Tang Baiqiao in fall 2011. (Picture provided by Tang Baiqiao)

The first installment in this story can be found here. 

In 2010, on Christmas Eve, a Mr. L contacted Tang saying that he was heading to New York to discuss a collaboration with a university there, and “by the way,” would like to meet with Tang.

Mr. L was the husband of one of Tang’s college classmates. He had worked at various foreign affairs offices, some of which were part of universities. All of these offices are controlled by the Ministry of State Security. Mr. L then immigrated to Canada. In 2010, he was invited back to serve as the director of the International Relations department of a university in southern China. “The International Relations department trains spies and diplomats,” Tang said.

On Dec. 19, 2010, Tang held a party at his house to celebrate the publication of his new book “My Two Chinas.” He invited Mr. L to the party.

Tang asked Mr. L to keep a low profile at the party and to stay away from the personal information of the other guests. But Mr. L did just the contrary: He mingled with the guests and openly distributed his name cards to them.

One of the guests was Ms. Yi Rong, who was also from Hunan Province like Mr. L. She told The Epoch Times, “He was from mainland China, but wanted to take pictures with us, unafraid that it could become difficult to return to China afterwards. I became suspicious of him.”

Tang shared the same suspicion, and was worried for the guests who had interacted with Mr. L. 

Lavish Plans to ‘Visit Relatives’

During his stay in New York, Mr. L stayed at Flushing Inn for three days. He spent most of his time there with Tang.

As a famous activist, Tang is unable to return to China. And Tang’s mother cannot travel to the U.S. to visit Tang in due to health problems.

Mr. L said that he knew someone high-up in Beijing who could arrange for Tang to visit his mother in China and guarantee his safety.

Tang rejected this offer. Mr. L then offered to arrange for the family reunion to happen in Thailand instead, with Tang “not needing to worry about the cost.” Tang said he would think about it.

After Mr. L returned to China, he and his wife visited Tang’s mother during the Chinese New Year. The Tang family was left with a very good impression of them.

Mr. L started to plan the details of the Thailand reunion with Tang. Tang asked if he could bring his wife along. Mr. L replied 3 months later: 1. Do not bring your wife along; 2. Do not tell the related departments in the U.S. about your trip. Tang became suspicious and rejected Mr. L’s offer.

Mr. L continued to offer Tang plans for family reunions in other Asian countries. He even flew to the U.S. several times just to meet Tang. Tang rejected all the offers.

During his second visit to the U.S., Mr. L finally revealed the true motives behind the planned family reunion. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wanted to meet up and “connect” with Tang; in truth they hoped to convince him to collaborate with them.

Mr. L begged Tang: “Please help me. If this (reunion) is successful, I will be promoted several ranks.” But Tang replied, “I can’t sacrifice myself just for the sake of helping you.”

Mr. L also revealed to Tang, “Before I came over to the U.S., the heads of the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security of Guangdong Province summoned me and said they do not wish you (Tang) to maintain contact with any officials from the other provinces, (and to remember that) Guangdong is the richest province in China…”  

Continued on the next page: A Message From Boss Zhou

On the evening of May 27, thousands of Wangsheng District residents walked the street. (Screenshot from NTD Television)

Each evening in the Wangsheng District of the central-western megalopolis of Chongqing, the residents go for a walk. Their promenade is not for fun, and shop keepers have supported the walkers’ cause by going on strike.

The residents of Wangsheng have been upset since October 2011 when their district was merged with Qijang County. Since May 21, tens of thousands of Wangsheng residents have been walking in the evening to show their discontent. 

Hundreds of armed police and riot police are deployed along the streets, and clashes take place nearly every evening, according to the Central News Agency, quoting Hong Kong media and mainland netizens.

Some people have been detained. Local authorities have reportedly banned people from promenading and are threatening them with martial law.

The stakes were raised when, on May 25, all the shops in Wangsheng went on strike. The district looks deserted. 

The Wangsheng residents fear they will suffer from the merger with Qigang County. New Tang Dynasty TV quotes a resident as saying in the aftermath of a violent crackdown on demonstrators in April, “If our mining district is combined with Qijiang, we’ll get less money and less resources.”

In an effort to allay residents’ fears the Chongqing government has published a statement on its website saying that it would safeguard the pensions and medical benefits of the Wangsheng District.

More than a thousand armed police were sent to suppress the demonstration, firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. Nevertheless, the clash continued until late into the night. At least 50 people were reportedly injured.

According to Hong Kong Oriental Daily News on May 27, the atmosphere in Chongqing has remained tense. 

Chinese version available here.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

More than 2,000 Hong Kong residents participated in a march calling for the rehabilitation of the pro-democracy student protesters who were violently suppressed by the Chinese regime in 1989. Hong Kong, May 27, 2012. (The Epoch Times)

Hong Kong residents are preparing for the annual commemoration of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square student protests and massacre.

More than 2,000 marched on May 27, calling on the Chinese regime to redress the student protesters, end its crackdown on dissidents, and do away with corruption. The march was organized by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China. 

A silent tribute was paid to 73-year-old Zha Weilin, who committed suicide on May 26 in Beijing to protest the regime’s long-standing refusal to address the massacre. His son, Zha Aiguo, a Tiananmen student protester, was fatally shot in the head by the Communist troops in 1989. 

Zha had been a member of the “Tiananmen Mothers,” an activist group that has been calling for the Chinese regime to change its position on the 1989 pro-democracy mass protests. Most of its members are parents of murdered students.

“I believe that the rehabilitation of June 4 can be a starting point for ending China’s one-party rule. We believe that the new generation of leaders have the responsibility to promote universal and democratic values and place China among the nations walking towards democracy in this historic time,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, member of Hong Kong’s legislative council.

Lee said he was encouraged by the large number of young people participating in the march. Last year, more than 150,000 people attended the annual candlelight vigil for the June 4 victims. Lee said he was confident that there would be even more people this year.

Lee also said that they are planning to establish a June 4 museum and use it to fight against what he called the “nationwide brainwashing-type education.” 

In China, the June 4 student massacre is not mentioned in textbooks and official views of the student protesters are negative.

Alan Leong Kah-kit, another legislative council member, criticized the Chinese regime’s oppression of dissidents. 

“The Communist Party’s intense suppression shows that its members have no confidence. I hope that the people of Hong Kong can openly grieve the June 4 [victims] and fight for rehabilitation [of the protesters] as we live in the only part of China where such actions are possible. I hope we can keep doing this,” Leong said.

Miss Zhou, a student of City University of Hong Kong, is participating in a hunger strike in memory of the 1989 mass student hunger strikes in Tiananmen Square. 

Since March 20, a number of blocked search terms including “June 4” have been repeatedly lifted on Baidu, China’s main search engine. Articles citing a recent speech by Premier Wen Jiabao about “redressing miscarriage of justice and lifting the ban on June 4,” were among the unblocked search results.

Read the original Chinese article. 

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

The petition by 300 hundred households from Zhouguantun Village, Botou City, Hebei Province calling for the release of Falun Gong practitioner Wang Xiaodong has shaken up China's top leadership circle. (The Epoch Times)

The sister of a Falun Gong practitioner who received the support of 300 village households in a town in China’s Hebei province was kidnapped over the weekend along with two others, a source has told The Epoch Times.

In April, 300 villagers representing their households, in Zhouguantun village near the city of Boutu drew international attention when they signed their names and placed their fingerprints on a petition to release Wang Xiaodong, a teacher and practitioner of the persecuted meditation practice Falun Gong. The petition was apparently circulated among high-ranking Chinese Communist Party members in the Politburo, with some expressing concerns over the sense of the 13-year-long persecution of the practice.

Wang’s sister, Wang Xiaomei, was forced out of her home and stayed with friends. She was later abducted by police officers on Saturday night, according to the source. Two other Falun Gong practitioners, Kang Lanying and Tang Jianing, were also taken away.

Relatives of Wang attempted to contact the local police bureau, but police officials told them they knew nothing about the matter, the source said. 

Local residents told The Epoch Times that since the villagers submitted the petition, Zhouguantun has been under heavy security.

Turning Point

Shandong University Professor Sun Wenguang said the villagers’ petition represents a turning point in the regime’s crackdown on Falun Gong.

Ordinary Chinese citizens “dared not openly support Falun Gong in the past, but now the situation has changed,” Sun said in an interview with The Epoch Times. “They have not only expressed their support but have also placed their signatures and fingerprints on a petition, which is a positive phenomenon.”

Sun’s comments themselves illustrate a decrease in general fear of talking about Falun Gong, which has for years been taboo because of the persecution.

Hebei’s local Political and Legislative Afairs Committee (PLAC) “abridged the basic rights of religious freedom for Falun Gong practitioners” in arresting Wang, Sun said. “I think in the future, there will be more people who will stand up against the [persecution]” of Falun Gong.

Sun said it was “normal” for Falun Gong practitioners to disseminate information about the persecution of their practice, because there has been “no guarantee of their religious freedom” from the Party.

Upon the outset of the persecution in mid-1999, former CCP head Jiang Zemin labeled Falun Gong as an “evil religion,” which Sun said was “absolutely false.” The PLAC, a vastly powerful security apparatus, has maintained the persecution over the last 13 years. 

A human rights activist who called himself only Mr. Hu, and who was also persecuted by the Party, said the incident in Zhouguantun shows that mainland Chinese citizens have seen the “true nature” of the regime.

“People have gained the courage to stand up for the truth,” he said, adding the development “is the most important change in Chinese society and is what China most desperately needs.”

The news has been spread widely on Twitter, with netizens calling for U.S. Ambassador in China, Gary Locke, to do something about Wang’s case.

Mr. Hu said Falun Gong practitioners, in their belief of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, have continued to stand up for their rights. In the footsteps of Falun Gong, ordinary Chinese people have gained the courage to add to the chorus started by practitioners, Mr. Hu said.

He continued: “Those involved in democratic reforms, human rights, and even the general public in mainland China greatly admire and respect Falun Gong practitioners.”

Editor’s Note: When Chongqing’s former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody

Read original Chinese article. 

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

The petition by 300 hundred villagers from Zhoutun Village, Botou City, Hebei Province calling for the release of Falun Gong practitioner Wang Xiaodong has shaken up China's top leadership circle. (The Epoch Times)

Chinese lawyers and the public are increasingly more willing to oppose cases of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted by authorities, after an incident in Hebei Province where 300 villagers signed their names on a public petition calling for the release of a detained fellow villager.

Wang Xiaodong, a teacher in Zhouguantun village near Butou city, Hebei province, was arrested in late February by plainclothes police after they discovered in his home compact discs with information about Falun Gong and its persecution. They also took 20,000 yuan (US$3,200) from him. His elderly mother and 7-year-old son were left to fend for themselves.

Following the arrest, 300 villagers signed their names and put their fingerprints on a petition for Wang’s release. But shortly thereafter the villagers were ordered to retract their statements and became the objects of repression by authorities, reportedly on direct orders from the powerful Political and Legislative Affairs Committee.

Guangdong lawyer Tang Jingling told The Epoch Times on the telephone that the incident is “a fight between good and evil. Using political or legal terms, it’s about the establishment of freedom and democracy,” he said.

People must stand up and raise a united righteous voice against the regime, Tang said.

Shaming Officials

According to Tang and other lawyers, the Chinese public is increasingly more willing to stand up against human rights abuses, particularly those targeting the Falun Gong mediation practice, also known as Falun Dafa, whose adherents espouse the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted in China since July 1999.

A Beijing lawyer, who wished not to be named, told The Epoch Times on Friday that he would be willing to accept Wang’s case if it were presented to him.

He said, aside from the villagers publicly standing up for him, Wang Xiaodong’s case is not unique. Numerous Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally sentenced, with the prosecution and judges designing charges that have previously never existed, or have questionable legal standing; in other cases evidence is apparently fabricated by police. Most of the time the legal system is bypassed, with practitioners instead directly sent to brainwashing centers or labor camps.

The lawyer added that there have been positive developments in Wang’s case because the villagers’ petition has shed unfavorable light on local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. He also knows of reports stating that the upper echelons of the CCP, including Politburo members, have questioned the reasoning behind the political campaign against Falun Gong.

Meanwhile, the lawyer said the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the highest legal office in China, has handed the case back to the local Butou police bureau because of lack of evidence.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing crisis within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the new interactive Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Liu Yan, a local government official, verified in a phone call on Saturday that the case had indeed been sent back to the police bureau for lack of evidence.

For Wang and his family, this could be a favorable development, the Beijing lawyer said, because his family can then request that he be released on bail. The lawyer added that there is a good likelihood that Wang might be released because it is an opportunity for officials with the police station to save face in light of public scrutiny.

Wang could also be cleared of all charges, but this is a more difficult feat to accomplish, the lawyer said.

The Epoch Times called the government in Butou, and local officials said they would consider the villagers’ petition.

But according to a number of local people The Epoch Times talked to, the government has been harassing villagers who signed the petition.

When Chongqing’s former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody hands—the officials promoted by former CCP head Jiang Zemin in order to carry out the persecution—is seeking to avoid accountability for their crimes and to continue the campaign. Other officials are refusing any longer to participate in the persecution. Events present a clear choice to the officials and citizens of China, as well as people around the world: either support or oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. History will record the choice each person makes.

Read original Chinese article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Chinese military policemen march past the Great Hall of the People beside Tiananmen Square in Beijing on May 16. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

The father of a student who was killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 was found dead recently, having committed suicide in protest against Chinese communist authorities.  

Zha Weilin, the father of student Zha Aiguo, a Tiananmen student, hung himself on Saturday May 26. The tenor of his suicide note, reported online, was that he wished to use his death as a final protest against the regime for failing to redress the killing of his son over 20 years ago.

Zha Aiguo, the second son of Zha Weilin, was 22 years old when he was shot and killed in the June 4 massacre. Thousands of students and ordinary Chinese had gathered in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in Beijing to protest against corruption and support democratic reform.  

Following their son’s death, Zha Weilin and his wife participated in activities held by the Tiananmen Mothers, an informal group who protest for the redress of the deaths of their sons and daughters in the massacre. The couple was subject to police intimidation and surveillance over the years because of their protest activities.  

Zha Weilin, the father, left home on May 25. His body was discovered the following afternoon. The police cordoned off the scene, removed the suicide note, and two days later cremated the body. 

Apple Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper, gave an account of Zha Weilin’s final days alive, as told by Zhang Zhenxia, his widow. At 10 a.m. before he left home, he said: “Zhenxia, I can’t wait on you anymore.” He was reportedly in a distressed state. After going to the door, he came back, then paced back and forth a dozen times. He said: “I can’t bear to leave you!” before finally leaving.  

He was found dead the next afternoon. “They did not tell me of his death until all my relatives reached my home,” Zhang the widow said. 

Read the original Chinese article 

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter

An image of Wang Xiaodong, supplied by family, before his arrest. (The Epoch Times)

The case against Wang Xiaodong, the detained Falun Gong practitioner from rural China whose arrest inspired 300 fellow villagers to petition the Communist Communist Party calling for his release, has been returned to the local Public Security Bureau after the prosecutor said it lacked evidence, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The individual said that the Botou City public security officers were being asked to “re-examine” the case because of an apparent evidentiary deficit. The pressure of public and Internet attention is a possible cause for the prosecutor sending the case back, though whether security forces will proceed with persecuting Wang is still unclear. He is currently still in custody.

Wang Xiaodong was arrested on Feb. 25 after police discovered compact discs discussing the beliefs and state-led persecution of the Chinese spiritual practice Falun Gong. Over the following month 300 villagers from Zhouguantun, the village where Wang resides, signed a petition initiated by Wang’s sister.

The petition, which included a letter to the officials that condemned the police and demanded Wang’s release, caused turmoil among top leaders in China, according to a source who provided the information to The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity. In the past week, police have been on a desperate search in the village for everyone who signed the petition, and asked those they found to sign an anti-Falun Gong statement, and a declaration that the previous petition was only signed out of sympathy for Wang’s child and elderly mother.

Wang Wensheng and Gao Guiqi, chief and vice chief of the Domestic Security Department in the local Public Security Bureau in Botou City, are the key individuals that led the persecution of Wang Xiaodong and his family, according to villagers. The Domestic Security Department is the branch of the Public Security Bureau in charge of surveilling and punishing dissidents, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, members of house or family churches, and others considers enemies of the state.

The department is apparently aware of the public attention now being shone on its operations. “I do not accept interviews, nor do I issue press releases. If you want to learn about the situation, you come here,” said an official from Botou’s domestic security team, who declined to provide his name. The official did admit that Wang was under detention.

A government official from Fuzhen Town, Botou City, where Wang’s village is situated, said that he knew about Wang Xiaodong’s situation. He would not provide telephone numbers of other officials. 

