Bodies at a Vienna Exhibition- Chinese Police, Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai

By ETHAN GUTMANN-

Vienna

I have taken my first steps into “Body Worlds,” an exhibition at Vienna’s Museum of Natural History, and it has sparked a memory. The room where I am standing—dark, somber, strangely hushed—exhibits fetuses at various stages of development, placed on blocks that evoke a pagan circle of standing stones. The show’s mastermind, German doctor Gunther von Hagens, has suctioned all the liquid and fat from the small bodies and filled the soft tissues with hard plastic through his ingenious process of “plastination.” Usually, if you see a fetus in a museum, it is floating in a jar of liquid and is red or yellow and translucent. These bodies seem to be flat gray, and that is what ignites the flashback, a surreal freeze-frame of my son, born a month prematurely by C-section: As the medical staff pulled him out of my wife’s womb, just for a second, his flesh looked gray.

Nightmare Continues for the Survivor of China’s Masanjia Labor Camp Torture

It’s a hell on earth. The Masanjia Labor Camp in China’s northeastern Liaoning has become synonymous with the brutality of the Chinese regime’s shady legal system.

Now, one survivor of the camp’s heinous torture has put out a detailed video re-enacting her personal hell.

Tens of thousands protest against chemical plant in northern China

(Guardian)- Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Dalian on Sunday to demand the relocation of a chemical plant that has been constructed on the coast of the port city in northeast China.

The demonstration – one of the biggest in a series of recent NIMBY rallies against potential polluters in China – was sparked by the news last week that a protective dike around the Fujia factory in the Jinzhou industrial complex had been breached by rain and high waves ahead of the approach of Typhoon Muifa.

Wife Seeks Release of Husband and Lawyer in China

Tian Lu is a quiet young woman with bright eyes and a winning smile—until the conversation moves to her family. That family has been shattered, and Ms. Tian has fled to the United States from China to try to rescue her husband and the lawyer who sought to help them.

Known to her friends as Lu Lu, Ms. Tian has suffered imprisonment and torture; her husband and the lawyer who tried to defend him have been imprisoned and tortured; and her grandmother, her husband’s mother, and her husband’s grandfather have died prematurely due to worry over her and her husband, Lu Lu says.

Chinese Restaurant Owner Dies from Labor Camp Torture

New York – A 42-year-old owner of a dumpling restaurant in Northeast China died in his home at the end of February, unable to recover from one and half years of physical and mental torture in a Re-education Through Labor (RTL) camp, the Falun Dafa Information Center has learned. His is one of over 400 documented Falun Gong deaths in Liaoning province since 1999.

Mr. Shi Hongbo (史红波), who owned a restaurant in Jinzhou district of Dalian in Liaoning province, was abducted outside of his home on October 14, 2008 while en route to work. Three weeks later he was sentenced to the Dalian RTL Camp for one and a half years. Camp personnel subjected him to numerous rounds of torture, including shocking him simultaneously with multiple electric batons and tying him down for several days at a time with all four limbs stretched out. As a result, Shi developed heart problems and high blood pressure. In September 2009, Shi was transferred to Weiningying Re-education Through Labor (RTL) Camp.

Chinese Man Dies in Prison Camp From Torture-related Injuries

Falun Dafa Information Center, 13 Sep 2010 –

NEW YORK— A father of one in his mid-50’s died in early August 2010, while serving a ten year “sentence” in a prison camp in northeast China, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned.

According to sources inside China, Lu Manku (卢满库) died from torture-related injuries while in custody at the Nanguanling Prison in Dalian City, Liaoning Province. Lu had been taken into custody in early 2008 while he was making leaflets exposing the human rights abuses suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China. On May 26, 2008, Lu was “sentenced” in a sham trial to ten years in prison.

Lu’s case was one of 863 that the Information Center publicized in December 2009 (news)—Lu was case no. 45 and one of 63 Falun Gong practitioners “sentenced” in late 2008, early 2009 to at least ten years in prison (list). His death highlights the danger facing the hundreds of thousands of other imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in China.

On February 10, 2006, police from the Tanggangzi police station and 6-10 office in Liaoning’s Anshan city ransacked Lu’s house while he was not at home. The police, who did not have a warrant, confiscated books and other Falun Gong materials, and threatened Lu’s child and parents.

To avoid being abducted, Lu was forced into homelessness and spent the next two years away from home. A large, but unknown number of Falun Gong practitioners throughout China—perhaps tens of thousands—are forced to leave their homes to avoid being abducted and tortured by local security agencies. Many leave to also protect their families from police harassment. Without a place to live or employment, many are left destitute, effectively becoming refugees in their own country.

“A man has to flee his home to prevent himself and his family from being illegally abducted by police, and when they finally catch up with him, they send him to a prison camp for a decade where he’s tortured to death,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Erping Zhang. “This is the state of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign against Falun Gong…it flies in the face of all human dignity and is tearing families apart across the country.”

– The Falun Dafa Information Center

Greenpeace Says China Oil Spill 60 times larger than Officially Reported, after a 10-day on-site investigation

VOA News, 30 July 2010 –

The environmental group Greenpeace says it believes an oil spill in northeastern China was up to 60 times larger than has been reported.

Richard Steiner, a marine conservation expert from the University of Alaska, announced the conclusion Friday after a 10-day on-site investigation.

Steiner estimates the July 16 explosion at an oil terminal in Dalian released 60,000 to 90,000 tons of crude oil into the South China Sea, making it larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.  Official estimates have said only 1,500 tons of crude were spilled.

The explosion ruptured two pipelines and ignited a fire that raged for 15 hours. Greenpeace said Chinese workers told the group they deliberately released additional oil into the sea to contain the fire and reduce the risk that a nearby tank of dimethylbenzene would explode.

Steiner said at a Beijing news conference that the explosion and fire completely destroyed one oil tank with a capacity of 90,000 tons. He said Greenpeace was told that the tank had been filled shortly before the blast.

