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.

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)

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

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 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

From Labour Camps to APEC– China Commerce Minister Bo Xilai

By Andrew Carlisle and Glen Mullins, Epoch Times Australia Staff, Sep 04, 2007-

One of China’s key delegates at this week’s APEC summit, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, was promoted up through Communist Party ranks after overseeing the administration of forced labour camps in Liaoning Province, one of China’s main industrial bases.

One may wonder why this man has been allowed into the country.

With the title of Commerce Minister many Australians may have presumed that Bo Xilai is China’s version of our treasurer Peter Costello or perhaps the trade minister Warren Truss.

But the similarities end there.

Bo Xilai has been pursued by the courts in no less than ten countries including, Canada, Australia, US, England, Ireland, and Spain to answer allegations of such serious crimes as systematic torture and genocide.

Here in Australia, a local Falun Gong practitioner Pan Yu is seeking justice through Australia’s courts after suffering terribly when he was forcibly detained under the authority of Bo Xilai at China’s Shenyang City’s Danan Custody Centre.

Mr Yu says he was held for six months and was subjected to all kinds of torture and abuse after he went to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong which has suffered persecution in China since 1999.

“Once people understand the magnitude of the crimes being committed, they will be shocked and horrified,” Mr Yu said.

It is claimed that Bo Xilai openly authorised his subordinates to employ torture in an effort to coerce Falun Gong practitioners into giving up their practice. Cases of death by torture increased sharply under Bo Xilai’s authority.

When Bo Xilai was governor of Liaoning Province from January 2001 to February 2004, he allegedly planned and developed large prison facilities and poured more than 1 billion yuan into upgrading notorious facilities such as the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp.

The Falun Dafa information centre say that in 2003, Liaoning Province invested five hundred million Yuan in Shenyang to construct China’s first prison complex built simply to hold Falun Gong practitioners. The complex is huge, sprawling over 1.3 square kilometres.

The first media reports that brought attention to the shocking atrocities of forced organ harvesting from thousands of living Falun Gong practitioners were also in Liaoning Province.

And over the days to come as Bo Xilai, the former governor of Liaoning Province, attends APEC, the authors of a investigative report into those allegations of organ harvesting will also visiting Sydney – former Canadian secretary of state for Asia Pacific David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas.

The Canadians are to receive an award for their human rights work while also taking the opportunity to attend forums in most of Australia’s capital cities.

Thanks to the efforts of such individuals as Mr Kilgour and Mr Matas, Australia’s political community are attending APEC knowing full-well the unrelenting nature of China’s Communist regime.

The burning question is do they possess the moral fortitude to make a stand for cardinal human values and the integrity of the democratic institution they claim to represent?

– Original report from the Epochtimes: From Labour Camps to APEC–Commerce Minister Bo Xilai

China Prepares for the World Economic Forum by Sending 7,000 Police to Detain Falun Gong

ChinaScope Magazine, Virginia, U.S,  08/28/2007-

The World Economic Forum, also called the Davos Forum, will hold the Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2007 in Dalian ( city) , China from September 6 to 8, 2007.

The Davos Forum in Dalian is considered the largest international conference ever held in China. 1,200 registered guests from 88 countries and about 600 members of the international press will be attending.

Accoriding to Minghui.org, a Falun Gong website, Dalian authorities have intensified their crackdown on Falun Gong. http://search.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/8/23/161364.html#2007-8-22-chjx-11

The Chinese government has dispatched over 7,000 police and state agents to Dalian to intensify its round up of Falun Gong practitioners. The authorities have resorted to high technology in wire tapping, Internet monitoring, following and positioning, under-cover operations, finger printing, taxi surveillance, mail censorship and other means.

Since June 2007, police stations at local communities have used various pretexts to dispatch police to households for verification of resident cards. The police have also visited those Falun Gong practitioners whose names are on record at the police stations.

