NEW YORK -- Based on recent Chinese Communist Party tactics, the Falun Dafa Information Center expressed concern today that the Party may attempt to stage an incident, perhaps even one involving violence, and then label the actors as Falun Gong practitioners. The Center urged media workers in Beijing to question and thoroughly investigate any Chinese Communist Party (CCP) characterizations of Falun Gong, especially in light of these concerns.
"Over the past nine years, the CCP has used a variety of inaccurate labels on Falun Gong," says Center spokesman Erping Zhang. "In each case, the aim has been to vilify people who practice Falun Gong, and therefore, justify the horrors these people are subject to under CCP rule."
The choice of such labels has been especially far-fetched in the run-up to the Olympics, with some Chinese officials and state-run media going so far as to associate Falun Gong with violent factions or even terrorists. The frequency of such references as the Games approach may suggest there is a second, perhaps more sinister purpose to such labeling.
"There exists, sadly, a real possibility that the CCP would attempt to stage or attribute a disruptive act, perhaps even one involving violence, with the intent to pin it on Falun Gong," says Zhang. "They've done it before."
More recently, the CCP has used emotionally-charged circumstances to bend public opinion against Falun Gong.
A Demonstrated Commitment to Non-Violence
Over the past nine years, Chinese authorities have detained millions of Falun Gong adherents. Once in custody, tens of thousands have suffered torture, and the Center has documented details of the deaths of over 3,000 from abuse in custody. Throughout this ordeal, there has never been a reported case of Falun Gong adherents retaliating in an act of pre-meditated violence.
"Let me be absolutely clear," says Zhang, "anyone who participates in an organized act of violence in the name of Falun Gong is, by the very act itself, not a Falun Gong practitioner, and certainly does not represent the community of Falun Gong practitioners."
"In all our efforts to regain our basic freedoms over the past nine years, we have never engaged in acts that intentionally harm innocent people," says Zhang. "The foundation of our faith is the principles of honesty, compassion and tolerance, and we aim to follow these in everything we do... even when exposing the abuses meted out by the CCP."
For those covering stories on this topic, the Center recommends:
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
Contacts: Gail Rachlin (+1 917-757-9780), Levi Browde (+1 646-415-0998), Erping Zhang (+1 646-533-6147), or Joel Chipkar (+1 416-709-8678)
Fax: 646-792-3916 Email: contact@faluninfo.net, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/
Source: http://news.faluninfo.net/lists/lt.php?id=Kx1WWlQABAdICgNIBgACAQs%3D