(video) China Review: 60 Years of Killing

This is the seventh of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, Video by NTDTV via GoogleVideo -

Foreword

The 55-year history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is written with blood and lies. The stories behind this bloody history are both extremely tragic and rarely known. Under the rule of the CCP, 60 to 80 million innocent Chinese people have been killed, leaving their broken families behind. Many people wonder why the CCP kills. While the CCP continues its brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and recently suppressed protesting crowds in Hanyuan with gunshots, people wonder whether they will ever see the day when the CCP will learn to speak with words rather than guns.

Mao Zedong summarized the purpose of the Cultural Revolution, “…after the chaos the world reaches peace, but in 7 or 8 years, the chaos needs to happen again.” [1] In other words, there should be a political revolution every 7 or 8 years and a crowd of people needs to be killed every 7 or 8 years.

A supporting ideology and practical requirements lie behind the CCP’s slaughters.

Ideologically, the CCP believes in the “dictatorship of the proletariat” and “continuous revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.” Therefore, after the CCP took over China, it killed the landowners to resolve problems with production relationships in rural areas. It killed the capitalists to reach the goal of commercial and industrial reform and solve the production relationships in the cities. After these two classes were eliminated, the problems related to the economic base were basically solved. Similarly, solving the problems related to the superstructure [2] also called for slaughter. The suppressions of the Hu Feng Anti-Party Group [3] and the Anti-Rightists Movement eliminated the intellectuals. Killing the Christians, Taoists, Buddhists and popular folk groups solved the problem of religions. Mass murders during the Cultural Revolution established, culturally and politically, the CCP’s absolute leadership. The Tiananmen Square massacre was used to prevent political crisis and squelch democratic demands. The persecution of Falun Gong is meant to resolve the issues of belief and traditional healing. These actions were all necessary for the CCP to strengthen its power and maintain its rule in the face of continual financial crisis (prices for consumer goods skyrocketed after the CCP took power and China’s economy almost collapsed after the Cultural Revolution), political crisis (some people not following the Party’s orders or some others wanting to share political rights with the Party) and crisis of belief (the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, political changes in Eastern Europe, and the Falun Gong issue). Except for the Falun Gong issue, almost all the foregoing political movements were utilized to revive the evil specter of the CCP and incite its desire for revolution. The CCP also used these political movements to test CCP members, eliminating those who did not meet the Party’s requirements……. (more details)

China’s Online Censors Work Overtime

By Bruce Einhorn, BusinessWeek, Sep. 30, 2009-

As China gears up to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on Oct. 1, the country’s security watchdogs are on alert for threats to the big celebration. The government is calling for “greater efforts to maintain public order and social stability,” the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sept. 28. In Beijing alone, 800,000 people have offered themselves as “safety volunteers,” Xinhua reports.

Part of the campaign to ensure a smooth anniversary includes an intensified effort to limit access to China’s Internet, say anti-censorship activists outside the country. “They have tried everything they can” to block software that helps people evade censorship, says Bill Xia, president of U.S.-based Dynamic Internet Technology, a company that has developed Freegate, software that enables users to circumvent censors by rerouting traffic through proxy servers. While there’s always a high level of censorship in China, says Xia, the campaign ahead of National Day this year is more comprehensive than usual. “This time they have really put a lot of resources to this,” he says.

Other censorship foes report similar problems. The Onion Router, or TOR, also uses proxy servers to help users gain access to restricted sites. Some half a million people rely on it daily, according to TOR Executive Director Andrew Lewman, who says China is one of the service’s top users. TOR, originally developed for the U.S. Navy, depends on volunteers to run its network and publish addresses to 2,000 “relays” that give people access to servers. “Since Sept. 25 we have seen a number of people saying that TOR has stopped working,” says Lewman. More than half of the relays were blocked.

Some Anti-Censorship Progress

The new campaign against services such as Freegate and TOR comes after critics of online censorship in China won a rare victory. On July 1 the government had planned to force all PC vendors to install or provide filtering software called Green Dam, which was meant to limit access to online pornography. But critics said it also restricted access to politically sensitive sites. After an outcry both abroad and at home, Beijing backed down and announced companies would not have to comply with the requirement.

Since then, though, the Chinese government has taken a hard line in the far western region of Xinjiang, where fighting between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in July led to the deaths of 197 people and injuries to 1,700 others. The local government blamed Rebiya Kadeer, an exiled leader of the World Uighur Congress, for the unrest and said she used the Internet to communicate with “secessionists” in the vast region. After the rioting, the government began blocking the Internet in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, and connections are still down, according to the official China Daily newspaper.

On Sept. 29, China Daily reported on new regulations designed to control use of the Internet throughout Xinjiang. “Online activities compromising national security, damaging national and social interests, undermining ethnic unity, instigating ethnic succession, and harming social stability will be severely punished,” the paper reported.

“The Electronic Great Wall”

The renewed efforts to limit access to the Internet inside China, as well as recent attacks against foreign journalists, prompted Reporters Without Borders, the international group that advocates for press freedom, to criticize the Chinese government. “The Electronic Great Wall has never been as consolidated as it is now, on the eve of the 1 October anniversary,” the group said in a Sept. 29 statement.

That said, Lewman says TOR is staying ahead of the authorities. Although access is difficult, TOR “is [working] and has been,” he says. The project’s volunteers regularly change the Internet protocol (IP) addresses that people can use to gain access to TOR, he says. “It’s in constant churn,” Lewman says. “You can block it at one point in time, but by noon 20% of them have already changed IP addresses.”

Unlike other regimes, he adds, there are limits to how far the Chinese government will go to control the Internet. During the upheaval following the Iranian presidential election, for instance, “Iran wasn’t afraid to block secure Web sites across the board, which breaks e-commerce, access to Gmail, everything,” says Lewman. “I don’t think China is willing to do that.”

