This is a special edition of the newsletter to draw attention to the growing worldwide concern over China’s human rights abuses in the build-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. If China is allowed to host the next Olympics without first ending its morally corrupt human rights abuses, especially the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, it will be a sad indictment on the moral standards of the world as a whole.

Editor

London Press Conference: Statement Regarding Human Rights Torch Relay by Chair of Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China

Statement at Press Conference -- 3rd July 2007

We are here today to announce the start of a global Human Rights Torch Relay to protest against human rights abuses in China, in particular abuses against Falun Gong practitioners.

The torch will start on the 9th August in Athens and will then be carried through more than ten countries in Europe and then onto other countries around the world, in order to show the Chinese authorities the volume of support for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, and to demonstrate the strength of feeling amongst right-minded people that the 2008 Olympics cannot co-exist with a climate of intimidation and physical and mental abuse of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese government.

We hereby urge the Chinese authorities once again, to:

1. Stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately and release all practitioners incarcerated for their faith
2. Stop the persecution of friends and supporters and defense lawyers of Falun Gong practitioners (e.g. Gao Zhisheng, Li Hong)
3. Hold discussions with CIPFG to arrange details on the opening up of labor camps, prisons, hospitals and related secretive facilities for inspection by CIPFG independent investigators

We have informed the Chinese government that those three demands should be met by the 8th August, otherwise the human rights torch relay will go ahead. It is not unreasonable to hope that Falun Gong practitioners should be allowed to practise their beliefs freely, and we anticipate that other governments around the world will give their full support to the campaign.

Baroness Caroline Cox
Chair of CIPFG (Europe)
3rd July 2007

Martins Rubenis, the Bronze winner of Winter Olympics 2006 sent his speech to the Press Conference

It comes from my heart to say that we have reached one of the most important thresholds in human history, when each and every action taken and word said leaves a permanent message and carries heavy responsibilities to the wholeof humanity.

There were times when the decadence of moral norms of society led us to the processes of global purification such as wars, epidemics, natural catastrophes and other disasters, which should have served as aserious warning for the next generations to come.

In my belief the Olympic Games have always been a symbol of high moral standards founded on the natural striving for the harmony of physical strength and spiritual force of human beings. Historically the Olympic Games are also the indisputable symbol of peace, which has a power to
unite all the nations of the world.

Looking towards Beijing, I cannot find a single reason why the communist regime of China has a moral right to represent the highest principles of the Olympic movement.

The Chinese Communist Party, in the face of the whole world, has not fulfilled the promise to improve the human rights situation and moreover hastransformed it into the genocide of its own nation by building enormousfactories of violence and lies.

As an athlete I could not feel the deep fulfilment and satisfaction of a job well done while standing on the podium, built over the lives of thousands and thousands of people.

Let us not repeat the mistakes of the past and give the world another chance to rise by lighting this torch of true human nature not only here, but also in our hearts.

Martins Rubenis

Beijing 2008: Launch of a new campaign about Beijing Olympics and letter to IOC President Jacques Rogge on eve of IOC meeting

On the eve of the International Olympic Committee session that it is due to take place in Guatemala City from 4 to 7 July, the press freedom organisation has written to IOC president Jacques Rogge.

The letter says: "Throughout the world, concern is growing about the holding of these Olympics, which have been taken hostage by a government that balks at taking action to guarantee freedom of expression and respect for the Olympic Charter's humanistic values (. . .)

"You know better than anyone that the Chinese government and Communist Party attach the utmost importance to the success of the Olympic Games for their own sakes, but without keeping any of the promises they have made. Mr. President, it is not too late to get the Chinese organisers, who are for the most part also senior political officials, to release prisoners of conscience, reform repressive laws and end censorship.

"We expect firm action from you. It is time to say clearly to the Chinese authorities that the contempt with which they treat the international community is unacceptable. With the entire Olympic community gathered in Guatemala City, it is no longer time for timid, whispered comments. The hour has come for the IOC, through you, to speak clearly about the problems. Your demands will be heard and the Olympic movement will emerge strengthened from it."

The letter concludes: "Mr. President, we do not doubt your commitment to freedom of expression. We believe that your convictions and those of the entire Olympic movement will enable you to quickly do what everyone is expecting of you - to take action on behalf of freedoms in China before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games."

