Skip to main content

Update on Chinese dissident Gao


January 1, 2007

2006 Year In Review for Chinese Democracy Mvmt

By John Kusumi

From a China Support Network perspective, what happened this year? 2006 was "Tuidang, Year 2." Tuidang refers to a campaign, ever more insistent, urging all Chinese to quit from the Chinese Communist Party and related organs; and more broadly, for China on the whole to leave behind the CCP. In 2005, "Tuidang, Year 1," 7 million people quit the Communist Party. In 2006, 10 million people quit the CCP, for a total of 17 million resignation statements -- all posted at the Tuidang web site.

The tires have been slashed on China's Communist Party, and it is increasingly unpopular. Those ten million resignations represent excellent news and "the air going out of the tires." Yet, a few more events happened this year, allowing us to claim 10 million and change. The type of change that we would really like to see is China's transition to a democratic, post-communist regime; throughout this year, however, the CCP regime remained stubbornly in place, continuing its Maoist ways of persecution, crimes against humanity, corruption, and propaganda.

In the United States, bought off politicians continued to be bought off; and sold out news media spin doctors continued to be sold out. CNN's Anderson Cooper became "half a hero" with his reporting about Organ Tourism; only half a hero, because he managed to render that report and not breathe one word about Falun Gong persecution. He went half way towards breaking our story. The number of confirmed deaths in the Falun Gong persecution now stands at 2,989, soon to surpass CSN's estimate of 3,001 dead in the Tiananmen crackdown.

The confirmed deaths will be smaller than the number of actual deaths, due to the difficulty of getting reports from within a tyranny that likes to hide its crimes and corruption -- and which holds the levers of state media inside China.

Our big story which broke this year (yet, not on U.S. national TV) dates back to March 9, 2006. That is when the Epoch Times first article appeared, with word of a concentration camp at a medical facility in the Sujiatun district of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China. The concentration camp was said to hold Falun Gong practitioners, who were kept as a living organ bank for profitable transplant surgery, which would be performed at the medical facility. Call it organ theft. Call it people farming. Call it organ harvesting. And, call it a genocidal crime against humanity. This practice means that transplants are clearly involuntary, coming from prisoners of conscience who should never be imprisoned in the first place. Falun Gong practitioners do not raise their hands and volunteer to be executed -- we should remember that this is genocidal persecution in the first place. The transplants may occur from people who are still alive as their organs are removed; after surgery, bodies are cremated to remove the evidence.

This means that when CNN's Anderson Cooper, as noted above, reported about Organ Tourism without the matter of Falun Gong practitioners, he didn't report the darker, sinister, more ugly, sickening "other side of the coin." On March 9, the same day I first heard about it, I blogged: "Even though this news is huge and as large as it gets (China vaults into a class with Nazi Germany, and there may be Olympic boycotts if not loss of the Olympics all together), I anticipate the story will grow larger in the sense of a news story. The rising clatter must rise still further, and consequences may ensue for China's relations with the rest of the world. Suffice it to say, it's big." Now, over nine months later, I continue to stand by my initial assessment.

In addition to the allegations about Sujiatun, more word came about organ harvesting as a widespread practice, undertaken at many other facilities. The news of this medical abuse and flagrant human rights abuse is what drove Wenyi Wang to become the loud protester, from the press gallery, on the South Lawn of the White House -- in the April 20 welcoming ceremony for PRC President Hu Jintao. Hers was "the shout heard round the world," a high profile occasion due to the world stage and presence of international media. In addition to being an Epoch Times reporter, Wenyi was already familiar to me as a vigorous rights campaigner, and organizer of prior activism. What I did not know on April 19 was her background as a medical doctor. That background added credibility and gravity to her charges about the regime's practice, and with the newfound attention, Wenyi became a widely traveled, and much interviewed, speaker in behalf of the cause. While U.S. national TV did very little about following up (I saw CNN's Wolf Blitzer seem to scold her like a headmaster), Wenyi was able to make a tour of various ADIs (U.S. cities), and thereby reach a very wide audience through affiliate and local media.

Getting the word out is within the scope of the mission at the China Support Network. This year, Wenyi Wang was not the only one doing the "end around" of U.S. national TV. I am naming David Kilgour and David Matas to be the China Suport Network's "Men of the Year." Why so? Kilgour and Matas stepped up to the plate, independently investigated, and released their "Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China." Their findings served as independent confirmation: the allegations are true. They conclude "that there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."

