The Chinese oil resources businessman Zeng Wei, and his wife, Jiang Mei, are one example of the opportunities open to foreign investors in the right visa class.
Mr Wei’s father, Zeng Qinghong, was vice-president of China between 2003 and 2008 and the fifth-ranking member in the Politburo Standing Committee.
In 2008, the couple paid $32.4 million for Craig-y-Mor in Point Piper, the third-most expensive house ever sold in Australia.
The purchase was made after he obtained a business migration visa the year before.
The grand 1920s house with renovations by Professor Leslie Wilkinson was initially bought just in his wife’s name, as was an earlier acquisition – a $1 million apartment in the World Tower block in Liverpool Street in the CBD in 2005.
The couple’s application to demolish the house and replace it with a new $4.95 million home is being reviewed by Woollahra Council, which is seeking heritage advice.
Chinese buyers currently in the market have told agents they are seeking FIRB approval to spend up to $40 million on a harbourfront house in the eastern suburbs……. (more details from The Sydney Morning Herald)
The Chinese government today made sweeping changes to its state secrets law that directly affects Internet companies operating in the country. The amended law goes further to force these companies to help the Chinese Communist Party suppress free speech and censor the Internet.
The law requires that the transmission of “state secrets” over the Internet be stopped by these companies if they “discover” it. The companies are also required to keep records of such transmissions (e-mails, blog posts, text messages and so on) and report them to the Chinese government.
The law effectively requires all Internet companies operating in China — including Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo and others — to serve as agents of the Government’s internal security apparatus.
What is or is not considered a “state secret” by the law is determined by Communist Party officials. For example, if Falun Gong supporters protest, and some blogger writes about it, that might be considered a “state secret,” and Microsoft would be required to report it.
American Internet companies who operate in China have come under some pressure after Google announced its departure from the country. Microsoft was especially vocal after the Google announcement that it would obey all Chinese laws.
What will companies do? My prediction: They’ll do nothing until their hands are forced by events. It’s a near certainty that information the Chinese government considers “state secrets” will be “transmitted” via Microsoft or Yahoo services, and via Cisco equipment. The American companies will no doubt try their best to not know what’s being communicated, but the Chinese government may actually force them to monitor communications somehow.
In the wake of Google’s brave stand against censorship, it will be interesting to see if a larger exodus of foreign companies isn’t forced by aggressive abuse of Internet companies by the Chinese government.
USAtoday, Apr. 28, 2010-
The International Olympic Committee’s decision Wednesday to strip China of the bronze medal it won by cheating in the women’s gymnastics team competition at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games is the best sign yet that China was using underage gymnasts when it really mattered to them — at their own 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The IOC will never take away the team gold medal the Chinese won in 2008 over the United States. We know this because the IOC and the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) washed their hands of the situation and refused to act 18 months ago, presumably out of fear of ruining the legacy of China’s Olympics by altering the results of the Games’ marquee event.
But this week’s ruling tells us all we need to know about business as usual in Chinese women’s gymnastics, where little gymnasts’ birthdates were altered so they could be used as pawns by the government, just as East German athletes were used by the state during its systemic and widespread cheating through the use of steroids a generation or two ago.
Much was written and said in 2008about five of the six members of China’s gold medal-winning women’s gymnastics team — little girls who said they were 16, likely were 14 and looked like they were 12……. (USAtoday.com)
CARDIFF, United Kingdom— The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Councillor Brian Griffiths, called Shen Yun “out of this world” on Tuesday April 27.
After watching the New York-based performing arts company’s debut Welsh performance, the Mayor was impressed: “We thought the show would be good. But it was more than good, it was fantastic.”
Mr Griffiths was particularly taken with the dancers from Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company: “What amazes me is the timing of these dancers with so many on the stage. Every part of that dance is perfectly timed. It is beautiful to watch,” he said. “It’s they way they can move across the stage in such precision. They look as if they’re floating across the stage. It’s beautiful to watch. It is really beautiful.”
The Lord Mayor also said it was good to have classical Chinese dance explained by the hosts Leeshai Lemish and Jing Xie. He said it was very interesting to understand Chinese culture and see a “different type of show in this centre.”
This is the first time Shen Yun has performed at the Wales Millennium Centre. The centre is the most prominent arts venue in Wales and home to the national opera, national orchestra, national dance as well as other literature and theatre companies.
Mr Griffiths had already provided his well wishes prior to the show. He wrote in the programme book that Cardiff has a formal twinning agreement [twin sister city] with the port city of Xiamen in China, and that the Welsh city is proud of its association with China.
Mr Griffiths has worked for the Conservative Party for over 50 years, serving on Cardiff City Council from 1983 to 1996. He became Lord Mayor in 2009.
He said he hoped Shen Yun could return to Cardiff: “Anybody that’s missed this show has missed a beautiful show,” he said.
“It’s a wonderful, wonderful show.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts will perform once more in Cardiff on April 28, and then at Louvain-La Neuve, Belgium, from April 30 to May 11. (The Epochtimes)
WASHINGTON DC- The Falun Dafa Information Center marked the release of its 2010 Annual Report on Monday with a press conference and panel discussion at the U.S. Capitol Building.
Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, introduced the key findings of the report, including the observation that tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners continue to face “lawlessness and brutality” in Mainland China, and that they constitute “the largest group of prisoners of conscience” in the world. (read the executive summary)
“In the persecution of Falun Gong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is developing more effective and comprehensive mechanisms for brutal suppression and censorship,” explained Browde. “We’re already seeing the CCP unleashing these mechanisms onto other targets…using them against Tibetans, Christians and other persecuted groups, as well as for hiding incidents like SARS and poisonous products, the effects of which reach far beyond China’s borders.”
“In this sense, the persecution of Falun Gong is serving as the CCP’s test lab for tyranny, and the longer it continues, the greater the threat to us all.”
The annual report (full report) includes details of 109 Falun Gong practitioner who died in 2009 as a result of torture and abuse in China, in addition to over 2,000 more who were sentenced arbitrarily to reeducation through labor or prison camps. Due to the difficulties associated with obtaining information from inside China, the actual numbers are believed to be significantly higher. The report also includes analysis of the origins, motivations, and tactics behind Falun Gong’s peaceful resistance to persecution.
The presentation of the annual report’s key findings were followed by a panel discussion moderated by Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institution’s Center for Religious Freedom and commissioner with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. It brought together human rights scholars and authors David Matas, a Canadian human rights and immigration attorney and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, and Ethan Gutmann, author of a forthcoming book on Falun Gong.
