Literally – Libertarianz leader Bernard Darnton’s website, FreeSpeech.org.nz is banned in China. Surprisingly, so is Pacific Empire. Bernard’s blog Section 14 has been very critical of China, but China is not often mentioned on this little blog.

Test your own URL at the Great Firewall of China website – the results might shock you. It brings home the reality of censorship in a very personal way.

Falun Gong protest outside the Chinese Embassy, Wellington NZ

This reminds me of how the kow-towing of the New Zealand Government – and the Wellington City Council – essentially amounts to the import of repressive practices from a foreign dictatorship. New Zealanders should not accept it. I live very close to the Chinese Embassy, and so I always see Falun Gong members meditating in silent protest at their persecution. I admire their persistence and determination – they stay out there for hours, even in pouring rain! But the Green Party’s Frogblog reports that Chinese dissident religious group Falun Gong was excluded from the Cuba St. Carnival, allegedly at the request of the Chinese government:

Wellington City Council have kicked Falun Gong out of the Cuba Street parade, after previously allowing them in. The word is that the Council told them that the Chinese Embassy had paid for the big Chinese New Year celebration and the Chinese Embassy did not want Falun Gong in the parade, so they had to go.

The Greens and the Libertarianz were both denied space at the parade – I guess the WCC wanted to make it non-political. But Falun Gong is not primarily a political group. From Section 14:

Regular Section 14 readers will remember that Falun Gong were also excluded from Wellington’s Christmas parade.

One of the biggest upsides of globalisation is that as well as Coca-Cola and Versace, people in dictatorships like China also get a taste for other Western goods like freedom of expression. It would be a travesty if the reverse were to occur and we imported this dictatorship’s repressive policies into New Zealand.

The NZ government has also been unduly restrictive with Free Tibet protestors – stopping them from protesting at Parliament, and at the APEC meeting in Auckland, chartering buses to block the protestors so Jiang Zemin wouldn’t notice them, etc. This was circumvented at Parliament by the late Green MP Rod Donald, with a one-man protest – leading to massive agitation among the Chinese entourage, and an attempt to shield him with two very large security guards! Absolutely disgraceful. OK, now they really have a reason to ban my blog!

  • ScoopIt
  • Reddit
  • NewsVine
  • del.icio.us
  • Digg
  • Technorati
  • StumbleUpon
  • SphereIt
  • TailRank

14 Responses to “China Blocks Our Free Speech”

Falun Gong’s vivisection allegation has been discredited by multiple undercover investigations.

US government and Chinese dissident investigations:

1) http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=April&x=20060416141157uhyggep0.5443231&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL33437.pdf (section CRS-7)

2) http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060806_1.htm

http://www.cicus.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=6492

3) http://crc.gov.my/clinicalTrial/documents/Proposal/TCM_Stroke%20TrialProtocol%20synopsis.pdf (page 3)

As you can see, the hospital Falun Gong accused is partly owned by a Malaysian health care company and is subject to oversight beyond Chinese authority.

Gravatar

[...] Hat tip: Pacific Empire. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

Gravatar

[...] Update: Pacific Empire’s Phil is on this too. [...]

Gravatar

After exposing Charles Lui and other his aliases on several Blogs around the sphere many hosts were also aware of Charles insensible tactics and also understood that he was professional of some sort.

The following is what a few of us have discovered and even though he always denies hes a spy (and of course he would) and who hes working for he seems to always turn attack by being emotive and bleating about how uncompassionate we all are which are typical tactics of disseminating propaganda .
So here is the United Fronts Works Department story.
It has brought to my attention a person calling himself Charles lui is posting comments to many blogs – I estimate over 100 trying to discredit the Kilgour/Matas report.

I highly suspect Charles Lui, who in one blog denies he is Chinese, is part of China’s United Front Works Department, which is at the heart of China’s intelligence operations, which I briefly describe below.

Charles who refers to living in Seattle, also uses two other aliases Bobby Fletcher and Sunday Service and he has five blogs of his own.
I honestly got tired scanning 100 web sites, but I am sure researchers could find many more.
Charles alias Bobby needs to be exposed as he truly represents the deceptive tactics used by Communist China to spread disinformation.
I think Bobby Fletcher AKA Charles Liu AKA Sunday Service AKA (fill in the blanks) needs to be outed, as although his lies are seen through by many, he will still create doubts in the minds of others many others and that is part of the tactics of the United Front Works Department – playing percentage games.

One only has to look at how tens of millions believed in Mao to know these techniques work.
Incidentally you will notice that he also has a web site that the Tiananmen Square massacre did not happen.
http://www2.blogger.com/profile/17988368193662201410
and has a site devoted to inciting hatred against Falun Gong at
http://falungongpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/02/another-example-of-falun-gongs-hidden.html

Highlights of the United Front Works Department
The first words in Mao’s Analysis of the lasses in Chinese Society written in 1926 begins:

Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?
This simple idea laid the foundation for the heart of China’s
intelligence operations known as political action work or political work. In China it became known as the United Front Work whose
deceptive strategy is designed to win the support of non¬Party “friends” and to isolate and destroy “enemies.” Deception is a key
part of their strategy.

