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Topic: (°_°) facts.org.cn Falun Gong - 法輪功, A racist and sexist cult \(^o^)/ - page 5. (Read 7945 times)

sr. member
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Law Firms Are Accused of Aiding Chinese Immigrants’ False Asylum Claims
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN and KIRK SEMPLE December 20, 2012

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
F.B.I. agents during a raid in Chinatown in Manhattan on Tuesday.
Twenty-six people, including six lawyers and employees of at least 10 law firms, were arrested in what
the authorities said was a plot to orchestrate false asylum claims for Chinese immigrants.

They invented woeful tales of persecution for their Chinese clients. Prepped them on how to lie about having had a forced abortion. Even tutored them on religion.

In all, 26 people, including 6 lawyers, were charged Tuesday with helping Chinese immigrants submit false asylum claims in an attempt to remain in the United States, law enforcement officials said.

The indictments describe elaborate schemes based in law offices in Manhattan’s Chinatown and in Flushing, Queens, which involved teams of paralegals and office managers, translators and a church official, who conspired to dupe immigration officials by inventing stories of political and religious persecution for their clients, officials said.

According to the indictments, female clients who sought asylum based on China’s one-child policy were encouraged to prepare for asylum interviews by watching Chinese soap operas so they could describe the experience of receiving a forced abortion. Some paralegals were called “story writers” because of their knack for inventing detailed tales of persecution. A church official in Flushing prepared clients for questions about religion by offering basic instruction in Christianity.

More than 20 defendants were arrested in raids at several locations in Manhattan’s Chinatown and in Flushing late Tuesday morning, capping a three-year investigation.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, accused the defendants of “weaving elaborate fictions” and making it “more difficult for those who are legitimately seeking refuge in this country.”

The federal indictments charged employees of at least 10 law firms, the authorities said. In the past few years, the firms filed more than 1,900 asylum applications, according to the indictments, although officials did not specify how many of those they believe were fraudulent.

Tuesday’s operation appeared to be among the largest roundups of lawyers and their associates in New York City in connection with asylum fraud allegations. Even so, the indictments only hinted at the pervasiveness of immigration fraud within the Chinese diaspora, experts said.

Peter Kwong, a professor of Asian-American studies and urban affairs at Hunter College, said that he believed most Chinese asylum cases in New York City were fraudulent.

“This is an industry,” said Mr. Kwong, who has written widely on the Chinese population in New York City. “Everybody knows about it, and these violations go on all the time.”


Wary of widespread fraud, Mr. Kwong said he had turned down numerous offers from immigration lawyers to be a witness in asylum cases.

The investigation began after federal immigration officials in the New York Asylum Office told investigators they were seeing similarities in many of the cases they were handling, according to an official briefed on the investigation.  

In many of the asylum cases reviewed by investigators, Chinese immigrants said they had been persecuted for being Christian or followers of Falun Gong. Others said they were persecuted for their political leanings. Yet others claimed they had suffered as a result of forcible abortions under China’s family-planning rules, the authorities said.

But investigators determined that many of the asylum applicants “had not actually suffered persecution in China,” according to the indictments.

In exchange for money, the indictments state, “the law firm would make up a story of persecution and the client would need to memorize that story.”

Many of the law firms also referred asylum seekers to the Full Gospel Church in Flushing, where they would meet with a church official, Liying Lin, prosecutors said.

Ms. Lin, 29, provided services to asylum seekers including “training in the basic tenets of Christianity,” prosecutors said. But much of Ms. Lin’s instruction was specifically aimed at tricking the immigration authorities, according to the indictment against her, which claimed that she “trained asylum applicants on what questions about religious belief would be asked during an asylum interview and coached the clients on how to answer.”

In return for such instruction, applicants “were expected to make cash donations.” For an additional price, Ms. Lin provided certificates showing “the client’s attendance at church and/or the client’s baptism,” according to the indictment.

Ms. Lin also served on occasion as an interpreter for immigrants during their immigration hearings. If one of her students gave the wrong answer concerning Christianity, Ms. Lin “would kick them on the foot,” according to an indictment.

A top F.B.I. official in the New York office, George Venizelos, said in a statement that some of the defendants had “used religion like a fake passport or phony ID — a perversion of religious freedom.”

Several of the arrests took place at 11 a.m. near the intersection of Catherine Street and East Broadway in Chinatown. F.B.I. agents in raid jackets could be seen leading defendants, who included several women who appeared to be in their 30s and 40s, out of nearby office buildings, as nearby residents and passers-by paused to watch.

Other arrests occurred in Flushing, another major enclave of Chinese residents.

All 26 defendants were charged with conspiring to commit immigration fraud. They were awaiting arraignment Tuesday night.

 
Copyright © 2015 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
so exactly how is that off topic? he's asking for your thoughts on the matter,

 not the thoughts of the pages and pages of short = story length posts that you copy and paste all over.

some people dont want to bother themselves to read pages and pages of copy pasted material.

 either discuss the subject matter with people, thereby engaging in discussion, or please just go back to the off topic section.

This is my problem, if someone will not listen the answers and ask the same question?
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13018417

Subject of topic is -

(°_°) facts.org.cn Falun Gong - 法輪功, A racist and sexist cult \(^o^)/

And for me there is no mistake in that termin, specially i noticed it here -
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13027393
legendary
Activity: 1288
Merit: 1043
:^)
I insist only that you think about the questions that I ask and if possible, provide answers.

My question is simple:
What exactly makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?
If OP thinks he knows the answer, he has not convinced me.
If what I post about does not interest you, then you do not need to respond to it.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13009440

Not FLOOD here with off topic.
he asked you a question that is relevant to the topic of the thread, exactly how is that off topic? you avoid answering any questions directed at yourself yet you constantly badger others to either answer any and all question you have, or basically to fuck off.



so exactly how is that off topic? he's asking for your thoughts on the matter, not the thoughts of the pages and pages of short = story length posts that you copy and paste all over. some people dont want to bother themselves to read pages and pages of copy pasted material. either discuss the subject matter with people, thereby engaging in discussion, or please just go back to the off topic section.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
I insist only that you think about the questions that I ask and if possible, provide answers.

My question is simple:
What exactly makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?
If OP thinks he knows the answer, he has not convinced me.
If what I post about does not interest you, then you do not need to respond to it.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13009440

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/illegal
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/organization?q=organization

Not FLOOD here with off topic.
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
I insist only that you think about the questions that I ask and if possible, provide answers.

My question is simple:
What exactly makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?
If OP thinks he knows the answer, he has not convinced me.
If what I post about does not interest you, then you do not need to respond to it.
legendary
Activity: 2898
Merit: 1386
All that I want from OP (and you) is a sensible way to distinguish "cult" from "religion".

Read carefully here>>>>> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13018417

I would prefer a simple definition; for me, it is not so easy to distinguish between "cult" and "religion".
I don't think you have made such a distinction anywhere in this thread.
You should easily be able to summarize your thesis about what is a cult in one sentence, preferably in a definition.
Could you tell me plainly in a few points what makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?

Mister, are You blind or You see not the picture with text?



http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/illegal
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/organization?q=organization

You say it has nothing in common in religion, but you are mistaken; it has ALL of the main elements of religion as identified by those Russian researchers, such as concern for human life and good deeds, etc.
What specific elements of religion does Falun Gong not have?

The organization Falun Gong was declared illegal by Communist authorities, but this does not shed ANY light on whether it is a cult or a religion or both. How is it that an illegal organization is the same as a cult? Christianity was declared to be an illegal organization by the Romans; does that mean that Christianity is a dangerous cult? I'm afraid you have still not provided me with a simple definition of cult.
What exactly makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?
Why are you repeatedly making ridiculously long posts, then insisting that people read them, then insisting that people answer your questions?

That's not rational thinking.  It's not independent thinking.

So what makes you or the subjects you bring interesting?
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
All that I want from OP (and you) is a sensible way to distinguish "cult" from "religion".

Read carefully here>>>>> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13018417

I would prefer a simple definition; for me, it is not so easy to distinguish between "cult" and "religion".
I don't think you have made such a distinction anywhere in this thread.
You should easily be able to summarize your thesis about what is a cult in one sentence, preferably in a definition.
Could you tell me plainly in a few points what makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?

Mister, are You blind or You see not the picture with text?



http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/illegal
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/organization?q=organization

You say it has nothing in common in religion, but you are mistaken; it has ALL of the main elements of religion as identified by those Russian researchers, such as concern for human life and good deeds, etc.
What specific elements of religion does Falun Gong not have?

