README.adoc

However I find the metaphysics and obligations boring like for any other prophetic xref:flg-religion[religion].

The absolute truth is already known by the xref:flg-lhz[prophet], although he does not want to give clear evidence for reasons. Or a Jesus put it:

____
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:

“'He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
____

Ah good old prophets, their tricks haven't changed a bit in 2 thousand years!

And you just repeat these truth over and over and over:

* FLG is good
* FLG is good
* FLG is good
* xref:flg-religion[Aliens]
* FLG is good
* xref:flg-organized[You can support FLG by doing X and Y, why wouldn't you since you are saving other people?]
* FLG is good
* FLG is good
* xref:flg-religion[Alternate dimensions]
* FLG is good
* xref:flg-medication[Maybe FLG will make you healthier, but no promises, but it will make you a better person, and that's why you should do it, but if you really really believe, you get healthier]
* FLG is good
* FLG is good
* Non-followers are like this, FLG people are like that. Although non-followers who do good things are actually doing FLG without knowing it. Note: FLG even has a specific terminology for non-believers, which is translated in English as https://falundafa.org/eng/eng/zfl_new_4.html["ordinary-people"]. Like other aspects of FLG however, this appears in other religions, e.g. my mother mentioned the funny term used by her Protestant's group term but I forgot it, and you can see it in Harry Potter as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muggle[The Muggles].
* FLG is good
* FLG is good
* FLG is good
* xref:flg-religion[Final judgement]
* FLG is good

I would really like to know if <<flg-lhz,LHZ>> really believes in FLG, or is just a complete manipulating charlatan, but unfortunately we will never know that.

Just imagine if before he died he published a video saying: "it was a joke, gotcha!". Now that would be **epic**!

Since I'm good natured, it's hard for me to believe that he doesn't believe in anything, how can anyone be that evil? Maybe he believes in part of it, but made up some stuff to sell it better, maybe with good intentions that selling the fake part would also lead more people to see the good part?

Like any other prophetic religion, FLG gives tiny evidence that you can directly feel through meditation. The energies, which I believe are real feelings. And then using that entry point asks you to believe a whole lot more, that you can't feel.

This becomes especially strong when a critical mass of believers is reached, and then they start interpreting all sorts of events as miracles, and you start to believe other believers without questioning them, and a circle is formed.

This post by a former believer gives what I feel is a realistic account that matches my observations: https://medium.com/@Ben_D_Hurley/-10677166298b "Me and Li" by Ben Hurley published on October 23, 2017.

In any case, at least FLG got one thing right: the commies <<is-the-chinese-government-is-evil,evil>>, and we have to get rid of them.

And yet, all those who love freedom, must oppose FLG ban, or be enslaved by tyrants themselves: <<democracy-is-a-religion>>.

See also: <<flg-is-fake>>.

[[flg-bias]]
==== Do you support FLG just because your wife and mother-in-law do it?

Not consciously, I think I would likely support them even if I didn't have family ties to FLG.

Likely I wouldn't have started this campaign if I didn't know them of course.

But of course, this is impossible to answer objectively.

But don't you think that <<falun-gong-is-not-important-to-be-worth-discussing,**70 Million** people (6% of the total population in 2000!)>> getting completely squashed by the Party illustrates extremely well the dangers of the dictatorship?

With that in mind, I try my best to give FLG only the right level of exposure I think it deserves relative to other events, according to these guidelines: <<keyword-choice>>

If more recent events of mass human rights violation happen, especially affecting in the order of tens of million people, I will probably rank higher than Falun Gong, this was the case for <<xinjiang,Xinjiang in 2019>> for example, even though it only affected a measly million.

==== How much do you know about Falun Gong's claims?

I haven't read their <<flg-canon,canon>> myself, no patience, but I have constant contact with believers and so have an idea of its content.

[[flg-canon]]
==== What are the canonical Falun Gong texts?

It appears that Falun Gong cannon is present at: http://falundafa.org/

It contains <<flg-lhz,LHZ>>'s approved texts / speech transcriptions, which are sacred.

