Internal Arrangements Made by the Epoch Times, the Falun Gong Newspaper, to Fabricate

[retiaw]

Yesterday, a friend who works for the Epoch Times in San Francisco, revealed a particularly interesting story. On the very night of April 10 when the China Central Television broadcast the news about Bo Xilai, the Epoch Times’ senior managers immediately convened a meeting of San Francisco-based backbone staff editors and reporters for discussion on how to use the “Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun” event to launch a psychological propaganda campaign against the Chinese government. This friend of mine was half-way home when notified of the intended meeting and therefore had to return to office right away to attend the meeting.

According to this friend, Vice President of the Epoch Times, Li Jiguang, presided over the meeting. At the meeting, Li orally conveyed the position held by the high-level leaders of Falun Gong on the propaganda campaign, that is, the Epoch Times can report the impact of the “Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun”event in any manner. However, in order to distinguish such reports (ie the reports on the “Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun ”event) from the reports in respect of the “democratic movement”, emphasis should be laid on two issues. First, reports published by the Eposh Times should highlight the negative impacts of the position of persecuting Falun Gong which are constantly adhered to by relevant senior Chinese government leaders, including Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun already dismissed by the Chinese government. Second, such reports on the senior Chinese government leaders should also highlight the impact of activities of the Falun Gong followers by mentioning as much as possible how Falun Gong followers have struggled against these leaders. The overall goal intended to achieve through this propaganda campaign is to improve the visibility of Falun Gong.

The friend said, at the meeting, Li Jiguang indicated that the Epoch Times would double the pay for reports in this respect for the purpose of maximizing the influence of this propaganda campaign. Moreover, additional rewards will be given to reports having more significant impacts. Li Jiguang repeatedly said at the meeting that, however much the cost of such reports is, it will be worth paying as long as the reports can cause trouble to the Chinese government, and the Epoch Times does not lack backing economically.

The friend said, Li Jiguang at the meeting requested that the Epoch Times staff editors should also be involved in writing the reports, or alternatively should ask their acquaintances to write such reports. Li smiled and claimed that “one must not let one’s own fertile water flow into outsiders’ fields”.

 

[waltky]

Chinese persecution of Falun Gong members continues taking their organs...

Investigators: China Continues Human Organ Harvesting
June 24, 2016 - In 2006, Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian Asia-Pacific Secretary of State David Kilgour began an investigation into accusations of the Chinese government's role in harvesting the organs of Falun Gong practitioners.

Their published findings, "Bloody Harvest: Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China," attracted international attention. On Wednesday, they published an even more comprehensive report that says not only has the scale of organ harvesting significantly increased, but prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners, remain the primary target. According to their latest findings, the number of China's annual organ transplant surgeries far surpasses Beijing's official estimate of 10,000. "We look at individual hospitals that do transplants through their websites, their publications, their newsletters, their back calendars and patient volume and so on, and at a variety of indicators going hospital by hospital," Matas told VOA. "There are around 900 hospitals that do transplants. We don't give a specific figure but we can say it is much larger than the 10,000 a year — at minimum 60,000 a year and probably more than that."

Falun Gong practitioners simulate organ harvesting in a mock Chinese labor camp in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei, Taiwan, April 23, 2006, in protest against China's suspected abuse and killing of Falun Gong members.​

China's former Health Minister Huang Jiefu once stated that, prior to 2014, executed prisoners were the main source of harvested organs. However, China puts to death only a few thousand prisoners annually, leaving a large supply of harvested organs unsourced. Matas and Kilgour concluded that Falun Gong prisoners of conscience were the primary source of the organ supply.

Documentary film corroboration

In 2015, Canadian documentary filmmaker Leon Lee won a Peabody Award for Human Harvest, which follows Matas and Kilgour as they interview patients and their family members who went to China to have organ transplant surgery. "In Canada and America, the waiting time to receive kidneys or livers can be two or three years; most of the patients we interviewed waited two weeks at most — it was less than a month before they went to have the surgery," Lee told VOA. Lee said investigators posing as transplant patients recorded calls to more than 100 hospitals inquiring about problems relating to organ transplant procedures.

Indonesian Falun Gong followers carry placards during a protest in front of U.S. embassy in Jakarta, April 19, 2006. A group of protesters called on U.S. President George W. Bush to raise the issue of China harvesting organs from Chinese people during his talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.​

They discovered that, when asked about the source of the organs, approximately 15 percent of doctors admitted the organs were mainly from Falun Gong practitioners. "Among the top-rated hospitals we investigated, we discovered that hospitals with an organ-transplant department had a huge growth trend in the number of organ transplants after the year 2000," he said. "We believe that this organized governmental action is widespread throughout the whole country, not private affairs conducted by an individual doctor and a public security organ."

Testimonies in exile

Before Crystal Chen came to the United States, she was twice detained by Chinese authorities who placed her in a women's forced labor camp in Guangzhou. Speaking with VOA from New York, she recalls "special health benefits" Falun Gong practitioners received at the camp. "I remembered they performed blood tests on us Falun Gong practitioners, not just once, but regularly, and it was to prepare for a possible match," she said. Fellow Falun Gong practitioner Ma Chunmei also completed multiple sentences in a women's forced labor camp in Jilin province before arriving on U.S. soil in 2004. One day in 2002, she was forcibly taken for bone marrow testing at a hospital, despite her otherwise perfect health. "I knew they wanted to harm me," Ma recalled. "They performed three blood tests but gave me no results. After I was released from the camp, one of practitioners, who happened to be a doctor, told me they were doing a bone marrow test to see if my kidney was a match."

Falun Gong practitioners simulate organ harvesting in a mock Chinese labor camp in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei, Taiwan, April 23, 2006, in protest against China's suspected abuse and killing of Falun Gong members.​

In 2002, Meng Lan was sentenced to forced labor for attending a Falun Gong event in Beijing. Her detention featured not only multiple episodes of torture by camp officials, but twice weekly blood tests. According to Zhang Erping, a spokesman for the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Center, Chinese officials have a specific reason for targeting Falun Gong practitioners. "When Western reporters posing as transplant patients inquired about the origins of the organs, some hospitals directly told them the organs came from Falun Gong practitioners because they exercise and are healthy so the organs are guaranteed to have no problems," he told VOA.

International condemnation