Reporters Without Borders is re-launching its "Beijing 2008" campaign with a graphic of the Olympic rings replaced by handcuffs. Using its sections and networks, the organisation will distribute this campaign ad all over the world for one year, without any let-up.

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide. 

© Reporters Without Borders 2007

Olympics Highlight Human Rights in China

JUSTIN PRITCHARD
Associated Press Writer

Child labour, forced abortions, religious persecution, jailed dissidents, cultural cleansing in Tibet and ethnic cleansing in Africa.

For China, the run-up to next summer's Olympics in Beijing is looking like a marathon through a human-rights minefield.

It's been decades since the games focused on which athletes were faster or stronger. But the Olympics have not been this politicized since the U.S.-Soviet boycotts of the 1980s.

China sees a chance to wow the world as it hosts its first event watched by billions of people. The increasingly image-conscious country will measure success both with medals and whether the 2008 Olympics burnish its rising star. That gives activists, governments and celebrities with a cause an opportunity to influence policies they've long assailed.

The games raise a difficult question for a government famously dismissive of outside pressure: What accommodations might be made without losing face?

Even China's sharpest critics don't anticipate major shifts before the games begin Aug. 8, 2008. Cosmetic changes are possible on issues such as free speech and labour conditions. Concessions on Tibetan autonomy or the Falun Gong spiritual movement are off the table.

``Everyone I've talked to about China policy is focused on the Olympics,'' said Michael Green, a former Bush administration Asia specialist now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ``Beijing knows this and I think they are trying to take minimal steps now to not have to fundamentally change their policies in 2008.''

China insists its approach to free speech and other rights held sacred in the West fits its own culture. Falun Gong is a cult, Beijing says, and Tibet has long been under Chinese sway.

One issue China has budged on is Darfur, the region in Sudan where militias allegedly backed by the government have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of civilians. China is the African nation's diplomatic patron and its biggest trading partner.

After resisting calls for intervention, China dispatched a special envoy and lobbied Sudan to accept a United Nations peacekeeping force.

Observers disagree whether those moves were motivated by external pressure or self-interest, pointing out that China continues to shield the regime from U.N. economic sanctions.

In the campaign to save Darfur, Hollywood is leading the charge.

Opening ceremonies consultant Steven Spielberg urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to change Sudan policy after the director was publicly branded a collaborator by Mia Farrow. The actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador has labelled these the ``genocide Olympics'' and last month announced an Olympic-style torch relay through countries with histories of mass atrocities.

``Whatever their motivation is, they can, I think, be channelled to being a much more constructive actor going forward,'' Darfur activist John Prendergast said of the Chinese.

Prendergast, who co-authored the book ``Not on Our Watch'' with actor Don Cheadle, cautioned that the opportunity is limited and China would never acknowledge that it's reacting to pressure.

There are other signs that China is attuned to international opinion the same way a host worries whether guests at a housewarming get the right impression.

The past month brought two gestures. For the first time, the activist mother of a man who was killed during the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators was allowed to publicly mark the anniversary. And Olympic organizers launched a child-labour investigation after the advocacy group PlayFair 2008 reported that four official souvenir makers were using workers as young as 12.

Exposing conditions is just one tactic. Some groups have planned protests surrounding Aug. 8, the one-year mark before the opening ceremonies.

Amnesty International is considering a demonstration at the Chinese embassy in Washington. The International Campaign for Tibet plans actions at Major League Baseball Games and will formally launch a Web site focusing on the Olympics.

Chinese officials promised reforms before winning the right to host the games. The current secretary general of the Beijing organizing committee said then that he thought a Chinese Olympics could ``promote'' human rights. In a May interview with The Associated Press, Wang Wei said human rights were improving and dismissed the issue as ``an old topic.''

Other efforts to enlist the Olympics have drawn rebukes, as have calls to boycott because of Darfur. Several celebrities as well as presidential candidates in the U.S. and France have suggested withholding athletes, a drastic move that made headlines when the United States dropped out of the Moscow Olympics of 1980 and the Soviets shunned the 1984 games in Los Angeles.

