Frankenpost [Internationally recognized German newspaper] on March 3, 2001

The People's Republic of China portrays and presents their forced labor camps as "wellness centers" to the rest of the world. However, stark reality looks totally different, as yet more sentenced Falun Gong practitioners, 37 in number - were unfortunate enough to find out for themselves recently.

If one agrees with China's argumentative rhetoric, accordingly, by Chinese communist theories, those recently arrested Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing were "lucky." The so-called "luck" for those 37 men and women takes the form of ten years' unlawful stay behind bars, merely because they had decided to follow a peaceful meditation practice. One has to ask the question: will they fare ill during this ten-year period of unlawful incarceration? The Chinese official stance is "not at all." The Chinese state-run and [state] controlled press quoted a party cadre: "As a teacher cares for his students... as a doctor treats his patients, so the jailers and prison officials will take care of the Falun Gong inmates." This is the way the People's Republic of China, to the outside world, portrays her forced labor camps - as "wellness centers."

The reality of the situation paints a completely different picture. The campaign waged by Beijing's leaders against Falun Gong is reminiscent of the darkest chapters of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Thousands upon thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are arrested to work in forced labor camps, are being physically and mentally tortured and are compelled to undergo a series of "re-education" sessions, all in hopes that the government will be successful in persuading them to renounce their belief system. According to statistics from Human Rights organizations, over 100 practitioners [162 to date] have died as a result of torture; some, due to mortal dread of the interrogations, have jumped out of windows; some have fled into suicide [Falun Gong does not permit suicide and considers it a sin].

All this week, Human Rights [stories] have been the newspaper headliners. When the government in Washington produced a report on Human Rights and voiced concern about the situation in China, the official Chinese mouthpieces quickly retaliated by calling the USA a "liar." During her visit to China lately, when Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human rights, demanded the abolition of forced labor camps in China, the foreign minister feigned deafness. When labor unions in China demanded the unilateral ratification of the UN-Human Rights Pact, strangely, the Chinese government patted itself on the back. It is Beijing's leaders who deserve a "wellness-center" vacation - a long one!