Meanwhile, Dalian Internet police have installed Green Net, an Internet Network monitoring system in hotels, restaurants and office buildings to prevent Internet users from visiting “sensitive” overseas websites. Surveillance cameras have been installed on main streets to track Falun Gong practitioners who may be giving flyers to passers-by.

In the first half of 2007, the authorities arrested 84 Falun Gong practitioners. The number now exceeds 100.

– Original report from ChinaScope : Dalian Prepares for the World Economic Forum by Detaining Falun Gong

Photo: China Modern Torture Methods (15) – Flying An Airplane

[tweetmeme source=’chinaindepth’ only_single=false]

The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group –Evidence has surfaced of over 100 torture methods being employed by Chinese authority against Falun Gong adherents in China’s labour camps, detention centers, and mental hospitals, to force them to renounce their belief, or by physically destroying them if they refuse.

Torture Methods (15) – “Flying An Airplane”

Victims are forced to bend over while holding their legs straight. The person’s head is bent down until it cannot go down any further, while the hands are pulled up and held up to the highest point. The hips have to point up.

The body in this position looks like the shape of an airplane, which is how this torture de-rived its name. With the feet close together, the arms are lifted to the highest position and the hands must touch the wall.

Cases

1. Yu Lixin, female, 27, resident of Dalian City, Liaoning Province

Ms. Yu Lixin was detained at the Dalian City Detention Center because she practiced Falun Gong.

On the evening of April 15, 2001, she was forced to stand with her hands clasped behind her head and, at the same time, bow down at a 90-degree angle. Mean-while, she was beaten, kicked and shocked on the back of her neck with an electric baton.

There were bruises all over her body.

In the early morning on April 16, 2001, Ms. Yu was escorted to a room on the fifth floor, ostensibly to clean it. All of the rooms in the detention center had iron parapets enclosing the windows, except for the room that Ms. Yu was supposed to be cleaning.

Shortly after being escorted to the room, she was seen falling from the window. The fall killed her.

2. Li Binghua, male, 39, a farmer, resident of Yuxin Town, Tianmen City, Hubei Province

In May 2000, Mr. Li Binghua went to Beijing to appeal to the government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Consequently, he was arrested and sentenced to one year of forced labor at the Shayang Labor Camp.

The Labor Camp officers did not allow him to rest. Even when Mr. Li was walking, they forcefully made him walk as if “flying an airplane.”

They ceaselessly insulted him and took turns telling dirty stories and saying disgusting things in his ears. They intentionally pulled him out of the restroom when he was in the middle of urinating, and they did not let him use toilet tissue when he went to the toilet. They would stop him or put dirty things into his bowl when he had only finished half of his meal.

Four inmates, instigated by the camp officers, often took turns beating Mr. Li, slamming his head or body against the wall. This kind of torture occurred over a long period. As a result, Mr. Li began to exhibit the behavior of someone who is brain-damaged.

The labor camp authorities locked Mr. Li in a “solitary confinement” cell to isolate him from others.

– Original report from flghrwg.net

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<< China Modern Torture Methods (14)– “Forced Jump from Tall Building”
>> (Photo) China Modern Torture Methods (16) – “Squat”

Related:
– List of China Modern Torture Methods (slide show)
– China: 2508 Family Members’Open Letter Expose Torture, the Epoch Times, Dec 11, 2006
– Lawyer’s 3rd open letter urge China to stop the Brutality(1), December 12, 2005, Gao Zhisheng

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China’s new missile submarine seen by commercial satellite

Reuters, Jul 6, 2007-

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China’s newest ballistic missile submarine, the Jin-class vessel, has been spotted for the first time by a commercial satellite, a nuclear expert at the Federation of American Scientists said on Thursday.

The submarine was photographed in late 2006 south of the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, said Hans Kristensen, director of the FAS’s Nuclear Information Project.

It appeared to be based on Russia’s Victor-3 model and, although photographs are unclear, resembles China’s early-1980s Xia-class submarines, said Kristensen, who spotted the long-anticipated vessel.