Einhorn is Asia regional editor in BusinessWeek‘s Hong Kong bureau.

Censorship and attacks on journalists in run-up to China’s 1 October anniversary

Reporters Without Borders, 29 September 2009 -

“Government security paranoia in the run-up to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October has led to a reinforcement of online censorship and abusive behaviour towards foreign journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said today. “A case of police brutality towards three foreign journalists was particularly unacceptable.”

The press freedom organisation added: “What the authorities are trying to portray as a big celebration is turning into a major head-ache for Internet users and a reporters.”

Internet control agencies have redoubled efforts to prevent Internet users based in China, including foreign residents, from using censorship circumvention software such as Freegate and virtual private networks (VPN). Experts have told Reporters Without Borders that tens of thousands of IP addresses suspected by the authorities of using Freegate and VPNs, especially those that are free, have been blocked in the past few days.

“The Electronic Great Wall has never been as consolidated as it is now, on the eve of the 1 October anniversary, proving that the Chinese government is not so sure of its record,” Reporters Without Borders said. The new restrictions are making it even more difficult to access social-networking websites such Facebook and Twitter, or YouTube’s video-sharing sites, which have been blocked since July.

China’s leaders have made combating separatism one of the watchwords of the 60th anniversary, and new regulations have just been issued for combating online separatism in the far-western province of Xinjiang.

A Reporters Without Borders study of Uyghur-language and Xinjiang-based websites has established that the clampdown imposed during last July’s rioting in the province has not been loosened. Most of the sites that existed before the unrest are either still inaccessible or their content has not been updated. Of the 65 sites included in the study, 54 are still blocked for Internet users in China or abroad.

Even Tianshannet.com, a Xinjiang-based website that was held up by the authorities as an example of a site that respected the regulations, is no longer accessible. Xinjiang residents have been cut off from the Internet for almost three months and Uyghurs are being deprived of all news and information that is independent of the official media.

Three China-based Mongol websites – Mongol Ger Association (http://www.mongolger.net/), Mongol People Chat Room (MGLhun), which is hosted on the Sina.com site (http://www.sina.com.cn/), and Mongolian People (http://www.mongolhun.com/) – have been rendered inaccessible in the past few weeks.

Founder of Falun Dafa Recognized as an ‘Outstanding Spiritual Leader’

By Albert Roman, Epoch Times Staff, Sep 28, 2009 -

Mr. Li Hongzhi is recognized for his outstanding spiritual leadership and his peaceful contributions to improving morality and promoting traditional Chinese culture. (The Epoch Times)

BALDWIN PARK, Calif.—A packed ballroom of over 200 human rights defenders and supporters joined the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation awards ceremony to acknowledge the efforts of nine individuals Saturday evening, Sept. 26. The ceremony was held in Baldwin Park, 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Award recipients came from as far as China to receive the honor.

The Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation was founded in New Zealand, and moved to Los Angeles in June 2008. It has chambers in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and several European countries.

Eight of the awards were given to individuals for outstanding work in the field of human rights.

An attentive audience at the 2009 Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation awards ceremony in Baldwin Park, CA. (The Epoch Times)

Among the recipients were Pastor Eddie Romero, who was arrested in China in 2008 during the Olympics for protesting the Chinese government’s human rights abuses; Chris Wu, President of China Interim Government, Wu Gan, a now well-known Internet user who helped expose Chinese government officials’ attempted rape of Ms. Deng Yujiao; and Dr. Yang Jianli, a 2005 recipient who was still in jail in China at the time of his award. Dr. Yang is a Harvard Fellow who was arrested in China in 2002 for helping labor unions utilize non-violent struggle strategies.

Among the nine awards, one special award was given to Mr. Li Hongzhi, Founder of Falun Dafa, for outstanding spiritual leadership and his contributions to improving morality and promoting traditional Chinese culture.

Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, is a type of Qigong that includes four sets of exercises, meditation, and a moral discipline based on the principle of truthfulness-compassion-forbearance. By 1999, the Chinese government estimated that 70 to 100 million people were practicing Falun Dafa, which didn’t sit well with Jiang Zemin, China’s former communist ruler.

In July 1999, the Chinese government banned Falun Dafa and China’s state-controlled media began a campaign to slander the practice. Over the past 10 years, human rights organizations and experts have noted that Falun Dafa has been the most severely persecuted group in China.

Youfu Li, chairman of the U.S. Western Falun Dafa Association, accepted the award.  He said, “Mr. Li Hongzhi taught the principle of truthfulness-compassion-forbearance around the world. He helped improved people’s morality. Over the past 10 years the communist party has persecuted many people. Over the years, Falun Gong practitioners have used compassion to expose the Chinese communist party and save people’s conscience.”

Christian Pastor, Eddie Romero, had this to say about Mr. Li Hongzhi’s award:  “Well, I think it’s wonderful that we’re on the same side together on the same issue. To be able to stand together against the People’s Republic of China for their oppressive ways, I think that’s a powerful thing. I’m excited to be able to stand there and also to receive along with the Falun Gong leader the awards, because again, we’re standing on the same side of this issue, and to me, it’s important that we stand shoulder to shoulder on this issue and not become fractured over it because I’m not a Falun Gong member and I know he’s not a Christian, but we share this together because we’re sisters and brothers whether they’re Falun Gong or House Christians.

“Our brothers and sisters are suffering because of the People’s Republic of China. So, I am happy and proud to stand side-by-side, even if we don’t share the same faith, but nevertheless we have the same understanding about the People’s Republic of China, and I think we both want to see a free China.”

Dr. Yang Jianli, Fellow at Harvard University, and President of Initiatives for China, said: “I’m glad to learn that Mr. Li Hongzhi won this award, and I think he deserves this award. In the past 10 years, Falun Gong represents the most persecuted group in China, and ever since the Chinese government started the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, the practitioners have been working so hard to break down the firewall erected by the Chinese government, among other things. They work closely with other human rights activists to try to bring the ideas of human rights and even the concrete plans of how to change China back to China, which played a very important role in the past 10 years in this movement. In this sense, I think Mr. Li deserves this award.