The organization Falun Gong was declared illegal by Communist authorities, but this does not shed ANY light on whether it is a cult or a religion or both. How is it that an illegal organization is the same as a cult? Christianity was declared to be an illegal organization by the Romans; does that mean that Christianity is a dangerous cult? I'm afraid you have still not provided me with a simple definition of cult.
What exactly makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
All that I want from OP (and you) is a sensible way to distinguish "cult" from "religion".

Read carefully here>>>>> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13018417

I would prefer a simple definition; for me, it is not so easy to distinguish between "cult" and "religion".
I don't think you have made such a distinction anywhere in this thread.
You should easily be able to summarize your thesis about what is a cult in one sentence, preferably in a definition.
Could you tell me plainly in a few points what makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?

Have you tried Wikipedia, cult?

Wikipedia article on Falun Gong has three sources that mention that they are not a cult.

Could you tell me plainly in a few points what makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 500
A Summary of International Action Against Organ Harvesting

Posted on: August 24, 2015

http://fofg.org/latest-reports/summary-of-international-action-against-organ-harvesting/

For over a decade, hospitals in China have worked with the prison and court systems to systematically kill tens-of-thousands of prisoners of conscience for their organs. The vast majority of these individuals are believed to be practitioners of Falun Gong. Faced with this state-sponsored murder and organ-harvesting apparatus, many of the world’s media remain silent and people are in disbelief that such a thing could happen. But the fact that it is happening can no longer be credibly disputed.

In-depth research by Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former parliamentarian David Kilgour, American journalist Ethan Gutmann, and others have collected undeniable evidence that this has taken place.

Many governments are paralyzed from taking action, possibly in fear of disrupting their complex relationships with China. For activists seeking to bring an end to this disaster these problems can seem daunting. However, some individual countries have taken action to prevent their own citizens from participating in this crime. Insurance companies can also refuse to assist people who travel to China for organ transplants. Among the countries that have already taken such steps are Spain, Israel, Taiwan, Italy, and some states in Australia.

In an excerpt from an article originally published in the Epoch Times, David Kilgour summarizes the International Initiatives & Legislations designed to take action to reduce the number of Falun Gong practitioners being murdered to fuel China’s organ transplant industry.



1. United Nations
Since 2006, several U.N. Special Rapporteurs have asked the Chinese government for an explanation of the serious allegation of organ pillaging from live Falun Gong practitioners. They pointed out to the government that a full explanation would disprove the allegations, but the Party-state has provided no meaningful answer, simply denying the charges.
The experts then asked for the source of organs for China’s organ transplant operations. The first allegation was sent on Aug. 11, 2006, jointly by Special Rapporteur on Torture Prof. Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion Ms. Asma Jahangir, and Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons Ms. Sigma Huda:

It is reported that employees of several transplant centres have indicated that they have used organs from live Falun Gong practitioners for transplants. After the organs were removed, the bodies were cremated, and no corpse is left to examine for identification as the source of an organ transplant. Once the organs were removed they were shipped to transplant centres to be used for transplants for both domestic and foreign patients. Officials from several detention facilities have indicated that courts have been involved in the administering the use of organs from Falun Gong detainees.

The Chinese authorities replied to the Special Rapporteurs’ allegation with a categorical denial. To that, Jahagir and Nowak followed up with a second joint letter on Jan. 25, 2007. In a later report submitted to the Human Rights Council, Tenth session, Nowak stressed that “New reports were received about harvesting of organs from death row prisoners and Falun Gong practitioners.”
Independent experts of the United Nations Committee against Torture also addressed the issue of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in Nov. 2008, referring to “information received that Falun Gong practitioners have been extensively subjected to torture and ill-treatment in prisons and that some of them have been used for organ transplants.”
The committee then recommended that the Chinese authorities investigate and punish those responsible for forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong: “The State party should immediately conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims that some Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to torture and used for organ transplants and take measures, as appropriate, to ensure that those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and punished.”


2. European Parliament
In September 2006, the European Parliament conducted a hearing (David Matas and I testified) and adopted a resolution condemning the detention and torture of Falun Gong practitioners, and expressing concern over reports of organ harvesting. The issue was also raised by direction of the EU troika leadership through the Finnish Foreign Minister Tuomioja meeting bilaterally with China’s Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing at the EU-China summit in Helsinki.

On Dec. 1, 2009, the European Parliament Human Rights Subcommittee held hearings on organ transplant abuse in China. The European Parliament resolution of May 19, 2010 “Action plan on organ donation and transplantation (2009/2015)” states:
Notes the report of David Matas and David Kilgour about the killing of members of Falun Gong for their organs, and asks the Commission to present a report on these allegations, along with other such cases, to the European Parliament and to the Council.
Organ pillaging in China was among the main topics in a hearing at the European Parliament on Human Rights in China on Dec. 6, 2012. David Matas testified.


3. Spain
The new Criminal Code passed in November 2009 includes the illegal trafficking of human organs as a felony. The new Criminal Code establishes penalties of up to twelve years in prison for people who encourage, promote, facilitate or advertise the procurement of illegal human organs trafficking.

The Spanish version (PDF) is available on the official web site of Spanish National Transplant Organization, an institution belonging to the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumption. See English version.


4. Taiwan
In August 2007, Hou Sheng-mao, the Director of Taiwan’s Department of Health, reported requesting Taiwanese doctors to not recommend to their patients to travel to mainland China for transplants.
In February 2013, Taipei Bar Association issused a statement to condemns organ harvesting in China.
On November 22, 2012, the Taiwanese Legislative Yuan Voted for Budget Resolution Concerning Medical Organ Transplantation, which is legally binding for the Department of Health. Chinese original text is here (PDF), on page 715 of the budget resolution document (Page-715 PDF), English translation.


5. Australia
In late 2006, the Australian Health Ministry announced the abolition of training programs for Chinese doctors in organ transplant techniques at the Prince Charles and the Princess Alexandra Hospitals, as well as banning joint research programs with China on organ transplantation. New South Wales is also considering legislation against organ trafficking.  See the Queensland government document.
On March 21, 2013, Australian Senate unanimously passes motion on organ harvesting. The motion can be found here (PDF).


6. Belgium and Canada
Two Belgian senators, Patrik Vankrunkelsven and Jeannine Leduc, introduced into the Belgian Parliament on Nov. 30, 2006 a law, which addresses organ transplant tourism. Former Canadian MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj introduced into our House of Commons extraterritorial legislation banning “transplant tourism” in 2008. Both would penalize any transplant patient who receives an organ without consent of the donor where the patient knew or ought to have known of the absence of consent.


7. France
French Parliamentarian Valérie Boyer on Oct. 19, 2010, along with several other members of the National Assembly, proposed a law which sets out certificate and reporting requirements similar to Canada’s proposed law. The proposed law requires every French citizen and habitual resident who undergoes an organ transplant abroad to acquire at the latest 30 days after the transplant a certificate stating that organ was donated without payment. The organ recipient must provide the certificate to the French Biomedical Agency before returning to France.
The proposed legislation requires every doctor to report to the Biomedical Agency the identity of every person the doctor examined who underwent a transplant. The proposed law in turn requires the Biomedical Agency to report to the Public Department any person who there are reasonable grounds to believe was involved in a financial transaction to obtain an organ.


8. Israel
Israel passed a law banning the sale and brokerage of organs. The law also ended funding, through the health insurance system, of transplants in China for Israeli nationals. Jay Lavee, in his contribution to the book “State Organs,” explains this law as a reaction to transplant abuse in China.

The original texts of Israel Transplant Law – ORGAN TRANSPLANT ACT, 2008 (PDF)
Saving Lives Locally, by Dr. Jacob Lavee



9. United States
In September 2006, the U.S. Congress held a hearing on organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. Four witnesses testified at the hearing, including Matas and myself.

On Oct. 3, 2012, 106 Members of the U.S. Congress urged the U.S. State Department to release information on organ pillaging in China from Falun Gong practitioners and other religious and political prisoners, and requested the State Department to release any information it might have, including details that former Chongqing deputy mayor Wang Lijun is believed to have transmitted during his brief sanctuary in the U.S. Consulate in February 2012.

Wang Lijun was directly involved in organ harvesting practices. In his capacity as police chief, he founded a research centre on organ transplantation in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province. The centre conducted several thousand organ transplant operations, with unexplained organ sources.

