Questions and Answers on Recent Cases Related to
Falun Gong
1. Q: Could you confirm the report
that Tan Yongjie, a Falun Gong practitioner, was
tortured and physically abused by police in China?
A:
Relevant authorities have carried out an exhaustive and
thorough investigation regarding this case, only to find
that this person with the name of Tan Yongjie simply
doesn’t exist. The story about Tan has
several doubtful points. In the so-called
self-account of Tan, he says that “he was burnt with
hot iron by police in China on 2 June 2001”, that
“he was diagnosed to have third-degree burns on 13
parts of his body and the wounds were so deep that they
could not easily heal up”. If it was true,
it would be unimaginable that he, who had so serious wounds
on his body and did not speak any English, could have
survived the more than 40 days during which he first hid in
a crate in a container ship, traveling on the sea for 14
days and then made a difficult and perilous journey to
Huston (on 13 July as reported) without even a cent in his
pocket. So this self-contradictory account and the
made-up accounts about his identity and past have all shown
to us that this person by the name of Tan Yongjie must have
been instigated to spread rumors and tell lies.
The whole case is simply another farce directed by
Falun Gong.
2. Q: Could you confirm the report
that Zhang Fengyun, a Falun Gong practitioner, has been
tortured to death?
A: Ms. Zhang Fengyun, who died at
the age of 42, was born of the Han nationality in Gai
County, Liao Ning province. She was a junior
middle school graduate. And she worked for the timber mill
under the Gansu Construction Corporation before she began to
be deeply infatuated by Falun Gong. Later on, she
engaged herself in the illegal activities of Falun Gong and
in July this year was detained by the police and kept at the
Lanzhou No.1 Detention House. She responded with a
hunger strike and refused to accept any persuasion and
treatment. On 10 August, she felt dizzy and out of
breath and her blood pressure was falling. She was
immediately rushed to hospital. But, still, at
24:42 the next day, she died of prostration of internal
organs. This is another example of how Falun Gong
kills people and harms the society.
3. Q: Recently the Falun Gong website said that 130
Falun Gong followers under correction through labor at the
Masanjia Correctional House in Liaoning Province had
launched a 21-day hunger strike to protest against the delay
of their release? Could you confirm that?
A: That has
never happened. There was no such case in which
130 people were illegally detained after the fulfillment of
their sentence at Masanjia. Neither was there a
hunger strike of any kind. The legal rights and
benefits of Falun Gong followers under correction through
labour are fully provided and protected by law.
Most of them were released on time or ahead of
time. Only a very few, who behaved badly and made
troubles for the normal order of the correction programme
have been kept further under correction for appropriate
periods of time in accordance with relevant laws and
regulations. At present, the Masanjia Correctional
House is in pretty good shape and order.
4. Q:
What charges have been made against Liu Yunfan and four
other defendants by the public prosecution
authorities?
A: The No.1 Branch of the Beijing
Municipal People’s Procuratorate has, in the capacity
as a public prosecution authority, charged Liu Yunfan, Wang
Jindong, Liu Xiuqin and Liu Baorong with using a cult to
cause death and Xue Hongjun with using a cult to undermine
law implementation.
5. Q: Most of the
defendants were among those who burnt themselves.
Why are they still held responsible on criminal
charges?
A: According to relevant Chinese laws and
their judicial interpretations, suicide does not in itself
constitute a crime. But the defendants in this
case have intentionally and in a planned and organized
manner participated in organizing, masterminding,
instigating and assisting Falun Gong followers to commit
suicide by self-burning at the Tiananmen Square and in doing
so they intentionally tried to take other people’s
lives illegally, leading to two deaths and three serious
injuries. It is clear that they played the roles
of organizers, planners, instigators and assistants in the
whole incident. Therefore, they must be brought to
criminal justice in accordance with law.
6. Q:
There are reports that since China banned Falun Gong, more
than 100 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to
death. Are these true stories or not?
