Falun Gong Used as Scapegoat to Divert Attention from Company Fraud and High Unemployment

Yanbian City Government, Jilin Province try to pull the wool over our eyes

On the afternoon of May 14, 2002, more than 40 disgruntled workers who were laid-off by the Yanxi Street Brick Material Factory went to appeal their case. However, shortly after they boarded the train to their capital, Yanbian city, they were forcibly brought back by more than 100 policemen from the Anti-violence Team, Emergency Team and the Police Department. They were forced to leave their belongings on the train. The train was delayed for half an hour due to this incident. On board, some of the workers were even severely beaten. Three had such serious injuries that they had to be rushed to the hospital, and the reporters who were interviewing them had to cut short their reports so that urgent medical attention could be administered.

Upon investigation, this group of workers had had no unemployment benefits available to them after they lost their jobs. Their insurance funds had been "diverted" and their allowances were very small. Each month they were paid only 60 Yuan RMB, which was less than half of the amount initially agreed upon. It was absolutely impossible to survive on such a small amount. Under these circumstances, they decided to appeal to their government. According to the Chinese Constitution, appeal is the legal right for every Chinese citizen, yet unfairly treated workers are being illegally prevented from making their lawful appeals.

Even though the workers have just cause, the government and the police dared to arbitrarily claim that Falun Gong practitioners were responsible for the whole situation! This ridiculous story was created to divert the attention of train staff and passengers away from the real issues--namely the growing corruption in the government and the brutal treatment of the people by the authorities.

Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/5/30/22576.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/5/25/30794.html