[iwar] [fc:Falun.Gong.hijack.TV.in.second.Chinese.city]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-05-15 06:16:47


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Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 06:16:47 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Falun.Gong.hijack.TV.in.second.Chinese.city]
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Falun Gong hijack TV in second Chinese city

BEIJING, May 10 (Reuters) - Defiant members of the banned Falun Gong
spiritual group hijacked the airwaves of a second northeastern Chinese city
in April to show footage protesting a government crackdown on their faith,
witnesses said on Friday.

Images touting the virtues of Falun Gong were broadcast on thousands of
television sets in a district of the industrial hub of Harbin on the night
of April 21, a TV repairman told Reuters.

"I heard it went on for about five minutes," said the worker in Harbin,
capital of Heilongjiang province which borders Russia. "Other sub-districts
in the city were not affected."

A local broadcast bureau official confirmed the incident had taken place but
would give no details. Police and government officials declined comment.

The move was the latest in a string of high profile attempts by Falun Gong
to try and convince the public that adherents suffer wrongful persecution by
a Communist government which is trying to crush it.

Falun Gong hacked into a cable television broadcast in the northeastern city
of Changchun on March 5 to show a similar film.

The airings have been among the group's most daring actions since it was
banned in 1999 after followers shocked leaders with a mass protest at their
Beijing leadership compound to demand recognition of their faith.

In late March, Falun Gong adherents slipped poems by their exiled leader Li
Hongzhi into an economic page of the Guangzhou Daily newspaper describing
suffocating sandstorms over China, alluding to widespread death and imminent
salvation.

China, always on the look out for seeds of social unrest, is particularly
wary of threats to one-party rule given plans for a critical leadership
reshuffle late this year and wrenching economic reforms which have thrown
millions out of work.

"EVOLVING METHODS"

Falun Gong, which combines traditional Chinese exercise with Taoism and
Buddhism, appears to be turning to new tactics such as intrusions into state
press following a nationwide crackdown.

Followers, once believed to number millions, have been driven underground
and now rarely protest in Beijing's politically sensitive Tiananmen Square
where a rash of foreigners have unfurled protest banners and deported in
recent months.

The New York-based Falun Dafa Information Centre said earlier in a statement
the group had hijacked the airways of large Chinese cable networks five
times in the past three months. This could not be independently verified.

Police have arrested more than 20 Falun Gong members for the March 5
incident. They could face prison terms of up to 15 years, according to
Chinese officials.

The New York centre also said that Falun Gong's methods of trying to bring
an end to persecution in China were evolving but the message remained the
same.

"No longer appealing just in Beijing, practitioners and supporters of Falun
Gong clarify the truth about the persecution on thousands of street corners,
sign-posts, highway overpasses and increasingly, on millions of televisions
throughout China," it said.

China's campaign against Falun Gong has drawn sharp criticism from some U.S.
rights groups who maintain the International Olympic Committee overlooked
human rights considerations in the world's most populous country.

Some rights groups hope the 2008 Beijing Olympics will encourage greater
scrutiny of China's rights record and be a catalyst for change for the
better.

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