Wang Yan (alias), a resident of the village, witnessed unidentified individuals lingering outside the home of Wang Xiaomei, Wang Xiaodong’s younger sister, and said that Wang’s relatives were followed by cars when they were out. Wang Xiaomei, who helped gather signatures for the petition, is now running from the police after being threatened with arrest. 

The persecution of Falun Gong, a popular Chinese spiritual practice, was initiated by former regime leader Jiang Zemin in 1999. Since then practitioners of the traditional discipline have been arrested, sentenced to labor camps or prisons, and subject to torture. They now constitute the world’s largest group of prisoners of conscience, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center, which reports that 450,000 practitioners are held in detention facilities at any given time and 3,369 have been killed in custody, often due to torture. 

Read the Chinese article here. 

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

An image of Wang Xiaodong, supplied by family, before his arrest. (The Epoch Times)

An appeal by 300 village households calling for the release of a detained Falun Gong practitioner has shaken the upper echelons of the Chinese regime, according to an inside source, prompting reflection within the regime about the sense of an often violent political campaign against a popular spiritual practice that has gone on for nearly 13 years.

Earlier this month 300 villagers from Zhouguantun Village, Botou City, Hebei Province, as representatives of their households signed a petition using their full names and thumbprints, calling for the release of a man named Wang Xiaodong, who was being held in custody because of his spiritual beliefs.

Wang was charged with producing and distributing compact discs containing information exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, and the actual beliefs of the Falun Gong practice, which has been maligned by the Communist Party since it began its campaign against the group in 1999. Wang’s house was raided by National Security police. His arrest left his 7-year-old son and elderly mother, who is in her seventies, to fend for themselves.

Villagers were outraged at the affair, given that Wang was a well-known teacher in the village, known to and respected by residents.

After signing the petition villagers were subsequently harassed and intimidated by security forces, who attempted to make them retract their statements.

The petition resonated within Party Central, however, setting off an intense debate about the Communist Party’s costly and unsuccessful campaign against Falun Gong, according to a well-placed source.

“Many top executives are talking about this event and most of them are urging for a peaceful resolution. Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang have consulted Zhu Rongji [a former premier), who said the government’s handling of the 4.25 event was a complete failure. Li Ruihuan himself practiced Falun Gong and has been a clear supporter of Falun Gong,” the insider said. The reference to “4.25” means April 25, 1999, when over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside the petition office in Beijing asking the Party to stop harassing Falun Gong adherents.

The insider said that relatively liberal Party officials, like Zhu Rongji and Li Ruihuan, had tried to stop the persecution but could not.

The source, who spoke to The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity because revealing state secrets can result in the death penalty in China, said that local officials handling Wang Xiaodong’s case have been frustrated and exhausted since the petition was submitted. They had not expected an outcome so serious, and their higher-ups have instructed them to use all their resources to track down and retrieve the original letter.

“With the petition by these 300 villagers, the Communist Party’s efforts to demonize Falun Gong will soon be reversed,” the source said.

Read the original Chinese article.

When Chongqing’s former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody hands—the officials former CCP head Jiang Zemin promoted in order to carry out the persecution—is seeking to avoid accountability for their crimes and to continue the campaign. Other officials are refusing any longer to participate in the persecution. Events present a clear choice to the officials and citizens of China, as well as people around the world: either support or oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. History will record the choice each person makes.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing crisis within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the new interactive Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

More than 300 families of Zhouguantun Village, Fuzhen Town, Botou City, Hebei Province have signed a petition requesting the release of Wang Xiaodon, a Falun Gong practitioner. This is the first page of the petition. (Web Image)

It was an unusually brave and selfless act for modern China: around 300 villagers signed their names to a petition, and stamped them with red wax, calling for the release of a fellow resident who had been persecuted for his beliefs by communist China’s security forces. The villagers were then themselves targeted, in what appeared to be an order coming down from Party Central to retaliate fiercely against anyone who dared to defend Falun Gong.

Wang Xiaodong, a teacher and practitioner of Falun Gong who resides in Zhouguantun Village, Hebei Province, was the object of his fellow villager’s sympathy. He was arrested from his home on Feb. 25 when 40 policemen ransacked his house, confiscated 20,000 yuan in cash and took him away.

After several fruitless attempts to rescue her brother, Wang’s sister, Wang Xiaomei, and others in the family invited villagers to sign a letter calling for Wang’s release. They quickly found 300 willing to do so, and had village cadres certify the document as genuine with an official stamp.

On April 10 and April 14, family members visited the local Public Security Bureau, but vice chief of the National Security team Gao Guiqi said the letter could not be accepted. The family then began passing out copies of the letter and flyers with Wang’s story on the streets.

Central Party security forces swung into action. The Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), the powerful organ that oversees all law enforcement and the persecution of dissidents in China, has been persecuting Falun Gong through its “610 Office,” an extralegal agency, since 1999, under the orders of then-regime head Jiang Zemin. The PLAC ordered its branch in Hebei Province to put pressure on villagers; the petition had likely become an embarrassment for the PLAC by demonstrating the failure of the anti-Falun Gong campaign, which has come at considerable social and economic cost.

On April 23, close to a dozen Domestic Security officials visited the village Party Secretary in an attempt to find out who signed the petition and obtain the original copy. They arrested Wang Xiaomei; her child was subsequently forced to leave kindergarten.

The following day on April 24, domestic security chief Wang Wen and the village Party secretary Zhou Yinzhong summoned a dozen villagers who had signed the petition to a restaurant. They were asked to recant their previous stance while being video- and audio-recorded; this process was meant to intimidate them, according to other villagers. They were also asked to sign forms rejecting their previous statements, and those who agreed were treated to a banquet at the restaurant.

Officials from Fuzhen Town, Botou City, near the village, then joined in the harassment by forming four teams to find the other villagers who had signed the petition and make them recant.

An image of Wang Xiaodong, supplied by family, before his arrest. (The Epoch Times)

By May 18 most of the work had been done, with the majority of the villagers who had signed the petition being asked to sign a piece of paper saying that their previous petition was only for sympathizing with Wang’s elderly mother and 7-year-old child, not for anything related to Falun Gong. Additionally, they had to sign a card denouncing Falun Gong, an apparent attempt to destroy the villager’s sympathy with persecuted adherents of the practice.

The chief of the PLAC, Zhou Yongkang, has a personal interest in maintaining the campaign against the practice. He has been sued overseas by Falun Gong practitioners, and was promoted to his current position by former Party chief Jiang Zemin, who first vowed to “eliminate” the practice in China. Since the persecution started in 1999, Zhou rose from head of Ministry of Land and Resources to head of public security, and then to the position of Party Secretary of the secretive and powerful PLAC, all within three years. The PLAC gained extraordinary powers under Jiang and Zhou, forming what political analysts describe as a “second center of power” within the Party.

Zhou’s status is now in question because of his association with Jiang and Bo Xilai, the former Politburo member who was recently purged and disgraced. Reports in the foreign press emerged recently saying that Zhou has been relieved of his security powers. Zhou is also the official ultimately responsible for the violent treatment of Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights lawyer who recently arrived in the United States after a dramatic escape to the American embassy from extralegal house arrest in his hometown.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing crisis within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the new interactive Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Advocates for Falun Gong are regularly treated with brutality, according to the accounts of human rights lawyers and others. The most prominent case is probably that of Gao Zhisheng, who attempted to defend Falun Gong practitioners in court and subsequently wrote a series of open letters to the Party leadership denouncing the persecution and demanding that it stop. He has been in and out of detention since 2006 and is currently in jail. Communist Party security forces beat him for days, shocked him with electricity, and inserted toothpicks into his genitals as a form of torture.

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance; it involves slow-motion physical exercises and meditation.

After Wang Xiaodong’s younger sister Wang Xiaomei was released from custody, on May 13 she wrote a letter calling for help from the international community: “I hope you can call on the Chinese government to arrange a meeting with me, the Chinese government, and international human rights organizations, so that the conditions I tried to explain to the authorities can be verified,” she wrote. “As a woman from rural China, I get on my knees to beg for your help!”

When Chongqing’s former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody hands—the officials former CCP head Jiang Zemin promoted in order to carry out the persecution—is seeking to avoid accountability for their crimes and to continue the campaign. Other officials are refusing any longer to participate in the persecution. Events present a clear choice to the officials and citizens of China, as well as people around the world: either support or oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. History will record the choice each person makes.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

The younger sister of Quan Shuilin. Quan hit a Communist Party official in the neck with a scythe, killing him, after his land was seized. His younger sister uploaded a video pleading for understanding over the impossible situation her brother was put in. (Boxun.com)

Local officials in the Chinese countryside are known to run the areas under their control like personal fiefdoms, seizing land and demolishing the houses of peasants for personal profit. Villagers in two areas of China recently resorted to desperate measures, fighting back against and killing at least two cadres and the family members of one.

The first incident took place in the Shuangjiezhen village near Tianjin, a city near Beijing on China’s east coast. Peasants had been pushing for elections to bring in a new village chief after the incumbent, Huang Shuanglai, allegedly acquired large tracts of land via illicit means for personal benefit.

On May 11, Huang sent several of his enforcers to the homes of the other candidates for the village chief position. The purpose was to beat and threaten them, so they would withdraw from the election.

The following day he led more men to continue the harassment. A resident, who only wanted to be identified by his last name, Shi, told the Epoch Times in a telephone interview that over 10 hired thugs appeared at the home of an election candidate on May 12. After a heated argument the situation quickly turned violent, and villagers rushed forward to attack Huang and his relatives.

In the melee Huang, his brother-in-law, and his nephew were all killed, while others who came with them were severely injured, according to Boxun, an overseas dissident website.

Following the incident, several villagers were detained, while the village is said to be under close police surveillance. Chinese netizens who saw the news recently were supportive of the villagers, and left encouraging messages on the Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo.

In the same week a villager named Quan Shuilin killed a cadre after the local government seized his family’s land and refused to compensate him adequately. Quan’s sister told Boxun that the local government in Rongliu village, Guilin City, Guangxi Province, paid 19,000 yuan per mu (the Chinese unit of measurement for land) for the family’s land, and then immediately sold it to a developer for 42,000 yuan per mu.

Without signing any contracts regarding the compensation, local officials ordered the land bulldozed on April 1. By May 16 they were ready to start building, when Quan attempted to intervene, getting into a tussle with the local official, whose surname in reports was only given as Qin. During the conflict Quan struck Qin in the neck with his scythe, and Qin subsequently died from blood loss. Quan’s fate after the encounter is unclear.

“The issue is that the Party’s cadres have become used to behaving this way, harming people, doing these horrible things, including bulldozing people’s houses and seizing land,” said Wen Zhao, a commentator with the New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television, an overseas Chinese, independent broadcaster. “They force people into a corner where they have to fight back.”

Quan Shuilin’s younger sister uploaded a video explaining her brother’s plight. Her name was not provided. “My brother is a single father raising two young children and looking after two parents over 80 years old. If it wasn’t for the government stealing land and officials acting so brazenly and without scruple, would he have been driven to kill a man?”

With reporting by Ariel Tian.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

(Chen speaks to reporters upon arrival at New York University. Video courtesy NTD Television)

NEW YORK—After being spirited away from the airport after his 6:30 p.m. arrival, Chen Guangcheng, his wife and their two children were taken to his New York University’s residence on Mercer Street in lower Manhattan at around 7:30 p.m. It was a joyous day for human rights activists, politicians, and supporters who had helped Chen Guangcheng fight for his freedom. Chen’s family members, however, still remain in China under the shadow of the Chinese regime’s security forces.

“At the most critical moment, the U.S. Embassy in China gave me an opportunity for emergency asylum and helped me get through the most dangerous time. The American government too, gave me a lot of help,” Chen said to the press after arriving at his residence as a crowd stood cheering behind a police cordon.

Chen Guangcheng gestures beside his wife Yuan Weijing before making remarks to the media, upon his arrival at New York University campus on May 19. (Andy Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

He thanked the U.S. officials for their effort to rescue him.

“Acts of retribution in Shandong have not been abated and my rights to practice law have been curbed—we hope to see a thorough investigation into this,” he said.

Chen Guangcheng’s dramatic April 22 escape from house arrest in his hometown of Linyi, Shandong Province, drew international attention and became a focal point of U.S.-China relations.

Chen was helped by several friends, before being picked up by staff from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on April 27. He first left the embassy on May 2, under pressure from Chinese authorities who threatened his family if he did not leave American custody immediately; at the same time, a deal had been brokered that would have allowed him to stay in China and study.

The initial deal began to look less appealing when Chen was in hospital, however, in light of the probable interventions of Chinese security czar Zhou Yongkang. Security officials ultimately directed by Zhou kept Chen isolated. They seized and beat friends and colleagues who attempted to see him, and continued persecuting Chen’s family members.

When Chen finally expressed a wish to leave China, Jerome Cohen, a professor and expert of Chinese law at New York University, engineered an invitation for him that was supposed to save the United States and the Chinese regime further diplomatic embarrassment. On May 4 Chinese diplomats gave an indication that Chen would be allowed to leave, a process that was completed with short notice on May 19.

Supporters who worked for Chen’s release were relieved that he was allowed to travel to the U.S., but would not call the incident an unqualified success.

Representative Chris Smith, a staunch ally and prominent critic of the Communist Party’s human rights abuses, was excited about Chen’s freedom but said it doesn’t stop there. “Chen Guangcheng is free, but not all the Chens are free. There are lots of family members, his brother and nephew who are at great risk of retaliation. The United States and governments around the world need to rally for all the other Chens, their life and freedom.”

Rep. Smith chaired two congressional hearings on Chen’s case before the blind lawyer’s fate was decided. The first hearing led to a dramatic phone call from Chen, speaking from his hospital bed in China via the iPhone of Bob Fu, president of the Christian human rights organization ChinaAid.

Chen pleaded for an exit from China and supporters redoubled their efforts. They have not been able to help Chen’s nephew Chen Kegui, however. Chen Kegui was arrested by Chinese police and charged with “intentional homicide,” despite the fact that he did not kill anyone, after he defended his family from men that appeared to be thugs breaking into his home following Chen Guangcheng’s escape. Chen Kegui met the intruders with two kitchen knives he had hastily grabbed, slashing at them until they left. He went into hiding but was later placed into custody. Chen Kegui has been denied a choice of legal representation by local courts controlled by communist authorities.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the new interactive Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Update: Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng (C) and his wife Yuan Weijing (R) arrive at the New York University Village apartment complex in Manhattan in New York, May 19. (Mladen Antonov/AFP/GettyImages)

Update: Chen Guangcheng Arrives in the United States, Issues Thanks

NEWARK , N. J.—After years of persecution and house arrest, a dramatic escape to the American embassy in Beijing, a confused departure and hospitalization, and the harassment and detention of family members, blind activist Chen Guangcheng is finally on the flight to Newark Airport. 

It’s what Reggie Littlejohn, an activist against the Chinese regime’s one-child policy and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, calls the “most exciting moment” in her life.

Littlejohn received a call from Congressman Chris Smith this morning inviting her to “walk Chen and his family out of the airport.” 

“I have been advocating for Chen Guangcheng since 2008 when I testified at the European Parliament,” said a joyous Littlejohn. “I just never thought this moment would ever happen, and here it is!”

“I think there is probably a struggle inside of the Chinese Communist Party. We were all hoping and praying and working, just trying to help him so that the people [in the regime] that want to do the right thing and let him go would be the ones that would win,” Littlejohn said. “It’s incredible.”

United Airlines flight 88 is expected to arrive at 6:25 p.m. eastern time, according to the digital display in the airport.

Wang Xuezhen, a supporter of Chen from his hometown, bought a big Snoopy stuffed animal for Chen’s children. “I am the only supporter of him from China that has come to the U.S.,” Wang said proudly.

Chinese dissident Wuer Kaixi, one of the main student leaders from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, speaks at Taoyuan airport on June 4, 2009, after a failed bid to enter Macau to turn himself in to the Chinese government. (Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images)

A student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen protests in Beijing approached the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. on Friday in a bid to be allowed to return to China. He was ignored by embassy staff. Wu’er Kaixi concluded the protest visit by reading a personal statement expressing his hope to be able to return to China and spend time with his elderly parents.

Wu’er said that his “effort and fight to go back home will never stop.” 

It was the former student activist’s third attempt to approach the Chinese regime to be allowed to return home to China. Before the anniversary of the June 4 incident in 2009, Wu approached the Communist Party’s Liaison Office in Macau and was deported. Again on June 4, 2010, he demanded a dialogue with the regime at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. After he jumped over the iron fence in front of the embassy he was arrested by Japanese police. 

In 2011, Wu’er’s entry to Hong Kong was denied as he planned to attend the funeral of Szeto Wah, a prominent political figure of Hong Kong. In a statement published on his official website regarding the issue, he addressed his previous two attempts to approach the Chinese government. 

