College Tribune | September 30th 2008
Features
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dubbed “Counterfeit Olympics”. This idée fixe extended into the visual duplicity employed through the use of computer-generated imagery interspersed with authentic fireworks to enhance the experience. Further investigation revealed that the children used in the opening ceremony to represent China’s 56 ethnic groups were not minority children
Over three thousand Falun Gong followers have been beaten or tortured to death since 1999. According to Amnesty International, popular torture techniques include “electric shocks, rape, suspension by the arms, sleep and food deprivation and shackling in painful positions.’’ The Falun Dafa Information Center claims that Falun Gong practitioners sent to ‘reform through labour’ camps, of which there are over a hundred thousand, “are subject to work 20 hour days, producing – without pay – toys, Christmas tree lights, chopsticks, and soccer balls for export.’’ Sky News was the first news outlet to pick up on the ‘organ harvesting’ allegations after the series of articles in The Epoch Times. On April 19th 2006, they broadcast an undercover report from “the biggest transplant centre in Asia”, known as the ‘Orient Organ Transplant Centre’. Posing as relatives of a family member needing a new liver, they secretly filmed a consultant doctor openly admitting, “that the hospital transplants livers harvested from executed prisoners” and how this was due to the hospital’s close connections with the Chinese
at all. “I see nothing wrong exactly with (where) the children are from. It was perfectly traditional in China for performers to dress up to represent ethnic minorities.” added Wang Wei following further revelations. Age falsification also provoked a contentious debate amongst the international press preceding the games, which led to the International
security forces. A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied the allegations and branded the claims as an “absurd lie…not worth refuting”. Unconvinced, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong asked David Kilgour, a former Canadian politician who was a Member of Parliament for 27 years, and David Matas, a Canadian Human Rights Lawyer and senior legal counsel of B’nai Brith Canada, to produce an independent report on the issue. In July 2006 they produced their findings after a two-month investigation. The 243-page report detailed interviews with Falun Gong practitioners now residing in Canada who were forced to undergo medical examinations while imprisoned in China. It also included interviews with donor recipients as well as the transcripts of telephone conversations held with officials at various Chinese hospitals, detention centres and courts in which they admitted to using organs from Falun Gong practitioners. The “Kilgour-Matas Report” estimated that in the six-year period from 2000 to 2005 there have been 41,500 organ transplants that have no explained source. The conclusion of the report was
Gymnastics Federation receiving confirmation from Chinese officials that two female gymnasts in question He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan were in fact over 16. A cached document unearthed by a hacker on the website of China’s official sports administration proved to be the smoking gun needed. The document was immediately erased following its online publication, further highlighting Chinese censorship. This prompted the IOC to initiate an investigation into the two medal winners, which has yet to be resolved. As Mr. Moran affirms “It is extremely difficult to get information in China”. The Communist party was also accused of not approving even one of 77 demonstration applications received by August 17th to take place in 3 of the so-called “demonstration zones”. This verified as predicted that the demonstration zones merely acted as a front in keeping with autonomy. In alignment with demonstration zones the Olympic venues were as rigidly structured. “More than seven million Olympic tickets were sold out,” proclaimed the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. International journalists were quick to point out however that competition venues showed large vacancies. Chinese authorities also publicised the fact that fake audiences had been crafted wearing uniform clothing and waving inflatable rods. Overall, Moran sums it up stating, “unfortunately the Beijing Olympics have a negative legacy”. The Chinese Embassy in Dublin failed to respond to the College Tribune’s repeated requests for comment by the time of publication.
absolute - “Based on what we now know, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that…there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners”. The authors made 17 recommendations including the denying or revoking the passports of people travelling to China for organ transplants, barring Chinese doctors from entering other countries to seek training in organ transplantation and that China open all its detention facilities, including forced labour camps, for inspection through the International Committee for the Red Cross or other human rights or humanitarian organizations. The Chinese Embassy in Canada accused the authors of trying to smear the country’s image and stated that “The so-called ‘independent investigation report’ made by a few Canadians (was) based on rumours and false allegations”. As recently as last month, Kilgour and Matas offered new evidence in the form of a video admission from a doctor, Dr. Lu Guoping, admitting that “he and his colleagues went to prison to select Falun Gong practitioners for involuntary organ donations to be used in transplants”.