Chinese United Front Works Department are usually involved in letter writing campaigns and insight groups to complain about ‘racist’remarks against the Chinese which often makes Western media fearful of offending the ethnic Chinese population and hence do not write articles that are negative about China.
Again its a simple idea, but it works and once one becomes aware of it, one sees it in operation all the time.
Most of China’s intelligence activities abroad are legal. That is why they are so successful. But, most governments are completely ignorant
about how Chinese intelligence operates.
China’s United Front strategy is based upon “co-opting whosoever can be co-opted and isolating your enemy.”

Falun Gong is clearly seen as an enemy by the Chinese communist regime which it has isolated since 1999.
So the campaign is on to discredit the report on organ harvesting and create doubts about its credibility. And of course they continue their misinformation campaign about the Falun Gong.
A friend who is a journalist in Quebec has sent me a number of comments in blogs that show to me that the United Front Works Department is probably in operation there as well, as seeds are sown to discredit the report. Trying to defend the report, she is now being attacked!
Have journalists been co-opted? It would be naive to think otherwise.

I have spent many hours over many days trying to help Bobby /Charles to see the error of his ways/. Bobby even found my private email and began sending me propaganda about Falun Gong as Charles Lui from Seattle.
There are 80,000 internet spies employed by the most repressive evil regime on the planet. Bobby is but one of them.

Gravatar

Thanks for the information, Jana. I will continue to be skeptical about Charles Liu’s comments, as I am about the scale of the alleged Falun Gong organ harvesting (I have no doubts about their persecution in general, though).

Regardless of the truth of those claims, and no matter if they are a weird cult or not, the Falun Gong have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of worship. That those rights are denied in China is shameful.

Gravatar

HI Phil sometimes we just have to make a stand because sometime in the future we may not have that right. With the suppression of all information inside China it is very hard to finalize numbers. But if you go to any of the websites mentioned in the report check out the availibility of organs for sale and you will realize by sheer numbers alone that there is a huge live organ bank ready for donation when blood and tissue are matched in sometimes as little as a week or even a few days.. this is unheard of anywhere in the world. Even India who have the same population.

Check out his site run by a non Falun Gong practitioenr who regularly posts many articles about China and the atrocities committed there.

http://coverforaction.blogspot.com/index.html

Gravatar

Interestingly enough, neither Coming Anarchy nor my blog has been blocked, both of which contained some criticism of China’s actions in Xinjiang. Bizarre.

Gravatar

I find it ironic that a well documented FLG blogsphere operative like Jana Shearer is accusing others:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Jana+Shearer+Dafa

I’ll ask Jana again to provide the proof of her accusation against me.

Gravatar

Hey guys,

I thought you might be interested in reading this piece about Bobby Fletcher/Charles Liu who’s commented on your blog. He’s been all over the blogosphere discrediting the organ harvesting report. Have a look.

Western Standard (Alberta): Sowing Confusion; Embarrassed by reports of live organ harvesting, China’s sympathizers launch a high-tech disinformation campaign
http://organharvestinvestigation.net/media/WesternStandard_040907.htm

April 9, 2007 Monday
Final Edition

HEADLINE: Sowing Confusion; Embarrassed by reports of live organ harvesting,

China’s sympathizers launch a high-tech disinformation campaign

BYLINE: Kevin Steel, Western Standard

He posts his messages everywhere under several different names on Internet blogs and discussion groups. He writes letters to the editor anywhere and sends e-mails to anyone–anyone who might take seriously shocking evidence that the Chinese government “harvests” and sells live organs from political prisoners. His main message is that the Falun Gong–the group which first brought evidence of live organ harvesting to light–and the Epoch Times newspaper that broke that story are spreading propaganda against China’s Communist government. And he’s not even Chinese. He is Charles Liu, a 40-year-old Taiwanese-born technology consultant who lives in Issaquah, Wash., and does business in China.

Liu has been so active and so pro-Beijing in his writings that some Falun Gong supporters–in particular Epoch Times reporter Jana Shearer–have accused him of being an agent for the Chinese government, waging a disinformation campaign against them, trying to confuse people, and deliberately wasting everyone’s time.

It’s a charge that upsets Liu, who dismisses it as “a bunch of kooky friends making unfounded accusations. It’s just a bunch of blog BS.” As for why he devotes so much energy to attacking the Falun Gong and the organ harvesting allegations, he says, “My position is that I simply don’t agree with their brand of politics, because I observed their politics turning from anti-Communist party, to anti-China, . . . and recently it’s morphed into this anti-Chinese hysteria and that’s going to be hurting people,” he says. As an Asian-American, he says he decided to speak up.

He doesn’t really explain, when asked, why he started a blog last year called “The Myth of Tiananmen Square Massacre” under the name of Bobby Fletcher (one of his online aliases, which he also uses to comment on the Western Standard’s online blog). On that blog, he pushes the minimal 250 casualty figure that the Chinese government has always maintained died that night in 1989 (more reliable estimates put the figure at at least ten times that).