``There are a handful of people who are trying to politicize the Olympic Games,'' Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said this spring. ``This is against the spirit of the games.''

It's more than a handful - it's just about everyone with a gripe against China. Most have modest goals.

Perhaps the government might abolish its system of ``re-education'' through labour, said T. Kumar, a Washington lobbyist for Amnesty International.

Maybe Beijing would let the Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibet's Buddhists, make a pilgrimage to holy sites in China, said Mary Beth Markey of the International Campaign for Tibet.

Several labour advocates said not to expect fundamental reforms in a country where galloping economic expansion is a priority and growth depends on a cheap, pliable work force.

Other groups don't voice specific hopes, but still see opportunity.

The Olympic rings logo and Beijing mascot offer a chance to underscore the importance of copyright protection in a country where DVD piracy is rampant, said Dan Glickman, head of the Motion Picture Association of America. The government wants to protect the logos from counterfeiters, he said, so why can't it bring that focus to movies?

``It's an opportunity,'' Glickman said, ``for them to show how they can become legitimate members of the community of nations.''

Bowing to Communist Regime Pressure, Hong Kong Blacklists Falun Gong
Leaked Fax Details Plan to Bar Falun Gong from Airline Flights

NEW YORK - Hong Kong's immigration authorities have blocked over 140 Taiwanese practitioners of Falun Gong from entering the region in the days leading up to a scheduled annual protest, the Falun Dafa Information Center has learned.

On July 1, Hong Kong will mark the tenth anniversary of the Special Administrative Region's return to Chinese rule, a date on which officially-sponsored celebrations are annually accompanied by large-scale marches and protests demanding greater freedom and democracy in Hong Kong.

The Falun Dafa Information Center has obtained a copy of a fax sent from Hong Kong's immigration authorities to a Hong Kong airline. Through July 1, "Falun Gong followers will be regarded as unwelcome travellers to Hong Kong," the fax states. The immigration authorities promised to provide the airline with a blacklist of Taiwanese Falun Gong adherents, who would be refused entry upon arriving in Hong Kong. The authorities requested that these people be prevented from boarding their flights from Taiwan.

According to the AFP news service, the US State Department issued a statement in response to the incident urging Hong Kong authorities to uphold "personal and political freedom." (news) Several Taiwanese government officials, including Government Information Office Minister Mr. Shieh Jhy-wey, also condemned Hong Kong's actions. (news)

Since 2001, approximately 400 Falun Gong practitioners, including children, have been refused entry to Hong Kong, usually around "sensitive" dates. These people travelled to the Hong Kong SAR in order to participate in legal, peaceful protests meant to call for an end to the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong adherents in China. Under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy, Hong Kong and Macau are the only places in China where such protests can generally take place without being violently broken up by police.

Over the past year in Hong Kong, agents allegedly working for the communist regime in Beijing have threatened Falun Gong practitioners and vandalized their public displays that aim to expose the persecution in China. Practitioners in Hong Kong also report difficulties renting venues for events and say their protests are met with silence by the Hong Kong media.

"This continuous attack on Falun Gong under the influence of the Chinese communist regime is an insult to the people of Hong Kong and a slap in the face of the ‘One Country, Two Systems' promise," says Erping Zhang of the Falun Dafa Information Center.

"It's a shame Hong Kong leaders continue to kowtow to help the Chinese communist regime hide its crimes and silence innocent victims," Zhang says.

In 2003, the Hong Kong Immigration Department denied using a blacklist when it barred from the SAR 80 Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners who had come to attend a conference. Many of the 80 Taiwanese say they were violently deported in the incident, which has since led to a lawsuit filed against Hong Kong immigration authorities.

Chinese Classical Dance Competition Extends A Stage to The World

The President of NTDTV, Zhong Lee, said that the competition attracted dancers from the U.S., Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Australia and Europe. He hoped that the competition would create more interest in Classical Dance and showcase the essence of the Dance.

Singapore contestant Cai Liang said that the preliminary round was great. He said that the Competition was a great experience and he had learned many good things from other contestants.

Mario G. Racco, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and assistant minister of Labor Ministry, sent his best wishes to the contestants and their families. He said: "I know that this is a very important competition for all contestants and their family members. I wish all of them success and happiness. Enjoy New York City!"