A: There have
been some deaths among the practitioners. But they
were not the result of the so-called “torture”
by law-enforcement personnel but rather because of Li
Hongzhi and his Falun Gong. Actually, before the
Chinese Government banned Falun Gong on 22 July 1999, there
had already been more than 136 practitioners who killed
themselves, having been carried away by Li Hongzhi’s
vicious statements about “nirvana” and
“going to Heaven”. That was exactly
why the Chinese Government decided to ban Fanlun Gong
according to law, responding to the requests of people from
all circles of the society, including the families of those
victimized practitioners, so as to protect the properties
and personal safety of our citizens. After Falun
Gong was banned, based outside China, Li Hongzhi doubled and
redoubled efforts to sell his heresies, including that the
followers should “give up their hold to life”.
As a result, some deeply infatuated Falun Gong
followers, 103 in number, gave themselves up totally to the
spiritual control of Li Hongzhi and ended up killing
themselves. Their real killer was nobody but Li
Hongzhi. And they are just part of the 1660 people
killed by the Falun Gong cult so far.
7. Q:
Since the Chinese Government banned Falun Gong, there has
been one case after another in which Falun Gong
practitioners were arrested and taken away from the
Tiananmen Square. What is your comment on a report
that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been
arrested?
A: Cheated by the evil statements by Li
Hongzhi, some deeply infatuated Falun Gong followers time
and again took to public places such as the Tiananmen
Square. In accordance with Beijing Municipal
People’s Government Stipulations on No-Assembly,
No-Public-Protest and No-demonstration Places and Their
Surrounding Areas and a Circular of Beijing
People’s Municipal Government (tr.), the Tiananmen
Square and its surrounding areas belong to places where
assemblies, demonstrations or public protests are forbidden
and it is not allowed to write, distribute, put up, hang or
show propaganda materials of any kind, unless permitted by
the State Council or the Beijing Municipal People’s
Government. And in accordance with the PRC Law on
Assembly, Demonstration and Public Protest and the PRC Law
on People’s Police (tr.), the actions carried out
against the illegal activities by the Falun Gong people at
the Tiananmen Square and its surrounding areas were done in
strict accordance with law. Those deeply
infatuated Falun Gong followers who had gathered and made
troubles at the Tiananmen Square were provided with food and
accommodation after being taken away. And after
identifying their ID and home address, arrangements were
then made for local governments to come and pick them up.
Back to their home towns, they would receive
education and further help. So you can see that no
one was actually arrested.
8. Q: There are
reports that since the Chinese Government began its
crack-down on Falun Gong, tens of thousands of Falun Gong
practitioners have been sentenced to correction through
labour. Is it something that has really
happened?
A: China’s practice of correction
through labour began with the State Council Decision on
Correction through Labour (tr.) adopted by the National
People’s Congress in 1957. In 1979, the NPC
approved the State Council Supplementary Stipulations on
Correction through Labour (tr.). In 1982, the
State Council forwarded the Tentative Measures on Correction
through Labour (tr.) formulated by the Ministry of Public
Security. Therefore, the practice of correction
through labour is a component of the whole legal system of
China. It is based on relevant laws. And
judicial and law-enforcement authorities carry out
correction through labour by strictly following relevant
legal procedures. The Falun Gong practitioners
have been put under correction through labour because they
had, cheated and encouraged by Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong
cult, time and again participated in activities that
undermined social order. The legal rights and
benefits of those sentenced to correction through labour are
fully provided and protected by law in China. The
law-enforcement authorities maintain the basic policy of
“education, persuasion and redemption”.
They help, educate and take care of the Falun Gong
practitioners under correction through labor in the way that
“parents care for their children, teachers help their
pupils and doctors treat patients” and protect their
rights and benefits according to law. At the same
time, in carrying out the sentences, they try to make full
use of legal measures to reduce their sentences, give them
parole and probation, and release them before the
fulfillment of their original sentences, in an effort to
best redeem and help them. After they are released from
correction, the students return to school and the workers
are given jobs. All in all, their right to normal
life and work is safeguarded. And we have never
stopped in making efforts to improve our system of
correction through labour.
9. Q: What is your
comment on the reports that the Chinese Government has sent
many Falun Gong practitioners to mental hospitals?
