Gonged in China

>> Local Falun Gong practitioners observe the first anniversary of a Chinese crackdown

by JOHN EDMONDS

Slowly, gracefully, 30 of Montreal's roughly 200 Falun Gong practitioners made fluid gestures with their arms, their faces calm. The pouring rain didn't seem to bother them as they practiced their meditations in Angrignon Park last Sunday. But the harassment and torture of Falun Gong adherents in China gave them an inner disquiet which even this art of positive self-mind-control can't erase.

"Yu" is a Montreal woman who asked that her real name not be printed for fear of repercussions for her family back in China.

"My brother has been held in jail near Shanghai since July 7," Yu says. "This is the third time he has been imprisoned for practising Falun Gong. Our family has not been allowed to speak with him. It is very hard for my parents."

Yu says her brother was first arrested last summer for doing his meditations in public. But a brief stint in the local jail didn't stop him from going to the Chinese "appeals office," to complain about the repression of the art. "As soon as they knew he did Falun Gong, they detained him," says Yu. His third arrest came after he went to publicly meditate in Tienanmen Square in Beijing a few weeks ago. The family hasn't heard from him since.

More spiritual than tai chi, Falun Gong--often called Falun Dafa--was invented in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, a civil servant who felt that Chinese society was in moral decline and needed a new path to health and virtue. Practitioners aspire to this through meditation and stylized movements and by avoiding negative thoughts. And they claim to be apolitical.

But Falun Gong spread too rapidly for the liking of the Chinese government, who estimate the movement's membership at 10-70 million. The government also alleges the group is a superstitious cult whose members refuse medical treatment. Montreal Falun Gongers denied this, but some did claim to believe in paranormal phenomena and prehistoric civilizations.

"Even in China, very little is actually known about the group," says Mike Jendrzejczyk of Human Rights Watch. "But I think the main reason the Chinese government cracked down is Falun Gong's ability to mobilize mass protests," says Jendrzejczyk. Jendrzejczyk says a key incident was when 10,000 practitioners surrounded Beijing's Communist Party leaders' compound in April 1999. This protest against growing harassment was peaceful, but shocked the government, which then banned the group in July 1999. Mass arrests and a slander campaign have been the rule ever since.

Montreal practitioner Yumin Yang says that, while Canada was the first nation to condemn the crackdown, its record since then has been weak. "When Secretary of State for Asia Pacific Raymond Chan visited China in June, he said the human rights situation on the coast had improved. This is not accurate," says Yang.

Yang also hoped that Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy would raise the issue in his recent July 14-15 visit to China. But Foreign Affairs staff told the Mirror that Falun Gong wasn't on Axworthy's agenda.

However, a July 20 press conference in support of Falun Gong at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa was attended by Liberal deputy whip Marlene Catterall. :

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