A French magazine called Stunned recently published a five page-long interview with a Falun Gong practitioner in its “Investigation” column. The Falun Gong practitioner interviewed was Ya June, who was tortured in China. Having escaped China on foot a year ago, she and her brother arrived in Paris and obtained asylum status with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Her brother is now living in New York.

The Royal Opera House of Denmark initially planned to stage during Easter a Chinese Spectacular, which is a traditional Chinese cultural show from the US. In December last year, however, under pressure from the Chinese Embassy to Denmark the Royal Opera House cancelled the show.On March 18th, 2008, the largest national TV Station in Denmark, DR, aired a four minute-long news piece at the peak hour of 9 pm entitled “Theatre under pressure from the CCP”, which took the news crew nearly a month to produce, interviewing over eighty people.

On March 1, Divine Performing Arts presented their second show at the grand Palais des Congrès in Paris. It seemed that the gloominess of the previous day had been cleared away by the first show the day before ... The performance elicited thunderous applause from the audience throughout the afternoon.

Targeted attacks with Trojans through e-mail are an important method to spy on political rivals and commercial competitors. The O1-Magazine “Matrix” demonstrated on Sunday, citing Falun Gong as an example, how such attacks take place and how one can protect oneself against them. Maarten Van Horenbeeck is a security consultant with a large IT-firm information technology. He was especially interested in the residual risk that leaves a footprint, although the network has the optimum protection against such attackers.

William Bennett specialises in Baroque music and the contrapuntal fugues of Bach. He drew a parallel between the interweaving patterns of dancers in the Spectacular, and the interwoven melodies of contrapuntal music. "I was very impressed earlier on when a whole lot of orange-robed monks came on slowly and the ladies came on at a completely different speed and they didn't seem to be moving. They were just gliding along, and it was the most wonderful piece of counterpoint."

LONDON—Mr. Li expressed gratitude to the organisers of the Chinese Spectacular, saying he was very moved after attending the show on Saturday night. Mr. Li is originally from China and settled in the United Kingdom only two years ago."Normally the shows in China now are all commercialized and very low level. This show is overall very interesting and is very superior."

Roaring applause filled the halls of one of Britain's premier cultural venues as the Chinese Spectacular opened to a packed audience. Almost every seat in London's Royal Festival Hall was taken as the Divine Performing Arts dance company began its UK leg of their tour. The show [...] will continue till Sunday after a matinee and evening performance on Saturday.

In Frankfurt, known as the European Manhattan, the local media Frankfurt Review, Bulici (Blitz) and Fulici (Frizz) all carried advertisements and detailed introductions in wide coverage about the Gala Spectacular three days before the opening of the performance by the touring company in Frankfurt. The report by Bulici says that the Spectacular leads the audience through the time and space of 5000 years of ancient Chinese culture.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is neglecting its responsibility. At least that’s what Dirk Pleiter, Amnesty International’s China Expert said. He asks that sports officials press China harder concerning adherence to human rights. "We could say that there were a few positive steps. But, overall, we have to say that the progress is very disappointing and still has to go a long way [...] Our concerns about China have barely changed over the past thirty years. Persecution due to political affiliation and religious reasons continues unabatedly. Unfair legal proceeding and the possibility that people face long term prison terms without any legal processes continue".

A month before Shen Yun’s New Year Spectacular in Paris (February 29th, March 1st and 2nd), the largest magazine in France, Femme Actuelle (over 1 million copies per week) devoted a full page and a half to the Shen Yun Spectacular. Emphasising the high artistic quality of the show, the journalist compliments the “astounding” beauty of the choreography, costumes and scenery.

The Procuratorate of Beijing Municipality announced the official arrest of famous Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia for the crime of “inciting subversion of state power”. Hu's relatives received notice of his official arrest on January 30th, 2008. The headquarters of Reporters without Borders made a strong protest against the arrest.

In the run up to the Olympic games to be held this summer, the world nations are faced with the challenging question of how the Games can support the human rights situation in China. The Olympic Charter states that the goal of the Olympics is to place sports at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity. The Olympic committe´s justification for allotting the Peoples Republic of China the summer Olympics of 2008 was based on the conviction that doing so would be a way to press for a positive change in the country.

"It appears to be harmonious and peaceful when Zhongbo Wang and his friends are practicing Falun Gong exercises in the park. Yet, the Chinese regime is mortally afraid of this. Since 1999, it persecutes and murders practitioners of this meditation movement".

He performed hard agricultural labour from before sunrise until shortly before midnight. He explained to the more than 300 students in German who were awestruck by what they heard, “We suffered sleep deprivation, had to perform hard labour and were fed awful food.” Even worse than the labour was the brainwashing he suffered. As he refused to renounce Falun Gong after having suffered all that, they tortured him until the moment he renounced Falun Gong in writing. Two implanted artificial hip prosthesis’s after emigrating from China are the most visible signs of the torment he suffered.

