Investigative Report: China's Ministry of Culture, Exporting the Persecution of Falun Gong and Participating Chinese Officials of Sino-France Cultural Year Exchange Program

Summary

I. Monopolize the Chinese Media and Manipulate News and Information Pertaining to Falun Gong

Since Jiang Zemin sanctioned the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, China's Ministry of Culture has diligently adhered to his dictates. On July 24, 1999, the Ministry of Culture notified cultural management departments and audio/video management departments of all levels to immediately confiscate Falun Gong publications and prevent further production. On the afternoon of July 28, the first wave of nationwide activities to destroy all Falun Gong publications and materials commenced in Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Jilin, Hubei, and other cities and provinces. Over two million Falun Gong publications were confiscated nationwide and more than twelve provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions participated in destroying large numbers of Falun Gong publications [1]. On January 29, 2000, the 12th nationwide video and telephone conference on the Campaign Against Pornography and Illegal Publication was held in Beijing. Participants included officials from the Central Propaganda Ministry, the Central Political and Judiciary Committee, the National Working Group to Ban Pornographic and Illegal Publications, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and the General Administration of Press and Publication. The objective of this conference was to plan activities in the campaign against pornography and illegal publications for the year 2000.

It was disclosed during the conference that "according to incomplete statistics, in the past five years ending with October 1999, over 10,700,000 copies of Falun Gong publications were seized." "While the government announces these significant achievements, there are clearly some unresolved problems in that some Falun Gong publications and ... are still circulating in the society. To resolve these issues, all level of Communist Party Committees and governments must recap the experiences and lessons learned from the investigation and handling Falun Gong publications. We must keep constantly in mind that strengthening the political basis and ruling status of the Communist Party comes first and foremost, and thus plan this year's activities of campaign against pornography and illegal publication accordingly. We must be always one step ahead in our concerted efforts to eliminate the production and trafficking of pornography and illegal publications."

The director of the National Working Group to Ban Pornographic and Illegal Publications, Wang Maoling, was also the Deputy Head of the Leadership Team to Deal with Falun Gong Problem and the Director of the "610 Office" of the Central CCP Committee. Mr. Wang Maoling and the Secretary of the Central CCP Political and Judiciary Committee, Wang Shengjun, delivered a speech at the conference. The director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, Yu Youxian, who was also the deputy director of the National Working Group to Ban Pornography and Illegal Publications, announced the "Year 2000 Action Plan to Ban Pornographic and Illegal Publications" at the conference. [2] Jiang's regime controls all the newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations. Consequently, they have the power to spread slanderous news articles, audio broadcast, and video programs against Falun Gong during all hours, be it day or night. Because Jiang Zemin banned Falun Gong books in China, Chinese people who do not practice Falun Gong are unable to compare the insulting information and lies against the actual content of Falun Gong books.

As of January 30, 2004, and from the day Jiang Zemin instigated the persecution, there have been at least 872 confirmed deaths of Falun Gong practitioners from torture. According to Chinese authorities' internal statistics, generated around October 2001, the number of Falun Gong practitioners that died in police custody had reached 1,600. Nonetheless, none of the media in China reported such information. The freedom of speech granted by China's Constitution, and the Chinese citizens' rights to know the facts, have been severely curtained by Jiang's regime's monopoly of the Chinese media. This group manipulates all news and information pertaining to Falun Gong. The spreading of derogatory and deceptive information's sole goal is to instigate public criticism, incite hatred of Falun Gong and thus eliminate Falun Gong.

II. Monitoring and Controlling Internet Communications

Since this suppression of Falun Gong is completely based and sustained by lies, confiscation and destruction of Falun Gong publications, news blockades, including Internet blockades, it has become imperative for Jiang to maintain this suppression. Thus, in order to further monitor and block the "opposing forces" inside and outside of China, as well as Falun Gong emails, the extreme costly "Web Culture Engineering" was launched on December 7, 2000. The originating committee of this project included the Ministry of Culture, the Central Committee of Communist Youth League, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, All-China Students' Federation, State Information Technology Promotion Office, Guangming Daily, China Telecom, and China Mobile. Sun Jiazheng, the Minister of Culture and Zhou Qiang, the Chief Secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Youth League were chairpersons of the committee. Xu Wenbo, former Deputy Minister of Culture, was the vice chairman and secretary general of the committee. China Telecom was in charge of the funds [3].

