Canadian Performs Red Opera Guided by Confucius Institute at Beijing Propaganda Show

Every year in China the communist regime stages a long variety show on the only national broadcaster, China Central Television, ringing in the Chinese New Year with a good helping of pro-regime propaganda.

Joining the gaudy hosts and crooning singers in their annual ritual, the Spring Festival Gala, this past Saturday was a Canadian opera virtuoso, Thomas Glenn. He co-sung part of an old communist “red opera” that was freighted with more meaning than he realized, or was told by his Chinese handlers.

Organ harvesting Conference calling on Taiwanese to pay more attention to human rights issues in China

(Taipei Times)– Despite economic growth, the condition of human rights in China is still very bad — especially when it comes to the persecution of religious and minority groups by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — participants at a conference on human rights in China said yesterday, calling on Taiwanese to pay more attention to human rights issues in China.

“Taiwanese are not paying enough attention to issues related to human rights and democracy in China, and I think the first thing we can do to help China democratize is show more concern,” said Maysing Yang (楊黃美幸), deputy executive director of Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, a sponsor of the conference organized by the Association for Free Communication.

Chinese Version of ‘Bloody Harvest’ Released in Taiwan

The two authors of the book Bloody Harvest, who were also 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominees, attended the launch for the Chinese translation of Bloody Harvest, held at the Legislative Yuan (the national legislature) in Taiwan on June 28.

Each of the two authors, David Kilgour, who was the former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific), and David Matas, the award-winning international human rights lawyer, spoke.

David Kilgour said that since 2006 he and David Matas had traveled to four continents and more than 40 countries, breaking through various obstacles to collect evidence, and arrived at the conclusion that large-scale live organ harvesting from Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) practitioners did happen and continues even today.

RSF: Communist Party celebrates longevity, but Chinese activist says it has gone deaf

As China’s Communist Party celebrates the 90th anniversary of its founding today, beginning with a flag-raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square attended by 30,000 people, Reporters Without Borders insists that the toll from the crackdown of the past 90 days outweighs all the achievements of the past 90 years that the party has been proclaiming.

“The party’s efforts to present a festive image of national cohesion are designed to hide a disturbing deterioration in freedom of expression and information, especially during the last five months,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The ceremonies and political speeches must not be allowed to eclipse the wave of arrests of dissidents and human rights lawyers, and the censorship in Inner Mongolia.

Millions Worldwide Celebrate Falun Dafa Day

On May 13, 1992, in a humble schoolhouse in northeastern China, Mr. Li Hongzhi began teaching Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa), introducing to modern China a practice with roots extending back thousands of years. By early 1999, there were 70 to 100 million people practicing Falun Gong in China alone, their slow-moving meditative exercises visible at dawn in parks across the country.

Nineteen years later, Falun Gong has transcended cultural and national boundaries to bring physical health, joy and peace of mind to the lives of millions
 around the globe. From Cape Town to Cannes, Bangledesh to Berlin, Tokyo to Tehran, Falun Gong is practiced in over 100 
countries, its teachings freely available in 30 languages. Even under harsh persecution, tens of millions in China continue to practice.

Persecution in China Continues 12 Years After 10,000-Strong Appeal

In Europe, Asia and the United States over the weekend, Falun Gong practitioners marked the 12th anniversary of the largest peaceful demonstration in China in 20 years. That demonstration, on April 25, 1999, was followed three months later by a violent crackdown—when the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to arrest and torture Falun Gong practitioners.

On Saturday, practitioners like Xu Yan in Brussels used the anniversary to call for an end to the ongoing persecution.

The Persecution Before the Persecution, in China

On April 25, 1999, the most “serious political incident” since 1989 occurred in China. Over 10,000 practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice, had quietly gathered on the streets of Beijing and silently stood and sat from morning to night, seeking to be allowed to practice their faith free from harassment.

The incident is often seen as the catalyst to what happened next: a nationwide Cultural Revolution-style persecution featuring incessant propaganda, cruel violence, labor camps, and thought reeducation campaigns that continues to this day. But a look at the three years that preceded that incident shows that rather than being the catalyst to the persecution, it was practitioners’ last-ditch effort to head off what hardliners inside the Communist Party had been hatching since 1996.