The State Department acknowledged in its 2011 Human Rights Report, released in May 2012, that “Overseas and domestic media and advocacy groups continued to report instances of organ harvesting, particularly from Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs.”
Since June 2011, the online U.S. non-immigrant visa application, Form DS-160, requires the following information from applicants from every country: “Have you ever been directly involved in the coercive transplantation of human organs or bodily tissue?”



10. NGOs and Medical Organizations
Various NGOs and medical organizations have issued statements urging the investigation and measures to stop the forced organ pillaging from prisoners of conscience, particularly Falun Gong. Some examples:
In August 2006, the New York-based National Kidney Foundation issued a statement expressing deep concerns over allegations that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners were being executed for the purposes of organ donation, as well as opposition to such a scheme and to organ transplant tourism generally.

In 2007, the Transplantation Society introduced new policy on interactions with China, against using the organs from prisoners.
The policy of the World Medical Association includes now a paragraph that organ donation from prisoners is not acceptable in countries where the death penalty is practiced. This is a newly adopted policy.

WMA Statement on Organ and Tissue Donation, adopted by the 63rd WMA General Assembly, Bangkok, Thailand, October 2012.
In jurisdictions where the death penalty is practised, executed prisoners must not be considered as organ and/or tissue donors. While there may be individual cases where prisoners are acting voluntarily and free from pressure, it is impossible to put in place adequate safeguards to protect against coercion in all cases.

UN NGO International Education Development made a statement on Organ Harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners at the United Nations during its September session 2012.

Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) is a non-government organization founded by medical doctors who were alerted by the coerced organ harvesting from prisoners and prisoners of conscience in China. DAFOH seeks to promote ethical standards in medicine and to end the forced organ harvesting (FOH) practices in China. DAFOH informs medical communities as well as publics about these practices by articles and essays in medical and non-medical journals, presentations at fora and media interviews.

In 2012, DAFOH provided speakers for both U.S. Congressional hearings on the FOH topic (Sept. 12 and Dec. 18). In 2012, DAFOH initiated several petitions in Europe, Australia and U.S. (including the so-called White-House-Petition) calling for an end of the FOH in China and further investigation through the UNHRC. Within 3 months, the petitions garnered 250,000+ signatures. At a follow up visit, the UNHRC recognized the number of signatures as “impressive.”


11. Individual Initiatives
Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice-President of the European Parliament and rapporteur for the EU’s Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, traveled to China in May 2006 on a fact finding mission to investigate organ harvesting and has since repeatedly condemned the organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.

In 2007, Dr. Tom Treasure, writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, “The Falun Gong, organ transplantation, the holocaust, and ourselves,” found the allegations credible, particularly in the context of the role doctors played in the Holocaust.

In 2007, a petition signed by 140 Canadian physicians was presented to the House of Commons urging the government to issue travel advisories warning people that organ transplants in China include the use of organs harvested from non-consenting donors such as Falun Gong practitioners.

In 2008, a special rabbinical council in Israel ruled that the Beijing regime has been responsible for the killing of Falun Gong practitioners, perhaps because of material benefits derived from organ harvesting.

In 2008, The Weekly Standard featured a cover story on organ harvesting, authored by Ethan Gutmann, adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The article described systematic medical testing of Falun Gong practitioners.

In July 2012, Dr. Torsten Trey and David Matas published a volume on organ transplant abuse in China, including the killing of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. The book, “State Organs,” is a collection of essays by leading medical professionals and other commentators from four continents who have researched organ harvesting in China. It consolidates evidence of these abuses, discusses their ethical implications, and provides insight on how to combat these violations. The Ebook is available from amazon:
On Dec. 2, 2012, three medical doctors, Arthur Caplan, Alejandro Centurion, and Jianchao Xu, initiated a petition calling upon the Obama administration to investigate and help stop forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong in China. The petition is posted within the “We the People” section of the White House website.
Unfortunately, these and other developments have not yet ended the trafficking in organs from involuntary “donors” across China.

12. China
The government of China now accepts that sourcing of organs from prisoners is improper. Deputy Health Minister Huang Jeifu in 2009 stated that executed prisoners “are definitely not a proper source for organ transplants.” In 2005, Huang admitted that over 95 percent of the organs transplanted in China came from executed prisoners. China had been denying using prisoners’ organs prior to this admission.
In 2006 a World Medical Association resolution demanded that China stop using prisoners as organ donors, and in 2007 the Chinese Medical Association agreed to do so.

In 2010 at a transplant conference in Madrid, Minister Huang stated that between 1997 and 2008 China had performed more than 100,000 transplantations, with over 90 percent of the organs being from executed prisoners. In no other country on earth are there more executions than in China.

“The actual number of executions is a closely guarded state secret,” says John Kamm, the head of the U.S.-based nonprofit Dui Hua Foundation. “However, in recent years to some extent the curtain has been raised somewhat by officials or scholars who have access to the real numbers and earlier this year we did get some indication as to the number of people executed in 2011–approximately 4,000, more than all other countries in the world combined.”

Human rights organizations fear the number could be even higher. Roseanne Rise, from Amnesty International says, “We’re concerned that prisoners aren’t really independent enough to give meaningful consent.” She adds, “When they’re under the control of the state and dependent on it for all of their daily needs it’s difficult to assess whether they’re really giving voluntary consent.”
In February 2012, Huang again stated that the practice of organ harvesting from prisoners continues in China today, but that the government wants to phase it out by 2015 and build up a national donation scheme. This will be very difficult to do because many Chinese are unwilling to donate their organs.

“It’s … a cultural taboo,” explains Kamm. “The Chinese traditionally believe that when they leave this world and enter the next they have to be in possession of all their organs. So the number of people who have been willing to donate organs is very small.” The state will have to inform citizens and convince them to donate their organs instead as part of a nationwide scheme. There is some hope that the younger generation will be less intent on keeping all their organs before entering the next world.

In 2009, 10 provinces introduced an organ donation program. In 2010, in order to meet the increasing demand for donor organs, China launched a trial program allowing people to voluntarily donate their organs after they die. In February 2011, it was reported that, in total, 37 people had donated 97 organs through the trial program. By March 2012, the pilot programs had persuaded just 207 people to donate their organs after death, according to the Red Cross Society of China, which operates the transplant system. The donors were mainly from the rural poor, and 90 percent of them or their families asked for financial aid in return for their organs.

Despite public pressure to donate, hundreds of organ donor coordinators employed by the new system are having little success. In Shandong Province, none of the coordinators managed a successful case in 18 months. The city of Tianjin had only a total of 19 donations since 2010. No organ donor materials were on display at the large Tianjin No. 2 Hospital.

Before the government abolishes the practice of organ harvesting from executed prisoners, tens of thousands more will be killed for their organs in the meantime. Since Matas and I began our voluntary work, the number of convicted persons sentenced to death and then executed has decreased overall quite dramatically, but the number of transplants, after a slight decline, rose to earlier levels. Since the only other substantial source of organs for transplants in China, apart from Falun Gong, is prisoners sentenced to death, a decrease of sourcing from that population means an increase in sourcing from Falun Gong.

In the past, the death penalty was administered by gunshot. Today, lethal injection is the most common practice. The latter is beneficial for such purposes as retrieving organs, as they remain intact. Most executions in China take place in mobile buses. These “execution buses” are often parked right next to hospitals.

13. Corporate Social Responsibility
Some pharmaceutical companies, such as Novartis and Pfizer, have voluntarily pulled away from pharmaceutical trials of anti-rejection drugs in China because of ethical concerns. There is, however, still need for binding national regulation in this area. Arne Schwarz in “State Organs” and David Matas in a speech in Philadelphia detailed a wide range of pharmaceutical trials of anti-rejection drugs done in China. Some were conducted in hospitals from which our telephone investigators obtained admissions that they were selling organs of Falun Gong.
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Sydney's Falun Gong Devotees Marched Against Forced Organ Harvesting of Their Members in China
May 15, 2015

http://www.vice.com/read/sydneys-falun-gong-practitioners-rallied-against-forced-organ-harvesting-of-their-members-in-china



Members of Falun Gong march through Chinatown in Sydney. All photos by the author


At midday last Saturday in Sydney's Hyde Park, hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners were preparing for the World Falun Gong Day march: a celebration of the Taoist-Buddhist spiritual movement which is outlawed in China. But the march was also a protest against the state-sanctioned practice of harvesting human organs. Falun Gong claims that organ transplant operations are being carried out on living people, with the organs being made available to wealthy local and foreign patients.