Among the findings cited by Gutmann was his estimate, based on extensive surveys with former Chinese detainees, that there are between 450,000 – 1,000,000 Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China at any given time. Gutmann also explored the history of China’s online censorship, surveillance and denial of service attack capabilities, which he found originated as tools to be used against Falun Gong.
These findings, noted Ms. Shea, highlighted the intersection between human rights or religious freedom issues and U.S. national security concerns.
The panel also featured Dr. Shiyu Zhou, a leading Falun Gong activist for the cause of internet freedom in China, and Ms. Pang Jin, a young Washington DC resident whose mother and aunt were both sentenced in sham trials to long prison terms in 2009 for their belief in Falun Gong.
Ms. Pang referred in her speech to House Resolution 605 (news), which passed in March 2010 and which expresses “sympathy to Falun Gong practitioners and their family members who have suffered persecution, intimidation, imprisonment, torture, and even death” for their belief in Falun Gong.
“This kind of support from kind-hearted Americans really gives hope and light to all the people suffering in China,” said Ms. Pang, who lost contact with her mother after she was sent in a show trial to 10 years in prison. (The Falun Dafa Information Center)
Radio Free Asia, 2010-04-26 -
HONG KONG— Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have begun demolishing houses and forcing people from their homes near the Pubugou hydroelectic power project, which is due to go into operation soon.
“They are forcibly demolishing houses,” a resident of Hanyuan county, where the evictions took place, said.
“They all came together in the night. The armed police, the regular police, the county Party secretary and officials,” said the resident, surnamed Cao.
The controversial Pubugou project, a series of ladder-like dams on Sichuan’s mountainous Dadu river, has sparked protests and armed confrontation in the past, with the army moving into the area to quell angry protests in 2004.
A total of 100,000 people will eventually be displaced by the project, which is part of Beijing’s key infrastructure investment program aimed at boosting economic growth and relieving poverty in China’s lagging western regions.
Villagers have kept up an angry and vocal protest, but according to a company announcement, the third phase of the Dadu project at Pubugou is scheduled to begin operation any day now.
‘Dead of night’
“By about 10 p.m. there were a few hundred [residents] surrounded by them,” Hanyuan resident Cao said.
“The Chinese Communist Party is supposed to be stout-hearted and honest. How come they are doing things in the dead of night?”
He said the demolition work went on until around 5 a.m. Sunday.
“They demolished one house,” Cao said.
“They were at work until dawn. They said it had to be demolished.”
He said the evicted family had nowhere else to go, and were now living in a tent on the mountainside.
A second Hanyuan resident surnamed Bai said the government was behaving unreasonably.
“They don’t listen to reason and they don’t even follow their own policies,” Bai said.
After the last violent standoff in 2004, the central government ordered more compensation for relocating residents from 320 yuan (U.S. $38) per square meter of living space to 428 yuan (U.S. $51), according to local media reports.( Radio Free Asia)
TAIPEI, Taiwan—Xiao Qing-Yang, a designer of album-packaging, has been a Grammy Award Finalist three times. For the past three years he has been seeing Shen Yun’s posters while overseas during the Chinese New Year. He thought that the Chinese people in New York and Los Angeles must have really liked to watch Eastern shows to celebrate the Chinese New Year. However, he didn’t expect that he would also see Shen Yun in Taiwan. He felt especially pleased.
After seeing the performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company at the National Taiwan University of Arts on April 25, Mr. Xiao said, “I finally saw the show.”
When seeing the Shen Yun posters in overseas cities, Mr. Xiao thought that the show was only for overseas Chinese people to have some consolation for seeing Chinese dances during the Chinese New Year. He was happy for his friends in those cities to have a great Eastern show for the Chinese New Year. He happily said, “If I have the chance to see it in other cities next time, I must feel intimated.”
“I haven’t seen such an Eastern style of fairies, goddesses, and stories for a long time. I’m so happy to see them today! There are a lot of musicians and dancing artists here. Their abilities and performances were outstanding!” Mr. Xiao said.
He also said that Shen Yun’s artists performed wholeheartedly and it showed that they have worked very hard. “Whenever there was a plot, I had increasing admiration for Shen Yun, because it’s quite delicate in all details. I can tell that they have received very strict training. From my point of view as an artist, I think it needs a lot of time to practice to have such abilities to perform on stage.”
Mr. Xiao was particularly impressed by the dance Handkerchiefs. He said, “There was a program of the dance with handkerchiefs. I first thought that there were special wires designed in the handkerchiefs. Afterwards, I found there was none. The handkerchiefs were flying in the air completely dependent on their superb skills. … It’s an eye-opener.”
Mr. Xiao, born in 1966, said that living in this world, he had felt there were a lot of things that couldn’t be understood or explained. Seeing the Shen Yun performance he said he saw a lot of delicate Eastern culture and the feelings that Eastern people have towards Gods, heaven, and earth. “Actually, I’m kind of feeling the situation that it seems we were also Gods coming to the world. After cultivating something, we are then preparing to go back to heaven.”
He said he felt that seeing such an artistic representation was a great encouragement. “Today I saw such a show, which seemed to remind me of something, like what I come here [to the world] for! Although I haven’t found an exact answer, I am glad to have an opportunity to see such a show.” (The Epochtimes)
It is hard to imagine a “Better city – Better life” in a country that censors the Internet and jails human rights activists on such a wide scale as China. The Expo 2010 Shanghai slogan is meaningless when a government imposes so many curbs on its citizens’ freedom of expression. “City under surveillance – Lives under surveillance” would be a better slogan for this World Expo in China.
As Shanghai prepares for the official opening of its World Expo on 1 May, Reporters Without Borders is today inaugurating its own online Garden of Freedoms.
Reporters Without Borders invites Internet users all over the world to come to visit its Garden of Liberties, a Shanghai World Expo virtual pavilion in Chinese, French and English that is dedicated to freedom of expression. Visitors will be able to explore the cyber-police pavilion, the Tibet pavilion and the prisons of conscience enclosure, where they will be able to sign petitions for their release.
The Garden of Freedoms will be the only place in the Shanghai World Expo where you will be able to discover the realities that the Chinese authorities go out of their way to hush up. Several dozen Shanghai human rights activists are currently under close police surveillance to prevent them meeting the foreign journalists who will be covering the inauguration.
A World Expo is meant to bring people together around such values as progress, humanism and culture. What kind of universal values is China offering us when it jails such advocates of democracy as the intellectual Liu Xiaobo? Why do the representatives of the democratic countries including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be at the inauguration, say nothing about China’s dark side?