A:
Some of the Falun Gong practitioners did have mental
illness, having been so seriously poisoned by Falun Gong.
It is their families who have sent them to the
mental hospitals. The Falun Gong cult and some
people outside China with ulterior intentions are calling
black white and telling lies when they say that the Chinese
Government is persecuting Falun Gong practitioners by
sending them to mental hospitals.
10. Q: What
is your comment on the report that there are people outside
China who have said that China’s crack-down on Falun
Gong has constituted a political persecution against
religions and violated the citizen’s right to freedom
of religious beliefs?
A: China’s handling of
Falun Gong represents an effort to safeguard the basic human
rights of all citizens in China, including those of the
religious circle, as well as a necessary measure to protect
the freedom of religious beliefs. As is known to
all, the Falun Gong cult is not different at all from other
cults that have appeared since the 1960s in the United
States, Europe, Japan and other places. They share
the anti-science, anti-human and anti-society nature and
pose serious threats and do great harms to the whole
society. China’s ban on Falun Gong in
accordance with law was an act conforming to the will of the
people. And in any case, it is the victimized
families and people from the science and technology
community as well as those from the religious circle who
first called on the Government to outlaw Falun Gong.
The Chinese Constitution provides its citizens
with the right to freedom of religious beliefs.
The past two decades and more since China began
its policy of reform and opening up marks the best period of
China’s implementation of its policy of freedom of
religious beliefs. Some people in the West have
turned a blind eye to the fact that China has hundreds of
millions of believers of various religions, tens of
thousands of religious places, thousands of religious
organizations and so many religious activities going on.
They call the lawful action by the Chinese
Government to crack down on the Falun Gong cult a
persecution against religion and confuse cults with real
religion. Such an attitude in itself constitutes
disrespect to real religion.
11. Q:
China’s Constitution provides that its citizens have
the right to freedom of assembly and association.
So why did you not allow Falun Gong practitioners
to gather at the Tiananmen Square?
A: China’s
Constitution also provides that citizens should not harm the
state, social, collective, or other citizens’
interests when enjoying their own rights and freedoms.
The UN Covenant on Civil and Political rights is
also very clear that the freedom of speech and association
should not be enjoyed in a manner harmful to state security,
public security and order and other individuals’
rights and freedoms. The Tiananmen Square is an
important venue for national events and celebrations.
The Beijing Municipal People’s Government
has formulated regulations, providing that prior legal
procedures of application and approval must be completed
before assemblies or demonstrations can be held at the
Tiananmen Square. Falun Gong is an illegal cult
that has been banned. Deeply infatuated Falun Gong
followers, cheated and prompted by evil heresies about
“going up to higher levels” and
“nirvana”, have tried to gather and make
troubles at the Tiananmen Square. It is illegal
for them to do so and therefore they must be stopped in
accordance with law.
12. Q: China calls Falun
Gong a cult. But why did so many people practice
Falun Gong and at present how many people are still
practicing Falun Gong in China?
A: Li Hongzhi once
bragged that there were about a hundred million
practitioners. But in fact, according to
statistics, at the highest point China had about 2 million
practitioners only, approximately 0.15% of the whole Chinese
population. And most of them began practicing out
of a pure wish to seek good health. As Falun
Gong’s nature as an anti-human, anti-scinece
and anti-society cult was exposed, the great majority (98%)
of the practitioners have stopped their practices and
quitted the cult. In fact, although Li Hongzhi has
never stopped making misleading evil heresies to cheat the
practitioners and deeply infatuated followers have time and
again sought to gather and make troubles, the number of
practitioners has decreased considerably.
13.
Q: Are the Falun Gong practitioners allowed to do their
practices so long as they do not participate in political
activities, do not break laws and do not do harms to other
people?
A: Falun Gong is an illegal cult, which has
already been banned by the Chinese Government. The
great majority of the ex-practitioners have decided of their
own will to cut themselves away from Falun Gong after its
real nature was made known. The Chinese Government
has adopted a policy of patient persuasion and education on
the great majority of common Falun Gong practitioners,
extending a warm helping hand to all of them. The
Chinese Government has stressed time and again that so long
as they withdraw from Falun Gong and stop taking part in its
illegal activities, the practitioners shall not be held
responsible for their previous participation in Falun Gong.