In 1984, the removal of organs from executed prisoners was made legal in China, with consent from the condemned prisoner or their family. Knowledge of this practice increased outside of China, when in 2001 Dr Wang Guoqi testified before a US government committee that he'd been involved in these operations. In 2005, China's then vice health minister, Dr Huang Jiefu, acknowledged that the organs of executed prisoners were being supplied to foreigners.

But by 2006 reports that prisoners of conscience were being killed for their organs began emerging. Canadian MP David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas carried out an investigation. Their research included interviews with the ex-wife of a surgeon, who said her husband had removed around 2,000 corneas from living prisoners, and phoning Chinese hospitals to inquire into transplant operations. Hospital staff asserted that the organs of Falun Gong practitioners were available and that these were considered a healthy source due to their exercise regime.

Chinese officials put out a statement explaining China followed World Health Organisation principles and had a regulated system of human organ transplants. They claimed the report was a smear campaign and hoped people would recognise Falun Gong as an "evil cult".

China carries out 10,000 organ transplant operations annually. Dui Hua, a San Francisco-based prisoner's rights organisation estimated in 2013 2,400 executions took place, while Amnesty International said they had evidence that put the 2006 figure at up to 8,000. A voluntary donor system was recently set up in the country in 2010, but this only accounts for 3,824 donors over the last five years. According to Falun Gong practitioners these figures don't add up.

The Kilgour-Matas report found that between 2000 and 2005 the source of organs for 41,500 transplant operations couldn't be accounted for. And outlined that a large increase in operations began directly after July 1999, which was when the Chinese government started detaining thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in labour camps.

Jintao Liu was in the second row of the World Falun Gong Day march as it made its way down George Street towards Chinatown. Now a permanent resident of Australia, Jintao hails from Yinshui Town in Shandong Province, China. The 34-year-old chemical engineer began practicing Falun Gong in 1997, whilst still in high school. In November 2006, he was sent to a government-sponsored "brainwashing class" for a month.

"Because I didn't give up my beliefs, I was sent to Beijing Changping Detention Centre. They can put you in places like that with no legal procedures," Jintao told VICE through a translator. "After two months, there was no sign I would give up my beliefs, so I was sentenced to two years in a labour re-education camp."

Falun Gong was first taught publicly in China in 1992 by its founder Li Hongzhi. Based on Buddhist and Taoist principles, the practice combines qigong and meditation exercises. John Deller, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Australia, said that the practice was initially supported by the Chinese government. Li was sent to cities around the country to teach Falun Gong and many Chinese Communist Party members began practicing it.

"It's only after they started to notice the numbers of people practicing that the leader Jiang Zemin, started to become suspicious," Deller said. "In 96, they started banning the book Zhuan Falun, the main teachings, which was well before the official persecution of Falun Gong began in July 99."

In the labour camp Jintao says he was isolated from other Falun Gong practitioners and kept amongst the regular prison population. He also claims he was subjected to a range of torture, including electric shocks, sleep-deprivation and being forced-fed through tubes in his nose.

According to Jintao, other prison inmates were directed to beat him and he noticed when they did so, they were careful not to damage his kidney area. He heard rumours from long-term inmates, about detainees who'd been transferred elsewhere and never came back.

"And I was blood tested many times. Usually you'd be sent to a medical centre, but sometimes it was just for blood tests," Jintao said, explaining that looking back now, he believes his compatibility was being tested for transplant operations.

Jintao asserts that after he was tortured with needles beneath his fingernails, he could no longer take it and wrote out a statement renouncing Falun Gong. But he stresses he never really gave up.

In 2013, he came to Australia as part of a tour group and once here, applied for a humanitarian visa.

Dr Sophia Bryskine, spokesperson for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), said transplant tourism is a billion dollar industry. In China it only takes a few weeks to get an organ match, which is made possible by the large living organ bank of prisoners of conscience. In contrast it can take up to three years to find an organ match in Australia.

"They're injected with partial anaesthetic, so they're not completely deceased when their organs are taken out," Bryskine explained. "The organs freshness has a much higher guarantee that it's going to match."

In December last year, Australian-trained doctor, Huang Jiefu, now head of China's Organ Donation Committee, announced that the nation would stop harvesting executed prisoners' organs on January 1. Bryskine said DAFOH remain sceptical the reforms will bring any relief to the transplant crisis, as China has still not acknowledged its use of prisoners of conscience. "There has been no indication that the use of prisoners of conscience as organ sources has ended or will end any time," she said.

According to NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge, there are dozens of Australians who travel overseas for organ transplants annually. He's been involved in drafting the NSWHuman Tissue Amendment (Trafficking in Human Organs) Bill, which is going to be presented before parliament in June. The legislation would make it a crime for a NSW resident to engage in unethical organ trading anywhere in the world.

Shoebridge added that he's spoken to a number Falun Gong practitioners, who whilst in Chinese prisons, "found themselves being subjected to repeated medical examinations, unrelated to their health but seemingly designed to work out their compatibility for the provision of their organs."

Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulrgregoire

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International Efforts to Stop Forced Organ Harvesting From Falun Gong in China

http://www.stoporganharvesting.org/news/latest-news/80-international-efforts-to-stop-forced-organ-harvesting-from-falun-gong-in-china

Hon. David Kilgour, J.D. February 9, 2013


China’s 5,000-year-old civilization has given much to the world and is deserving of much respect. In this submission, however, the focus is on Party-state practices imported from European Marxism-Leninism from 1949 until today. The systematic abuse of targeted individuals and groups deemed “enemies” of the Party has, inter alia, resulted in widespread pillaging of vital organs from Falun Gong practitioners for commercial transplantation purposes.

 

Since the 1950s, not a decade has gone by without Party-state-led violence directed at segments of the population, who were labeled “counterrevolutionaries.” This includes Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward,” which resulted in the death by starvation of 25-40 million Chinese from 1959 to 1961, the Cultural Revolution, the 1989 crackdown on the democracy movement, and the persecution of Falun Gong since mid-1999.

From Encouragement to Persecution

When Falun Gong exercises and principles were initially introduced to the Chinese public in 1992, the Party-state not only acquiesced in its expansion, but assisted, inviting its founder to teach in government facilities and praising Falun Gong for the benefits it introduced to public health and ethics generally.

The more the movement grew, the more resistance it encountered—no doubt because some party leaders feared any large, independent group. When a Falun Gong book became a bestseller in 1996, it was banned. When a government survey estimated that more than 70 million nationals were practitioners in the mid-’90′s, more than the Party’s own membership, Party-state media began attacking the movement, and security agents harassed practitioners.

The Feb. 14, 1999 issue of U.S. News & World Report cited an official in the sports ministry saying that each Falun Gong practitioner was saving the state 1,000 yuan in health spending yearly. Party leader Jiang Zemin, however, made an overnight decision to eradicate it, even though many members of the Politburo were familiar with the practice and many Party members were doing the exercises. On July 20, 1999, the Communist party leadership launched a protracted and violent campaign whose stated purpose was to “eradicate” Falun Gong.

610 Office

The 610 Office, specifically created to persecute Falun Gong adherents, was given unrestricted power over each level of the Party-state administration, including all political and judicial offices, media, army, and police. Security personnel began to arrest and detain practitioners across the country.

Beatings, detention in forced labour camps, brainwashing and torture became the daily lot of many Falun Gong practitioners. The methods included shocking with high-voltage electric batons, sleep deprivation, starvation, sexual assault, forced abortions, drug injections, and forced-feeding.

Most of the abuse took place in secret behind closed doors, in detention centres, labour camps, and mountainside torture chambers. The party went to great lengths to hide what it was doing from journalists, scholars, human rights organizations, and other independent researchers.

Chinese nationals who attempted to investigate the abuses risked losing their careers, freedom, and lives. Foreign journalists could lose their work permits. Falun Gong who acted as informants to foreign media were imprisoned, tortured or worse. In October 1999, party leaders labeled the practice “an evil cult” to justify its ban retroactively and undermine sympathy in the West.

Then Party leader and president Jiang Zemin strongly appears to have been “jealous” of Falun Gong and “obsessed” with eradicating it. By creating a national campaign, he sought to consolidate political power in himself and to eliminate a movement he perceived as a threat to his power.

From the start, Falun Gong practitioners had no desire to become involved in politics and never intended to challenge the Party. Even after nearly 14 years of persecution, their only political objective is to seek peacefully to end the persecution across China.