The 133-metre Jin-class submarine probably will carry Julang-2 sea-launched ballistic missiles in its estimated 12 launch tubes. It was spotted moored at Xiaopingdao Submarine Base, which it has used for testing in the past, he said.

“Chinese nuclear submarines are normally not based there. They’re located to the south, near Qingdao,” Kristensen said by telephone.

In a defense strategy paper published on Thursday, Australia echoed previous documents by the United States and Japan in voicing concern about a rapid Chinese military expansion and lack of transparency about strategy and policy.

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence estimated in December that China might build five Jin-class submarines, but that estimate was not included in the Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military power, published in May, Kristensen noted.

“The Chinese naval nuclear programs so far have been very, very slow,” he said. “They’ve managed to get this submarine out, but it’s been under construction for many years.”

Images of the submarine are published and analyzed on the FAS web site http://www.fas.org and visible on Google Earth http://earth.google.com.

Normally secretive China likely sees a deterrent effect in allowing the submarine to be seen from the sky by outsiders, Kristensen said.

“The fact that they have it and the fact that it moves around, I’m sure they want the world to know about it,” he said.

– Original report from Reuters

Visiting Chinese Diplomat Served $6M Lawsuit in Canada

Falun Gong practitioners claim official is guilty of crimes against humanity

Melissa Leong, National Post, Canada –

Falun Gong practitioners charge that a visiting Chinese diplomat is guilty of crimes against humanity and served him with a lawsuit yesterday afternoon in the elevator of an Ottawa hotel.

A member of the Falun Gong spiritual movement gave Bo Xilai, China’s Minister of Commerce, a statement of claim that alleges he “orchestrated and led a campaign of terror” while serving as mayor of the coastal city Dalian and deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party for the Liao Ning Province.

Rong Jin, a 27-year-old former Chinese resident, is seeking $6.25-million in damages claiming that she was detained on two occassions in Dalian prisons, where she was tortured in 2000 for practising Falun Gong.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

Mr. Bo met with David Emerson, Canada’s Trade Minister, yesterday to discuss investment and commercial relations while dozens of Falun Gong members demonstrated outside of the Foreign Affairs headquarters.

“I have known Minister Bo for 10 years, since he was the Mayor of Dalian and … he’s my counterpart, we have a tremendous amount of work to do together and [I have] a tremendous respect for him,” Mr. Emerson told reporters yesterday.

“What is transpiring in terms of these other issues, I really have no comment on that.”

Falun Gong practitioners complained that the RCMP kept them from serving Mr. Bo with legal documents, which police cited was for security reasons. Lin Di, an Ottawa resident, later presented Mr. Bo with the papers at The Westin as he stood in an elevator. “He wouldn’t accept it. I threw it to him.”

Mr. Bo or the Chinese embassy have 40 days to file a statement of defence or Ms. Rong can ask for a judgment in his absence, said Lawrence Greenspon, a human rights lawyer in Ottawa who has taken the case. Ms. Rong is able to sue Mr. Bo in Canada because she continues to suffer damages, he added.

“When I remember my experience in China when I was a freshman in university, it is a nightmare,” said Ms. Rong, an accountant now living in Toronto. “I hope this lawsuit will be helpful to my local practitioners, to free them from jail.”

The statement of claim was issued in Superior Court in 2005 when Mr. Bo was scheduled to visit Canada. He did not make the trip. The statement of claim was reissued last week.

Mr. Bo, a charismatic politician who has been called the John F. Kennedy of China, has been accused of torture and murder in lawsuits brought by Falun Gong practitioners in several countries.

Calls to the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China and its embassy in Ottawa were not returned yesterday. In a statement posted to its Canadian embassy’s Web site, the Chinese government called Falun Gong a “cult” that has “degenerated into an anti-China political organization.”

Mr. Greenspon said the lawsuit also helps raise public awareness about the alleged injustices in China.

“At the very least, their hope is Canada should not be playing host to people of authority who are responsible for torture,” he said.

