Why Does the CCP Block Information About Falun Gong?

(Minghui.org) Minghui.org, a website that reports news about Falun Gong and exposes the persecution in China, is a prime target for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) censorship. Minghui has been under constant attack by the CCP since it was established in June 1999.

What does the CCP fear? Why does it suppress Falun Gong and spare no effort to block information about it? Because the regime wants to control people’s minds by instilling communist ideology, it views the traditional values represented by Falun Gong as a major threat.

Attacks on Minghui

China Central Television, the CCP’s mouthpiece, reported in July 2011 that Chinese military academies were attacking overseas websites, especially those related to Falun Gong. The CCP previously denied using these tactics, but the report provides evidence of these attacks.

A screenshot of a tool for launching cyberattacks against Falun Gong websites.

At 11 minutes and 12 seconds, the report shows a tool for launching cyberattacks developed by the CCP Military Electronic Engineering College. The targets included a list of Falun Gong websites, including Falun Dafa in North America, Falun Dafa in Alabama, FalunDafa.org, and Minghui.org. The entire list is not displayed in the video report. In another screenshot, Minghui is selected as the target.

Minghui.org serves the public, and its servers are in the United States. Between June 1999 and December 2000, the website was named “Falun Dafa in North America – Minghui.” Because most of the content came from China, the name was later changed to “Falun Dafa – Minghui” or simply “Minghui.” The Chinese military academy’s list of targets shows that the CCP military was planning to attack overseas civilian websites at least ten years ago.

A screenshot of the CCP attacking the Minghui website.

Sophie, a media contact at Minghui, said in 2011 that the website had been under constant attack by the CCP for years. The initial attacks clearly originated in China, but they were later disguised as coming from other countries.

So, how did Minghui start? Shortly after Master Li introduced Falun Gong to the public in China, many people who began to practice experienced improvements in their mental and physical health. People in other countries, such as the United States and Canada, also began practicing. The internet was growing more popular at the time, so practitioners also launched websites to share the practice with the public. One of them, FalunDafa.ca, added a bulletin board in late 1997.

After practitioners in Tianjin were arrested after gathering at the office of a magazine that had slandered Falun Gong, practitioners in Beijing held a peaceful appeal in April 1999 to seek their release and demand the right to practice their faith in peace. While the practitioners detained in Tianjin were released, CCP officials intensified their harassment and mistreatment of practitioners throughout China. The online bulletin board was insufficient to report on the unfolding situation, so a group of practitioners launched Minghui to share their experiences and update readers on the situation in China.

After the CCP officially began to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, the regime tried all means to censor information on the topic. Practitioners overcame numerous difficulties to maintain the website and open more communication channels to help the public learn about Falun Gong.

Sophie said this is why the CCP has been openly attacking Minghui for years. The regime does not want people to see truthful information about Falun Gong; otherwise, its propaganda would fail, and the persecution would not be able to continue.

In the 26 years since the persecution began, Minghui has grown significantly and is now available in 25 languages. The CCP may continue to interfere with Minghui, Sophie said, but their attempts are doomed to fail because good will always prevail over evil.

A Secret Document

In addition to monitoring practitioners, the CCP also harasses them systematically. In 2016, the General Office of the CCP’s Central Committee issued a classified document to local government offices at various levels, giving orders on how to “handle” the Falun Gong “situation.”

Based on information obtained by Minghui, the document acknowledged that the suppression of Falun Gong was implemented in July 1999. The persecution has also been extended to practitioners’ children and other family members. For example, many practitioners’ children are barred from joining the military or from receiving an education. Practitioners’ family members are routinely passed over for promotion at their workplaces.

The document states that the government would gradually relax the pressure on Falun Gong practitioners, but such “relief” would still require practitioners to “renounce Falun Gong.”

The Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) of a city in China called a meeting in August 2016, requesting all state-run enterprises in the city that employ Falun Gong practitioners to send a representative to the meeting. The reason for the meeting was to announce this document. The document is classified, but government leaders at the township level or higher have access to it.

A government official said about the document, “It shows that the suppression [of Falun Gong] has run into a dilemma. It faces tremendous hurdles if it is to go on. But the government does not want to restore Falun Gong’s reputation, for it would be a slap in its face. Thus, they are trying to find a plausible way to ease the constraints on practitioners. However, even this ‘redress’ is not thorough. It still forces practitioners to renounce Falun Gong, and the pressure on them will not be lessened if they refuse to do so.”