“The silence coming from the Paris-based International Bureau of Exhibitions (BIE) is deafening,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Why doesn’t its president, who used to be France’s ambassador to China, intervene publicly to get the Chinese authorities to display some tolerance during this Expo?”
Reporters Without Borders wrote to BIE president Jean-Pierre Lafon urging him to press the Chinese authorities to stop censoring the Internet and release dissidents for the Shanghai Expo. There was no reply. Similarly, journalists have received no response from the BIE to requests for interviews about the forced evictions that took place in Shanghai while the exhibition was being prepared.
Two Reporters Without Borders representatives, including the organisation’s secretary-general, Jean-François Julliard, have just been denied visas to visit Shanghai. “The authorities in Beijing have just instructed us to refuse you visas,” an official at China’s consulate in Paris said. “The reason? You know why.”
By April 22, the official earthquake death toll in northwest China’s remote Yushu, in Qinghai Province, is listed as only 2,187, but local people claim that number is dramatically underreported.
Qinghai Jiegu Temple abbot Angwen Danbarenqing told The Epoch Times that most of his monks were spared from the disaster, and they devoted themselves to rescue work almost immediately after the quake.
“By the third day, the dead were collected for cremation together. More than 2,300 bodies were burned, and more corpses will arrive here soon. I have looked around in different places and think the death toll will reach 8,000 to 9,000,” he said.
However, a Qinghai Yushu Relief Headquarters report lists the death toll at 2,187 with 80 missing and 12,135 injured, including 1,434 severely injured. This report was issued at 5 p.m. on April 22.
Besides Tibetan victims, many migrant workers from the Han and Hui races were killed in the quake. A local rescuer said that the local regime did not count them among the death toll because these people normally live in poor conditions.
Another local rescuer named Zeng said that many migrant workers from neighboring Sichuan Province also died, and their bodies have been transported to their homes.
“The situation is so bad,” Zeng said. “We don’t understand why the media have not come here to report. Many people have no food and no place to stay, particularly the Tibetans. I saw many monks carrying out rescue work by digging in the snow.”
According to rescuers, no official earthquake relief teams appeared in many of the severely affected counties, although Beijing’s media repeatedly announced that rescue materials were continually shipped to the disaster regions.
Moreover, official rescue efforts were only organized in town centers where government facilities, schools, and shop buildings are located. The countryside has been left to fend for itself for several days. Abbot Angwen Danbarenqing added, “We have a lot of people here who were severely affected by the quake. There is a shortage of supplies to help them.”
According to official data, the population of Yushu is 100,000, including 40,000 in Jiegu County and 60,000 in surrounding rural areas. (The Epochtimes)
PARIS— Shen Yun Performing Arts returned once again at the Palais des Congres in Paris, giving audience members a glimpse into the world of traditional Chinese culture.
Award winning French film director and actor Jean-Pierre Mocky had high praises for the show.
“I have rarely seen a show like this,” said Mr. Mocky who has in his long career, as a filmmaker, directed and starred in dozens of films.
Then New York-based Shen Yun brings China’s thousands of years of culture to the stage through music and dance.
“I came to immerse myself in the atmosphere of this show, which is superb,” he continued. “The colors are superb; all the choreography is very beautiful.”
Mr. Mocky noted that the choreography differed greatly from American choreography. “There is a beauty of the image, very beautiful images,” he said.
“I have been making movies with very great French actors for 50 years and I have always been fascinated by China,“ said the film director.
Mr. Mocky said Shen Yun left him with a good feeling. “It is a show which gives an impression of fulfillment, of tranquility. It is very simple and very harmonious.” (The Epochtimes)
TAICHUNG, Taiwan— Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company staged its second show in Taichung City at the Hui-Sun Auditorium of National Chung Hsing University on the afternoon of April 17. Dr. Chiu Tai-san, assistant professor in the Department of Financial and Economic Law, Asia University, said, “It is truly an honor for me to watch the performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts group. I have not seen it before.” Before joining Asia University, Dr. Chiu held several important positions in the government, including Deputy Minister of Mainland Affairs Council, Deputy Mayor of Kaohsiung City Government, and Member of the Legislative Yuan.
“I wanted to view the show several years ago when I was still in the U.S.,” said Professor Chiu, referring to his awareness of Shen Yun’s reputation. He added, “I am very happy today that I can view such a magnificent show in Taichung—my birthplace.”
After watching the show, he said, “From the dancing programs of Shen Yun, especially those that manifest the Chinese culture, we see the delicate side of our culture.”
He continued, “The singing solo “Hesitate No Longer”performed by Ms. Huang Pi-ju received a lot of “Encore” from the audience.” Professor Chiu admired the soprano’s singing performance very much. The enthusiasm of the audience and the repeated cries of “Encore” also affected him.
“I noticed that many people have their entire families come and watch the show. It is clear Shen Yun performance is a cultural event with great significance,” pointed out Dr. Chiu, as he observed that the show was attended by many young children and older people.
Professor Chiu came to watch the show with a friend, hoping that his friend can know Shen Yun’s wonderfulness. He said, “For so long, I have given very high praise to performances like Shen Yun ever since I was a legislator or held positions in government offices.” (by The Epochtimes)
Data re-organized from article “Behind the April 25 Incident”, The Falun Dafa Information Cenetr -
On July 20, 1999, then Chinese president Jiang Zemin used two secret documents to accuse Falun Gong of two crimes that he wanted to charge them with – namely conspiring with foreign forces and being directed by senior insiders in the Communist Party. In the absence of any corroborating evidence, Jiang decided on a policy of persecution of Falun Gong in China.
The persecution was formally started on July 20, but the development and escalation of oppression actually started from 3 years earlier, in 1996.
Therefore, we can see clearly that the well-known incident of April 25 ten thousands people’s appeal in Beijing 3 months before the formal crackdown was an effort by Falun Gong practitioners to stop the upcoming nationwide persecution.
Here are some events happened before the April. 25 appeal, listed in chronological order:
1996, June 17- Guangming Daily, the mouthpiece of the State Council, published an article by a columnist denouncing Falun Gong
1996, July 24- the Chinese News Publication Office issued a nationwide circular banning the distribution of all Falun Gong publications.
1997- the Public Security Bureau began a nationwide investigation to gather evidence in the hopes of casting Falun Gong as an “evil cult.” However, all of the police stations around the country finally reported after much investigation: “no evidence found so far.” The investigations thus came to an end.