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China in the News Michelle Uhrick examines the most recent controversies surrounding China in international media In the past week, the number of children harmed by poisonous baby formula manufactured in China soared to 53,000. Four babies have died. Twenty-two Chinese dairy companies have been linked to the scandal. The Chinese dairy industry is a $22 billion a year industry. Sanlu, the largest manufacturer, had been exempted from government baby formula inspections. No lawsuits are expected; instead, the Chinese government has offered free medical care to all babies affected. China, with its export-based economy, is suffering greatly from the worldwide economic crisis. Companies dependent on foreign buyers have taken hits. Chinese stock prices have fallen 70 percent since last October. The Shanghai Composite Index hit its lowest point in nearly two years this weekend. This week, for the first time in the 18-year history of China’s current stock market, the Chinese government was forced to intervene and purchase stocks. As a result of both Chinese and American government intervention, however, Chinese stocks rallied tremendously over the past week. Despite the weakening of the Chinese economy, the increase in domestic demand over the last couple years has actually made China less vulnerable to worldwide fluctuations. Chinese demand is also expected to help the Australian economy weather the financial storm by continuing to demand increasing exports from island country. Morgan Stanley, a 73-year-old American investment bank, tried to broker a deal this week with China Investment Corp., only to have the deal fail and selling to a Japanese group instead. Such a deal would need the approval of China’s highest administrative body, the State Council, which could have been delayed for months – months that Morgan Stanley did not have. China has planned its first space walk for this week. It will be China’s third manned space mission. Following right on the heels of the Olympics, the space mission is expected to increase the patriotism and pride produced by the August competition. In 2003, China launched its first astronaut into space, joining the United States and the Soviet Union as the only countries to have done so. The Chinese government hopes to put a man on the moon by 2017, three years before the United States plans to return. The Chinese launch cements Chi-
na’s position as a potential future competitor to the United States in space power. This week, China’s third Arctic expedition team returned after a 75-day journey to gather data about Arctic abnormalities. Chinese nightlife became international news this week when a nightclub fire over the weekend killed 48 and injured 88. China’s worst nightclub disaster happened in December 2000 in Luoyang, when a disco fire killed 309 people. A recent breakdown of UN votes, analysed by the European Council on Foreign Relations, revealed that EU and US are increasingly being defeated in human rights proposals in the UN by China and Russia. Ten years ago, 70 percent of votes cast at the UN supported EU positions. Today that figure is 50 percent. The United States has fared even worse, falling from 77 percent ten years ago to 30 percent today. The difference has gone to China and Russia, who average around 75 percent agreement in the UN. Much of the gain can be attributed to China, whose well-trained diplomats garner much support in the Central Asian region. China and Russia together have successfully opposed European initiatives in Darfur, Kosovo, Burma and Zimbabwe. With the economy in a slump, cheap Chinese imports have come under fire in the United States presidential election. Democratic candidate Barack Obama has called the Chinese exchange rate with the United States dollar artificially low. He has called for new regulations that would classify such currency manipulation as an illegal subsidy, which would allow the US to put more duties on Chinese goods to combat their artificially low prices. Republican candidate John McCain called for less extreme measures, while still asking for a greater respect for international copyright laws and a more market-determined currency within China. Such a trade war between China and the United States, however, may be forestalled by the reality of the issue: Americans do not want to pay higher prices for their goods, and the Chinese do not want to risk civil unrest due to a slowing economy. This past week, Tibet’s exiled parliament planned a meeting in mid-November to decide the future of the pro-Tibet movement after all of the unrest earlier this year.