Sunday, July 26, 2009

Oklahoma newspaper reports straight, no Beijing propaganda ("spin")

Published: July 23, 2009 07:05 pm

Edmond woman joins peaceful protests in Washington, D.C.

The Edmond Sun

EDMOND — Edmond resident I Chun Lin, also known by the English name Estelle, recently took her 6-year-old son to Washington, D.C.

The primary purpose of the visit was not to see the usual sights, but to to join thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners during four days to call for an end to the persecution of Falun Dafa by the Chinese Communist Party.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that is Buddhist in nature. It consists of moral teachings, a meditation and four gentle exercises that resemble tai-chi and are known in Chinese culture as “qigong.”

At the core of Falun Gong are the values of truth, compassion and forbearance (or in Chinese Zhen, Shan and Ren). Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, teaches that these are the most fundamental qualities of the universe itself and uses them as a guide for daily life and practice.

The practice began in China in 1992 and quickly spread by word of mouth throughout the country and then beyond. In just seven years since its 1992 introduction to the public, an estimated 70 million to 100 million persons in China were by 1999 making Falun Gong a part of their daily lives.

On July 20, 1999, the Communist Party launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong, Lin said. The persecution was not only toward Falun Gong, but also aimed to destroy the moral standards and human principles of all people, she said.

Since the start of the persecution, Falun Dafa practitioners throughout the world have been constantly speaking out about the truth of Falun Dafa and exposing the Party’s actions in a tireless effort to end the persecution, Lin said.

In Washington, the large-scale event began when practitioners from around the world had a rally in front of Capitol Hill on July 16.

Nine members of Congress delivered speeches or sent statements, as did many leaders of human rights and faith-based organizations in support of Falun Dafa practitioners’ ongoing efforts to end the persecution in China, Lin said.

Colorado Sen. Mark Udall sent a statement to be read at the rally commending Falun Dafa practitioners for traveling to Washington to protest the persecution in China and expressing his continuing support, Lin said.

“The next morning I visited Oklahoma Congresswoman Mary Fallin’s office in the Longworth Building with a couple of my fellow practitioners from Oklahoma,” Lin said. “We spent 15 minutes with Matt Wise to update him on the current situation regarding the suppression of Falun Dafa in China.”

Thousands of practitioners began a large-scale group practice at 9:30 a.m. on the west lawn of Capitol Hill, Lin said. Just past noon, a grand march set off with the Divine Land Marching Band in blue and white uniforms leading the procession.

“As usual, I marched and played in the clarinet section,” Lin said.

The march of several thousand people proceeded from the National Mall in front of Capitol Hill all the way to Liberty Square near the White House.

After practicing Falun Dafa exercises in front of the Capitol building, more than 2,500 Falun Dafa practitioners from 20 countries arcross the world marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Federal Triangle, Lin said.

Every year around July 20, this spectacular scene is repeated in the U.S. capital, Lin said. Year by year, passers-by have become more and more aware and concerned about Falun Dafa practitioners’ words and actions, she said.

The messages on the banners included, “Falun Dafa is Great,” “Stop the Persecution of Falun Dafa in China,” “Bring Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Liu Jing and Zhou Yongkang to Justice” and “Only When CCP is Gone Will the Persecution End.”

Falun Dafa practitioners of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds carried many different banners and display boards bearing the messages, “Falun Dafa is Great” and “The World Needs Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” Lin said.

On July 18, around 3,000 practitioners congregated in the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall for the annual Washington, D.C., Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference.

Seventeen practitioners of different nationalities shared their experiences of personal improvement, the healing effects of the practice, and their work toward rescuing fellow practitioners imprisoned and tortured in mainland China.

At the end of the day, the founder and teacher of the practice, Li Hongzhi, spoke for about 40 minutes, Lin said.

On July 19, participants from many organizations and the public joined Falun Dafa practitioners for “The Million Minutes of Meditation.” People sat down at the National Mall for a few minutes to meditate for freedom and human rights in China, Lin said. A rally and concert followed, concluding the four days of events.

Wei Jingsheng comments about Uyghur unrest and Government violence

The Tragedy in Urumqi and Current Political Situation in China-- Wei Jingsheng

They all say it is a season of events in China. It is indeed so. What has happened in ShaoGuan of GuangDong and Urumqi of XinJiang has already resulted continued condemnation from the international society. Meanwhile, there is the news that the Communist Chinese Party (CCP) made trouble with the Australian government and arrested the China chief of a big Australian company. The Chinese government would not put the person on trial, or sentence him, nor would it provide detailed information to the Australian government even when the Australian Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister made the inquiries. This kind of conduct that violates international convention will surely induce anger from the Australian society.

This conduct also surely makes foreign business people in China more nervous. Who knows when the Laws of Secrecy of the Chinese Character will start to rule over them? Since the YanAn period of the Mao Zedong era, the Laws of Secrecy of the Chinese Character have been 100% effective with eminent power. However, because the XinJiang issue is more important to us the average Chinese, and it also has new developments, let us put aside the Australian big business and the Chinese Communist corruptive clique first.

