Epochtimes Editorial
On January 23, 2001, the first month of the new century, a self-immolation was staged in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China’s capital, to defame Falun Gong, a peaceful Chinese spiritual practice outlawed by Communist Dictator Jiang Zemin in July 1999. This was followed by a large-scale propaganda blitz against Falun Gong which was unscrupulous in nature and which brought the persecution to an even more ruthless level.
Chinese police have made it impossible for large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners to continue peacefully appealing the government’s ban publicly displaying banners or meditating in Tiananmen Square. Thus, it has become acceptable for most media to not report the persecution of Falun Gong in China any more. Meanwhile, many more practitioners have been sent to prisons and labor camps.
News of deaths connected to the persecution surface each day. During the first year of the persecution, there was news of 15 deaths on average per month coming out of China. However, in 2001, the number went up to as high as 100 in some months. So far there have been 847 confirmed deaths in the past four years of persecution. These are only confirmed deaths. It is speculated that the number is actually in the thousands. several hundred thousand have been arretsed or imprisoned without trial.
Facing such facts, we have to admit that humankind has not learned its lessons from the past, nor have we made good on the world’s promise of “never again” after World War II, when millions of Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust.
Today, 50 years after the Holocaust, few of its survivors are left. Again, the principles of human rights are beginning to fade in people’s minds. Human beings are following the same old disastrous road. Through the actions of the ultra-leftists, human rights are being vulgarized and broadened beyond reason. To protect the rights of people is a sacred thing, yet the term “rights” has become dogma that is thrown around indiscriminately. Moreover, animal protectionists make up “cat rights,” “dog rights,” and “animal rights,” and put them side by side with human rights, which has totally desecrated the concept of human rights.
Some sensationalist media use human rights as dogma to criticize everyone, but forget the essence of human rights. To a lot of misguided people, ‘human right’ has become an empty slogan without any connection to the real world. In the eyes of the politicians whose only concerns are short-term achievements and votes, human rights are merely beautiful yet empty words and an excuse that nations use to attack each other. To some big corporations who only care about profits, human rights are something to be avoided. They have forgotten that before World War II, big international companies were doing a lot of business with the Nazis and helped empower Hitler.
Posting date: 9/Jan/2004
Original article date: 7/Jan/2004
Category: Media Report