“After I tried to return to China using the form of surrendering, many were shocked to find out that the Chinese government even restricts the overseas travels of my parents and that I have not been able to visit my family for more than 20 years. Many were surprised to see that the Chinese government refused to accept my surrender despite having me on the ‘Wanted List,’” Wu said. “Sometimes we take absurdity indifferently. But even if we do so, we should not take absurdity as natural.”

Recently, as power struggles in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have intensified, signs of a push for democracy have appeared to surface frequently. Specific search terms related to “June 4” appeared to be temporarily lifted on such Chinese search engines by March 20. Redressing persecuted student activists from the Tiananmen protests was also apparently raised by Wen Jiabao in closed-room Party meetings. 

In April, 1989, Wu’er, then a student at Beijing Normal University, participated in mass gatherings on Tiananmen Square that called for a democratic reform in China.

Wu’er Kaixi was one of the student leaders that participated in a dialogue with then premier Li Peng. The crowd was violently suppressed with guns and tanks.

Wu left to France shortly after the incident and later studied at Harvard University in the U.S. Presently, he resides in Taiwan and works as a political commentator.

Read original Chinese article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng holds hands with U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke May 2, 2012 in Beijing, China. (U.S. Embassy Beijing Press via Getty Images)

Update: Chen Guangcheng Arrives in the United States, Issues Thanks

Blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng with his wife and two children have boarded a plane at Beijing Airport on the afternoon of May 19 and are on their way to New York. 

Prior to flying out Chen told The Epoch Times via phone that he left Chaoyang hospital just after midday and that hospital staff accompanied him and his family to the airport: “I’m at the airport now. It’s our family of four. We have already received our passports,” Chen said. “Now my mind is filled with thousands of thoughts. My folks back home all know about my departure. I’ve called my mother and family and bid farewell to them.”

Human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong told The Epoch Times that Chen had boarded a plane at 3:45 p.m. on May 19 and the flight took off at 5:10 p.m. Jiang said that the authorities gave Chen very short notice, and he left in a hurry, almost without any preparation, for the flight out of China. 

Prior to flying out Chen said he was very worried about his nephew Chen Kegui. “I hope friends can continue to pay attention to his condition. My family has been confined in the village,” Chen said. 

The fate of his nephew hangs in the balance, as he was recently denied his choice of legal representation by local courts controlled by communist authorities. Chen Guangcheng’s daring escape, plain-clothes police officers broke into the relatives’ rural homeand beat members of Chen Kegui’s family. On the second occasion they broke in, Chen Kegui attempted to defend his family from further assaults and attacked the intruders with kitchen knives. He now faces charges of “intentional homicide,” though no one died.

A source told Radio Free Asia that a Party official visited Chen Guangcheng on May 16 and made an agreement with the activist about the fate of Chen Kegui, which will depend on how Chen behaves himself when he is in the United States. 

“If Chen breaks the agreement, Chen Kegui will get a heavy sentence… If Chen abides by the agreement, he will get a light sentence,” the source said to RFA.

Chen Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest last month and six days spent inside the American Embassy seeking safety brought world attention to human rights abuses in China.

A source told Hong Kong’s Ming Pao that Chen’s case is “very special” and has gone through special procedures to speed up processing. “Today is Saturday and journalists are all taking the day off. By the time they realize what has happened, Chen would have already left China,” the source said.

According to the source, Chen was able to get a passport quickly because the authorities wanted him to leave before June 4, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, “so it won’t shake things up too much.”

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the new interactive Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng (C) holds hands with U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke (R) May 2, 2012 in Beijing, China. (U.S. Embassy Beijing Press via Getty Images)

The fate of Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng’s nephew hangs in the balance as he was recently denied his choice of legal representation by local courts controlled by the Chinese communist regime. This is the latest development in a string of steps by the regime aimed at minimizing controversy surrounding Chen Guangchen by intimidating and beating his family.

Chen Guangcheng is a blind human rights activist who escaped from house arrest last month and fled to an American Embassy in a dramatic fashion that has drawn the world’s attention to China’s human rights situation. 

After his escape, plain-clothes police officers broke into his family home and severely beat his brother and wife, according to Bob Fu, the founder of the ChinaAid association, who has contact with the human rights activist. On a subsequent break-in, Chen Guangcheng’s nephew Chen Kegui attempted to defend his family from further harm and attacked the intruders with a knife.

He now faces charges of “intentional homicide” and the courts have interfered with his ability to choose his own legal representation and it appears that the Chinese regime is trying to subvert the court procedures.

“Yinan police are suspected of illegally depriving Chen of his right to legal defense, and we deeply regret this,” stated human rights attorney Si Weijang according to the AFP.

“They did not provide any written documents and refused (colleague) Ding Xikui’s demands to meet with Chen and help him choose lawyers,” said Si Weijiang.

Ding Xikui, one of the Chen family lawyers, confirmed with Reuters that Chen Kegui was appointed two Yinan lawyers from the government-backed legal aid center. “They told us: ‘According to Chinese law, a criminal suspect can only be commissioned two lawyers. Two have been assigned to him, so both of you (Chen Kegui’s preference) can’t be his lawyers,’” Ding was quoted as saying.

Another of the family’s lawyers, Jiang Tianyong, told the news agency: “Chen Kegui will not be able to get a real defense, and the outside world will not be able to know the progress of the case. In this way, the fate of Chen Kegui will entirely be up to the authorities.”

Lawyers in China who take up sensitive cases often are subjected to intimidation, harassment, threats, detention, or have had their licenses revoked by the regime.

Chen Guangfu, the father of Chen Kegui and brother of Chen Guangcheng, recently described how he was severely beaten and mistreated by Communist Party officials to give up information as to how Guangcheng escaped.

“They first asked me if I knew what this was about. I said ‘I don’t know.’ So they beat me and slapped my face. Only on one side, not the other. And they trampled my feet with their leather shoes,” he added.

Read original Chinese article.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the new interactive Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

A picture dated March 28, 2005 shows blind activist Chen Guangcheng (R) with his wife and son Chen Kerui outside the home in Dondshigu village, northeast China's Shandong Province. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has completed passport applications for himself and his family and the documents should be approved within 15 days, according to a Voice of America (VOA) report. 

Chen, 41, has accepted a visiting scholar position to study at New York University School of Law.

In the first substantial development since Chen accepted the NYU scholarship earlier this month, Chen said staff from the Shandong Province Public Security Department visited to deliver the passport forms. Chen said staff charged him according to standard regulation fees and said the passports would be ready in 15 days, according to VOA.

The U.S Department of State said on Tuesday that the U.S. will issue visas to Chen, his wife, and two children as soon as the Chinese regime allows him to leave. 

U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters that the U.S. has done what they can.

“We are ready when he and his government are ready, we have been for more than a week now in terms of his visa to come pursue his studies,” Nuland said.

Rep. Chris Smith criticized the Obama administration for being soft on the Chinese regime in regards to protecting the well being of Chen and criticized the State Department for being slow in issuing visas for the family. 

Founder and president of China Aid Association, Bob Fu, said U.S. officials should sacrifice some sleep and put more effort into helping Chen and his family.

Read the original article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Pastor Bob Fu, Founder and President of the ChinaAid Association, translates Chen Guangcheng speaking live via speakerphone for Rep. Chris Smith, at the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, May 15. (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has again spoken directly to the U.S. Congress from China, this time condemning Chinese authorities for the brutal treatment of his family.

“My elder brother was taken away by these thugs without any reasoning and then they came back and starting beating up my nephew,” Chen said in a phone call and speaking through an interpreter in Washington, “What has been done by these public security officers is a total violation against China’s own constitution and Chinese criminal law and those charges against my nephew is in contradiction of Chinese law as well.”

Chen was speaking to the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, Tuesday May 15.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the new interactive Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

It is the second time Chen, a lawyer and outspoken opponent of China’s one child policy, has spoken to Congress after he called into a Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing May 3.

Chen escaped house arrest last month and, injured, fled to the U.S. embassy in Beijing. After threats from Chinese authorities that his wife and children would be harmed, he agreed to leave the embassy and was taken to a hospital where he remains. While his immediate family are with him, his extended family have suffered violent retribution for his actions.

Pastor Bob Fu, founder of the ChinaAid association and the contact for Chen, told the hearing that plain clothes policemen had descended on Chen’s brother’s house, severely beating him and his wife. Their son attempted to defend his parents from what he assumed were thugs and attacked the police with a knife.

The nephew has now been charged with attempted murder and could face the death sentence if convicted, Fu said.

Chen, 41, said the violence by authorities was part of “a pattern against me and my family.”

There were sometimes between 40 to 80 officials and guards in and around his home, he said, and he and his wife were regularly beaten.

Chen said he and his wife were again surrounded by guards at the hospital and were unable to receive visitors nor leave the hospital accommodation. His children, however, thought hospital was “wonderful” as they were able to play outside under supervision of nurses.

“You can tell how terrible it has been back in their home town,” he said,”they were only allowed one outing in a day there.”

Chen thanked supporters overseas adding, “especially the American people who show their care about the quality of justice as a universal value.”

When told that he was a hero for his courage in standing up for human rights Chen said, “I am not a hero. I’m just doing what my conscience asks me to do. I cannot be silent when facing these evils against women and children.”

The chairman of the human rights subcommittee, Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., said he called the hearing not only to check on the wellbeing of Chen and his family, but also to rally support from Congress and the White House for Chen’s extended family and friends.

“Eleven days later, Mr. Chen is still in the same hospital room, with his wife and two children under de facto house arrest,” Congressman Smith said.

“Although Mr. Chen is under the impression that his application for a passport was made last Sunday when he was visited by a Chinese official, and under Chinese law, blind persons are supposed to be able to apply orally for travel documents, he has not been notified of any further action on the application.”

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

In a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on May 7, Civil Affair Minister Li Liguo said a new liberal policy to allow direct registration of social organizations with Minister of Civil Affairs has been in place since the second half of last year. (Ministry of Civil Affairs)

Political parties, human rights organizations, and other groups that are normally suppressed—often violently—in China, will now be allowed to register themselves, under a major rule change.

The Chinese regime’s minister of civil affairs recently said that the ministry is pushing to reform the management of social organizations to allow their direct registration with the Minister of Civil Affairs (MCA). This may be part of measures Premier Wen Jiabao is pushing, to advance political reform in communist China.

In a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on May 7, Civil Affair Minister Li Liguo said a new liberal policy to allow direct registration of social organizations with MCA has been in place since the second half of last year, reports Chinese state newspaper, People’s Daily.

According to another state media, Xinhua, current regulations on social organizations require that a non-governmental organization must find an administrative body to oversee its activities, as a precondition before they can register with the civil affairs authorities. In other words, as things stand, all social organizations need to be monitored by the regime before they can register.

Under the new registering system, social organizations can register directly with MCA.

“Authorities will review such organizations from angles such as their founding conditions, necessity of establishment, activity objective and their roles in social and economic development,” said Li.

In addition, Li made it clear that all social organizations, including those involved with human rights and politics, will have “equal” status for registration and face the “same” supervisory review process.

MCA is a ministry under the State Council, and therefore under the leadership of Premier Wen Jiabao. Thus, opening the door to allow direct registration of “all social organizations including those involved with human rights and politics” must have been approved by Wen. Moreover, top leaders of the Party have a practice of acting collectively when making decisions on important issues, which means Wen is not the only senior Party leader who has approved this reform measure, according to Deutsche Welle.

Just over a year ago, during a meeting of the National People’s Congress on March 10, 2011, Chairman of National People’s Congress Standing Committee, Wu Bangguo, dismissed any notion of reform and proclaimed the Five NOs: “no multi-party election; no diversified guiding principles, no separation of powers, no federal system and no privatization.”

Wu also said that the Five NOs had been examined and approved by the Politburo Standing Committee, the regime’s nine-member ruling organ.

The next day, several Party top leaders said they “fully agreed” with Wu’s position on the Five NOs, reported Hong Kong’s Ming Pao. Among them were Jia Qinglin (Chairman and Party secretary of the National Committee of the People’s Political Consultative Conference), Li Keqiang (vice Premier), and Zhou Yongkang (head of domestic security apparatus, the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee). However, Wen Jiabao did not comment on Wu’s statements.

Continued on next page: China’s political climate has changed dramatically after a series of incidents …

A rally held in London on Dec. 30, 2003, protests the death of Liu Chengjun, part of the team who broke through the Chinese regime's propaganda by tapping into Changchun TV. Five of the team died in prison after suffering torture. (Minghui.org)

Ten years ago, on the evening of March 5, 2002, an estimated 1 million citizens of the northeastern city of Changchun, China, were watching a prime time broadcast of the opening session of the National People’s Congress when the programming suddenly changed. The motionless officials sitting with teacups under a giant, red communist flag were replaced by programs called “Falun Dafa Around the World” and “Suicide, or Homicide Staged by the Government?”

For 50 minutes Sun Changjun, working with several other Falun Gong practitioners, managed to broadcast in the place of the regime’s propaganda accurate information about their banned spiritual practice. Since 2002, the Falun Gong website minghui.org has provided detailed accounts from participants and witnesses of this dramatic event, which are the source for this article.

A resident of Changchun who witnessed the program switch in her college dorm “was literally electrified” by what she saw. “Because it [hijacking the state media] was something that no one in Communist China’s history had done. In my view, it was something that no one had been capable of doing.”

Reign of Terror

As the Falun Gong programming aired, news spread through the city, and more people began turning on their TVs to witness what they thought was the rehabilitation of Falun Gong.

But there had been no rehabilitation and local Party officials were frantic. In some parts of the city, officials were so desperate that they cut off the electricity in order to stop people from watching.

In 2002, Falun Gong was the Party’s No. 1 enemy. Three years before, then head of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin vowed to “eradicate” Falun Gong, fearing its unprecedented popularity among Chinese citizens.

Changchun officials were scolded by Beijing: one more episode like this, and your easy days of living as Party cadres would be over.

A reign of terror descended on the city. Policemen in Changchun began carrying guns with them, knowing that they would rather kill than risk more pressure from Beijng. Five thousand Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in Changchun and interrogated about the whereabouts of the key members involved in the TV hijacking. At least seven practitioners were known to have been beaten or shot to death right on the spot of the arrest.

Devoted Son

At the age of 26, Sun Changjun was the youngest member of the crew that hijacked the state TV.

Sun grew up in China’s Korean region of Yanji, situated on China’s northeastern border and next to North Korea. Despite academic success in his younger days, he often wondered what the meaning of life was.

Before being banned in 1999, Falun Gong was the most popular qigong method in China. Sun found that the discipline’s teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance answered his lifelong questions, and he strove to live by them.

People familiar with Sun describe him as a devoted son. After Sun graduated from college, he quickly got a position as the secretary of the head of a small town, and was recruited as a potential candidate for the next generation of the communist leadership in that region.

He moved out to go to work, but still visited his parents often. His mother’s feet had been bound in the old days, and ingrown nails made walking particularly painful for her. Sun would get down on his knees, soak her feet in warm water, and carefully remove the ingrown nails.

“Don’t do this. You now work in the government. How embarrassing it would be if people you know see this,” said Sun’s mother with a sense of guilt.

“You are my mother, and taking care of you is the most righteous and proper thing for a son to do” he answered.

Activists hold banners in support of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng and human rights activist He Peirong, who helped drive Chen on April 22 from his home in Dongshigu village, to a safe location in another province, during a protest in Hong Kong on May 4. (Laurent Fievet/AFP/GettyImages)

After seven days of being detained by public security police, activist He Peirong has given further details of blind Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s dramatic escape from house arrest.

Ms. He announced via Twitter that she has returned home on May 4 and three days later spoke with New Tang Dynasty (NTD) TV via Skype and gave details of Chen’s audacious April 22 escape and flight to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Forty-year-old Ms. He revealed that it took nearly a year to plan the rescue and that after Chen escaped from Dongshigu village in Shandong Province, she received an email from Chen’s family saying: “The bird has left the cage,” Ms He then picked Chen up and drove him to Beijing.

“His escape was entirely his own effort,” said Ms He. “Chen was completely on his own for the first 17 hours and nobody was there to help him.”

“At one point Chen hid in a pigsty and sometimes in farm fields. He also climbed many walls. Chen had nothing to eat or drink. This is a Shawshank Redemption-style flight,” Ms. He said, referring to a well-known movie where the protagonist makes a daring and elaborate prison break.

The rescue operation suffered some setbacks, including a flat tire, taking the wrong route, not finding Chen, and even losing Chen at one point, Ms. He said in another interview with Voice of America (VOA).

Ms. He said she then passed Chen to another activist -- whose identity she withheld for safety reasons – to be taken to the U.S. Embassy.

An English teacher by profession, Ms. He said that she visited Chen in Shandong six times last year unsuccessfully but declined to comment about current arrangements, which include whether Chen will leave China or not.