There are two news lately that did not receive enough attention. According to the report from the most reputed overseas Chinese website BoXun, an old cadre who retired from the CCP's 17th Congress revealed that the reason for the explosive situation in XinJiang was due to internal struggles with the CCP. From the jailed Shanghai Mayor Chen LiangYu to last month's detention of ShenZhen Mayor Xu Zongheng, Hu Jintao joined hands with Wen JiaBao to really beat up the leading members of the Jiang Zemin faction. So the Jiang faction had to take their opportunity for revenge. They fueled the atmosphere from the ShaoGuan incident, demobilized the police during the Urumqi riots, and thus enabled the Uyghur terrorists to use the peaceful demonstration to murder the Han Chinese to the degree that Hu Jintao lost his face in the G8 meeting in Italy. Hu had to return to China to guard his own territory, to prevent the situation from developing unfavorably to himself.

Much information leaked recently has proven that it was the CCP government's guilt of not doing anything that indulged the thugs to produce the large scaled tragedy of murder. This tragedy does not have any relationship with the World Uyghur Congress that supported the peaceful demonstration. The CCP XinJiang government had reliable intelligence and rights to initiate police action. However, with the Jiang faction controlling China's legal and jurisdiction system, they choose the strategy of not doing anything before and during the tragedy. They enabled the Uyghur terrorists to do what they wanted and caused the situation to loose control. Indeed, it was a skillful cooperation between the CCP's XinJiang government and the Uyghur terrorist group that produced such horrifying tragedy.

Some friends are still not willing to believe it is the CCP that took the initiative for this tragedy. They do not believe that the CCP is trying to stir up the hateful ethnic killing, in an effort to switch political attention. If one thinks so, one might want to consider the second piece of news. During the review of the Sino-Russia joint military exercise, the CCP military Chief of General Staff, Admiral Chen Bingde, talked a lot about "anti-terrorists" and targeted it at the Uyghurs. He claimed that China would cooperate with the four countries of Mid-Asia in the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization" to send the military out of China to attack the Uyghur terrorist organizations. This way of talking skillfully used the average people's psychology of wanting security, and thus reached its goal of expanding the hostile mood. Meanwhile, it also pushed China's military forces to the edge of the petroleum producing Mideast area, which opened up a frontier for its goal of thwarting Western goals of controlling the petroleum produce areas. This strategy of one stone for two birds cannot be a coincidence of one time, but a lone term plan thought ahead.

Some people question whether the XinJiang tragedy was to make trouble for Hu Jintao. Why does he have to swallow this bitter fruit? Why did he not try to stop it or even counterattack? They are too anxious. Counterattacking does not have to happen today. The old Chinese saying is that "one could wait for ten years to take revenge". Not counterattacking today does not mean never counterattacking.

Besides, the whole plan of producing the tragedy was perfectly done. The reasons before hand were sufficient, the choice of timing was just right. So Zhou Yongkang, the CCP's person in charge of security could say that without the order from Hu Jintao, we cannot open firearms to stop the escalation, which created the needed several hours for the thugs to murder. As for why not letting the military police move into Urumqi, there is the simplest excuse of underestimation.

Underestimation itself is not enough to produce a death sentence; what could you do with the person?

The most important thing is that there is sufficient reason for the matters after the tragedy. Now these conspiracists did not just shift the attention for people's opposition, but even may have obtained a frontier base to move west into the petroleum producing areas. What reason could Hu Jintao go against? This is exactly what he wanted to do, but did not dare to conduct. He does not have a reason to against, but has to silently take this knife hit in his back. This situation is just like back when Hu Jintao murdered the 10th Panchen Lama, which scared Deng XiaoPing. But that was also the goal of Deng XiaoPing, something Deng wanted to do but did not dare to do. In addition, they dealt with the matter afterwards skillfully, which did not let the Western media find any handle to protest against. So Deng happily took this unexpected surprise and saw Hu in a new light.

This time, the dealing of the aftermath was more difficult, but pretty good. So even some anti-CCP patriotic youths turned around to help the CCP to attack the Uyghur opposition forces. Some Western media that only see the tree leaves without seeing the forest were also made unconsciously to be an accomplice of the evil. It all proves that the CCP's conspiracy is pretty successful, and in progress to expand its success. We must have our clear observation to distinguish between good and bad, and not fall into the conspiracy of the Chinese Communist Party.

To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's commentary, please visit:http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2009/WeiJS090724Urumqi4.mp3

(Written and recorded on July 24, 2009. Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia.)

Rebiya Kadeer sets 'em straight at National Press Club, 2009-07-20

Unrest in East Turkestan: What China is Not Telling the Media

Statement by Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, Uyghur democracy leader at the National Press Club on July 20, 2009

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Before we begin, I would like to thank the National Press Club for the organization of this event, especially Mr. Peter Hickman. I would also like to thank you for your attendance here today.

Since the unrest in Urumchi on July 5, 2009, the official Chinese media, led by Xinhua news agency and Chinese Central Television, has vigorously presented to the world the Chinese government’s version of events and the cause of the discontent shown by Uyghurs in the streets of East Turkestan’s regional capital. Today’s press conference is to shed light on that reporting.

The version of the Urumchi unrest that has been presented to the world by the Chinese government follows this narrative. On July 5, Uyghur “plotters[i]” took to the streets and in a display of “beating, smashing, looting, and burning” killed 197 people and injured 1,721[ii]. The riot was masterminded[iii] by Rebiya Kadeer and the World Uyghur Congress. Yesterday, Nur Bekri, the Chairman of what the Chinese government calls the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, admitted[iv] that Chinese security forces used live ammunition and shot dead protestors, who were referred to as “mobsters” in the official media, to control the unrest.