Vaughan (Ontario, Canada) Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco said: "We need cultural exchanges of this kind. Not only Chinese, but people around the world need these in order to understand Chinese people and Chinese culture. Through such performances, you will learn many things about history. We need to know history in order to advance and achieve self-perfection."

  Global opinion could create a tense '08 Olympics

Chuck Raasch
WASHINGTON

American tourists are often on the defensive — on the terrorist prison in Guantanamo, on the atrocities against prisoners in the infamous Abu Ghraib in Iraq, on President Bush and his policies — according to United States citizens who have traveled in Europe this summer. The anti-Americanism could presage a tense Olympics in China next year, as athletes converge in the middle of the American presidential election.

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson last month said the United States should consider pulling its team out of the Olympics in Beijing next Aug. 8-24, if the Chinese government does not do more to pressure the Sudanese government to stop genocide in the calamitous province of Darfur, where murder, rape, dislocation and starvation have destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives. China is a major arms and oil trader with Sudan.

Richardson's suggestion has, so far, fallen like a shot put on grass. But if past is prelude, it may be impossible to keep politics out of the 2008 Olympics. At the very least, athletes in the Olympics next year will be subject to intensive security protection. Throughout the modern Olympics, Olympic athletes have been targets and pawns of the worst terrorist and dictators. And even an American president saw fit to politicize the games.

Older Americans will remember the American boycott of the 1980 Olympics. It came after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and was accompanied by a grain embargo imposed by then President Jimmy Carter. Worried that the Soviets would also use the Olympics as a propaganda stage, he threatened to yank the United States Olympic Committee's tax-exempt status if it sent a team. American athletes stayed home, and critics failed on political and legal objections.

The 1980 boycott was another of the modern Olympics singed by politics and terrorism. In Munich in 1972, 11 Israeli athletes died after being kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. In 1936, Hitler tried to use the Berlin Olympics as a propaganda platform for German supremacy. But American sprinter Jesse Owens upstaged Hitler on his own turf by breaking three world records and equalling another.

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press late last month released an extensive new study of public opinion in nearly four dozen countries that foreshadows a challenging global view of major players in next year's Olympics.

"Public opinion (is) increasingly wary of the world's dominant nations and disapproving of their leaders," the survey concluded. "Anti-Americanism is extensive, as it has been for the past five years. At the same time, the image of China has slipped significantly among the publics of other major nations. Opinion about Russia is mixed, but confidence in its president, Vladimir Putin, has declined sharply."

The macro opinions were illustrative on a far more personal level for a group of young men, including my son, who just returned from Spain and England. They were often confronted about their government's policies and intentions, heady stuff for 18-year-olds until you remember that their age cohorts are facing far tougher circumstances in American uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Their generation is already bearing the brunt of a long-term war on terror, long before many of them have approached the enormity of what confronts them.

Here are three things that our foreign friends so eager to condemn the United States might keep in mind:

Twice in the last century, two generations of American boys about my son's age ended others' wars. Thousands of them never returned from European battlefields. So save the lectures on America as the biggest threat to humankind and get real about what really confronts civilization.

There is a lack of unanimity on the American government's actions since the shock of 9-11, and about what role American foreign policy has contributed to the rise of terrorism among Islamic extremists. In fact, there is robust and often bitter debate about both points. Which is the point: One does not have to be in accord with everything the government does to be a good American. But in the world of terrorists and Islamic extremists, you either surrender to distorted ideology or you die an infidel.

True American ideals freedom, equality and tolerance are not uniquely American, but they are uniquely civilization's salvation. The enemies of civilization are suicide bombers, terrorists who fly airplanes into buildings to slaughter thousands of innocent people, fundamentalists who would behead women for showing their faces.

And if the aborted bombing plots in London and Glasgow were not a clear confirmation that this is not uniquely a threat to America, the battle for hearts and minds will be a long one, indeed.

(Contact GNS Political Writer Chuck Raasch at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

People's Republic of China: The Olympics countdown - failing to keep human rights promises

"The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity" Olympic Charter, Fundamental Principles of Olympism.(2)

With just two years to go until the Olympic Games take place in Beijing, the Chinese authorities are failing to meet the human rights commitments they made when Beijing was awarded the Olympics in April 2001.(1) Serious human rights violations continue to be reported across the country fuelling instability and discontent. Grassroots human rights activists continue to be detained and imprisoned, and official controls over the media and the Internet are growing tighter.