“We as a people in the free world should also be aware of the influence of the Chinese government on other countries. The Chinese government is behind Burma, for example. Pick any dictatorship in the world, and the Chinese government is behind it. So, Chinese problems are not only Chinese people’s problems; it’s a problem for the whole world. So, we need everybody to get involved to change the situation in China and make China to become a better place and to make the whole world a better place,” said Dr. Yang.

Mr. William Mei, the Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation, states “In the past several years, the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation has awarded over 20 individuals in the Asia-Pacific area. These people include Mr. Wei Jingsheng who received the Nobel Peace Prize nomination, Dr. Wang Bing Zhang, and Hu Jia, who is currently detained in China.”

Last year the foundation gave an award to the Dalai Lama as well as to U.S. Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher for his dedication to human rights in asia.

“In the past year,” said Mei, “Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation attended at least 31 events supporting Asia-Pacific human rights. These events improved the human rights situations in these countries. Especially after March, when we established relationships with various American Associations and Unions.”

According to Mr. Mei, the foundation attended seven events organized by the U.S. Congress and successfully motivated the U.S. government to raise human rights issues while working with asian countries.  He hopes the U.S. will link human rights with trade in the future.

- The Epochtimes

China’s New Curbs in Tibet

Radio Free asia, 2009-09-28 -

DHARAMSALA—As authorities prepare for sensitive anniversary celebrations across China, a growing security presence in the country’s west is limiting the religious practices and travel of Tibetans, residents say.

The increased security, residents say, is targeting several areas within China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), as well as other parts of the country inhabited by Tibetans.

On Oct. 1, China will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Many inhabitants of the TAR oppose Chinese rule in the region.

A resident of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, who asked to remain anonymous said security personnel had been posted around sites of cultural and religious significance to Tibetans.

“There is a huge presence of security forces in Lhasa around the Potala Palace and in the Jokhang [temple]. Fearing Tibetan protests, the Chinese authorities have closed all other shrines in Jokhang except the main shrine,” the Tibetan said.

“In the past you would not see any armed personnel inside the Jokhang shrine—only monks. However, on Sept. 24, six armed security personnel were stationed inside to keep watch on Tibetans who come to view and pray at the main shrine,” the man said.

‘A show of force’

Another Tibetan resident of Lhasa said both armed police and soldiers have been ordered to march around the Jokhang temple in groups of 10 “as a show of force.”

He added that Tibetans from other parts of the TAR were being refused entry to the Tibetan capital.

“The Tibetans from Kham and Amdo in particular are checked for their IDs, while those who do not have proper permits have been ordered to return to their hometowns,” the man said……. (Radio Free Asia)

China Sichuan quake was once-in-4,000-year event: scientists

AFP, Sep. 27, 2009 -

PARIS — People who were killed, injured or bereaved in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake had the cruel misfortune to be victims of an event that probably occurs just once in four millennia, seismologists said on Sunday.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Shen Zhengkang of the China Earthquake Administration and colleagues said the May 12, 2008 quake comprised a strong seismic wave, unusual geology and the failure of three subterranean “barriers” to resist the shock.

Using Global Positioning System (GPS) markers and data from satellite-borne interferometric radar, the scientists built up a picture of the Longmen Shan fault, on the northwest rim of the Sichuan basin, as it was gouged open by the 7.9-magnitude temblor.

Nearly 88,000 people were killed in what was the largest seismic event in China in more than 50 years.

The investigators said the sub-surface geometry is complex, varying significantly along the length of the fault zone……. (more from AFP)

China Blocks Travel to Tibet, Security Tightens

NTDTV Via Youtube,  Sep. 25, 2009 -

Chinese authorities are barring tourists from traveling to Tibet as security tightens in the run up to the 60th anniversary of the communist takeover of China.

An official at the Lhasa Tourism Bureau told AFP that the ban started yesterday and will last through October 8th.

This is the third time Chinese authorities have barred travel to Tibet since protests last March that, according to state media, resulted in 22 deaths.

Tour operators say Chinese authorities issued the restrictions Sunday, without explanation.

Zhao Ziyang– Major Opportunity Lost for China

Discussion Paper prepared by Hon. David Kilgour, MWC.News Network, Sep. 24, 2009 -

The publication this year of Prisoner Of State-The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang  contains important insights into modern China by a leader who for almost 15 years played a key role in the management of its economy. Tienanmen Square events in mid-1989 sidelined Zhao, but party-state governance has probably worsened since and his observations recorded before his death in 2005 are useful to any student of China.

From the time of Zhao’s house arrest in 1989 until his death, he kept a secret audio journal at his home in Beijing-30 tapes of about one hour’s length each-a copy of which was thereafter smuggled out of the country. They constitute an eloquent cri de coeur by an intelligent, reflective leader of integrity and candour, who sought always to do his best  for the Chinese people.

Career

Zhao’s career as a Communist party administrator began in Henan province after the Japanese invaded it in 1937, causing him to leave high school. He made his reputation as a reformer in Guangdong province in the ’50s and 60′s, becoming at only 46 years of age party chief in Guangdong. He was purged in Mao’s Cultural Revolution as a “revisionist”, specifically for ending agricultural communes and leasing land to farmers in an attempt to recover from Mao’s disastrous ‘Great Leap Forward’ in which millions starved to death.

By 1971, Zhao was reinstated by the party leadership and two years later rose to become a member of its Central Committee. His next advance was to join the Politburo; only a year after that, he joined its key Standing Committee and at Deng Xiaoping’s request later took charge of China’s national economy as premier of the State Council.

