Using the Olympics as an Excuse to Escalate the Persecution Against Falun Gong

Ever since the Olympic Committee granted Communist China the honour of hosting the 2008 Olympics in 2001, the world has been waiting for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to fulfil its promise with regards to improving their human rights. Seven years have passed, and the Party has tried to appear peaceful on the surface, but they are actually concealing human rights persecution in order to deceive the international community. There have been no signs of improving human rights in China. Rather, the regime is escalating the suppression of the Chinese peoples' speech, beliefs, even the most basic right to live, using the excuse of hosting the Olympics. Countless Chinese people have been arrested, detained, had their homes taken away, or killed, especially during the persecution of Falun Gong. The Beijing Olympics are turning into the "Bloody Olympics."

The Persecution Under the Olympics Banner Began Three Years ago

In 2005, the Public Safety Deputy Minister Liu Jing received an order to eliminate any presence of Falun Gong before the Olympics, and issued an order to the entire police system to carry this out. In March 2007, the former Public Safety Minister Zhou Yongkang issued another order, demanding a second round of severe persecution against Falun Gong. Soon after, many large-scale arrests of Falun Gong practitioners took place in several regions. Some practitioners were detained or sentenced to prison, some have gone missing, and some were tortured to death. Police have openly shouted about how they will "kill a batch before the Olympics."

Beijing Filled with Terror as Olympics Approach

As the 2008 Olympics approach, police are searching people's bags at Tiananmen Square, main intersections, and vehicles that exit the highway going towards Beijing. Those who enter Beijing by train must now show their paperwork, along with their tickets. This practice is usually used one or two weeks before the CCP Congress, but this time it began a full eight months before the Olympics would start. On January 24th, 2008, police in Chaoyang, Chongwen, and Shunyi Districts barged into Falun Gong practitioners' homes or workplaces to ransack and perform illegal arrests. On January 25th, 2008, police were all over Beijing stopping vehicles and checking passenger IDs. Sources say that the funding for persecuting Falun Gong has also increased.

Ten practitioners in Beijing were arrested in December of 2007, with many more arrested in January of 2008. More than twenty were arrested on January 23rd-25th, 2008, including some practitioners' family members and colleagues, who were also arrested and detained.

These batches of arrested practitioners were brutally beaten upon being arrested. They were arrested at home or their workplaces, and many were then sentenced to eight months or more of forced labour, which goes until the Olympics end. The forced labour camps in Beijing are full, so the camp administrators are transferring practitioners out of town.

Appearing to Be Peaceful on the Surface - Persecution Cases Increase

1. Police in Daqing City Arrest Ten Practitioners

Seven Falun Dafa practitioners in Daqing City died as result of the persecution in 2007. They include Mr. Zhang Hongquan, Mr. Zhou Shuhai, Ms. Jiang Pai, Ms. Liu Sheng, Ms. Ma Bing, Ms. Zhang Baoying, and Mr. Ni Wenkui. In 2007, several dozen waves of arrests occurred targeting Falun Gong practitioners and their families. For instance, on the morning of April 25th, 2007, police from the Dong'an District Department arrested practitioner Ms. Lu Guilan and her son Yan Jiaohui, who is not a practitioner.

Ms. Jiang Pai

Female Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Jiang Pai, 30, holds a Bachelor's degree and was formerly employed by the Heat Power Factory under Daqing Petroleum Chemical Corporation in Heilongjiang Province. At around 9 a.m. on April 26th, 2007, Ms. Jiang was arrested by police from the Wolitun District Department as they waited by her workplace gate. Police detained her at the Daqing City Detention Center, where she was tortured to the point of vomiting, passing out, and coughing up blood, and she subsequently became emaciated. She could not walk and had to be placed in intensive care at the hospital for more then ten days. She died after midnight on June 28th, 2007, as the result of torture. She was still wearing ankle shackles when she died.