1998, end of May- He Zuoxiu (a prominent Marxist-atheist) denounced Falun Gong in an interview on Beijing Television, saying how it was harmful and such. After that, when showing an interview at a Falun Gong practice site, the program said that Falun Gong was “feudalistic superstition.” After the program was broadcast, practitioners who actually knew those people who had been brought up as examples by He Zuoxiu in the program immediately pointed out to He Zuoxiu and the TV station that the program was contrary to the facts because those people weren’t even Falun Gong practitioners. In the ensuing days, more practitioners visited or wrote letters to the TV station by telling their own personal experiences of practicing Falun Gong. Their responses were based on the central government’s official “Three No’s” policy towards Qigong: “no beating, no argument, no reporting.” Later, the executives of the TV station said that broadcasting that program had been the most serious mistake ever made since the startup of the TV station. So, as a correction, the TV station very quickly broadcast a positive program on Falun Gong showing practitioners peacefully practicing their morning exercises along with other people in the park.
1998, July 21- the First Division of the Public Security Bureau issued a 1998-No. 555 circular “Notification Regarding Starting an Investigation on Falun Gong.” The “Notification” claimed that (Falun Gong founder) Mr. Li Hongzhi was spreading rumors and evil teachings and that some core practitioners were engaged in illegal activities in the name of Falun Gong. However, the circular then also mentioned that the Public Security Political Protection Departments in each area should begin a thorough investigation to get inside information on Falun Gong activities and find evidence of crimes committed by core practitioners using Falun Gong. We can see that the circular followed the procedure of convicting Falun Gong of a crime and then looking for evidence later. This “Notification” resulted in the local Public Security departments in a number of areas around the country to illegally raid Falun Gong practice sites, forcibly disperse practitioners, search homes, break and enter into civilian residences, confiscate people’s private property, and so on.
1998, latter half of the year- a group of retired National People’s Congress cadres led by Qiao Shi [the former Chair of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress] conducted a detailed investigation and study over a certain period of time on Falun Gong because so many members of the public had sent letters mentioning the Public Security Bureau’s illegal treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. The conclusion of the study was that “Falun Gong only benefits and does no harm to the nation and the people.” This report was delivered to the Politburo headed by Jiang Zemin.
1998, September- The National Sports Commission had also conducted a comprehensive investigation and study into Falun Gong in May 1998. So in September, in order to coordinate with this study, a team made up of medical experts did a questionnaire survey of a sample of 12,553 Falun Gong practitioners. The results clearly indicated that the rate of effectiveness for improving health and fitness was 97.9%.
1998, October 20- the head of the research team sent to Changchun and Haarbin by the National Sports Commission said: “We feel that both the Falun Gong exercises and their effectiveness are quite good. The impact on the stability of society and the strengthening of the spiritual culture are all quite evident. This deserves to be fully recognized.” During this time, non-government studies into the efficacy of Falun Gong in Dalian, Beijing, and elsewhere also produced consistent results.
1999, April 11- He Zuoxiu (again) published an article in the Tianjin College of Education’s Youth Reader magazine entitled “I Do Not Agree with Youth Practicing Qigong.” In this article, He drew upon the same examples to slander Falun Gong as he had presented on the Beijing TV Station program in 1998. Because these examples had already been fully clarified in the Beijing TV Station incident, this article of He’s had already been strictly boycotted by Beijing’s media and propaganda system. Now that this article was appearing in Tianjin, some practitioners in Tianjin felt that it was necessary to explain the facts and the truth to Tianjin officials. They also hoped to lessen the negative impact of the article through contact with the editors of the magazine.
1999, April 18 to 24 - some practitioners went to the Tianjin College of Education and other related governmental agencies to clarify the truth.
1999, April 23 and 24- the Public Security Bureau of Tianjin dispatched riot police to beat up the Falun Gong practitioners who had come to appeal, resulting in injuries to the practitioners. The police arrested 45 people. When Falun Gong practitioners requested the release of the detained practitioners, they were told at Tianjin City Hall that the Public Security Bureau had become involved in this matter, so the arrested Falun Gong practitioners would not be released without authorization from Beijing. The Tianjin police suggested to Falun Gong practitioners, “Go to Beijing. Only going to Beijing can resolve the problem.”
From using attacks in the media in previous years to this incidence whereby police actually used violence against Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin, the escalation of the persecution shocked Falun Gong practitioners. Word of the “Tianjin Incident” spread rapidly among Falun Gong practitioners all across the country.
1999, April 25- 10,000 people went to appeal at the State Council Appeals Office, Beijing City (video)
Premier Zhu Rongji personally met with the Falun Gong practitioners who had gone to appeal.
At noon on April 25, Li Chang and Wang Zhiwen of the Falun Dafa Research Society and three other Beijing practitioners, acting as representatives of Falun Gong, entered the State Council to have talks with the government officials. They presented three requests from Falun Gong practitioners:
Release the Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested in Tianjin
Give Falun Gong practitioners a loose and relaxed cultivation environment
Allow Falun Gong books to be published.
The government officials who took turns participating in the talks included officials from the Appeals Office of the State Council, officials from the city of Beijing, and officials from the city of Tianjin. At dusk, Tianjin released all of the detained Falun Gong practitioners in accordance with instructions from the central government.
Unfortunately, during a high level meeting on July 19, Jiang Zemin officially announced confirmation of a total ban on Falun Gong. July 20th saw the beginning of a wave of arrests of Falun Gong practitioners all across the nation.
In addition to the deaths, over 100,000 have been sentenced to forced labor camps. Many thousand mentally-healthy practitioners have been locked up in psychiatric hospitals, brutally beaten, and drugged into submission with anti-psychotic drugs. Huge numbers have been forced into brainwashing sessions organized to coerce them to renounce their beliefs. Tens of thousands have been detained, jailed and/or imprisoned.
WASHINGTON DC— On Monday, April 26, the Falun Dafa Information Center will release its 2010 Annual Report followed by a panel of scholars, human rights experts and victims discussing the findings and what Falun Gong’s experience of persecution and activism can provide towards better understanding China’s present and future.
When: Monday, April 26 2010; 1:30pm -2:30pm Where: Capitol Building, Rm. HC6, Washington DC Contact: Caylan Ford, caylanf@faluninfo.net – (202) 510 1845
Eleven years ago, Falun Gong appeared on the world stage as 10,000 practitioners gathered peacefully in Beijing to request an end to escalating harassment. Three months later, the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to “eradicate” the spiritual practice, bringing forth what members of the U.S. Congress termed in 2009 “one of the most unjust and cruel persecutions of our time.”