Victims Not Limited to Falun Gong Practitioners

When traditional values such as Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are attacked, no one is safe.

According to a China Private Wealth Survey released by China Merchants Bank and Bain & Co. in April 2011, an increasing number of wealthy Chinese are emigrating overseas, taking their money with them. Some media reports claim that the next step for China’s super-rich is to leave China entirely.

One possibility is that super-rich Chinese are closer to the core of the CCP’s power, know more than the average citizen, and sense the regime is unstable. The public only sees China’s superficial economic prosperity—they don’t see the crisis looming on the horizon.

Yu Yongding, a former member of the Monetary Policy Commission of the People's Bank of China, published an article in the CCP’s English-language mouthpiece China Daily, “China’s rapid growth has been achieved at an extremely high cost. Only future generations will know the true price.”

The “China model” Yu refers to is basically a Ponzi scheme. He considered only the economics and didn’t address the recent downward slide of morality, which some believe will have an even bigger and far-reaching impact on China's future generations.

One of my college classmates is now the chief executive officer of a private equity firm. He said, “This is now the darkest time in China’s history.” He said he arrived at this conclusion based on his life experiences, such as environmental pollution, the increasing gap between rich and poor, corruption, food poisoning to boost profits, the overwhelming flood of pornography, the decline in morality, and the lack of spiritual belief.

I think many people may have overlooked another dark area covered up by the CCP’s propaganda–the persecution of Falun Gong. In assessing China’s future direction, one cannot ignore the atrocities committed by the CCP. Many think the persecution has nothing to do with them, but the regime’s brutality toward practitioners erodes morality across society and will inevitably be turned on other groups.

Unprecedented Crimes

Two examples illustrate the depths of the CCP’s evil. One is the “self-immolation” at Tiananmen Square that the regime staged as a propaganda stunt to turn public opinion against Falun Gong. The other is the harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, an unprecedented crime.

On January 23, 2001, the eve of the Chinese New Year, videos were recorded and broadcast throughout China and around the world, alleging that a number of Falun Gong practitioners had set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The report was carried by thousands of newspapers and hundreds of TV and radio stations and numerous Internet sites controlled by the CCP. Western media picked up the story and spread the CCP propaganda around the world.

A woman, Liu Chunling, died at the scene. A slow-motion analysis of the footage broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV), shows that Liu Chunling didn’t die from the fire. Instead, a plainclothes policeman threw a hard object at her head, killing her. As for Wang Jindong, his clothes were burned to pieces, yet the plastic soda bottle between his legs remained intact. The bottle was alleged to have contained the gasoline used in his self-immolation.

The timing of the event was opportune for the CCP. The persecution of Falun Gong had begun to lose momentum after its first year and faced public skepticism and resistance. The “self-immolation” propaganda piece quickly and effectively stirred up intense public anger and hatred toward Falun Gong and fueled the escalation of the persecution.

If the intention of the staged self-immolation was to sow the seeds of hatred, the organ harvesting atrocities that followed were the fruit of those seeds.

In 2006, a Chinese reporter and a former employee of Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine broke the news of live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.

From 1999 to 2007, the organ transplant market in China grew rapidly. In 2003, the number of organ transplants suddenly skyrocketed. Organ transplant tourism to China also grew between 2003 and 2006. Some hospitals in China claimed publicly that the waiting time for an organ was only one to two weeks. In other countries, the wait for a similar organ was two to three years. All of this occurred at a time when China had no national organ donation system.

Since then, multiple independent investigations have shed light on the scale of forced organ harvesting in China. The China Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal, said in its judgment, “Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one – and probably the main – source of organ supply.”

Recognizing the never-ending parade of atrocities the CCP has shown itself to be capable of, the next step for many of China’s wealthy is to leave China. One can only wonder what life will be like for the great masses who are not among the super-rich and are trapped there.

Because Falun Gong practitioners have been telling people about the persecution and the CCP’s true nature, the regime has continuously blocked information related to Falun Gong. However, the CCP has sealed its own fate by committing crimes against humanity, and only by ending the CCP will China have a better future.

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