By Su Zuqin, the Hubei Provincial Academy of Social Sciences
Young people should be given special protection for they are the future of the country and also vulnerable group. However, many young people involved in the cult Falun Gong. The Tiananmen self-immolation tragedy warns us that there are still hidden dangers in protecting young people (minors) in our country and society. There are many laws in China for the protection of young people, such as: the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, Compulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of China, etc. The main bodies for protecting young people are also many. Article 5 of "the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors" clearly provides that the protection of minors is the shared responsibility of state organs, the armed forces, political parties, social organizations, enterprises and institutions, urban and rural grassroots mass organizations of self-government, the guardians of minors, and other adult citizens. The law also give very specific provision on the objectives, principles, content, accountability of legal protection for young people. For instance, Article 3 of "the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors" provides that the State organs, social, school and family should "work against erosion of the minors by capitalism, feudalism and other decadent ideas."
But why is it so easy for the Falun Gong cult to harm young people? I think it is because of problems with the prevention mechanism. In other words, when young people are harmed or in imminent danger posed by the cult, the prevention mechanism that should respond automatically fails to respond or not responding in a timely and effective way.
Prevention mechanism can be divided into the early warning mechanism, prevention mechanism and relief mechanism. Currently these are yet not complete and perfect.
I. Early warning mechanism
"Early warning" can be interpreted as a warning. For example, when enemy aircrafts is coming for an air attack, it is necessary to sound the sirens. The cult is not so easily identifiable as other general approach to harm young people. The cult will never post a "cult" label on itself, which make it more difficult to identify by general adult and youth. This calls for an early warning system mechanism to play a role, promptly telling people, including adolescents, which one is a cult, in order to help them to keep distance from, reject or even fight against the cult. One can imagine that if there is a timely early warning to prevent the Falun Gong cult, there would not have so many people caught by the Falun Gong. Clearly, the primary responsibility of the early warning mechanism system should be to state departments (such as the newly established National Office on Treatment and Prevention of Cult, etc.) and youth, children social groups. They should pay close attention to social trends, and facilitate the timely release of related policies, laws and measures.
The family and other social organizations have a responsibility to actively report information and make suggestions to these departments. In this respect some foreign practices are worth learning from. For example, in Switzerland, in order to render the general public a timely understanding of the cult's nature and harm, the Geneva state, together with 7 other states of Switzerland, established the first cult information center in the country in January 2001 to make joint surveillance of cult activities. The Center's mission is to collect relevant information about the activities of the cult, and timely publish the information to the public, to remind them free of being the cult victims. In 1996, the French government established a national cult observation center, its staff is responsible for monitoring and preventing the harm of cults, make related surveys and generate policy proposals to the government. The observation center, chaired by the prime minister and composed of cabinet members and the chiefs of relevant departments and head of the police, puts forward an annual report to the Cabinet, releases related information and reminds people to take precaution.
II. Prevention mechanism
Prevention mechanism can be divided into two aspects :
First, strengthening the positive education of the young people to increase their awareness and immunity of the cults, which is the fundamental element of the prevention mechanism. Schools, news media should take responsibility and provide anti-cult education through various lively forms for young people to improve their cognitive ability and immunity.
Second, we should take legal measures to optimize the environment for the growth of youngsters and ban cults and their members to induce young people in any methods. For example, France passed legislation to ban youth advocacy of the cult, to ban setting up cult organizations in schools, hospitals, and in vicinity of fragile concentrated institutions. Currently in China, the most important is to pass legislation to prohibit parents and relatives preaching cults to children.
III. Relief mechanism
Once the youngsters were corroded or poisoned by cults or other unhealthy thoughts, the legal system of relief mechanism should be able to react immediately and take effective measures to rescue the young people in a timely manner. Now, "Falun Gong" has been announced as a cult, for those addicts who are still induceing or forcing their children or other minors to practice Falun Gong, legal or administrative measures such as the cancellation of custody could be taken. If the relief mechanism is complete, perhaps the 18-year-old Chen Guo and 14-year-old Liu Siying, would not have taken part in the self-immolation in Tiananmen Square, and became victims of Falun Gong.
The key to improve and perfect the relief mechanism is to establish the accountability of responsible main bodies to "move when informed". State departments and the youth organizations' leadership organs, the family and other responsible main bodies, regardless of prioritizing, in his or her knowledge of any young people being harmed by the cult, should take active measures to rescue them, otherwise they should bear the corresponding legal, and administrative responsibility.
(www.cnfxj.org July 2, 2001)
