Many people are deceived by the lies, which have not stopped.

December 6, 2005
Advocating human rights in China
Many people are deceived by the lies, which have not stopped.
By Yang Zhang

I commend the Daily for publishing the Nov. 30 editorial "Threat of the
peaceful in China." The abuse of Falun Gong practitioners in China is
something not to be ignored. I was appalled to read Lin Wang's strongly
worded "Falun Dafa and ignorance" published Friday. Although he states he is
not a member of the Communist party, everything he said about Falun Gong was
repeating party lines. As an alumnus and a person who grew up in China,
sharing many of the same experiences as Wang, I can see Wang was a victim of
the lies and slanders against Falun Gong.

Wang is not an isolated individual to fall prey to the Chinese Communist
Party. Recently, when nearly 100 tons of the cancer-causing chemical benzene
was dumped into a river near Harbin, a major industrial capital of
northeastern China of 3.8 million people, the government, again, lied to the
people. It took them a week to acknowledge the benzene leak, but by then
many small villages' water source had been contaminated. When the 50-mile
stretch of pollution came near, the city of Harbin shut of its water supply
for five days, but still keeping secret, initially citing reasons for the
shutoff as "water main maintenance."

Two years ago, the Chinese government's lies about SARS cost many innocent
lives in China and abroad. Even today, China still refuses to acknowledge,
let alone apologize for, the Tiananmen Square massacre. Throughout its
history, the Chinese Communist Party has killed approximately 80 million
people through various political movements and man-caused disasters, more
than the two World Wars combined. The movements and killings reveal the true
nature of brutality and carelessness with human lives.

I was 11 years old and living in Beijing when the Tiananmen Square massacre
occurred. Imagine my shock when I realized that nothing reported on TV was
true. I could hear machine-gun shots when the TV anchors stressed that the
turmoil was "rioters and students burning army tanks and fisting soldiers."
The contrast opened my eyes. I hope more Chinese people can read your
editorial "Threat of the peaceful in China" and become vigilant to words and
actions by the Chinese government. I also hope that, having the largest
Chinese student population in the country, the University can be a leader in
advocating for human rights in China.

Yang Zhang is a Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs alumna. Please send
comments to letters@mndaily.com.

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/12/06/66461/