China's Book-burning and Suppression of Falun Gong

Dr. Lung-chu Chen

Clarification after clarification, interpretation after interpretation, the fact remains that Taiwan and China are two separate countries. For now, let us put aside the issue of "the special state-to-state relationship," and address a separate but related topic, namely, China's book-burning and suppression of Falun Gong (法輪功).

On July 22, the Chinese government declared Falun Gong an illegal organization and banned its activities. Thousands of its adherents and followers were then arrested, detained, and imprisoned. In addition, the government has destroyed thousands of Falun Gong publications in book-burning sessions across the nation. According to the state- run Xinhua News Agency, some 200,000 books were burned in Tien-tsin and Wu-han alone. All this reminds one of the anti-intellectual campaign of book-burning by the Emperor of Chin, 秦始皇, some 2200 years ago.

Falun Gong is a meditation group, drawing on Buddhism and Taoism and practicing deep breathing exercises. It advocates high moral standards and clean living. Why are they denied the basic freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the freedom to express themselves and practice their faiths?

Although China became a signatory state to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights not too long ago, it has simply failed to fulfill the treaty obligations in protecting human rights.

According to estimates, there are some 100 million followers of Falun Gong both inside and outside China. Does the Communist leadership really want to make them enemies? Ten years after the Tianmen incident, Chinese leaders find themselves surrounded everywhere by enemies within.

As humankind is preparing for the 21st century, why a mighty military power cannot tolerate its own citizens? Why, after 50 years, the regime that is supposed to be "for the people" has succeeded in making people its enemies? Is such a regime at all qualified to talk about "unifying" a free, democratic Taiwan and to preach "one country, two systems"? In the information age when knowledge means power, the Chinese Communist regime is repeating the barbaric practice of book-burning of centuries and centuries ago. If we are not too forgetful, the dynasty built by the book-burning tyrant lasted only 15 years, from 221 B.C. to 206 B.C.

(Dr. Lung-chu Chen is Chairman of the Lung-chu Chen New Century Foundation and Professor of Law at New York Law School.)