– original report from National Post

Related:
– Canada Will Protect Chinese Crimes Against Humanity Offenders, May 28, 2007

Canada Will Protect Chinese Crimes Against Humanity Offenders

By Judi McLeod, Canada Free Press, Monday, May 28, 2007-

While their next-door neighbours are paying homage to fallen soldiers during Memorial Day 2007, Canadians will be thwarted from serving papers on an alleged killer and one of China’s most notorious crimes against humanity offenders.

Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai–said to be responsible for 100 confirmed torture deaths of Falun Gong adherents while held in police custody in Liaoning Province–is expected in Ottawa today at the invitation of Canada’s Minister of International Trade David Emerson.

Accepted on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP’s) watch-list in September 2003, Bo is now being given Mountie protection.

“On Sunday May 27th, RCMP Constable M. Mongeon told Falun Gong practitioners that he had received high-level orders to arrest anyone who tries to serve Bo Xilai legal papers.” (Falun Dafa Association of Canada).

Bo, 57, Mayor of the City of Dalian, Liaoning when the persecution of Falun Gong was launched in July 1999, is one of the communist party’s prize “princelings”, the son of a first-generation, high-ranking communist party official. It was while Bo was serving as Governor of Liaoning from 2001 to 2004 when 100 torture deaths of Falun Gong prisoners were confirmed.

All pleas to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, publicly credited for acting with conviction and compassion when it comes to respecting human rights, have fallen on proverbial deaf ears.

With the exception of the National Post, media mewlings about Bo’s Ottawa visit today are all but non existent.

The Falun Association of Canada got little help in even being able to pinpoint the timing of Bo’s Ottawa visit: “Jennifer Chiu, press secretary at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, did not deny that a visit was in the works but told The Epoch Times Wednesday “the visit is not confirmed”. (The Epoch Times, May 24, 2007).

Today Falun Gong practitioners will converge on Ottawa to rally with banners in front of Parliament Hill expressing their outrage over the Canadian government’s hosting of Bo.

“Evidence of Bo’s complicity in torture and crimes against humanity has prompted lawsuits in 10 countries.” (Falun Dafa Association of Canada).

Attorney Lawrence Greenspon states: “Canadians have rights to sue and serve legal documents on those who have wronged them. It is completely unacceptable that the RCMP would protect Bo Xilai from being served with proper legal proceedings.”

“We are shocked that our government, who has recently shown some moral stand over human rights abuses in China, has taken such an about face on this issue by shielding a criminal of genocide and stopping Canadians from their right to seek legal redress for crimes against humanity,” said Xun Li, Falun Dafa Association of Canada President.

Any diplomatic shielding of Bo flies in the face of the more than 318 documented death cases of Falun Gong practitioners as recent as April 23, 2007. Recent reports from David Kilgour and David Matas show substantial but largely ignored evidence of “large-scale organ seizures” from murdered Falun Gong practitioners in Liaoning Province.

Bo, who was scheduled to visit Canada along with current Chinese leader Hu Jintao, made like the Artful Dodger when Liberal Paul Martin was Prime Minister in 2005. Falun Gong activists were proud to acknowledge that it was their protests kept him back in the Orient.

This was how Bo reacted when an attempt was made to serve papers on him in Washington, D.C.: Suddenly clueing in that he had been served with court papers, tyrant like, the ex-governor of Liaoning threw the papers to the ground. Someone in his entourage physically attacked the process server, the process server said.

An attempt to file a lawsuit against Bo in South Africa by nine Falun Gong practitioners met with violence.

On June 28, 2004 enroute from Johannesburg Airport, a gunman with an assault rifle shot at as Falun Gong practitioner’s vehicle, hospitalizing the driver. After disabling the car, the would-be assassin made no attempt at robbery and successfully fled the scene. The practitioners believed the gunman was a killer for hire.

Today’s visit by Bo to Parliament could be catalogued as the Liberal legacy of Canada’s Minister of International Trade David Emerson.