This version of events, as is so often the case with Chinese reporting, is not true. For instance, we know that far more than 12 Uyghurs were shot by Chinese authorities.

The Chinese government, through its proxies in the official media, is obscuring the truth in order to conceal a mass killing of Uyghurs by Chinese security forces. Furthermore, through its demonization of Uyghur protestors in the official media, it is attempting to justify the impending mass executions of Uyghurs as promised by Chinese officials.

The actual events in Urumchi according to eyewitness reports are as follows.

In the days leading up to July 5, an unknown person or persons posted on the forums of China-based websites an appeal to Uyghurs in Urumchi to peacefully protest the Chinese government’s mishandling of multiple killings of Uyghurs by Han Chinese at a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong province. The forum post surprisingly remained online, which is contrary to the known behavior of Chinese government censors.

On July 5, Uyghurs, mostly young men and women, some of whom carried the flag of the People’s Republic of China, assembled and marched peacefully in Urumchi toward People’s Square. They asked for justice for the victims in Shaoguan and expressed sympathy with the families of those killed and injured. They also demanded to meet with government officials but none came out to meet with them.

As the protest was public knowledge, the protestors were met en route by a show of force, including four kinds of Chinese police- regular police; anti-riot police; special police and People's Armed Police. The police surrounded the protestors and tensions between police and protestors grew. According to an eyewitness caller to our offices, the protestors were incited by plain clothes agents to respond to the police presence. As tensions became heated, police started beating, kicking, and arresting protestors. Then, under the cover of darkness, Chinese security forces began to fire[v] upon Uyghur protestors.

Protestors fled to other points of the city, where they were forced into several closed areas from which they could not escape. The protestors were indiscriminately shot and killed in these locations, and those remaining were arrested. Reports indicate that Chinese authorities turned off the street lighting in the areas where protestors were present. These reports also describe the possible killing of Han Chinese bystanders in the shootings by Chinese police, which may explain the high numbers of Han Chinese fatalities. That Han Chinese civilians may have been killed by Chinese police must be investigated by independent journalists.

In another phone call to our offices, a protestor at Xinjiang University reported that Uyghurs were being fired upon by Chinese police “right now”, and in the background we could hear the screams of people in the vicinity. The caller stated that they could see approximately 50 Uyghurs lying dead from Chinese police shooting in an area around the stop for the number 1 city bus.

On July 11, Reuters[vi] quoted a Uyghur resident of Urumchi who said that the official death toll is “the Han people’s number. We have our own number…Maybe many, many more Uighurs died. The police were scared and lost control.” In that same report, Reuters also stated that “a spray of bullet holes could be seen on the glass front of a Bank of China office…Many Uighur residents say they heard or saw gunfire.” That Chinese security forces used live ammunition in suppressing the protest was confirmed in several calls to our office received on Sunday night from protest participants.

Some Uyghurs reacted to the intimidation of Chinese policing. Uyghurs killed and injured Han Chinese in violent attacks. Here, I would like to say that I strongly condemn the violence which took place in Urumchi.

In the immediate aftermath of the violence, Chinese security forces conducted mass-arrests of Uyghurs, according to sources quoted by Radio Free Asia in a July 9 report[vii]. A caller to our offices stated that the dormitories at Xinjiang University were broken into by Chinese police in a bid to arrest Uyghurs deemed to have been involved in the unrest. In a Xinhua report[viii] dated July 7, Urumchi Communist Party secretary, Li Zhi, was quoted as saying that authorities had detained 1,434 people for their role in the Urumchi unrest. The World Uyghur Congress contests that number, as it has not been independently verified. A July 19 Financial Times report[ix] states that more than 4,000 Uyghurs have been arrested and that Urumchi’s prisons are so full that detainees are being held in People’s Liberation Army warehouses. We fear that these detainees face execution in non-transparent judicial procedures.

In further communications with our offices, Uyghurs reported that some of the Uyghur wounded from July 5 did not go to the hospital for fear of arrest. Those who did go to the hospital reported that they were either turned away or charged for treatment, while Han Chinese victims received assistance free of charge.

On July 6-7, 3,000 to 4,000 armed Han Chinese took to the streets attacking and killing[x] Uyghurs. Radio Free Asia reports[xi] an eyewitness as seeing 150 to 200 dead Uyghurs in the Hualin district. There have been no reported arrests of Han Chinese from these two days of violence against the Uyghur community in Urumchi. Radio Free Asia reported[xii] a Uyghur man as saying that “[w]hen the Chinese came out with batons and clubs, there is no one to stop them. They are pretending to stop them, but they are not really strict… If the Uyghurs had come out with batons and clubs, they would immediately be fired upon.”

In a further act of heavy handed policing, on July 13 reports[xiii] detailed the fatal shooting by Chinese armed police of two unarmed Uyghurs.