Zhao’s patron Deng, by 1986 firmly established as paramount party leader despite being purged twice by Mao, also made him leader of a group invited to propose a political reform package. As acting General Secretary of the Party later, Zhao proposed to separate the party from the government. He told Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989 that the rule of law should replace the rule of party officials and that more transparency was needed. The economy, he argued, needed an independent judiciary.

Tienanmen Disaster

During 1989, Zhao’s immediate hopes for a China with acceptable governance were dashed. In response to the student demonstrations in April against corruption and other issues, Zhao proposed a return to classes, dialogues and punishing only those who had committed crimes. Unfortunately, a few days later, Deng,  then aged 85 and holding only the official position of chair of the Military Commission, condemned the protests to party insiders. When his remarks were circulated by hardliner Li Peng, events at Tienanmen escalated.

Zhao nonetheless called for the protesters to be dealt with “based on principles of democracy and law”. A week later when Deng decided to impose martial law, Zhao showed enormous courage by telling his mentor that he’d find it difficult to carry out such an order. Two days later, he visited the square and pleaded with the demonstrators to leave, knowing that a brutal assault was imminent.

This was in fact his last public appearance as premier. Soon after the massacre of hundreds of students and others in and around Tienanmen Square, Zhao was stripped of all party offices and put under house arrest for 16 years until he died……. (more details from MWC.News Network)

Pastor Bike Forced to Vacate Home for China’s National Celebration

ChinaAid, September 25, 2009 -

BEIJING– Beijing PSB and Religious Affairs officers continue to crack down on house churches as the Oct. 1 National Day celebrations approach. Four authorities “escorted” Pastor Zhang Mingxuan (Pastor Bike) and his wife from his home on a “forced vacation” at 9:30 AM Wednesday morning, September 23. Concerned with suppressing any negative reports on the communist party during the festivities, the officials reportedly detained Pastor Bike in order to “preserve stability in the province.”

Pastor Bike was warned not to speak or communicate with anyone, especially with foreign media, for fear of jeopardizing the operation and raising awareness of his removal. He was taken to an undisclosed location in the mountainous area of Henan, and will allegedly be held there until after October 1st.

On the morning of September 24, President of ChinaAid Bob Fu spoke with him secretly on his cell phone, the sound of the guards playing cards loudly in the background masking their soft speech. Pastor Bike confirmed the incident, and informed Bob that the Beijing PSB officials had placed them under house arrest and were supervising all movements. …… (more from ChinaAid)

China Officials ‘Ordered Town Drowned’

Radio free Asia, 2009-09-23 -

HONG KONG— Police are guarding local government offices in China’s southern Guangdong province after dozens of villagers tried to storm the buildings in protest at deliberate flooding of their land in the wake of a major typhoon.

“More than 100 people stormed the government offices three times, but they wouldn’t let them in,” said a resident, surnamed Luo, of Chuanbu township near Guangdong’s Luoding city.

“Right now there are more than 100 police standing guard there.”

Luo said local township officials had refused all along to meet with villagers.

“The villagers are very angry,” he said.

“The township Party secretary has even said that it doesn’t matter if 100 or so villagers die. The most important thing is that not a single official died.”

Order to flood

The township government was ordered by Guangdong provincial authorities to flood the countryside around Chuanbu last week after water levels at the township’s Shandong Dam rose to dangerous levels in the wake of Typhoon Koppu, which left at least three dead.

A teacher surnamed Li at the Chuanbu Middle School said the school buildings were only a few hundred meters (yards) from the dam and described scenes of panic as teachers and students fled upstairs from the rising floodwaters.

“The water came in so quickly. Within two or three minutes the entire school was under water,” Li said.

“There was nowhere to run to. Several thousand teachers and students tried to escape to the upper storeys of the school buildings.”

Calls unanswered

“At the time, all we could think about was how to survive. There was no time to grab any belongings. We were running for our lives,” Li said.

“When the water reached the second floor, we ran up to the third floor. Then the third floor went under, so we ran up to the fourth floor. There are only five storeys in the school. We wondered at the time what would happen if we ran out of storeys,” she added.

An official who was similarly stranded at the Chuanbu township government confirmed that a total of 5,000 students at the middle school were left stranded by rising floodwaters, which also destroyed hundreds of houses.

“No one expected the water to rise so fast,” the official said.

“It was as deep as two meters. They were stranded for a whole day and night.”

“The government building was also surrounded by water. We too were very hungry and thirsty. We only had something to eat after the water retreated,” he said, adding that no casualties were reported from among the students.

The mother of Chuanbu Middle School student Qu Mingjie said her son was on the third floor when the waters started to rise.

“They were told to remain in their classroom by their teacher. The water was two meters high.”

Repeated calls to the Chuanbu police station and the Luoding municipal government went unanswered during office hours Wednesday.

Villagers were unable to confirm any deaths, but rumors were rife that dead bodies were carried to government offices in protest, and that a number of teachers and students from a local kindergarten were missing.

Guangdong-based civil rights activist Tang Jingling said local officials were refusing to give out details of loss of life and property caused by the flooding for fear of being held accountable……. (more from Radio Free Asia)

Chinese Protesers’ Messages for Hu Jintao at UN Meeting

By Phil Randell, Epoch Times Staff, Sep 22, 2009 -

Ms. Weidi Wang, a 20-year-old fashion design student (R), prepares to give a speech on behalf of her mother Shao Jie Qiu, 46, who is imprisoned in China for her spirtual belief in Falun Gong. (Aloysio Santos/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK— As ambassadors and heads of state on Tuesday prepared for the next day’s General Assembly meeting at the United Nations, hundreds of protesters gathered at Dag Hamarskjold Plaza, near the U.N. building. At least a dozen groups appealed for their causes, but most were protesting the human rights abuses of the Chinese Communist regime.