According to a report in The Times Newspaper on December 3rd, 2007, the Director-General of MI5 has sent letters to executives of major companies warning them that Chinese state agencies were hacking into their systems and trying to steal confidential information. This is the first time the British Government directly accuses China of involvement in cyber espionage. Reporting the detailed warning by MI5, The Times said that British companies doing business in China were under particular threat from hackers with links to the People’s Liberation Army.

It was reported by “The Sound of Germany” on December 3rd, 2007, that the Editor in Chief of the Mirror Weekly said that he will never let the Chinese Communist Party decide what German media should report. According to the report, Hans-Ulrich Stoldt, the spokesman of The Mirror Publishing House told a reporter from the Sound of Germany that a notice had been received last Thursday from Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art cancelling the Mirror Weekly Front Page Exhibition, which had been planed to start this week.

The Czech News Agency reported on the 19th of November, that the European Celestial Marching Band, consisting of over eighty European Falun Gong practitioners, performed at the Old Town Square in Prague on the 17th of November. After the performance, they started a parade in protest against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution against Falun Gong.

"A lady called Annie, who was married to a neurosurgeon at Sujiatun hospital told of her husband bringing home large sums of money. He often had nightmares and woke up drenched in sweat. Finally, her husband opened up to her and told her that the basement of the hospital housed a secret prison with thousands of inmates, all of them members of the forbidden Falun Gong movement. He told her that he had personally removed the corneas from thousands of the prisoners and that the Sujiatun hospital was treating the Falun Gong practitioners as a living organ bank."

Other prisoners forced him to crouch down and stretched his legs, pressing them into the ground in such a way that both of his hips were broken and joints and tendons snapped. Later, Wang was able to move only painfully and with the help of crutches. The operating surgeon, Dr. Rolf Haaker, chief of the Department of Orthopedics said: “These vicious tactics combined with additional brutal stresses in the forced labour camp caused serious damage that could only be alleviated by replacing the two hip joints with prosthesis.”

Liu Wei, born 1972 in Liaoning Province, China, was imprisoned in a pre-trial prison in the Beijing Dongscheng District from September 25th 2001 until January 25th 2003 because she practises Falun Gong. She was then transferred to a Beijing women’s slave labour camp. She recounted what she experienced since August 19th 2005, including psychological and physical torture. In an effort to make her renounce her belief, the torture she suffered ranged from hard slave labour to forced re-education and blackmail.

"Practitioners of the peaceful Qigong practice Falun Gong are still being tortured and persecuted. Those people are not criminals; on the contrary, they live according to the principles of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance. It seems as if people with a sense of morals and responsibility are regarded as threatening by the Chinese government. I very much hope that all of us in the West will recognise our responsibility and stop contributing to the problem out of a misplaced sense of greed for cheap goods."

Mr. Li Heping said that he was forced into a car by strangers as he was leaving his office. “They covered my head and took me to a place far away, into a basement, beat me and accused me of causing trouble for Beijing.” He was released after five hours. On the next day, he found that his license to practise had disappeared from his office and that the hard disc of his computer had been erased.

The Dublin run has been organised by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG). Its spokeswoman, former MEP Patricia McKenna, said that the Olympics must be used as an opportunity to force change in China. "If Irish athletes, politicians or dignitaries go to Beijing to participate in or support the Olympic Games without saying or doing anything about China's failure to improve the situation with regard to human rights, it means we are condoning and giving tacit support to the ongoing violations taking place there," she said.

Citing Matas's report, the article said that many Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested for no reason, detained in prisons, tortured, and eventually lost their lives after their organs were removed for sale. According to the Chinese Communist Party, all organs used in Chinese hospitals or specialty hospitals come from voluntarily death row convicts. Matas said that this claim is ridiculous. Matas pointed out that there are about 8000 Falun Gong practitioners who die or disappear every year.

“They forcefully split my legs until the hip joints broke apart,” said Zhen Wang. “The guards purposely turned away their eyes. After the torture I was not taken to the hospital for treatment.” The Chinese man was imprisoned because he is a devotee of the cultivation practice of Falun Gong which is banned in China and its members are persecuted.

"She said she has never protest before, until seven years ago when she started to know Falun Gong ... After coming to Helsinki, she came out to protest more often, every week at the railway station and also the Chinese Embassy. Falun Gong does not regard themselves as active members, but as long as the persecution does not stop, they will not stop protesting".

In July 2007, the “Wonderful Life,” a best-selling magazine in Belgium, carried a article entitled “Banned in China, but Falun Gong is Popular in Belgium,” which employed a contrasting approach to report about Falun Gong’s popularity in Belgium and the persecution of the practice perpetrated by the Chinese Communist regime in China.