On January 10, 2001, Xu Wenbo, vice chairman and secretary general of the Web Culture Engineering Organizing Committee announced at the Web Culture Engineering Theory Discussion Forum held in Beijing that "The Web Culture Engineering Organizing Committee has detected and monitored Falun Gong emails multiple times." Xu Wenbo said, "To construct Web Culture, we must actively launch attacks, as Chairman Jiang pointed out." Xu also declared that the government's administration and Judicature branches would take strong measures to monitor and control Internet communications. Xu's speech is a strong indication that the Chinese Communist government is extremely sensitive and frightened by unofficial information flowing into China over the Internet. Xu also declared that the government would develop technologies to block sensitive information available over the Internet. Xu said, "We need to use technological methods to block undesirable contents when the Internet connects to China's regional networks. We need to develop security check software that meets the needs of our country's Internet development. ... The way to take is to check and block." Xu suggested monitoring Internet cafes by creating and executing new Internet regulations, monitoring their Internet communications with technologies, and censoring information on the Internet. Xu said in his speech, "We must create strict regulations and administrative policies, that is, we must use legislative and administrative means in our effort to succeed." He continued, "We must develop technologies that instantly detect unwanted information, locate its source and destination, and block the Internet traffic."

In January 2001, the Minister of the Chinese Culture Ministry, Mr. Sun Jiazheng, attended and gave a speech at the first plenary assembly of the Central Comprehensive Maintenance of Public Security Committee (CMPSC) convened in Beijing. The Standing Committee Member of the Chinese Political Bureau and the former Head of the Leadership Team to Deal with Falun Gong Problem of Central CCP Committee, Mr. Luo Gan, suggested instigating people's hatred towards Falun Gong and thus manipulate their actions towards oppressing Falun Gong. Luo stated at the conference that, in the battle against "Falun Gong," it was critical to mobilize the masses, fully utilize the legal instrument, intensify the fight against "Falun Gong," and strengthen the transformation of "Falun Gong" practitioners. [4].

In addition, a document issued from the Communist party's province level in 2003 stated that "With the development, spread and perfection of Internet techniques, more and more people at university campuses will use the Net, and it will be more and more difficult for us to block internet information." "We must pay great attention to utilizing Internet blocking techniques. We must allocate more funds to develop such techniques [5]." According to our sources, Internet monitoring, which used to be limited to some provincial capitals, has been extended to provinces, cities and counties all across China. The Ministry of Culture, with Sun Jiazheng as the Minister, planned to complete installations of Internet monitoring devices by the end of 2003 [6].

III. The Ministry of Culture Spreads Lies and Persists in their Persecution against Falun Gong in Foreign Countries while Hosting Overseas Chinese Cultural Activities

In addition, to "legitimize" his persecution and to obtain favourable international opinion, Jiang Zemin visited six countries in 1999 for "interpersonal communication." In a written interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, he branded Falun Gong an "evil cult." During the mutual visits between Jiang and French president Chirac in 1999 and 2000, they set up bilateral cultural year celebrations between the two countries. In April 2001, Mr. Li Lanqing, Chinese Vice Premier and the Head of the Leadership Team to Deal with Falun Gong Problem (Its affiliated office, "610 Office," is a Gestapo-like agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong), signed an agreement during his visit to France. The two sides agreed that China will hold a Culture Year in France from October 2003 to July 2004 and France will hold a Culture Year in China from Fall 2004 to July 2005.

In October 2003, an expert of China's international news strategy disclosed this information: "[...] the survey showed that only 25% of foreign residents in China believe the content of English news broadcasts by the Chinese media [...] This issue concerns our country's overall strategy of broadcasting overseas and its relationship with our English media propaganda. In the past, we always thought that overseas broadcasting was the responsibility of our English media and that it did not concern other sections of the government. In reality, overseas broadcasting has interrelationship with all sections of our government, that includes mass media and interpersonal communication. Maletzke's Mass Communication Process Model shows that in some cases interpersonal communication has an indispensable advantage over mass media. Our past experience with overseas communications also proved the importance of interpersonal communication. Perhaps for this very reason, our country has gradually paid attention to foster our country's image and consciously organizes artistic performances, overseas exhibitions, leaders' visits abroad and allow interviews with foreign reporters. The State Council Information Office spent 5 million US dollars in 1999 to hold various kind of 'interpersonal communication' activities in major US cities and has achieved good effects of mass communication." [7] Obviously, the ideology export under the guise of international culture exchange will become another way to penetrate the western societies.