In attendance at the U.N. meeting is Hu Jintao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese military, during one of his rare visits to the United States. Hu met with President Obama on the sidelines on Tuesday during a meeting regarding climate change.

The largest group in attendance were practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that the CCP has been persecuting in China and abroad since July 1999. Several Falun Gong practitioners who have family members imprisoned in China spoke, including Ms. Weidi Wang, a 20-year-old fashion design student.

Wang spoke of her mother Shao Jie Qiu, 46, a middle school history teacher who was taken forcibly from her home in China last March by the Chinese authorities simply for practicing Falun Gong. First she endured a brainwashing center, and when she did not recant her beliefs, she was sent to the Shandong Province Female Prison, located in Jinan City, and the prison is known for its brutal methods.

“I’m standing here not just for my mother, but also for all the practitioners in the mainland, appealing to members of the international community who can save them and help stop the persecution.”…… (more details from The Epochtimes)

China’s communists celebrate 60 years in power, Beijing residents are asked to stay at home

DPA via monstersandcritics.com, Sep. 22, 2009 -

Beijing (dpa) – About 200,000 performers are to put on a spectacular show amid unprecedented security in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square next week with a similar number of troops marching across the square.

Thousands of members of China’s political and business elite are to watch parades of tanks, planes and missiles plus 60 carnival floats representing every Chinese region and key concepts in the nation’s development since 1949 in commemoration of the founding of the People’ Republic of China on October 1 that year.

Communist Party leader and state President Hu Jintao plans to deliver a landmark speech from Tiananmen Gate, where Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China the same day 60 years earlier.

A day of festivities was scheduled to end with a massive fireworks display directed by award-winning filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who also is staging an anniversary performance of the opera Turandot in Beijing’s iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium.

Yet there will be no crowds lining the route of the parade to Tiananmen Square along Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue.

Security cordons are to ensure that no one without an invitation can get within a block of Chang’an Avenue while police have instructed people living nearby not to open their windows to see the National Day parade.

Even pigeons and kites are banned from the skies to ensure that they do not interfere with the parade, which includes a fly-by by China’s first group of female fighter pilots.

The government has encouraged most of Beijing’s 15 million people to stay at home and watch live broadcasts of the celebrations from state-run China Central Television or join one of the many peripheral events held at parks in the city, such as the display of 600 national flags at the Olympic Green.

The city has mobilized 800,000 security volunteers to assist hundreds of thousands of security guards, uniformed and plainclothes police, paramilitary units and anti-terrorist forces.

Dissidents, rights activists and others labelled security threats have no choice but to stay indoors on October 1 because most of them are likely to be under house arrest or taken out of Beijing for compulsory ‘holidays’ in the company of state security police.

‘The state security police called me in for a chat,’ well-known dissident Qi Zhiyong told the German Press Agency dpa.

Qi said the officers asked him, ‘Do want to leave Beijing voluntarily or do you want us police to take you out of Beijing?’ …… (more detals from MonstersAndCritics)

China’s losing fight with freedom

by Mona Zhang, NYU News, Published September 22, 2009-

The Chinese government has been trying to play Big Brother to its 1.3 billion citizens ever since the creation of the internet. In 2006, the Golden Shield Project (aka The Great Firewall of China) was completed and came under scrutiny as the world turned its eyes to China for the 2008 Olympics. This year called for the implementation of the Green Dam, a project that was put on hold after worldwide criticism. The project originally decreed that all PCs and new software must include an internet filtering system, aimed at protecting the nation’s youth from pornographic sites.

In actuality, the Chinese government might is using the system as an Orwellian tool to monitor individual activity, and block access to information on politically sensitive issues, such as Falun Gong or the 1989 Tiananmen uprising. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that not only does the program block information the government deems “sensitive,” it has major security problems that put the user in the way of hackers and malicious software.

With the Green Dam project under fire and the Muslim Uighur uprisings also drawing international attention, the Chinese government — trying not to “lose face” over this issue — has decided to release the system as a voluntary addition.

But when will they realize that these measures don’t work? In our flourishing virtual world, China’s feeble attempts at information control only result in unwanted attention and so-called “netizen” uprisings. At the moment, China’s internet censorship system is sort of like that elusive cockroach you’ve seen lurking around the hallways of your dorm. It’s an annoyance that doesn’t inhibit you from going about your daily activities, but your dislike for it grows as you cautiously tip-toe to the basement to do your laundry……. (more from NYU News)

End religious persecution in China, families of jailed Falun Gong believers beg Canadian government

By Richard J. Dalton Jr., Vancouver Sun, Canada, September 21, 2009 -

A Vancouver woman who says her daughter has been persecuted and detained in China for practising Falun Gong called Sunday for the Chinese government to release her daughter.

Du Huiqing said her daughter, Yang Jinyan, 56, has been arrested seven times and has spent two years and five months in prison in three separate incidents. She hasn’t heard from her daughter, a Chinese citizen who is from Zhongshan City, in a month.

“For 10 years, she has been arrested and released, arrested and released,” Huiqing said through a translator. “She’s been persecuted for so long by the government.”

Meanwhile, two other practitioners of the religion — sisters who fled China and came to Canada as refugees in May — also appealed Sunday for an end to the persecution. They called for the release of their brother, who began serving a 10-year sentence in 2002 for practising the religion.

Sue Zhang, spokeswoman for the Falun Dafa Association of Vancouver, said the mother and two sisters decided to go public Sunday so politicians and the public would pressure the Chinese government.

Zhang said the Chinese government estimates that 70 million to 100 million Chinese residents practise Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. She said that’s more than the 60 million members of the Communist Party. She said the Communist Party sees Falun Gong as a threat and banned its practice in 1999.

Zhang released the arrest papers of Jinyan, which according to the translation, say she was arrested July 15 for “suspicion of organizing and using an evil cult to destroy the execution of the law.”

