Word: crackdown
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What about politics? This is Washington, after all. Each day Falun Gong followers--mostly ethnic Chinese--can be found protesting across from the Beijing government's embassy. "Before the crackdown [on Falun Gong in China]," says Feuerberg, "no one spoke about politics. There was no agenda. Yet those suffering in China are like 1st century Christian martyrs. We must stand by them while showing compassion to their oppressors." That's a very American approach. It wouldn't get you far in Beijing...
...millions of followers?and stunned the government by bringing, on a few days' notice, 10,000 practitioners to the pavement in April 1999 outside the compound that houses China's top leaders. As recently as last winter, dozens arrived in Tiananmen Square nearly every day to protest the crackdown touched off by that show of grit and numbers. By contrast, on the recent second anniversary of the massive April protest, only 30 people reached the square. Most practitioners, like Liu, seem to have surrendered their faith, or at least say they have. Other die-hard elements "have cast...
...COVER STORY About Falun Gong | Crackdown Li Hongzhi | Modern religion in China | Your Views...
...higher levels. Li taught his practice through tapes and essays, which followers studied, and no one was permitted to interpret or question his words. He taught that physical suffering?including, possibly, the type meted out in prison camps?helps practitioners improve their karma and should be courted. Since the crackdown began, Li has vehemently attacked the party and its "evil" leader Jiang Zemin. He once praised demonstrators who "lose everything" and implied that those who stay home quietly have "reached understanding with the evil beings...
...protest stunned the leadership, Falun Gong's membership rolls terrified it: included on it were retired communist elders and military officers. So the crackdown, when it began three months after the huge demonstration, stretched from the party's own ranks to the remotest rice paddies. A nationwide "responsibility system" put the onus on local police and government workers, factory bosses and family members to find practitioners and get them to renounce their beliefs. Police sentenced more than 10,000 followers to labor camps, and reliable reports say more than 220 people have died in custody...