For 13 years, the Chinese Communist Party has carried out an extensive persecution campaign against the Falun Gong spiritual practice. Now, a US Consulate cable leaked by Wikileaks, suggests that campaign has fuelled frustration within the regime.
The cable came from the US Consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan province. It describes a 2009 internal order from the Communist Party’s central authorities. The order came ahead of the ten-year anniversary of Falun Gong’s persecution. It asked all levels of government to be on high alert.
An unnamed Chinese official expressed his exacerbation towards the order, saying “local governments at the township level issue perhaps two hundred of these orders every year! It is all formalism and a big waste of time!”
A Chinese Falun Gong practitioner says, though, orders like these have turned into very real cases of persecution. She described what a police told her once when she was arrested.
[Ms Chang, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
“The police chief said, if you kill someone I may not arrest you but if you practice Falun Gong, I’m sorry, I have to arrest you. Don’t blame me. The Communist Party is telling me to do this.”
But, despite the 13-year persecution campaign, the leaked cabled revealed that the Communist Party has had no success in eradicating the Falun Gong practice.
It says the popular proxy server software, Freegate, designed by Falun Gong practitioners, is being used by many people in China to break through censorship by the Chinese regime’s “Great Firewall.”
Article date:16/March/2013
Original article date: 21/February/2013
Category: Media Report