She told NTD Television: “I do not want to comment on any specific things. We thought it was impossible for him to leave the village, yet he had already fled the village. We must believe in miracles, nothing is impossible!”

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Mr. Yang, one of the house church organizers, told VOA, “The director of Qiaoxi District Bureau of Religious Affairs said that our gathering today was dismissed, and from now on our service must be conducted at the Communist Party’s official Three-Self Church. The police also told us to write down our names, and we did.”

Zhu Xinxin, a Christian who participated in the gathering said that the Chinese authorities seem to have lost control of house churches. “House churches in China are an open secret. Although the authorities don’t allow us to publicly spread our belief, the scales and numbers of house churches are so huge that the authorities haven’t been able to stop them. House church meetings have quietly been conducted in many places,” she said.

Zhang Mingxuan, a Chinese house church representative, told VOA that although the Party’s suppression of house churches seems to have weakened, many Christians are intimidated and remain silent. He said, “China is big. Many dare not to speak out about the suppression. That is the actual situation.”

A protester is removed by police outside the Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing where Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is being treated for a foot injury, on May 4. Many rights activists who attempted to visit Chen have been arrested. (AFP/GettyImages)

The blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng escaped gangs of security agents who had enforced 19 months of abusive house arrest, fled to the U.S. Embassy, and then was admitted to a hospital—where he is once again surrounded by gangs of security agents. Fingers are being pointed at the Chinese regime’s powerful domestic security czar, who is said to be acting in defiance of the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership.

Since Chen was admitted to Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing for a treatment of a foot injury suffered during his daring escape, over 400 police have been dispatched to guard him, according to a hospital worker. Many rights activists who attempted to visit him have been arrested.

Beijing human rights activist Ju Hongyi told The Epoch Times that when she tried to see Chen at the hospital on May 4, around one hundred people were already waiting to visit him. Police instructed everyone to register their names and then to get into police cars.

Ju instead showed her medical records, said she was there to get a checkup, and was not stopped by the police. Foreign reporters were also waiting inside the cordon near the hospital, she said.

Ju said she searched every hospital floor but failed to find Chen’s room, although she suspected that he was on the first floor, as there were many plainclothes police stationed there.

A petitioner is approached by police outside the hospital where Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is staying in Beijing on May 5. The woman, who expressed displeasure with the Chinese regime's treatment of petitioners, asked to visit Chen. (Ed Jones/AFP/GettyImages)

Human rights activist Ning Jinxia from Tianjin told The Epoch Times that her group of nine was stopped by plainclothes police on Friday morning even before they arrived at the hospital.

Uniformed police then came over, took their names and forced them into a police car. They were taken to the Sanlitun Police Station and all of them were locked up in a 10-square-meter (33 square feet) cage and treated like violent criminals, Ning said. Later they were transferred to another detention center to be picked up by officials from their hometowns’ liaison offices in Beijing.

The Epoch Times has reported on the huge amounts of money spent on guarding Chen, in the name of “stability maintenance.”

Ning said in Chen’s hometown Dongshigu, only local law enforcement officials and hired temporary personnel were charged with guarding Chen, but in Beijing regular law enforcement officers are in charge, which means even more money is being expended on Chen’s case.

According to a hospital worker, over 400 domestic security police have been stationed at the hospital after Chen was admitted. Uniformed and plainclothes police can be seen everywhere in and around the hospital.

A petitioner told The Epoch Times that when a human rights activist or a petitioner or a dissident leaves jail, his home becomes his prison; when he goes to the hospital, the hospital becomes his prison.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

With the exception of the U.S. Embassy, all of Mainland China is one big prison, the petitioner said, and the jailer is the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), which oversees the county’s domestic security apparatus.

Referring to the PLAC, Epoch Times’ columnist Zhang Tianliang said in an interview on May 4 that Chen Guangchen’s situation clearly shows there is a Party organ acting outside of the law with huge funds and manpower at its disposal.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

The Chinese characters say 'Renounce the Chinese Communist Party.' (The Epoch Times)

Editor’s note: The Epoch Times here publishes direct translations of statements made by Chinese people in renouncing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its subordinate organizations. Statements such as these are submitted to a website affiliate of the Chinese version of The Epoch Times, Dajiyuan. The movement to renounce, withdraw from, or quit the CCP, called “Tuidang” in Chinese, began in late 2004, soon after The Epoch Times published the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” an editorial series that explores the nature and history of the CCP. The statements offer a rare and candid glimpse of history in the making: the Chinese people turning their backs on the Communist Party, choosing conscience over pragmatism, and peacefully ushering in a future China, free of Party rule.

The following is a selection of edited “Tuidang” (Party-Quitting) statements made by Chinese nationals during December 2011.

I Quit from the Youth League and the Young Pioneers

I have long known that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses violence and lies. Three generations of my family have suffered greatly because of the CCP. I hereby solemnly declare that I quit the Youth League and the Young Pioneers. I hope more people can see the CCP’s real nature.

Huang Xiaolu, in the U.S.
Dec. 3, 2011

I Want to Quit the Chinese Youth League

The rotten CCP, the corrupted officials, and the darkness in society have made me feel that the CCP is doomed. I no longer want to live under the CCP’s reign and want to quit the Chinese Youth League.

Wang Yi from Anhui Province
Dec. 5, 2011

I Want to Quit the Evil CCP and Its Affiliates

I am a veteran. The CCP is very corrupt and speaks nothing but lies. The CCP never fought the Japanese [during the so-called Long March in 1933-34] but advertises that it did in all its propaganda. It cares nothing about the people’s welfare.

Zhao Zhandong from Beijing, China
Dec. 12, 2011

I Want To Quit the Chinese Communist Party

I am a legal service worker in China. Years of working and life experience have given me a clear understanding of the nature of the CCP. Now that I have discovered your wonderful window [The Chinese Epoch Times’ website], I solemnly declare that right now, I quit the CCP. I want to leave such an evil organization and become reborn.

Tan Lilin
Dec. 6, 2011

Quitting the Youth League and the Young Pioneers

I am an old man who has gone through many of the CCP’s movements. When I was hospitalized, I heard a Falun Gong practitioner talking about how the CCP persecutes practitioners. I also learned information about quitting the CCP and its affiliates. I believe in God and I know that the CCP’s atheism is an enormous sin. I now declare that I quit the Youth League and the Young Pioneers and choose a good future for myself.

Zhao Guo from Heilongjiang, China
Dec. 6, 2011

I withdraw from the CCP, the Youth League, and the Young Pioneers

I work at a television station in China. I have seen how the CCP has faked news in the past many years. Framing and viciously slandering Falun Gong was their ultimate evil deed. The CCP is bound to be punished by God. I solemnly declare that I quit the evil CCP, Youth League, and Young Pioneers, and all vows I swore when I joined these organizations are obsolete.

Mingliang from Heilongjiang, China

Statement

We like the idea of dissembling the CCP by doing the three withdrawals. We hope that China will have a peaceful transition to becoming a democratic and free society.

Xiaohong, Xiaofa, Youqian, and 15 more people from Harbin City
Dec. 7, 2011

Statement to Quit the CCP and its Affiliates

The Chinese nation has been through too many catastrophes, and we cannot afford to let the demonic CCP continue to torment us. We declare that we quit the CCP and its affiliates. We want to do something to help disintegrate the CCP.

Li Jinrong, Zhang Ruyi, Li Youping, and 11 others
Dec. 12, 2011

A picture dated March 28, 2005 shows blind activist Chen Guangcheng (R) with his wife and son Chen Kerui outside the home in Dondshigu village, northeast China's Shandong Province. According to the US State Department, Chen is free to travel to the US with his family. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

UPDATED 6:59pm UTC The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that Chen Guangcheng can apply for a passport like “any other Chinese citizen,” in response to a question by a journalist on May 4 about Chen wanting to study in the United States.

BREAKING: Chen’s Lawyer Jiang Tianyong Captured, Beaten, and Put Under House Arrest

The statement was re-announced soon afterwards on May 4 by the United States Department of State, who added that “Mr. Chen has been offered a fellowship from an American university, where he can be accompanied by his wife and two children.”

According to a statement by New York University on the afternoon of May 4, Chen has an invitation to be a visiting scholar at NYU in New York or elsewhere.

The State Department said that “the Chinese Government has indicated that it will accept Mr. Chen’s applications for appropriate travel documents.”

It added that it expects the Chinese side to expedite the application, so the U.S. can quickly dispense visas. “This matter has been handled in the spirit of a cooperative U.S.-China partnership,” the statement said.

It is unclear whether this constitutes an agreement between Chinese authorities and the U.S. to allow Chen to travel. The initial statement was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the agency that is responsible for entry, exit, and passports is the Public Security Bureau. The Public Security Bureau is controlled by the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), the extralegal agency responsible for the persecution and abuse of Chen over the last seven years. The PLAC is headed by Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang.

Public security organs wield broad and vaguely defined powers to reject passports and interfere with the travel arrangements of Chinese citizens. It is unclear whether the understanding between the State Department and Chinese authorities precludes such meddling in this case.

The summarized contents of a telephone call posted online yesterday by one of Chen’s close friends, Guo Yushan, said that Chen had received an invitation to study there. NYU confirmed that Chen had received an invitation in an emailed statement by spokesman John Beckman.

Jerome Cohen, a professor of Chinese law at NYU, has for many years been an advocate and friend of Chen’s, and played an important role in the recent negotiations surrounding Chen’s fate.

Beckman would not address in a brief telephone discussion whether NYU’s invitation was extended to Chen in the context of any agreement or understanding with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the U.S. State Department.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Blind activist-lawyer Chen Guangcheng. (Illustration by Vivan Song/Epoch Times)

Beijing-based scholar Guo Yushan published a statement today on Sina Weibo on behalf of Chen Guangcheng. The Epoch Times has confirmed this statement came from Guo. The following is Guo’s statement.

Today I finally got in touch with [Chen] Guangcheng on May 3 from 22:58 pm to 23:40pm, Beijing time, after many calls failed to go through and were followed by a busy tone.

In our conversation, he remained as rational and calm as always. His first concern was the safety of me, Pearl, and other people who helped him escape. This really moved me. I mainly told him about the dramatic change in media reports about him from yesterday to today.

He was very surprised to hear and felt sorry for the pressure his case brought upon the American Embassy. But because he was not able to talk to officials from the American Embassy today as they left after not being allowed to visit him personally until 5pm, he asked me to publish the following four points. These are not his original words but are summaries of what he told me.

Guo Yushan's statement today on behalf of Chen Guangcheng on Sina Weibo.

1. Guangcheng never told the media that his intention was to seek asylum. He said he wanted to be in the United States for a few times as he had received an invitation from New York University. As he is supposed to be a free person, he wants to take this opportunity to travel to the United States for a while and then come back to China.

It is not right to say that he changed his decision at any point. He is respectful of the collective effort and restraint between American and Chinese diplomats and understands that there is no issue too small for big countries and the seriousness of any agreements made.

2. He never criticized the American embassy for “forcing” or luring him to walk out of the embassy directly or indirectly. He walked out of his own free will and remains thankful for the help the embassy gave him in the past week. He is thankful to Secretary Hillary Clinton and Ambassador Locke as well as other diplomats’s help and never directly or indirectly blamed them.

3. There were unpleasant events the first day he arrived at the hospital that brought suffering to him and his family. He was worried and anxious because of these events, particularly after hearing the threats to his wife Yuan Weijing by local officials in Shandong Province. He hopes that with the world’s attention the Chinese government can take consideration of the law, and handle the illegal persecution Shandong Province officials have been forced on him and his family.

4. Guangcheng thanks the world’s media for all the attention and care, and hopes that the media can understand his complicated and intricate situation, as well as how he expressed himself and his emotions. He does not want to see friends who have helped him misunderstand or be put in a difficult situation.

For example regarding the help he received from the American embassy, Guangcheng never blamed anyone. Quite the opposite, he was always thankful.

Thank you everyone.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Cao Yaxue, an author and human rights advocate, addresses the emergency congressional hearing on Chen Guangcheng. Sophie Richardson (L) of Human Rights Watch and T. Kumar (center) of Amnesty International look on. (CECC)

WASHINGTON—Stalwart supporters of Chinese human rights in the U.S. Congress offered qualified criticism of the administration’s handling of Chen Guangcheng and expressed hopes for a positive resolution to the case in an emergency hearing on May 3.

On the other side of the Pacific top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had on the same day opened discussions in the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a high-level forum between the country’s leaders that managed to go on despite the Chen news.

The blind self-taught lawyer Chen escaped extralegal house arrest on April 22 and entered U.S. custody on April 27. He is now in a Beijing hospital recuperating while the Chinese regime and U.S. officials try to broker a new deal, after a previous, tenuous compromise broke apart once Chen left U.S. custody.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

“The eyes of the world are watching to see his wishes are honored by the Chinese government,” said Chris Smith at the hearing, which was held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

Smith said he was “gravely concerned” about Chen’s status and those of his supporters, noting that He Peirong, the activist who reportedly picked Chen up after his escape, remains incommunicado. She is thought to have been detained by communist security forces.

Frank Wolf, another prominent congressional advocate of human rights in China, said that the Obama administration was “naive in accepting assurances from a government that has a well known and documented history of repressing its people.”

Chen’s case is “symptomatic of the human rights abuses committed by the Chinese government against its own people,” Wolf said.

Administration officials have emphasized that Chen willingly left their care after receiving promises of safety and the opportunity of higher education by Chinese officials. In later interviews with media, however, Chen said that this deal was brokered with the threat that, had Chen not left the Embassy right then on May 2, his wife and children would be sent back to Dongshigu village, the site of the abuse Chen had just escaped.

After his escape, Chen said, he received word that local guards stepped up their efforts against his family, setting up an electric fence around the residence, installing seven video cameras inside, and sleeping and eating in the house. Chen was targeted after he exposed the violence associated with implementing the one-child policy in Shandong, including forced abortions and sterilizations.

The congressional hearing was held in the midst of the uncertainty surrounding Chen’s future, and participants pushed the U.S. to do more.

“The Obama administration has a high moral obligation to protect Chen and its family. To do anything less would be scandalous,” Rep. Wolf said.

Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch, wondered why top U.S. officials, including Secretary Clinton, Secretary Geithner, and Ambassador Locke, could not simply get in a car, drive to the hospital, and “insist on access to him.”

Secretary Clinton should make a public statement about her wishes for Chen’s case, T. Kumar of Amnesty International said. “Let the U.S. stand up, and let Secretary Clinton while she is in China stand up.”

Chinese activist activist Chen Guangcheng is pushed in a wheelchair by a nurse at the Chaoyang hospital in Beijing on May 2, 2012. He agreed to leave U.S. care after receiving promises of safety by the Chinese regime. (Jordan Pouille/AFP/GettyImages)

UPDATE (4:30pm UTC): Chinese Regime’s apparent promise of safety in question

The Associated Press has reported that Chen Guangcheng left the U.S. Embassy after being threatened by Chinese officials. According to AP, in one version of events Chen said a U.S. official told him that Chinese authorities would arrange having his wife beaten to death if he did not leave the U.S. Embassy. In another version of events, a U.S. official told Chen that the Chinese authorities would send his family back to Shandong if he did not leave the Embassy. AP spoke to Chen from his hospital room, where he had been taken after leaving the embassy on Wednesday. Similar statements appeared on the Twitter feed of Zeng Jinyan, the wife of activist Hu Jia and a close friend to Chen. She said Chen only left U.S. protection because of the threats to his family. According to AP, after he arrived at his room at the Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing with his family, no American officials stayed behind. According to AP, Chen said his family is now afraid and wants to leave China.

Chen Guangcheng, the human rights lawyer who made a dramatic escape from house arrest last week and spent six days in U.S. care in Beijing, has now been given assurances of safety and will remain in China.

Chen left the embassy on the afternoon of May 2, according to American officials who briefed foreign journalists in Beijing.

Secretary of State Clinton said in a statement that she was “pleased that we were able to facilitate Chen Guangcheng’s stay and departure from the U.S. embassy in a way that reflected his choices and our values.” She added: “I was glad to have the chance to speak with him today and to congratulate him on being reunited with his wife and children.”

Chen was promised a safe living environment and the ability to pursue higher education, Clinton said, as conditions of his release. “Making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task,” she said.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Chinese authorities also said they would not punish his family and those that helped him escape, according to the Los Angeles Times, who quoted an anonymous U.S. official. The Los Angeles Times also said that “Chinese officials agreed to investigate Chen’s extralegal detention in his village of Dongshigu,” but no source was provided, and no official Chinese statements make this reference.

No agency in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has made an official announcement about what promises were made to Chen, but a Foreign Ministry spokesperson expressed anger at the U.S. for shielding him. The statement said that the regime was “extremely unhappy,” and demanded that the U.S. “apologize for this, thoroughly investigate the matter, punish the responsible people, and guarantee that this will not happen again.”