Riverdance Producer John McColgan: Shen Yun’s ‘Standard of the performers was terrific’

DUBLIN—“The dance is very elegant and very athletic, very skilled … it’s a pleasure to watch,” said Mr. John McColgan, who attended the final of three Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company performances at The Convention Centre in Dublin on Sunday, March 27.

Mr. McColgan is a founding director of Tyrone Productions, an independent television production company, and chairman of Today FM radio station. He is perhaps best known for his key role in the evolution of Riverdance. In recognition of his services to the arts and entertainment industry, Mr. McColgan received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the National University of Ireland in 2003.

(video) Missing Chinese Lawyer Gao Zhisheng awarded Bindmans Law and Campaigning prize, wife Geng He accepted the award on his behalf

Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng was named the winner of the Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award at tonight’s Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression awards, sponsored by SAGE.

Gao Zhisheng was unable to attend and his wife, Geng He, accepted the award on his behalf, via video.

China’s Jasmine Revolution a Smiling, Pedestrian Affair

By Matthew Robertson, Epoch Times Staff-

A website claiming to represent China’s homegrown Jasmine Revolution has called on the populace to take to the streets, every Sunday afternoon.

They sign their posts with “Chinese Jasmine Revolution Initiators,” and give regular updates with ultra-specific instructions on locale, protest etiquette, and an evolving political stance.

They say that everyone should simply turn up and walk around, smiling.

The impact such actions may have is ambiguous, say dissidents and observers.

Man Arrested After Attacking Chinese New Year Parade Banner in New York

NEW YORK—A Chinese man was arrested after jumping the railing and destroying a banner carried by participants in the annual Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing on Saturday, Feb. 12.

“Around noon, at the intersection between Sanford Ave and Main Street, next to a Chinatown eyewear company, a Chinese male rushed out of the crowd and ran into the Falun Gong parade procession,” says Mr. Dong, who was on the scene.

China artist cancels ‘politically sensitive’ show

BEIJING — Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said Monday he cancelled his first large solo exhibition in mainland China after organisers told the outspoken government critic the timing was too politically sensitive.

Ai, one of China’s most famous artists and a bold political activist, told AFP his show was due to start in March at UCCA, a gallery founded by Belgian collector Guy Ullens in a Beijing art district.

“The timing is sensitive and politically they feel it is not suitable at the moment,” said the 53-year-old.

On Ten Year Anniversary, Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation Continues to Be Deadly Frame-up

NEW YORK – Ten years ago this Sunday, a deadly piece of stagecraft unfolded on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. At the behest of the Communist Party, five people set themselves on fire with cameras rolling.

China’s state-run media immediately pronounced that the individuals were adherents of Falun Gong, claiming they had been driven to suicide by the spiritual practice. Two of the participants died in connection with the self-immolation. The event was used to turn public opinion against Falun Gong, and to justify the mass imprisonment and torture of its adherents.  

Shen Yun’s Ten Performing Arts Show Run At New York Lincoln Center Ends With a Sold-Out House and Standing Ovation

NEW YORK—It was difficult finding tickets for the closing performance by Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company at the Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater on Jan. 16. The performing arts company, which is now continuing on its tour, was well received, with a standing ovation and two curtain calls from the sold-out house.

“I was very proud to participate in the audience and to stand up and shout ‘encore!’” said author Judith Difonzo.

“I thought the performances were beautiful, I thought the colors were beautiful, I thought the dances were gorgeous. I was enthralled. I would come back again,” she said.

(photos) China’s Public Shaming Rallies Recall Maoist-Era Tactics

By Lou Ya, Via The Epochtimes, Nov. 17, 2010 –

In a scene that could have been lifted from the Cultural Revolution, 17 Chinese villagers who petitioned against government land-grabs were recently subjected to a public humiliation session by district officials, in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province.

A public, Cultural Revolution-style shaming session in Ankang City, China, Nov. 2, 2010

Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Uses 10,000 River Crabs to “celebrate” forced demolition of his US$1.1 million-dollar-studio in Shanghai

CNNgo.com, Nov. 2, 2010 –

Artist, social commentator and activist Ai Weiwei has announced that in honor of the government-ordered demolition of his new Shanghai studio, he will give 10,000 river crabs (and plenty of baijiu, of course) to his supporters.

