The Updated Report of Independent Civil Rights Activists released astonishing information, accusing China of removing the organs of criminal Falun Gong practitioners and killing 1.5 million of them. The report was posted on a Russian website for one month, resulting in the wide dissemination of the information. It is a pity that during this period of time, no expert in Sinology made any comment on it. It might be that the academic community despises such false news or that there is no authoritative sinologist in the field of black organ grafting. Worse still, medical staff and lawyers understand little about the situation in remote China.
Background information
Over the past decade, David Kilgour and David Matas have been fabricating claims of the removal of organs from Falun Gong members in secret Chinese Death camps. This year, Ethan Gutmann,member of Foundation for Defense of Human Rights, joined their rank. Athough Falun Gong propagates itself with slogans of “being a good man” and “non-involvement in politics,” it has been the Chinese government has characterized it as a cult and banned it in China. In Russia, its series of publications,including the Report written by David Kilgour and David Matas, have been determined as extremist propaganda materials and Falun Gong organizations have lost their eligibility for registration through legal procedures in Moldova and Kyrgyzstan.
Ten years ago, in 2006, David Kilgour and David Matas fabricated the first report. Despite the hype of Falun Gong media, the professionalism of the report has been questioned. The Australia Refugee Court said in the letter No.CHN31249 on Jan. 17, 2007 that “the report lacks arguments” and “there is no authoritative expert in support of its conclusion on slaughter or removal of organs of Falun Gong practitioners, and the statements in the report are stil not confirmed or supported till now”.
The Commission of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade of the Parliament of New Zealand reviewed the petition submitted by the Falun Gong Association in New Zealand and replied on Dec. 21, 2013 that, after inquiry and consulting NGOs in the US and other countries, the commission “didn’t find any support for the allegation of the ‘removal of organs of Falun Gong practitioners’, thus no reason to call for the attention of Parliament.”
Even Canadians were suspicious of the report written by David Kilgour and David Matas. An article published on the Ottawa Citizen on Aug.9th, 2007 said, “According to the congressmen, the representatives of the US Consulate in Shenyang and Embassy in Beijing made two trips to Sujiatun, and only found a normal hospital and the so-called “crematory” was but a common furnace.”
US Congress Research and Analysis Center reached the conclusion that “Most of the report lacks evidence and relies excessively on logical reasoning,” and was suspicious of the credibility of the evidence provided. In the end, false accusations of the so-called genocide and mass removal of organs launched by Falun Gong organizations were rejected by many courts around the world, with the only exception of the court in Spain.
The report also cited a series of comments. As pointed out by the Ottawa Citizen, the accusation only relies on whether the readers were willing to be convinced.
Failing to be recognized by the academic and legal circles, David Kilgour and David Matas took another approach and turned to politicians to seek breakthroughs. In November, 2013, the European Parliament passed the No. P7_TA (2013)0603 Resolution based on that report and condemned China for illegal removal of organs from prisoners of faith. Of course, the resolution was passed amid fierce debate, with mixed comments in parliament and the responses were so strong that the chairman had to turn off the microphone of speakers with strong emotion. The opponents didn’t want to make accusations without enough evidence or without confirming the sources of information, while the supporters argued that a response had to be made in the case of strong accusations. Belgian congressman, Veronique De Cather, asked the drafter of the resolution what the source of information was and Congressman Paska answered frankly that “the information comes from colleagues who are friends of Falun Gong.”
System Conflicts
It is strange that the authors of the report asserted themselves as ‘independent civil rights activists’. Their professional experience can be seen on Wikipedia, though in a superficial way. Their identity as ‘independent civil rights activists’ is really questionable.
We can judge by ourselves; Canadian politician and former congressman David Kilgour dubbed himself as a leader of the “Free Vietnam International Committee” and “Tibet Friendship Council”, and often wrote articles about the “China Threat”.
American, Ethan Gutmann, used to be an employee of the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Foundation for Defense of Democracy, who often wrote anti-China articles for the pro-neo-conservative magazine, The Weekly Standard, under the titles of China Watch or Beijing Watch. In contrast toSinology study, it is a peculiar profession where you can make biased comments. His so-called research results, such as Massacre: China’s secret decision of massive slaughter and removal of dissents’ organs, National Character: China Cyber Attack, are all but groundless prejudice.
Of course, everyone has their own political positionwhich is not often affected by others. Yet among the community of authors are some “institutional warriors” and “democracy promoters” and one should be cautious when reading their articles. It is better to search for different sources of information or consult authoritative experts. Especially in the case of information related to felony charges made by unfamiliar ’independent social activists’, politicians, or those released by non- authoritative organizations. We must confirm their truthfulness. However, dozens or even hundreds of reprint of the report of the killing of 1.5 million prisoners of faith is not only an academic problem, but a problem with the media. That is the issue to be discussed next.
Media trap
The crux of the problem is that in the age of electronic media, it not the editors or journalist, but the massive copying machine of the internet which is processing information in the media space. For it, what matters is not quality but quantity. Various kinds of network media copy 10 to 20 pieces of news each day. Many websites are available which will accept payment for publishing work in order to allow authors to avoid strict news standards and to be entitled to preferential treatment.
Of course, there are also other problems with the report, first of all the source of the information. Is the information in the report authoritative and independent? There is a sentence in it which says “Beijing denied it” But they don’t provide the evidence.
Another problem is the demands of Internet users. People prefer news with sensational headlines and attractive pictures, instead of plain articles with rich data and various analytical comments written by experts. The former inevitably enjoys higher viewership, while viewership and click-rate is the rice bowl of Internet media and editors.
Anti-persecution Warrior
The “non-political” Faun Gong organization adopts despicable black propaganda to demonize China to carry out an anti-China information war. The last sentence in the report should be noted: “TheFalun Gong practitioners believe that Communism is not ideology, but evil. Our sacred war includes helping the deceased’s relatives withdraw from the Party and our mission is to condemn the slaughter and removal of organs.” Such an accusation has not been confirmed by any court or country, yet from the perspective of the international community, it is enough to cause instability. Especially when nuclear powers are involved, the consequence will be even more serious. We might recall the incident of Saddam‘s chemical weapons.
At present, Falun Gong practitioners are actively promoting the newly published reports by David Kilgour, David Matas and Ethan Gutmann. In many countries, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Falun Gong practitioners are actively sending the report to the government, media organizations, institutions of higher learning and other organizations to accuse China. The governments at the state, municipal and district levels just shrugged at the letter appealing to them to ‘stop the persecution of China’. It seems that the sole purpose is to propagate to government and law enforcement officials and journalists at all levels so that they can enforce their negative perception of China.
Note: The US Foundation for the Defense of Democracy was founded in the early 1980s. It relies on the US government for funding and penetrates around the world under the name of a NGO. It has played a political role in many parts of the world. Countries in Latin America, CIS countries, West Asian countries such as Iran and Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, were all affected by its subversion activities or the “color revolutions” it promoted. It also funds ‘democratic movement’ activists, East Turkistan, Falun Gong and other anti-China forces to interfere in China’s domestic affairs.
