Studies / Reports: May 2006 Archives
The Epoch Times
May 28, 2006
Fearful of public gatherings, officials ban dragon boat festival
The Dragon Boat Festival (May 31) has a long history in Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province, China. The boat race commemorates the great patriotic poet, Qu Yuan (about BC 340-277) in China. However, the local communist authorities worried that the activity might attract too many people in one place. Allegedly fearful that such a large group of people might cause accidents or conflicts, the local communist regime banned the race by cutting in half about 1,000 dragon boats.
The action was revealed by a government official who participated in the plan but wanted to remain anonymous. The destruction caused many complaints from villagers.
According to Tengxun News Net and Apple Daily, Yuehu Security sub-bureau in Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province recently made this statement: "In order to build a new rural village under socialism, the authorities prohibited people from making or buying any materials relating to dragon boats through collecting money or donations."
The authorities also said that because "the location does not conform to security conditions," and the dragon boat racing activity may seriously affect social order, the authorities decided to completely ban the celebration.
By Thom Shanker | The New York Times
May 23, 2006
WASHINGTON, May 23 — China's leadership has not satisfactorily explained its military expansion and goals, even as it modernizes its forces to be able to challenge foreign armed forces operating in the region, the Defense Department said in a report released Tuesday.
"China's leaders have yet to adequately explain the purposes or desired end-states of their military expansion," according to the 2006 report, "Military Power of the People's Republic of China." "Estimates place Chinese defense expenditure at two to three times officially disclosed figures."
The 50-page report, delivered annually to Congress, is at www.defenselink.mil/pubs
By Verna Yu | Agence France Presse
China's state-controlled media have been silent over the 40th anniversary of the start of the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, still seen as a taboo subject that haunts the country.
All mainstream media -- newspapers, television and radio stations -- stayed mum on the subject as did popular websites, whose chatrooms are normally filled with lively discussions on topical issues.
Searches on Tuesday for "Cultural Revolution" under the news section on China's most popular search engine, Baidu, yielded no results while specific websites focused on the period were not accessible.
Apart from several regional or academic magazines with limited circulation that have published articles on the troubled decade during the past two months, there has been a virtual media black-out on the issue.
The Communist Party's propaganda department controls the nation's media, giving the authorities powerful leverage to decide what gets reported.
By Luis Ramirez | Voice of America
This week marks 40 years since Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong launched a 10-year movement known as the "Cultural Revolution." The movement was meant to do away with most elements of China's past and push the country to a new, purer socialist, egalitarian state. The result for China was devastating, as historical and cultural artifacts were destroyed. Millions of people suffered persecution - sometimes from their own neighbors, colleagues and friends. Many Chinese view the period as a stain on their country's history and a time many would rather not remember.
REUTERS
Dozens of Shanghai residents protested on Wednesday over their forced relocation to a remote corner of China in the 1960s, defying the official silence on the 40th anniversary of the chaotic Cultural Revolution.
The 150 or so protesters, many carrying signs reading "there's nothing wrong with petitioning," gathered outside the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, which includes a petitions office where citizens can bring complaints to the government.
Most were sent to Xinjiang, China's most northwesterly province, as part of a Maoist "learn from the masses" campaign where they were forced into hard physical labor.
When able to return to Shanghai years or decades later, they often found their old houses in new hands. And the official silence over the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long period of social upheaval, has left victims without compensation.
Agence France Presse | The Philippine Daily Inquirer
May 15, 2006 (05:56 am Manila time)
Tragedy of Cultural Revolution recalled
BEIJING -- Forty years ago on Tuesday, Chairman Mao Zedong unleashed China’s infamous Cultural Revolution -- a decade of terror and violence that continues to haunt both the country and its people.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, now officially referred to as “10 years of catastrophe,” was to unravel in a disaster that claimed millions of lives and pushed China to the brink of economic and social collapse.
The movement officially began on May 16, 1966, with a directive from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief Mao charging that “representatives of the bourgeoisie” had infiltrated all levels of the party and intended to establish a “dictatorship.”
