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September 16, 2007 (Sunday) － Issue No. 118 |
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Gao Zhisheng Solemnly Denies All Charges by Chinese Authorities |
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China's
Minister of Finance Under Investigation |
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Beijing
Closes Thousands of Websites |
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Warned—Supporting China's Regime Risks Democracy Western democracies must tie human rights demands to economic dealings with the Chinese regime or gradually lose their democratic freedoms, says a doctor of political science and pro-democracy advocate....…Full Article |
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China's Artificial Foods Spotlighted in Korea Several mainstream Korean media have reported on the process of making artificial eggs in China, which has stirred up panic and caused great concern among Koreans......…Full Article |
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At around 12:00 p.m. on August 15, 2006, 30 thugs from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) broke in and kidnapped me in a violent manner from my older sister's home in Shandong Province. Meanwhile, about 40 unidentified men broke into my home in Beijing and ransacked my place for a few hours. They also searched my wife and my two underage children, and put them under house arrest for an indefinite amount of time. No door was allowed to be closed at any time. To achieve their illegal purpose, 11 goons stayed at my home around the clock for 11 consecutive days without our permission. Eleven days later, the goons moved their camp downstairs, but they continued to watch my wife and two children. During the next four months my wife was watched by at least four big men when she had to go out. During these four months, they beat up my wife once in public, and pushed and insulted her countless times. My daughter was repeatedly beaten up and insulted. When they failed to make me give in, to their requests, they threatened to deprive my wife and children's basic means of survival. "We don't ask much. We ask only two things from you. First, plead guilty. Second, stop fighting for human rights. We will not hesitate to use any means on you as long as it works." Because of these inhuman tortures and coercions, I was forced to "plead guilty" and "guaranteed" in writing not to fight for human rights. After many drafts of the forced "guilty plea" and "guarantee," the police decided to write them for me and have me transcribe it. This became the "statement of repentance" that the public saw later. I hereby make
a solemn declaration. Second, I completely deny the entire content of the "statement of repentance." Both the CCP authorities and I knew it was a complete falsehood from the beginning, but I insist on declaring it to be void. Third, it was my true will to publish the statement on December 13, 2005 to withdraw from the CCP [and its two affiliated organizations.] I hereby acknowledge and confirm the statement again. Fourth, I hereby confirm the three open letters I have written before August 15, 2006. Fifth, I shall
persevere in fighting against the totalitarian and inhuman rule that
suppresses people's freedom of thinking. On August 30, China confirmed that Jin Renqing, minister of Finance, resigned because of "personal reasons." However, some insiders in Beijing said that Jin Renqing is under investigation and his case involves five or six other ministers. There are three versions of the story: in one version he was forced out because he had a mistress; in another version he was allocating funds to persecute Falun Gong, and the recent version in which he was guilty of "leaking secrets about Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao being tired of work." Authorities have never formally responded to these three versions. The version which is closest to the truth involves Jin Renqing privately allocating funds in the amount of trillions of yuan for Jiang Zemin to persecute Falun Gong, and that Chinese President Hu Jintao and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are investigating the case. Huge Amount of Funds Used to Suppress Falun Gong Insiders revealed that Jiang Zemin hadn't thought the persecution of Falun Gong would be that expensive when he started it in 1999. He thought that Falun Gong would not be able to withstand even a single blow and it would disappear in China within half a year. Because of this, the expenses for his newly formed 610 Office were coming from the daily expense account of the Central Committee of the CCP. As more 610 offices, brainwashing classes and transformation camps, new labor camps, new prisons, new cellblocks in old prisons were set up to house Falun Gong practitioners, the amount of money needed to sustain the persecution also grew. In addition to these expenses, there were the salaries for secret agents overseas. Moreover, some of the funds were taken by corrupt local officials at all levels. All of these caused the cost of the suppression to rise tremendously. At the beginning
of 2000, Jiang Zemin started transferring (borrowing) funds from some
ministries, armies units and some provinces. However, the suppression
could no longer continue by the end of 2002. At the beginning of 2003
everyone who loaned money began demanding repayment from the central
610 Office. Nobody knows exactly how much money Jiang spent during
the first four years of the persecution. Some think it had to be at
least in the trillions.Shortly after Jin Renqing was named Minister
of Finance in June 2003, he began allocating funds through unknown
channels for Jiang Zemin to repay the money borrowed by the "610
Office." Without Jiang's approval, it is hard to imagine how
Jin could have transferred trillions of yuan without leaving a paper
trail. Back The 2006 Annual Report of Italy's Hands Off Cain stated that China tops the standing as the country where the vast majority of the world's executions took place. The verified number of executions that took place in China 2006 was at least 5,000, while the world total was 5,628. China executed almost nine times as many criminals as any other country. The large number of death sentences and executions in China has attracted concern from human rights groups abroad. Liu Qing, a human rights activist currently residing in America, said that despite the decrease in the number of executions in China in recent years because of the Olympics, what remains unchanged is that law is swayed by politics. Liu Qing said in the report, "Compared with China under Mao Zedong, the present number of people executed is comparatively smaller. Yet the oppressive nature of the communist dictatorship remains unaltered. It simply depends on whether Chinese leadership regards it necessary or not." "If the number of death sentences could be reduced, timely correction could be made to wrongly judged cases, and more human rights protection could be granted." stated human rights lawyer, Yang Zaixin. "Chinese emperors of old," continued Liu Qing, "would declare a general amnesty for all offenders after they seized the power. They showed a placatory gesture toward opponents, and won control over the state through conciliation. The emperor restored the whole society to a restful state by giving his people favor, tolerance, and convenience. But Mao Zedong took the opposite approach. Since establishment of the communist government, Mao had adopted policies of more severity and terror." An increasing number of death sentences, Yang Zaixin emphasized, did not help diminish rising crime or stabilize society, though authorities considered such severe law a must in a turbulent society. "Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China and a notorious dictator of Chinese history, ended up being overthrown by a grass roots rebellion. The key to social stability is social justice, not the number of people condemned to death. Violence cannot restore social order either," concluded Yang Zaixin. In fact, the number
of death sentences and executions is kept as a state secret in China.
