Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09CHENGDU154
2009-08-17 06:55:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Chengdu
Cable title:  

SW CHINA: A FALUNGONG ALERT, BUT ANNIVERSARY PASSED

Tags:  PHUM PGOV SOCI CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3921
RR RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHCN #0154 2290655
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 170655Z AUG 09
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3343
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 4019
C O N F I D E N T I A L CHENGDU 000154 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/17/2034
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: SW CHINA: A FALUNGONG ALERT, BUT ANNIVERSARY PASSED
QUIETLY

REF: CHENGDU 31

CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L CHENGDU 000154

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/17/2034
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: SW CHINA: A FALUNGONG ALERT, BUT ANNIVERSARY PASSED
QUIETLY

REF: CHENGDU 31

CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (d)

1. (C) Summary: Local governments in Sichuan issued an internal
order to be on high alert in the run-up to the 10th anniversary
of the issuance on July 20, 1999, of the internal PRC government
document ordering a nationwide crackdown on the spiritual
movement known as the Falun Gong. A local official called the
order an example of great waste and mismanagement in the Chinese
government system as such orders tumble down from the top and
are modified at each level of government. Falun Gong still
reaches people in southwest China by writing messages on
currency, broadcast faxes, and automated telephone banks. End
summary.



Confidential Orders a Waste, Says Official

--------------




2. (C) A Sichuan local government official told ConGenOff
recently that the central government had issued an internal
document warning all levels of government to be on high alert in
the run-up to the tenth anniversary of the issuance of an
internal PRC government document ordering the nationwide
crackdown on the Falun Gong. As usual, the official said, the
central government-issued document had been sent to the
provinces, which had then issued their own documents somewhat
adjusted in light of local experience instructing prefectures
and major cities, which then sent them to the counties. Every
Chinese county then issued its own order to the townships in the
spirit of the prefecture or city order adjusted for their own
experience.




3. (C) The local government official said in exasperation,
"Local governments at the township level issue perhaps two
hundred of these orders every year! It is all formalism and a
big waste of time!" The official said he could not give
ConGenOff a copy since it might get him into trouble. The
Falungong 10th anniversary passed uneventfully in Chengdu.



Falun Gong: Suppressed But Still Getting Message Out

-------------- --------------




4. (C) Although suppressed, the Falun Gong still makes its voice
heard. Three times in the last two years in Chengdu, ConGenOff
has received in change one-RMB notes with messages on them such
as a handwritten "The Great Falun Law is Good!" and a stamped
"Resign from the Communist Party! Read the Nine Commentaries."
ConGen Chengdu regularly receives Chinese-language Falun Gong
broadcast faxes on our local fax machine number, so the Falun
Gong probably transmits regular fax broadcasts to many fax
machines in China. Twice the Falun Gong called ConGenOff at his
local Chengdu phone number with a messaging and polling system
that after giving an anti-communist message, instructed "Press
seven to resign from the Communist Party or press eight to
resign from the Communist Youth League." In January, a local
government official in an ethnic Miao county in Guizhou Province
told ConGenOff that part of his job was to collect reports of
currency with Falungong messages on it, and that Falung Gong
members regularly called the local government to argue with
officials (reftel). Many Chinese use the Falun Gong-supported
Freegate proxy server software to penetrate China's Great Red
Firewall.

BROWN