-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! China's human-rights public-relations scam? Dissidents claim Beijing's 'concessions' aimed at gaining 2008 Olympic games ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- By Anthony C. LoBaido © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Recent releases of political prisoners by China are being called nothing more than a public-relations ploy by the communist giant, aimed at winning the right to host the 2008 Olympic games. When WorldNetDaily reported that China had recently released political dissident Yongjun "Majer" Zhou, the event was regarded by many as a hopeful sign in light of China's otherwise atrocious human-rights record. U.S. congressmen had pressured for the release of Zhou from a "re-education through labor" camp in Mianyang city in southern Sichuan province. A well-known activist since 1989, Zhou had been chair of the Autonomous Federation of Universities in Beijing during the weeks of unprecedented demonstrations on Tiananmen Square in 1989, as well as the founder of the Autonomous Labor Union in Beijing that year. He was arrested after the government's crackdown on demonstrators on June 4 of that year, when as many as a thousand people were killed by troops who were ordered to open fire on them. However, as with most "positive" signals coming out of Beijing, there is more to Zhou's release than meets the eye. According to the Hong Kong Mail, the mainland has granted early release to yet another jailed dissident -- in order to influence public opinion in favor of China's hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said. In fact, the release brought to four the number of student leaders from the 1989 pro-democracy movement who have been freed early in the past two months, said the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Xu Jianxiong, 31, was released on Friday from a prison in Weinan city, in central Shaanxi province, a year before his sentence was due to end, it said. The prison gave no explanation for his release, nor was any reason given for the early release of three other dissidents in recent weeks, the group said. Xu was a core member of a student movement in Xian city in 1989, when student colleagues were leading pro-democracy protests in and around Tiananmen Square. After the notorious mass assault on the demonstrations -- which authorities labeled a "counter-revolutionary riot" -- Xu and 12 other student leaders formed an organization to urge for a reversal of the verdict. All 13 were arrested on March 20, 1990, and Xu was sentenced to 10 years' jail for being a "counter-revolutionary." Shortly afterwards, authorities accused him of attacking prison police and extended his sentence to 12 years. "As the authorities did not explain why they were released early, we guess that it is related to Beijing's application for hosting the Olympic games," said a spokesman for the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Paris, Toronto, Osaka and Istanbul are also bidding to host the 2008 games. Human-rights activists have urged the International Olympic Committee, which will decide later this year where the Games are to be held, to use its influence to push for political reform and an improvement in human rights on the mainland. China was rebuffed in the early 1990s in its bid to host the 2000 summer Olympic games. Eventually, Sydney, Australia, was chosen. Lin Ping, a Chinese lawyer based in Hong Kong who specializes in human-rights cases, told WorldNetDaily: "China wants to host the Olympic games for several reasons. There is, of course, money and foreign exchange. Then there is the chance for the dictators in Beijing to present themselves as a regional and global power with a human rights 'record' that is palatable to the West." According to Beijing's official website set up to promote its case for hosting the 2008 games, China has put its best foot forward. "With our motto, 'New Beijing, Great Olympics,' and our goal to host a 'Green Olympics,' a 'Hi-tech Olympics' and the 'People's Olympics,' Beijing is ready to become a truly international city. Beijing is showing a new, vigorous image through its ongoing economic reforms. As the modern Olympic Movement entered the new millennium, China, the biggest developing country in the world, will definitely contribute to the spread of the Olympic Ideal in an extensive and innovative way. "Beijing is planning to build the Olympic Green, and the Olympic Park that will set an example for how the Olympic Agenda in the 21st Century can be implemented. By hosting the People's Olympics, we value human talent, ambition and achievement. We see the Olympic Games as a catalyst for exchange and harmony between various cultures and peoples. By hosting the Olympics Games, we will strengthen public awareness of environmental protection and promote the development and application of new technologies. "The Chinese people love sports. The nation's athletic enthusiasm is evident in wide participation in sports activities among its 1.25-billion population and the distinctive achievements of Chinese athletes at previous Olympic Games. Celebrating the Games in Beijing in 2008 will afford a unique opportunity to inspire and educate a new generation of Chinese youth with the Olympic values, and to promote the Olympic spirit and the cause of sport in China and the world." According to the website's poll, which asks the question, "Do you support Beijing's bid to host 2008 Olympiad?" respondents have overwhelming supported the communist superpower, with a reported 98.5 percent saying "yes" and only 1.5 percent voting "no." "Is such a poll legitimate, considering that anyone can vote from anywhere around the world, just as long as they are linked to the Internet? This is China's idea of great comedy, I think," commented Lin Ping. Apart from the questioned legitimacy of the official poll, writer Jennifer Rocke asks the obvious: "Why should a country which has such widespread human-rights violations host an event which calls for peace and harmony? As the Olympic philosophy states, 'Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.'" Ripping off the mask Beyond a few token human-rights offerings by the Beijing elites, the tragedy and suffering of Chinese political dissidents and Christians continues and is even accelerating. The New York Times, in its March 11 report on the execution of Qiu Xuanming, captures the gruesomeness of China's police-state tactics: "Mr. Qiu's head, which had been shot in the back at close range; The pants were undone, and the striped shirt was open and the shirt he was wearing inside was pushed up," his brother said in a long cathartic interview at a nearly empty Irish pub in one of Shanghai's new office towers, chosen for the privacy it affords. "There was blood on his shirt and when I saw the blood I realized what had happened and pulled it open. His belly was cut open, the intestines were spilling out. Mr. Qiu, executed for tax evasion, had become one of hundreds, or even thousands, of condemned people in China whose organs have been 'harvested' minutes after their death by gunshot to the back of the head." China executes more people each year than the rest of the world combined, although the exact number is a tightly guarded state secret. Amnesty International counted 18,194 executions reported in the state-run press in the 1990s, with 1,263 in 1999 alone. Robin Munro, a London-based China scholar and human-rights advocate, said the real total is much higher because many executions are never reported. Official law journals have sometimes reported figures approaching 1,000 executions a year in individual cities, he added. Many of the executed become "organ donors." The practice is permitted under 1994 rules, but only -- it is claimed -- with the written consent of the prisoner or his or her relatives. Because of the need to remove organs immediately after death, corpses may be dissected at the execution site. The practice of using prisoner's organs is widely acknowledged by doctors in China, though few people will discuss the subject on the record. "It would be a human rights disaster for the West to give the 2008 Olympic games to China," concludes Lin Ping. "We must spread the word that the Chinese dictatorship has not changed its ways. They should not be rewarded for their wickedness and murders of the innocent." *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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