He said a spill of that size would rank among the 30 largest ever recorded.

The oil spill expert, engaged as a consultant by Greenpeace, said Chinese crews have already recovered more than 1,500 tons of oil – the amount officially said to have been spilled.

Reuters news agency contacted PetroChina on Friday but said officials of the company, which operates the oil storage facilities at Dalian, could not confirm or deny the Greenpeace findings.

– VOA News

Crews use bare hands to clean the spreading oil spill in northeast China

AFP, July 22, 2010 –

BEIJING — Chinese authorities battled Thursday to contain an oil spill on the country’s northeast coast amid reports it was spreading and as warnings emerged of a heavy long-term environmental impact.

The government has mobilised hundreds of fishing boats and other vessels to clean up the spill that occurred in the port city of Dalian, but Greenpeace said many people thrown into the effort were reduced to using their bare hands.

The spill happened last Friday after two pipelines exploded at an oil storage depot, triggering a spectacular blaze that burned throughout the weekend.

Officials said shortly after the spill that about 1,500 tonnes of oil were spilled into the Yellow Sea off Liaoning province.

A government estimate Monday said the slick had affected 435 square kilometres (around 170 square miles) of the Yellow Sea.

However, a report late Wednesday said the slick had spread to 946 square kilometres, and stretched as far as 90 kilometres along the coast. The report appeared in the Shenyang Evening News, based in the provincial capital.

The government has said about 40 special oil-skimming vessels were leading the clean-up and that 23 tonnes of oil-eating bacteria were being employed.

China National Petroleum Corp, the country’s biggest oil company and owner of the pipelines that exploded, said in a statement on its website Thursday that at least 400 tonnes of the spilt oil had been cleaned up already.

Zhong Yu, a Greenpeace campaigner observing the clean-up efforts, however said many of the mobilised civilians and firefighters had no equipment or protective gear.

“The citizens-turned-cleaners we saw yesterday in the sea basically did not have any protective gear and could only use their hands to clean up the oil,” she told AFP by phone.

Zhong said tourist beaches and other long stretches of coast were awash with black sludge up to 30 centimetres (one foot) thick near the shore.

“There is a strong smell of acid and oil in the air,” she said.

The economic impact was already being felt by businesses in the area, with state press reports saying tourist beaches normally crammed with summer visitors were empty. Some beaches were officially closed to the public.

The area also has a major fishing industry, but catches had been banned for now……. (more details from AFP)

China regime joins in to repress the Iranian people

sohrabestann.blogspot.com –

Finally, with the arrival of the first shipment of armoured vehicles, China has officially joined in to repress the Iranian people, most likely to prevent the downfall of the “Supreme Leadership” and its own illegitimate interests in the region. The vehicles are built by military complex of Dalian DES-516B. Here is the description of the manufacturer:
Dalian Eagle-Sky Co.

Tel: +86-411-8681-3362
Fax: +86-411-8681-3763
Email: eagle@eagle-sky.net
http://www.eagle-sky.net/

The armoured anti-riot vehicles have a capacity of 10,000 liters to shoot cold and hot water, and three 100 liter tanks to shoot burning chemical liquids. The water is mixed with paint or tear gas that cannot be washed away. Each vehicle has two guns for shooting liquid up to a distance of 70 meters- it is controlled from inside the cabin. The price tag for each unit is 650,000 dollars. Also, a lot of extra burning liquid, paint, and tear gas was purchased.

It took four months for the delivery of the armoured vehicles, and since the Iranian regime was in a hurry, they had them delivered from China’s army organization- this is rare! China’s government was in as much of a hurry to get these to Iran……. (more details from sohrabestann.blogspot.com)

Eyewitness to Organ Harvesting in China: ‘It was extremely horrible’

Epoch Times Staff,  Dec 14, 2009 –

An eyewitness has recounted in vivid detail the story of a woman in China—a high school teacher in her 30s—who was detained, tortured, raped, and finally operated on to extract her organs while she was still alive.

“I have witnessed all these with my own eyes, but I regret that I didn’t take any photos,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It is the first time investigators have spoken to an eyewitness in a case of harvesting organs from a living Falun Gong practitioner.

A 30-minute interview, in two separate conversations, was carried out by an investigator from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), and a recording is available on its Web site.

The events took place in 2002, and investigators located the policeman only this month.

According to the English transcript, the witness worked for the public security system of Liaoning Province in 2002 and said he himself had participated in torturing and interrogating Falun Gong practitioners “many times.”

No Anesthetics

On April 9, 2002, two military surgeons came to the makeshift “black jail,” a small hotel rented as a “training center,” according to the witness. One of the military surgeons was from the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region of People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the other one was a graduate of the Second Military Medical University, he said. They took the woman to a hospital.

“At that time, we had been interrogating and severely torturing her for about a week,” he said. “She already had countless wounds on her body. Also, [we] used electrical batons to beat her. She had already become delirious.”

“Prior to this, she suffered even greater humiliation,” he said. “Many of our policemen were perverted. They were using pincers and other equipments that I don’t know from where they got them, to molest her. I have witnessed all these with my own eyes. … She had some good looks, relatively beautiful, (so the policemen) were raping her. … This was far too common.”

The policeman said he was on armed guard duty in the room while he watched the surgeons cut the woman’s chest open while she was still alive. No anesthetics were used, he said.

“They cut her chest with a knife,” he said. “She shouted ‘Ah’ loudly, saying ‘Falun Dafa is great.’”

“She said, ‘You killed me, one individual.’ [I think] it roughly meant, ‘You killed one individual like me. Can you kill several hundred million of us, people who are being persecuted by you for our true beliefs?’