Falun Gong

Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) is a spiritual discipline that seeks to improve body and ethics. It contains features of traditional systems, like Buddhism and Daoism (Taoism), combined with a set of gentle exercises. Its core principles are “truthfulness, compassion and forbearance,” which echo those of many faiths.

In China, where it first became public in 1992, Falun Gong grew within seven years to 70-100 million practitioners by the government’s own estimate. It had a belief system behind it entirely different from Marxism-Leninism. The exercises, moreover, could be done anywhere at any time, singly or in groups, indoors or outdoors. This made it impossible for the Party to control.

Forced Labour Camps

After 1980, the Party-state had begun withdrawing funds from the health system across China, obliging it to make up the difference through service charges to mostly uninsured patients. Selling the organs of executed convicts became a major source of funds because of world demand. Falun Gong later became the major additional source of organs. Organ prices were posted on Chinese websites.

In doing our final report on organ pillaging, David Matas and I visited about a dozen countries to interview Falun Gong practitioners sent to China’s forced labour camps, who managed later to leave the camps and the country itself. Most were sent to camps after mid-1999 without any form of a hearing on only a police signature.

Practitioners told us of working in appalling conditions for up to sixteen hours daily with no pay and little food, crowded sleeping conditions and torture. They made export products, ranging from garments to Christmas decorations as subcontractors to multinational companies. This, of course, constitutes gross corporate irresponsibility and violations of WTO rules and calls for an effective response by all governments who trade with China.

The labour camps, outside the legal system, allow the Party to send anyone to them for up to three years with neither hearing nor appeal. One estimate of the number of the camps across China as of 2005 was 340, having a capacity of about 350,000 inmates.

In 2007, a U.S. government report estimated that at least half of the inmates in the camps were Falun Gong. Other detainees from labour camps interviewed by Human Rights Watch and Chinese Human Rights Defenders consistently observed that Falun Gong were the largest group in the labour camps and were singled out for torture and abuse.

There is a clear link between the labour done since 1999 by Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners in the camps and the resulting loss of manufacturing jobs in Canada and elsewhere. Canada and other countries should ban forced labour exports by legislation, which puts an onus on importers to prove their goods are not made in effect by slaves. 41,500 Transplants

According to research David Matas and I have done, set out in our book “Bloody Harvest,” practitioners have been killed in the thousands since 2001 so that their organs could be trafficked to Chinese and foreign patients. For the period 2000-2005 alone, Matas and I concluded that for 41,500 transplants done, the only plausible explanation for sourcing was Falun Gong.

The main conclusion of our book is that there “continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners (…) Their vital organs, including kidneys, livers, corneas and hearts, were seized involuntarily for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries.” Our revised report is accessible in 18 languages from www.david-kilgour.com

The experience of Falun Gong practitioner Chen Ying, who was later awarded refugee status by the government of France, is fairly typical: “Because I would not renounce my Falun Gong convictions, between February 2000 and November 2001, I was imprisoned three times without any judicial process… Each time, I was mistreated and tortured by the police… At the end of September 2000, as I would not tell them my name, I was called out by the police and taken to a hospital for a complete medical examination: cardiac, blood, eyes, etc. I had to carry chains on my legs and I was attached to a window frame. The police injected me with unknown substances. After the injections, my heart beat abnormally quickly. Each one gave me the impression that my heart was going to explode…”

International Initiatives

1. United Nations

Since 2006, several U.N. Special Rapporteurs have asked the Chinese government for an explanation of the serious allegation of organ pillaging from live Falun Gong practitioners. They pointed out to the government that a full explanation would disprove the allegations, but the Party-state has provided no meaningful answer, simply denying the charges.

The experts then asked for the source of organs for China’s organ transplant operations. The first allegation was sent on Aug. 11, 2006, jointly by Special Rapporteur on Torture Prof. Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion Ms. Asma Jahangir, and Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons Ms. Sigma Huda:

“It is reported that employees of several transplant centres have indicated that they have used organs from live Falun Gong practitioners for transplants. After the organs were removed, the bodies were cremated, and no corpse is left to examine for identification as the source of an organ transplant. Once the organs were removed they were shipped to transplant centres to be used for transplants for both domestic and foreign patients. Officials from several detention facilities have indicated that courts have been involved in the administering the use of organs from Falun Gong detainees.”

The Chinese authorities replied to the Special Rapporteurs’ allegation with a categorical denial. To that, Jahagir and Nowak followed up with a second joint letter on Jan. 25, 2007. In a later report submitted to the Human Rights Council, Tenth session, Nowak stressed that “New reports were received about harvesting of organs from death row prisoners and Falun Gong practitioners.”

Independent experts of the United Nations Committee against Torture also addressed the issue of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in Nov. 2008, referring to “information received that Falun Gong practitioners have been extensively subjected to torture and ill-treatment in prisons and that some of them have been used for organ transplants.”

The committee then recommended that the Chinese authorities investigate and punish those responsible for forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong: “The State party should immediately conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims that some Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to torture and used for organ transplants and take measures, as appropriate, to ensure that those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and punished.”

2. European Parliament

In September 2006, the European Parliament conducted a hearing (David Matas and I testified) and adopted a resolution condemning the detention and torture of Falun Gong practitioners, and expressing concern over reports of organ harvesting. The issue was also raised by direction of the EU troika leadership through the Finnish Foreign Minister Tuomioja meeting bilaterally with China’s Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing at the EU-China summit in Helsinki.

On Dec. 1, 2009, the European Parliament Human Rights Subcommittee held hearings on organ transplant abuse in China. The European Parliament resolution of May 19, 2010 “Action plan on organ donation and transplantation (2009/2015)” states:

“Notes the report of David Matas and David Kilgour about the killing of members of Falun Gong for their organs, and asks the Commission to present a report on these allegations, along with other such cases, to the European Parliament and to the Council.”

Organ pillaging in China was among the main topics in a hearing at the European Parliament on Human Rights in China on Dec. 6, 2012. David Matas testified.

3. Taiwan

In August 2007, Hou Sheng-mao, the Director of Taiwan’s Department of Health, reported requesting Taiwanese doctors to not recommend to their patients to travel to mainland China for transplants.

4. Australia

In late 2006, the Australian Health Ministry announced the abolition of training programs for Chinese doctors in organ transplant techniques at the Prince Charles and the Princess Alexandra Hospitals, as well as banning joint research programs with China on organ transplantation. New South Wales is also considering legislation against organ trafficking.

5. Belgium and Canada

Two Belgian senators, Patrik Vankrunkelsven and Jeannine Leduc, introduced into the Belgian Parliament on Nov. 30, 2006 a law, which addresses organ transplant tourism. Former Canadian MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj introduced into our House of Commons extraterritorial legislation banning “transplant tourism” in 2008. Both would penalize any transplant patient who receives an organ without consent of the donor where the patient knew or ought to have known of the absence of consent.

6. France

French Parliamentarian Valérie Boyer on Oct. 19, 2010, along with several other members of the National Assembly, proposed a law which sets out certificate and reporting requirements similar to Canada’s proposed law. The proposed law requires every French citizen and habitual resident who undergoes an organ transplant abroad to acquire at the latest 30 days after the transplant a certificate stating that organ was donated without payment. The organ recipient must provide the certificate to the French Biomedical Agency before returning to France.

The proposed legislation requires every doctor to report to the Biomedical Agency the identity of every person the doctor examined who underwent a transplant. The proposed law in turn requires the Biomedical Agency to report to the Public Department any person who there are reasonable grounds to believe was involved in a financial transaction to obtain an organ.

7. Israel

Israel passed a law banning the sale and brokerage of organs. The law also ended funding, through the health insurance system, of transplants in China for Israeli nationals. Jay Lavee, in his contribution to the book “State Organs,” explains this law as a reaction to transplant abuse in China.

8. United States

In September 2006, the U.S. Congress held a hearing on organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. Four witnesses testified at the hearing, including Matas and myself.

On Oct. 3, 2012, 106 Members of the U.S. Congress urged the U.S. State Department to release information on organ pillaging in China from Falun Gong practitioners and other religious and political prisoners, and requested the State Department to release any information it might have, including details that former Chongqing deputy mayor Wang Lijun is believed to have transmitted during his brief sanctuary in the U.S. Consulate in February 2012.

