INCONGRUOUS QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan to US UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke: "China will fight to the finish" if Washington wants a confrontation over human rights.


CHINA CRISIS NEWS BULLETIN #35ááá 3/30/2000
Monitoring News of the Persecution of Falun Gong


Contact Rachlin Management and Media Group: 212 501-8080

* WHAT'S NEXT IN GENEVA? U.S. SAYS CHINA COULD BE CRITICIZED
* FORMER TOP CHINESE OFFICIAL SPEAKS OUT AGAINST RIGHTS ABUSE
* FALUN GONG SPEAKS OUT AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB IN WASHINGTON DC


GENEVA: CHINA MAY FACE RARE SETBACK AT UN HUMAN RIGHTS MEETING

(Agence France Presse) Mar 29, 2000 A senior US official expressed confidence here Tuesday that China would fail to prevent a resolution condemning its human rights record from being introduced at this year's UN Human Rights Commission. China has repeatedly benefited in past years from a procedure known as a "no action motion" which has successfully prevented hostile resolutions from being introduced at the UN sessions. But US assistant secretary of state for human rights, Harold Koh, told reporters here that chances appeared good that the no action motion could be defeated. "We believe that this year the chance that the no action motion will fail is the greatest since 1995," he said. 1995 was the only year in the last decade when one of the no action motions failed. "The European Union has already indicated that they plan to oppose the no action motion," Koh added. Koh said the rotating membership of the 53-person Human Rights Commission, whose six-week session began here last week, complicated efforts to predict the outcome of any vote. "This year there are many new members of the Commission and so the record of voting in the past is not necessarily a reliable indicator," he said. China predicted earlier Tuesday that a US-sponsored resolution was bound to fail. "The US side has met with failure seven or eight times, should it continue with such actions it will continually be confronted with failure," foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said ...

On March 22, The Tribune of Geneva characterized attempts by Chinese officials to disrupt a Falun Gong press conference as "making fools of themselves."


WASHINGTON: FALUN GONG SPEAKS OUT AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB

On March 27, Falun Gong was making news at the prestigious National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Several Falun Gong practitioners were invited to hold a press conference on Falun Gong and the crackdown. Falun Gong practitioners showed a video documentary, "Falun Gong: The Real Story." Two Americans, Dr. Jimmy Zhou, a mathematician and Miss Tracy Zhao, a flight attendant, shared with the media their experiences of being illegally detained during their visit to China....


WASHINGTON POST: FORMER HIGH LEVEL CHINESE OFFICIAL SEEKS U.N. HELP

BEIJING--A former Chinese government official imprisoned for supporting demonstrators during 1989 student protests around Beijing's Tiananmen Square has asked the United Nations to look into China's "deteriorating" human rights situation at its annual human rights meeting in Geneva this week. Bao Tong, who was released in 1996, cites police officers' "increasing harassment" of him and his family as evidence of worsening human rights violations. "My personal freedom has been limited and violated. Day and night, whenever I step out of my home, there are always six people closely following me," Bao wrote in the letter, dated March 13 and also sent to China's state police, security bureau and cabinet. The United States is tabling a resolution at the Geneva meeting asking the United Nations to sanction China for deteriorating human rights in 1999, citing the crackdown on the Falun Gong


AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNS CHINA'S WIDESPREAD CRACKDOWNS

Beijing (AP)--Even before they began rounding up Falun Gong practitioners, Chinese authorities arrested 21,000 people in a campaign against superstitious activities, Amnesty International said Thursday. Amnesty said the two-year campaign has since been extended not only to Falun Gong, which was banned last July, but to other offshoots of qigong, the practice of traditional meditation and breathing exercises millions of Chinese use in an attempt to promote health.


FALUN GONG WEB SITES: PRACTITIONERS INSIDE CHINA'S JAIILS CONTINUE TO REPORT ABUSES

[Shenzhen, Guangdong Province] Yu Hui, a practitioner in Shenzhen, was sentenced to one-year labor camp for insisting on practicing Falun Gong. After two of her articles "Pure and Noble Heart" and "Appealing Statement" were published on Minghui web site, her name vanished from the list of Falun Gong practitioners in Futian Detention Center. (All names of the crime convicts in this center can be looked up by visitors. Whereas the roster of Falun Gong practitioners is kept by the policeman at the reception window and is not available to visitors.) According to the policemen in the Detention Center, Yu Hui is currently on hunger strike... [Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province] In mid February, a practitioner in the detention center in the city of Jiamusi wrote a cultivation experience article and tried to share with other practitioners. After being spotted by a supervising officer, the practitioner shred the article. The supervisor was extremely irritated and gave several slaps to the practitioner. Then he took out a leather belt and slashed other practitioners, resulting in multiple injuries in their faces and bodies. He then chained two practitioners together to a ring tied to ground... In late February, one practitioner was beaten for going on hunger strike. Another practitioner was beaten also because he tried to offer some explanation in the other's behalf. The whippings of the leather belt and the practitioners' screams could be heard all across the cells. Later on, the practitioners were forced to stand on their hands, or would be tortured. It was said that they even inject doses of tranquilizers to practitioners.


UPCOMING EVENT: Congressional Human Rights Caucus briefing will be held, April 6, 10:30am. 3 to 5 Falun Gong practitioners will testify.


FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please call for background on the spiritual practice and the crisis in China. Contact Rachlin Management & Media Group: 212 501-8080. Also visit http://www.falundafa.org. News stories and reports from China at http://www.minghui.org.

Category: Falun Dafa in the Media