The only sacred version is Chinese which is a sacred language, and of which there is only one perfect revision. Islam also appears to place great importance on the sacredness of Arabic in which Mohamed first spoke, perhaps even more: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/plight-uyghurs-why-muslims-wont-speak-their-brethren-112466 Protestants and later the Catholic church, have moved away from such really bad strategy however, the accessibility of Christianity is seen on the entrance of many many churches which have a sign "ALL are welcome". Well played.

I think <<flg-lhz,LHZ>> claims the specifically chose to reincarnate in China this time.

The English translation is made by followers, and gets new revisions to reduce translation imperfection.

However, the Chinese language seems to be fundamentally sacred, and there might never be an sacred English version approved by LHZ.

LHZ is of course a de-facto God with superpowers, and can of course speak all languages, but for reasons he didn't just write an English translation himself.

This is a reasonable command to download the English cannon for grepping:

....
wget -r -l inf --no-remove-listing --no-clobber --no-parent -w 2 https://en.falundafa.org/falun-dafa-books.html
....

TODO: need to find a way to wrap lines, otherwise grep might fail on sentences.

Nothing else is canonical. LHZ seems to have said that there are enlightened followers, but has not specified who, so we can't derive canon from anyone else.

Notably, <<flg-organized,FLG media>> such as http://www.minghui.org/ is believer led and thus not canonical, even though believers have very high confidence on it, and LHZ <<flg-organized,directly supports it>>.

==== Do you support FLG, or just use it because it is a censored?

I don't support FLG specifically, only freedom of religion.

I use it in my usernames simply because it is the most banned and censored one in China today.

I believe that individuals should only be put in jail for what they do, not for what they believe.

I consider FLG <<flg-religion,a religion like any other>>, and I am against its ban, as I am for all other religions.

Also I believe that freedom of speech and democracy imply that FLG and other religions will exist. If you want freedom, you have to <<intolerance,accept other people's choices>>.

Otherwise, <<democracy-is-a-religion,democracy and communism can also be considered as religions>>, and banned.

See also: <<flg-verifiable>>.

[[flg-daily]]
==== How is it like to live with Falun Gong believers?

This will obviously vary from believer to believer, but here my experience.

Like any other religion that is taken seriously, they spend several hours per week doing their standard religious activities: <<flg-religion>>.

I have never seen them, or anyone we know from FLG say or do something that I consider morally incorrect because of FLG.

This does not prevent <<why-do-you-love-china-so-much,my wife>> from working normally.

My mother-in-law, who is retired, dedicates all her time to Falun Gong when she is not taking care of the house.

My mother is also religious (link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism[Protestant]), and I get a very similar feeling about both groups.

Like other religions, Falun Gong gives them meaning in life, and I admire that they pursue their belief energetically.

I much prefer that my mother-in-law does Falun Gong, which is a noble meaningful goal, rather than watch stupid crap on television.

Also, although I am <<do-you-believe-in-or-practice-falun-gong,agnostic>>, I also live in a similar way.

My religion is that of science and technology, and I pursue it fervently by trying to learn and teach it and spend several hours a week doing that, even when it does not give me money immediately.

If I pursue my meaning, why should I prevent anyone from pursuing theirs?

Previously, my wife and mother-in-law would sometimes try to persuade me to learn FLG, which was annoying.

But every time I told them very clearly that I know where to download the books if I want to, and that I may never want to read them, and that my wife must either accept this fact of leave me.

And they have accepted that: they think I'm a good person, and they can accept that you can also be a good person even without doing FLG.

I do feel Falun Gong makes my mother-in-law more reluctant to use or actively search for <<flg-medication,medication or treatment>>. But I think it is also linked to the fact that she didn't have a very good education or a good health system around. However, if we give her something, she will take it. My wife does not have any resistance to medication.

One thing that does worry me is that my mother in law sleeps too little every night, doing one of the Falun Gong meditations late in the evening, and then waking up very early to a long series of reading and exercise sessions.