It is unclear, however, what law America violated. Professor Don C. Clarke, a professor of law specializing in China at George Washington University, wrote on his blog: “Chen is not a wanted man; he has neither broken nor been accused of breaking any Chinese laws; it is perfectly legal for a law-abiding Chinese citizen to walk into a US embassy if the embassy is willing to let him in; it is perfectly legal (as far as I know) for that law-abiding citizen to stay in the embassy as long as both he and the embassy are happy with the arrangement.”

Reports indicated that the U.S. intended to follow-up on Chen’s safety, though it was unclear what the U.S. could do if Chen was subject to further persecution. In the Chinese official world, the persecution of Chen Guangcheng did not happen; it took place outside the law and judicial institutions, and was carried out by plainclothes guards.

Chen had been held under strict guard in his farmhouse in rural Shandong Province for 19 months, from late 2010 until April 22 this year, when he is understood to have made an extraordinary escape, possibly aided by a guard, and aided by supporters from around China. The surveillance, which, according to Chen, was coupled with occasional savage violence against Chen and his family, was conducted outside the purview of the law.

The body responsible for the persecution of Chen is the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), a Communist Party organ that controls the courts, police, armed police, and all domestic security forces. Its powers are not circumscribed by legislation, and it is not subject to any form of oversight.

Chen had been detained in his house after serving a four year prison sentence after exposing violence associated with the implementation of the Communist Party’s “one child policy,” which included forced sterilizations and forced abortions, often paired with violence.

In the context of his release, no mention has been made of what will happen if Chen continues to advocate for women who have their children forcibly aborted, or are forcibly sterilized—both practices that still take place across China under the oversight of family planning officials and security forces.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

He Peirong, the activist who picked up Chen Guangcheng in her car. (Courtesy of He Peirong)

After the successful flight of Chinese rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng, Chinese authorities have begun aggressively arresting the relatives and activists who helped him make good his escape.

On April 27, human rights activist Hu Jia told foreign media that he saw Chen Guangcheng in Beijing; his wife posted photos of the meeting on Twitter.

Chen is now understood to be in the custody of U.S. officials. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell arrived in Beijing on Sunday, apparently to begin discussions with Communist Party counterparts.

After Chen escaped from his house arrest, a large police presence appeared in Chen’s hometown of Donggushi Village in Shandong Province, according to Twitter postings by China Human Rights Defenders, a nonprofit organization that researches and advocates for human rights in China.

Many of Chen’s relatives were taken away by police, including Chen’s older brother, cousin, and cousin’s sons. Chen’s nephew Chen Kegui is now on the run, after defending himself with kitchen knives against the intrusion of unidentified people to his home on the night of April 26.

“What I fear most now is that Chen Guangcheng’s relatives might be tortured and lose their lives,” Teng Biao, a well-known human rights lawyer, wrote on Twitter.

Chen’s non family supporters have already come under hard pressure.

On the afternoon of April 28, Hu Jia was taken away by Beijing police and interrogated for more than 11 hours, according to Twitter postings by Teng Biao and Hu’s wife Zeng Jinyan.

Domestic security forces, part of whose job it is to monitor and punish dissidents, borrowed the police station to interrogate him, Teng Biao said.

Hu Jia was freed from prison mid-2011 following a three-and-a-half-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state sovereignty.” He is still under one year of “deprivation of political rights,” banning him from speaking to the media or engaging in political activities. Hu Jia’s wife wrote online that she has almost become accustomed to the interrogations by domestic security police.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

He Peirong, an activist who helped Chen Guangcheng escape, was arrested at her home in Nanjing, according to Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, in a telephone interview. He had picked Chen Guangcheng up in her car after he escaped and drove him to Beijing, according to accounts online.

Lawyer Guo Yushan, who was involved in Chen’s escape, was also interrogated by police, according to Radio France Internationale.

A picture dated March 28, 2005 shows blind activist Chen Guangcheng (R) with his wife and son Chen Kerui outside the home in Dondshigu village, northeast China's Shandong Province. According to the human right non profit ChinaAid, Chen is under US protection in China. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Chen Guangcheng, the human rights lawyer whose recent dramatic escape has drawn international attention to the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses, is now in the custody of U.S. officials, according to a human rights group.

ChinaAid, a Christian human rights organization, reported early on the morning of April 28 that Chen was safe, in U.S. hands, and that high-level talks were taking place between Chinese and American officials on Chen’s fate. 

Bob Fu, the president of the group, delivered a message to the U.S. in the notice.

“Because of Chen’s wide popularity, the Obama Administration must stand firmly with him or risk losing credibility as a defender of freedom and the rule of law. If there is a reason why Chinese dissidents revere the US, it is for a moment like this,” he said, according to the press release.

“This is a pivotal moment for US human rights diplomacy.”

Read analyst Zhang Tianliang’s take on the implications of Chen’s escape for the current crisis in the Chinese regime.

Prior to finding safety in US hands, Chen Guangcheng issued a video message directed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, asking him to protect Chen’s family, fight corruption, and to punish those who had attacked them.

Chen Guangcheng’s message to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao

Chen Guangcheng.

The Chinese Internet was alive with rumors that the lawyer Chen Guangcheng, following his daring escape from Shandong, escaped China and arrived in Washington, D.C.

It did not happen, however, as half a dozen media outlets that waited at the airport discovered.

Chen scaled the back fence of his heavily guarded house on April 22, and by Friday afternoon was reportedly in the U.S. Embassy, according to his close friend and activist Hu Jia.

According to the rumors, which appeared late Friday evening Beijing time, Chen was due to arrive in Washington at 7:01 pm on April 27.

He did not arrive.

Nevertheless, searches for UA898 and other UA flight numbers were blocked on Sina Weibo on Saturday. It is unclear if such searches were always blocked. The initials in English for Chen’s name, “CGC,” have also been blocked on Weibo. The term “blind man” is also blocked.

While blocking search terms related to the activist, Chinese authorities have also begun arresting his family members, according to the latest reports.

Chen gained international fame for opposing forced abortions and sterilizations connected with the one-child policy in Shandong Province. He was sentenced to four years in prison on trumped-up charges and then he and his family were placed under a very restrictive house arrest. They reported suffering severe beatings at the hands of security personnel, among other abuses.

With research by Ariel Tian.

Chen Guangcheng. (The Epoch Times)

A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who has been under extralegal house arrest since 2010 has fled his captors and is now in Beijing. He later uploaded to the Internet a plea to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, to take action to secure justice.

Chen Guangcheng escaped by scaling a wall near his house before being met by another activist, who drove him for several hours.

The escape took place on Sunday night, but was not reported until Friday, by which time Chen had reached a “100 percent… safe location,” according to Bob Fu, the head of the China Aid Association based in Texas, in an interview with Associated Press.

Rumors circulated online that Chen had entered the U.S. embassy in Beijing. The embassy does not comment on asylum cases, but the New York Times cited second and third hand sources in the state security apparatus who believed him to be in the embassy.

Chen’s video to Wen Jiabao asks the premier to investigate the actions taken by local enforcers against Chen and his family, and see those responsible punished according to law, secure that Chen and his family are given safety, and investigate the cost and scale of the illegal abuses that were perpetrated. 

“Including party leaders, police and other civilians, around 90 to 100 people have been involved in the persecution of my family,” Chen said, according to AP’s translation. “I hereby request to you, Premier Wen, to start an investigation into this case.”

Chen was put under house arrest at his home in Dongshigu village, Linyi Prefecture, Shandong Province, soon after he served a four year sentence. At a trial that is widely seen to have been a kangaroo court, he was jailed in August 2006 for “damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic.” 

Chen had in 2005 exposed the violence of local family planning officials in Shandong, who had forced thousands of women to undergo sterilization procedures, or forcibly aborted their infants. The sentence was seen as revenge for these efforts.

After Chen’s escape, local officials immediately sought reprisal against his family members, some of whom lived nearby. Individuals thought to be acting under the direction of local authorities broke into the house of Chen Guangcheng’s nephew, Chen Kegui. 

He responded by grabbing two kitchen knives and slashing at his attackers, according to a dramatic transcript of a phone call with Chen, produced by U.S.-based writer Cao Yaxue.

Amidst tears, he attempted to explain his actions in the phone call, according to the transcript. Soon after the episode he ran away from his home for fear of being captured and “beaten senseless to death.” He said he was acting in self defense, and surrendered himself to the police. 

“In China, law is trampled over at will,” Chen Kegui said, in the transcript of the call. “I love my motherland, but this is what she gives me! [sobbing]”

MP Brent Rathgeber said Canada should not lose sight of human rights in its trade relations with China during a forum held just off Parliament Hill on Wednesday. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

PARLIAMENT HILL—A handful of MPs gathered near Parliament Hill on Wednesday to discuss the plight of Falun Gong on the 13th anniversary of the largest peaceful protest in China since the Tiananmen Square massacre.

On April 25th, 1999, some 10,000-20,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside the Central Appeals Office beside the leadership compound in Beijing. Unlike the students, the protesters were greeted amicably by then Premier Zhu Ronji who promised to release adherents that had been arrested in Tianjin city.

Former leader Jiang Zemin, however, was outraged by the protest and quickly instituted a crackdown on the group, leading to the widespread torture, arbitrary arrest, and killing of adherents which has continued to this day.

Shawn Li, the president of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, said many groups are persecuted in China, including Tibetan Buddhists and Uyghur Muslims, but none as harshly as Falun Gong adherents.

“Falun Gong is the largest group being persecuted and the most severely,” he said.

MP Brent Rathgeber described the current abuses, which include evidence of forced organ harvesting, as “disturbing.”

Propaganda controlled by Li Changchun, the fifth-highest member of the Chinese Communist Party, continues to vilify Falun Gong and justify their murder. Li visited Canada last week with no advance notice and his itinerary kept secret.

Grace Wollensak, a representative from the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, said Li had to sneak into Canada to avoid being served with lawsuits for the torture, murder, and demonization of Falun Gong adherents in China.

“He is afraid, and so he should be,” said Wollensak, noting Li has already been served in France and Ireland.

Such lawsuits led to the downfall of former minister of commerce Bo Xilai, according to diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks. Bo was recently purged from the Party, with his benefactor Zhou Yongkang expected to fall soon. Zhou controls the regime’s internal security apparatus.

With the Party facing a stability crisis due to the ongoing infighting, some commentators, including former MP David Kilgour who was present at the event, have said Canada should step up pressure for democratic reform in China.

Rathgeber, who heads the Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong, said Canada should encourage the end of the persecution of Falun Gong.

The plight of Falun Gong should not be lost in trade negotiations, he added.

Senator Consiglio Di Ninio and MP Stephen Woodworth also attended the forum.

The Chinese characters say 'Renounce the Chinese Communist Party.' (The Epoch Times)

Editor’s note: The Epoch Times here publishes direct translations of statements made by Chinese people in ‘renouncing’ the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its subordinate organizations. Statements such as these are submitted to a website affiliate of the Chinese version of The Epoch Times, Dajiyuan. The movement to renounce, withdraw from, or quit the CCP, called ‘Tuidang’ in Chinese, began in late 2004, soon after The Epoch Times published the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, an editorial series that explores the nature and history of the CCP. The statements offer a rare and candid glimpse of history in the making: the Chinese people turning their backs on the Communist Party, choosing conscience over pragmatism, and peacefully ushering in a future China free of Party rule.

The following is a selection of edited “Tuidang” (Party-Quitting) statements made by Chinese nationals during October and November 2011.

When I was in school, I was intimidated and enticed into joining the Communist Young Pioneer and Communist Youth League. I now solemnly declare my withdrawal from the evil Chinese Communist Party. Looking at the outside world, they all take democracy and a free system as a model; only the Chinese nation is still suffering under Maxism-Leninism. I hope freedom, democracy, human rights, and rule of law will lead our nation as soon as possible.
Mi Jie

The Party is using our money to build up its regime and propaganda apparatus in order to deceive us, use us, drain our blood, and even persecute us. Now we see through the gangster nature of the Chinese Communist Party. We firmly declare to quit the evil organization and become clean people.
Ping An, Da Bing, Ma Mingbai and 60 other people

The Nine Commentaries lets us see the Chinese Communist Party’s rogue nature. We are clear about the truth of history. I hope you make further efforts in developing software to break the Internet blockade.
Wen Qing, Wenzhong, China

I work in a government organization and had no intention of joining the Communist Party. However I was forced by the leader to join and had no way to avoid it. In my heart I know the evil Party is vicious, and I feel ashamed to be a part of it. I hereby declare all my written applications as invalid. Any comments I made when joining the Party were against my heart. I wholeheartedly quit this evil Party. I hope that Buddha protects me.

Enough lies! Enough slavery! The Communist Party gang has destroyed our Chinese culture, murdered our elite, and is perverse. Wake up, our great Chinese nation!

In a country without democracy and freedom of the press, many things are covered up. After witnessing many things, I gradually have come to understand that the Chinese Communist Party benefits only a small group, and it harms people. I have decided to withdraw from the Party and its affiliated organizations. I want to wipe away the mark of the beast and choose a beautiful future.
Luo Jun, Mainland China

I cannot take it anymore. I want to get away from the Communist Party rule, to get out of this country run by the Chinese Communist thugs. I am a college student, and I have quite a few classmates who want to join the Party. They probably also know its wickedness, yet for their careers or other benefits, they want to join. I don’t want to be any part of that, any part of becoming a criminal. I therefore declare that I quit from the Chinese Communist Party and any affiliated organizations, and won’t have anything to do with them from now on.
Ye Yuming

I am now withdrawing from the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers. In today’s China, corruption, grabbing money, and other material gains have become the only glue that holds the Communist Party together. Corrupt officials know that if the Party is gone, their opportunity for corruption and taking bribes is also gone. When the Communist Party collapses, they will fall from power and have to face justice. 

They are caught up in a double bind, believing that the Chinese Communist Party will die if corruption is ended, and the country will perish if corruption is not ended. But the Party cannot represent the country. To love the CCP is not equivalent to loving our country. 

After the Communists came to power, over 80 million Chinese people died unnatural deaths during the various movements launched by the Communist Party. But history has proven that evil cannot triumph. The Chinese Communist Party’s demise is near. We sincerely look forward to a new China without the Communist Party.
A total of 11 people, including Huimin, Meifeng, Feilong 

No dignity, no fundamental rights, living like cattle, this is not a life for Chinese people. We want to expel the foreign doctrines of Marxism and Leninism and restore China’s traditions. I hereby declare that I quit from the Chinese Communist Party.
Ai Lishui, Zhejiang Province

The Chinese Communist Party is corrupt to the extreme. They persecute good people while turning a blind eye on criminals. There is no way to reason with them. Heaven and people are outraged. We quit the Communist Party in exchange for safety and to enter China’s bright future.
Liao Sheng, Liu Xinsheng, Lin Huamei, and eight others

Under the Chinese Communist Party’s one-party rule, traditional values have been destroyed. Lies and sham merchandise are everywhere. It cannot go on like this. We hereby declare our voluntary withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Party, the Communist Youth League, and the Young Pioneers. We want to erase the mark of the beast, join the side of righteousness, and embrace a beautiful tomorrow.
Wang Baoan and Sun Baoling from Liaoning Province

chinareports@epochtimes.com

Bo Xilai was considered a rising star and possible future leader of the Chinese Communist Party before he was recently purged by his cronies. But when considering Bo's case, there's an elephant in the room: his being sued for torture and crimes against humanity in 13 countries. (Jeff Nenarella/The Epoch Times)

On the afternoon of March 15, the day Xinhua reported the ousting of Bo Xilai, a Beijing police officer contacted The Epoch Times’ Chinese edition to quit from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), saying if Bo Xilai went down this easily, he feared that the worst was coming, and no police officer in China would be safe. 

The officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said he has worked for the Beijing police department since he graduated from college. He started out as a district policeman and was later promoted to the bureau office. He said the Internet in their office is not censored, and after watching Wang Lijun—Chongqing’s former police chief—being demoted and later fleeing to the U.S. consulate, he became very worried, but he was still waiting for [better] news from the two parliamentary meetings. Now, with Bo Xilai also removed, his hopes are dashed. 

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

The following is the police officer’s statement:

I was shocked and worried hearing about the troubles Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai had gotten into. For the past few years, the Chongqing police was so hot, Wang Lijun was so hot, but he fell just like that. My first reaction was that the police personnel under him are in trouble. As I expected, later news said that Wang Lijun’s close aids were removed by Bo Xilai. Some were even killed. I thought about myself; if something happens in Beijing, what will happen to me?

When Bo Xilai was taken down, I felt that the end was coming. Bo Xilai is a princeling, pretty powerful. It’s really like a movie. He just went down like that. 