The Chinese government’s crackdown[xiv] on ordinary Uyghurs in East Turkestan is in full swing. The July 19 Financial Times report[xv] states that Chinese armed police have established checkpoints on all roads in and out of Urumchi and that “[p]rivate cars without Uighur passengers were waved through after a quick document check for the drivers. Vehicles with Uighur drivers or with Uighur passengers were being searched at gunpoint.” The report added that numbers of armed police in the region would be raised to 130,000 by October 1, 2009, the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The Chinese government has been vocal about the fact that it allowed the western media into Urumchi to confirm its version of events in order to create a veneer of legitimacy. This is most certainly a change of policy from the ban it imposed on foreign journalists during the March 2008 unrest in Lhasa. However, scratching below the surface, a careful media management strategy is evident. Through this strategy the Chinese government is attempting to conceal the events surrounding the Urumchi unrest, as it is the events surrounding the Shaoguan killings, which precipitated the Urumchi protests. Nevertheless details of those two events have filtered through Chinese censors to present a picture far different than that reported by the official media.

The official Chinese media reports[xvi] that two Uyghurs were killed during the Han Chinese mob attack at the toy factory in Shaoguan on June 26.

This is not true.

In the U.K. Guardian newspaper, Jonathan Watts reports[xvii] an interview with a Han Chinese man involved in the Shaoguan killings, who states that he personally “helped to kill seven or eight Uighurs, battering them until they stopped screaming.” The eyewitness added that the death toll could be around 30, a figure which tallies with reports we have received from workers at the toy factory who have been brave enough to call us.

In a Far Eastern Economic Review piece titled Fear Grips Shaoguan's Uighurs[xviii], Kathleen E. McLaughlin reports that 700 Uyghurs from the Shaoguan toy factory are now being detained at an abandoned factory ten miles away. The official Chinese media is not reporting this because, as eyewitness accounts testify, the version of events at Shaoguan it has given the world is false. The unlawful detention of these workers illustrates that if the real details of the Shaoguan killings emerge, they will reveal the unwillingness of the Chinese authorities to protect Uyghur citizens from Han Chinese mob violence.

The permission given to western journalists to report from East Turkestan is not all that it seems. Not only was the western media carefully guided through its stay in Urumchi, but reporters also faced detention if they ventured out themselves. Reporters from Radio Free Asia, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse[xix], and TV Tokyo[xx] were expelled or detained in the region because the authorities felt that they could not manage them sufficiently. Journalists who have reported a version of events which has strayed from the official path have received death threats[xxi] from Han Chinese nationalists.

In the wake of the unrest, internet and wireless communications went down[xxii] in Urumchi, and in the region. This was for a very good reason – to prevent an Iranian style spread of news from citizen journalists.

The Chinese authorities’ deep fear that that a different version of events will emerge from the one reported in the official media has spread to a threat issued to the legal community. According to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China[xxiii] (CECC), the Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau[xxiv] “issued a notice on its Web site on July 8 calling on justice bureaus, the municipal lawyers association, and law offices in Beijing to ‘exercise caution’ in representing cases related to events” in East Turkestan.

The Chinese reporting on the Urumchi unrest has also not given any prominence to the involvement of key government officials in exacerbating disharmony between Han Chinese and Uyghurs.

Urumchi Communist Party secretary, Li Zhi, at a press conference[xxv] on July 8, stated that executions would be used to deal with protestors. The well-documented lack of transparency in the Chinese judicial system, especially for Uyghurs, coupled with the state-sanctioned threats towards lawyers who may represent protestors, illustrates that these executions, when they do take place, are political.

However, Xinhua did find it reasonable to report[xxvi] Li Zhi’s inflammatory chanting of “Down with Rebiya”, at the scene of the unrest, further fanning the flames of Han Chinese nationalism and dividing Uyghurs and Han Chinese. Indeed, official comments have taken on an even more hyperbolic nature, as the China Daily charges[xxvii] that the Urumchi unrest can be linked to Al-Qaeda.

Since the Urumchi unrest, the Chinese government has made a number of high profile attacks on freedom of speech in western countries to suffocate Uyghurs in exile.

On July 8, I published an op-ed[xxviii] in the Wall Street Journal. I commend the Wall Street Journal’s decision to publish the piece due to the disgraceful nature of some of the remarks left on its comments section by Han Chinese nationalist “netizens”. The remarks not only attacked the newspaper, calling for a boycott of the publication, but also a number of distressing personal comments were made about myself. Xinhua, in a July 13 report[xxix], went so far as to congratulate those people who had left these abusive ultra-nationalist comments.

Rightfully so, if free speech is to be respected, the Wall Street Journal published a letter[xxx] from Wang Baodong, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., on July 15. However, Mr. Wang used his opportunity to chastise the western media for its exercise of freedom of speech by stating that “[t]he Chinese government and people are very much displeased with the Journal's decision to publish Rebiya Kadeer's…op-ed”.

The attack on freedom of speech in the western media was also taken to Australia. The cultural attaché at the Chinese consulate in Melbourne, Chen Chunmei, urged[xxxi] organizers of the Melbourne International Film Festival to withdraw a film about my advocacy work. The festival organizers dismissed the pressure.

Naturally, what is missing from the Chinese official media’s reporting of the Urumchi unrest is the larger picture of repression of Uyghurs in China. This repression includes the forced transfer[xxxii] of young Uyghur women to Chinese sweatshops; the demolition[xxxiii] of Uyghur cultural heritage in Kashgar; a monolingual[xxxiv] language-planning policy; discriminatory[xxxv] hiring practices; torture and execution[xxxvi] on political charges; and curbs[xxxvii] on freedom of religion.