While there have been some positive legislative and judicial changes in connection with the application of the death penalty, progress appears to have stalled in connection with other punishments, including "Re-education through Labour" (RTL) and other abusive forms of administrative detention.

This report summarizes a number of Amnesty International's human rights concerns in China - concerns which the organization is continuing to highlight as key areas for reform in the run-up to the Olympics. They are: the continuing use of the death penalty and abusive forms of administrative detention, the arbitrary detention, imprisonment, torture and harassment of human rights defenders, including journalists and lawyers, and the censorship of the Internet. Amnesty International considers that positive reforms in all of these areas are essential if China is to live up to its promises to improve human rights.

Central News Agency: Torch Relay Calls Attention to Human Rights in China

On June 14, Central News Agency (CNA) reported that the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) is launching a new effort to call for public attention to the human rights atrocities happening in China. Lai Ching-Tai, director of CIPFG Asian Delegation, said that human rights violations and the Olympic Games which symbolize the spirit of world peace cannot take place in China at the same time. Lai said that the CIPFG is initiating a Global Relay of the Human Rights Torch in order to raise public awareness of the ongoing atrocities in China so that the Olympic Games will not be used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to cover up and justify its human rights violations.

According to CNA, at a press conference held in the Taiwan Legislature, Mr. Lai told the crowd that the human rights situation in China has not seen any improvement, though the CCP once promised the Olympic Committee to improve its human rights situation. However, the human rights situation in China has continued to deteriorate. For example, Falun Gong practitioners, Catholic Christians, Tibetans and activists from the New Territory are all subjected to arbitrary detention without due process and many have died while being persecuted.

Deputy Director of the CIPFG Asian Delegation Chiu Huang-Chuan said that the spirit of the Olympic Games is to promote world peace and respect human rights. Since the CCP was granted the privilege to host the 2008 Games in Beijing, however, the human rights situation in China has deteriorated.

Chiu said that the CCP should have never been selected to host the Games and it will be a disgrace if the international community does not take actions to protest the CCP's brutal human rights record. Mr. Chiu said that Taiwan cannot turn a blind eye to the CCP's atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners and its abuses of citizens' human rights. He said that Taiwan should make its contribution to fight for the Chinese people's human rights.

Legislative Council Member Ms. Tian Chiu-Jin said that the CCP's 2008 Olympic Games is similar to Hitler's 1936 Olympic Games. Their goals are similar: to cover up their unspeakable crimes.

Dozens of cities in the five continents will participate in the Torch Relay. For more information, please visit www.cipfg.org.

CIPFG: Open Letter to Leaders of China Proposes a Timetable to End the Persecution

The open letter proposed a timetable to stop the persecution. It requires the CCP regime to end the persecution by August 8, 2007, one year before 2008 Olympic Games begin in Beijing. They warned that if the persecution keeps on, calls to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing may well increase.

It says in the letter: "We are individuals and organizations with concern about social justice and basic human rights. The persecution endured by the Falun Gong practitioners in China in the past eight years is so much to bear and we feel like we are going through almost the same experience. Based on reports from the United Nations and other renowned human rights organizations, as well as extensive coverage from media around the world, we are aware that thousands of innocent Falun Gong practitioners have died as a result of this persecution. We are shocked to learn about the methods of torture practitioners are subjected to and the damage done to their lives. In addition, we are particularly disturbed by the reports on the state-sanctioned organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. Knowing that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are still jailed around China and faced with both torture and organ harvesting, we cannot keep silent any longer. "

It continues: "We are not hostile to China. In fact, we love the Chinese people. We hold in high regard the five-thousand years of Chinese civilization. Please remember that one day history will write its verdict on what you choose to do, just as it did to all previous rulers of China. Fortunately, you still have an opportunity to choose kindness rather than hate.

We believe that it would be a shame to humanity as a whole if the Olympics and crimes against humanity were to take place simultaneously in China. Therefore, we request that you stop the persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners and "prisoners of conscience" such as human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng."