Who Are the Major Targets of Chinese Repression?
By now, it should be clear that China runs the biggest propaganda mill in the world, engages in the most extensive censorship on the planet, and has the most sophisticated Internet control system U.S. companies have ever helped devise. At this juncture, it is useful to circle back and look more closely at who the major targets of Chinese repression are.
Fear Is Mightier Than the Pen
Journalism has become the third most dangerous job in China after mining and the police.
—Reporters Without Borders
Some of the biggest targets of Chinese repression are homegrown Chinese journalists. Soft targets include any journalists who stray from the party line. Hard targets include investigative journalists who seek to report on anything from government corruption or a new environmental disaster to the latest beating of a human rights activist or jailing of a Sunday worshiper.
As Human Rights Watch has noted, foreign journalists seeking to break through the bamboo curtain are also “routinely harassed, detained and intimidated by Chinese government officials, security forces, and plainclothes thugs who appear to operate at official behest.”
Because of the high risks of practicing freedom of the press, self-censorship has become one of the most important rules of journalistic self-preservation in today’s China. Domestic journalists engage in self-censorship to avoid beatings, harassment, or jail. Foreign journalists will often engage in self-censorship to avoid being expelled from the country, rationalizing that half a story is better than none.
A Strangled Vox Populi
Although the Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of association and assembly, national regulations severely limit association and give the authorities absolute discretion to deny applications for public gatherings or demonstrations. In practice, only organizations that are approved by the authorities are permitted to exist, and any organization that is not registered is considered “illegal.” In this manner, independent advocacy on labor, human rights, environmental, development, or political issues is effectively outlawed.
—U.S. Department of State
A second major target of China’s jackboots is represented by any and all pro-democracy voices and political activists. Included in this target group are both mass protesters and individual petitioners.
On the pro-democracy front, all words such as democracy, freedom, and liberty are verboten. On the political activist front, those in the crosshairs include advocates for civil rights, human rights, women’s rights, and workers’ rights. Targets also include everyone from seniors seeking better pensions and health care to HIV-AIDS activists.
Public protesters are dealt with particularly harshly. So, too, are the millions of petitioners who stream into Beijing each year seeking relief from all manner of local and provincial corruption and abuse.
There is no small paradox in the harsh treatment petitioners receive. As noted by Human Rights News, “China’s petitioning system has a long cultural and historical tradition dating back to the beginnings of the Chinese empire.” However, in today’s China, cracking down on petitioners has become a lucrative growth industry for Chinese thugs. As reported by RFA, the government regularly employs such thugs to terrorize petitioners, and they are paid “according to the number of petitioners captured and beaten.”
Besides common thugs, there also exists “petitioner retrievers.” They are “typically recruited and paid by local government officials who fear a loss of face before the eyes of the national government in Beijing. Their job is to attack and intimidate petitioners and force them to return to their home province. Beijing police, in turn, play their part: to quell the threat of rising discontent. They raze the shantytowns where petitioners live in Beijing, round up petitioners, and hand them over to the retrievers, turning a blind eye to the retaliatory violence.”
Big Brother Is a Bully in the Pulpit
Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.
—Article 36 of the Constitution
China has sentenced a key house church leader “to one year re-education through labor” for explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a Communist Party official. Gu Changrong, 54, was detained March 14 by local police in Fushun city in China’s Liaoning province while “sharing her Christian faith,” with the secretary of the Communist Party of her village, who was identified as Yu Mingfu. Three Public Security Bureau officers took Gu away, and soon after, she received the one year forced labor sentence on charges of “using evil cult organizations to obstruct the exercising of state laws.
—Mt. Zion Report
Kneel before God and wind up in the slammer? That is the reality in today’s China—even as government officials desperately try to convince the world otherwise.
While the Chinese Communist Party is officially atheist, it does recognize five religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism. There is, however, a very big bump on China’s cul de sac to religious freedom.
In particular, all churches, mosques, pagodas, and temples must first register with the Chinese government. The Chinese government then has the right to control the affairs of that institution; and such control is far-reaching. It includes who runs the church, what information can be distributed to worshipers, when services can be held, the size of gatherings, and almost all other aspects of an institution’s operations.
Under such tight restrictions, many religious leaders choose not to register their institutions with the government. Many worshipers likewise prefer to attend unregistered “house churches” to avoid being watched by the government. This is particularly true for worshipers who are members of the Communist Party, because Party members are officially discouraged from practicing a religion.