Today, Falun Gong remains one of the least understood, yet most severely persecuted groups in China. Millions continue to face the threat of detention, torture, and death because of their religious identity. Meanwhile, practitioners inside and outside China have used Internet technology to create a potent grassroots movement aimed at nonviolently countering the persecution against them.
Speakers will include:
• Nina Shea (moderator), Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Director of Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute
• Levi Browde, Executive Director, Falun Dafa Information Center, presenting an overview of the Annual Report’s findings.
• Ethan Gutmann, Adjunct Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, expert on U.S. corporations’ involvement in Internet censorship in China, and author of a forthcoming book on Falun Gong
• David Matas, Senior Legal Counsel, B’nai Brith Canada, co-author of Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
• Dr. Shiyu Zhou, deputy director of Global Internet Freedom
• Jin Pang, Washington DC resident, daughter and niece of two Falun Gong practitioners illegally imprisoned in China in 2009
Note to editors: To request an embargoed copy of the Falun Dafa Information Center’s 2010 Annual Report’s Executive Summary, please contact caylanf@faluninfo.net.
In spite of the Chinese regime’s tight grip on media within China, on rare occasions a few mainland media have dared to print articles critical of the regime’s authority. Southern Metropolis Daily, also known as Southern Metropolitan Daily, is one of those.
The paper published an article on April 11 that has Internet users and other observers astir about references to the regime.
Historian Hong Zhenkuai authored the commentary titled Love for the Country Does Not Equate to Love for the Imperial Court. He stated that the imperial court may change, but China will continue to exist. He concluded by saying, “The patriotism of the people should be directed toward the country, not the Imperial Court.”
The article began by pointing out that the Chinese have always confused the relationship between ruler and country, mistakenly thinking that love for one’s country means loyalty to the ruler. Hong also alluded to brainwashing by the regime.
The article quoted Chen Duxiu, founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who said, “The country we love is one that seeks to benefit the people, not one where people must sacrifice for the nation.”
Hong said, “The people must have the power to monitor the government. The most effective way of monitoring the government is an election to choose who will hold the power of government.”
Public acknowledges courage
Chinese Internet bloggers have widely praised the author and the Southern Metropolis Daily for their courage. Some comments follow:
”We have often confused the relationship between the country and the party. These are actually two separate concepts, although our education has blended the two into one.”
“The Truth Department” (a reference to the Central Propaganda Department) says on a daily basis that to love the country, one must love the communist party. I wonder how the Department will respond this time.”
”It’s been 100 years [since the end of the Qing Dynasty.] In the age of satellites and cable TV, we still need such fundamental education. Should we be happy or sad?”
”We have now been enslaved by the regime; if the people make up the country, then the regime has kidnapped the country now.”
Uncommon common sense
While the article did not touch on any current political issues, and its inferences would not be considered extreme in democratic societies, it may have struck a sensitive nerve for the regime. Many China-based websites have removed it from their sites.
Hong Kong-based Apple Daily reported that historian Hong Zhenkuai said the purpose of the article was to inform readers that many things that should be common knowledge have now been distorted. Misunderstood issues are promoted as truth. Common sense is confounded by divergent opinions. He expressed his personal feeling of obligation to help restore common sense.
To add to the confusion, since the CCP’s inception, the regime has intentionally confused the concepts of country and government, making it one concept for the Chinese people.
In a Sound of Hope interview, renowned human rights lawyer Guo Guoting noted that the issue of common sense is a pressing one.
“The Chinese Communist Party definitely does not equate to China, the country. [The party] is also not the Han ethnic group nor even the Chinese government. This is common sense from the perspectives of vocabulary, history, and law.”
In a Radio Free Asia interview, Professor Xia Ming from the City University of New York said that he hopes the regime will realize that throughout Chinese history, the turmoil between dynastic transitions was not caused by the people’s pursuit of democracy: it was a consequence of government corruption.
“The reason that so many scholars in China criticize the current ‘imperial court’ is due to their fundamental love of this country: They don’t want to see the failures and mistakes of the government hold the whole nation and its people for ransom.”
Written by Raven Clabough, Via The New American, 22 April 2010 -
China never fails to top itself when it comes to human rights violations. Even as Michael Moore attempts to defend communist regimes, world-wide media networks continue to report on the harsh practices of the Communist Chinese government, most recently forced sterilizations of Puning County parents and the torture of Falun Gong practitioners.
Times online reports that China intends to sterilize nearly 10,000 parents in Puning County who have violated the one-child rule. Puning County, with a population of 2.2 million, is the most populated county in the country. Jane Macartney of The Times claims that the sterilization campaign was launched on April 7 and is expected to last 20 days.
A Daba village doctor reported that he and his team would be in charge of completing the sterilizations, beginning at 8 am every morning and lasting until approximately 4 a.m. the next day.
Under current regulations, families in Puning County who break the one-child rule are already punished in a variety of ways. They are not permitted to buy homes, and the “illegal” children are not permitted to receive residency registration, which in turn denies them healthcare and education as well. Macartney writes, “Authorities have discovered, however, that those methods have less success than rounding up relatives.”
Zhang Lizhao knows something about this favored method. He and his wife were forced to rush home to undergo sterilization in order for Lizhao’s brother to be freed from detention. While in detention, detainees are exposed to government rhetoric on the necessity of adhering to family-size laws. Currently, 1,300 people are held in detention as a means to force families to succumb to sterilization. Thousands of Puning County residents have undergone this treatment by authorities.
While Chinese government officials claim to be investigating this matter, asserting that authorities are not permitted to punish families without authorization, or detain residents as pressure tactics, the strict “one couple, one child” government policy has led to a variety of human rights’ violations, though the number of incidents have reputedly decreased in recent years. These include forced late-term abortions, and the murder of newborn babies.
It’s likely that the officials’ promises of investigation are false, as an official from the Puning Population and Family Planning Bureau has admitted to Macartney, “It’s not uncommon for family planning authorities to adopt some tough tactics.”
Until now, Puning was a “refuge” of sorts for families who have more than one child, since it is rural and generally outside of government surveillance. Unfortunately, the increased number of large families in the county has prompted Puning officials to adopt such harsh measures in order to remain eligible for their “bid for promotion to a second-tier county.” One of the measurements for this desirable status is whether the county meets the government limit for family size.