Liu’s actions mirror disinformation campaigns waged by the Chinese government in the past. Typically, these include the deliberate spreading of false or misleading facts to sow confusion or doubt among the conflicting accounts. The classic example is the Tiananmen Square massacre; the Chinese government has maintained that no one died in the square itself, that there was only pushing and shoving on the streets around the square, resulting in a few military casualties. Overseas, the CCP relies on its United Front Work department, part of the Chinese intelligence service, to propagate its message. During the Cold War, the Soviets employed many overseas flunkies through their Disinformation Department.

Former Canadian MP David Kilgour, who co-authored a report on China’s macabre organ harvesting industry, has received many propaganda e-mails from Liu. For instance, Liu has written repeatedly that a U.S. congressional committee looked into the organ harvesting allegations and found nothing.

“[David] Matas and I gave evidence to that subcommittee and got support from both the Republican chairman and the Democratic vice-chair,” says Kilgour. “I just came to the conclusion he was trying to waste my time, and I have other things to do.”

Winnipeg-based human rights lawyer, and Kilgour’s co-author, David Matas, really doesn’t know what to make of Liu. “I don’t know who he is, but what he does is spend a lot of time replicating nonsense to defend the Chinese government,” Matas says.

The only concern Matas has is that Liu seems to know who he and Kilgour met with in the United States to discuss their report. Matas discovered Liu had sent e-mails to politicians–and their staff–prior to the meetings. “The only people who would have that information would potentially be the Chinese government. I can’t imagine how Liu would know we were meeting with those people,” Matas says. “We’re not super-secretive, but you can’t find information on the Internet or in any public place about who we’re meeting with, where and when.” He himself has received at least 10 e-mails from Liu, all of which he’s ignored. Maybe Matas is onto something with that approach.

GRAPHIC:
Colour Photo: CP, Dave Cahn; David Kilgour (left) and David Matas, co-authors of a report on China’s organ harvesting industry: How does Liu know who they’re meeting with?

LOAD-DATE: March 29, 2007

Gravatar

Hey, thanks for that, Makina.

This Chinese disinformation campaign is especially sinister because it is exporting repression into supposedly free countries like NZ. Dissident Chinese students and journalists in NZ are subjected to bullying and pressure by Chinese authorities already. But increasingly the NZ government is bowing to Chinese pressure and blocking anti-Chinese protestors, or even in one recent case allowing police to throw a journalist out of the room when a Chinese official objected to his presence. I note you’ve also commented on NZ mayors succumbing to Chinese “requests” to not attend an event including the Falun Gong. It’s a very worrying trend.

Gravatar

As though the mere presence of apparent Chinese Disinformatsia wasn’t creepy enough:

“in one recent case allowing police to throw a journalist out of the room when a Chinese official objected to his presence.”

Ponderous and frightening.

Gravatar

Did Jana Shearer mention she works for FLG newspaper Epoch Times?

And I’m not the only person she has accused of being a Chinese spy. I’ve tracked down two other bloggers.

Jana just attack people who disagree with her.

I stand by my research (US embassy report, Chinese dissident secret investigation) and welcome any correction.

Gravatar

I think being a Chinese spy is a bit more damning than being an Epoch Times reporter, Charles.

Here’s what one of your links says:

“Independent of these specific allegations, the United States remains concerned over China’s repression of Falun Gong practitioners and by reports of organ harvesting, the State Department said”

“Fourthly, I do not want my words to be used by the Beijing authorities to conceal or lessen their evil deeds”

“The Chinese Communist Government is an evil regime that commits many atrocities including the persecution of the Falun Gong”

So your links cast doubt on just one aspect of the persecution story, and they all agree that China is repressive, guilty of persecution, and/or an evil regime.

Gravatar

Hi Phil, I thought you might want to look at this letter from David Matas clearing the facts about that US inspection that Bobby/Charles Liu talks about–you know the show-tour inspections including that of Harry Wu et al. I love it when the communist propaganda disintegrates for all to see.

Cheers. M.
—————-letter–

No inconsistency: David Matas

The Ottawa Citizen -Published: Thursday, August 16, 2007

Re: Former MP pushes for Beijing Games boycott, Aug. 9.

The Citizen reported that researchers for the U.S. Congress concluded that some of the key allegations in the report David Kilgour and I wrote on organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China “appear to be inconsistent with the findings of other investigations.” Yet there are no such other investigations.

The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, which the article quotes, footnotes its conclusion. But the footnote cites the U.S. Department of State Country report for China for 2005, written long before our report was published.

The only studies or investigations independent from our own that have looked at the matter — those of Kirk Allison of the University of Minnesota and Tom Treasure, a British transplant surgeon writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine — have come to the same conclusion as we have; that this foul practice is happening.

David Matas, Co-author of Bloody Harvest
Winnipeg

Gravatar

Something to say?