First elected as a Liberal, Emerson served as Minister of Industry under Prime Minister Paul Martin. He was re-elected in the 2006 federal election as a Liberal. On February 6, 2006, Emerson accepted an offer to join the Canadian Conservative Government as Minister of Internal Trade and Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics. Emerson was never made to answer to constituent voters for being the first Canadian MP to cross the floor after being officially elected–but before being officially sworn in.

Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Judi can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com.

– original report: Canada’s RCMP will protect Chinese Commerce Minister against Falun Gong activists in Ottawa today

Photo: China Modern Torture Methods (2)- Electric Shock

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Falun Dafa Information Center –

Evidence has surfaced of over 100 torture methods being employed against Falun Gong practitioners in China’s labour camps, detention centers, and mental hospitals.

Torture Methods (2) – Electric shock

Electric batons are among the most commonly used torture instruments employed by police officers and jail guards in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.

(Picture left: illustration: Electric shock )

They use electric batons that carry voltages as high as 300,000 volts to shock practitioners’ sensitive areas, including the mouth, center of the palms, center of the bottom of the feet, genitals, chest, neck, and breasts. Sometimes they use several electric batons simultaneously to shock practitioners.

The labour camp authorities often pour water on the practitioners to intensify the electric shocks. Some police also use a homemade electric shocking device; it resembles a masonry brick in size and shape, and it carries a much higher voltage than regular electric batons.

The skin will break open and bleed in every place that receives a shock from this device.

Cases

1. Ms. Gao Rongrong, 36, tortured with electric batons for 7 consecutive hours on face by Labour Camp officials.

Victim: Ms. Gao Rongrong, accountant at the Luxun Fine Arts College in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, northeaset China

Ms. Gao Rongrong

Tortured face of Gao Rongrong

In July 2003, Gao Rongrong was sent tothe Longshan Forced Labour Camp (Shenyang City) because she made peaceful appeals to the government to end the persecution of Falun Gong. During her detention, Ms. Gao had been beaten by camp officials, according to sources familiar with her case.

(Photo upper left: Gao Rongrong’s face after shocked by electric batons. Photo upper right: Ms. Gao Rongrong )

“At approximately 3:00 p.m. on May 7, 2004, Tang Yubao, the deputy head of the No. 2 Brigade, along with team leader Jiang Zhaohua, called Ms. Gao to the duty office and tortured her with electric batons for seven hours, according to these sources.

“Those detained with Ms. Gao in the labour camp say she sustained burns on her face, head, and neck, which caused her face to swell and become disfigured.

“Her face was covered with blisters, and her hair was matted with pus and blood. She could open her eyes only a crack because her face and mouth were severely swollen and deformed.” ( full report of this torture case)

2. Woman’s Breasts Disfigured and Infected from Severe Electric Shock Torture

Victim: Ms. Wang Yunjie, female, a Falun Gong practitioner from Dalian City, Liaoning Province

Torture happened: In Masanjia Labor Camps, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province

Warning: It is recommended that children and those with delicate sensitivities refrain from viewing these photos.

Photo 1 , Photo 2

excerpt of the story:

“At first, they kept Ms. Wang in isolation. Two collaborators monitored her. She was denied sleep and forced to stand still in the corner of the room. The next day, she had to sit on a chair with her hands tied behind her back to the back of the chair. At night, they had her wear a motorcycle helmet.

“The guards kept chopsticks and a basin of cold water ready to use, and whenever Ms. Wang closed her eyes, they poured water over her and hit the helmet hard with the chopsticks.

“Two guards from Benxi, holding electric batons, shouted, “We will see who is tougher!” The two men tore Ms. Wang’s shirt open and shocked her breasts with two electric batons for 30 minutes.

“Afterwards, they made her stand still for the entire night. The next morning, guard Guo Tieying asked Ms. Wang nastily whom she would follow. Ms. Wang replied, “I will follow the teachings of Falun Gong.”