David Kilgour is a former Member of Parliament in Canada, and was Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region. David Matas is an international human rights attorney. With their political and legal backgrounds, they would know better than to be casual or inexact with public statements. While they knew the stakes in international relations, and while they knew the enormity of the charges against Communist China, they nonetheless undertook to inform the world of their findings. Their tour, to 26 countries, was another way to "end around" the ersatz journalists of U.S. national TV.

They get to be Men of the Year here -- first for taking on the case; second for integrity and courage in standing by their findings; and third for raising awareness, breaking an information blockade, and putting to shame U.S. national TV. Can we gauge the results of their media efforts? Yes, by asking, "How is their clip sheet doing?" From May 9 to December 20 of this year, their web site shows 194 clips in the English language. 129 news outlets were represented, of which 31 ran more than one article. That means that the story has caught the attention to be "followed," and actively followed up, at 31 outlets. The Epoch Times is clearly the most active, and we can say that it is the newspaper of record in the China-rights community. The other 30 outlets are--

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (8), The Calgary Herald (6), The Globe and Mail (4), National Post (4), Ottawa Citizen (4), Sydney Morning Herald (4), CBC News (3), China Post (3), NZ Scoop (3), St. Louis Post-Dispatch (3), The Christian Science Monitor (3), The Ottawa Citizen (3), The Toronto Sun (3), Abbotsford News (2), AFP (2), Asia News (2), Canadian Christianity (2), Chronicle Herald (2), CounterPunch (2), Cowichan Valley News Leader (2), CTV (2), Free Market News (2), Langley Times (2), South China Morning Post (2), Taipei Times (2), The Halifax Daily News (2), The Leader-Post (2), The Vancouver Sun (2), Times Colonist (2), Victoria News (2).

The single-mention outlets are a wide variety, including the Times of India, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, the Chicago Tribune, the Irish Medical Times, the Guardian, and the Washington Times.

Who is missing from this list? United States opinion leaders are missing -- the Associated Press, UPI, New York Times, and Washington Post. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and CNN. There is no sign of these news outlets in the list. Should we write them off as anti-Falun Gong media? Or as closer to Jiang Zemin than to freedom and democracy? Well, suffice it to say that REAL journalists know about our story, and that ersatz journalists continue to live in denial. I truly thank David Kilgour and David Matas, as well as Wenyi Wang, for their work in 2006 to "end around" the minority of journalists who are sticks in the mud. Everyone else knows about China's crimes against humanity; the last to know will be Brian Williams (NBC News anchorman) and Jacques Rogge (IOC President, who cannot be happy as this story tarnishes the Olympics).

The year includes its share of outrages -- sentences meted out to rights lawyers and campaigners by China's [in]"justice" system. Notably, lawyer Gao Zhisheng was arrested on August 15 and released on December 22. He has the relative leniency of house arrest, because Beijing has begun its pre-Olympics charm offensive. There will continue to be efforts to rescue him in 2007, and some chance that Gao will exit from China and reach exile.

To well review 2006, it is important to note that EU / European Parliament Vice President, Edward Scott-McMillan, also stepped up this year and made a fact-finding trip into China. He is alarmed by the human rights conditions of China, and he is joining a chorus of voices against the Beijing Olympics, slated to be held there in 2008. It used to be that U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) seemed to be alone as a politician who also campaigned in our cause. This year, she is joined by David Kilgour (Canadian) and Edward McMillan-Scott (British). And this year, Nancy Pelosi herself gained new stature, as the incoming Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

This year end review is showing us that by several measures -- resignations from the CCP; politician attention; and, media attention -- that our cause is making headway or accelerating. It is arriving at critical mass just prior to the Olympics, which in itself is certain to whip up activists.

Also this year, Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo, and Google came under fire for assisting the police state in China, with technology that ends up in "the great firewall of China" -- internet censorship that also enables the authorities' internet crackdown.

2006 had one more high note and one more sour note. The high note is that a music video, "Remember Tiananmen Square" appeared, from the rock band NoManZero. The sour note is that the U.S. Congress passed another "PNTR for dictators" bill, this time for Communist Vietnam. The Vietnam trade deal had to be passed, late at night on the last day of the session, by the 109th Congress, because there would be no market for it in the 110th Congress. The new Democratic Congress features "rising protectionist sentiment," where PNTR becomes an impossibly hard sell.

