Globe and Mail Editorial: China's assault on Falun Gong

July 6, 2001

Suicide or foul play? Little is clear about the deaths of a group of Falun Gong practitioners in a Chinese labour camp last month.

Chinese authorities said Wednesday that followers of the banned spiritual [group] hanged themselves with bed sheets in a mass suicide, but government accounts of the number who died ranged from three to 14. The [group] itself denied the suicide story and said 15 women followers were beaten and tortured to death around June 20 at the labour camp near the northeastern city of Harbin.

Whichever story is true, if either, the incident once again throws light on China's brutal treatment of the [group]'s followers. Thousands of them have been dispatched to labour camps since the [party anme omitted] regime banned Falun Gong two years ago. Human-rights groups say at least 100 have died in custody. Falun Gong itself puts the figure at more than 200.

New rules promulgated by the regime last month permit courts to try followers for subversion, separatism and leaking state secrets -- all capital offences -- if they dare to spread information about Falun Gong. Well before that, authorities routinely sent followers to detention camps without charge or trial for "re-education through labour." Even looking at a Falun Gong site on the Internet is considered a serious crime.

And why? China claims Falun Gong is an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted] that destroys lives by inducing its followers to meditate or exercise instead of taking medication. That may or may not be true. Combining a mix of oriental philosophy and spiritual exercise techniques, the [group] teaches believers that they can improve their moral and physical well-being by channelling positive energy to the Falun, a wheel-like miniature of the universe found in the abdomen.

That is eccentric, no doubt, but hardly dangerous, much less criminal. Scores of similar groups thrive in democratic countries around the world, and authorities barely take notice unless believers drift into actual criminal activity.

In China, by contrast, mere membership in the group can lead to imprisonment or worse. When China reported the labour-camp deaths this week, it said "the legal rights of inmates at labour camps are consistently protected by Chinese laws and there were no such things as persecuting and abuse." Yes, and the camps in the Soviet gulag were governed by Soviet law, too.

Reports leaking out of the Chinese camps indicate that Falun Gong adherents are mistreated often enough. In one case last month, a partly disabled follower, Zhang Shengfan, was dragged from his home in the city of Shuangcheng and found dead three days later in the city jail. Police say he went on a hunger strike. His friends in Falun Gong say he was beaten to death. Reports such as that should give pause to Olympic officials as they determine whether China gets to host the 2008 Games.

The campaign against Falun Gong is typical of the Chinese regime. Lacking democratic legitimacy, it lives in fear, lashing out at every perceived threat. Any organized group with a mass following is seen as a potential challenge to [party name omitted] power, even if it is a harmless spiritual [group] best known for its exercise techniques.

China's brutal crackdown against Falun Gong may succeed in its immediate goal. The number of protests by the group has fallen sharply in recent months as fearful followers have gone to ground. But the success will come at a cost. By using a hammer to crush a fly, China's leaders show how weak and vulnerable they really are.