The six decades-long repression of Uyghurs by the Chinese government is the true cause of the unrest in Urumchi.

At this point in the East Turkestan issue, I seek an independent and international investigation into the Shaoguan killings and into the Urumchi unrest. Let the world understand the real events. The streets of cities in East Turkestan are littered with closed-circuit television. The tapes from cameras on the streets of Urumchi during the unrest should be made freely available to western journalists. If the truth were to emerge, this would surely contribute to a path of dialogue between Han Chinese and Uyghur based on equality and trust.

I also urge the Chinese government to allow journalists access to East Turkestan and Uyghurs without any conditions. It is well-known that Uyghurs who speak to western journalists often disappear. No one knows the whereabouts of Dilkex Tiliwaldi, a Uyghur who disappeared after speaking to a PBS journalist several years ago.

This access to East Turkestan will be critical in the coming days as looming executions of Uyghurs on political charges come ever nearer (see CECC’s Authorities Pledge Crackdown Following Xinjiang Demonstration and Clashes[xxxviii]). We fear that a number of Uyghurs are going to be executed unnoticed by the world. In order to prevent such state-sanctioned killing we require the eyes of the world’s media and the world’s governments to remain on East Turkestan and to speak out against a further abuse of the Uyghur people’s human rights.

My last appeal is to western journalists. Please consider carefully the information you receive from the official Chinese media. I understand that the Chinese government’s management of information makes it difficult for you to produce work under tight deadlines, but please consider the source of the information, the Chinese government, and the political motives that drive its output of news.

Thank you.


[i] http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/0801/2009-07/11/content_1121455.htm
[ii] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/world/asia/21china.html?_r=2&hpw
[iii] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/10/content_11688780.htm
[iv] http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/19/china.uyghur.threats/
[v] http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd#id125582
[vi] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP463729.htm
[vii] http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/clampdown-07092009101424.html
[viii] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/07/content_11666945.htm
[ix] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5aa932ee-747c-11de-8ad5-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
[x] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/world/asia/21china.html?_r=2&hpw
[xi] http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/witnesses-07172009121028.html
[xii] http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/clampdown-07092009101424.html
[xiii] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/china-protests-police-kil_n_230531.html
[xiv] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/world/asia/20xinjiang.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2
[xv] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5aa932ee-747c-11de-8ad5-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
[xvi] http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009.../content_8336978.htm
[xvii] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/10/china-riots-uighurs-han-urumqi
[xviii] http://www.feer.com/politics/2009/july58/Fear-Grips-Shaoguans-Uighurs
[xix] http://cpj.org/2009/07/journalists-detained-in-xinjiang-commentator-missi.php
[xx] http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/reporter-from-japan-released-after-detention-in-chinas-urumqi
[xxi] http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/malcolmmoore/100003535/journalists-in-china-get-death-threats/
[xxii] http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE56513820090706
[xxiii] http://www.cecc.gov/
[xxiv] http://xkyw.bjsf.gov.cn/
[xxv] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/world/asia/09hu.html?_r=3
[xxvi] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/07/content_11666941.htm
[xxvii] http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25797162-2703,00.html
[xxviii] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124698273174806523.html
[xxix] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/13/content_11701303.htm
[xxx] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124762185860842743.html
[xxxi] http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jul/15/rebiya-kadeer-melbourne-film-festival
[xxxii] http://www.uhrp.org/articles/762/1/Deception-Pressure-and-Threats-The-Transfer-of-Young-Uyghur-Women-to-Eastern-China-/index.html
[xxxiii] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28kashgar.html
[xxxiv] http://www.uhrp.org/articles/378/1/-Bilingual-education-marginalizing-Uyghur-language-instruction-in-East-Turkistan/index.html
[xxxv] http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=122703
[xxxvi] http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/018/1999
[xxxvii] http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/04/11/devastating-blows
[xxxviii] http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd#id125931

Monday, July 20, 2009

Full text of July 19 speech by CSN's John Kusumi

Communist Party creates problems faster than it resolves them

Speech at 10th anniversary of Falun Gong crackdown, a rally at the National Mall in Washington DC, July 19 2009

By John Kusumi

Whether you are organizing, attending, or playing music at today's event, thank you and welcome. I know that many people are involved here, and my thanks go out to you.

And yet, there are two men who are not here today. I want to speak about—and even address—Hu Jintao and Barack Obama. They are two men who have yet to get the message and have yet to size up today's situation in China and in U.S.-China relations.

With faulty leadership from the Communist Party, China has engineered crackdown after crackdown after crackdown.

These have been tragedies in China, indeed genocide and crimes against humanity. In America, they have been met by a Clintonian blind eye: willful and deliberate connivance to ignore the crimes of CCP leaders, who actually belong on trial at the International Criminal Court.

Do I think that Hu Jintao and Barack Obama should have a meeting? No! I think that Hu Jintao should resign, surrender, and turn himself over to the International Criminal Court for prosecution, over the matters of genocide and crimes against humanity.

They say that history is written by the winners, but now with the internet, that saying is less true. We all have the opportunity to correct the record of history. And in all of history, including every corner of the globe; every calamity; and, every war -- the greatest suffering is that of Mainland China, during 60 years of misrule by the corrupt and deadly CCP.