That trade deal means bad things for America, but that is a topic for another column. As it stands, our cause had a good year 2006, and we look forward to an even better 2007. 2007 will feature the 18th anniversary of Tiananmen Square's massacre. --That is exactly one generation later. I hope we will use this year's anniversary to remember the event (for older folks) and to introduce the event (for younger folks). There is a rising new generation, that needs the introduction that explains how our China rights cause became urgent -- and globally known -- in the first place.

This 18th anniversary will be a time for educating people, in advance of the Beijing Olympics that are slated for August, 2008. To all of the campaigners in this cause, I offer kudos, congratulations, and solidarity. Some very good work was done this year, and more is to follow, as ever! Thank yous, and Happy New Year, to one and all who carry on the work of freeing China! :-) JPK
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published December 31, 2006 by the China Support Network (CSN). Begun as the American response group in 1989, CSN represents Americans who are "on the side" of the students in Tiananmen Square - standing for democratic reform, human rights, and freedom in China. For dissident news; to support a stronger China policy; or get more information, see http://www.chinasupport.net.

Comments

bobby fletcher said…
Falun Gong's live organ harvesting allegation has been discredited.

Multiple undercover investigations by US State Dept. and Chinese dissident Harry Wu:

http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL33437.pdf (page CRS-7)

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=April&x=20060416141157uhyggep0.5443231&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060806_1.htm

http://www.cicus.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=6492

As you can see, the hospital accused by Falun Gong is partly owned by a Malaysian health care company, and is subject to oversight beyond the Chinese:

http://crc.gov.my/clinicalTrial/documents/Proposal/TCM_Stroke%20TrialProtocol%20synopsis.pdf (page 3)
PeteinDC said…
That may be true, but that was not the only example of totalitarian abuses in the story.
Unknown said…
I can assure that these links Bobby Fletcher has given are now out of date. Harry Wu stated what he said before the investigation began and he was also annoyed and worried that US congress would give the allotted funds to Falun Gong Investigation instead of his own.

The CCp has admitted the organ harvesting is rampant from executed prisoners and they wont admit that they kill Falun Gong even though Amnesty has proved it.

Also Id like to inform the readers of this blog that Bobby Fletcher is spy working for the United Front Works Dept which is at the heart of the Chinese intelligence agency.

Here is some info on them and Bobby who also declares that Tiananmen Square Massacre did not happen.

..Bobby Fletcher is a spy

It has brought to my attention a person calling himself Bobby Fletcher is posting comments to many blogs - I estimate over 100 trying to discredit the Kilgour/Matas report.

I highly suspect Bobby Fletcher, who in one blog denies he is Chinese, is part of China's United Front Works Department, which is at the heart of China's intelligence operations, which I briefly describe below.

I have just spent a couple of hours collecting his comments from the
various blogs and reading his own blogs, which you will find
attached.

Bobby who refers to living in Seattle, also uses two other aliases
Charles Liu and Sunday Service and he has five blogs of his own.

I honestly got tired scanning 100 web sites, but I am sure researchers could find many more.

Bobby needs to be exposed as he truly represents the deceptive tactics used by Communist China to
spread disinformation.
I think Bobby Fletcher AKA Charles Liu AKA Sunday Service AKA (fill in the blanks) needs to be outed, as although his lies are seen through by many, he will still create doubts in the minds of others many others and that is part of the tactics of the United Front Works
Department - playing percentage games.

One only has to look at how tens of millions believed in Mao to know
these techniques work.

Incidentally you will notice that he also has a web site that the
Tiananmen Square massacre did not happen.
http://www2.blogger.com/profile/17988368193662201410

Highlights of the United Front Works Department

The first words in Mao's Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society
written in 1926 begins:

Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?

This simple idea laid the foundation for the heart of China's
intelligence operations known as political action work or political
work. In China it became known as the United Front Work whose
deceptive strategy is designed to win the support of non¬Party
"friends" and to isolate and destroy "enemies." Deception is a key
part of their strategy.

Chinese United Front Works Department are usually involved in letter
writing campaigns and insight groups to complain about 'racist'
remarks against the Chinese which often makes Western media fearful of
offending the ethnic Chinese population and hence do not write
articles that are negative about China.

