AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

In the last 16 months, the Chinese government has led a brutal crackdown on followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Falun Gong is a non-violent spiritual practice that is based on an ancient Chinese form of meditation and special exercises.

Scientists, engineers, and health professionals have been among the thousands detained and persecuted by the Chinese government for peacefully exercising their internationally recognized rights to freedom of belief, expression and association by practicing Falun Gong.

On 4 November 2000, Zou Songtao, 28, a biology professor at Qingdao Maritime University in eastern Shandong province died in the Number Three Shandong Reform Through Education Camp in Zibo City, China. Chinese officials arrested Zou, a 1995 graduate of Nanjing University, on 18 July 2000 and sentenced him to three years' detention for protesting in Beijing against the ban on Falun Gong. Officials at the detention center informed Zou's family that he had committed suicide. Zou's wife was not allowed to see the body to verify this claim. His cremated remains were returned to the family on 5 November 2000. His family have expressed doubts that Zou would have killed himself, especially because his wife had recently given birth to their child.

China has blocked most information about the number of people who have been arrested or have died while in custody. International human rights groups and news reports estimate that 78 Falun Gong practitioners have died since the government started its crackdown in 1999.

The following are a few cases of human rights violations that have been reported to the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program from supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual movement:

• Cao Kai, 29, a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was detained in June 2000.
• Su Gang, 32, a software engineer of Qilu Petrochemical Company in Zibo City of Shangdong Province was detained in May 2000 for one month and died shortly after his release on 10 June 2000.
• Hong Jirong, 62, a professor of Sichuan University, was sentenced to three years at a labor camp because of his suspected involvement in drafting and signing an appeal letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan from Sichuan Falun Gong practitioners.
• Li Fujun, 37, assistant professor at Xinxiang Medical College in central Henan province, was sentenced to four years in prison after posting an article on the Internet discussing the health benefits of Falun Gong.
• Kong Fanfen, a researcher at the Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was sentenced to forced labor. Her health suffered greatly while in detention and she was hospitalized. When discharged from the hospital, she was remanded to the forced labor camp for one year despite medical findings that she not be further detained.

The Chinese government's crackdown on practitioners of Falun Gong is part of a larger government attempt to control religious, civil, social, and economic organizations that threaten the control of the communist government in China. According to Human Rights Watch Asia Division, "The numbers of members, their ability to organize, and their use of modern tools of communication have made the Falun Gong especially threatening."

The crackdown began on 22 July 1999 when the Ministry of Public Security declared the Falun Gong to be an unlawful organization. The government banned advertisements and distribution of the movement's materials and forbade practitioners from gathering and performing exercises and meditations. The government also issued statements prohibiting any organized protest against the restrictions.

The government's campaign against Falun Gong was strengthened in October 1999 when the Supreme People's Court defined Falun Gong as a cult and therefore punishable under Article 300 of the Criminal Law. The minimum sentence for violating Article 300 is seven years and penalties can run as high as life imprisonment or execution.

Despite the harsh penalties, members of Falun Gong have mounted protests in the last year, the largest of which occurred on 1 October 2000, the 51st anniversary of communist rule in China. Tens of thousands of people protested in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. It is estimated that over 1,000 people were detained. China has officially admitted to the arrest of 150 leaders of the spiritual organization. Chinese human rights groups put that figure higher, with 450 members receiving sentences of 18 years or more, 600 members sent to mental institutes, 10,000 members sent to labor camps, and 20,000 in temporary detention centers.

(Sources of Information for this case include: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Associated Press, and the Falun Gong Info Center)

RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

• Article 13: An alien lawfully in the territory of a State Party to the present Covenant may be expelled therefrom only in pursuance of a decision reached in accordance with law and shall, except where compelling reasons of national security otherwise require, be allowed to submit the reasons against his expulsion and to have his case reviewed by, and be represented for the purpose before, the competent authority or a person or persons especially designated by the competent authority.
• Article 6: Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his [or her] life.
• Article 18(1): Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his [or her] choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his [or her] religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
• Article 18(2): No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his [or her] freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his [or her] choice.
• Article 19(1): Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
• Article 22: Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

• Article 12: (1): The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. (2): The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for: (c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases; (d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Article 20(1): Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
• Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telegrams, faxes, airmail letters or emails:

• Expressing grave concern about the death in custody of Zou Songtao on 4 November 2000;
• Expressing concern for colleagues associated with Falun Gong who are being punished for their attempts to peacefully exercise their internationally recognized rights to freedom of belief, expression and association;
• Calling for the Chinese authorities to stop the repression of the Falun Gong movement, and to respect freedom of belief, expression and association.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

His Excellency Jiang Zemin
President, People's Republic of China
Zhong Naihai
Beijingshi
People's Republic of China


His Excellency Zhu Rongji
Premier
People's Republic of China
Guowuyuan
9 Xihuang-chenggen Beijie
Beijingshi 100032
People`s Republic of China
fax: 86-10-6-512-5810

COPIES SENT TO:

His Excellency Li Zhaoxing
Ambassador of People's Republic of China
Embassy of People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 588-0032

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