witnesses of a great deal of online activity in which, for example, Sanlu’s contaminated milk powder and a strike by taxi drivers have widely commented…….. (to be cont’d)

- Repression continues six months after Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, but media and dissidents fight back, The Reporters Without Borders