Again its a simple idea, but it works and once one becomes aware of
it, one sees it in operation all the time.

Most of China's intelligence activities abroad are legal. That is why
they are so successful. But, most governments are completely ignorant
about how Chinese intelligence operates.

China's United Front strategy is based upon "co-opting whosoever can
be co-opted and isolating your enemy."

Falun Gong is clearly seen as an enemy by the Chinese comunist regime which it has isolated since 1999.
So the campaign is on to discredit the report on organ harvesting and
create doubts about its credibility. And of course continue their
disinformation campaign about the Falun Gong.


A friend who is a journalist in Quebec has sent me a number of
comments in blogs that show to me that the United Front Works
Department is probably in operation there as well, as seeds are sown
to discredit the report. Trying to defend the report, she is now being
attacked!

Have journalists been co-opted? It would be naive to think otherwise.

. I have spent many hours over many days trying to help Bobby /Charles to see the error of his ways/. Bobby even found my private email and began sending me propaganda about Falun Gong as Charles Lui from Seattle.

There are 80,000 internet spies employed by the most respressive evil regime on the planet. Bobby is but one of them.

Bobby where ever you go i will expose you for the vile demon you are. The brave people in China want freedom of thought and belief want their rich culture back. Not CCP terror culture... Universal condemnation is your future because of the choices you keep. This is not me condemning you Bobby but a higher justice that everyone must face after death.

You are not the messenger Bobby but a vile creature working against humanity.

The CCP has made becoming a better person a crime. Falun Gong practice truth compassion and tolerance and for that reason alone we are persecuted to death in the millions. The CCP is anti humanity and when the world knows the truth of the extent of this Genocide the world's people will weep.

People get confused with Bobby’s blogs but sooner or later they understand how frantic he is and what for? He says we are anti Chinese. He says we are anti Chinese but we are not.. We love China; we are just anti the communist regime which has nothing to do with China it was imported from Russia in 1921.

Popular posts from this blog

Guantanamo put on trial -- May 27th

In eight days, Eve Tetaz, a 76-year old retired D.C. public schoolteacher, will enter a courthouse in Washington, D.C. and engage in the legal debate over the fate of America's detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The name of Noor Muhammad has never appeared in an American criminal court. On May 27th, Tetaz will change that. On that day, she will appear at the Washington, D.C. Superior Court as Noor Muhammad. Tetaz was arrested, along with 78 others, at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008, protesting the denial of habeas rights to and the torture of inmates at Guantanamo. Like her fellow protestors, Tetaz took the name of an inmate during her arrest. ( See the January 13 Washington Post article "Activists Pose as Guantanamo Prisoners" ) Tetaz says she felt compelled to participate in the protest at the Supreme Court because detainees are being tortured at Guantanamo. "Torture is a terrible crime and sin against humanity," she said. Thirty-four

Sheehan to challenge Pelosi

I was there the day about three weeks ago when Cindy announced she was running against Pelosi. It was outside of Rep. John Conyers'office. I think change is in the air, and all politics is local. The San Fran area is perhaps the most staunchly progressive in the whole country. Tomorrow morning I will be dropping a check for Cindy's campaign in the mail. Peace activist seeks SF-area House seat Associated Press report Citing her son as inspiration, a tearful Cindy Sheehan announced her candidacy Thursday for the U.S. House of Representatives. The anti-war activist, a former resident of Vacaville, said she will run as an independent against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987. "The country is ripe for a change," said Sheehan, who spoke at a news conference in San Francisco, with her slain son's photograph attached to the podium. "It's going to start right here and right now." Sheehan's 24-year-old son

Unemployment and the Struggle to Save Manning

One week ago I was laid off from a job I did not enjoy. Yes, I loved the salary and was quite enthusiastic about landing this job nine and a half months ago. The pay was significantly greater than I had ever earned before. My friends and former co-workers seemed surprised when I started looking for a new job, and then my unmasked relief of actually being laid off and seizing the opportunity to collect unemployment. Yes, it was related to library science, but it was not in a library or an archives (my specialty). It was also boring, I did not like the unpredictability of contracts, and frankly didn't really care for some of the big name clients our firm had (and in fact a couple I worked on). I also felt a little out of place, and don't think I ever want to do private consultancy work again. Ever. Unless it's later in my career and I am providing some consulting work for an archives and historical collection. That's enough about me. I am job searching for something in