Extracts. Commentary: Respecting Talents, Encouraging Innovation In the first Spring of the new century, a grand science and technology awards ceremony was held in Beijing February 19 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council to confer awards upon the individuals and collectives winning the 2000 national science and technology awards. General Secretary Jiang Zemin personally signed the State highest science and technology awards and conferred awards upon the first prize-winners Comrades Wu Wenjun and Yuan Longping. **** China Calls for More Aid to Palestinians The international community, especially the developed countries, should continue their efforts to provide more assistance to the Palestinian people, in order to restore the economy in the Palestinian self-ruled area at an early date, a senior Chinese official said Tuesday in Vienna. "The international community should take its responsibilities and obligations to help the Palestinian National Rights Authorities overcome their economic difficulties and improve the people's living conditions," Zhang Yishan, Chinese ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, said in a speech delivered at the opening session of the UN Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People. "The most pressing task of the world community at present is to urge both sides to immediately stop violent clashes," Zhang added. Participants at the two-day seminar, sponsored by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, will review the state of the Palestinian economy and to examine efforts under way by governments, intergovernmental and civil society organizations at alleviating the current plight of the Palestinian people. "Ever since the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference in 1991, peace talks between Palestine and Israel have achieved some progress thanks to the joint efforts by both sides and the impetus from the world community," Zhang said. However, "the most serious violent clashes" between the two sides that broke out at the end of last September have "caused the Palestinian people heavy lives and property losses, making them suffer another setback in their struggles to rebuild their homeland," he said. "We hold that providing assistance to the Palestinian people will help relieve their economic difficulties and promote peace talks," Zhang said. Only by pushing forward the Middle East peace process, restoring the Palestinian people's legitimate national rights and completely resolving the Palestinian issue at an early date, can the peoples of various countries in this region enjoy tranquillity and prosperity, the Chinese official stressed. In his address, Zhang also expressed China's consistent support for the Middle East peace process. In a message read out at the opening of the seminar, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged "all concerned to exercise maximum restraint so as to prevent a further escalation, which could have very serious consequences for the entire region." **** Falun Gong Followers Urged to Wake Up Xinhua News Agency published a commentary Tuesday, February 20, urging Falun Gong followers to wake up, so as to save the lives of themselves and their close relatives, and for the sake of the whole of society. The Falun Gong followers are urged to avoid becoming sacrificial victims, break with the cult, and return to the love of life. The commentary, titled "It's Time to Realize Your Errors and Mend Your Ways," points out that numerous fanatical Falun Gong followers have lost their lives and turned into burned corpses in "Hell" because of Li Hongzhi, the cult leader who has given evil instructions advocating so-called "Completion" and "Going to Heaven." The fiery suicides and attempted suicides by Falun Gong followers in Tiananmen Square, in central Beijing, last month has rung an alarm bell for the whole of society, especially for the people still enmeshed in the fallacies of Falun Gong, while a number of practitioners were so shocked that they have renounced the cult and made a clean break with it, according to the commentary. Upon learning of the self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square, Li Linfei, a woman who had been deeply involved with the cult and once attempted to commit suicide for the so-called "completion," said that the ghastly facts enabled her to see clearly the evil nature of Falun Gong. Wu Ping, a local opera artist from Shandong Province, in east China, said that the only way out for those who practice Falun Gong is to die. The woman's family was almost destroyed by the cult. Having come to know that death is the only end for practitioners of Falun Gong, over 60 female Falun Gong followers from Sanshui City, in southern China's Guangdong Province, pledged not to end up sacrificing their lives for the cult, according to the commentary. The commentary expresses the belief that under the current campaign to expose and criticize Falun Gong, the majority of Falun Gong followers are able to recognize the evil nature of the cult and the severe harm it does, and to wake up and realize their errors and mend their ways. It says that the year-long campaign has helped more than 98 percent of the followers reject the fallacies of Falun Gong and throw off the spiritual control exercised by Li Hongzhi. The base of the cult is being destroyed day by day, as more and more its follower have come to realize their errors and mended their ways, it says. While Falun Gong is losing its domestic market, the value of Li Hongzhi that could be used by the anti-China forces in the West is also diminishing, the commentary stresses. The commentary points out that the majority of Falun Gong practitioners, including some of those who are still ensnared by the cult, are kind and good-natured people who have been deceived by Li Hongzhi. Xie Yufeng, a former Falun Gong practitioner who was detained many times for joining illegal protests and held several hunger strikes for a total of 129 days, recalled that, like many others, he began to practice Falun Gong in order to heal illness and engage in physical training. But the more he practiced Falun Gong, the end of which is said to be "Completion", according to the cult leader, Xie found that his brain was "stuffed nothing but Li Hongzhi." At that time, Xie did nothing but worshipped the cult leader and followed his evil instructions. The facts show that the majority of these followers were unaware of the real purpose of the cult leader and unclear about the background and plots of the anti-China forces in the West who are supporting and using Falun Gong, according to the commentary. The majority of Falun Gong followers are victims as well as "our compatriots and brothers and sisters," the commentary says. The targets of the government's anti-cult drive are the organization of Falun Gong and its backbone elements, the handful of wire-pullers, plotters and organizers with political motives who want to make trouble, as well as stubborn Falun Gong elements who are continuing their illegal activities in the country, according to the commentary. It urges maximum efforts to isolate and firmly crack down on these die-hard elements according to the law, so as to eliminate the cult and to avoid future troubles. It calls on everyone to adhere to the policy of "Unity, Education and Salvation" for the majority of Falun Gong followers, saying that this is the important guarantee for the triumph of the anti-cult campaign. Maximum efforts should be made to educate and save these practitioners and enable more of them to break with Falun Gong and free them from the spiritual control of the cult, it says. The commentary urges extra efforts to bring Falun Gong practitioners out of the ridiculous world fabricated by Li Hongzhi and guide them to take notice of the developments in the domestic and international situations, the future of the Party and the nation, and the great cause of the country's reform, opening up and socialist modernization drive. The commentary praises the Masangjia Education House, in Shenyang City, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, for its efforts in educating Falun Gong practitioners. The Zhongyuan Oilfield, a hotbed of Falun Gong, is also praised by the commenary for its successful transformation of local followers of the cult. While using political education to transform the practitioners, the leaders of the oilfield mobilized the relatives of the practitioners to influence them. It is the duty of the whole society to unite, educate and rescue the majority of Falun Gong practitioners, the commentary stresses. Former members of the cult who have woken up must not be looked down upon by their work units, the society or their families, it adds. They should be given assistance in life, employment and study, according to the commentary. Students who were expelled from school for practicing Falun Gong should be allowed to return to school, it says. An environment of advocating science and opposing superstition should be created in China to eliminate the social base and soil of Falun Gong, it says. **** Headquarters of General Staff of PLA Condoles Death of Myanmar Military Leader The Headquarters of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) expressed deep condolences to the military leaders of Myanmar in a telegram Tuesday on the death of Second Secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Lieutenant-General Tin Oo. Tin Oo, also Chief of Staff of the Myanmar Army, was killed in a helicopter crash Monday morning. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
