The Deal with China and Falun Gong - And What it means for the Free Tibet Movement

Only when something really explosive happens inside China does the the international media – if they are allowed – take notice and try to report the matter to the general world.

Currently, China is embroiled in a controversy that has created quite a stir on the global level – the Tibet controversy. Before the entire world gets divided into people who support and the people who support Tibet, this article will try to clear some things about Tibet, China and how the Chinese government deals with well… anything that they do not follow or understand.

Tibet was an independent state until 1949. The People’s Republic of China launched an attack on Tibet and the forty-thousand-strong Chinese army easily defeated the five-thousand-(weak) Tibetan army. The Tibetan Government then signed the Seventeen Point Agreement with the Chinese Government. That means, that China claims a territory outside their physical borders as their own. Of course, there are various supporters of this idea and there are various detractors of this idea.

These detractors are not your everyday armchair detractors who’d shout about something wrong and then get back to their daily lives. These people are now the personal enemies of the Chinese Government. And though you and I would have a general idea of what being a government detractor means, I can be sure that not many of us will have a complete idea about what it means to go against the Chinese Government.

China is known for its rampant human rights abuse. In fact, China, in quite a few places, has accepted the human rights abuse and has said that it is working on decreasing these incidents. Well, whether they meant decreasing the incidents, or decreasing the scenarios where news about these incidents leaks out to the global media is something that you and I may never know. Keep in mind that even the biggest companies like Yahoo, Google and MSN have to toe the line of the Chinese Government if they do not wish to be banned there. Whether the Big Three will give away a lucrative market to give out the real happenings inside China is another cup of coffee for another day.

Lets talk about how the Chinese Government has dealt with the Falun Gong in their country. Falun Gong is a (peaceful) spiritual movement in China. It speaks about developing and enhancing the Forbearance,

Truthfulness and Compassion in a human being. While many would say that Falun Gong is a group of people that go about their lives without creating any problems for anyone, the Chinese Government certainly did not think so. They started their widespread persecution of Falun Gong members in 1999. And it has worked. Falun Gong members comprise almost half of the labor camp population in China. It also comprises more than 60% of the ‘reported’ torture cases in China (the operative word here being reported).

There are, of course, off and on reports about some of the classic ‘dark times’ abuses that have been implemented on Falun Gong members, like live organ transplants, forced labor, inhumane torture, etc. All a days’ work for a Government that still believes it is always right and strives to boot off the detractors.

Of course, to be impartial to the Chinese Government, the Falun Gong has been considered to be a cult of some sorts. But the way that the Chinese Government has systematically cleaned out and is still in the process of cleaning China of Falun Gong members is only something that reminds us of one another blot on Mankind, and you know what it is.