NEW YORK - Are repeated recorded phone messages filled with lies and hate speech a terrorist tactic?
Tuesday at the New York Press Club, Falun Gong practitioners made the case that the wave of hundreds of calls are a tactic of what they called “the biggest terrorist group in the world”- the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Beginning Feb. 6, repeated calls were made to hundreds of people in more than 20 countries in well-coordinated fashion. Friends who were together heard their mobile phones ring simultaneously and, when they picked up, they heard identical pre-recorded messages in Chinese or English.
Speakers described unlisted numbers in the U.S. being bombarded with calls, a feeling of invasion of privacy, disruption of business activities, and fear for the safety of relatives who received calls in China. No group besides the CCP has the ability or the motive to track down and call so many people so systematically on such a topic, they said.
The pre-recorded messages were all against the practice of Falun Gong.
“My husband and daughter received calls, which disturbed us greatly,” said Lili Ma, a New York businesswoman forced to move from China after Falun Gong began to be persecuted in 1999. Her friends in China were invited in to have a “conversation” with Chinese national security during the time that the calls were being made.
Spokespersons later confirmed that a similar wave of calls began again on Wednesday, Feb. 23, in at least Canada, France, Germany, and the U.S.
Associated Press Article Used as ‘Evidence’
“A recent Associated Press article is being used by Chinese authorities to legitimize a five-year brutal campaign,” said Gail Rachlin of the Falun Dafa Infocenter (FDI).
An AP article about a since-discredited 2001 “self-immolation” incident in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square “was cited as ‘evidence’ in the recorded messages that the horrific stories about Falun Gong fabricated by the Communist leadership are true,” said Rachlin. The article “follow[s] the CCP’s script so closely as to be almost indistinguishable.”
