Korea: Press Conference on the Truth about China's Human Rights Held at Parliament

A press conference about human rights in China was held on June 23rd, 2006 at the Korean Parliament Assembly Hall. The conference was hosted by Member of Parliament Shen He Yong from the "Open Party." MP Hang Guang Yuan and MP Park Jae Wan from the "One Nation Party" also attended the conference. Mr. Erping Zhang from the US was invited to make a speech.

The conference was co-sponsored by NTDTV and the Epoch Times. Mr. Hong Cheng Ge from the Epoch Times and Mr. Wu Shi Lie of Amnesty International also spoke at the conference.

Member of Parliament Shen He Yong emphasised that regarding brutal human rights abuses, if one in the political circle looks on and remains silent, he should take a look at himself. Serious human rights violations such as organ harvesting actually exist, but due to limited media coverage, people in Korea are unable to accurately learn about the actual human rights condition in China. The press conference will help get the word out to the public.

MP Park Jae Wan said that the long history of humanity is a history of striving to strengthen life's dignity. The concept of "heaven-endowed human rights" is the result of steadfast struggle of a few courageous people.

Mr. Erping Zhang spoke at length about the actual situation of human rights in China. He pointed out that the economic numbers claimed by the CCP are not matched in reality. The CCP and its autocratic regime have lost the foundation of people's support and will soon collapse.

Mr. Zhang said, "Not resisting the evil is equivalent to giving up kindness. One person's righteousness and justice is consistent with more people's righteousness and justice. Future generations will comment on what we are doing now, but also will make judgments on things that we should have done but did not." "Governments around the world should seek support from the Chinese people in their policies, not just the Chinese Communist Party."

He went on to discuss China's economic situation. He said that in China, foreign investment accounts for 70% of the total GDP. Bank bad debts total 40% of the GDP. The economy is therefore actually suffering negative growth. Under such circumstances, China's economy is at risk of collapse. In addition, China's competitive power lies in its cheap labour, lack of labour unions, abundant and cheap resources, and exports to sustain economic growth. Average income in cities is about 1,300 US dollars, while in rural villages, annual incove is a mere 362 US dollars. The gap is so wide. Corruption is rampant at even the highest levels, with an annual cost estimated at 22 billion US dollars.

The CCP claims harmony and stability, but in 2005 alone, 87,000 group demonstrations occurred involving more than three million people. That's one demonstration almost every five minutes. In areas of minority groups such as the Xinjiang Uighur Area, a large number of people have been detained or put into jail. No political asylum status has been granted to any person who escaped to China from North Korea. This is against the Refugees Protection Act it signed in 1950.

Mr. Zhang also stated that in order to filter the Internet, China has spent 800 billion US dollars building firewalls, and reinforcing the Internet monitoring system. There are also more than 50,000 Internet police manning Internet monitoring centres in over 700 cities in China, there are also over 40 Internet monitoring regulations. The CCP has signed monitoring agreements with international heavyweights such as Google, Yahoo and others. In 2004 and 2005, over 169 newspapers and magazines were shut down.

Issue on Harvesting Organs from Living Falun Gong Practitioners

Mr. Zhang explained that the largest group victimised in China is Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a Qigong cultivation practice. It involves cultivating one's moral characters following the standard of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," and practising the five sets of exercises to keep fit. It is not some political organisation that the CCP would have people believe. Falun Gong has a principle that anyone can practise Falun Gong so long as they want to. At the beginning, the director of the China's Sport Committee once announced that medical expenses can be cut by 1,000 Yuan per person per year for those that practise Falun Gong.

As for the reason for persecuting Falun Gong, he said that in 1998, according to CCP estimates, there were 70 million to 100 million people practising Falun Gong. The number of Falun Gong practitioners exceeded that of the CCP membership. The CCP authorities did not want to see Falun Gong growing so rapidly, so it began implementing the persecution policy. In addition, the tenets of Falun Gong tend to emphasise traditional values. This is also one of the reasons for the CCP's suppression of Falun Gong. The persecution started in July 1999. The authorities burned Falun Gong books, deprived practitioners of their right to appeal in court and denied them the protection of their assets.

It has been verified that at least 2,910 practitioners have died as a result of persecution. The issue of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners who have been detained in forced labour camps and jails has recently arisen.

Mr. Zhang continued, explaining that since 2000, each organ transplant centre has performed about 2,000 organ transplant operations on average. As the persecution of Falun Gong continues, this number is increasing sharply. The investigation over the organ transplant centres showed that they indeed harvested organs from Falun Gong practitioners.

One-party dictatorship in China will soon collapse

Mr. Zhang pointed out that similar autocratic regimes collapsed in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. They ruled the people on the basis of extreme unfairness and immorality, and could not gain support from the people and ultimately collapsed.

The Director of Korean Epoch Times pointed out in his speech that it is the responsibility of the media in all countries to expose the hidden truth in China. He said that this was a starting point for solving the human rights issues in China.

The Amnesty International representative said, "The Communist Party overrides the law." Eighty percent of the executions in the world are carried out in China. Violent behaviour, corruption, bribery and the death penalty are all problems in China.