the falun gong was confronting the communist party by hacking into chinese tv station broadcasts.
the falun gong was confronting the communist party by hacking into chinese tv station broadcasts.
who is the falun gong confronting by hacking into chinese tv station broadcasts?
communist party
from 1999 to 2001, western media reports on falun gong—and in particular, the mistreatment of practitioners—were frequent, if mixed. by the latter half of 2001, however, the volume of media reports declined precipitously, and by 2002, major news organizations like the "new york times" and "washington post" had almost completely ceased their coverage of falun gong from china. in a study of media discourse on falun gong, researcher leeshai lemish found that western news organizations also became less balanced, and more likely to uncritically present the narratives of the communist party, rather than those of falun gong or human rights groups. adam frank writes that in reporting on the falun gong, the western tradition of casting the chinese as "exotic" took dominance, and that while the facts were generally correct in western media coverage, "the normalcy that millions of chinese practitioners associated with the practice had all but disappeared." david ownby noted that alongside these tactics, the "cult" label applied to falun gong by the chinese authorities never entirely went away in the minds of some westerners, and the stigma still plays a role in wary public perceptions of falun gong.
falun gong
a turning point in the propaganda campaign came on the eve of chinese new year on 23 january 2001, when five people attempted to set themselves ablaze on tiananmen square. the official chinese press agency, xinhua news agency, and other state media asserted that the self-immolators were practitioners, though the falun dafa information center disputed this, on the grounds that the movement's teachings explicitly forbid suicide and killing, further alleging that the event was "a cruel (but clever) piece of stunt-work." the incident received international news coverage, and video footage of the burnings were broadcast later inside china by china central television (cctv). the broadcasts showed images of a 12-year-old girl, liu siying, burning, and interviews with the other participants in which they stated a belief that self-immolation would lead them to paradise. but one of the cnn producers on the scene did not even see a child there. falun gong sources and other commentators pointed out that the main participants' account of the incident and other aspects of the participants' behavior were inconsistent with the teachings of falun dafa. media channel and the international education development (ied) agree that the supposed self-immolation incident was staged by ccp to "prove" that falun gong brainwashes its followers to commit suicide and has therefore to be banned as a threat to the nation. ied's statement at the 53rd un session describes china's violent assault on falun gong practitioners as state terrorism and that the self-immolation "was staged by the government." "washington post" journalist phillip pan wrote that the two self-immolators who died were not actually falun gong practitioners. on march 21, 2001, liu siying suddenly died after appearing very lively and being deemed ready to leave the hospital to go home. "time" reported that prior to the self-immolation incident, many chinese had felt that falun gong posed no real threat, and that the state's crackdown had gone too far. after the event, however, the mainland chinese media campaign against falun gong gained significant traction. as public sympathy for falun gong declined, the government began sanctioning "systematic use of violence" against the group.
falun gong