“Guo Tieying immediately brought in two guards and several collaborators to torture her. They tore a bed sheet into strips and tied her legs in a cross-legged position (with legs double-crossed, as in the ‘full lotus’ position). Next they handcuffed her arms behind her back and tied her upper body to her legs, making Ms. Wang look like a ball. Then they suspended her in the air by the handcuffs, with her hands still behind her back.

“She suffered excruciating pain from this torture for seven hours.

“Afterwards, Ms. Wang could no longer walk with her back straight, but was bent over, nor could she sit straight. Her breasts were disfigured by the intense shocks, and eventually developed serious infections.” ( full report of this torture case )

3. Prof. Zhang Kunlun, an Canadian citizen ‘s experience

“My name is Kunlun Zhang. I am a Canadian citizen and a professor of art. Because I practice Falun Gong, I was arrested three times while staying in China to take care of my elderly mother-in-law.

On November 14, 2000, I was sentenced without trial by the Chinese authorities to three years in (Shandong province ) labour camp because I refused to denounce Falun Gong. With the help of the Canadian government, Amnesty International, and the international community, I was released on January 10, 2001.

“During my detention, policemen beat me to the floor and shocked me all over my body with high-voltage electric batons. They threatened that if I uttered a sound, they would shock my mouth.

The head of the police station said to me, “We have orders from Jiang Zemin. As long as you refuse to denounce Falun Gong, we can do whatever we want to you. If you were beaten to death, we could simply bury you and tell the outside world that you had committed suicide.”

My arms, legs, and other areas were burnt in many places from the intense electric shocks. I could even smell my own burning flesh. The beatings and electric shocks injured my left leg badly. It took three months for the wounds to heal.” ( Statement by Mr. Kunlun Zhang)

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<< Photo: China Modern Torture Methods (1) – Burning
>> Photo: China Modern Torture Methods (3)- Sexual Abuse

Related:
– List of China Modern Torture Methods (slideshow)
– China: 2508 Family Members’Open Letter Expose Torture, the Epoch Times, Dec 11, 2006
– Lawyer’s 3rd open letter urge China to stop the Brutality(1), December 12, 2005, Gao Zhisheng

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China’s Minister of Commerce Sued for Torture in Sweden

Clearwisdom.net, 9/17/2006-

On September 15, while Bo Xilai, China’s Minister of Commerce, was visiting Sweden, Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit against the Chinese Minister of Commerce for murder, torture, and abduction.

At 9:00 a.m., practitioners submitted an indictment to the Swedish Police, charging Bo for murder, torture, and abduction. The Stockholm Police Department accepted the document.

A practitioner later told reporters, “When Bo Xilai was the Mayor of Dalian from 1999 to 2001 and the governor of Liaoning Province from 2001 to 2004, Dalian City and Liaoning Province were among the cities and provinces that persecuted Falun Gong most severely. Reportedly, at least 357 practitioners have been persecuted to death in Liaoning. During his tenure as governor, Bo funneled more than 10 million dollars into renovating prisons to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. In October 2000, personnel at the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp stripped the clothes off 18 female Dafa practitioners and threw them naked into the male criminals’ cells. In addition, the most recent evidence suggests that Bo was involved in harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. Because of his role in persecuting Falun Gong, Bo has been sued in nine countries including the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Ireland, Russia, Australia, Korea and Spain.

Another practitioner added, “Sweden is a democratic country. It is a disgrace for our government to allow a notorious criminal to come to our free land. We have the right to sue him, even though he is now the Chinese Minister of Commerce. He must be held accountable for the crimes he has committed and he is not eligible for immunity. Our government and the royal family do not know of Bo’s crimes. We wouldn’t allow him to enter Sweden if we knew he was coming. However, his visit will be a good lesson for him. He should know that good is rewarded with good and evil meets with retribution.”

The practitioners said that they will hold several activities to expose Bo Xilai’s crimes to the public, media and the government.