And we did exactly as we promised. As to
those who have gathered and organized people to stand
against the implementation of laws and destroy social order
in the name of spreading and protecting the so-called Falun
Dafa, they must be brought to justice and held responsible
for what they have done. But there have been very
few such people.
14. Q: What is the difference
between Falun Gong and Qigong? Does China also
forbid activities by any Qigong organization?
A: Falun
Gong is no Qigong but a thorough and pure evil cult.
It is totally different from traditional Chinese
Qigong. The Chinese Government is never against
and will not forbid normal practices of Qigong for good
health. Li Hongzhi copied some terms and body
positions and movements from Qigong to gift-wrap his heretic
theories and deify himself. But his Falun Gong
does not help people’s health at all. On the
contrary, it has led so many practitioners to illness,
madness, disabilities and even death.
15. Q:
There are reports that the Chinese Central Government has
pressed the Hong Kong SAR government to crack down on Falun
Gong. Do you think it conforms to the “one
country, two systems” principle to have done
so?
A: As is known to all, China has adopted the
policy of “one country, two systems” and
“Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong” in
the Hong Kong SAR. We have also paid close
attention to activities by Falun Gong in Hong Kong.
As we know, the self-burning incident by a few
deeply infatuated Falun Gong followers at the Tiananmen
Square has caused deep worries among Hong Kong people as a
whole. We believe that the Hong Kong SAR
government will strictly abide by the principle of
“one country, two systems” and the Basic Law and
HKSAR laws to handle well the issue of Falun Gong, so as to
ensure the long-term prosperity and stability in Hong Kong
for the benefit of all residents in Hong
Kong.
16. Q: There are reports that Mr. Tung
Chee-hwa has openly indicated that Falun Gong will not be
allowed to use Hong Kong as a base to undermine social
stability and order both in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
What is your comment on that?
A: We
appreciate the way in which Chief Executive Mr. Tung Chee-hw
has carried out his duties of administration in accordance
with relevant laws.
17. There are reports that
the US Congress has appropriated money to Falun Gong and
enable them to use the American Broadcasting Service network
to spread Falun Gong to the mainland of China and that the
US Agency of International Development has also allocated 20
million dollars to Falun Gong for its work to promote the
“integration of politics and religion”.
What comment does the Chinese side have on
this?
A: We pay close attention to these reports.
And we don’t wish such things to happen.
We request the American side to respect the
position of the Chinese Government on the question of Falun
Gong, have a clear understanding of the harms of Falun Gong
cult and stop supporting and encouraging it, so as to avoid
damaging China-US relations.
18. Q: It is
reported that Li Hongzhi has been nominated as a candidate
for the Nobel Peace Prize. What’s your
comment?
A: You all know that Falun Gong is a cult and
Li Hongzhi is its head. Nominating such a figure
as a candidate for the Noble Peace Prize is to make a
laughingstock of the Prize indeed.
19. Q: When
was the State Council Office of Preventing and Handling
Cults (tr.) established? What are its main
functions?
A: The Office was established around late
August and early September last year. Its main
functions include integrating and coordinating efforts by
different government departments in preventing and handling
the issue of cults, doing research and study in this regard,
so as to protect the basic human rights of the citizens from
the harms of the cults. The issue of cults is one
for the whole world. The Office therefore will
also strengthen cooperation and exchange with its
counterparts in all other countries the world
over.
20. Q: How would China prove that those
who burnt themselves at the Tiananmen Square were Falun Gong
practitioners?
A: After the incident, public security
authorities went all out to investigate and obtained
abundant evidence and testimonies from witnesses proving
that they were deeply infatuated Falun Gong followers or
Falun Gong die-hards and that those who masterminded and
organized the self-burning were all Falun Gong diehards.