Huiqing said she and her husband Yang Huanwen, both 86 years old and 30-year residents of Vancouver, want to see their daughter before they die. She said the two are having trouble eating and sleeping.

“I really hope my daughter can be out of jail,” Huiqing said. “I am too old to go back to visit her, so I really hope she can be here and we can have a family reunion.”

In the other case, the two sisters said they never knew the religion would lead to such persecution in China.

Jing Cai, who was an administrative assistant in a bookstore, came across a book on the religion in 1995, began practising it and introduced the religion to her sister Jing Tian. Both were attracted by the religion’s promise of truth, compassion and benevolence, Cai said.

In July 1999, they heard that 45 practitioners were arrested in Beijing, and the two sisters travelled to the city on a nine-hour train trip from their town of Shengyang, appealing for the release of those arrested in a peaceful demonstration with 10,000 others.

In October 1999, the sisters appealed in Beijing again, unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square.

Ever since they began protesting, the police infiltrated their practice of the religion, showing up at gatherings undercover, and the government has persecuted them, both sisters said through a translator. They have been arrested, imprisoned, brainwashed and sent to labour camps, the two said.

Tian said the police have asked her to sign documents avowing she would not practise the religion.

The police came to Tian’s workplace, “so my boss was very afraid,” Tian said.

They said their brother, Jing Yu, is being held in a labour camp, and appealed for his release.

“We’re trying to stop the persecution,” Zhang said. “Their goal is to appeal, have their voice heard.”

- Vancouver sun

China Police Enforced Uyghur Family Burial in Xinjiang Province

Radio Free Asia, 2009-09-21 -

HONG KONG—Police in China’s remote Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region surrounded the home of an ethnic Uyghur man who died in police custody and forced the family to bury him without an inquiry into how he died, the man’s father said.

The burial on Sunday ended a tense standoff between police in remote Lengger [in Chinese, Langan] village and the family of Shohret Tursun, 31, whose badly bruised and disfigured body was released to his relatives on Saturday.

On Saturday, one villager said eight trucks of soldiers and two other armed vehicles had surrounded Tursun’s family home in Lengger [in Chinese, Langan] village in Qorghas [in Chinese, Huocheng] county, Ili prefecture—after the family refused to bury him as instructed without an inquiry.

“We locked the door of the room where we keep the body, but the police officers broke the lock,” Tursun’s father, Tursun Ishan, said in an interview. “There were too many…”

“There were police officers waiting in front of our door. From the cemetery to the house, it was full of police officers on the street. Since yesterday, there were police officers on each and every corner of the city. They wouldn’t let people from other neighborhoods join the funeral.”

“My two daughters were trying to prevent the police officers from entering, but the police were very harsh with them. We were forced to bury [the body],” Ishan said.

“They told me that he had a heart attack. But it was a lie. It is a lie. My son never had a medical problem in his life,” Ishan said.

“His body was full of wounds and bruises—his legs, belly, and back were covered with wounds and scars. His chest was full of bruises.”

Police continued to surround the family home and the cemetery shortly after midnight Tuesday, he said.

Ethnic rioting

Tursun, a member of the Uyghur ethnic minority and the father of a two-year-old, was among some 40 men from Qorghas detained around the time of deadly protests July 5 in the regional capital, Urumqi, villagers said.

The protests by Uyghurs, a largely Muslim Turkic people, followed alleged official mishandling of earlier ethnic clashes in far-away Guangdong province.

The July 5 protest sparked days of deadly rioting in Urumqi, pitting Uyghurs against majority Han Chinese and ending with a death toll of almost 200, by the government’s tally.

Tursun was detained July 6 in Urumqi. He was transferred to Ili on July 18 and Qorghas on July 23, he father said.

“If I had bribed the police officers, my son would probably be released,” he said. “I considered selling my land to save my child, but his wife and mother were afraid a bribe would make him look guilty.”

“Another boy in the same prison cell with my son was released after his family paid 30,000″ yuan, or about U.S. $4,400, he said……. (more details from Radio Fraa Asia)

China’s ‘Great Famine’: Fifty Years of Silence

By Charlotte Cuthbertson, Epoch Times Staff, Sep 20, 2009 -

Fifty years after China’s Great Leap Forward, reporting on the issue by domestic media is still forbidden, according to a recent report in Hong Kong’s Ming Pao Daily News.

The 1959 Great Leap Forward saw a string of unrealistic policies like “achieving a grain production of 75,000 kg per hectare,” “doubling steel production,” and “surpassing Britain in 10 years and the U.S. in 15 years.” Current U.S. yields for corn hover at around 4,000kg per hectare.

The campaign required everyone in China to become involved in steel-making, forcing farmers to leave their crops.

These policies resulted in a nationwide famine that cost more than 40 million lives, and was explained officially as a “Three-Year Natural Disaster.”

News was blocked after the disaster, according to Ming Pao’s report. Militias were on guard day and night to restrict people from going out begging for food and reporting to higher authorities.

Results of surveys of Chinese in the Xinyang area showed that the majority of the local farmers had forgotten about the incident, according to Ming Pao. Most villages are now decimated due to urban migration.

Mr. Jiang, from Xie County, Shanxi Province, who now teaches in the city, described the misery during the Great Famine: “Many small villages were wiped out where the farmers’ whole family starved to death,” he said. “People ate anything. There were deaths in every family. Dead bodies were everywhere. Finally, people started eating humans, including living ones and relatives.”

When the peasants were so hungry as to snatch cereals from the grain depots, the Communist Party ordered shooting at the crowd to suppress the looting and labeled those killed as “counter-revolutionary elements.” A great number of peasants were starved to death in many provinces including Gansu, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Guangxi.

Still, the hungry peasants were forced to take part in irrigation work, dam construction, and steel-making. Many dropped to the ground while working and never got up again. At the end, those who survived had no strength to bury the dead. Many villages died out completely as families starved to death one after another.