The bilateral cultural year between France and China is a good example. Our investigation found that the Chairman of the Chinese committee of China-France Bilateral Culture Year and some members of the committee have been involved in the persecution of Falun Gong to different degrees. (For details please see individual cases.) Between January 24 and 26 of 2004, while the Chinese Ministry of Culture sent 5,000 representatives to participate in the Culture Year activities in Paris, at least 30 Falun Gong practitioners at the parade site were abducted by French police force, who used excessive force, gave no valid reason for their actions and unlawfully detained the practitioners in the police station of the 17th precinct in Paris. Many other Falun Gong practitioners at the parade site were surrounded by French policemen and were subject to rough treatment. The French police told them they deserved the treatment and detention because they wore yellow clothes and accessories, or wore clothes and accessories with the message, "Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance" or "Falun Dafa." Apparently, the Chinese officials in France had pressured the French government to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. However, it is very likely that the Chinese committee members of the China-France Bilateral Culture Year Committee may have taken the opportunity of the Chinese parade to spread slanderous lies about Falun Gong and exert pressure on the French government to unlawfully arrest and detain Falun Gong practitioners. We will continue to investigate the unlawful arrests of the 30 Falun Gong practitioners in Paris that occurred between January 24 and 26 of 2004.

Officials Who Actively Participating in Persecuting Falun Gong

Sun Jiazheng: Minister of the Chinese Culture Ministry, Chairman of the Chinese Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange (2003-2004), and Director of the Web Culture Engineering Organizing Committee.

Xu Wenbo: Deputy Director and Secretary of the Web Culture Engineering Organizing Committee in the Chinese Culture Ministry, Ex-Vice Minister of the Chinese Culture Ministry, Head of the Chinese Digital Library Organizing Committee and Head of the Chinese Digital Library Steering Committee.

Zhao Jinjun: Diplomat of the Chinese Embassy in France (July 2003-present, 1999-2002), the assistant of the Chinese Foreign Minister (2002-July 2003), Vice Chairman of the Chinese Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange (2003-2004)

Wu Jianmin: President of China Diplomatic Institute, Vice Director of the National Political Consultative Foreign Committee (July 2003-present), Ambassador of the Chinese Embassy in France (1998-July 2003), and member of the Chinese Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange (2003-2004)

Li Bing: Deputy Director of the State Department News Office and Member of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange.

Zhang Youcai: Vice Minister and Communist Group Member of the Chinese Treasure Department (December 1989 -- July 2002), Member of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange, Independent and Non-operational Board Member of the General Chinese Petroleum Chemical Engineering Corporation, Director of the Chinese General Accountant Association.

Zhao Shi: Deputy Director of the General Chinese Radio and TV Broadcast Bureau, Vice Chairman of the Broadcast Expo Organizing Committee, and Member of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange.

Zhang Mao: Deputy Mayor of Beijing and Member of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange.

Wang Zhongwei: Standing committee member of the Shanghai CCP Committee and Director of the City Propaganda Bureau, Honorary Director of the Shanghai Organizing Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange.

Hao Tiechuan: Deputy Director of the Shanghai City Propaganda Bureau, and the Deputy Director of the Shanghai Organizing Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange

Sun Jiazheng
Minister of the Chinese Culture Ministry (March 1998 -- present) [8], Co-Chairman of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange (2003-2004) [9], and Co-Director of the Web Culture Engineering Organizing Committee (December 2000 -- present) [10]. Under the leadership of Sun Jiazheng, the Chinese Culture Ministry installed a large scale web monitoring system called "Web Culture Engineering" [10] throughout the country. The completion target date was to be end of 2003. The system is to ensure the dominating role of Communism in people's mind, as well as monitor and censor e-mails from "anti-China forces" and Falun Gong at home and abroad. The expenses were covered by the Chinese Telecommunication Bureau [10].

Xu Wenbo
Deputy Director and Secretary of the Web Culture Engineering Organizing Committee in the Chinese Culture Ministry [10], Ex-Vice Minister of the Chinese Culture Ministry (1990 -- March 1999), Head of the Chinese Digital Library Organizing Committee and Head of the Chinese Digital Library Steering Committee (October 1998 -- present) [11]. He disclosed at a seminar that the Web Culture Engineering Organizing Committee has detected e-mails from Falun Gong practitioners many times. He said that "The Web Culture Engineering system is a must in order to guarantee a dominating role of Communism in public's mind," "We should be more proactive as pointed out by the CCP Secretary General Jiang", and "To set up the Chinese Digital Library and the Party School System Digital Library is the important step of enhancing content construction, a way to be proactive." The Internet cafés and other similar places providing public with Internet access should follow the "Web Surfing Rule," and the web content should be censored. He also talked about how to monitor and block e-mails from "anti-China forces" and Falun Gong home and abroad, etc. [10].