As a result of China’s “Big Brother in the pulpit” approach, thousands of “house churches” have sprung up in back rooms and basements across China; but attending a house church can be very dangerous. As noted by USA Today, the Chinese government annually rounds up thousands of unauthorized worshipers. These edited excerpts from the Christian Newswire offer just one small glimpse of how the Chinese Grinch annually steals Christmas—while regularly assaulting the house church network year round:
Jiangsu Province: A house church in Chang Zhou City was attacked by police officials in December during a Christmas celebration. The church, led by Pastor Bu Ge Qiao, was in the midst of a Christmas service when police raided the gathering and detained four female members. During the apprehension, police assaulted one of the members until she became unconscious. She was later taken to the hospital. Her condition remains unknown.
Henan Province: On December 16, less than two weeks before Christmas, Pastor Liang Qi Zhen was detained by PSB officials in Er Qi District. After disbursing Liang’s congregation, police officials took him by force and transported him to an undisclosed location where he was tortured for several hours. Liang’s ears and right hand were injured during the lengthy assault.
Using Tibetan Nuns and Monks as Target Practice
If the matter of Tibet’s sovereignty is murky, the question about the PRC’s treatment of Tibetans is all too clear. After invading Tibet in 1950, the Chinese communists killed over one million Tibetans, destroyed over 6,000 monasteries, and turned Tibet’s northeastern province, Amdo, into a gulag housing up to ten million people. In addition, some 7.5 million Chinese have responded to Beijing’s incentives to relocate to Tibet; they now outnumber the six million Tibetans. Through what has been termed Chinese apartheid, ethnic Tibetans now have a lower life expectancy, literacy rate, and per capita income than Chinese inhabitants of Tibet.
—The Heritage Foundation
Whether Tibet is rightfully the territory of China or not is a question that trails murkily back into a long and twisting history of dueling Chinese dynasties and Tibetan Dalai Lamas. In many ways, it is a moot question because China is unlikely to ever provide Tibet with any real autonomy—much less the independence that members of groups like Free Tibet insist upon.
What is not murky at all are the incredible abuses and repression that ordinary Tibetans are exposed to every day under Chinese occupation. There is also nothing murky about why Tibet is so highly coveted by the Chinese government.
Consider first that the Chinese word for Central Tibet is Xizang. It means “western treasure house.” The treasure in question refers to the fact that Tibet is a repository for some of the world’s largest deposits of boron, borax, chromite, iron, lithium, and uranium. In addition, Tibet has significant reserves of oil and natural gas, gold and silver, and copper and zinc and contains a treasure trove of lesser-known minerals ranging from arsenic, cesium, corundum, and graphite to magnesite, mica, sulphur, titanium, and vanadium.
In addition to its mineral wealth, Tibet—literally translated as “the heights”—has some of the biggest hydro-electric power potential in the world. The headwaters of China’s two largest rivers—the Yellow and Yangtze—lie high in Tibet’s northeastern and eastern provinces and account for four-fifths of China’s water. Massive dams in Tibet are already helping to light up and power much of western China.
China’s current reign of repression dates back to 1950 when China invaded Tibet. A 1951 treaty was supposed to guarantee Tibet’s autonomy, but China failed to hold up its end of the bargain. The eventual result was a 1959 revolt, the slaughter of more than a million Tibetans, and the exile of Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to India.
According to Human Rights Watch, “Chinese authorities view the exiled Dalai Lama as the linchpin of the effort to separate Tibet from China and view Tibetan Buddhist belief as supportive of his efforts. Thus, the government limits the number of monasteries and monks, vets all applicants for the monkhood, interferes with the selection of monastic leaders, prohibits performance of traditional rites, and conducts ongoing reeducation campaigns centered on opposition to the Dalai Lama.”
Even today, Buddhists loyal to the Dalai Lama continue to be hunted like dogs in the mountains by Chinese troops. In Berlin Wall–style executions, nuns and monks are shot in cold blood while attempting to make their escape to Nepal or India. Just consider this recent passage from the London Independent:
A few minutes of jerky video footage shot by a Romanian cameraman on a mountaineering trip brought the plight of Tibetans under Chinese rule into Western living rooms this month. For once, the world was able to watch the cruelty of occupation as it played out. In the video, a Chinese border guard calmly opens fire from a mountain ridge on a group of unarmed, defenseless Tibetans below, as they struggled through the snow to escape from occupied Tibet. Two figures drop to the ground. Said one of the survivors, “we were walking in line. Before the shooting, we knew the soldiers were after us so we started to walk quickly. They warned us to stop, and then they started shooting. We were running. The bullets were landing near us. The nun who died was 100 metres ahead of me. I saw her fall down. I was lucky. A bullet tore my trousers, but it missed me.”
Who’s Afraid of the Falun Gong?
Just after sunrise, in virtually every park and town square in China, clusters of people glide in unison through a set of tranquil, ritualized movements known as qigong, prosaically translated as “breathing exercises” but representing an alluring blend of spiritualism and physical exertion. There are few sights more common across China’s vast breadth. But a buzz has developed around one particular breathing master Li Hongzhi whose exercises, his followers believe, can not only cure cancer and turn white hair black again, but also provide moral and spiritual guidance. Millions of Chinese are his Falun Gong adherents—so many that the government is visibly concerned.
—Time, May 1999
China today banned the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control after deeming them to be illegal. In its decision on this matter issued today, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that according to investigations, the Research Society of Falun Dafa had not been registered according to law and had been engaged in illegal activities, advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability.
—Communist Party Directive, July 1999
Before the Communist Party banned the Falun Gong, it boasted well over 70 million adherents. Today, no one knows how many adherents remain. In one of the most massive and merciless human rights violations in history, virtually all of China’s Falun Gong have been driven underground, put into prison, forced to publicly renounce their beliefs, or been executed.
Just what is Falun Gong? Why did the Chinese government ban it? Is it really the dangerous cult the Chinese government would have us believe?
Falun Gong is a modern-day amalgam of three elements of ancient Chinese philosophical and religious traditions. Two of these elements—Chinese Buddhism and Taoism—provide Falun Gong with its moral philosophy. The third element—Qiqong—is similar in many ways to Indian yoga. Qigong provides Falun Gong with its set of physical movements, postures, and breathing exercises designed to promote health, improve concentration, and serve as meditation.
Falun Gong was introduced into China in 1992 by a charismatic former musician and grain clerk named Li Hongzhi. Through his videotapes, books, and lectures, Li would go on to develop a following of more than 70 million in seven short years.
While the Chinese government has used the argument that Falun Gong is a cult, most of its allegedly “cult-like” qualities are not unlike characteristics that can be found in religions and movements freely practiced throughout the rest of the world.
For example, like the Christian Science Church, Falun Gong practitioners believe in the power of the mind and spirit in healing. In fact, much of the popularity of the Falun Gong in the 1990s has been attributed to the loss of universal health care as China turned into a capitalist economy.
Like the proponents of transcendental meditation, Falun Gong practitioners speak (perhaps metaphorically) of being able to fly, levitate, become invisible, or walk through walls—all by harnessing the life force of the body.
These metaphysical (and phantasmagorical) elements aside, most of what Falun Gong is about is a mind-body experience not unlike that of Buddhism or Christianity designed to promote health, strength, moral character, and spirituality. If that is so, why has the Chinese police state all but eradicated Falun Gong? The answer may be found in a fundamental political error committed by Li Hongzhi in peacefully challenging the authority of the state in 1999. The precipitating event is aptly described in Time magazine:
To register their displeasure over government treatment of the group, 10,000 of Li’s followers suddenly assembled on April 25 on the sidewalks around Zhongnanhai, the high-security complex that houses China’s top leaders, and sat in meditative postures along a two kilometer stretch. The demonstration was peaceful, entirely unexpected, and the largest organized show of opposition since the Tiananmen democracy movement in 1989. It ended quietly, with the protesters even picking up their own litter, but only after 12 hours, an audience within Zhongnanhai with Premier Zhu Rongji and his aides, and a government promise that the group’s grievances would be addressed within three days.
What the Falun Gong got from this event was not a fulfillment of the government’s promise to address its grievances within three days. Instead, within three months, the government—terrified by the largest mass demonstration it had seen since 1989 in Tiananmen Square—launched a full-scale assault on every Falun Gong practitioner in China.
China’s assault on the Falun Gong was every bit as rabid as the worst excesses of the Cultural Revolution. It relied on both the army and police to conduct mass arrests. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were put into prisons, reeducation through labor (RTL) camps, or psychiatric hospitals. In addition, employers were ordered to fire any Falun Gong who refused to renounce his or her beliefs, and schools were used to indoctrinate children against the Falun Gong movement.
This first-person account from a prisoner in a Chinese labor camp provides stark testimony to the horrors that have rained down upon the Falun Gong in China:
I was detained in Beijing’s Female Forced Labor Camp because I believe in and practice Falun Gong. I was illegally arrested at my home, and during my detention, I was repeatedly subjected to inhuman torture. I was often deprived of food. For long periods of time, I was not allowed to sleep or to use the bathroom. The guards often ordered the criminal inmates to beat me up. In order to muffle my cries, the guards stuffed dirty underwear, stained with menstrual blood from other females, into my mouth. I was beaten until my body was completely covered with bruises.
There was a practitioner who was sent here from the detention center. Her head had been twisted about 150 degrees, and almost faced her back. In the detention center, she had received excruciating torture because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. The guards then twisted her lower back, handcuffed her hands and feet together while she was in that twisted position, and kept her like that for over ten days. A person in her 40s had, through torture, been made to look like someone in her 70s, simply because she held fast to her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.