In central China’s Xinyang Area, Henan Province, there were over one million deaths during a three-month period. The Xinyang incident remains a sensitive topic, and media coverage is banned in China.

Though the Great Famine seems to have left no trace in Xinyang, local farmers say they still unearth human bones.

- The Epochtimes

China Police and Mobs Attack House Church Members in Shanxi

By Luo Ya, Epoch Times Staff, Sep 19, 2009 -

China Police and mobs took down the building. (Provided by Fushan Church)

On Sept. 13, uniformed police and unidentified ruffians attacked house church members in central China’s Linfen City, Shanxi Province. Armed with shovels , batons, bricks, iron hooks and other weapons, they violently beat the house church members and demolished their meeting site.

According to a China Aid Association report, several local county cadres were on the site to organize the attack.

More then 100 followers were injured, dozens seriously. Many are still

Over 100 house church members sustained injuries in the attack. (Provided by Fushan Church)

hospitalized. Police also confiscated TVs, smashed refrigerators, and damaged cars.

Members had gathered at the Good News Cloth Shoe Factory, a building still under construction in Fushan County. The factory was flattened by the mob, and belongings such as money, Bibles, clothes, cell phones, etc. were taken.

A female house church member who asked to remain anonymous told The Epoch Times that the practice of meeting in homes had become impossible because of an increase in their membership. A relative of one of the members had obtained a license to build a shoe factory and was allowing the group to meet there, since the building could hold up to 400 people.

However, local regime officials found out and ordered construction to stop. This happened when the main parts of the building were basically finished. The regime refused to acknowledge the building as a factory, and government officials carried out numerous raids on the site.

“We told the government the building did not belong to church members, but they wouldn’t accept it. In the end, the building was forcefully demolished, and our people were beaten as well, ” she said.

Before the attack, house church members had organized to guard the site day and night, as they were concerned about further action from the regime……. (more details from The Epochtimes)

Is China imposing more powerful version of Green Dam, called Blue Shield?

Reporters Without Borders, 18 September 2009 -

Reporters Without Borders is very worried about reports that Internet Service Providers in the southern province of Guangdong have installed a new filtering software called Landun (Blue Shield or Blue Dam in English) that is more powerful that its problematic predecessor Green Dam.

The press freedom organisation calls on the provincial and national authorities to explain their intentions with Blue Shield (http://download.bluedon.com/), which ISPs were reportedly told install by 13 September and which is said to be more dangerous for Internet users and companies.

At the same time, Chinese Internet users have told Reporters Without Borders that in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, on 1 October, it has become harder to visit certain foreign-based websites and more proxies have become inaccessible.

“It was encouraging that the government backed down on Green Dam in the face of a public outcry in China and abroad and protests from Internet players, but the reports of Blue Shield’s installation by some ISPs sound frightening for the protection of personal data and online free expression in China,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“It seems that the government has again acted on the sly, perhaps to avoid a storm of protest similar to the one about Green Dam,” the press freedom organisation added. “We urge Chinese and foreign Internet companies to resist requests from the authorities to install filters and monitoring tools without telling their clients.”

According to an article in the Hong-Kong based Apple Daily (http://tw.nextmedia.com/applenews/article/art_id/31938140/IssueID/20090913), Chinese network providers were given until 13 September to install Blue Shield to avoid being sanctioned.

Blue Shield is said to be more powerful than Green Dam and its installation is obligatory, not optional, as the authorities had reportedly promised. It is intended to provide stronger protection against porn sites and to increase the monitoring and filtering capabilities of Internet connections.

As a result of its installation, Internet users will find it harder to circumvent existing censorship based on website blocking and keyword filtering. The use of proxies (browsing software that sidesteps firewalls) could become more difficult for China’s 300 million Internet users.

Even if it is hard to gauge the impact of this software for Chinese Internet users, access to independent news websites is liable to become more difficult and more risky.

A study of Green Dam by the OpenNet Initiative demonstrated that its keyword filtering was not very effective for the porn sites that are officially targeted, but it was good at blocking political, cultural and news sites. It also filtered out images that have a high percentage of “skin-coloured” pixels but not porn sites with other skin colours. At the same time, the pixel-filtering blocked sites with lots of demonstrators or animals with the censored skin colour.

Testing also showed that Green Dam registers all attempts to visit blocked websites and that computers slow down and become very vulnerable to virus attacks. More dangerously, personal data can be extracted remotely from computers.

Several models of computers with Green Dam installed – made by the Taiwanese manufacturer Acer, the Chinese manufacturer Haier and (as an option) the Japanese manufacturer Sony –reportedly went on sale in China before the official U-turn. Internet cafés have already installed it. We urge these companies to withdraw these computers from sale to avoid being accomplices to the government’s censorship.

- Reporters Without Borders

Fujian Parents Protest New Lead Poisoning Outbreak

NTDTV via youtube,Sep. 18, 2009-

Another outbreak of lead poisoning has been reported in China— this time in an industrial district of Fujian Province.

Radio Free Asia reports that since last Friday, parents in Jiaoyang County have gathered at a local battery factory. They say pollution from the Shanghang Huaqiang Battery Company is giving their kids lead poisoning.

China Boosts ‘Great Firewall’

Radio Free Asia, 2009-09-16 -

HONG KONG— China has successfully undermined key software used by its netizens to climb over the “Great Firewall,” a sophisticated system of government-backed blocks and filters designed to limit what people can view online.

“Right now, basically, the network is not stable because of the blocking. It started probably Sept. 1,” said Bill Xia, CEO of Dynamic Internet Technology, which created Freegate to circumvent government blocking.

“Since last Monday, we saw that it got worse and people started to find it more difficult to use the Freegate software—it may have difficulty connecting to our network or after it gets connected then very soon they get disconnected,” he said in an interview.