Bibliography:

* http://www.zhihu.com/question/27659795 (https://www.zhihu.com/question/27659795[archive])家里有人练法轮功是一种怎样的体验？

==== In the Tweet about his mother in law, Ciro Santilli says "correctional facility", but reeducation through labour has been abolished

He was not very precise https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/579270450984984576[here], the precise term is "jail". He was _not_ talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-education_through_labor Unfortunately it is not possible to edit a Tweet.

[[flg-changed]]
==== Falun Gong is completely different in the West than it was in China

I believe that it has changed.

But isn't that the case of every cultural religious movement that migrates to a completely new culture?

Main points which may have changed:

* It has become more organized.
+
But why shouldn't they organize to defend themselves now that they have the chance without being put into prison?
+
The CCP is highly organized and has way more resources.
* Less emphasis is given to the religious / mystical aspect, and more to the corporal exercises, and health aspect.
+
This may be because people in the "West" are:
+
** are "scientific-educated" atheists who wouldn't go for a "religion"
** already have other religions, which would view FLG as a taboo

Also maybe only the richest and most educated believers managed to escape China, and thus the movement carried that bias outside China.

If you know more ways in which it may have changed, let me know.

But once again, we can know nothing for sure about the past in China because of censorship.

Even if you saw something yourself, how can you be sure that it is representative?

And if it has changed, now that it has changed, maybe China should unban it?

==== FLG has been funded by the US government at least once, therefore it is evil

1.5M USD in 2010 for a FLG controlled internet freedom group http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8678760.stm

But well, if you are going to do something anyways, and someone offers you money, why wouldn't you take it?

Taking the money does of course give a "bad impression" that someone is trying to buy influence, but does it in itself imply that you are doing something bad?

But do you really think that the US government paid that to buy influence in FLG? What would they force upon that FLG group that they didn't already want to do? Isn't it more likely that the US government wanted them to continue doing exactly what they were doing?

Every government funds groups it supports, it is an all out war I suppose. Compare that to the propaganda funds of the CCP.

What about the funding of political campaigns, which vastly outnumbers 1.5M USD every year?

[[follow-the-law]]
==== FLG is illegal in China, we must follow the law

This might be a bad law that should be changed.

It was perfectly legal for <<nazi,Nazis>> to kill Jews. Does it make that right?

==== FLG is fake

The same can be argued about any other religion or political belief of type: it is better if we organize society in this or that way.

How can you disprove their belief, when as in any other religion, every affirmation made hinges on "miracles only happen around when true believers are around" or "only true believers can perceive evidence in their hearts / minds directly". He died of cancer? Not a true believer.

Conversely, do you understand the full sequence of experiments that imply quantum field theory? Have you seen videos of those experiments? Have you attended live demonstrations? Do you understand the construction of the experimentation apparatus? Yet, why do you believe it?

More importantly: what do you propose that should be done about it? Should we kill followers? Or is jail enough?

Also do let me know when you have achieved irrefutable proof that democracy / freedom of speech are the optimal ways to organize the government: <<democracy-is-a-religion>>.

See also: <<flg-religion>>

[[flg-verifiable]]
===== FLG never makes any predictions that can be reasonably verified by non-believers

Exactly, just like any other <<flg-religion>>, this is why I'm <<do-you-believe-in-or-practice-falun-gong,agnostic>>.

The closest claims to observable I've heard are:

* when pictures are taken in sacred events, notably Shen Yun, sometimes you can see magic Falun energy wheels in the pictures
* in the homes of some followers, small magic good plants-like fungi-like things have grown
* the sacred books of some believers had a closed lotus flower when they were bought, and after several years, the flower opened

but I suspect they are not even <<flg-canon,canon>>, just believer oral culture.

Of course, like every other religion, reality happens to be is constructed in a way that prevents non-believers to verify anything with their eyes in a reproducible way.

===== FLG is a very new religion and therefore fake

The Romans called <<christianity>> the "Cult of Jesus".

