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 aught up in its
desperate bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing is a city
in turmoil. The PRC's
insistence
on soi-disant “social and political stability” has allowed
it to resort to old Communist tactics reminiscent of Chairman Mao.
No group knows this better than the Falun Gong.
Last month, on the eve of the Chinese New Year, seven people described
as Falun Gong members reportedly tried to commit suicide in Tiananmen
Square. Five of the seven succeeded in setting themselves on fire,
leaving one woman dead from her injuries and four others severely
burned, including the deceased’s 12 year-old daughter.
Was this event staged or allowed to happen by China's government
in order to discredit the Falun Gong? It is hardly a far-fetched
hypothesis. China's government has promised to extinguish all problems
connected with the Falun Gong in advance of the 80th anniversary
of Chinese Communism, which Beijing plans on celebrating this July.
It has already gone to great lengths to crack down on the banned
spiritual movement, accusing it of being a dangerous and wicked
cult.
Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been hauled off
to laogai camps. Still others have been locked up in mental hospitals
without the benefit of due process, and at least 140 more have been
killed.
In its intensifying campaign to discredit the sect, China's leaders
have now seized on a new target: the Western media. Beijing maintains
that several American journalists, including two from CNN, are being
investigated on possible murder charges relating to last month’s
burnings in Tiananmen Square.
A report in The Yangcheng Evening News entitled, "Witnessing
a Mother and Child Self-Immolate and Doing Nothing--Exactly What
Was the Role of Western Journalists?" read like a bulletin from
Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. It claimed that “unidentified police
officials” had evidence showing that a few foreign reporters were
told in advance that a dramatic Falun Gong event was to take place
at the Square on January 23rd. The article said that legal actions
would be taken on the murder charge of "instigating and abetting
a suicide" if it could be confirmed the reporters had in fact participated
in the planning of the incident.
But, according to multiple reports, the only foreign reporters who
actually witnessed the events included a producer and cameraman
for CNN, and both of them say they had received no advance warning
of the incident in Tiananmen Square.
Curiously, while the Chinese media have been quick to excoriate
Western journalists, they have
| “While
the Chinese media have been quick to excoriate Western
journalists, they have breathlessly exonerated Beijing’s
police.” |
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breathlessly
exonerated Beijing’s police. And yet, the police had clearly been
at the ready with fire extinguishers when the self-immolators started
the blaze. And in a move unmistakenly designed to rally enmity toward
the Falun Gong, PRC officials hastily arranged an interview with
the wounded 12 year-old. This poor child, who had suffered large-scale
burn injuries, was shepherded into an official interview immediately
after undergoing a tracheotomy.
Meanwhile, New York's Falun Dafa Information Center steadfastly
rejects reports that the Beijing burn victims were true members
of the sect. The deceased woman had never been known to practice
Falun Gong exercises; nor had she openly associated herself with
the movement. More importantly, the essential teachings of Falun
Gong explicitly forbid violence of any kind.
There is also speculation that the burn victims may have sacrificed
themselves as a form of desperate protestation against the Communist
regime. Justin Yu, a journalist for World Journal, the Chinese-language
daily, reflected on the confusion faced by many Chinese over what
to believe. "The PRC's propaganda coup against the Falun Gong relies
upon people's understanding of events in recent Asian history, such
as the 73 year-old Buddhist monk in Saigon whose self-immolating
is a form of protest to fulfill his beliefs, [like] Koreans cutting
off their fingers, and the Japanese ritual of hari-kari. But this
situation is not clear. Who do we believe--the Communists? They
have lied to us so many times, another lie for them is nothing."
Still, one wonders why the Falun Gong would deny its participation
if it had organized the burning event as a form of protest? According
to the human-rights activist Ann Lau, "The PRC is using its same
old tactics even though they did not work in the past. For example,
China's government insists that there was no famine in the late
'50s and early '60s, yet that famine took 30 million lives."
It has been noted that some hard-liners are not even attempting
to camouflage their Mao-style tactics. New York Times reporter
Erik Eckholm recently quoted (from an article in China's Legal
Daily) an old slogan that describes Falun Gong followers as
the "running dogs of foreign anti-Chinese forces."
It is wrenching to think that all it took to reinvigorate Beijing’s
propaganda machine was a few simple breathing exercises. China’s
war on the Falun Gong revitalizes Mao’s dream: to let no aspect
of Chinese society escape the party’s grasp.
Are the 2008 Olympics worth all that?
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