A large Turkish newspaper, Burasi Canakkale, published a series of articles by a famous reporter entitled, Falun Gong: Standing Rock Solid in Face of Inhuman Torture. The articles laid out systematically what Falun Gong is about, the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal persecution and the CCP's atrocities of organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners.

“Sandstorm,” a movie that exposes the Chinese Communist regime’s persecution against Falun Gong was played at the media centre in Gosier, the cultural centre in Saint Rose and the technology centre in Douville, Guadeloupe on May 25th, June 8th, and June 22nd, 2007. Among others, it was due to the support from the cultural service department of the city government which made it possible for the shows in Gosier and Saint-Rose to be played in such good venues. In addition, the invitations were sent by these departments.

On August 22nd 2007 the newspaper Libération, one of the three main national newspapers in France, distributed in other French speaking countries in the world, published a three quarter page article on the occasion of the Human Rights Torch Relay that was launched in Athens on August 8th and reached Germany on August 18th. The article reveals the attempt by the Chinese regime to extinguish the Human Rights Flame in Athens and made it clear that the Greek police did not yield to the Chinese authorities’ pressure.

At the beginning of July, the Serbian weekly magazine Revija 92 published a two page detailed report about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. The title of the report read, “Shocking: The trade in organs from political prisoners”. The article exposed the organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China. The report also described how the world was shocked when it learned in spring last year about the concentration camps.

Three Falun Gong practitioners from different countries testified in a Spanish court on July 30th 2007. They accused Chinese high ranking officials of genocide and cruel torture against Falun Gong practitioners. Spain’s largest free daily newspaper Twenty Minute thus interviewed these three practitioners in this regard. The paper reported that tens of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered by the Chinese Communist autocratic regime just because they follow the principles of “Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance”.

As dusk sets in, people from all walks of life, from all over the world, gather together in a circle in front of a podium, holding up flags of their home countries. There are banners with strong statements: "Human Rights Abuse Cannot Co-exist with Beijing Olympics," reads one. "Stop Harvesting Organs From Living Humans," reads another.

Since 1999, a hundred million Falun Gong practitioners, who meditate and live by the principles Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, were attacked as “Chinas public enemy number one.” About two thirds of people tortured in China are Falun Gong practitioners according to Manfred Novak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

In a groundbreaking case, Chinese victims of rights violations moved a step closer to seeing their abusers held to account when a judge in Madrid listened to their testimony on Monday. "When I was being tortured in labour camps in China, I told myself that one day I would make all of those perpetrators be responsible for what they were doing," says Zhao Ming, one of three victims who spoke. "Now I am doing what I intended."

Following a story in Denmark’s biggest daily newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, entitled “Denmark’s two parties demand that the Prince stay away from the Beijing Olympic Games”, Denmark’s biggest sport newspaper Ekstrabladet also carried an article, written by a Danish MEP, Gitte Seeberg, entitled “The Olympic Games in China”. The article was published on July 7th and focuses on the many human rights problems in China, asking what can Western society do about it?

On June 29th, 2007, Helsinki newspaper HELSINGIN SANOMAT carried an article entitled “Chinese Communist Regime Limits Hong Kong Citizens' Rights of Election.” The article included a photo depicting one of Hong Kong practitioners' activities to raise awareness about the persecution of the practice in the mainland. Falun Gong is banned in China, however it is allowed in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

On June 25th, Turkish Falun Gong practitioners held a large protest outside the Chinese Embassy. A number of mainstream media outlets reported the event. Several TV channels also reported the protest. The report on Kanal Turk TV was twenty minutes long, giving a detailed introduction to Falun Gong, the persecution and organ harvesting atrocities.

"More than 1,000 children may have been kidnapped and sold into slave labour in a brutal human trafficking ring that has shocked and outraged China. The children, some as young as eight, worked in brick kilns for sixteen hours a day with meagre food rations. They were guarded by fierce dogs and thugs who beat their prisoners at will. Many were abducted right off the streets of cities in the region and sold to factories and mines for as little as 400 Yuan (£27). The unfolding scandal, involving negligent law enforcement and even collusion between government officials and slave masters, burst into the open this week".

"The practitioners of this discipline claim that by practising the Falun Gong exercises one can achieve improvement to one's health, reduce stress and that one can also gain inner peace and harmony. It also allows the practitioner to obtain better concentration and increases mental capacity ... The demonstration of the exercises actually represented a peaceful appeal and to publicise the brutal persecution suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China."

