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Question List for Interviewing Chinese Officials
(10/19/2002 10:58)Interviewing officials from Jiang's regime about the Falun Gong issue can seem like an exercise in futility, as they are very well versed in deflecting questions regarding human rights. We have compiled this list of questions that make it harder for your interviewee to fall back on boilerplate responses:
Q. Several instances have been documented of Falun Gong practitioners being assaulted and beaten by Chinese people in the United States. Many people feel Jiang's hard line propaganda campaign against Falun Gong is promoting people to commit crimes like these. Will you condemn violence against Falun Gong practitioners in America?
Q. In March of 2002, a former Australian Olympic swimmer was arrested in China for practicing Falun Gong. Will you allow Western Falun Gong practitioners or supporters to attend or compete in the 2008 Olympics? And if so, will you allow them to practice their faith while they're there?
Q. What percentage of foreign investment in China does Jiang divert to suppressing and defaming Falun Gong? For example the construction of new labor camps, increases in the police force, production and broadcast of anti-Falun Gong propaganda, etc… Is it possible this money could be better spent to help some of the problems in China such as the emerging AIDS crisis?
Q. Falun Gong is practiced in over 50 countries around the world, so why do we hear negative stories about Falun Gong only out of China? In fact, the practice is widely respected in countries around the world. For example, U.S. Ambassador Mark Palmer has said, and I quote: “Falun Gong is, in my judgment, the greatest single spiritual movement in Asia today. There is nothing that begins to compare with it in courage and importance.” How do you explain this gaping discrepancy between how Falun Gong is viewed in China vs. the rest of the world? (Chinese officials may claim Falun Gong have “deceived” other countries into being sympatric to the practice, in which case a follow-up question is in order). So, the over 50 countries around the world where Falun Gong is freely practiced have all been “deceived” by Falun Gong and China alone is clear on this issue?Q. Why has the National People’s Congress, after three years of persecution, not taken an official position on Falun Gong?
Q. No other country has reported the types of atrocious crimes you alleged are carried out by Falun Gong practitioners. Will you allow credible third party investigations into all these claims? If so, when? If not, why?
Q. Jiang takes a very hard line against foreign parties "interfering with China's internal affairs", yet he make no secret about sending his consular officials into the office of every single elected official in Washington D.C. to try to get them to support his persecution against Falun Gong. They even hold press conferences and employ lobbyists to try to influence our elected officials to vote against important resolutions on human rights. He does the same thing all over the world. Why is it OK for Jiang to be so intimately involved in the "internal affairs" of other countries? Doesn't that seem like a double standard?
Q. If Falun Gong is such a terrible menace to society, how do you explain that the practice is widely accepted in Taiwan – a land that shares the same history, culture, and people as Mainland China? The President of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian has said, and I quote: “I am delighted to learn that your group [Falun Dafa] is holding the 2001 Taiwan Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference in Taipei’s World Trade International Conference Center…I wish to extend my greetings…Best wishes for a great success in your activities.”
Q. How do you explain the fact that so many NGOs, third party organizations and governments have verified and confirmed the human rights violations against Falun Gong in China? Do you agree that the rest of the world is justified in feeling upset with Jiang as he continually insists that the Partly line be to flatly deny these facts in front of such overwhelming evidence?
Q. Regarding the astonishing difference between the claims your regime has made about Falun Gong destroying families and leading to murders and suicides in China and the reality in over 50 other countries where Falun Gong is practiced freely and practitioners are regarded as being peaceful, orderly and good people, your regime has claimed that the Falun Gong promoted overseas is not the same as that taught in China. Why then, don’t you promote the overseas version of Falun Gong in China?
Q. Why was the book Yellow Disaster stripped of its published status in China and taken off websites shortly after the self-immolation incident occurred in Tiananmen Square which your state-run media have attempted to peg on Falun Gong practitioners, and has used to justify the persecution against Falun Gong? (The book Yellow Disaster discusses a woman being paid by the government in order to commit self-immolation in Tiananmen Square. The woman thought she would escape with money but is murdered by the government and the incident is used to defame an innocent group of people)
Q. Mr. Jiang: had you read the book Yellow Disaster before January 23, 2001?
(10/19/2002 10:58)
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