History has no larger humanitarian disaster. World War II may have claimed 40 million lives. Chairman Mao starved to death 38 million Chinese, and when we add up the victims of more crackdowns and the Cultural Revolution, the CCP has killed more Chinese than the world-wide death toll in World War II.

In the Western world, we refer to Hitler, Stalin, and Mao in the same breath. But for mass murder, Mao gets the gold medal, and the others can only have silver and bronze. World history will say these things -- they are already true!

China is an active crime scene, and the CCP brings it more misery each and every day: Humanitarian disasters are in motion, crime is in progress, and corruption is diminishing the future of many Chinese families.

And shame on Barack Obama -- he's got the Clintonian blind eye, the better to collect blood stained profits for Fortune 500 companies. With lots of free trade, America has financed the Communist Party, and that is to the shame of America and Bill Clinton, who in essence told corporate America: Go ahead, collect blood stained profits. We'll be really quiet at the U.S. executive branch.

Apparently, the cat is keeping the tongue of Barack Obama. While the cat's got his tongue, I'll say something myself:

China needs to step away from Maoism completely. China needs to remove its red shirt. And, China needs to put on the blue shirt of being a free and democratic country, respectful of the human rights of all of its citizens. If this does not happen immediately, the separatists may gain the upper hand - with very good reasons to split away from China's central government.

There are no remaining minutes to delay. China needs reform *now*!

Any objective analysts must observe a deteriorating human rights situation in China. The China Support Network deplores the Tiananmen crackdown; the Falun Gong crackdown; the Tibetan crackdown; and the Uyghur crackdown. Ours is a human rights organization which started due to the Tiananmen crackdown. But China has continued to add new problems on top of its older problems.

Whether you are Chinese or Western, I want you to write down the take away point of my speech: The Communist Party is creating problems faster than it is solving problems! It is abundantly evident, and for the laobaixing [common people] of China, it is not tolerable any longer. Did you write that down? The Communist Party is creating problems faster than it is resolving problems!

Today we are here to denounce the persecution of Falun Gong. They are the post-Maoist Chinese. They are already over Communism and the Communist Party! Their message says to put the CCP in the rear view mirror, on the ash heap of history!

Falun Gong has the longest, worst, and most deadly of the four crackdowns that I mentioned. We are here because ten years of this malarkey is ten years too many.

And for ten years, the U.S. executive branch has been shamefully silent while it nods, winks, and passes a trade surplus to communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs!

The recent crackdown on Uyghur Muslims brings to light the latest example of how China mistreats its minorities. President Hu Jintao cancelled his attendance at the G-8 summit in Italy and returned to China. There is no joke as I say, he hurried home to commit genocide and crimes against humanity!

Between the people and the government, we know which side has all the guns in China. When news comes of hundreds dead, that can only happen with government guns. The civilians are less heavily armed! The news has airbrushed out of the picture the role of the security forces in accumulating hundreds of recent deaths.

China should release the prisoners of conscience which it is now holding in its jails and labor camps. That includes all Falun Gong practitioners, all non-violent Tibetans, and all non-violent Uyghurs. And I will conclude with direct words for Hu Jintao, Barack Obama, and my audience.

For Hu Jintao, I have a four-part visual message. [Holding up signs/picture placards:] Hu Jintao, release Wang Bingzhang! Hu Jintao, release Zhou Yongjun! Hu Jintao, release Liu Xiaobo! And Hu Jintao, release Gao Zhisheng!

For Barack Obama and the U.S. State Department, shame on you for not making these calls yourself! You should have been out here today; instead, I'm out here pinch hitting! You're welcome.

To my audience, I call upon everyone to move onwards to victory for freedom, democracy, and human rights! Corrupt old ways, Maoist ways, and Clintonian ways do not lead to freedom, but the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance *will* lead to freedom! Thank you, God bless America, and God bless China!

Gospel Hip Hop Meets Falun Gong, Rips Hu Jintao

Gospel Hip Hop
Meets Falun Gong,
Rips Hu Jintao

The China Support Network participated in a 'Freedom For Falun Gong' rally on Washington DC's National Mall on Sunday, July 19 2009, where I personally attended and gave a speech. (The speech can be seen in a separate blog post: http://chinasupport.blogspot.com/2009/07/full-text-of-july-19-speech-by-csns.html )

The guys and I need to have an "after action review," because I expect that we were surprised by what happened, and we are still sizing it up. Did we know what we were getting into?

There is no bad thing in Sunday's event. This is not a complaint -- far from it. "Wow!!!" is more closely the take away that I'm having.

It's this way: I can take credit for bringing in the rock band, Light Club, to the causes of Chinese democracy and of freedom for Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uighurs, and more groups that are persecuted in Communist China. It was 2005 when I invited Tim Britt and his bandmate Ron Luke to perform at the commemoration of the 16th anniversary of Tiananmen Square. They were being brought into the middle of the Chinese dissident scene in Washington, DC.

For that occasion, they were inspired to write and record the song, 'Remember Tiananmen Square,' in the style of American rock music. Previously, I was aware of one such song ('The Ghosts of Beijing' by Eye In The Village) that was recorded in 1989 just after Tiananmen Square's bloody massacre of June 4 that year. And of course, Axl Rose from Guns'n'Roses was reportedly working on an album called Chinese Democracy.