The motives for the Cultural Revolution’s launch are complex, although Mao’s intention to eliminate people who threatened him politically is now seen as a stronger reason than his apparent desire to create social equality through eradication of a new class of exploitative bureaucratic rulers.
“Mao told people that he wanted to realize a fair and equal society. He deceived people by saying that (inequality) was due to his enemies,” Xu Youyu, a philosophy professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Agence France-Presse recently.
The Epoch Times
10 May 2006
The International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) honored the German edition of The Epoch Times—Die Neue Epoche —with a special media prize for its "extensive and regular reporting" about violations of human rights in China. The presentation took place last week-end during the annual general meeting of the IGFM in Königstein am Taunus.
The first prize went to Bernd Ziesemer, the editor-in-chief of the Handelsblatt, for his editorial "Ugly China."
Ziesemer stressed in his speech that economic success did not automatically go along with progress in the area of human rights and that businessmen should not become allies of human rights violators.
Die Neue Epoche online (Germany)
09 May 2006
Die internationale Gesellschaft für Menschrechte (IGFM) hat Die Neue Epoche für ihre „umfangreiche und regelmäßige Berichterstattung“ über Menschenrechtsverletzungen in China mit einem Medien-Sonderpreis ausgezeichnet. Die Preisverleihung fand am vergangenen Wochenende im Rahmen der Jahreshauptversammlung der IGFM in Königstein am Taunus statt.
Der erste Preis ging an Bernd Ziesemer, den Chefredakteur des Handelsblattes, für seinen Leitartikel „Das hässliche China“.
Ziesemer betonte in seiner Rede, dass wirtschaftlicher Erfolg nicht automatisch mit Fortschritten im Bereich der Menschenrechte einhergingen und dass sich Unternehmer nicht zu Erfüllungsgehilfen von Menschenrechtsverletzern machen dürften.
The Epoch Times
02 May 2006
On April 28, a Sound of Hope journalist made contact with one kidney transplant surgeon in Beijing. The surgeon said, because there were more organ donors in Sichuan province, China, he had been temporarily transferred to Sichuan local military hospital to help out. The doctors in the Air Force Hospital admitted they had young and healthy Falun Gong practitioner donors.
[Download telephone recording from Sound of Hope. ]
Tsinghua University Yuquan Hospital, also known as No. 2 Affiliated Hospital of Tsinghua University, is a noted kidney transplant centre. Kidney Transplant Department Chief Li Honghui said that every year the centre performed over 100 transplants but recently, the donor pool in Beijing was a shrinking, so two months ago, he was transferred to a military hospital in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province to assist with the overload; that region had plenty of donors.
Li Honghui: "We were in the military district!"
Journalist: "Is it because there were more kidney donors, that you went there to perform surgeries?"
Li Honghui: "Yes"
Li said that it was several years ago that organs mostly came from Falun Gong practitioner; when the journalist asked whether they could provide Falun Gong practitioner donor organs, he answered, "Yes."
Li Honghui: "It happened that for the past several years that donor organs were from Falun Gong practitioners."
Journalist: "Do you mean that this type of donor was quite easy to get several years ago."
Li Honghui: "That's true."
Journalist: "Can you supply young and healthy donors, such as people who practice Falun Gong?"
Li Honghui: "This request can be considered, I will tell you when the time comes"
Li Honghui said there would be a batch of kidneys on April 30.
【大纪元5月1日讯】（希望之声记者李思思 唐梅采访报导）记者4月28日联系北京肾移植的主刀医生，他表示，由于四川成都的供体来源多所以被调派到当地部队医院支援，连续三日空军医院的医生都坦承，有年轻健康、炼法轮功的供体。
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北京清华大学附属第二医院玉泉医院是肾移植中心，李主任(宏辉)说他们每年做一百多例。而最近由于北京供体比较紧张，所以一两个月前，他被调派到肾源多的地区四川成都，协助当地的部队医院----空军医院进行肾移植。
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