Nexus, a Croatian magazine for alternative medicine and spirituality, in its issue, no. 18, April - May 2007, published an article entitled "Genocide under the Olympic Flag: Horrible Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in China." The author of the article asks why China's government started the persecution against Falun Gong in 1999 and why are practitioners today subjected to arrests and torture, despite the fact that many practitioners have been cured of chronic sicknesses, became healthy and have raised their spirituality according to principles of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance.

"Today in China, people who practise Falun Gong are not accepted to schools and universities, they are fired from their jobs, and their houses are ransacked and phones tapped. Women and men are kidnapped, given electric shocks and are not allowed to sleep, and they are exposed to all kinds of torture methods and persecution. Over three thousand have been confirmed tortured to death, but it is believed that the real number is more than ten thousand. There are also hundreds of thousands of people in jail and prison camps, and most of these people are innocent Falun Gong practitioners."

The board of the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced at the end of last year that it had issued nine new digital channels to TV stations of the People’s Republic of China. Some of the Canadian media, along with various members of Parliament openly disagreed with the CRTC’s decision because the same stations, which are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), are known to spread slander and hate propaganda against Falun Gong as well as other groups persecuted by the regime.

Canadians David Matas and David Kilgour do not look like two men who would pose a threat to any state, let alone one as powerful as China. The tall and slender Kilgour (64) smiles a lot and his bright blue eyes sparkle. Matas (66) who is smaller in stature, talks softly and quietly. He regards everyone seriously through his metal-rimmed glasses. They look like an unequal pair.

On April 5th, the daily newspaper “Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung” in northern Baden Württemberg carried a special report on the Chinese Communist regime’s systematic harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, with the headline “Harvesting Organs is Lucrative in China.”

The seminar mentioned that the Olympics will be held in Beijing in 2008. It is written in the article: ‘‘Peter Kutilek who comes from the German Czech Olympic watch stressed that the principle of the Olympics can not be separated from human rights issues. So officials of the international and national Olympic committee have the responsibility of urging China to respect human dignity and to honour freedom of speech and freedom of the press. But the appeal of the Olympic committee has been ignored. He was not positive about China’s situation.

On April 2nd, 2007, by invitation from Austria’s International Society for Human Rights and the Hungarian Amnesty International, Canadian human rights lawyer Mr. David Matas attended a press conference at the Hungarian Reporters Association in Budapest to disclose new-found evidence in the report written together with co-investigator Mr. David Kilgour about the Chinese Communist Party’s harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. Many media from Austria and Hungary wrote reports on this afterwards.

While patients in other countries have to wait for up to ten years, the waiting time to obtain an organ in China is unusually short because a large number of human organ banks exist, which makes the supply possible. "[Kilgour and Matas] said: Only those who have a greater and stable source of organ supply without depending on organ donations can do this.”

A SENIOR EXPERT on Asia has demanded Britain "take action now" against China, which he says is continuing to harvest organs "� la carte" from practitioners of the suppressed Falun Gong movement who are executed in prison. David Kilgour, Canada's former secretary of state for Asia-Pacific, who will visit the Houses of Parliament this week, told the Sunday Herald that Britain is leaving the issue of organ harvesting unchecked and allowing Chinese officials to kill prisoners for their organs with impunity.

"As the allegation unfolds, the story seems horrific to the point of being beyond belief. So alarmed was I on learning of this allegation that I struggled to make sense of it. The element of the story that horrifies me most, if it is true, is that it is my medical colleagues, the doctors, who perpetrate these acts. This is the only element that I have the capacity to address. While I cannot get more evidence than has already been offered I can at least test this allegation for credibility."

"On January 23rd of this year, we in the Network for Human Rights in China sent a letter to the Lord Mayor of Aarhus, Nicolai Wammen, urging him to freeze the cultural exchanges with Harbin, Aarhus’ chinese twinned city, until the Harbin authorities stop the torture and killings of Falun Gong practitioners held in the city’s many labour camps and detention centres. We are happy to see that Lord Mayor Wammen has taken the case seriously and asked the Foreign Ministry to investigate the matter. It is also encouraging to see that many of the City Council’s members are taking the case seriously."

"Western countries are beginning to pay high-level attention to accusations that Chinese authorities are killing jailed members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement in order to sell their body parts for organ transplants, reports suggest. A subcommittee of the US House of Representatives held a hearing on the accusations on 29th September while the issue was also raised at foreign minister level at the China-European Union summit meeting on 9th September in Helsinki."

“Please let the pictures talk to you, even though many are quite shocking", Mrs. Ulrike Konigsberger-Ludwig, the council woman for culture in Amstetten, said in her opening speech for the art exhibition at the city hall. This art exhibition was sponsored by The Austrian Association for Art and Cultural Exchanges (Ars Cara). The majority of artists from mainland China had their own experiences of human rights persecution by the CCP. They are Falun Gong practitioners and are following the principle of Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance. This is the reason why they are persecuted by the CCP in China.