YOU GOT THE TEETH OF THE HYDRA UPON YOU:

China's Fight With Falun Gong (Richard C. Morais, 02.09.06, Forbes)

The shocking reenactments of torture in front of Pennsylvania Station in New York and the Chinese Embassy in London publicly make the point: Falun Gong, a popular spiritual movement brutally suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party, is effectively waging its counterwar against the Chinese government, from the West.

Overseas Falun Gong practitioners are, for example, leading an underground campaign to hack China's Internet firewalls to counter the Chinese Communist Party's news blackout and propaganda in the Middle Kingdom. But there are many skirmishes between Chinese communism and Chinese spiritualism taking place on U.S. soil.

Consider, for example, the propaganda war that took place at New York's Radio City Music Hall in late January. The New York City-based New Tang Dynasty TV beams uncensored free world news into China using capacity on European satellite-operator Eutelsat. NTDTV is loosely associated with Falun Gong (the spiritual group's spokeswoman, for example, sits on the company's board), and NTDTV hired Radio City Music Hall to stage a Chinese New Year gala. Not to be outdone, the Chinese government's television station, CCTV, booked the famous hall immediately following the NTDTV gala and did its best to confuse the ticket-buying public.

But the Chinese Communist Party-sanctioned gala was built around a ditty called "Same Song," a sing-along allegedly used during labor camp torture sessions of Falun Gong followers. In response, Falun Gong practitioners used the Torture Victims Protection Act to file suit against CCTV, which the group claims has also been producing false and slanderous propaganda about the "violent" nature of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong members in the West routinely wage telephone campaigns inside China--calling labor camp guards, for example, and urging them to treat imprisoned Falun Gong followers leniently. Last year, however, Falun Gong practitioners worldwide were themselves barraged with harassing phone calls, including death threats. Some of these campaigns involved hours of continuous and simultaneous ringing of work and home phones and private cell phones. Falun Gong is suing the Chinese government in Washington D.C.; they want authority from RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) to get the phone companies to trace these calls back to China.

Overall, says Theresa Chu, a Falun Gong attorney and director of International Advocates for Justice, Falun Gong have filed more than 50 lawsuits across the globe, charging the Chinese Communist Party's leaders with genocide and other crimes against humanity.

Is the Party more popular than any other organization in China?

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 10, 2006 3:54 PM