US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org
#20: ANOTHER FALUN GONG PRACTITIONER DEAD IN BEIJING, CAUSE UNKNOWN JUST IN: (Falun Gong Web Sites) - Sichuan Province: Mr. Tian Shiqiang, a practitioner from Lanjiang Town, Suining City of Sichuan Province, went to Beijing to appeal to the government to report the truth about Falun Gong on June 5, carrying his 2-year-old child with him. On June 7, his family members got a notice from Beijing that Tian Shiqiang died. Now his family members have left for Beijing to handle his death.
US "HUMAN RIGHTS" TRADE COMPLIANCE PLAN FUNDING IN PERIL WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) - A U.S. House panel refused on Wednesday to fund a White House initiative that would monitor China's compliance with a landmark trade agreement, despite urgent pleas from the administration and key lawmakers preparing for Beijing's entry to the World Trade Organization. Less than a month after the House of Representatives approved the market-opening pact, the Appropriations Committee voted 29-24 against providing the $21.2 million requested by President Bill Clinton to ensure Beijing meets its WTO obligations and to fund other trade compliance efforts... Backed by the White House, the Appropriations Committee's ranking Democrat, David Obey of Wisconsin, tried to add the compliance money to legislation funding the Justice, Commerce and State Departments in the fiscal year starting in October. But most committee members said the budget was just too tight, given the need to increase spending for crime fighting and prison construction. The White House and pro-trade lawmakers countered that the compliance initiative was more important than ever as China prepares to join the WTO later this year. "We're going to continue to push for this. It's critical for the administration to obtain this funding," said Brendan Daly, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky's spokesman. The initiative called for "accelerated investigations" of future trade complaints and for the creation of a "rapid response team" that would monitor Chinese compliance efforts. Funding for the trade compliance initiative was cut last week by the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for Justice, Commerce and State Department funding. Since then, the administration has increased pressure on the House to restore the money.
UNREPORTED STORIES: REPRESSION ROUND-UP FROM INSIDE CHINA (Falun Gong Web Sites) - [Beijing] Zhang Shuying, female, 35 years old, a practitioner from Beijing, was detained in the Dongcheng District Detention Center for unfurling a Falun Dafa banner on Tiananmen Square on April 13. She was sentenced to one year of forced labor. As soon as she entered the detention center, she started to abstain from food and water. Seven days later, she was tortured with electrical needles and all those being held in the detention center could hear her anguished screams. She lost consciousness from the torture. She was sent back to her cell after she regained consciousness. However, during the night, Ms. Zhang Shuying lost consciousness again and was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment. When she was sent back to the detention center from the hospital, she was paralyzed.
[Gansu Province] The police officers of Huining County tied up eight practitioners. Four of them had gone to Beijing to appeal and were sent back on a truck and then paraded through the city, county and villages. A mass meeting was held afterwards in a local village to denounce the practitioners. The activity lasted a whole day. The police forced the practitioners to curse and spit on the photos of Teacher Li under threat of the torture of being tied up so tightly that they would lose consciousness. Some of the policemen yelled out: "According to the spirit of policies from high officials, nothing is considered overdone no matter how severely we treat the practitioners."
COLUMBIA MISSOURI STUDENT PRACTITIONER FREED FROM CHINESE JAIL ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH WASHINGTON BUREAU, June 14 - A resident of Columbia, Mo., who was arrested in China last month has been released and is free to return to the United States, Chinese Embassy representatives said Tuesday. Sue Jiang, a graduate of the University of Missouri at Columbia, was held for 15 days in "administrative detention." The Chinese Embassy in Washington said Jiang had attempted "to disrupt order and conduct illegal activities in China." Jiang's husband, Cuirong Ren, said that her real offense was simply attempting to conduct Falun Gong exercises. Jiang went to China on May 10 to visit her parents and learn more about Falun Gong, a meditation-based spiritual movement which the Chinese government banned as a "vicious cult" last summer. Cuirong said Jiang had heard of Falun Gong practitioners being arrested and beaten in China and wanted to find out about their situation. She learned firsthand, Cuirong said, when she was arrested for practicing Falun Gong exercises in public, but that even after Jiang was released from jail, Chinese authorities held her passport and plane ticket at the police station, preventing her from leaving the country.
CHINA VOWS TO TIGHTEN CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS BEIJING, June 15 (Agence France Presse) - China announced Wednesday greater controls on press freedom and warned the country's media their work must fall in line with the ideology of the ruling communist party. A Chinese Communist Party spokesman slammed publications for seeking to profit from racy news, failing to control public opinion and printing state and military secrets. The comments were made in an article which appeared in all China's major state-run newspapers on Wednesday. "The propaganda work of the press must hold high the party banner, safeguard unity, encircle the center, serve the overall situation, promote the opening and reform and support social stability," the unnamed spokesman was quoted as saying. "Some mistaken papers publicly publish views opposing the party's basic line, while circulating backward and decadent ideological views," the spokesman said... Since China embarked on economic reform 20 years ago, the newspaper market has grown exponentially, with many small newspapers and papers spun off from the dull centralized press raking in market share with lively stories, racy ads and in depth stories on corruption and lawlessness in China. In order to stop such "unhealthy" tendencies an "alarm system on violations of discipline and regulations in the press" will be set up to ensure the press "supported the leading position of Marxist-Leninism, Mao Zedong thought and the theories of Deng Xiaoping," the spokesman said. Publications must embody the ongoing ideological campaign of Chinese President Jiang Zemin on the "three representations," of economic work, ideology and the "interests of the people," he said... The ongoing crackdown on the press was first publicly announced in April when vice minister of publicity Xu Guangchun blasted the media for failing to speak for the party, while upholding "bourgeois news values." "To correctly guide public opinion and positively lead the ideology of the people through news propaganda is the fundamental task of news propaganda and is the basic responsibility of every newspaper," Xu said.
US FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-734-6913, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: usinfo@falundafa.org