Report from Finnish Newspaper 'Kaleva': China Covers Up Information and puts Pressures on Other Countries

4th June 2003

Mrs. Pirjo Svensson, who was born in Finland, has been jailed in Thailand for more than one month now. The day after she was arrested the Swedish embassy [in Bangkok] demanded an explanation for her arrest from the Thai authorities. No response has yet been received.

On the same day that Pirjo Svensson was arrested, there was a high level meeting about SARS in Bangkok, attended by Chinese representatives. Obviously the Chinese government pressurised the Thai officials into arresting Pirjo.

Despite requests from the Swedish embassy, no official explanation for the arrest has been given. The authorities have only given a vague message, saying that it is inappropriate to possess material that exposes the facts about the ongoing, four-year persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Pirjo Svensson has raised the subject of China’s human rights violations and has informed people of what Falun Gong is. Similar material [to that found in Pirjo’s possession] is being spread around the world and it is freely available on the Internet. Falun Gong is not prohibited in Thailand, nor is it prohibited anywhere else outside China. China’s cover-up and lies about the persecution of Falun Gong are violations against humanity; the numbers of practitioners tortured and dead is rising all the time, but the Chinese government is still not willing to talk about these human right violations.

An ordinary citizen of China doesn’t know what is happening at the forced labour camps, mental hospitals or prisons; because they are being consciously deceived.

The SARS-epidemic has been covered up in a similar fashion. Health authorities in Beijing have admitted to the World Health Organisation (WHO) that many suspected SARS-cases were not reported. In April there may have been over 200 cases a day, but according to Chinese authorities there were only 12. What’s the real situation?

Has the Chinese tradition of covering up the truth and lying to the populace as well as the rest of the world led to a situation, whereby many countries just quietly accept the lies from the Chinese regime as official information, and may even act according to it by arresting people without reason?

Another example of this was in summer 2002 when the Chinese government pressured the Icelandic authorities to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from entering Iceland during the visit of former president Jiang Zemin.

By covering up the facts about the SARS-epidemic, for example, China has already caused great economic damage to itself and to the countries that it has trade relations with. Indirectly, the entire world may have to suffer from SARS because the cover up has led to its rapid spread outside of China.

The media has an important role to play in telling the facts about this matter. Nothing should be able prevent this.