Wang Lijun was directly involved in organ harvesting practices. In his capacity as police chief, he founded a research centre on organ transplantation in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province. The centre conducted several thousand organ transplant operations, with unexplained organ sources.

The State Department acknowledged in its 2011 Human Rights Report, released in May 2012, that “Overseas and domestic media and advocacy groups continued to report instances of organ harvesting, particularly from Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs.”

Since June 2011, the online U.S. non-immigrant visa application, Form DS-160, requires the following information from applicants from every country: “Have you ever been directly involved in the coercive transplantation of human organs or bodily tissue?”

9. NGOs and Medical Organizations

Various NGOs and medical organizations have issued statements urging the investigation and measures to stop the forced organ pillaging from prisoners of conscience, particularly Falun Gong. Some examples:

In August 2006, the New York-based National Kidney Foundation issued a statement expressing deep concerns over allegations that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners were being executed for the purposes of organ donation, as well as opposition to such a scheme and to organ transplant tourism generally.

In 2007, the Transplantation Society introduced new policy on interactions with China, against using the organs from prisoners.

The policy of the World Medical Association includes now a paragraph that organ donation from prisoners is not acceptable in countries where the death penalty is practiced. This is a newly adopted policy.

UN NGO International Education Development made a statement on Organ Harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners at the United Nations during its September session 2012.

Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) is a non-government organization founded by medical doctors who were alerted by the coerced organ harvesting from prisoners and prisoners of conscience in China. DAFOH seeks to promote ethical standards in medicine and to end the forced organ harvesting (FOH) practices in China. DAFOH informs medical communities as well as publics about these practices by articles and essays in medical and non-medical journals, presentations at fora and media interviews.

In 2012, DAFOH provided speakers for both U.S. Congressional hearings on the FOH topic (Sept. 12 and Dec. 18). In 2012, DAFOH initiated several petitions in Europe, Australia and U.S. (including the so-called White-House-Petition) calling for an end of the FOH in China and further investigation through the UNHRC. Within 3 months, the petitions garnered 250,000+ signatures. At a follow up visit, the UNHRC recognized the number of signatures as “impressive.”

10. Individual Initiatives

Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice-President of the European Parliament and rapporteur for the EU’s Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, traveled to China in May 2006 on a fact finding mission to investigate organ harvesting and has since repeatedly condemned the organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.

In 2007, Dr. Tom Treasure, writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, “The Falun Gong, organ transplantation, the holocaust, and ourselves,” found the allegations credible, particularly in the context of the role doctors played in the Holocaust.

In 2007, a petition signed by 140 Canadian physicians was presented to the House of Commons urging the government to issue travel advisories warning people that organ transplants in China include the use of organs harvested from non-consenting donors such as Falun Gong practitioners.

In 2008, a special rabbinical council in Israel ruled that the Beijing regime has been responsible for the killing of Falun Gong practitioners, perhaps because of material benefits derived from organ harvesting.

In 2008, The Weekly Standard featured a cover story on organ harvesting, authored by Ethan Gutmann, adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The article described systematic medical testing of Falun Gong practitioners.

In July 2012, Dr. Torsten Trey and David Matas published a volume on organ transplant abuse in China, including the killing of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. The book, “State Organs,” is a collection of essays by leading medical professionals and other commentators from four continents who have researched organ harvesting in China. It consolidates evidence of these abuses, discusses their ethical implications, and provides insight on how to combat these violations. The Ebook is available from amazon:

On Dec. 2, 2012, three medical doctors, Arthur Caplan, Alejandro Centurion, and Jianchao Xu, initiated a petition calling upon the Obama administration to investigate and help stop forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong in China. The petition is posted within the “We the People” section of the White House website.

Unfortunately, these and other developments have not yet ended the trafficking in organs from involuntary “donors” across China.

11. China

The government of China now accepts that sourcing of organs from prisoners is improper. Deputy Health Minister Huang Jeifu in 2009 stated that executed prisoners “are definitely not a proper source for organ transplants.” In 2005, Huang admitted that over 95 percent of the organs transplanted in China came from executed prisoners. China had been denying using prisoners’ organs prior to this admission.

In 2006 a World Medical Association resolution demanded that China stop using prisoners as organ donors, and in 2007 the Chinese Medical Association agreed to do so.

In 2010 at a transplant conference in Madrid, Minister Huang stated that between 1997 and 2008 China had performed more than 100,000 transplantations, with over 90 percent of the organs being from executed prisoners. In no other country on earth are there more executions than in China.

“The actual number of executions is a closely guarded state secret,” says John Kamm, the head of the U.S.-based nonprofit Dui Hua Foundation. “However, in recent years to some extent the curtain has been raised somewhat by officials or scholars who have access to the real numbers and earlier this year we did get some indication as to the number of people executed in 2011--approximately 4,000, more than all other countries in the world combined.”

Human rights organizations fear the number could be even higher. Roseanne Rise, from Amnesty International says, “We’re concerned that prisoners aren’t really independent enough to give meaningful consent.” She adds, “When they’re under the control of the state and dependent on it for all of their daily needs it’s difficult to assess whether they’re really giving voluntary consent.”

In February 2012, Huang again stated that the practice of organ harvesting from prisoners continues in China today, but that the government wants to phase it out by 2015 and build up a national donation scheme. This will be very difficult to do because many Chinese are unwilling to donate their organs.

“It’s … a cultural taboo,” explains Kamm. “The Chinese traditionally believe that when they leave this world and enter the next they have to be in possession of all their organs. So the number of people who have been willing to donate organs is very small.” The state will have to inform citizens and convince them to donate their organs instead as part of a nationwide scheme. There is some hope that the younger generation will be less intent on keeping all their organs before entering the next world.

In 2009, 10 provinces introduced an organ donation program. In 2010, in order to meet the increasing demand for donor organs, China launched a trial program allowing people to voluntarily donate their organs after they die. In February 2011, it was reported that, in total, 37 people had donated 97 organs through the trial program. By March 2012, the pilot programs had persuaded just 207 people to donate their organs after death, according to the Red Cross Society of China, which operates the transplant system. The donors were mainly from the rural poor, and 90 percent of them or their families asked for financial aid in return for their organs.

Despite public pressure to donate, hundreds of organ donor coordinators employed by the new system are having little success. In Shandong Province, none of the coordinators managed a successful case in 18 months. The city of Tianjin had only a total of 19 donations since 2010. No organ donor materials were on display at the large Tianjin No. 2 Hospital.

Before the government abolishes the practice of organ harvesting from executed prisoners, tens of thousands more will be killed for their organs in the meantime. Since Matas and I began our voluntary work, the number of convicted persons sentenced to death and then executed has decreased overall quite dramatically, but the number of transplants, after a slight decline, rose to earlier levels. Since the only other substantial source of organs for transplants in China, apart from Falun Gong, is prisoners sentenced to death, a decrease of sourcing from that population means an increase in sourcing from Falun Gong.

In the past, the death penalty was administered by gunshot. Today, lethal injection is the most common practice. The latter is beneficial for such purposes as retrieving organs, as they remain intact. Most executions in China take place in mobile buses. These “execution buses” are often parked right next to hospitals.

12. Corporate Social Responsibility

Some pharmaceutical companies, such as Novartis and Pfizer, have voluntarily pulled away from pharmaceutical trials of anti-rejection drugs in China because of ethical concerns. There is, however, still need for binding national regulation in this area. Arne Schwarz in “State Organs” and David Matas in a speech in Philadelphia detailed a wide range of pharmaceutical trials of anti-rejection drugs done in China. Some were conducted in hospitals from which our telephone investigators obtained admissions that they were selling organs of Falun Gong.

Recommendations

For organs trafficked in China, Matas and I would encourage Canadian MPs and senators and legislators in all parliaments to consider our recommendations, including, urging the Party-state in China to:

- cease the repression of Falun Gong;
- cease organ-pillaging from all prisoners;
- remove its military from the organ transplant business;
- establish and regulate a legitimate organ donor system;
- open all detention centres, including forced labour camps, for international investigation; and
- free Gao Zhisheng and many other prisoners of conscience.

Implement the following measures until organ pillaging from prisoners ceases:
- medical professionals in Japan and every country which respects human dignity should actively discourage their patients from going to China for transplant surgery;
- no government should issue visas to Chinese MDs for training in organ transplantation;
- MDs from outside China should not travel there to give training in transplant surgery;
- contributions submitted to medical journals about experience with transplants in China should be rejected; and
- pharmaceutical companies everywhere should be barred by their national governments from exporting to China any drugs used solely in transplant surgery.