“At that moment, that doctor, that military surgeon, hesitated. Then he looked at me, then at our [policemen’s] superior. Then our superior nodded, and he continued to do the veins. … [Her] heart was carved out first, next were the kidneys. When her cardiac veins were cut by the scissors, she started twitching. It was extremely horrible. I can imitate her voice for you, although I couldn’t imitate it well. It sounded like something was being ripped apart, and then she continued ‘Ah.’ After that, she always had her mouth wide open, with both her eyes open wide. Ah … I don’t want to continue.”

The organ harvesting took place in an operating room on the 15th floor of the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, the witness said. It began at 5 p.m. and lasted 3 hours…….(more details from The Epochtimes)

China Sentences Lawyer to 7 Years in Prison for Defending Falun Gong

NTD TV, Dec. 1, 2009-

He’s been detained for more than four months. And then, last Friday human rights lawyer Wang Yonghang was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Shahekou People’s Court in Dalian city in China.

He was charged with “posting articles on a foreign website” and so-called “using a cult to damage the social and legal systems.”

In 2008, Wang posted an open letter to Chinese communist leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. He argued the persecution of Falun Gong adherents is illegal and unconstitutional.

In 1999, the communist regime started a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese spiritual practice also known as Falun Dafa. According to the Falun Dafa Information Centre, at least six thousand Falun Gong adherents have been sentenced to prison, and about 100-thousand more are in re-education-through-labor camps.

Wang Yonghang is one of a few lawyers of conscience who have taken on Falun Gong cases. Despite the Chinese regime’s illegal mandate that there be (quote) “no legal defense of innocence for Falun Gong.”

Wang then lost his license to practice law. But he continued to defend Falun Gong adherents.

According to rights advocate, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Wang was detained and tortured by Dalian city police on July 4th.  Amnesty International called for urgent action for his release, but then on October 16 he was put though a secret trial.

Wang is part of an increasing number of lawyers being targeted for taking on human rights cases. They report being harassed and beaten by police, and often lose their license to practice law.

– NTD TV

Arbitrary Detention– China Human Rights Briefing October 5-9, 2009

Chinese Human Rights defender, Oct. 6, 2009-

Arbitrary Detention

Liaoning Petitioner Stopped at Checkpoint, Alleges Beating by Police

On September 12, petitioner Liu Chunbao (刘纯宝), from Yingkou City, Liaoning Province, was stopped by policemen at a checkpoint in Xianghe County, Hebei Province while en route to Beijing.  Liu, who did not have an ID card, alleges that he was beaten by an officer before being forcibly returned to his hometown by officials from the Beijing Liasion Office of the Liaoning Provincial Government.  Liu is currently being held at a retirement home in Yingkou, under the watch of 8 guards. (CHRD)[i]

Shanxi Petitioner Detained after Traveling to Letters and Visits Office in Beijing

Xiaoyi City, Shanxi Province petitioner Bi Caizhen (毕彩珍) has been detained since she was seized outside of the National Letters and Visits Office in Beijing on September 23.  Bi had travelled to the capital to petition about corruption at Shanxi’s Liuwan (湾煤) Coal Mine and the murder of her husband, which she believes was carried out by criminals hired by management at the mine.  Bi was forcibly returned to Shanxi, and friends and fellow have been unable to contact her to determine her present condition. (CHRD)[ii]

Hangzhou Activist Seized in Beijing, Returned to Detention in Hometown

On the evening of October 3, Hangzhou petitioner-turned-activist Zhu Yingdi (朱瑛娣) was seized by Beijing policemen at a guesthouse near Yongdingmen in the capital.  By October 5, when she was able to contact her husband, she had already been forcibly returned to Hangzhou, where she is currently being detained in nearby Anji County.  According to Zhu’s husband, Mr. Dai (戴), the couple’s home in Hangzhou had been guarded around the clock by five men since September 15, and beginning September 30, they were not allowed to leave their home.  They managed to escape on the night of October 1, which is when Zhu travelled to Beijing.  Zhu has been petitioning and assisting other petitioners since the forced demolition of her home many years ago, and has been repeatedly summoned and harassed by local officials. (CHRD)[iii] ……. (more details)

Debarred Lawyer Tortured and Arrested in Northeastern China

(Chinese Huma Rights Defenders, August 27, 2009)– CHRD learned today that Wang Yonghang (王永航), a former lawyer from Dalian City, Liaoning Province, has been formally arrested for “using a cult to damage social and legal system”. When Wang was taken into police custody on July 4, he was severely beaten, causing fractures in his right ankle. Wang’s family and lawyer have not been allowed to meet Wang because, according to the police, his case involves “state secrets”. It is believed that Wang has been detained for his work defending Falun Gong practitioners.

According to Wang’s wife, Yu Xiaoyan (于晓艳), Wang was beaten when he was taken into custody by two dozen Dalian policemen on July 4. Wang’s right ankle was fractured, but he was not given appropriate treatment until his ankle became seriously infected. Wang was operated on August 11, a month after his injury was first inflicted, in a Dalian hospital. Police had not notified Wang’s family about the operation, nor sought their authorization prior to it.

Wang is held in Dalian City Detention Center, where he reportedly been subjected to more beatings.

On August 11, Yu received her husband’s arrest notice, issued by the Dalian Procuratorate dated August 10. Yu has repeatedly complained to the relevant government departments about Wang’s beating and mistreatment, but so far she has received no response.

“They refused to notify me when they operated on my husband, and they still refuse to let us know how the operation went. And on that very same day of the operation, they issued an arrest notice for my husband! I really don’t know what to say about this way of doing things”, says Yu.

Wang lost his license to practice law when it was not renewed by the judicial authorities following the conclusion of his annual review on May 31, 2008. Wang has continued to defend Falun Gong practitioners, however.

“Wang’s arrest and torture sends a chilling signal to the community of human rights lawyers, especially those who have been debarred like Wang―that they could suffer a similar fate if they dare to continue their legal work defending human rights,” says Jiang Yingying, CHRD’s Researcher. This year, at least eighteen human rights lawyers lost their licenses following their annual review on May 31.

CHRD is concerned about this recent development of the targeting of human rights lawyers and the use of violence against them by the Chinese government.

CHRD calls for Wang Yonghang’s immediate and unconditional release.

The torture suffered by Wang violates his right to be protected against cruel treatment as guaranteed by the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which China ratified in 1988. The UN Committee against Torture, which reviewed China’s implementation of the Convention ten months ago, has recommended that China “take immediate steps to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment throughout the country”.

CHRD demands the Chinese authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the alleged torture of Wang and, if the allegation is confirmed, those responsible for torture be punished according to the law. While Wang remains in custody, he should be granted adequate medical treatment without delay.

Background

Wang Yonghang has published several open letters online in which he advocated religious freedom and explained his views on the persecution of Falun Gong members. Wang has defended Falun Gong practitioners and his advocacy and legal work has led to persistent harassment from local police.

Media contacts:

Renee Xia, International Director (English and Mandarin): +852 8191 6937
Jiang Yingying, Researcher (English and Mandarin): +852 8170 0237

For more information ( from Chinese Huma Rights Defenders)

China: Falun Gong Practitioner Killed by Police Within 16 Days of Arrest

The Falun Dafa Information Center, 07 Aug 2009 –

Within two weeks of being detained, Mr. Yang Guiquan was tortured to death while in police custody. (from faluninfo.net)

A middle-aged man in northeast China has died just sixteen days after being detained by security agents while speaking to passers-by at a shopping mall about the persecution against Falun Gong, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned. Mr. Yang Guiquan (杨贵全) was reportedly brought to a local hospital on July 5, 2009 in critical condition with bruises and scars from electric batons visible on his body. Doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. He was 45-years-old.

“The speed with which this innocent man was picked up off the street, tortured, and killed highlights the mortal danger that hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China face at this very moment,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Gail Rachlin. “A year after Beijing hosted the Olympics, clearly the surrounding ‘strike hard campaign’ hasn’t let up if you’re a Falun Gong practitioner. Yang’s tragic death is a startling reminder of that reality.”

Mr. Yang was an employee of Rongxing Plastics Limited City  (荣兴塑料有限公司) in Fuxin, a major coal-mining city of 782,000 people in Liaoning province. According to sources inside China, at approximately 6:00 p.m. on June 20, 2009, he was speaking to passers-by about the persecution against Falun Gong at a local shopping mall when he was detained by Wu Zhongqi (伍忠启) and other officers from the public security bureau branch of the Haizhou District Police Department. They interrogated Mr. Yang overnight at the police department compound, then transferred him to Xindi Detention Center (新地看守所).

Upon hearing of his arrest, Mr. Yang’s family members and employer went to the public security bureau on multiple occasions to request his release, but were repeatedly turned away and refused access to him.

During his detention, Mr. Yang reportedly embarked on a hunger strike to protest the illegality and injustice of his arrest. Rather than release him or grant him his legally enshrined rights, the guards tortured and brutally force-fed him. Such forced-feedings are routinely conducted by guards with no medical training and as a form of torture rather than nourishment. They are a leading cause of verified deaths among Falun Gong practitioners who have been killed in custody.

As a result of the abuse he was subjected to in custody, on July 5, 2009, Mr. Yang was in critical condition. He was first taken to the Public Security Hospital for treatment, then returned to the detention center. Several hours later, he was taken to the Fuxin City Mining Corporation General Hospital (阜矿集团总医院). Doctors at the general hospital said that Mr. Yang was not breathing and had no heartbeat when he arrived. They determined that he had died before arriving at the hospital.

Mr. Yang died at approximately 3:00 p.m. on July 5, 2009. The police notified his family members at approximately 8:00 p.m. that day. According to sources inside China who were able to view his body, Mr. Yang’s back and head showed bruises, and there were marks of beatings on his legs. Mr. Yang’s inner thighs also showed marks from shocks from an electric baton.

There are 3,292 known cases of Falun Gong practitioners who have died as a result of persecution in China. Liaoning province is one of the deadliest provinces for Falun Gong practitioners – at least 396 adherents are documented to have died there from abuse since 1999.

The Falun Dafa Information Center urges international media to visit Liaoning province and investigate first hand the circumstances surrounding Yang’s death.

Additional details:
Mr. Yang Guiquan’s home address: Room 604, No. 1 Building, Meihai Neighborhood, Beixin Village, Xihe District, Fuxin City, Liaoning Province (细河区新市北新村煤海小区一号楼604室)

– The Falun Dafa Information Center

Three Lawyers Detained for Defending Falun Gong Practitioners in China

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders– July 15, 2009)  CHRD learned today that three lawyers in different locations in Northeastern China have been detained in recent weeks by local authorities. The three, Liu Ruiping (刘如平), Wang Yonghang (王永航), and Wang Ping (王平), who have previously been harassed because of their work defending Falun Gong practitioners, were seized between July 2 and July 8 in Shandong and Liaoning Provinces.

“As these detentions come on the heels of efforts to punish human rights lawyers around the country by denying them renewal of their lawyers’ licenses, we are concerned that these actions may mark the further deterioration of the situation of human rights lawyers in China,” said Renee Xia, CHRD’s International Director.

On July 2, Liu Ruping (刘如平), a lawyer from Changqing District, Jinan City, Shandong Province’s Shuntian Law Firm (舜天律师事务所) who has represented many Falun Gong practitioners, was kidnapped outside of his apartment block by officers from the Public Security Bureaus (PSB) of Jinan City and Changqing District as well as officials from the Jinan City Party Committee. Liu’s home was also searched. On July 6, Liu’s relatives went to the office of the Changqing District Party Committee demanding to know Liu’s whereabouts. However, officials declined to divulge any details. Liu’s family has not received any official documents regarding his detention or the search of his home. It is believed that he is currently held at a black jail specialized in detaining Falun Gong practitioners and petitioners in Liuchangshan, Jinan City.

On July 4, about twenty plainclothes policemen from the National Security Unit, Shahekou Sub-division and Jinxiu Police Station of the Dalian City PSB barged into the home of Wang Yonghang (王永航), a lawyer from Dalian City, Liaoning Province. Without presenting any legal documents, the policemen searched Wang’s home, held Wang’s wife down to the floor and restrained Wang’s 80-year-old mother. The policemen briefly waved some form of legal document in front of Wang’s wife, asking her to sign it, but she refused.

Wang and his wife were both taken away; his wife was released the next day.  When she went to the police station on July 6, police presented a criminal detention warrant stating that her husband had been detained in accordance with Article 300 of the Criminal Code. Article 300 stipulates the crime of “forming or using superstitious sects or secret societies or weird religious organizations or using superstition to undermine the implementation of the laws and administrative rules and regulations of the State”, and is regularly used against Falun Gong practitioners. Wang is believed to be held in Dalian City PSB Detention Center.

On July 8, Wang Ping (王平), a lawyer from Tianzhengping Law Firm (天正平律师事务所), Pingdu City, Shandong Province was also reportedly kidnapped by the local police. Details about Wang’s apprehension are currently unclear. Reportedly, Wang was also held for representing Falun Gong practitioners in Shandong Province.

Background

Liu Ruping has been practicing law since 1993, and has been a member of the Shuntian Law Firm since 2003…… (more details from Chinese Human Rights Defenders)

China detains suspect in melamine eggs case

Reuters, Nov 5, 2008-

BEIJING (Reuters) – The owner of a Chinese feed factory suspected of adding melamine to its product which turned up in tainted eggs has been detained, state media said Wednesday.

Chinese products ranging from milk powder to chocolate and yoghurt have been recalled throughout the world due to contamination fears. Melamine, used in making plastic chairs among other things, is added to cheat in nutrition tests.

Four infants have died and tens of thousands fallen ill in the scandal, the latest to sully the made-in-China brand.

Chinese eggs came under the spotlight after Hong Kong food safety authorities found tainted eggs produced by Hanwei Group in the northeastern port city of Dalian in Liaoning province……. (more details from Reuters)

China Torture Survivors at Risk of Abuse, Death after Escaping from Labor Camp

The Falun Dafa Information Center, 26 Sep 2008-

New York (FDIC)—A group of Falun Gong adherents from Liaoning province are at grave risk of torture after being arrested following a daring escape from Masanjia labor camp in August, the Falun Dafa Information Center warned on Friday.

On August 11, adherents assisted Cui Dejun (崔德军), a practitioner detained at Masanjia labor camp, in escaping from the camp’s hospital where he was being held after suffering abuse. According to sources inside China, Cui was then taken to the nearby provincial capital Shenyang and placed at the home of Yu Ming (于溟), a 37-year-old adherent also held at the camp.

Two days later, agents of the Public Security Bureau broke into the house and arrested Cui and others present, taking Cui to an unknown location. In the meantime, guards suspecting that Yu may have aided the escape have also moved him elsewhere, ignoring his scheduled release date of September 2.

“Masanjia is known as one of the most brutal forced labor camps in the country where detainees are regularly tortured with electric batons, beaten and raped. These peaceful religious believers should never have been there in the first place,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Gail Rachlin.

“That Cui escaped and may have told the world of the horrors taking place in Masanjia has sent the Chinese communist authorities into a panic. Based on the past experience of Ms. Gao Rongrong’s case and the use of incommunicado detention, Cui and Yu’s lives are in grave danger.”

In a widely publicized incident in 2004, Ms. Gao Rongrong escaped from Masanjia and photos of her face disfigured from electric baton shocks spread around the world (news). She was arrested shortly after and according to Amnesty International, died in custody in 2005 (news).

Like Gao, Yu and Cui have both been victims of extreme torture in the past, including being shocked with electric batons on their genitals, being subject to other forms of sexual abuse, and being forced to squat in an iron cage for three months. As recently as June, Cui had fallen unconscious and become incontinent.

Cui and his wife Gao Zhuo were both arrested in July 2007, along with seven of their employees who practiced Falun Gong. All were sentenced without trial to labor camp terms of 1.5 to 2 years. Yu has spent eight of the past nine years in labor camps because he continues to practice Falun Gong.

Family members and bystanders also targeted

In their efforts to catch Cui and retaliate for his escape, the Chinese authorities have also targeted the families of Cui and Yu. According to sources inside China, when agents of the Public Security Bureau broke into Yu’s home on August 13, they badly beat Yu’s nephew, and arrested him along with Yu’s wife Ma Li and his young son, leavingYu’s ten-year-old daughter Yu Zhenzhen at home by herself. They were all reportedly released several days later.

On August 14 and 15, police in the cities of Dalian and Wafandian then arrested Cui’s brother and two sisters-in-law. Cui’s brother and his wife, as well as one of their employees, were detained at the store the couple owns. The women were released shortly after, but the men’s whereabouts remain unknown.

The Falun Dafa Information Center is providing leads and phone numbers related to the case (see below) and urging human rights groups, foreign journalists and other members of the international community to:

* Conduct their own investigation into the case.
* Call Masanjia and Wafangdian officials and demand proof that these individuals are not being tortured.
* Apply pressure on the Chinese authorities to ensure the safety of those arrested and their immediate release.

– The Falun Dafa Information Center

Three China mine accidents in 4 days kill 42, trap 18

Reuters, Sun Sep 7, 2008-

BEIJING (Reuters) – Three Chinese coal mine accidents in just four days killed at least 42 people, trapped 18, and left three missing, media reported on Monday.

China’s mining industry remains the world’s deadliest amid huge demand from a booming economy, despite a government drive to close thousands of small and unsafe mines. Accidents are reported on an almost daily basis.

Flood waters trapped 24 in a coal pit in central Henan province on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency said. By Monday, only six had been rescued.

The death toll from a gas blast at a coal mine in southwest Sichuan on Friday had risen to 15, with three missing, according to a local report carried by the China News Service ( http://www.chinanews.com.cn ).

The accident happened just a day after an explosion at a colliery in northeastern Liaoning killed 27.

State media reported on Sunday that coal mine deaths dropped by almost a quarter in the first eight months of 2008, but did not mention the number of people killed.

A total of 3,786 coal miners died in gas blasts, flooding and other accidents last year, down 20 percent from 2006.

– Original: Reuters

China Attorney Defends Falun Gong: Belief Is Not a Crime

By Xin Fei, Epoch Times Staff, May 08, 2008-

On May 6, mainland attorney Wang Yonghang published an article titled “A Make-Up Law Class for Hu and Wen.” The article reads that it is extremely absurd to use “the crime of using an evil cult organization to destroy the law of the country and the implementation of administrative regulations,” to arrest, try, sentence, and imprison Falun Gong practitioners.

Wang is a resident in China’s Northeast Dalian City. On April 30, his wife was detained by the authority for posting a Falun Gong information brochure. He went to the police and asked the police to release his wife unconditionally. “I told them, there is nothing to argue about, because you have arrested a good person, the wrong person,” Wang told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.

Wang’s wife is a graduate student at the Medical Institute of Fudan University studying for a Ph.D. and will graduate next year.

Wang’s wife was arrested by Shanghai police in the morning of April 30. Wang rushed to Shanghai from Dalian the next day. A colleague advised Wang to “persuade his wife to give in.” Wang refused and said, “I am not going to do that, if I wanted to, I would have done it a long time ago.”

Wang went to the police and requested that they immediately release his wife unconditionally. He said, “As an attorney, I know the current persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, one must demand the release in confidence, because they arrested good people, they arrested those whom should not be arrested. Letting them go is something that they have to do.”

About his wife, Wang said, “She has a good personality; she used to be impatient and anxious, but Falun Gong has helped her a great deal. Therefore, I am supportive of her practice of Falun Gong, and strongly oppose the Chinese Communist Party’s suppression of Falun Gong.”

Wang’s Defense of Falun Gong Practitioners

In March, Wang was also retained by the family of a Falun practitioner to appear in court, but was blocked by the authority. He could not even get into the courtroom, not even as an observer. In another case, while in the process of appeal, he was told there was no court session, and that the case ended without a ruling. However it was later heard that the original sentence was sustained during the hearing. These two Falun Gong practitioners, one sentenced to five years in prison because banners were found in his home, and the other was sentenced to three years in prison because he wrote an appeal letter to the Ministry of Public Security.

Wang pointed out that the legal issue of Falun Gong is that during the past nine years, the regime has not allowed Falun Gong believers to talk in court, nor allowed attorneys to defend their innocence. “Generally, Falun Gong practitioners have no right to talk, and they even have difficulty hiring attorneys. As an attorney, I often express my own views, but in vain. Now I am facing my own emergency, I have no alternative but to speak up on overseas’ websites.”

No Law Broken

“Actually, should there be a law, as an attorney, I would not be worried. But in China today, there is no law to speak of when it comes to Falun Gong practitioners.”

“While appealing for my wife, it would be nice if more people get to know my view points. It will be most gratifying to be able to help mainland Falun Gong practitioners and their families.”

According to Wang’s understanding, the so-called crimes on which the authority bases its detention, abduction, conviction, and sentencing of Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China are almost all under Criminal Law 300, “Use of a cult organization to destroy the law of the country and the implementation of administrative regulations.”

Wang pointed out that regardless what Falun Gong practitioners have done and what they have said, such as the hanging of banners, distributing CD’s or pamphlets, regardless how much they have done or how big the impact, not any one of them has broken the “implementation” of any “law, or administrative regulation,” nor is there any implementation of the law or administrative regulation that can be found that was destroyed by any Falun Gong practitioners.

Regime Has No Qualification to Brand Falun Gong a Cult

“As an administrative organization, it has no right to define what is orthodox and what is cult. Much more so, the CCP itself is an atheistic regime, it has no qualification to make a pronouncement of what is orthodox and what is cult, it is obviously absurd.” Wang commented.

Wang said that he was very moved by attorney Gao Zhisheng’s third open letter to the Communist Party leaders. He said, “I cried every time I read it. I cannot figure it out why would such a group of believers suffer such cruel treatment! I began to have some understanding of the problems in this area. Gao is indeed China’s conscience, a remarkable person!”

Since last year, Wang has seen the reality of many problems. Falun Gong practitioners are in a very weak position under the law, the attorneys who provide help and support are mostly not very thorough or profound, and therefore he began to help defend Falun Gong practitioners.

Pitiful Position for Attorneys in China

He told the Epoch Times reporter, “In China, attorneys are in a pitiful position. In the regular civil cases, the role of an attorney is not much to begin with, it is even less in a criminal case. As for Falun Gong cases, no matter how well the attorney defends the case, the influence on the result is miniscule, the court does not believe in your viewpoint from the start.”

– Original report from The Epochtimes: Dalian Attorney Defends Falun Gong: Belief Is Not a Crime

Jurist: Ant Farmers in Shenyang Yilishen Incident Should Not Rely on China Authorities

By Fang Xiao, Epoch Times Staff, Jan 10, 2008-

On November 20, 2007, tens of thousands of ant farmers held demonstrations in front of the Liaoning Provincial Government, the Shanyang Municipal Government and the Headquarters of Yilishen Tianxi Group. The authorities sent Liaoning’s entire police force to suppress the protest.

Jurist Professor Yuan Hongbing analyzed the background and cause for the Yilishen incident in an interview. He advised the victims to line up with other rights defending movements across the country, and warned them not to rely on the CCP.

Yuan pointed out that the Yilishen Company was a typical collusion between government and business enterprises, and that the growth of Yilishen had close ties with Bo Xilai, the former governor of Liaoning. Yuan said the company’s development and collapse show that the “economic reform” of the CCP has not established real free market economy based on fair competition, but rather an anti-social market economy dominated and controlled by Party bigwigs.

In the past eight years, over one million ant farmers had been misguided by the CCP’s vigorous praise of Yilishen. Many ant farmers invested everything they had into breeding ants. Just over a month ago, the government forced the Yilishen Company into bankruptcy. Yuan said, “All of these events prove that Chinese authorities are realizing their power in mafia-like ways. Whoever believes in this kind of power, said Yuan, will likely face a harsh lesson.

Yuan believes that the Yilishen incident is directly linked to corrupt officials. It’s widely believed that the growth of Yilishen was connected to Bo Xilai. During Bo’s governorship Yilishen grew rapidly because the open support from the authorities and the high exposure on official media quickly won Yilishen people’s trust.

“Bo repeatedly guaranteed Yilishen’s credibility in the name of the government, which is why so many people believed in it and invested their life savings into this company,” said Yuan.

Yuan revealed that Yilishen finally fell because the company’s chairman failed to develop a good relationship with the son of the incumbent Liaoning premier. Hence after Bo left Liaoning the company lost support from the authorities, which ultimately led to Yilishen’s collapse.

Yuan commented that the Yilishen case is a typical story in China’s unjust and corrupt system, “The fundamental cause for Yilishen’s bankruptcy is the conflict between the officials and dishonest businessmen.

The officials used their power to force Yilishen to the verge of bankruptcy. This illustrates to the Chinese people a basic fact: the so-called ‘economic reform’ led by the CCP is not a free market economy based on the principle of fair competition, but a market economy manipulated and controlled by Party bigwigs. The system is established on corrupted power and lubricated by power-money deals.”

He added, “This kind of market economy is anti-social in nature, because the main function of this system is to transfer the wealth of the society into property completely handled by corrupted officials and unscrupulous merchants.”

“Under the market economy manipulated by bigwigs, it is impossible for large corporations to develop independent from the dictatorial power center,” concluded Yuan. “Collusion between corrupt power and dirty capital is the prerequisite for the survival and development of any corporation in China, especially for large ones.”

Yuan warned people not to hold any illusions about the CCP because the regime would never help return the commission to ant farmers. “In China power abuses have caused numerous similar debt disputes like the Yilishen case and involved thousands of victims.”

Since the story of the Yilishen affair broke, Liaoning authorities have taken every measure to block all related news. Meanwhile the authorities published a series of announcements to the victims in local media, dumping all the responsibilities to Yilishen president Wang Fengyou, and threatening to investigate whether the investment of the ant farmers are from legal sources. Under such threats, some ant farmers dare not make future demands to recover the debt.

What should the ant farmers do under these circumstances? Yuan’s opinion is that the first principle of China’s current rights defending activities is to fully realize the political elements underlying people’s tribulations. in China must get on the path of “Idealized Politics (translation not sure?), organized movement

“In the Yilishen case, for example, Liaoning authorities and Bo Xilai are directly responsible for the tragedy of the ant farmers. But we must realize that the root of all these is the tyranny and dictatorship of Chinese communist regime.” Therefore, he said, only when Chinese completely refuse the tyranny of the CCP, can we make sure such a tragedy doesn’t happen again.

The second principle, said Yuan, is to get organized. He said that the Yilishen victims should organize their rights defending activities in semi-secret or secret ways to fortify and focus their forces.

Yuan also advised coordinated unification means that Yilishen victims to unite with China’s other rights defending groups like unemployed military veterans. “In this way,” said Yuan, “people will form a unified frontier against the Chinese communist regime across the entire society and the entire nation.”

– Original report from the Epochtimes: Jurist: Yilishen Ant Farmers Should Not Rely on Chinese Authorities

China: Small-town Officials And Police Traveled 500 Miles to Beijing to Arrest Reporter for Corruption Exposure

By Edward Cody, from Washington Post, via the San Jose Mercury News, U.S. 01/09/2008-

BEIJING – China’s media and Internet users erupted in criticism Tuesday against some small-town officials and police officers who traveled nearly 500 miles to Beijing seeking to arrest a magazine reporter who wrote critically about their local Communist Party leader.

Editorials in the Beijing press said the officials, from Xinfeng county in northeastern China’s Liaoning province, had abused their power. Even the party’s official propaganda organ, People’s Daily, ran a signed editorial suggesting the way to deal with libel accusations is to go to court rather than use heavy-handed “administrative power.”

The attempt to arrest the reporter was an uncomfortable reminder of the degree to which local Communist Party officials and their police, in the absence of an independent judicial system, routinely exercise power without legal restraints.

Rising expectations

But the outcry from editorialists and online commentators also showed that the Chinese public’s willingness to accept such untrammeled power may be diminishing. Public expectations in this regard have been heightened recently by repeated pledges from President Hu Jintao to make the party more honest and responsive to people’s needs.

“I have always wondered what makes these cadres, even though they are educated and trained by the party for so many years, fail to perform normally, ignoring their superiors and arrogantly challenging the central media,” wrote an Internet user who said he was a professor at the University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. “Where does their confidence and strength come from? It shows a lack of democracy and rule of law at the grass-roots level.”

The controversy began when a Xinfeng gasoline station owner, Zhao Junping, accused the county government of failing to pay her adequate compensation when it expropriated and tore down one of her stations in 2006 to make way for a new trading center. Reinforcing her complaint, she sent her friends a number of cell-phone messages satirizing the local party secretary, Zhang Zhiguo, for refusing to give in to her demands for more money.

Zhao also traveled to Beijing last year to petition the national government for redress. But Xinfeng county police followed her to the capital and took her back, eventually jailing her and putting her on trial in a local court for tax-dodging and libel. She has been behind bars for about nine months, her case still unresolved.

The dispute caught the attention of Zhu Wenna, editorial director of a monthly magazine in Beijing, and she wrote a story about it in the Jan. 1 issue. Three days later, the Xinfeng country propaganda director and law committee director showed up in her Beijing office with a document accusing her of inaccuracies about party secretary Zhang.

Zhu refused to entertain their complaint. But they returned in the afternoon, this time accompanied by three Xinfeng police officers and armed with an arrest warrant from the Xinfeng Public Security Bureau accusing her of libel, which in China can be a criminal as well as a civil offense.

Zhu, meanwhile, had disappeared, and her editor, Wang Fengbin, refused to reveal where she was. The police officers waited until 6 p.m. for her return, but to no avail. From her hiding spot, she told friends she had retained an attorney and was seeking help from the party-sponsored All-China Journalists Association.

Defects of society

Party leader Zhang, contacted by the Beijing newspaper Xinjing Bao, said he had not issued orders to the Xinfeng police to arrest Zhu and had no idea how they came to travel to Beijing. But his critics seemed not to buy that defense.

“This incident shows fully the defects of our society, in which power is not effectively checked and local so-called judiciaries are actually the tools of local officials,” said one of Monday’s 30,000-plus Internet commentators. “What’s the difference with the feudal emperors?”

Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at China Youth University for Political Sciences, wrote in Xinjing Bao that the attempt to prosecute Zhu for criminal libel was “appalling and will incur serious criticism from the public.” At the same time, he noted libel can be a criminal offense under Chinese law, so the police were legally justified in coming to Beijing to make an arrest.

But a commentator in Shanghai disagreed: “Why, I feel like I am watching a gangster movie,” he wrote.

– Report from the San Jose Mercury News: China party officials stir media, online protests

China dam collapsed, 2 villages destroied by torrent

BEIJING, Nov 25 (Reuters) – A dam collapse in northeast China sent a torrent of mud and debris into two nearby villages, killing six and leaving another seven missing, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

The collapse of the dam, holding back waste from iron ore production, in Liaoning province’s Shiqiaozi village injured another 17, all of whom were in a stable condition.

Rescuers were searching for the missing as 10 bulldozers cleared mud and ore.

An 80-metre wide river of debris spilled across fields and into two low-lying villages, destroying cropland and 33 houses.

“The priority of our work is to look for the missing and resettle the homeless,” Xinhua quoted Yang Jinfang, head of the publicity department in the nearby city of Anshan, as saying.

The dam, which Xinhua said belonged to the Dingyang Mining Co. Ltd, an iron ore producer, was supposed to be used to contain waste ore, but over the years there had been a buildup of water.

Authorities had sent inspectors to check four similar dams in the area, the report said.

China is frequently beset by industrial and environmental disasters.

Last week, 31 people were crushed in a landslide in central China, most of them trapped in a long-distance bus that was buried under an avalanche of boulders, earth and mud at the entrance to a railway tunnel being built near the site of the Three Gorges Dam. (Reporting by Lindsay Beck)

– Original report from Reuters : China dam collapse kills six, seven missing

China Attempts to Arrest 3 International Vocal Competition Contestants

Epoch Times Staff, Oct 10, 2007-

Police in Fushun City in China attempted on Monday night to arrest three individuals who had applied to take part in a vocal competition to be held in the United States. None of the three happened to be home at the time, and thus escaped arrest.

The timing of the arrest seems to have been chosen in order to prevent the three from returning to the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang City to pick up visas they had applied for. Oct. 1 is China’s National Day, which is followed by a week-long holiday. Tuesday would have been the first day the Consulate would have been open for business since Oct. 1.

The three singers had planned to compete in the International Chinese Vocal Competition , which is sponsored by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV). The competition is scheduled to begin on Oct. 15 in New York City.

According to Ms. Carrie Hung, a spokesperson for NTDTV, the attempted arrests “show the impact that NTDTV is having on people inside China. This competition has attracted a lot of contestants from mainland China.”

She feels the attempted arrests happened “fundamentally because the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] fears losing control of the Chinese people. NTDTV is independent and broadcasts uncensored, honest reports about China. The CCP fears how NTDTV’s influence inside China is growing.”

The three singers had previously been in touch with NTDTV about their visa applications. They had first gone to the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang City one month ago to apply. After each of them had shown the required 300,000 yuan (approximately US$39,000) in financial resources, the Consulate nonetheless rejected their requests upon learning they intended to take part in the NTDTV competition.

The NTDTV Vocal Competition Organizing Committee then mailed a letter to the U.S. Consulate, and the Consulate in turn contacted the three singers asking them to wait for the result.

How the Chinese police learned of the singers’ intention to take part in the competition is not clear. All three had passports and so their local police would not have learned of their intentions through a passport application. However, it is common knowledge in China that many of the Chinese employees of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates are assigned their positions by the Chinese Public Security Bureau.

The International Chinese Vocal Competition is the second in a series of competitions being sponsored by NTDTV. The International Chinese Classical Dance Competition was held in July in New York City. NTDTV also plans international competitions in Martial Arts, violin, piano, Chinese Sports, Chinese Cooking, Chinese Traditional Costume Design, and Chinese Realistic Painting.

The renowned Chinese tenor Mr. Guan Guimin heads the vocal competition’s Judges Committee. He has explained that the purpose of the competition is to promote the traditional vocal arts and to show their beauty and elegance.

The contest has a first prize of US$10,000. According to NTDTV, so far over one hundred contestants from 19 countries have applied to compete.

Ms. Hung sees in the attempted arrests on Monday a symptom of much larger problems. She asks, “How could the hosting country for the Olympics behave in this way? The CCP wants people to believe it has made improvements in human rights. But when three professional singers wish to do something as simple as take part in an international competition, then we see what rights the CCP allows them.”

– Original report from the Epochtimes: Chinese Regime Attempts to Arrest Vocal Competition Contestants