If I tell a lie today, will it become true in a thousand years? Or a truth today become a lie?

Try sending an email to <<flg-lhz,LHZ>> asking him to prove his powers to you :-)

[[against-censorship-and-flg]]
==== Many people both are against censorship and FLG

I know that, and that supporting FLG is "bad" for my public image with most Chinese, including those that are against censorship.

But without censorship, there will be democracy, and with democracy FLG followers will have voting rights, and FLG will become legal.

I think the situation is very similar to Scientology in the USA today: most people dislike it, but believe that you can believe whatever you want.

Democracy and Communism <<democracy-is-a-religion,can also be considered as religions and persecuted>>.

Isn't it convenient when a dictatorship gets rid of those weirdos for you? But not so much when suddenly you or your family is the weirdo...

If you are not ready to accept the beliefs of others, dictatorship is the only choice for you.

See also: <<flg-bias>>

[[democracy-is-a-religion]]
===== Why do you say that democracy is a religion just like FLG?

Because it also specifies irrational and fundamental aspects of how one should live, notably voting and freedom of speech.

Like the Cult of CCP has one fundamental belief: <<stability,the Party is always right>>.

Ban FLG, and you have banned democracy.

Accept democracy, and you will have FLG.

[[flg-stability]]
===== Falun Gong had to be banned because it was a threat to the stability of the country

Then they link to the Taping Rebellion:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Heavenly_Kingdom

Of course FLG it was a threat to the stability of the country.

It is, as I have said, a highly organized political power: <<flg-political>>.

However, <<democracy-is-a-religion,democracy>> is a threat to the stability country in the exact same way:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution

Anything that goes against a dictatorship is a threat to the stability of the country.

Now read: <<stability>>

==== Many people say they do FLG only to get VISAs to the USA

Heard this a few times, and I believe it has happened.

But I don't see how this is relevant at all to this discussion:

* if they are not really FLG believers, they should be prosecuted, but this says nothing about the real FLG believers,
* if they are, then why wouldn't they seek a VISA, since they are in constant threat of going to jail or worse in China, and the USA law gives them that right?

Sample news:

* https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/09/28/652218318/thousands-could-be-deported-as-government-targets-asylum-mills-clients

[[flg-witness]]
==== I have personally seen people do bad things because of Falun Gong

Either direct suicide or <<flg-medication,dying because of not taking medication>>.

First, I'm not saying I don't believe you, and I'm sorry about what happened.

But your testimony is worthless unless you give the following:

* clear unique personal identification
+
This is because the CCP has thousands of wumaos who could make fake reports.
+
There are basically two ways to do that:
+
.  your testimony is done in video form on YouTube clearly showing your face as you make it
.  links between a notable social media presence that is hard to achieve, e.g. Twitter with many followers, Stack overflow with a lot of rep, and the account
+
Either of those must contain / link to information that uniquely identifies you. Generally, full name, city and date of birth is enough.
* a precise testimony that states exactly what you saw happen with your own eyes, or heard from people that are very close to you.
+
The testimony must include:
+
--
** when the events happened
** where they happened, in which city at the very least
** the full names of who did what
--
+
This is to:
+
** make it easier to verify the truth of the event
** uniquely identify the event so we don't count a single event multiple times

If you do provide all of the above, I add your report to a list of reports that I will maintain. This list does not exist yet because there were no valid reports yet.

Next consider this:

* are you sure that Falun Gong made the person do the bad thing, and that the person wouldn't have done it anyways?
+
Did someone from Falun Gong told the person to do it?
+
I bet that if you look into patients of psychiatrists, you will find more suicides than average. So should we ban psychiatry?
* are you sure that the order came from <<flg-lhz,LHZ>>, and that it was not just some disgruntled local leader using Falun Gong for his personal madness and doing things he did not approve?
+
Branch Davidians were inspired by <<christianity>>. So should we ban Christianity? What about the majority of Christians who have never done anything bad?
* only statistics has any meaning, and it would require a very large number of reports to make up statistics, so you will likely be wasting your time. I will do my part and maintain a list however.
* if ask for FLG believers to compile a list of horrors they have suffered, which they have already been doing since the start of the persecution, I bet that their list will be much longer than yours, because they are so <<flg-organized,well organized>>

==== FLG does not have proof of their persecution claims

How much proof do you think they would be able to get when there is no freedom of press?