Conclusion

Canada’s House and Senate should also enact measures to combat international organ transplant abuses: extraterritorial legislation, mandatory reporting of transplant tourism, health insurance systems not paying for transplant abroad, barring entry of those involved in trafficking organs.

Many of us in and beyond China might now have greater impact on the future of this grave matter, not only because it is necessary for tens of millions of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners and their families, who have been torn apart across China, but also because it is good for China and the international community as a whole. We all want a China that enjoys the rule of law, dignity for all, and democratic governance.

The above is an adaptation of a note presented on Feb. 5, 2013 to the Parliament of Canada, House of Commons Sub-Committee on International Human Rights, Ottawa.

David Kilgour was a Member of the Canadian Parliament from 1979 to 2006, and also served as Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) during 2002 and 2003. David Kilgour was nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. For further information, go to www.david-kilgour.com

Source:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/opinion/international-efforts-to-stop-forced-organ-harvesting-from-falun-gong-in-china-346056-all.html
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China: Local residents petition for Falun Gong releases

14 November 2011, 00:00 UTC

The Chinese authorities must immediately release two Falun Gong practitioners jailed for their beliefs in Hebei province, Amnesty International said today, as petitions by local residents calling for an end to their imprisonment reportedly reached almost 3,000 signatures.Zhou Xiangyang, 38, was released in 2009 after serving six years of a nine year prison sentence. He was detained again in March this year and is currently being held in Gangbei Prison in the northern city of Tianjin where he has reportedly been repeatedly tortured. After his wife issued an open letter detailing the couple’s hardships, she was detained on 29 October."In a gesture that’s rarely seen in China, thousands of ordinary people have dared to publicly show their support for individuals unfairly imprisoned and tortured in detention. This shows that the Chinese public is aware of and condemns persecution of people for their spiritual beliefs. It’s high time that the Chinese authorities heed this call and end their brutal suppression of the Falun Gong group," said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Asia."Zhou Xiangyang and his wife Li Shanshan must be released immediately. Given the pattern of retribution that is almost always seen against people who show any kind support for Falun Gong practitioners, we are urging the authorities not to target people who have peacefully petitioned for the release of Zhou Xiangyang," she added.The Chinese authorities have refused to inform Li Shanshan’s family or lawyer of her whereabouts. However, the Tangshan City Public Security Bureau told Li Shanshan’s mother and lawyer on 9 November that she had been sentenced to two years re-education through labour, and had been sent away. She was last seen on 4 November by her family at the Tangshan Legal Education Center, a type of detention center set up especially to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs,.Zhou Xiangyang has been on a hunger strike since his detention in March. His family were repeatedly interrogated and intimidated by local police over the petition earlier this month. Gangbei Prison is notorious for its ill-treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. In July this year, one practitioner, Li Xiwang, is reported to have died in the prison after being subjected to torture.Falun Gong is a spiritual movement which gained large numbers of supporters in China during the 1990s. After it staged a peaceful gathering in Tiananmen Square in July 1999, the government outlawed  the group as a "threat to social and political stability" .Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained as part of a campaign of intimidation and persection targeting the group. Practitioners have been held in psychiatric hospitals, re-education through Labour (RTL) facilities - a form of administrative detention imposed without charge, trial or judicial review - or sentenced to long prison terms.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2011/11/china-thousands-publicly-support-falun-gong-releases/
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All that I want from OP (and you) is a sensible way to distinguish "cult" from "religion".

Read carefully here>>>>> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13018417

I would prefer a simple definition; for me, it is not so easy to distinguish between "cult" and "religion".
I don't think you have made such a distinction anywhere in this thread.
You should easily be able to summarize your thesis about what is a cult in one sentence, preferably in a definition.
Could you tell me plainly in a few points what makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?

Mister, are You blind or You see not the picture with text?



http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/illegal
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/organization?q=organization
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All that I want from OP (and you) is a sensible way to distinguish "cult" from "religion".

Read carefully here>>>>> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13018417

I would prefer a simple definition; for me, it is not so easy to distinguish between "cult" and "religion".
I don't think you have made such a distinction anywhere in this thread.
You should easily be able to summarize your thesis about what is a cult in one sentence, preferably in a definition.
Could you tell me plainly in a few points what makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?

Have you tried Wikipedia, cult?
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Activity: 210
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All that I want from OP (and you) is a sensible way to distinguish "cult" from "religion".

Read carefully here>>>>> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13018417

I would prefer a simple definition; for me, it is not so easy to distinguish between "cult" and "religion".
I don't think you have made such a distinction anywhere in this thread.
You should easily be able to summarize your thesis about what is a cult in one sentence, preferably in a definition.
Could you tell me plainly in a few points what makes Falun Gong a cult and not a religion?
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
All that I want from OP (and you) is a sensible way to distinguish "cult" from "religion".

Read carefully here>>>>> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13018417
full member
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You point to those researchers, but they are mistaken about some things, as I mentioned earlier.
I am still waiting for your (or their) definition of "cult"; I don't think it is too much to ask for.
I have not read any racist or sexist statements in Zhuan Falun.
I have not been made aware of any racist acitivty by Falun Gong either.
Please quote the book or the instances of hateful activity and we can discuss.

The proof that Falong is cult may be you.

All that I want from OP (and you) is a sensible way to distinguish "cult" from "religion".
I don't think it is too much to ask for. Word meanings are important; this distinction is key to OP's claims.
OP claims that Dafa practitioners have no right to religious freedom because it is not a religion.
How so? I find that very hard to believe, and I am NOT a Dafa practitioner but I did read ZF several times.
So, I am not here to preach or defend but to understand;
I want to know: What is the basis of the argument that Falun Gong is a cult but not a religion?
legendary
Activity: 2898
Merit: 1386
You point to those researchers, but they are mistaken about some things, as I mentioned earlier.
I am still waiting for your (or their) definition of "cult"; I don't think it is too much to ask for.
I have not read any racist or sexist statements in Zhuan Falun.
I have not been made aware of any racist acitivty by Falun Gong either.
Please quote the book or the instances of hateful activity and we can discuss.

The proof that Falong is cult may be you.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
Chinese take protest to street in Newtown

Aug 1st, 2014 | By Finn Rainger |

POLICE and advertising complaints have been laid in a dispute between a Wellington Chinese newspaper and Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong protesters outside a Newtown shop have prompted the owner Kevin Zeng to lay a police complaint against the group.

The group want a public apology from Mr Zheng for an open letter published earlier this year which they claim printed incorrect and discriminating information.

Falun Gong members made complaints to the New Zealand Advertising Standards Authority, however the authority announced last week the complaint had not been upheld.

The protesters say they will appeal the decision.

 Followers of Falun Gong, a worldwide spiritual practice, have been protesting the letter for more than a month outside Rainbow Bridge, a convenience goods store in Newtown and also the listed address for Home Voice newspaper.

Newtown community constable Brittany Allan says police have received a complaint from the owner of the store, but the protestors are within their rights and have been peaceful and compliant.

Mr Zheng, who is also deputy chair of the Wellington Association for Promoting Peaceful Reunification of China, published the letter addressed to the Chinese community of Wellington on April 4 on behalf of the association.

Mr Zheng says the association is an independent organisation that advocates for the reunification of China and Taiwan and aims to promote change by influencing the Chinese community in Wellington.

The letter accuses Falun Gong, and the closely related Shen Yun performing arts show of “deception” and “lies”.

It was released four days prior to the Shen Yun performing arts show held in Wellington at the St James Theatre and urged the public not to attend.

The letter states: “These so called shows are simply not theatrical performances, but political tools of Falun Gong cult to amass wealth and engage in cult activities and anti China propaganda. It not only taints and distorts Chinese culture but also deceives, fools and poisons the audience.”

“The purpose of the show is not to display real traditional Chinese culture, but to smear Chinese image and damage China and New Zealand’s relationship.”

The letter also accuses Falun Gong of cult activities and social disruption.

Falun Gong practitioner and protestor Yan Jiang says Mr Zheng’s claims are false and he is using the name of freedom of speech to discriminate other’s freedom of belief.

“The article defames both Falun Gong and Shen Yun,” she says.

“It is the persecution of Falun Gong that has pushed practitioners to come out and stop the persecution.”

A pamphlet handed out by the protesters describes Falun Gong as a peaceful practice of the mind, body and spirit where by practitioners cultivate themselves according to the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.