17 communist union branches now set up in Wal-Mart China

China Labour Bulletin, 15 August 2006–

Since July 29, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions(ACFTU, state controlled)’s drive to set up union branches in Wal-Mart stores in China has snowballed rapidly, with a total of 17 union branches now having been formed in Wal-Mart stores in cities around the country. They include three unions in Fuzhou and one in Quanzhou, Fujian Province; one in Nanjing and another in Shanghai; three in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province; two in Shenyang and three in Dalian, Liaoning Province; and others in Jinan and Qingdao, Shandong Province, and in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province.

Wal-Mart first entered China’s domestic market in 1996 and currently employs around 32,000 workers in some 60 retail stores nationwide. Since 2003, the company has been under sustained pressure from the ACFTU to permit the formation of union branches in its China stores. In November 2004, the company caved in and publicly stated: “Should associates [i.e. employees] request formation of a union, Wal-Mart China would respect their wishes and honour its obligation under China’s Trade Union Law.” For the next year and a half, however, the ACFTU tried in vain to persuade Wal-Mart to cooperate in the actual establishment of union branches in its China stores.

That all changed after Hu Jintao, China’s president and Communist Party leader, directly intervened in March of this year. A lengthy article published on August 15 in the Beijing daily newspaper Xin Jing Bao (New Capital News) explains why the current spate of Wal-Mart union branches in China has emerged so suddenly and unexpectedly:

“According to the ACFTU’s records, On March 14 this year CPC Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao issued instructions on a report titled A Situation Analysis on the Factors of Instability in Foreign-invested Enterprises in China’s Coastal Area, and Some Proposed Countermeasures. Hu Jintao ordered: “Do a better job of building Party organizations and trade unions in foreign-invested enterprises.” This created a new and opportune moment for union building in foreign enterprises. On March 16 the ACFTU instructed its staff to study Hu Jintao’s comments, and it set the target of unionizing 60 percent or more of the country’s foreign-invested enterprises by the end of 2006, and 80 percent or more by the end of 2007.”

ACFTU Fulfils its Quota – Wal-Mart Accepts Fait Accompli

On Saturday, July 29, 25 Wal-Mart workers in the city of Quanzhou, Fujian Province, formed a seven-member trade union committee, thus breaking the long-standing absence of unions in Wal-Mart’s China stores. On August 4, 42 more workers at a Wal-Mart store in Shenzhen formed a union. The retail giant saw its third union in China set-up the following day in its Xinjiekou store in Nanjing, where 31 employees elected a local university graduate to head their trade union committee. Several hours later, another union was formed by 12 workers at a second Wal-Mart store in Shenzhen; and then on August 8, 27 employees of yet another store in Shenzhen voted to form the company’s fifth union branch.

All the union branches are relatively small, with around 25 to 35 members each. But what mainly distinguishes them, according to official Chinese reports, is that they were all set up “on the initiative of the workers themselves”, and in accordance with provisions of the PRC Trade Union Law of 2002 mandating the formation of unions in enterprises employing more than 25 workers. Regulations enacted by the Guangdong government in 2004 lowered the union-building threshold still further, in that province, to as few as 10 workers in a single enterprise.

For the first couple of weeks, Wal-Mart representatives remained uncharacteristically silent about the sudden unionization drive within the company’s China stores. On August 9, however, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the vice president of Wal-Mart China, Li Chengjie, as saying it wanted to cooperate with the ACFTU “in a more effective and harmonious way.” The same day, the ACFTU warned Wal-Mart not to retaliate against workers who form unions. The group, “led by the Communist Party of China and backed by the government, will take measures to protect these workers,” Xinhua reported, paraphrasing Guo Wencai, director of the ACFTU’s department of grassroots organizing. Wal-Mart then asked for direct negotiations with the ACFTU and requested that “no media” be allowed to attend such meetings. The 12 most recent Wal-Mart union branches have all been formed over the past week, and it now seems clear that the ACFTU’s goal is to unionize all 60 Wal-Mart stores around the country. (to be cont’d…)

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Related:
– Capitalist Wal-Mart goes communist in China , August 24th, 2006