How about Zhou Yongkang, is he going down too? All Beijing police know that Zhou Yongkang is very close to Bo Xilai; we take it very seriously when people come from Chongqing. Now that the central authorities are investigating Chongqing, how can it not affect Zhou Yongkang? He even supported Bo Xilai during the two meetings. I think Zhou Yongkang is shaky.

Zhou is secretary of the Political Legislative Affairs Committee. The entire country’s police are under his command. A lot of injustice has been committed all around the country. Zhou supported Bo Xilai’s fighting the black campaign in Chongqing. If that campaign was found to be an abuse of power, Zhou Yongkang must take the responsibility. And if Zhou Yongkang goes down, then crimes like those committed in Chongqing will all be exposed. 

It’s rumored on the Internet that if the organ harvesting gets exposed, the entire CCP will go down. Beijing can still deal with things that happened in Chongqing, but what if something happens in Beijing, in Zhongnanhai? Then it’s over! Anything happening there will be life threatening.

I know that among the entire judiciary, the police are the darkest. Which case is investigated? Very few cases are clean! Fake evidence, fake confessions, the use of torture to extract confessions, that’s all very normal. Before the legal process starts, police have already decided on the case. Some charges are given through orders from higher-up; some are made up after payment of bribes. [You] work for whoever pays, that’s now the hidden rule. In some cases, I have secretly told honest lawyers, “The case has already been decided, just give up.” The police do not care about the law, or right and wrong; they only listen to power and money.

The police system is violating the law while being fully aware of the law—that’s a death sentence. They have done too much evil these last few years. If the reckoning comes, the first to be taken out should be Zhou Yongkang.

People at our office were shocked by the darkness and cruelty of this sudden infighting between Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai. The methods they used were worse than the mafia’s.

I can see it clearly now: when things are good, it’s ok [to commit bad deeds], but when problems come up, everyone will push the responsibility [on someone else]. We police are the first ones on the chopping block because we carried out the orders. Then, who will speak out for you? Who will protect you? 

If my higher-ups start fighting like Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai, whom can I depend on? I heard that all the big officials have foreign passports, so they can escape! Where can we [small guys] run? When public anger and grievances are so strong, I don’t even dare to wear my police uniform when walking on the street with my kid. I keep telling my son, “Don’t tell people your dad is a policeman,” fearing he will get into trouble.

Now my concern is for my family’s safety and peace of mind. I have parents and children, and a wife. They depend on me. I want to stay alive for them. Who can I look to for safety? No one!

A Falun Gong friend has tried for many years to convince me to quit from the CCP. I am ready to listen now. My head is a lot more clear. They are saying it for my own good. No matter what, good will be rewarded, and evil will be punished. I want to quit from all CCP organizations and pray that Gods and Buddhas will protect my family. I will use a pen name to quit from the CCP on The Epoch Times’ website. I am sorry to use a pen name, but I am too scared to use my real name, I still lack some courage. I am not sure that quitting with a pen name will work for a person like me, who has done so many bad things. I will urge my wife and child to quit as well.

As of April 23, 114,966,475 Chinese have renounced their memberships in the CCP and its affiliated organizations. The “tuidang” or quitting movement was inspired by the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party, an editorial series by The Epoch Times.

Read the original Chinese article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

Petitioners Ms. Chen Bixiang (left) and Ms. Yu Hong (right) during their detention at a Beijing black jail in Jan. 2012. Ms. Chen, in her seventies, was beaten by guards. (Courtesy of a source in China).

China’s huge internal stability maintenance budget reflects the swelling army of Chinese citizens on a constant stream of pilgrimage to Beijing to seek justice from state authorities. They are China’s petitioners, and they have dark stories to tell about injustice suffered at the hands of local officials. Petitioning is their legal right, but instead of protecting them, the country’s domestic security apparatus has mistreated them with impunity. Now the pendulum may swing the other way.

Hu Jun, the director of Human Rights Campaign in China, has 17 years of experience with petitioning. He told New Epoch Weekly that interception of petitioners is normally conducted by the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC)--the Chinese communist regime’s powerful domestic security apparatus--with the help from local neighborhood committees and police departments. Some provinces’ liaison offices in Beijing hire security guards from private companies to intercept petitioners and send them to black jails, with domestic security police handling the more serious cases, he said.

Black Jails

The story of Ms. Yu Hong, a resident of Hunan Province, illustrates how the PLAC’s “stability maintenance” network deals with petitioners.

57-year-old Yu went to Beijing on Dec. 4, 2011, trying to lodge an investigation into the mysterious deaths of her first husband and son, Mr. Tang, Yu’s second husband, told The Epoch Times in a telephone interview.

Yu’s first husband and son used to work for a local water and power company operated by the county government. Both died at work under mysterious circumstances in 1999 and 2005, respectively. Local authorities forced Yu to sign documents, stating that they had committed suicide and closed both cases. Yu has never received any death benefits or compensation for their death. She has gone to Beijing to petition for more than a dozen times over the past years.

On Dec. 4, 2011, during her last effort to appeal, Yu was detained in a black jail operated by Chenzhou City’s liaison office in Beijing. Although it was winter in Beijing, the black jail was not heated and Yu almost became ill. After more than a month of detention, a human rights advocate from Liaoning, by the name Zhao Zhenjia, heard about Yu’s detention. Accompanied by many petitioners as well as journalists from two newspapers, Zhao was able to secure Yu’s release, and the release of two other petitioners, Chen Bixiang, a woman in her seventies, and Gong Jiangbao, a man in his eighties.

After a few days of rest, undaunted, the trio went out anew to appeal their cases at the State Bureau of Letters and Calls. This time, Beijing police sent them to Jiujingzhuang, a notorious black jail used to detain petitioners who visit Beijing. Later, they were taken to another black jail operated by the Chenzhou City’s liaison office in Beijing, where Ms. Chen and Mr. Gong were beaten by guards on Jan. 23, 2012.

According to Tang, the guards also tried to beat Yu, but she put a razor blade between her teeth, threatening to bite on it and presumably kill herself, so the guards left her alone, most likely fearing messy consequences.

Later, the three veteran petitioners were taken back to Chenzhou City, Hunan Province where Yu was detained in a local public security office for the next 10 days.

Police also detained Zhao Zhenjia, the human rights advocate who gained their release of the three elderly petitioners.

Maintaining ‘Stability’

Local government officials try their best to keep petitioners from going to Beijing and complaining about them. So for years, local officials have worked out a system of paying private security companies in Beijing for returning petitioners to their hometowns.

The reason for the establishment of black jails in Beijing, operated by liaison offices of different local governments, was basically for cost saving reasons. Rather than paying private security guards for returning one petitioner at a time, it is more economical to establish black jails in Beijing to temporarily detain petitioners and have them transported back home in groups.

During certain politically “sensitive” times the entire security apparatus is on high alert to hold back the flood of petitioners that is descending on Beijing, ruining the regime’s facade of a “harmonious” society.

While the two parliamentary meetings convened earlier this year, petitioners from all over China were monitored, detained, or imprisoned.

Wu Tianli, a petitioner who is a resident of Beijing’s Fengtai District, said she was monitored by police 24 hours a day on the eve of the two meetings. Her case has gone unresolved for 10 years, she said.

Domestic Security Budget

A source in Beijing with insider information told New Epoch Weekly that during the two meetings the PLAC gave funding to local governments to “maintain stability.” Some local governments just gave money to petitioners who promised not to go to Beijing during the two meetings. But most of the local governments usually make deals with petitioners; they share the money with petitioners and keep some of it for themselves. Some local governments won’t share the money, they just detained petitioners or forced them to go on a trip, the source said.

The PLAC is a huge apparatus, and just the control of petitioners alone requires a large resources.

Hu Jun, the director of Human Rights Campaign in China, said the State Bureau of Letters and Calls usually notifies a local government’s liaison office in Beijing to repatriate a petitioner to his or her native hometown. Afterwards, local authorities have to submit a report documenting how the case was handled, including problem solving, monitoring, and controlling of the petitioner. The report is then distributed to a huge network of different departments, including the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the PLAC, the Central Organization Department, Ministry of Public Security, and the State Bureau for Letters and Calls.

A secret investigation document compiled by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, leaked out during the two parliamentary meetings, shows that the number of petitioners nationwide has been soaring. The document, posted on the U.S.-based Chinese dissident website Boxun, said that between January and June 2011 the number of documented petitioners reached 70.78 million, with the total number for 2011 estimated at around 150 million; and of these, around 95 percent have legitimate or reasonable grounds for petitioning.

According to a document compiled by a Chinese lawyer, which illustrates the process flow chart for handling petitioners, the Chinese regime has allocated a huge amount of resources and established a refined and clear mechanism dedicated to handling petitioners, in particular ways of intercepting them in Beijing and sending them back to their hometowns.

The PLAC also oppresses human rights attorneys and dissidents, and has created a special extralegal agency known as the 610 Office for the persecution of Falun Gong. The PLAC’s annual stability maintenance budget is therefore ever increasing.

A budget report released during the two meetings indicated that the stability maintenance budget will surpass 700 billion yuan (USD$100 billion) this year, 10 percent more than last year, and exceeding military spending.

Security Chief Under Investigation

A June 2011 in-depth report, by Caijing.com, an intrepid investigative business magazine, said that the PLAC is supposedly China’s stability maintenance system, with control over Public Security, the courts, the Procuratorate, and the Letters and Calls Offices. However, this powerful and highly efficient machine runs against the rule of law, therefore the so-called stability maintenance system has created instability.

Hu Jun concurs with that opinion. He said that from the perspective of petitioners, the PLAC is an illegal organization, which was not established by the Chinese Constitution.

“The PLAC is a malignant tumor resulting from the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorial rule,” Hu said. “By oppressing the people it has become a powerful organ that is now threatening the highest leadership of the Communist Party, including Chairman Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.”

With this sudden new development, good news could be on the horizon for the tens of millions of petitioners and other victims of the PLAC’s arbitrary abuse of power.

Read the original Chinese article.

The cables were being constructed in their village of Shiqiaozhen, of Lianyungang city, in Jiangsu. The Whitestone Steel Factory made an initial attempt at cable construction on April 13, but was stopped. 

Shiqiaozhen authorities dispatched riot police who shut down the protest. Some villagers were injured, and four or five were arrested, according to telephone interviews with residents. The police allowed those detained to leave that evening. 

An individual answering the phone at the Shiqiaozhen police station said in response to queries about the protest that he could not answer any questions, as the leadership was not there. 

A well-informed source in the area said that villagers share a particular animus toward an official named Li Guochi. Li is the current Party branch secretary, and local peasants believe he has repeatedly abused his power for personal gain while introducing construction projects that pollute the area.

Fang Lizhi, pictured before his death on April 6. (The Epoch Times)

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan legislator Lin Shih-Chia, on April 13 expressed sorrow over the death of Fang Lizhi, the renowned physicist and human rights activist. Chia called Fang the spiritual leader of the Tiananmen Square student movement. 

Liu Te-Shun, deputy chair of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council also said “his passing is a loss for the human rights community.” Liao Fort Fu-Te, vice president of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, said, “Fang Lizhi was a scientist and a genuine practitioner for the development of human rights, worthy of respect.”

Lin said that the ideas of freedom and democracy Fang supported are an unstoppable world trend. Mainland China should work towards a free and democratic society and people in Taiwan should support such progress for China. 

Lin said she hoped to hold a formal hearing on the recent merger of the broadband company owned by the pro-China wealthy Taiwanese businessman Tsai Eng-Meng and the cable system operator CNS. She criticized the “inappropriate comment” Tsai made in an interview by the Washington Post. Tsai expressed doubt about the number of people who died in the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Lin said the National Communications Commission (NCC) should ask Tsai to come to the hearing and explain himself and resolve public concern.

Liao Fort Fu-Te said that the democracy movement in China is still in progress and Fang played a very important role in the struggle for democracy. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, the China-US relationship was strained. America chose to utilize special channels to protect Fang and offered him political asylum, because he symbolized democracy and human rights. Liao said he thought China should honestly examine the massacre.

Xu Sijian, assistant researcher at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica said the communist regime in China may think it does not need to face up to the massacre now that Fang is gone. That thought is wrong, he said, adding that history cannot be rewritten even after the people who were involved are no longer around. 

Fang Lizhi, the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Science and Technology in China, lived in exile in the United States after his involvement in the 1989 people’s democracy movement. In America, he served as the co-chair of the Chinese Human Rights Council. He passed away on April 6 in Arizona at the age of 76. Mainland China initially blocked the news of his death. Later, state-run media published editorials criticizing Fang.

Read the original Chinese article. 

chinareports@epochtimes.com

Falun Gong practitioners meditate as they enter the fourth day of a hunger strike in front of the Chinese Embassy, on Aug. 20, 2001, in Washington. The hunger strike was in support of 130 Falun Gong practitioners who were on hunger strike in Masanjia Labor Camp, protesting their unjust detention and brutal treatment inside the labor camp. (Stephen Jaffe/AFP/Getty Images)

A recent trial in Ha’erbin City in Heilongjiang Province may be a sign that things are changing in China, with law enforcement officials losing their appetite for continuing the more than 12-year-long persecution of Falun Gong.

The far northeastern province of Heilongjiang has long been the strictest enforcer of the persecution of Falun Gong, if mortality rates are any guide. According to incomplete statistics compiled by the Falun Gong website Minghui, as of 2009, 459 practitioners are confirmed to have died from torture or abuse in Heilongjiang, the most of any province in China.

The attorneys argued that the citizens of China have a constitutional right to religious freedom.

To put Heilongjiang’s record in perspective, only six of China’s 31 provinces have confirmed death tolls higher than 200. Minghui assumes the actual death toll is far higher than the number it has been able to confirm.

Heilongjiang has also not been a place friendly to rights defense lawyers. In January 2011, for instance, eight rights defense lawyers were beaten up by police at one time, causing one of the lawyers to miscarry.

Throughout China, not just in ultra repressive Heilongjiang, lawyers have usually been forbidden from representing Falun Gong practitioners. Those that have done so have often risked their careers and their freedom.

Yet, on March 27, five attorneys vigorously defended four Falun Gong practitioners in the Acheng District Court, with all four practitioners entering pleas of not guilty.

Four of the lawyers—Dong Qianyong, Xie Yanyi, Wang Quanzhang, and Zhang Chuanli—had traveled from Beijing, and Guo Lianhui is from Jiangxi Province in southeastern China.

The attorneys argued that the citizens of China have a constitutional right to religious freedom.

The attorneys also argued that if innocent people were to be convicted, the country would lose its dignity, the intelligence of prosecutors, judges, and Party officials would be insulted, and human conscience and courage would be mocked.

The attorneys said that they were touched by Falun Gong practitioners’ unyielding spirit.

“Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted for many years,” said one of the attorneys, “yet they have still persevered in their faith and made peaceful appeals [for ending the persecution].”

The police at the courthouse felt the need to justify themselves. They told the practitioners’s family members in private that they all know Falun Gong practitioners are good people, but said they were forced to participate in the persecution due to pressure from their superiors.

One of the lawyers, Dong Qianyong, said that things are improving. “Many people have been making efforts to change the situation, not only attorneys, but also police,” he said.

Dong also said that many judges and police officers know that Falun Gong practitioners are good people. He said the director of a detention center once told him in private, “We don’t call [Falun Gong practitioners] criminal suspects. We only call them case subjects.”

Dong said recently things have been really different compared to the way they were in the past when Falun Gong practitioners usually got heavy sentences. Now some Falun Gong practitioners are getting lighter sentences.

The Acheng District Court has not yet rendered its verdict.

Read the original Chinese article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

Click this tag or www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players? 

Villagers at their protest on April 9th in Heilongjiang Province. (Internet Post)

Around 1,400 farmers from Mudanjiang city in Heilongjiang Province took to the streets on April 9 to protest against village cadres selling the village’s commonly owned land, according to a dissident website.

Peasants held banners saying: “Protect people’s interests, punish corruption, and return the land to the people.” The parade stretched from the Hongyun Bridge to the Cultural Palace, causing traffic congestion at the crossroads, according to the message on the website of the Chinese Jasmine Revolution.

It was reported that Chinese communist authorities have mobilized a large number of police to blockade nearby streets, and the police have clashed with protesters. Many were injured and more than 20 were arrested, the notice said. 

Incidents like this take place across China regularly, as villagers risk their lives to protest against collusion between Communist Party officials and local business and industrial interests.

In the current case, it was reported that local village cadres illegally seized 750 acres of orchard land and built commercial structures on it. Villagers petitioned higher authorities a number of times but their case made no progress. They then decided to escalate the matter, mobilizing over a thousand people in a village of just over 5,000 inhabitants to march on the streets and obstruct traffic.