According to Ai, he was invited by the city mayor to build a studio in northern area of Shanghai, which he did, constructing a studio worth a reported US$1.1 million. However, following his recent political activities documenting the plight of lawyer Feng Zhenghu and support of Liu Xiaobo, city officials recently declared the structure illegal, condemning it to demolition.

China’s state security goon show: comedy or tragedy?

By Peter Foster, The Telegraph, UK, October 26th, 2010 –

China is currently experiencing a series of anti-Japanese protests which have been popping up every other day or so in cities across the south.

Today it was the turn of Chongqing where 2,000 or so people marched calling for a boycott of Japanese goods and chanting “down with the Japanese devlis!” according to local news reports.

The Chinese government doesn’t normally tolerate protests but is making an exception for these which, according to the Foreign Ministry spokesman are “the spontaneous acts by some Chinese people to express indignation for Japan’s recent erroneous deeds and acts.”

The government is playing with fire, however, since the protests are also being used by some people to air internal grievances.

Billionaires’ Dinner Sparks Debate About Social Responsibilities of China’s New Super-rich

Tania Branigan in Beijing, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 September 2010 –

It should have been the social event of the year. The setting was said to be a full-scale replica of the Château Lafite, complete with Greek statuary, a moat and its own wild duckpond. The hosts were world famous. The guestlist featured 50 of China’s richest business people.

Yet several billionaires snubbed Bill Gates and Warren Buffett – apparently fearful of demands to open their wallets at the charity-promoting banquet – and in doing so have provoked a debate about their apparent stinginess.

Critics argue that China’s new rich have ignored their social responsibilities in the rush for wealth. Among the most scathing is one of last night’s guests, Chen Guangbiao, who says Gates has inspired him to leave his fortune to charity when he dies.

China’s Anti-Japan Protests Stage-Managed by State

By Michelle Yu, Epoch Times Staff, Sep. 20, 2010 –

Recent anti-Japan demonstrations organized by the Chinese regime have struck astute citizens as somewhat ironic, given that the Chinese seldom have the right to march for such causes on their own.

“Finally, in a country where we are not even allowed to type the word ‘demonstration’ in our blogs, we have a demonstration to march in,” wrote Han Han, one of China’s most popular writers, in a Sept. 18 blog post. The anti-Japan demonstrations were held on Sept. 18, the 79th anniversary of Japan’s invasion of China.

Leave Your Name When Buying a Knife Before Asia Games in China Guangzhou

By Lin Hsin-Yi, Epoch Times Staff, Sep. 18, 2010 –

Two months out from the 2010 Asia Games in Guangzhou, the capital of the Guangdong Province in south China, the city’s Public Security Bureau has laid down a new law which citizens say is as irksome as it will be ineffectual: that is, everyone who buys knives or similar instruments from now until the end of the Games will have to provide at least six pieces of personal information.

Like during other mass events organized by the authorities, before November 12 when the Games begin there will be frequent inspection points around the city with often onerous demands on passers-through, the prohibition of balloons, kites, sky lanterns and carrier pigeons, and a regime of stiff fines for incompliants.

The Guangzhou police announced the measures on August 21, titled “Notice to Enforce Safe Knife Management in Guangzhou.” It goes for cleavers, large fruit knives, craft knives, files, and ceramic knives; only approved vendors can sell them, and buyers need to yield their name, address, ID number, types of knives, number purchased, and intended use. The policy has currently been put into effect in a few districts.

Chinese netizens meet in Beijing suburb to discuss a speech on political reform by China’s premier Wen Jiabao

Radio Free Asia, Aug. 23, 2010 –

HONG KONG— Chinese netizens met for a rare in-the-flesh political discussion forum in a northern Beijing suburb Monday, inspired by calls from premier Wen Jiabao for political reforms to stem rampant official corruption and abuse of power.

“This afternoon (Aug. 23), ordinary people from all walks of life and from the Greater China region will meet in Beijing for a discussion forum on Wen Jiabao’s remarks in Shenzhen,” wrote blogger and journalist Wen Yunchao, known online by his nickname “Beifeng.”

“Among the participants are well-known scholars including Xu Youyu, Cui Weiping, and Luo Shihong, as well as a large number of well-known names on Twitter,” he announced via the microblogging service Twitter.