Despite the shocking nature of these abuses, policies like these are reminiscent of American eugenics supporter Margaret Sanger. Her decision to open Planned Parenthood was motivated by principles similar to that of the Puning authorities. Yet, Sanger’s motivations and the Puning sterilizations have remained relatively unreported in the American mainstream media.
Of course, human rights violations in China are nothing new. For 20 years, the religious group known as the Falun Gong has undergone suppression, even torture, at the hands of the Chinese government, who claim that Falun Gong is a cult in order to justify the government’s crackdown on the organization. (The American mainstream media have taken at least a paragraph from the same playbook, painting the Tea Party movement as extremists, likely with the same intent of silencing the group.)
In truth, the Chinese government is aware that Falun Gong is not a cult, but the governmentis threatened by the large number of Falun Gong practitioners, as it is the only group whose membership outnumbers that of the Communist Party in China, according to a 1999 U.S. News and World Report. In addition to the overwhelming size of the organization, the Communist Chinese government has a reputation for religious intolerance. The Globe and Mail wrote, “Any group that does not come under the control of the Party is a threat”.
To counter this threat, the government resorted to psychiatric torture of Falun Gong members, using nerve-damaging chemicals. They have utilized starvation of imprisoned practitioners, forced abortions, and other physical abuses like burning with irons. The Washington Post, in a 2001 article written by John Pomfret and Philip Pan, exposed torture of Falun Gong members.
The United Nations Human Rights Council and the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group are working together with the Conscience Foundation to stop the torture of the Falun Gong practitioners. The success of this alliance remains to be seen.
The Chinese government continues to commit human rights abuses regularly. Yet Michael Moore has not been inspired to create a documentary criticizing the Communist Chinese government. He continues to assert “capitalism is evil.” Go figure! (From The New American)
By Owen Fletcher, IDG News Service, via The PC World, Apr. 22, 2010 -
A black market for satellite TV is booming in China as the middle class grows there, bringing foreign channels like CNN and MTV to a much wider audience than allowed by the government.
Satellite TV is legal only for select viewers in China. Content deemed pornographic, violent or threatening to state interests is also banned, a potential roadblock for a range of overseas programming. News stations like CNN and BBC, for instance, are unafraid to air criticisms of the Chinese government that would bring harsh punishment upon a domestic TV station. But satellite dishes that pick up those and other foreign channels, such as ESPN and HBO, have grown popular among white-collar workers despite all the rules.
In 2008 in China, more than 10 million satellite dishes shipped that could receive overseas signals with the standard DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite), according to market researcher iSuppli.
“In principle, this market is prohibited,” said iSuppli analyst Horse Liu.
Meanwhile, urban buyers are also picking up satellite dishes that receive free domestic Chinese programming. Those dishes, meant as a replacement for cable TV in rural areas under a government initiative, are technically banned in cities, said Michael Qiang Zhang, a research manager at In-Stat. They are popular because they allow urban dwellers to get all the channels they would usually watch without paying cable fees, Zhang said.
Up to 40 million of those “gray-market” satellite dishes shipped last year in China, according to iSuppli.
China’s broadcasting regulator this month revealed rules that appeared aimed at checking the spread of both types of satellite TV. The regulations require companies that install satellite equipment to buy permits under a system that would track all dishes sold in the country. They ban satellite receiving equipment on open markets.
Older rules already restricted foreign satellite TV access to news, educational and scientific research organizations, or hotels with many foreign guests. Visitors to gyms at Beijing’s fanciest hotels can watch stations like CNN and Bloomberg while running on a treadmill. But such institutions have to apply for a permit and let authorities arrange the installation of their satellite receiving gear……. (more details from the PC World)
Amnesty International, 22 April 2010 -
Amnesty International has condemned as ‘absurd’ a legal hearing aiming to revoke the legal licences of two Chinese human rights lawyers who had defended Falun Gong practitioners.
Evidence presented at the Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau hearing against lawyers Liu Wei and Tang Jitian included accusations that they had behaved illegally by making arguments and disputing opinions in Luzhou Court in April 2009.
“The notion that lawyers can be punished for presenting evidence and arguing their case in court is absurd,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director. “The Chinese Ministry of Justice must send a signal that it will protect lawyers from political intimidation and uphold their right and duty to defend their clients appropriately, in line with Chinese law and international legal standards.”
The Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau ended the hearing on Thursday without issuing a decision on revoking the lawyers’ licences, or officially testifying that the lawyers had “violated law”, which is seen as small victory for the legal process.
Liu Wei, one of the lawyers being threatened with having her license revoked, told Amnesty International “it may take a month to get a result. But after the legal debate they may realized that they are the ones who have violated the law, not us.”
“If the result is judged by our defence today and according to the law, we will surely win.”
The two lawyers still stand accused of “disrupting courtroom order and interfering with the regular litigation process” while defending members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Some 500 supporters of the lawyers protested outside the hearing venue, and were met by nearly 200 police officers. Around 20 protesters were detained, most of whom were released by the end of the day.
Government authorities used intimidation to prevent two lawyers scheduled to represent Liu Wei and Tang Jitian from attending the hearing, and other prominent lawyers supporting the pair were put under surveillance or “soft detention” to prevent them attending.
“Escalating harassment of Chinese lawyers is seriously undermining the rule of law, and risks further lowering public trust in the Chinese legal system,” said Sam Zarifi.
Government authorities in China continue to harass and disrupt the work of lawyers taking politically sensitive cases, in particular cases involving Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans and Uighurs.
In March 2010, Chang Boyang, a lawyer representing Tibetan Film maker, Dhondup Wangcheng, was threatened with the closing of his law firm if he did not drop the case, mirroring the treatment of Dhondup Wangcheng’s previous lawyer Li Dunyong. Dhondup Wangcheng was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for “inciting separatism” for making a documentary, Leaving Fear Behind, which features a series of interviews with Tibetans questioning the Chinese authorities’ promises of greater freedom in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Human Rights in China, Apr. 22, 2010-
Beijing lawyers Tang Jitian (唐吉田) and Liu Wei (刘巍), who are facing revocation of their lawyer’s licenses on the charge of “disrupting courtroom order and interfering with the regular litigation process,” told Human Rights in China (HRIC) that the “evidence” presented by officials at today’s administrative hearing at the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice “did not include anything whatsoever that could substantiate the charge.” The hearing ended without a decision.