Zhao Jinjun(right) [12]
Diplomat, stationed at the Chinese Embassy in France (July 2003-present, 1999-2002), Assistant of the Chinese Foreign Minister (2002-July 2003), and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange [9]. On November 21, 1999, he sponsored a Chinese Community Representative Anti-Falun Gong conference in France and gave a speech [13].

Wu Jianmin
President of the China Diplomatic Institute, Vice Director of the National Political Consultative Foreign Committee (July 2003-present), Ambassador of the Chinese Embassy in France (1998-July 2003)[14], and member of the Chinese Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange. [9] During his duty term in France, he slandered Falun Gong and Falun Gong's founder at many conferences and exhibits either sponsored by him or at Chinese community parties in order to instigate hared towards Falun Gong. On November 21, 1999, Wu gave a speech to more than 60 people in the Chinese Embassy in France to slander and attack Falun Gong. Many people believed his lies and also gave speeches to advocate Wu and slander Falun Gong (15). On the afternoon of February 18, 2001, he slandered Falun Gong's founder and practitioners at a gathering of Chinese students and Chinese French expatriates in Paris in order to instigate hatred towards Falun Gong by the audience (16). On March 25, 2001, Wu held a conference on behalf of the China Anti-Cult Association's delegation in France where he told lies that included Falun Gong practitioners committing suicide and murder (17). On January 7, 2002, he arranged to have the China Anti-Cult Association and the Chinese Embassy sponsor a photo exhibit in Pairs where more than 100 pictures slandering Falun Gong and its founder were exhibited (18).

Li Bing (right)
Deputy Director of the State Council News Office, Member of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange. He has organized press conferences to slander and vilify Falun Gong many times [19]. On November 4, 1999, he presided over a press conference for both Chinese and foreign medias in the State Department News Office. In the press conference held by Ye Xiaowen, Director of the State Religious Affair Bureau, he slandered and verbally attacked the founder of Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners [20]. On February 27, 2001, he attended the press conference held by the State Department News Office. In the press conference, an officer in the Cult Prevention and Handling Office Liu Jing gave a speech to slander Falun Gong practitioners using the staged "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" [19].

Zhang Youcai
Vice Minister and Communist Group Member of the Ministry of Finance of PRC (December 1989 -- July 2002), Member of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange [9], Independent and Non-operational Board Member of the General Chinese Petroleum Chemical Engineering Corporation (April 2003 -- present), Director of the Chinese General Accountant Association (November 2002 -- present) [21]. In summarizing the auditing and accounting work in 1999, he said that under the leadership of the Central Communist Party centring on the Secretary General Jiang Zemin, China has won three great battles in the political world. The first battle was against the United States. The second battle was against Li Denghui's "Two Countries" proposal from Taiwan, and the third was against Falun Gong, in which they have won "the decisive battle" [22].

Ms. Zhao Shi
Deputy Director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, Vice Chairman of the Broadcast Expo Organizing Committee. On January 8 -- 10, 2003. She gave a speech at the National Media Broadcast Conference held in Beijing. In her speech, she expounded on the Chinese media system and said that it had seriously followed the important thoughts of "Three Representatives," and the broadcast during the 16th People Congress had won a decisive battle against "Falun Gong" [23]. (Picture: Zhao Shi addressing the Inaugural Chinese International Media Broadcast Expo held in Beijing on August 24, 2003)[24]

Zhang Mao
Deputy Mayor of Beijing, Vice President of the 29th Olympic Committee (December 2001)[25], and Member of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange [9]. On July 22, 1999, Zhang attended a conference held by Beijing City Committee that was instrumental in the Central Communist Committee's policy to oppress Falun Gong. Beijing City Communist Party Secretary Jia Qinglin held this conference and gave a speech [26]. On March 20, 2003, Zhang attended Beijing City 2003 "Eliminating Porno and SARS" Leadership Meeting and gave a speech where he required the city's law enforcement agencies to thoroughly confiscate Falun Gong material in February -- March [27].