The forum, chaired by Beijing Film Academy professor and social critic Cui Weiping, went ahead as planned via Twitter, although netizens reported a sudden power cut following the arrival of “a man and a woman wearing sunglasses” at the Miyun Shanshui Resort.

“A man and a woman wearing sunglasses arrived at the Miyun Reservoir discussion forum,” tweeted user “leewua” at around 5 p.m. local time. “The electricity was cut, and we had pretty much finished talking, so everyone left.”

Previous political discussion forums in Beijing have been raided by police and their participants pursued for “incitement to subversion.”

Call for reform

Wen Jiabao was quoted in a report by the official Xinhua news agency Saturday as saying that it is important to “guarantee the people’s democratic rights and legitimate rights and interests.”

“We must resolve the problem of excessive concentration of power, create conditions that allow people to criticize and supervise the government, and firmly punish corruption,” he was quoted as saying.

“We not only have to push forward reform of the economic system, but we also have to push forward reform of the political system,” the premier said, according to Xinhua.

Cui told assembled netizens that Wen’s speech was consistent with the demands of the controversial “Charter 08” document, which called for sweeping reforms to China’s political system, and whose co-author Liu Xiaobo is currently serving a jail-term for subversion…….(more details from Radio Free Asia)

Speech: Ending Abuse of Organ Transplantation in China

Revised remarks prepared for delivery to The Transplantation Society Congress, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Aug. 17, 2010, By David Matas –

I am amazed it has taken this long.  Finally people are starting to take the abuse of organ transplant surgery in China seriously. There have been isolated pockets of concern before.  But an abuse which dates from the 1980’s is only now, twenty five years too late, generating widespread notice.

China, from the very moment it began transplant surgery, killed non-consenting donors for their organs.  The law even allowed for it.

The Regulations on the Use of Dead Bodies or Organs From Condemned Criminals, dated October 9, 1984, contemplated involuntary organ sourcing from prisoners sentenced to death and then executed.  The law set out three events which could allow for harvesting of organs.

One event was consent of the source, the prisoner.  A second event was consent of the family.  A third event was the refusal or failure of the family to collect the body of the executed prisoner.

The law, then, allowed organ harvesting with consent, but did not prohibit organ harvesting without consent.  That meant that, even where there was an express refusal of consent, both by the prisoner before death and the family after death, but the family refused or even just neglected to collect the body, then organs could, according to the law, still be harvested.

In 1984, when this law was enacted, China was still in the early stages of its shift from socialism to capitalism.  As the shift progressed, the health system became a major part of the shift. From 1980, the Government began withdrawing funds from the health sector, expecting the health system to make up the difference through charges to consumers of health services.

The sale of organs for transplants became the primary source of funds.  There is global demand for organs because of shortages everywhere.  The sale of organs became for hospitals a way to keep their doors open, and a means by which other health services could be provided to the community. This dire need for funds led to a rationalization that selling the organs of prisoners who would be executed anyway was acceptable and to a desire not to question too closely whether the donors wheeled in by the authorities really were prisoners sentenced to death.

Organ price lists were posted on Chinese websites. Hospitals boasted openly on their websites about the money being made from the sale of organs.

China began the organ trade by selling the organs of prisoners sentenced to death.  But the global demand for organs and the health system need for money eventually outgrew the available death row supply.  The Falun Gong community became the next source.

Falun Gong is a simple set of exercises with a spiritual foundation which started in China in 1992.  The belief behind the exercises is a blending and updating of the Chinese Buddhist and Tao traditions.

The Chinese Communist Party/state at first encouraged the exercises because they are healthful.  With official encouragement, the practice of the exercises spread rapidly to the point where there were more practitioners than members of the Communist Party.

The Party then, in June 1999, out of jealousy and fear of losing ideological supremacy, banned the exercises.  When practitioners persisted and protested, the Party/state in November 1999 got vicious — vilifying the practice through propaganda, arresting practitioners, torturing them to elicit recantations, and disappearing them if they did not recant.

Practitioners of Falun Gong quickly became the number one victims of repression in China — two thirds of the torture victims, according to the United Nations rapporteur in torture; one half of those in the slave labour camps, according to the United States Department of State Human Rights reports.  Many of those Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested and refused to recant also refused to identify themselves, in order to protect their friends, family and workplaces back home who otherwise would have been victimized for not having denounced them.  The depersonalization of the Falun Gong, their huge numbers in detention and their vulnerability as an unidentified population made it easy for them to become the next source of organs for sale.