Lawyer Li Subin (李苏滨), who was retained by Liu to represent her at the hearing, told HRIC that he was prevented by police from going. Legal scholar Teng Biao (滕彪) – one of the three representatives who were allowed in the hearing (the other two were Professor Zhang Shuyi (张树义) and lawyer Yang Jinzhu (杨金柱) ) – told HRIC that protesters in front of the Bureau’s building were dragged away into vehicles, and officials from the U.S., Canadian, and German embassies were barred from attending the hearing.
The current action against Tang and Liu arose from their representation at the second instance trial in April 2009, in Luzhou, Sichuan Province, of a Falun Gong practitioner, Yang Ming, who was charged with “using an evil cult to destroy implementation of the law” (利用邪教破坏法律实施罪). The lawyers told HRIC that one piece of evidence produced by the Bureau at the hearing today (which the lawyers were allowed only to read but not photocopy) was a document the Luzhou Bureau of Justice transmitted to the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Justice recommending disciplinary action against the lawyers. The document stated that the lawyers disrupted court procedure of the 2009 trial by disobeying the presiding judge’s instruction prohibiting them from presenting a description of Falun Gong [that contravened the official designation of it being an “evil cult”] and defended its legitimacy.
(At the end of the 2009 Luzhou trial, the court rejected Yang Ming’s appeal, even after the presiding judge permitted violations of the court’s rules by court officials and unidentified personnel. Yang is now serving a five-year sentence in a prison in Wumaping Prison, in Leshan, Sichuan Province, and reportedly was subjected to very harsh treatment this past winter.)
Liu told HRIC it is clear from the reasoning of the Luzhou Bureau of Justice that the 2009 trial “was completely controlled by the ‘6-10’ Office, and lacked judicial independence.” The 6-10 Office – established on June 10, 1999, by former Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Politburo member Luo Gan – was created as an extrajudicial security apparatus of the central government to crack down on the Falun Gong and other banned religious groups. Its methods include surveillance and harassment of Falun Gong practitioners and psychological “transformation through reeducation” to convert followers.
Tang Jitian and Liu Wei have been actively involved in various rights defense work, including speaking out for those persecuted for their beliefs and defending the rights of victims of illegal land requisition and home demolition, of those discriminated against for having HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B, and parents of the victims of melamine-tainted milk powder.
In 2008-2009, Tang and Liu were some of the principal participants pushing for direct elections in the Beijing Lawyers Association. After the March 2008 riots in Tibet, Liu Wei signed up to provide legal aid to Tibetans who were arrested. They were among the initial signers of Charter 08 in June 2009.
“After subjecting the lawyers and their client to kangaroo court proceedings in 2009, the authorities are now targeting Tang and Liu – two lawyers trying to fulfill their responsibilities to their client and to the legal profession,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of HRIC. “This travesty of justice condoned by authorities charged with upholding the rule of law sends a clear warning to any lawyer who takes on ‘sensitive’ cases and further erodes the credibility of the legal system in China. However, without effective access to justice, the ultimate price will be paid by Chinese citizens.”
BEIJING — Two Chinese lawyers who represented a follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement could have their licenses permanently revoked in an administrative hearing on Thursday. The action against the lawyers is the latest move in an increasingly harsh government crackdown on lawyers who take on human rights cases.
The lawyers, Tang Jitian and Liu Wei, said in a written statement that they were accused by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice of having “disrupted the order of the court and interfered with the regular litigation process.” The charge against the lawyers is based on accusations from the Luzhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court of Sichuan Province, where the lawyers defended Yang Ming, the Falun Gong practitioner, nearly a year ago.
Lawyers in China are usually barred from practicing for life only if they are convicted of a crime. If Mr. Tang and Ms. Liu have their licenses permanently revoked, then this would be a rare occasion, perhaps the first of its kind, when a disruption-of-court charge has led to such harsh punishment, said Eva Pils, a law professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The two lawyers said in their written statement that the justice bureau’s charge “is obviously factually unsound and lacks legal basis.” The lawyers said it was in fact the judge in the court in Sichuan who was a disruptive element during the trial on April 27, 2009. The judge, Li Xudong, interrupted statements made by the defense lawyers or by Mr. Yang, the lawyers said, “so that the defense was extremely difficult to carry out.” The judge also allowed people to film the lawyers in the courtroom, even though this is usually prohibited.
“As an organ with public power, the Luzhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court should examine its own unlawful acts,” the lawyers said.
The Chinese government has been relentless about quashing any defense of Falun Gong, which is considered one of the most sensitive topics in China, along with independence for Tibet and Taiwan and the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. The movement was banned as an “evil cult” in 1999 after followers staged a silent protest at the Chinese leadership’s compound in Beijing. Since then, practitioners have been subjected to imprisonment and torture.
The government has been clamping down on rights lawyers over the last year. In July 2009, the Beijing authorities, citing tax issues, shut down the office of Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, a legal research organization. ……(more details from New York Times)
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 20, 2010-
In 1972, comedian George Carlin wrote a monologue titled, “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” When a version of this riff was broadcast the following year on a jazz radio station, it set off a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately upheld the right of the Federal Communications Commission to regulate indecent material on the airwaves.
Nothing is quite so clear-cut in China, especially when it comes to the murky realm of Internet censorship. China does, of course, have its own version of the dirty words (many, many more than the seven identified by Carlin), but the list itself is confidential.
Trying to figure out what is banned and what is not has taken on new urgency in the aftermath of Google’s withdrawal from China over censorship concerns and the strong stance of the Obama administration on Internet freedom.
In China, each website basically censors itself, so though there are universal taboos — anything about Tibetan independence, for example — you are never quite sure when, shall we say, one of the seven words will hit the fan. Some words can be searched in English, but not in Chinese, or vice versa. What’s sensitive one day might be legit the next.
When using websites based outside China, users on the mainland are often blocked by the so-called Great Firewall of China. But unlike the wall that you can see in satellite photos of Earth, this wall is invisible, often elusive.
The Chinese government doesn’t even call it censorship, the preferred term being “guidance of public opinion.” Chinese Internet users often say that a website has been “harmonized,” a waggish reference to Communist Party slogans about building “harmonious society.”
You don’t always know when you’re being censored — sorry, guided. When searching a sensitive subject, you will be frustrated with a blank screen and a vague error message (“the connection to the server was reset while the page was loading” is the most common) so that you’re never quite sure if you’ve hit the wall or if some technical glitch really did cause the problem.
Often, the user who’s tried to search something blocked won’t be able to get back online for several minutes – the equivalent of a time-out given a naughty child.
