SW CHINA: A FALUNGONG ALERT, BUT ANNIVERSARY PASSED

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