CIPFG: Chinese Communist Regime Violates Olympic Spirit

On August 2nd, 2007, the Central News Agency reported that the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) Asia Division stated that the Beijing Government had violated the Olympic Spirit by conducting political censoring to exclude forty-three types of people, including Falun Gong practitioners, from the 2008 Olympic Games.

Though the Olympic Spirit emphasises peace and human rights, the Chinese Communist regime has moved in the opposite direction by implementing political censoring. According to the CIPFG Asia Division, the Chinese Communist regime has singled out forty-three types of people in eleven categories who will not be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games. This blacklist even includes journalists and NGOs. Former director of the Taiwan Department of Health, Twu Shiing-jer, complained that the Communists' move is clearly to suppress the voices of dissidents.

Twu said, "Today we have seen that the Chinese Communist regime just outlined forty-three types of people in eleven categories who would not be allowed to enter China during the Olympic Games, to prevent these people from 'marring' the regime's delicate setting. With the exception of terrorists, which were classified as the tenth category, all others are unjustified. The regime is apparently trying to suffocate dissidents during the Games. Upon closer examination, you will realise that 90% of all Taiwanese people will not be allowed to enter China, and anyone with a conscience can fall into one of the categories."

To protest that the Chinese Communist regime has not fulfilled the promises it committed to upon applying to host the Games, and to protest the ongoing persecution, a number of human rights groups will light a human rights torch in Athens to start a "Global Human Rights Torch Relay" project. The torch will be relayed in more than 100 cities around the world to raise awareness of the atrocities happening in China.