--But aside from that, the U.S. rock music scene had been silent for 16 years on this topic. The emergence of new rock music for the cause was going to be big, especially for the Falun Gong community which was just coming out of its shell.

The backstory on Falun Gong is this: In 1989, it didn't exist. In 1992, it was introduced. It had explosive growth of popularity in China, until its size was estimated in the range of 70-100 million members. That scared the chief of the Communist Party, and a crackdown commenced in 1999. In 2004, a related newspaper published 'Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party' and began the movement to have all Chinese quit and resign their membership in the Communist Party. In those days of 2004-2005, the Falun Gong community (perhaps they can be called "neo-dissidents") was beginning to integrate better with other groups such as the secular pro-democracy movement ("paleo-dissidents").

Being in on the planning stages with Britt and Luke, we realized that U.S. rock music was coming from an alien culture in the eyes of those from Mainland China. We realized that the dissidents had never heard anything like this -- strong American rock music as a delivery vehicle for a pro-Chinese democracy message. It was even said that the Falun Gong "didn't like" rock music. We were going to get in everybody's face -- from Beijing thru Chinese diaspora thru the American public -- with this music, carrying a hard-edged political message.

They loved it! --A Falun Gong practitioner suggested expanding on the 'Bye Bye CCP' theme, and that inspired a second song, 'Bye Bye CCP.' The Falun Gong TV studio made two music videos that were done as footage montages with those two songs. The U.S. rockers had touched a chord (or in the eyes of Beijing, where Falun Gong is banned and verboten and persecuted, a raw nerve).

More collaboration followed. The Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR) in 2008 brought together all of China's persecuted to call for human rights ahead of the Olympics. Light Club wrote and recorded another song, 'Freedom First, Olympics Second' for our coalition by the same name. HRTR elevated more musical acts into the picture, and released a compilation CD called 'Songs to Save the World: Music of the Human Rights Torch Relay."

This may have meant that more musical acts were nipping at our heels, but we welcomed that because we want the good cause of Chinese rights to grow. And, Light Club's picture was on the CD cover and the lead song was 'Freedom First, Olympics Second.'

Just when you're feeling on top of the scene, you can't grow complacent. The foregoing is backstory to the "Wow!!!" that I am still having from what we witnessed yesterday.

And, I can't claim credit for bringing a new act onto the scene: Jared Pearman organized yesterday's event for Friends of Falun Gong. CSN co-sponsored. I think that at CSN, we were all surprised because Jared had invited us, but had not shown us the rest of the program lineup. In our experience, we would have expected a lot of speeches, plus Light Club and possibly one or two other musical acts.

So, we arrived at the National Mall and act after act after act appeared, sprouting like mushrooms. Jared had not told us that he was throwing a musical Woodstock for this final rally in the week that marks 10 years of Falun Gong persecution. "Wow!!!"

In fact, the Light Club band was also running the amplifiers, sound system, and sound board for the event. --I don't think they knew what was about to hit them.

Jared may be a practitioner of Falun Gong, but he is also a practitioner of opaque scheduling. While introducing Light Club, he stepped up to a mike and told the crowd as much.

"Being the person that I am, I rearranged the schedule right from the very beginning. And Light Club has been really gracious. These guys are running sound for our event; they drove all the way down from Connecticut to be here today with us. They're doing sound for the event; it's been a really really great pleasure to have them. I've been a thorn in their side rearranging things and changing everything up to the last minute, and I'm gonna do some more of that later on today, sorry about that guys..."

About ten minutes later I began my speech. I had prepared remarks designed to rip into Hu Jintao, the President of China, and also to scold Barack Obama, the President of the United States. And this was politically breaking some new ground in the free Chinese movement. Falun Gong and the China Support Network previously joined in a Global Coalition to Bring Jiang to Justice. That refers to the previous Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, who began the persecution of Falun Gong.

But, Falun Gong did not create a matching Coalition to Bring Hu to Justice. Even though the current Chinese President Hu continued the persecution, his is "the new administration," and the Falun Gong hope that he will reverse course. While that was understandable at first when Hu was new, it was unrealistic and the passage of time bears out the fact that Hu did not reverse the persecution. So, CSN has suggested the anti-Hu coalition, but Falun Gong did not agree with us.

Until today. Now, it must be clear to the Falun Gong that their's is not the most recent crackdown. In 2008, a Tibetan crackdown made news, and just this month in 2009, a Uighur crackdown made news. It is already time to denounce Hu Jintao for the handling of the situation with Uighurs.

My view is that it is in fact time to send Hu Jintao to the Hague (the International Criminal Court) to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Think about it: Falun Gong, Tibetans, and Uighurs have all become victims under crackdowns in the Hu Jintao administration. All three of these groups should be calling for Hu Jintao's scalp, and they are natural allies to join in a new Coalition to Bring Hu to Justice.

My speech did not press Falun Gong for a decision about a coalition; instead, my speech pressed Hu Jintao himself, suggesting that he should resign, surrender, and turn himself over to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.

Politically, it breaks new ground, because my earlier speeches didn't focus on Hu Jintao personally, just the Communist Party regime in general. I judged that the time was right for this. The latest crackdown was only two weeks earlier, and it brought to light another example of genocide and crimes against humanity, committed by Hu's government just this month. The Uighur crackdown is echoing the Tibetan crackdown of last year -- but already, the death toll is higher in this crackdown than in last year's.