“It is getting close to National Day, so probably the government is spending more effort in trying to clampdown control of the Internet, at least around this time,” he said. “They’re trying more and more to block our software.”

‘Great Firewall’

Chinese Internet users have been complaining since last week that it is getting harder to circumvent the Great Firewall, known online simply as “GFW.”

“I have been using Freegate for many years, but have never experienced anything like this, not even during last year’s Olympics,” said Sichuan-based online writer Ran Yunfei.

“[Freegate] used to be very fast, but in the last two days, it has become unstable,” he said.

The Chinese Human Rights Defenders Web site reported last week that most Freegate users in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hebei, Sichuan, Shandong, and Helongjiang were unable to log in.

But Xia said his company is working on a newer version of Freegate, to be released next week.

“We have been working on a new release for awhile because of the situation, so we are accelerating the process. We are targeting releasing a new version in one or two weeks,” Xia said……. (more details from Radio free Asia)

University Town Quarantined after H1N1 Outbreak in China

By Fang Xiao, Epoch Times Staff, Sep 15, 2009 -

A H1N1 flu outbreak has lead to the closure of a university town in Langfang, a city in China’s Hebei Province. Students now carry thermometers with them as they walk

There were over 300 suspected H1N1 cases on the campus of the People’s Armed Police Force Academy, according to an instructor there who spoke to The Epoch Times under condition of anonymity.

The instructor said those infected were all transferred to Beijing for treatment, and a series of preventative measures taken on campus.

“They have found two more H1N1 cases in the cafeteria, so [the cafeteria] was closed… School authorities have disinfected and cleaned the campus. Every student carries a thermometer with them,” the instructor said.

Although death rates are low among the infected, the instructor said that in the future victims might suffer complications, such as partial paralysis or damage to the neurological, respiratory, or circulatory systems.

One clerk who works in Langfang told The Epoch Times that there are 14 universities with about 40,000 to 50,000 students in the university town, and over 10,000 people have been quarantined since last Wednesday.

The Public Security Bureau was issuing passes in and out of town.

The library had been closed since the outbreak, according to someone who works there contacted by telephone.

Rumors circulated on the internet that authorities in Xiong County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, had issued an order to towns and villages in the area to not report any fever cases, to not confirm any H1N1 cases, and to treat H1N1 flu like the regular flu. The Epoch Times was unable to verify these claims.

The state’s Xinhua News Agency recently reported a new confirmed H1N1 flu case in the Hebei Technical College of Petroleum Profession and those who were infected with H1N1 in Langfang City had all been hospitalized for quarantine and medical treatments.

Xinhua News Agency also reported on Sept. 12 that the Hebei Province Education Department had ordered schools in the province to report any H1N1 cases to their local Education Bureaus, which will then report to the Provincial Education Department.

- The Epochtimes

Chinese 53-year-old Woman Dies from Torture Six Days after Arrest

THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER, 15 Sep 2009 -

NEW YORK — A 53-year-old from China’s northeastern Hebei Province has died in police custody six days after being taken from her home.

According to sources in Hebei Province, Ms. Wang Huilan was taken away by police on Sept. 1, 2009 by Zhouzhou City police. Sources familiar with her case say Ms. Wang was force fed on Sept. 7, 2009 and died that afternoon from injuries sustained during the force-feeding.

Unlike force-feeding performed by medical personnel to provide vital nutrients to a patient who will not or cannot feed themselves, force-feeding inside Chinese prisons, labor camps or detention centers is often performed as a torture method and is frequently used on Falun Gong detainees. Force-feeding has been the cause of death in approximately 10 percent of all known death cases of Falun Gong practitioners inside China.

The force-feeding is most often carried out by labor camp staff with no medical training, or by criminal inmates who are coerced to assist. Unsanitary rubber tubes are shoved into an adherent’s nose and down the stomach, often rupturing or damaging tissue; sometimes the tube enters the lungs. Detainees are often fed irritants such as highly concentrated salt water, hot pepper oil, boiling water, detergent, or even human feces.

Ms. Wang had been detained at least once before in March, 2006. Her home was ransacked by police at the time of her arrest and she was held for seven days before being released.

Throughout China, practitioners of Falun Gong are subject to arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and often torture as part of a systematic campaign waged by the Chinese Communist Party to “eradicate” the traditional Chinese exercise and meditation practice.

- THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER

China Officials Raid Beijing House Church Vocational-Training School

September 15, 2009-

BEIJING-- At about two o’clock on Sunday afternoon (September 13, 2009), a crowd of strangers violently broke down the door to brother Xu Wenli’s apartment in Daqing district, Beijing. Brother Xu had previously denied entry to several strangers outside the residence before the violent break-in. According to the prayer request sent by members of the Tent-makers Christian Fellowship in Beijing, twenty local officials “swarmed into the living room with overwhelming scolding, and commanded that [Brother Xu] should stoop down, as about twenty people entered the living room, some with uniforms and some without.” Their uniforms and self admissions confirmed that the crowd included men from the local Public Service Bureau (PSB), National Security Bureau, and the Religious Affairs Bureau.

According to the Fellowship, Brother Xu was commanded to show the officers the rooms in his home and surrender the training materials produced by ministry. “Brother Xu would not comply with their commands and replied “Who are you for me to obey you? I am a legal residence of Beijing and a child of God.” He was not intimidated and pressed on the issue of legality. Brother Xu demanded that they show him the warrant for the raid, which they could not furnish. Some left for an hour or so and returned without the warrant, while the others kept questioning brother Xu and threatening him with violence. He refused to cooperate based on the illegality of their actions. Someone without uniform warned brother Xu that printing Bible verses and messages on scrolls and tote-bags is illegal and threatened to confiscate them. Brother Xu refused them entry into the rooms without the certified paper work.”……(more details from ChinaAid)