Read original chinese article. 
chinareports@epochtimes.com

Screenshot of Fang Lizhi from Chinese state television at the time an arrest warrant was issued against him on June 12, 1989. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

Fang Lizhi, a well-known Chinese democracy and human rights advocate, died on April 6 in the United States. He was 76 years old. Fang Lizhi is sometimes referred to as “China’s Sakharov” and the spiritual leader of the June 4 student democracy movement--his death once again calls to mind the unresolved political tension surrounding the Tiananmen Square massacre.

During the lead up to the June 4, 1989 incident, Fang Lizhi, a well-known physicist in China, supported the students’ appeal for democracy. The night after the massacre, on June 5, 1989, Fang and his wife, Li Shuxian sought refuge at the U.S. embassy in Beijing and were granted asylum. After remaining in the embassy for one year, Fang Lizhi moved to the United States with his wife and served as an astrophysics professor at the University of Arizona. While living in the United States, Fang Lizhi also served as the co-chair of Human Rights in China.

Wang Dan, student leader of the 1989 movement, told BBC News that Fang Lizhi was a pioneer of democracy and human rights in China, as well as the spiritual symbol of the student movement during the 1980s. When Mr. Fang served as the vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China in 1986, he openly promoted the 1986 student democracy protests. Wang Dan pointed out that Fang was not actually in Beijing when the 1989 student movement occurred. Mr. Fang was accused of being a “black hand” behind the June 4th incident by regime authorities.

How many were killed by the regime on June 4 is still unknown. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) declared in the People’s Daily that 298 residents died and 5,000 students were injured. Several years later, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reported that over 500 people were killed. However, according to a book by a former Red Cross president published in Hong Kong, the Red Cross received over 900 bodies and over 8,000 people injured. Zhang Jian, a pro-democracy activist residing in France, estimated that a 50 percent survival rate would be considered optimistic, because blood for transfusion had been exhausted due to the high number of injuries. Thus he feels a conservative estimate of the death toll would be over 4,000.

The June 4th incident has been deliberately played down by Chinese communist authorities for decades and is still politically taboo in China. However, recently the Bo Xilai scandal has brought to the fore infighting and ideological disagreements among CCP leaders. According to several reports, Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao urged a reevaluation of the June 4th incident in private Party meetings.

Read the original Chinese article.

File photo dated April 14, 1999 shows people gathering at the tomb of former pro-reform Communist Party boss Hu Yaobang in Gongqing, in China's Jiangsi Province. (AFP/Getty Images)

In a sign that Chinese Communist Party head Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are willing to inflame the Chinese people’s long-suppressed hopes for political reform, dozens of Chinese newspapers have recently run articles commemorating former Chinese leader Hu Yaobang, Wen’s mentor and the epitome of a reformist cadre. 

Hu Yaobang’s death on April 15, 1989, and the commemoration of it, was the main fuse for the massive outpouring of protests that were violently suppressed in Beijing on June 4 that year. His name has always been associated with the Tiananmen Square massacre, and thus has been mostly ignored or suppressed in official media. 

Hu and Wen’s priorities are to gain the confidence of the international community, and put pressure on the hard-line elements in the Chinese Communist Party.

－Wen Zhao, commentator

The occasion for the recent news is China’s Qingming festival, usually falling on April 4 or 5, a time when Chinese pay tribute to their deceased family members, including visiting and cleaning their graves. 

An article in China News Service, the Communist Party’s Chinese-language mouthpiece outside China, celebrated the man.

Titled “Hu Yaobang’s Tomb During Qingming Festival: He is long dead but masses remember him,” the article appeared in other official Chinese media outlets and was forwarded widely on major news portals.

Hu was responsible for politically rehabilitating hundreds of thousands of people who had been persecuted or given class labels by Mao, and he energetically sought political and economic reforms before being ousted for “laxness” in fighting against “bourgeois” elements in 1987.

Qingming, also known as the grave sweeping festival, has serious political connotations in China. The April 5 movement of 1976, where hundreds of thousands gathered in Tiananmen Square mourning Zhou Enlai and attacking the Gang of Four, and the June 4 democracy protests, were both connected with the traditional Chinese celebration. 

The article says that near to the 23rd anniversary of Hu’s death, over 80 CCP leaders and 200 provincial and ministerial-level cadres have paid respects at his tomb.

“This large-scale commemoration activity is a way for Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao to strike out at Bo Xilai’s Cultural Revolution-style politics,” said Zhang Tianliang, a commentator on Chinese politics, in an interview. Zhang said that Zhou Yongkang, the security czar and supporter of ousted Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, will also take notice. 

Seen through the prism of the current political struggle, Hu Yaobang is a paragon of the reformist camp. He was also a mentor to Wen Jiabao, who seeks to emulate the late leader. The high-profile coverage brings to greater prominence these reformist themes—but whether it will manifest in concrete actions, like freedom of the press, the ceasing of religious persecutions, and the dismantling of labor camps, has yet to be seen, Zhang said.

“Hu and Wen’s priorities are to gain the confidence of the international community, and put pressure on the hard-line elements in the Chinese Communist Party,” says Wen Zhao, a current affairs commentator for the New York-based NTD Television. “They want to make sure that hard-liners such as Bo and Zhou Yongkang don’t act rashly,” he said.

One widely forwarded microblog post referred to the news and remarked on how widely it had been posted on the Chinese Internet. “What wind is this now blowing?”

With reporting by Xue Fei and research by Ariel Tian.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

Click this tag or www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?    

Wei Jinsheng (Shar Adams/The Epoch Times)

WASHINGTON—In 1997, after suffering a total of 18 years of torture and detention for pursuing democracy in China, activist Wei Jingsheng was suddenly released and exiled to America; a result of negotiations by then-President Bill Clinton. Today he is the most recognized Chinese human rights and democracy activist, a winner of many human rights awards and chairman of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition. He now lives in Washington, D.C., and spoke with The Epoch Times about significant political upheavals presently occurring in China. 

The Epoch Times: Mr. Wei, How do you view the events going on in China now after former Chongqing chief of police, Wang Lijun’s attempted defection at the U.S. Consulate, the sacking of Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, and the marginalization of Zhou Yongkang, head of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC) and member of the Politburo Standing Committee?

Wei Jingsheng: Initially, the conflict within the Chinese Communist Party was just the normal daily stuff; they do this all the time, this infighting. The issue is with this person, Wang Lijun, running into the American Consulate. Now the whole issue has become publicized and even escalated, so now it affects the rule of the Communist Party.

Epoch Times: Was there a coup and a push to stop Xi Jinping from becoming the next leader?

Mr. Wei: Yes. It is also because of this that Zhou Yongkang’s relationship with Xi Jinping has deteriorated, which affects the whole picture of the Communist leadership.

Epoch Times: How do you understand the current position of the Zhou Yongkang faction?

Mr. Wei: Jiang Zemin’s faction has already started falling apart. There are some people with new thoughts and some people are still old-fashioned—they are even split within themselves. So now, even within their factions it becomes very tricky and different people move to different sides. This situation we call it “reshuffling of the cards.”

It is very complicated. Zhou has been in charge of this PLAC for a long time. Under this committee he is in charge of the police, the armed police, the court, and also the prosecutor. But now he is in trouble, or even before he is in trouble, some people are already not willing to listen to him. In particular, one of the branches of the strong military police has not listened to him and the head of that branch is a close associate to Xi Jinping, so of course he would not listen to Zhou. However the official commander of the military police belongs to Zhou Yongkang. So now with this complication, Hu Jintao is very nervous that there will be riots or a coup attempt out of this.

Epoch Times: Is this the end of Zhou Yongkang’s career?

Mr. Wei: Yes, it is coming to the end point, but he may make a last strike for his life. So Hu Jintao is really worried because if Zhou makes a last strike and there is indeed a coup, then it will be very hard to control.

Epoch Times: What kind of last strike could Zhou Yongkang attempt?

Mr. Wei: To the Chinese people, this is described as “using a corn stalk to beat up a wolf.” The wolf is scared and you are very scared too [laughing]. So it is very hard to predict what the final result will be. As a matter of fact, nobody is sure who controls which branch of the army and there is a rumor that Zhou Yongkang has already arrested the relatives of Premier Wen Jiabao. So now you don’t know what will come out of this mess. But from our perspective, regardless of who beats up who, when the Communist Party is in chaos it is likely for the better. 

Our strategy is let the Communist Party have its internal fights, then they are weakened and they will collapse themselves. Our goal is the dissolution of the Communist Party.

Click this tag or www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players? 

Epoch Times: Taken that it is difficult to get the facts about what is going on in China, how important is rumor as a source of information?

Mr. Wei: In a country where the correct information is blocked intentionally, then rumor becomes a more reliable source of information than no information at all. Just like the saying: “If I can’t have the best food, I will not eat anything at all.” Well then, this person might as well starve.

Epoch Times: What should the Chinese people seek after the CCP ends?

Mr. Wei: The goal for the Chinese people is very clear: we want a democratic system similar to Western countries. They may not have to be as specific as what democracy is or how it would be.  It is like they want apples; they want to eat apples. Apples look like the Westerner’s, but which variety and what color, that is not really as important. After you get apples, you get a clearer idea which kind of apple you prefer, but right now there are no apples for them to eat. 

Epoch Times: How do you think Chinese democracy will be different from in the West?

Mr. Wei:  I think a Chinese democracy will most likely be in the form of the United States and maybe even Britain, which is a democracy from the bottom up.

Epoch Times: Will people be searching for traditional Chinese culture and values?

Mr. Wei:  For sure they will be. For there will be elements of Chinese culture and Chinese tradition because with a bottom up democracy, for sure the Chinese people will bring their own elements of traditional culture into this system. So it is unavoidable.

Epoch Times: Will people in the Communist Party be held accountable? Is that going to be important?

Mr. Wei:  For sure. They will be held accountable, but what degree of accountability will depend on what China will look like down the road. … Under this circumstance many past crimes maybe would be forgiven for the sake of the stability of society. But if the Communist Party refuses to reform now, then we will have riots and those communist officials, who people have hated, probably will not have a very good outcome. 

Epoch Times: Can you see any potential future leaders of China?

Mr. Wei: This is difficult to say at this time. … All Chinese people demand democracy, so regardless of who that person is, they should be someone who will follow the people’s call, who will help establish a democratic system. So this is part of it for sure. 

A few days ago we had a big meeting together, a global conference of leaders of the democratic movement for China in Williamsburg, Virginia. One person said, ‘Oh Mr. Wei your character is too strong, you are not suitable to be the president of China in the future.’ Then another person said, ‘I am not worried. If [Wei] is not suitable, I will vote him down’ (laughter). 

Epoch Times: Are you looking forward to going back to China or are you comfortable here?

Mr. Wei:  For anybody who returns to their homeland, that will be the best time for him—staying in someone else’s home is never as comfortable.

The interview was conducted through a translator, Mr. Wei’s assistant Huang Ciping.

Gao Zhisheng. (The Epoch Times)

Gao Zhisheng, the famous Chinese human rights lawyer now jailed in the remote Western region of Xinjiang, was allowed an inaugural jail visit by his brother and his wife’s father, said his wife, Geng He.

The meeting between Gao Zhiyi, Gao Zhisheng’s brother, and Geng Yundi, Gao’s father-in-law, took place on March 24. Security agents escorted the two family members from Shaanxi Province to Xinjiang Province for the 30-minute meeting, which was conducted through telephone receptors and prison glass.

Geng He, who now lives in California, explained in a telephone interview late Tuesday evening the difficulties her brother-in-law had in meeting Gao Zhisheng. He arrived in Beijing on Feb. 24 and went to a series of government agencies, all of which sent him away. At one point he was detained by domestic security agents.

“My father spoke for 10 minutes, sitting on the stool,” Geng He said. “Gao asked about the health of everyone in the family. … My father said ‘Having seen you, I’m fine now.’ When Gao heard this, he cried.”

Gao is sometimes referred to as “China’s conscience.” He defended victims of injustice for years, before suffering the wrath of the Communist Party after writing letters to the leadership demanding an end to the persecution of Falun Gong.

He has been in the Shaya Prison in Xinjiang since December 2011, serving a three-year sentence that is widely seen to be arbitrary. One legal expert characterized it as a “rabbit out of the hat.”

The news confirms that Gao is alive and in stable health, which had been doubted after no news was heard for several months. Upon hearing the news, “We let out a sigh of relief,” Geng He said.

An enormous change is unfolding in China. Chinese Communist Party head Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao’s opponents in the escalating Beijing power struggle are responsible for the persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong. By ending the persecution and bringing to justice those criminals who carried it out, Hu and Wen can stabilize society, restore the people’s trust, and earn their gratitude. Please read:

Beijing Power Struggle Heralds End of Chinese Communist Party

With the firewall partially unblocked beginning March 20, Chinese netizens were able to google reports on the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square student massacre on Baidu during the next two days. Articles citing Premier Wen Jiabao’s recent speech about “redressing miscarriage of justice and lifting the ban on June 4,” and an assessment of the Cultural Revolution at a meeting among Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities were among the unblocked search results.

The mood among Chinese netizens was one of elation. But at the same time, Bao Tong, the highest-ranking Chinese official presently still under house arrest for his opposition to Deng Xiaoping’s bloody crackdown on the student protesters, remained under surveillance and gag orders.

Bao is a former director of the Office for Political Reform of the CCP Central Committee and the policy secretary for Zhao Ziyang, the General Secretary of the Communist Party at the time the 1989 student protests. Because of his sympathy for the student demonstrators Zhao was ousted and placed under house arrest until his death in 2005.

Click this tag or www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players? 

The Epoch Times attempted to obtain an interview with Bao, but was only able to speak with him briefly. Bao said he was not in a position to accept interviews as the people who monitored him had forbidden it. They told him if he accepted an interview his phone would never be reconnected again.

Bao’s phone was disconnected for half a year from July 2011 to January 2012, most likely for giving an interview on the 22nd anniversary of the June 4 Massacre, when he said people should be informed of the fact that the leaders fired at their citizens, and that the court should judge whether the leaders were guilty based on China laws, and if they violated the law, they should admit it.

In addition, Bao made a public statement on April 25, 2011, the 12-year anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong. Bao said the persecution of Falun Gong was a tragedy, similar to the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong and the Tiananmen Square Massacre launched by Deng Xiaoping.

Regarding the Chinese regime’s defamation of Falun Gong as an “evil cult,” Bao said: “That’s just inventing a bad name to hang the targeted victim by. One person, Jiang Zemin, gave the instruction, then the order. Finally, a law to attack the group was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. I think of the event as a very big, very big mistake.”

Bao added that the miscarriage of justice, a crime against humanity, should be recorded in history books.

Search terms for Falun Gong and The Epoch Times were also unblocked on March 20. The censorship lifting suggests a power shift at the top level of the Chinese regime, as someone with authority must have purposefully arranged the lift, possibly in preparation for the purging of additional high-level officials.

CCP in Crisis

In June 1989 the Chinese regime was at a crossroads. The choice was to reform or to maintain its totalitarian approach. Tanks and the ousting of the liberal Zhao Ziyang ended reform discussions.

In the wake of the June 4 Massacre, the Chinese regime adopted a policy to make all related information disappear from China. While NGOs made efforts to prevent the historical event from fading from memory, youths in their twenties have little knowledge of the actual events that happened 23 years ago in China.

The recent Internet easing of the June 4 search term was short-lived, however. On March 23 Premier Wen’s remarks about redressing the June 4 miscarriage of justice disappeared from Baidu.

Commenting about the recent political developments, Feng Congde, a former June 4 activist and student leader now living in the United States, told The Epoch Times that one should not put any hope in the CCP reforming itself.

On the surface the recent infighting in the CCP is a power struggle between two factions, with Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao–heirs of the legacy of Deng Xiaoping and representing the CCP’s right wing–on one side. On the other side is Bo Xilai, who represents the CCP’s new left and speculators. It can also be viewed as a clash between Hu and former CCP head Jiang Zemin for control over the CCP, Feng said.

“No matter what the outcome, it’s in fact the power struggle of the biggest gang in the history of mankind,” Feng said.

Brutal infighting in the CCP usually occurs during times when the Party goes through a crisis. Bo Xilai has come along with his new leftist campaign just at the time when the CCP under Deng’s legacy has come under crisis. But Bo is a false leftist, and he merely had aspirations to assume the highest position in the CCP, Feng said.

“The CCP’s economic policies have pressed people and society to be extremely unequal,” Feng said. “There is no social justice. The polarization of rich and poor and the collusion of the wealthy with criminal elements have become a new social problem. As a result, the so-called New Left has come about in China, which promotes social and wealth equality. It’s understandable that people of the lower classes have such sentiments of demanding equality.”

Feng said Bo is a speculator who has utilized this resentment by the people. But there is really no way to implement social equality outside of the CCP’s system, and the so-called “singing red songs” was just a way Bo utilized to make use of people’s grievances to engage in a power struggle.