Do you think that forbidding a <<falun-gong-is-not-important-to-be-worth-discussing,70 million>> person religion could have gone smoothly?

Do you think the thousands of personal of accounts of human rights violations that exist are all fake, and don't indicate that many, many more have taken place but fallen under censorship?

Conversely, there is no reliable proof that FLG is bad as claimed by CCP that has been verified by international media.

==== Someone from movement X did something bad, therefore the movement should be banned

By this logic, everyone should go to jail. The law should only punish individuals.

The communist party, which has had continuous power since 1949, killed millions during the cultural revolution. Surely they must be banned, no?

But the CCP has changed so much since those days, I hear you say.

I agree. And <<flg-changed,so has FLG>>.

===== Movement X tells people to do something bad, therefore the movement should be banned

E.g. kill.

Yes, convincing someone to do something bad is as bad as doing it yourself of course, and must be forbidden.

Now proceed to prove that FLG made and will continue making people do bad things, going through:

* <<flg-witness>>
* <<flg-changed>>

[[flg-political]]
==== People from movement X are only in it for political power

For every desire of the masses, there will be amoral representatives that will step to use that power.

Still, those representatives cannot gain power if there is no backing desire from the society.

The only advantage of <<richer,democracy>>, is that those representatives have to pretend harder to do things for that group to retain their power.

==== Western media has exaggerated reports on FLG for propaganda reasons

Possibly true, but which reports are you talking about specifically?

All that I care about is:

* it is censored today
* if you do it you go to jail
* there were tens of millions of followers at the time of the ban

which I think are undeniable.

The only question that matters is: should it be banned or not?

==== Do you believe in the allegations of human rights violations done to Falun Gong believers?

Let's just focus on the evidence:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CedVnJOgwg4&feature=youtu.be "Undercover video reveals brutal treatment of Falun Gong prisoners inside Chinese labor camps" by "FOX 11 Los Angeles" published May 21, 2019. Names mentioned: Fuquan Yin,

===== Do you believe in the allegations of organ harvesting made by Falun Gong believers?

In short: I believe that it has happened to many people.

Long version:

It is obviously very hard to prove and quantify it definitely, much like it was hard to prove the Holocaust: bodies were cremated, and bribes were paid.

Even if we had a video showing the whole process, showing the whole money flow from donor to prison guard, it would still be hard to quantify it, so I do have some room for doubt in this opinion.

But consider the following, which is based on what I heard.

Even Chinese officials have admitted that in the past, if the body of the executed person is not claimed by family, then the organs can be extracted even without the consent of the prisoner:

* https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/07/china-still-using-executed-prisoners-organs-transplants-vatican
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-the-face-of-criticism-china-has-been-cleaning-up-its-organ-transplant-industry/2017/09/14/d689444e-e1a2-11e6-a419-eefe8eff0835_story.html

Perhaps now that they claim that there is a large voluntary organ donor database, then this has stopped or been reduced, but let's focus on that period when the extractions were widely done.

From this, even though China does not publish execution statistics, we can imagine that a large part of the organs come from prisoners sentenced to death.

Then, consider that a <<falun-gong-is-not-important-to-be-worth-discussing,70 million>> person religion was banned, leading to a huge influx of prisoners from that religion.

FLG followers are just de-facto criminals like any other, and so extracting their organs is also de-facto legal.

Also, people from that religion don't drink alcohol, smoke or take drugs, and their organs are of good quality.

Furthermore, FLG prisoners continue to not bow down to the government even in prison, e.g. by doing their <<flg-religion,Falun Gong meditation>>, which makes them clearly identifiable and dangerous to the system.