According to research David Kilgour and I did, first in a report released in July 2006 and updated in January 2007, and then in a book titled Bloody Harvest released in November 2009, we concluded that Falun Gong were killed in the tens of thousands so that their organs could be sold to foreigners, generating a billion dollar business for China.  We launched a global campaign to attempt to end the abuse we identified, speaking in over forty countries and eighty cities about our research.

The Chinese government reacted to our work, but not always in ways which countered our concerns.  The Government took down Chinese internet information we referenced.  We archived it all so that you can see it on our website.  However, because of official blocking, internet users can no longer see it in China.

The Government through its embassies, consulates and front organizations, made every effort, wherever we went, to prevent or cancel our speaking engagements, and to bar or discourage people from meeting with us.  The Party/state churned out hostile propaganda, mostly by attacking Falun Gong or us personally, without dealing with the substance of our research.

At this Congress, the reaction of a delegate from China to my presentation, expressed during the question period, was typical of the Communist Party.  He stated that the organizers should not have allowed me to speak and attacked my presentation at a personal level without offering a hint of rebuttal.

The Chinese speaker did, to a certain extent, get his way.  Congress rules were enforced selectively to impede attendance at the event where I spoke.

At the door of the room to the Congress session where I presented, unlike any other event I and others observed at the Congress, there was an astounding number of eight security people turning away those who were registered at the Congress but who did not have blue colour coded delegate badges.  People who had stayed in the corridor outside the room during the session informed me that large numbers were denied entry.  At other Congress events, including lunch, registered attendees without blue color coded badges entered unimpeded, even though in theory the colour coding on their badges did not entitle them to entry. ….. (more details from The Epoch Times)

David Matas is an international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Event Vancouver: Nobel Nominee David Matas to address to International Conference of the Abuse of Organ Transplantation in China

– From “Between Heaven and Earth“:

Nobel Nominee David Matas will be part of a long list of presenters who will speak at the XXIII International Congress of the Transplantation Society to be held at the Vancouver Convention Centre from 15-19 August. This congress will be one of the largest international gatherings of clinicians and scientists in the transplantation field and it is estimated that 4000 people will attend.

Mr. Matas is scheduled to speak at this Conference on Tuesday August 17 from 3.30 to 5 p.m. as part of a panel on Ethics, Public Policy and Economics. His topic will be “Ending abuse of organ transplantation in China”; session is numbered 036. The link to the full program is here.

Canada’s medical profession is the first in the world to develop an official policy statement on organ trafficking which will be discussed at the Congress. Buying and selling livers, hearts, kidneys and other body parts is illegal in Canada and most countries, but the enterprise continues in many developing countries. From 2000 to 2008 in B.C. alone, 93 Canadians, 90 per cent of them ethnic minorities from countries such as China, India and Pakistan, bought kidneys overseas.

“In fact my research on this matter led me to conclude that prisoners of the spiritual movement Falun Gong were the subject of having their organs taken without their consent and sometimes at the cost of their lives,” said Matas. “I’m involved in this as an activist who speaks up for human rights issues. It is the doctors and hospitals in China conducting these organ harvestings, noting that the government is not innocent in the matter. In China, without government sanctioning, nothing can happen. The solution is for this to stop. People must campaign against it publicly and speak on the issue, then getting extra territorial legislation on organ transplanting.”

Amnesty International is taking the opportunity of this Congress to call on pharmaceutical companies to exercise due diligence to ensure that they are not directly or indirectly implicated in the taking or use of organs from executed prisoners. Amnesty International believes that the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners in China must be stopped and, in establishing alternatives, much more must be done to develop and implement effective regulatory mechanisms.

As well Doctors against forced organ harvesting (DAFOH) adds in its appeal to research and pharmaceutical companies to refrain from performing clinical trials in transplant medicine in the People’s Republic of China.

David Matas is a senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada and a member of the Order of Canada. Mr. Matas was nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for his intensive investigation over a four-year period into the organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China. His work had culminated into a book called “Bloody Harvest: The killing of Falun Gong for their organs”, which was published in late 2009. Matas had won the prestigious 2009 Human Rights Award from the International Society for Human Rights for this work.

– Source: Between Heaven and Earth