“But if there is any sign of trouble, they will not hesitate to even defect to the imperialist U.S. What an irony,” Feng exclaimed, referring to Wang Lijun, Bo’s former chief of police and right-hand man, who attempted to defect to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6.

Feng said that without the framework of constitutional democracy, rule of law, and the return to traditional values and virtue, any kind of infighting between the CCP’s left and right wings is just the vicious power struggle of a totalitarian regime and has nothing to do with the establishment of a fair and equal society.

Feng said, being a June 4 student, he learned the lessons of dealing with the CCP and its black-box-politics. “The nature of the CCP won’t change. Therefore, do not hold any hope in the CCP,” he said emphatically.

“I thought that Wen Jiabao had made a positive effort during the June 4th movement,” Feng said. “He also accompanied Zhao to Tiananmen Square to visit the students. But some seemingly moderate communists might be even more brutal when it comes to repressing people. This is because the CCP system will turn any ordinary person into a wolf. The integrity of a CCP member can’t be trusted. Of course, there is also the possibility that some CCP members will abandon the CCP when revolution comes, just like at the collapse of the former Soviet Union. But this is the result of abandoning the communist system.”

Jin Zhong, Editor-in-Chief of Hong Kong’s Open Magazine, told New Tang Dynasty TV: “A lot of things Bo did has similarity with the CCP’s policies. They are actually of the same nature. Today, Bo has fallen from his position. It doesn’t mean that the CCP has become better.”

Chris Wu, Editor of China Affairs web magazine, told Sound of Hope Radio: “China is at crossroad. There must be a new force to replace the CCP, clear the CCP’s remnants from society and its influence on ideology and culture. Then can China have hope.”

chinareports@epochtimes.com

A screenshot of the first result listed on Baidu, China's main search portal, when searching for the terms "Wang Lijun live harvest." (The Epoch Times)

In the latest bout of oddness to come over the Chinese Internet’s notoriously strict censorship, searches for terms related to live organ harvesting have recently been unblocked on several major Internet portals.

The terms ‘live harvest,’ ‘bloody harvest’ and ‘Wang Lijun live harvest’ were all recently permitted searches on Sina Weibo.

Specifically, the terms “live harvest,” “bloody harvest” and “Wang Lijun live harvest” were all recently permitted searches on Sina Weibo, the most popular microblogging platform, and Baidu, the most popular search engine. Some of the terms were still searchable as of the evening of March 25 10 p.m. EDT.

These words are regularly associated with the removal of organs from living prisoners of conscience—most notably practitioners of Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a Chinese spiritual practice that has been persecuted in the mainland since 1999, under the orders of former regime leader Jiang Zemin. Since 1999 Chinese state media has often spread virulent propaganda on the topic, while all other nonofficially sanctioned perspectives have been strictly controlled.

Click this tag or www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players? 

The first noted occurrence of unblocking was the evening of March 23, Beijing local time, around the same time a series of other related terms were also able searchable.

As of evening March 25 10 p.m. EDT, it was possible to search “Wang Lijun live harvest” on Baidu and find as the first result an electronic bulletin board post detailing allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, and Wang Lijun’s involvement in organ harvesting. (Unusual for the website, which appears as an ordinary bulletin board post, it can neither be archived by webcitation.org nor stored in Google’s cache. Pictures of it are preserved in research notes used for this story.)

Evidence, previously reported by The Epoch Times, suggests that Wang Lijun, the former Chongqing police chief whose attempted defection to a U.S. Consulate in early February set off the current political storm, was involved in the practice.

The page now available on the Chinese Internet appears to be a near reproduction of content from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, a small research group, with English letters substituting some of the Chinese characters in the report.

According to Web Site Pulse, that website was accessible from Shanghai on the morning of March 26 local time.

The intensely peculiar nature of the scenario was not lost on Chinese netizens. 

On Tencent Weibo, user Zhang Gen from Anhui Province wrote: “Search for ‘Wang Lijun live harvest’ on Baidu, what you’ll see is shocking and astonishing. Weibo friends, quickly search it.”

Related searches saw the same oddness, with the title of the research group “World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong” able to be searched and Baidu fetching apparently positive results. Though by the morning of March 26 Beijing local time, searches on Baidu were blocked.

Other results on Baidu’s Tieba service, similar to Yahoo! Answers, mentioned the news, but they were later deleted. 

One result when searching the term on Baidu was a news article about how the U.S. Congress would be investigating the “Wang Lijun incident.” According to Web Site Pulse, tested on the evening of March 25 New York local time, that website was not blocked inside China.

It is unclear what is taking place with the blocking and unblocking. It is still not possible to simply search “Falun Gong” or “June 4” on Baidu and receive results that are not chock full of official propaganda. Such searches are also disallowed entirely on Sina Weibo. One rumor on Baidu said that 7,000 terms had recently been unblocked; no authoritative source was provided, and the claim was impossible to check. 

But the fact that something strange and unprecedented is going on is in the air. On March 23 The Epoch Times reported Chen Kuide, editor of the website China In Perspective, and the former head of the Princeton China Initiative, saying in an interview that searches related to Falun Gong may have been unblocked as part of the ongoing power struggle pitting the “Jiang faction,” which includes Bo Xilai, who lost his post amid recent political upheaval, and Zhou Yongkang, the head of almost all law enforcement entities in China, against the current leadership of Hu Jintao, Party chief, and Wen Jiabao, the premier. 

A user from Xiamen, Fujian Province, wrote of the recent unusual relaxed censorship: “There are going to be big changes in the future! Astonishingly, one can search ‘bloody harvest’ on Baidu. If that is true, it’s a crime against humanity. You know who the spear is pointed at.”

Details on original sources are stored here.

With research by Ariel Tian

According to a report by Oriental Daily, a netizen posted on the morning of March 5 that many villagers had blocked the road at Nantang Management District of Shahu town of Enping. A local official, according to locals, had pocketed 23.7 million dollars from a land acquisition fund without giving the villagers any of the money due them. 

Enping is in the Pearl River Delta region and is 200 miles from Hong Kong. It is known historically as one of the first embarkation points for the Chinese diaspora of the late 19th century.

The embezzlement not only caused the loss of over 160 acres of land but heavy environmental damage, according to villagers. The villagers had previously tried to report the situation to the township government, without receiving any response, so they were forced to block the road and protest, requesting that the local government investigate and discharge the official, they said.

Since the villagers didn’t back down, the local government sent over 200 police to forcefully disperse the crowd, resulting in a violent clash.

According to the posted message, more than 40 villagers were injured, eight among them seriously. More than ten were arrested.

An anonymous netizen responded to the original post with a stern and carefully thought-out message: “This is a warning to our fellow Chinese citizens! China is like a boat that went off-course from the normal course of human development under the Chinese Communists’ rule and we are all stuck in this boat. Many high officials and rich people have already made plans for escape, emigrating their families overseas. We, however, don’t have the ability to do this so our lives are in our own hands. Rising up to protest is our only hope and solution. Let’s work together.”

Read the original Chinese article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com 

Chinese Deputy Minister of Health, Huang Jiefu, pictured at a meeting in India in 2006. He recently announced, inside China, that most organs are taken from prisoners. (Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images)

A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Health admitted recently that the main source of organ transplants in China is executed prisoners. This fact had been said before by Chinese officials, several times—but this was the first admission inside China, and it caused an uproar online.

Huang Jiefu, the Deputy Minister of Health, on March 6 told a seminar of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee that “The organ shortage is the bottleneck in the development of organ transplantation in China. Due to lack of citizens who volunteer to donate organs, executed prisoners have become the main source of organ transplantation,” according to Legal Daily, a quasi-official newspaper. 

Chinese officials have previously both flatly denied and admitted this.

Contradictory Statements

Six years ago, on April 10, 2006, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Mao Qunan, said the opposite, in rather robust terms. “Some foreign media maliciously fabricate news about China executing prisoners and arbitrarily removing organs for transplantation,” he pronounced. “This is malicious slander of China’s judicial system, deceiving overseas public opinion with ulterior motives.” 

The month prior, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said the same thing.

And yet the admission that the majority of organs are taken from prisoners was first made by Huang in July 2005, during a conference on liver transplantation, according to a summary article in QQ.com, a major Chinese web portal.

Writing in The Lancet in November last year, Huang co-authored an article that said that “65% of transplantation operations done in China use organs from deceased donors, over 90% of whom were executed prisoners. The other 35% of transplantations use organs from live donors.” That last claim was sourced to an article in China Daily, which made no mention of the “live” 35 percent of donors, or who those people are supposed to be.

This first admission directly to a domestic audience, however, attracted widespread criticism, and came on the tail of a number of reports about the involvement of Wang Lijun, the Chongqing official recently labelled a traitor, in harvesting the organs of prisoners.

Domestic Anger

Han Bing, a visiting professor at the College of Lawyers of the Renmin University of China recipient of the the 2008-2010 National Outstanding Lawyer Award, wrote on his Sina Weibo account: “Now the Ministry of Health is going around the court and being the first to admit that death row is the main source of organ transplants. If you don’t have the authority to execute prisoners, who gave you the command [to make the public statement]? Who did you get the permission from to harvest organs if you do not personally execute [prisoners]? You recognize it bashfully, but without explaining how you cooperate with the executive organ, nor do you say how much you pay them, nor who you pay. If you don’t explain these things, you can’t claim to have come clean!”

Another netizen called on the Supreme Court to publish the organ transplant records over the last 10 years related to executed inmates. “The information should include type and quantity of organs, degree of consent from family members, profit from the transplant and how it was used, legal evidence, etc.”

Others demanded a “special investigation committee” to look into the matter. 

Liu Chufang, a former member of the Commission for Discipline Inspection in Tianjin, and former senior editor of the sometimes independent-minded publication “Southern Weekend,” said there were a number of peculiarities in Huang’s recent claim.  He enumerated his questions: “Did the family members agree? Do family members have the right to say no? Could there be live organ harvesting? Did they sell the organs for profit? Who pocketed the money? Because of the huge gap between supply and demand for organs, would more people be executed for their organs?”

Another netizen wrote: “I have heard allegations of live organ harvesting from certain groups of religious people. Cruelty beyond belief! Inhumane!”

A Question of Propaganda

David Matas, who has co-authored a report on what he believes to be the real source of the majority of organ transplants in China—that is, practitioners of Falun Gong—said that he puts as much stock in Huang’s recent statement as he did in previous declarations by Party officials. 

“There may have been some kind of struggle in the Party over what propaganda line or political line they should use,” Matas said in a telephone interview.

“We started our research in 2006 and at that time the government line was that organs came from donations, and Huang Jiefu was saying prisoners… it seems that the Huang line may have won the day. No one says it’s donations any more.”

But Matas doesn’t spend too much time pondering Huang’s remarks. “It’s very typical of propaganda in a repressive state. There’s an attempt to shift propaganda to what is publicly known at the time. Propaganda has a moving target, and the people who produce it try to give it some verisimilitude.”

The real source of all those donations has yet to be properly admitted to by the Chinese regime, Matas argued. “Now they say it’s all coming from prisoners sentenced to death and doesn’t come from Falun Gong, and Uyghurs, and Tibetans. That to me has the same credibility that it all came from donations.”

With research by Sophia Fang & Ariel Tian.

Human rights lawyers and activists and dissidents arrested by Chinese police. Top row from left: Jiang Tianyong, Teng Biao, Tang Jitian. Bottom row from left: Zhang Lin, Liu Shihui, Li Tiantian. (The Epoch Times photo archive)

Last year was the most repressive in over a decade for rights defenders in China, according to a recent report. 

“It has been a year of harsh crackdowns for human rights defenders, characterized by lengthy prison sentences, extensive use of extralegal detention, and enforced disappearance and torture,” the report by the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said.

Partly precipitating the intensive crackdowns by authorities was the Arab Spring movement across North Africa and the Middle East that took place throughout the year. But 2011 was part of a general decline in rights in China that has been taking place for over a decade, CHRD said. 

Chinese communist authorities also expanded their targets last year, focusing not only on committed activists, but ordinary Chinese citizens who happen to speak out in defense of rights. They were “menacingly convey[ing] a warning to the ordinary Chinese citizens: anyone who challenges the government will be punished,” CHRD said.

The “rights defense” (or “weiquan”) movement began around the year 2000, with lawyers, legal experts, activists, and intellectuals using the Chinese judicial system and other measures to protect individuals’ civil rights. 

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) security forces may have tried to send a strong signal to these people last year, the report indicates, perhaps as part of an attempt to stamp out the movement and staunch the flow of the ideals that animate it. 

And the methods for doing so are often illegal and extralegal, CHRD says. The extensive use of black jails—secret detention facilities that, officially, are not supposed to exist—was among the most “alarming” developments in 2011, the organization said.

A series of other tightening pressures were also applied, online and in society. The increasingly vocal chorus of web users is being forced to participate in “real name registration system,” which requires they associate their official national identification card with their online microblog accounts.

CHRD documented 3,833 instances of arbitrary detention associated with the crackdown on rights defenders last year; 159 incidences of torture were reported from those cases. Most of the time those people were held in extralegal detention centers, or ad-hoc residences commandeered by Chinese security forces, who often speak boastfully about their right to do whatever they like with the individuals they bring into custody—regardless of whatever laws should govern such interactions. 

When Teng Biao, a professor of law at China University of Politics and Law and some-time civil rights activist, was taken into custody in late 2010, he demanded to see some documentation about why he was being held. The officer shot back: “Don’t you know what place you are in? This is China!”

During that session, part interrogation, part violent beating, Teng was told that the plainclothes officers holding him could easily “beat him to death and dig a hole to bury him.” 

A variation on that phrase--“We can dig a pit and bury you alive”--told to dissident author Yu Jie, later became an Internet meme, and was made the title of present Chinese Human Rights Defenders 2011 annual report.

The cadres were to eat, sleep, and remain in the villages for the next eight months. The Hebei provincial government set aside 250 million yuan as part of the “Party official work budget” to pay the cadres’ room and board.

Villages were additionally promised 500 million yuan, paid for as part of the “project initiation budget.” The mission of the cadres in the villages is to “maintain social stability” and ensure there are no large scale uprisings before the 18th Party Congress in October. They will be expected to significantly decrease the number of appeals to the provincial government and to Beijing, and of course “help the villagers develop their economy.”

If there were any attempts to petition from a village, the corresponding group of Party officials would lose their chance to compete for the “advanced group” title. If there were uprisings or large scale appeals, “not only would the working group be responsible, but the original work units would have to explain themselves.”

Political commentator for the New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television Wen Zhao told The Epoch Times that it’s a matter of location and timing. Because Beijing is in Hebei Province, and the 18th Party Congress is scheduled to be in October, the highest priority for Party officials at that politically sensitive time will be to prevent any incidents.

“The purpose of officials residing in the villages from February to end of October is to ‘stabilize the base.’ Since the villagers are constantly being monitored, they are compensated by the special budget. The budget can be used to settle issues early,” he said.

Human rights activist Hu Jun told The Epoch Times that not only Hebei Province, but the entire country, including Xinjiang Province, is going through the “stability madness.” The administrative personnel cannot take care of regular tasks while everyone is trying to “maintain stability,” he said.

This stability exercises has generated a lot of commentary online. There were nearly 13,000 Weibo posts about the Beijing News article on Sina the day the Beijing News piece came out. A netizen from Shenzhen commented on what they thought was the bitter irony of the spending. “250 million yuan! How many school buses can be purchased for the kids in poor regions? Shameful!”

Read the original Chinese article.

Tibetan activists shout slogans during a protest outside the United Nations office in New Delhi on March 6. A teenager has become the third Tibetan to self-immolate in China in as many days, exile groups said. (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images)

Another Tibetan set himself on fire and burned to death on Monday evening, to protest against Chinese rule in Tibet, according to human rights groups.

The 18-year-old male, who was identified just as Dorjee, set himself on fire in Ngaba, Sichuan province, and walked toward a local government office, according to the International Campaign for Tibet.

“Dorjee shouted slogans against the Chinese government’s policies on Tibet,” the rights group said. “It is believed that he died at the scene, and that authorities took away his body.”

He was from the same group of villages as another Tibetan who self-immolated on Sunday and is the 26th one to have done so since February 2009.

“This third self-immolation in as many days underlines that Tibetans will not stop protesting until their calls for freedom are heeded. The international community must take immediate action,” Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said in a statement.

Following the incidents, Chinese authorities have placed more security forces in western Sichuan as well as in the Tibet Autonomous Region ahead of the March 10 anniversary when the Dalai Lama fled the country in 1959.

A middle school-aged girl named Tsering Kyi also set herself on fire in western Gansu province. A local told Radio Free Asia that the Machu Tibetan Nationality Middle School near where she burned herself has been surrounded by Chinese paramilitary forces.

“Officials are conducting ‘reeducation’ activities inside the school. Tibetan family houses in the Machu area are also being searched,” the source said.