Finally, add to that mix the huge level of corruption found in dictatorships.

Don't you think, then, that it is extremely likely that it has happened many times that such people have been selected to be executed earlier than others on average, due to the monetary value of their organs?

Bibliography:

* https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-019-0406-6 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191118135832/https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-019-0406-6[archive]) "Analysis of official deceased organ donation data casts doubt on the credibility of China’s organ transplant reform" by Matthew P. Robertson, Raymond L. Hinde and Jacob Lavee published at "BMC Medical Ethics" which is part of Springer Nature in 14 November 2019
* The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem, by Ehtan Gutmann, 2014
** <https://www.amazon.com/Slaughter-Killings-Harvesting-Solution-Dissident/dp/161614940X>
** <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Gutmann#The_Slaughter:_Mass_Killings,_Organ_Harvesting,_and_China's_Secret_Solution_to_Its_Dissident_Problem>

====== 2018 China Tribunal

2018 https://chinatribunal.com/

This is a mock tribunal, without any power of law, and was of course initially lobbied / organized brought up by FLG: https://endtransplantabuse.org/

However,  Ciro Santilli believes that none of the lawyers / jury members are FLG believers, and that they are trying to honestly decide if there is enough evidence or not for organ harvesting in China.

They also have non-FLG witnesses.

Wether you believe in their partiality or not, I highly recommend watching some of what the witnesses, which I find very convincing and informative:

* https://youtu.be/oW3IaaXWE8s?t=7225 Swedish man who spent several years in prison in China

A notable precursor to mock tribunals is the link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal[Russel Tribunal].

Bibliography:

* Dr. Enver Tothi, has spoken openly about his organ harvesting activities in the 1990s in several tribunals in Europe
** 2020 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/surgeon-who-harvested-organs-slaughtered-21040274 "Surgeon who harvested organs of slaughtered dissident now London Uber driver"
** 2019 in EU parliament: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n-9n897jIo
** 2017 Him speaking in : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoXKMw4slHY at Ireland's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoXKMw4slHY[House of the Oireachtas]

==== Falun Gong overviews

Some possibly neutral overviews.

For:

* http://www.icsahome.com/articles/the-prc-and-falun-gong-langone

Against:

* http://www.culteducation.com/group/1254-falun-gong.html

Interesting:

* http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult_q0.html

==== Things I personally dislike about FLG

But also as explaining why I don't think it justifies the ban.

This section also gives me more credibility as a balanced critic >:-)

[[flg-religion]]
===== FLG downplays the fact that it is a religion

If asked if they follow a religion, most FLG believers will say no. E.g. they call themselves "practitioners" instead of believers.

But Ciro Santilli strongly believes that all most people in the West would classify FLG as a religion if they are told that for FLG:

* absolute truth comes from an enlightened <<flg-lhz,prophet>>, who is perfect and has super human abilities
* weekly meetings where they read from a sacred book, either written by the prophet, or transcribed from his presentations to disciples, including the disciples questions, much like traditional Chinese texts like link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analects[The Analects of Confucius]
* prescribed daily meditation exercise hours, somewhat like Muslim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salah[Salah] prayers which they call https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazhengnian[发正念 (fa1 zheng4 nian4)]
* higher intelligent beings
* other dimensions
* aliens that looks like humans are amongst us, they gave us part of our modern technology
* meetings in which people tell their religious testimonies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testimony#Religion
* an impending link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Judgment[final judgement]-like event, which will happen "very soon" (<<flg-verifiable,unspecified date>>), and in which the just will be rewarded
+
I predict that when <<flg-lhz>> dies, the claim will be that he went to another dimension so save us all, therefore putting this final judgement on hold, a bit like Jesus.
* link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-air_preaching[street preaching] with stands and leaflets like link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses[Jehovah's Witnesses]

Or a cult, which is nothing but a new / small religion with negative connotation, and thus meaningless.

But consider this: how to classify what a religion is?