After the incident happened, the Falun Gong cult
tried every means to deny that those who burnt themselves
were Falun Gong practitioners. It is not strange
at all for them to have said so. Because
collective suicide and self-burning represent a striking
feature shared by all modern cults. To admit that
those who burnt themselves were Falun Gong practitioners
would have been no different from admitting that Falun Gong
is a cult.
21. Q: Does the self-burning
incident represent a revolt by the practitioners against the
Chinese Government’s crack-down on Falun
Gong?
A: There is abundant evidence showing that those
who participated in the self-burning were deeply-infatuated
Falun Gong followers, who, cheated by the heretic statements
of Li Hongzhi, had wished to seek to achieve
“nirvana”, or “go to higher levels”
or “fly to the white sun”. As the
person who had concocted this tragedy, Li Hongzhi has time
and again issued so-called scriptures, cheated the deeply
infatuated followers into “giving up their hold on to
life” and led them to self-destruction eventually.
He had his political aims in doing so, hoping to
make troubles and create some impact on the situation to his
favour.
22. Q: What Chinese laws did Teng
Chunyan break? And how many years has she been
sentenced to in prison?
A: Teng Chunyan entered China
with a private passport in May 2000. She was later
arrested on a charge of “illegally acquiring and
providing state secrets and sensitive information to forces
outside China (tr.)”. Last November, the
Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate sued her on
this charge. And on 12 December 2000, the Beijing
No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court found her guilty and
sentenced her to three years in prison with one year without
political rights.
23. Q: Can you confirm the
report that Zhao Xin, a Falun Gong follower, has been
tortured to death?
A: Zhao Xin was a victim of the
Falun Gong cult, a typical example of how a deeply
infatuated follower engaged himself in illegal activities
and wished to seek “nirvana” through suicide as
encouraged time and again by Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong.
Zhao Xin was a teacher of Beijing University of
Industry and Commerce (tr.). Cheated by the
vicious statements of Li Hongzhi, he broke the law on
several occasions by engaging himself in illegal activities
of the cult and undermining the social and public order.
On 20 June 2000, Beijing Public Security
authorities arrested him on criminal charges in accordance
with law. During his detention, Zhao refused to
abide by relevant rules and regulations. On 22
June, he got a chance and hit his head against the wall and
broke his neck. He was rushed to hospital by the
public security people. After treatment, his
conditions were stable. However, on 19 December,
when coming to see him, Zhao’s parents, in a very
irresponsible manner and without seeking approval of the
hospital, took him back to his dormitory in the University.
On 10 December, Zhao’s mother found him
having difficulty in breathing. She sent for a
doctor of her own choice. The treatment however
was not producing good results. On the afternoon
of 11 December, Zhao died of respiratory
prostration.
24. Q: What comment do you have
on the case of Zhang Kunlun?
A: Zhang Kunlun is a
Chinese citizen. He was put under correction
through labour by relevant authorities in accordance with
law for his involvement in the illegal activities of the
Falun Gong cult, resistance to law implementation and
damages he did to the social and public order.
During his term of correction through labour, he
indicated that he had realized the illegality of his
previous and Falun Gong’s activities and indicated
that he would cut himself off the Falun Gong cult and be
good law-abiding citizen and so on. In light of
his deeds and words during the term and in accordance with
relevant laws and regulations, he was released ahead of time
on December 1, 2000. But now, he is traveling from
place to place, denying what he did and said during his
correction-through-labor period and telling lies to attack
the Chinese Government’s lawful act of banning the
Falun Gong cult as well as China’s system of
correction through labor. He even said he was
tortured. All that he did has demonstrated to us
what a shameless person he is.
25. Q: Could you
confirm the report that Zhao Ming, a Falun Gong follower,
was put under correction through labour and
tortured?
A: Zhao Ming was put under correction
through labour for one year from 13 May 2000 to 12 May 2001
by relevant authorities in accordance with law for his
involvement in the illegal activities of the Falun Gong
cult, resistance to law implementation and damages he did to
the social and public order. He was never
physically abused or tortured in whatever form during that period.
Questions and Answers on Recent Cases Related to Falun Gong (24/08/01)
2003-11-20 17:43