They say Shen Yun Performing Arts is not politically motivated but is a world class arts show which aims to revive and celebrate 5000 years of traditional Chinese culture.

“We local Falun Gong practitioners believe the open letter published in Home Voice is unjust, unfair and completely lacking in principle.

“We therefore seek a public apology from the Home Voice publisher.”

Kevin Zheng says he has been on the receiving end of verbal attacks and has been harassed by protestors.

At this stage he says a public apology will not be made to Falun Gong because he has done nothing wrong and Home Voice newspaper is within its legal rights.

Dr Michael Radich, a Victoria University lecturer in Art History, Classics and Religious Studies says, the issue echoes Falun Gong’s treatment in China.

“The criticism was in the form of an open letter from a community organisation, and was not presented as journalistic coverage of the facts of the matter,” Dr Radich says.

“It could therefore perhaps be argued that the newspaper was merely providing a space for the voicing of a legitimate private opinion, as part of open public debate.”

However he says it is concerning that Falun Gong have been criticised in this manner, and the language of the letter echoes characterizations of Falun gong by the Chinese Government since the practice was declared illegal in 1999.

Westerner and Falun Gong practitioner, Margo MacVicar says Home Voice is spreading Chinese Communist Party propaganda in an attempt to turn the public against Falun Gong.

“It’s blatant slander and defamation and its happening worldwide,” she says.

Protestor Winny Ling says in China Falun Gong practitioners are hated because of the propaganda spread by the Chinese Communist Party.

She is protesting the letters criticism because she does not want that influence to spread in New Zealand.

“Many people will have read the letter, we don’t want people to hate Falun Gong in New Zealand because of it,” Ms Ling says.

 
Tags: advertising standards authority, Chinese Communist Party, chinese community, Falun Gong, Finn Rainger, Home Voice, newtown, protest, Shen Yun performing arts, Wellington Association for Promoting Peaceful Reunification of China
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250


New York Senate Leader and Son Are Arrested on Corruption Charges

By SUSANNE CRAIGMAY 4, 2015
Photo
State Senator Dean G. Skelos of Long Island and his son, Adam B. Skelos, arrived at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Manhattan on Monday morning. Credit Eduardo Munoz/Reuters


ALBANY — Dean G. Skelos, the leader of the New York State Senate, and his son were arrested on Monday by federal authorities on extortion, fraud and bribe solicitation charges, expanding the corruption investigation that has cast a renewed spotlight on Albany’s intractable corruption problem.

The charges against Senator Skelos, 67, and his son, Adam B. Skelos, 32, were detailed in a six-count criminal complaint that quickly became mandatory reading material in the Capitol building. Politicians and their staff members pored over the 43-page complaint — an often titillating document that included references to burner phones, secretly taped conversations and strong-arm tactics that were on display even during the wake of a slain police officer.

Senator Skelos, a Republican from Long Island, was accused of taking official actions to benefit a small Arizona environmental company, AbTech Industries, and a large New York developer, Glenwood Management, that had financial ties to AbTech. Senator Skelos agreed to do so, according to the complaint, as long as the companies paid his son.
Continue reading the main story
Document: Criminal Complaint Against Dean Skelos and Adam Skelos

The arrests came just months after federal bribery and kickback charges led Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, to step down from his position as speaker.

Mr. Skelos said on Monday that he was innocent of the charges against him, and Senate Republicans on Monday night backed his decision to remain in his leadership position. Still, the Senate corridors here were aflutter Monday with whispers about possible successors.

Senator Skelos’s arrest also raised the inevitable question of who federal prosecutors might target next.

For more than a year now, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, which oversaw the cases against both Mr. Silver and Mr. Skelos, has been waging a public campaign against corruption in Albany. Mr. Bharara has criticized the capital’s closed-door culture and its tradition of how deals are often made by Albany’s “three men in a room,” referring to the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader.

In 2014, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo abruptly shut down a commission that he had established to root out wrongdoing and bring reform to Albany, Mr. Bharara started an investigation into the decision to disband the panel and publicly asked whether the governor had “bargained away” corruption investigations as part of a deal with lawmakers.

On Monday, Mr. Bharara, who has been criticized for grandstanding, restricted his comments to Senator Skelos and his son.

“Dean Skelos’s support for certain infrastructure projects and legislation was often based not on what was good for his constituents or good for New York, but rather on what was good for his son’s bank account,” Mr. Bharara said, announcing the charges with Diego Rodriguez, the head of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In a brief court proceeding in Manhattan, a federal magistrate judge, Henry B. Pitman, ordered both men released with certain conditions. Senator Skelos’s lawyer, G. Robert Gage Jr., told the judge, “I can’t imagine anyone having deeper roots in the community” than his client.


Outside court, Senator Skelos said that he would be exonerated.

“I know that I will be found not only not guilty but innocent,” he said. “I have absolute confidence and respect for our judicial system here in the United States of America, and utmost respect for our judges and our juries. And that’s why I will be found innocent and my son will,” too, he said.
Continue reading the main story
Video
U.S. Attorney on Charges Against Skelos

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced on Monday the charges against State Senator Dean G. Skelos and his son, Adam B. Skelos. By Reuters on Publish Date May 4, 2015. Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters. Watch in Times Video »

Adam Skelos’s lawyer, Christopher P. Conniff, said, “Adam Skelos is not guilty of these charges and looks forward to fighting them in the courtroom.”

The case against Senator Skelos and his son grew out of a broad federal investigation focused on the younger man’s business dealings, some of which were reported last month by The New York Times, including payments that AbTech made to Adam Skelos over the course of several years.

AbTech sells spongelike filters to remove pollutants from storm water. The complaint says that from late 2010 through 2012, Senator Skelos pressured Glenwood to direct commissions to his son. The developer complied and arranged for Adam Skelos to receive almost $200,000 from AbTech.

In 2013, when Nassau County was considering awarding AbTech a contract that the senator was supporting behind the scenes, Adam Skelos told a cooperating witness that his father believed his compensation should be increased, and that if it was not, they would seek to block the contract. The county awarded the contract, worth as much as $12 million, to AbTech. Adam Skelos’s monthly installments jumped to $10,000 from $4,000.

The complaint portrays Senator Skelos as eager to use his political influence to generate income for his son, who has worked in recent years as a title insurance salesman. For example, the senator repeatedly urged a senior Glenwood executive to direct title insurance business to his son, according to the complaint. The executive ended up arranging for a title insurance company to make a $20,000 payment to Adam Skelos, disguised as a commission, even though he did no work for the money, the complaint says.

Adam Skelos made little secret of his father’s efforts to help his business interests. Frustrated that Nassau County was not acting promptly enough to pay AbTech, Adam Skelos suggested his father would retaliate. “I tell you this, the state is not going to do a [expletive] thing for the county,” he said on a recorded phone call in December.

As for Senator Skelos, the complaint says that he promoted and voted for legislation beneficial to Glenwood, and tried to secure changes to the state’s most recent budget that would have benefited AbTech.

It seems clear from another secretly recorded conversation cited in the complaint that Adam Skelos’s work with AbTech had little to do with his environmental expertise. In the conversation, recorded in February by a senior AbTech official after he began cooperating with investigators, Mr. Skelos acknowledged that he became a consultant for the company even though he “literally knew nothing about water or, you know, any of that stuff.”

The senior executive at Glenwood, who was deeply involved in the company’s political activities and campaign contributions, was also cooperating with federal authorities, according to the complaint. Alan Levine, a lawyer for Glenwood Management, declined to comment on the complaint.

A spokeswoman for AbTech, Lisa Linden, said the company “is cooperating and will continue to cooperate with federal authorities.”

Dean and Adam Skelos were each charged with two counts of extortion under the color of official right and two counts of solicitation of bribes and gratuities, with one count of each crime alleged in relation to Glenwood and one each in relation to AbTech. Both men are also charged with conspiracy to commit extortion and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.

Thomas Kaplan and Benjamin Weiser contributed reporting from New York.

A version of this article appears in print on May 5, 2015, on page A24 of the New York edition with the headline:
New York Senate Leader and Son Are Arrested on Federal Corruption Charges.


"Falun Gong" is proud by connection with such criminals - take a look at this disgusting website of racists:


http://hongzhi.li/knowflg/875.html
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2015/5/20/2015-5-20.html


LOL - http://anticult.kaiwind.com/xingao/zqtj/201507/01/t20150701_2603359.shtml (in chinese)
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