There are approximately 80,000 characters in Chinese, and only a few of them are banned outright. But in combination, the innocuous fa, or law, and lun, or wheel, become the banned Falun Gong movement.
Recently, the word for carrot (huluobo) was blocked on some sites because its first character resembles the family name of President Hu Jintao. Similarly, wendu, temperature, was blocked for its resemblance to Premier Wen Jiabao as was xuexi, or study, which shares a character with China’s vice president, Xi Jinping, a likely heir to Hu.
In fact, the scariest thing about Chinese censorship is that there is no list of dirty words — leaving media and Web personnel always nervous about how far they can go.
“There are explicit bad words, but the system really works by instilling fear,” said David Bandurski, a scholar at the China Media Project, based at the University of Hong Kong, who in 2008 was commissioned to write a satirical piece in homage to Carlin about China’s dirty words. (“This word ‘democracy’ is a perilous word that must be handled with great care,” was part of his riff.)
“The paranoia,” Bandurski said, “is more effective than blocking certain words.”
Paul Midler, The Forbes, 04.20.10 -
HONG KONG — China will spend $300 billion on high-speed rail lines over the next 20 years. The world has seen nothing like it, and China-watchers have responded by drawing analogies to America’s transcontinental railroad, built in the 19th century, or its interstate highway system, built and expanded throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
High-speed rail is not the only thing on the nation’s infrastructure to-do list. China’s General Administration of Civil Aviation has budgeted $62 billion to build 100 new airports by 2020. All of this new infrastructure is being seen as the signs of progress, but what has been missed is how high-speed rail and the new airports are a way for China to get around a major problem it faces–an exorbitant, toll-based road system.
Have a mind to jump in your car and drive from Guangzhou to Beijing? Don’t forget to bring your wallet. The expressways connecting the south to Beijing are expensive, and a trip to the nation’s capital will run you close to $200 each way. Driving on toll roads in China–and almost all of the country’s expressways cost money–runs an average of 0.5 yuan (7 cents) per kilometer, or nearly 12 cents per mile. For many types of cars, the tolls are greater than the cost of the fuel burned.
The jacked-up cost of auto travel in China actually makes high-speed rail seem affordable, but tickets for high-speed trains are still out of reach for most Chinese. The speedy rail line meant to connect Beijing to the southern province of Fujian was closed after only two months in operation due to a lack of commercial interest…….(more details from The Forbes)
BRNO— Standing ovations and five curtain calls hailed Shen Yun Performing Arts the evening of Monday, April 19, at the Janacek Theatre. The crowd held its share of influential minds, and Brno’s own Milan Uhde was among them.
“[The] dancing performances were excellent-remarkable,” said the well-known writer and former politician. “The dancers are great, the show is nice, and I am glad I’m here.”
Mr. Uhde’s career as an essayist, playwright, and prose writer has touched two centuries. Mr. Uhde is a recipient of the State Medal of Merit in the Cultural Sphere. He also served as the first Minister of Culture for Czechoslovakia, after the non-violent overthrow of the communists in the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Mr. Uhde served in Parliament and the Czech National Council from 1990 to 1998, when he returned to his lifelong literary endeavors. He has also helped to mentor the next generation at the Academy of Literature.
Mr. Uhde found out about the show from a former student, Ms. Jana Novotná, an emcee in today’s Shen Yun performance. “I used to teach Ms. Jana Novotná at the Academy of Literature, and one day she called me and told me that this would be an extraordinary experience, so here I am.”
During the years of communist oppression in his homeland, Mr. Uhde had to continue his creative work underground, and he became an influential dissident writer during the years of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. He continues to write essays against racism, and on tolerance and freedom. With his unique perspective, Mr. Uhde appreciated the great artistic skill of the dancers of Shen Yun, and he felt a message resonate within their work.
“I was watching the dancers, and their art was great,” Mr. Uhde said. “This is one of the few ways of showing that the situation in China is not normal, that its economical success is conditioned by enslaving hundreds of millions of people, who seem not to be aware of it, but I think they are, and I believe, that one day, their time will come. So to me, this was a reminder, that someone sees the situation as it is. My impressions are good, I’m glad, that I came.”
Mr. Uhde was most taken by the performers. When describing Shen Yun, he always returned to expressing his appreciation of the dancers’ techniques. “It’s spectacular, you can’t see something like this every year. It’s an extraordinary event, something authentic. … What they can do is just amazing.”
All in all, the Czech cultural hero was very glad to have seen Shen Yun. “It’s worth it, it’s a lifetime experience.” (The Epochtimes)
VIENNA— Book illustrator Kristian Ujhelji, a native of Serbia, had come from Pottendorf, about 30 kilometers from Vienna, to see the Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company and hear musicians playing in Shen Yun’s Orchestra at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle for the April 17 evening show.
Mr. Ujhelji illustrates books in the style of the Middle Ages to revive the art of drawing with the quill, and binds them manually.
He explained how he came to know about the show: “I saw advertisements and posters about the show in Vienna and my friends who live in the city called me and said that there is a show called Shen Yun coming to the city, and I should see it because of my interest in Asian culture.”
Mr. Ujhelji explained that he gets inspiration for his drawings from observing the things around him in everyday life. “I get my ideas from what I experience and see when I’m around people or when I travel.”
From Shen Yun he gleaned inspiration “a lot of inspiration. I was touched by the soprano and tenor. That was unbelievable. I was stirred deeply by their ability to address the deepest recesses of the human. They weren’t artificial or twisted.”
Mr. Ujhelji explained what touched him most about the show. “It was art, but at the same time it was genuine, humane, and vital. That is what touched me. It was human and straightforward. One could easily see that the dancers were immersed in their performance with body and soul. In my opinion this was truly the highest level of artistry.”……(The Epochtimes)
2. Large wave of resignation from the Chinese Communist Party is happening
More than 100 million Chinese have quit the CCP till Oct. 2011, people are continue quitting at a rate of 50,000 to 70,000 per day.
- The Tuidang Movement Milestone: 100 Million Chinese Hearts Changed
10.Videos: Tiananmen Square Massacre - June. 4, 1989
Thousands of students shot to death by tanks and soldiers on Tiananmen square in capital city Beijing in 1989
Reporters Without Borders said in it’s 2005 special report titled “Xinhua: the world’s biggest propaganda agency”, that “Xinhua remains the voice of the sole party”, “particularly during the SARS epidemic, Xinhua has for last few months been putting out news reports embarrassing to the government, but they are designed to fool the international community, since they are not published in Chinese.”
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