A healthy Ms. Liu Sheng	Ms. Liu Sheng before her death

Practitioner Ms. Liu Sheng, 53, retired from the Water Supplies Company under the Daqing Petroleum Management Bureau. She was arrested multiple times, and her family was torn apart. She died in September of 2007 as a result of torture. She was as thin as a skeleton, weighing only 70 pounds.

2. Masanjia Forced Labour Camp Uses Dead Person's Bed¹ Torture

Masanjia Forced Labour Camp is notorious for locking female Falun Dafa practitioners in male cells. On February 22nd, 2008, Director Wang had many "dead person's beds" shipped to Masanjia, ordering prisoners to torture those Falun Dafa practitioners who held hunger strikes in the First Men's Ward.

Four Falun Gong practitioners were detained in the Second Ward, including Mr. Chen Kaiqu, Mr. Liu Qing, Mr. Gao Yuling, and Mr. Han Ximin. They were beaten to the point of becoming deformed. Mr. Zheng Haitao (in the Third Ward) and Ms. Chen Yan (in the First Ward) were tied on the dead person's beds, their four limbs stretched apart, with a horse's bit inserted into their mouths. This made it more convenient for the guards to execute brutal force-feeding tortures on the practitioners.

Practitioner Mr. Zhao Jian is from Hebei Province. He was transferred from the Tuanhe Dispatch Camp in Beijing to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in September of 2007, and detained in the Third Ward of the First Branch. On February 14th, 2008, he called out loudly in the dining hall, "Falun Dafa is great!" and called for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. For this he was brutally beaten by the guards for two days. Some of the detained Falun Dafa practitioners who were being held in the First, Second, and Third Wards went on hunger strike to protest the persecution. On February 18th, 2008, Second Warden Pan Honzhou personally beat Mr. Gao Yuling. In order to stop further brutality, on February 18th, 2008, more practitioners joined the hunger strike, and all of the practitioners detained in the Second Ward went on strike. Almost all of the detained practitioners in the First Branch are on hunger strikes now.

Practitioner Ms. Feng Guofu, detained in the Sixth Ward, was rushed to the hospital for rescue, as she was in critical condition. Families of detained practitioners are also under a lot of pressure. Ms. Chen Yan's mother had a heart attack and is being treated at the hospital.

There are twelve male practitioners detained in the three wards in the Men's First Branch, and more than a dozen in the Men's Second Branch. Mr. Feng Guofu is on a hunger strike there currently. There are many practitioners detained in the women's branches, and 3-4 practitioners in juvenile branches.

3. Many Injuries and Death Cases

Many practitioners who have been arrested at their workplace or homes would go missing, and arresting officers refuse to tell their families the whereabouts of these arrested practitioners, not allowing them to be visited, or even hiding the fact that they arrested these practitioners. Eyewitnesses in both Xinjin County, Sichuan Province, and Rong County in Guangxi Zhuan Autonomous Region revealed that the police put masks on the practitioners' heads when they arrested them. In 2007, the number of confirmed deaths was 123 practitioners. In January 2008, there were another eight confirmed deaths.

Mr. Wu Jiuping Beaten and Thrown from the Fourth Floor by Police Officers in Anhui Province

Mr. Wu Jiuping, in his thirties, who lived in Tianchang City, Anhui Province, graduated from the Bengbu Nursing School, and was employed by the Testing Department of Tianchang City People's Hospital. He began practising Falun Dafa in 1996. He was "illegally sentenced" to two years of forced labour in 2001, and three years of prison in 2003, with two years of probation.

At around 4 p.m. on November 22nd, 2007, Xia Wenshi, head of the hospital security office, along with Domestic Security Division Head Chong Sicao (also head of the Tianchang City 610 Office) of the Tianchang City Police Department, and two police officers went to Mr. Wu Jiuping's home, a new fourth-floor apartment. Mr. Wu's neighbour on the first floor heard a loud noise, thought something had fallen from upstairs, and found Mr. Wu on the ground. The neighbour called for help and saw the four thugs quickly leaving, despite the fact that the injured Mr. Wu was still moving on the ground.