Wang Zhongwei

He is a standing committee member of the Shanghai CCP Committee and Director of the City Propaganda Bureau, Honorary Director of the Shanghai Organizing Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange. The first "anti-Falun Gong" movie and the 16 episodes of the corresponding TV series produced by the Shanghai Film Production Inc. were first aired on August 22, and August 28, 2002, respectively. Wang Zhongwei attended the preview ceremony and interviewed key staff members of the two shows. Under direct filming guidance from the leaders of the City Propaganda Bureau, the City Office of Preventing and Handling the Evil Cult Problem, and the Shanghai Cultural and Media Broadcast Department, the movie and the TV series were acknowledged by the Central Propaganda Bureau, the Office of Preventing and Handling the Evil Cult Problem of State Council and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. The movie "Walking Out of the Death Trap," with Wang Guoxian as both the screenwriter and director, fabricated stories to slander Falun Gong, saying that they were harming lives. The TV series "The Call for Life and Death," with Ye Xin as the screenwriter and Xu Weijie as the director, is doing the same. A joint announcement was made by the City Propaganda Bureau directed by Wang Zhongwei, the City Office of Civilization, the City Office of Preventing and Handling the Evil Cult Problem, the Communist Party Committee of City Education Department, the City Judiciary Department, the City Culture Broadcast Bureau, the City General Worker's Union, the City Communist Youth League Committee, and the City Women Association, etc. requiring everyone in the city to watch the movie and series and hold forums to discuss them among the CCP members and the Chinese Communist Youth League members [28].

Hao Tiechuan

Deputy Director of the Shanghai City Propaganda Bureau, and the Deputy Director of the Shanghai Organizing Committee of the Sino-France Culture Year Exchange. On February 26, 2001, he wrote an article on Xinlu Net in which he tampered with the speech content of the founder of Falun Gong in order to slander Falun Gong and deceive readers [29].

References:

1. Xinhua News Agency report on July 24, 1999; People's Daily reports on July 29 & 30, 1999
2. Chronicle of year 2001 publications of the Publisher Association of China
3. http://imcp.ccnt.com.cn/
4. Legal Daily Beijing January 20 report
5. Shan'xi Teachers and Workers Office Article 49 of 2003
6. Harbin Daily News Net, October 8, 2003; Clearwisdom.net, October 2, 2003
7. Sina.com specific columns and topics
8. Xinhua Net -- Xinhua Net Sources, Renmin Bao News Report on October 10, 2003
9. Xinlang Culture Net -- Sino-France Culture Year (09/26/2003)
10. Chinese Culture Information Net --The Web Culture Engineering system
11. Chinese Culture Information Net -- Digital Library
12. Guangming Daily, September 25, 2003
13. Guangming Daily, November 21 reports from Paris
14. The website of Chinese Diplomatic Institute -- Current Leaders
15. People's Daily, 6th page on November 24, 1999;
16. China News Service, February 18, 2001;
17. Xinhua Net, March 25, 2001;
18. China News Service, January 7, 2002
19. People's Daily, 3rd page on November 5, 1999; China Net 2001-02-27
20. eastday.com, August 19, 2002; CCTV, May 21, 2002
21. Chinese Petroleum Chemical website -- committee
22. Chinese Culture Information Net -- Examination Centre
23. Broadcast and TV Information, February 2003
24. Souhu.com, August 24 from Beijing
25. The website of the 29th Olympic Committee -- The Window of Beijing
26. Beijing Evening, July 23, 1999 report
27. Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press and Publication, March 20, 2003
28. eastday.com, Aug 19, 2002
29. Xinlunet.com, Feb 26, 2001

Note:
The Web Culture Engineering system was sponsored by eight entities including the Chinese Culture Ministry, The Chinese Communist Youth League, The General Chinese Radio and TV Broadcast Bureau, National Scholar Association, the State Information Promotion Office, Guangming Daily Newspaper, The Chinese Telecommunication Bureau and the Chinese Mobile Communication Bureau. Its main function is to monitor and block e-mails from "anti-China forces" and "Falun Gong" home and abroad. The Co-Directors of the Organizing Committee are the Minister of the Chinese Culture Ministry Sun Jiazheng and the First Secretary of the Chinese Communist Youth League Zhou Qiang. The expenses are from the Chinese Telecommunication Bureau. The program started on December 7, 2000. On January 10, 2001, a Web Culture Engineering seminar co-sponsored by the Central Communist Party School Office and Web Culture Engineering Organizing Committee was held in Beijing.