In estimation, the number of yearly executions in China ranges from
5,000 to 12,000. China's Supreme Court has succeeded in decreasing
the number of executions. Nevertheless, with its unchanged system,
as Liu Qing expressed, nothing can be done to stop China from abusing
the right of employing capital punishment. Back With the Chinese Communist Party's Seventeenth Congress around the corner, another wave of Internet traffic controls are sweeping across the nation. On August 27, 2007, Miao Wei from China Telecom declared, "To respond to the Ministry of Information Industry's project "to purify and improve the Internet environment and to combat Internet pornography," China Telecom has blocked 8,808 illegal web addresses, cut off 265 virtual hosts without IDC (Internet Data Center) permits, and 9,593 unregistered websites. Additionally, Yu Xijian from China Netcom (CNC) said it has blocked 587 websites which were unregistered from the IDC (Internet Data Center) or the ISP (Internet Service Provider), and 112 websites without IDC/ISP permits. The action actually started in April. The Qiushi Journal, a publication of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), claimed, "On the Internet, noise of various ideologies, phony information and stirred emotions are propagated. It adds variety to our nation's ideology. However, our task is to defend ourselves from our enemies' plots to westernize and divide us, which becomes more important. The current situation is very difficult." According to the CCP's Qiushi Journal, by the end of 2006, there were 137 million Internet users in China (population 1.3 billion) and 80 percent of them were under 35. Recently, some
mainland BBS members forwarded the reporter notices from their BBS
website administrators, it states, "The situation has been very
tough. Due to the coming CCP Seventeenth Party's Congress, the intensity
of Internet surveillance and control has reached a record high. About
90 percent of the internal forums and websites of the Public Safety
system have been cleared. I must remind everyone again: the current
situation is very tough! The most sensitive topics are those that Freedom of speech
is the lifeline of the Internet. The government has a hard time adapting
to it and is always suspicious, causing conflicts between the current
political system and opinions online. Back Dr Juntao Wang, speaking at a forum organised by human rights coalition Free China, said that many in the West still don't understand China. "Before China entered the WTO, many experts believed that the WTO and globalisation would change China. But the way Chinese experts see it, China will change the world through the WTO," Dr Wang told The Epoch Times. He said that through institutionalised slavery, the Chinese government can reduce labour costs. Through the widespread stealing of peasants land, it can reduce land costs. The result is extremely favourable conditions for Western companies to invest in. "China has good skilled labour and very low salaries. But who maintains the low salary? The government, the state. They do not grant labour union rights. They just help the big companies to get their profit and lobby [Western] countries." This then presents
Western governments with a dilemma, Dr Wang said. They can abandon
their welfare systems and labour unions, or continue to lose investment
to China. Or they could scuttle the WTO and use protectionist policies
to block trade with China. The solution is to establish a crucial link between economics and human rights standards, he said. "Western democracy governments have some very ridiculous policies, they ignore human rights - that means they want to give up democracy. [If] you just want to maintain economic relations you are helping the Chinese government to defeat you. "You do not only want globalisation of the product, but also globalisation of human rights. If you establish a human rights standard in China... then you can rebuild competition with Chinese products. Then you can maintain your welfare state." Dr Wang said the benefit of political reform in China would be felt both in China and abroad. While China might lose come of its share of the international market, workers would have more purchasing power, China's domestic market would expand, and Chinese would be more able to purchase foreign products. "However to Chinese people…don't want a small group of Chinese monopolising everything." Back China's
Artificial Foods Spotlighted in Korea Back Recently, China's artificial products have been under the spotlight in Korea. Several mainstream Korean media have reported on the process of making artificial eggs in China, which has stirred up panic and caused great concern among Koreans. On September 1 and 2, the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) did a documentary titled "Life without products made in China." The show followed the daily lives of three families around the world who refused to use products made in China. It also talked about rampant artificial eggs products in Chinese markets, catching the interest of Koreans. One-Tenth the
Cost It is reported that it costs only 0.55 yuan (US$0.07) to make more than 2 lbs. of eggs, less than one-tenth the price of real eggs on the market (US$0.8.) The main ingredients in the artificial eggs are food additives, resin, starch, solidifier, and pigments. Over consumption will damage the stomach and cause symptoms such as loss of memory and mental retardation, etc. Koreans Are Disenchanted Artificial Egg-Making
Courses Advertised Online in China What's Real Food
in China? Koreans have exclaimed, "So what can you eat in China? Indeed the food industry in China is swamped with lies and fraud, hence it is creating a panic amongst consumers." Back |
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