A rescue worker carried Mr. Wu into the ambulance and took him to the Tianchang City People's Hospital, where Mr. Wu worked. Soon after, more than a dozen police officers came to seal off Mr. Wu's home. Mr. Wu died in the hospital at around 8 p.m. that same day.

According to an eyewitness, Mr. Wu was still moving after he fell. He was wearing his white lab coat, which was splattered with blood. Sources say Mr. Wu was talking half-consciously after arriving at the hospital. The left side of his face was severely swollen, and his left eye was almost blinded. His entire back and lower body were covered with bruises, his left pelvis was crushed, and his left leg was broken. On the evening of November 22nd, 2007, the hospital was barricaded by police. The police told the public that Mr. Wu jumped from the building of his own accord, while further investigation has shown that Mr. Wu was thrown from the fourth floor after being severely beaten.

Police Kicked Retired Teacher Mr. Lei Zhengxia, Causing Fractured Ribs and Gastric Perforation

Practitioner Mr. Lei Zhengxia, 62, is a retired teacher from the Xiaolongkan Higher Vocational School in Chongqing City. At 2 p.m. on January 14th, 2008, Shapingba District 610 Office Chair Li Hong led a group of agents to beat Mr. Lei in his home in the Fengmingshan neighbourhood. They arrested him and detained him at the Baiheling Detention Center in the same day. On the morning of January 27th, 2008, Mr. Lei passed out and was taken to the Chongqing City Tumour Hospital emergency room. Two ribs on his left were fractured due to the police kicking him. This in turn caused gastric perforation and injuries to other organs.

Mr. Lei Zhengxia in the hospital

Take Action to Put an Immediate Stop to the Persecution

Falun Gong was taught to the public beginning in May 1992 by founder Mr. Li Hongzhi. In the seven years that followed, this practice enabled more than one hundred million practitioners to become physically fit and morally rectified through cultivating Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. The practice brings huge benefit to the country and society. Former People's Congress Chairman Mr. Qiao Shi and others concluded after a survey that Falun Gong has many benefits and causes no harm to the country or its people. Falun Gong has now spread to more than eighty countries and regions, and anyone can learn Falun Gong free of charge. Falun Gong has won awards and statements of support nearly three thousands times by different government and non-governmental organisations around the world.

Out of selfishness and jealousy, former chief of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, initiated and ordered a comprehensive persecution of Falun Gong practitioners nine years ago. The persecution resulted in tens of millions of practitioners losing their jobs, being dismissed from institutions, and forced to leave home. Families were broken up, and practitioners were tortured to the point of being disabled or dying, and bodily organs were even harvested from living practitioners for profit.

During the past nine years of persecution, the CCP has deceived international society using lies and economic benefits, and caused the Chinese people, through force and lies, to join the persecution, either directly or indirectly.

Learn from History by Resisting the Beijing Olympics

History has left us a tragic lesson. During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Hitler was persecuting the Jewish people, which caused the Berlin Olympics to be called a "Bloody Olympics." After WWII, many in the international society vowed, "Never again."

The CCP's systematic persecution of Falun Gong has entered its ninth year. They have now been found to be harvesting living practitioners' organs for profit, and then cremating the bodies to destroy the evidence. Instead of improving human rights as it has promised, the CCP has killed more innocent people.

Let us remember our vow of "never again" and work together to stop the persecution.

Note:
(1) Dead person's bed - All four of the practitioner's limbs are stretched out and tied to the four corners of a cold metal bed frame. The practitioner cannot move at all. He is not allowed to get up to eat, drink, or use the bathroom. This treatment usually lasts from several hours to more than a ten days. As one can imagine, this type of cruel torture causes severe damage to the practitioner's mind and body. See the illustration of this form of torture at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/12/15/55600.html.