So. It was important to rip Hu Jintao, and I did so. One can also note that mine was the keynote speech -- the program was largely music, not speeches. Jared and his wife and some other victims of persecution provided anecdotes about the persecution; so yes, the program had speech, but no Congressmen or secular Chinese dissidents.

'Point being, mine was the strong voice, not eclipsed by anything else on the program.

Or perhaps, I've got that exactly wrong. If we cease to think of music and speeches in different compartments, then the program overall had many strong voices: singing!

I continue to think "Wow!!!," and yesterday serves as an example that just when you think you've seen it all....you ain't seen nothing yet.

The enormous discovery came near the end of the program, when the rapper (and ordained deacon) Joe L. Da Vessel took the stage. OMG... Look at the bio and music pages at http://www.joeldavessel.com/. Can a Falun Gong rally be turned into a hip hop revival? If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I would not have thought it plausible.

Joe L. Da Vessel is a giant hulk physically, an imposing presence. I first met him when I stepped off the stage at the end of my speech. He was kicking back in a nearby van or SUV, and he and his manager shook my hand, and gave me a shrink-wrapped copy of a CD titled, "Testimony: 1 Lyrics 4 Life." The CD cover also has this clue: "The 2008 Gospel Music Stellar Award Nominee, Rap/Hip Hop Gospel CD of the year."

Likely, he had just overheard my speech, ripping into Hu Jintao. He asked me, "How do you pronounce the name of the Chinese President?" I replied appropriately, something like "Who gin tahw."

Soon enough, he was taking the stage, doing highly engineered rap music, and ripping a new orifice for Hu Jintao and the Communist Party. In fact, he was bellowing, "Hu Jintao! You are not God!" over and over again.

At one time, Tim Britt and Ron Luke were feeling that something big was going down, because they (Falun Gong) had never heard anything like the music they would put on the table. But at July 19's event, they were not the big discovery. (In fact, Light Club decided against performing their new song, 'Chinese Democracy Defiled,' feeling that the moment was not right to try the new achievement of performing it live.)

Well, they (Falun Gong) had never heard or seen anything like Joe L. Da Vessel hammering Hu Jintao. I could sense that something big was going down. This was the big discovery.

Apparently, Joe previously rapped out a song, "In DC We Demand The Vote," for District of Columbia voting rights, and that video was played at the Democratic National Convention (I got that from his MySpace page, myspace.com/joeldavessel ).

So clearly, he doesn't mind getting involved politically, and on July 19 we appreciated his presence and his appearance in support of freedom for Falun Gong and indeed, for all of China.

And of course, I'm happy to watch people pile on against Hu Jintao. In this way, I wasn't the only American offering a challenge, or a political assault that seems frontal and direct to Hu Jintao, on that day.

It's a heartwarming discovery, and for some in attendance it must have been jaw dropping. As mentioned above, American rock music was once an alien culture to Falun Gong. Hip hop is like a subculture all of its own, and would seem even farther removed from the experience of Falun Gong.

But it's like that -- at the event site, a reporter for the Epoch Times asked me to reflect on what changes I had seen across the ten year's time that we were marking in the persecution. I replied as indicated, that Falun Gong began by being known only to those in its own circle. Various different "interest groups" have discovered Falun Gong and vice-versa in these ten years.

It's inevitable that if you go to shout at the Chinese embassy, you will notice other demonstrators there, and realize that Taiwanese, Tibetans, Uighurs, Falun Gong, and secular dissidents are all regular protestors outside of Chinese embassies and consulates.

These ten years allowed for many exchanges, joint actions, and coalitions among the groups. All of these groups overlap in their common humanity. American rockers joined in the overlap, and now American hip hoppers are also coming together to denounce the persecution.

All there agreed that the persecution itself is ridiculously absurd. Indeed, Joe L. Da Vessel helped to ridicule it, listing some practices of the Communist Party and saying, "What is that?" as a short way to dispose of the matters' legitimacy.

He also sang his song, "Yea Though I Walk," a rap song built around the 23rd Psalm in the Christian Bible: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." Fearing no evil was an apt subtext for our event, as we indeed pushed back against evil -- that of China's Communist Party and Hu Jintao.

^ Photo at side stage ^


^ Wide view of the scene ^

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Support the Uighurs, protest the slaughter!

ALERT OF IMMEDIATE PROTESTS
===========================
LOS ANGELES
Host: Uyghur Community in US
Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009
Time: 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Federal Building
Street: 11000 Wilshire Blvd
City/Town: Los Angeles, CA
Phone: 310-883-5189
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127777380405

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA
Date: July 10, 2009
Where: In front of Chinese Embassy in Canberra
Address: 15 Coronation Drv,Yarralumla ACT 2600
When: 3pm

NEW YORK CITY
Place: Across The Street from the UN Building
Corner of 43rd Street & 1st Avenue
Time: 12PM - 2PM
Date: Friday July 10, 2009
Hosted by: Federation of Turkish American Associations (FTAA/TADF - Turk Amerikan Dernekleri Federasyonu)
Information:
email: tadf@tadf.org
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107743666891

LONDON
Host: Uighur People of London
Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Chinese embassy
Street: 49-51 Portland Pl, London, W1B 1JL
Email: purdi_pimpcess@hotmail.com
Information: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127436610785&ref=mf