Some would answer: science is what everyone can perceive with their own senses.

But FLG followers claim to feel FLG energies when doing the exercises, and a few of them have the power of seeing the other dimensions.

On the other hand, how many of your friends have experienced the laws of quantum field theory or general relativity in a very direct way?

And aren't pro-democracy believers also taking actions based solely on a shared belief, possibly organized by a pro-democracy leader?

From a purely strategic point of view, the "religion" denomination would be:

* good to FLG because the concept of freedom of religion carries considerable weight in the West
* bad for FLG because people who already have a religion would be less likely to try it out and start believing

See also: <<flg-daily>>.

[[flg-organized]]
===== FLG downplays the fact that it is highly organized

Many FLG practitioners claim that they are not at all organized, or that they have no political interest, and I truly believe that they mean it.

But it is obvious from the size of the FLG related media, namely:

* link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NDTV[NDTV television network]
* link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch_Times[Epoch Times newspaper]
* link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shen_Yun_Performing_Arts[Shen Yun Performing Arts]

that in practice they do have are a highly organized hierarchical structure, and very likely with <<flg-lhz,LHZ>> at the very top, e.g.:

* Shen Yun's 2018 libretto says that their Artistic Director and founder is "D.F." (likely an abbreviation for Da Fa, which is an abbreviation for Falun Gong Dafa, which is a full name of Falun Gong), with a picture of LHZ on top. It also amusingly says that D.F. is a "Distinguished Professor of Music and Dance at Fei Tian College in New York", which is likely where many of Shen Yun's dancers are trained, and therefore controlled by himself to a large extent
* LHZ mentions NDTV, Epoch Times and Shen Yun extensively on his <<flg-canon>>. TODO link to source, this based on unintentionally overhearing to my family members reading it.

Furthermore, Falun Gong practitioners directly lobby foreign governments to take action against human rights abuses in China, e.g.:

* http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+MOTION+P7-RC-2013-0562+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
* https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-court-cisco-must-be-held-accountable-aiding-chinas-human-rights-abuses

Like any other religion, they have all the right to take those actions, and it is definitely in their best interest, and perhaps in the best interest of the whole world, that they do so.

The only thing that annoys me is their lack of self perception on this matter: the large majority of Western people would definitely classify them as an organized political force after having observed their activities. When they say otherwise, they are hurting their own credibility.

====== FLG media is not transparent about its affiliation

Agreed, and it is a point that hurts more than helps their cause.

But the media is not legally obliged to state their affiliation.

And if that were the case, then we should force _all_ newspapers start taking pools of how many employees follow which religion and support which political party, and then put that in their print.

===== FLG dislikes several other groups like homosexuals and some other religions

Like most old religions.

Democracy dislikes dictators.

You and I dislike certain personality traits without any logical reason.

What matters is that we treat everyone with respect and without bias at work, even if we don't like them.

But the law can't force you to like everyone.

If one specific FLG member breaks a law by discriminating someone, they should be punished just like anyone else.

[[flg-medication]]
===== FLG believers are less likely to take necessary medication

Due to their beliefs in the healing power of FLG, which seems to have certain level of support on <<flg-canon,canonical texts>> TODO precise quotes.

This is a point that makes me worry, and I do believe that it is true for some believers, that but consider:

* what matters are statistics. Maybe FLG people live longer than non FLG in average. But we will never have statistics because of censorship: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27529/have-many-falun-gong-practitioners-forgone-medical-treatment-and-died-of-treatab
* maybe people should be link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_legislation[allowed to choose how they want to die], not to take medication if they don't want to
* maybe the number of people killed during persecution vastly outnumbers those who died because they would not take medication
* several religions, including <<christianity>> have miraculous cure claims. My impression is that claims were mostly notable in the old times apparently, likely because people noticed that Christians were still dying of all kinds of diseases like everyone else, no matter how devout!
* maybe the main reason why communists banned FLG is the political threat it posed, but that a ban was unjustified given the situation. Christian crosses are being taken down as of 2016, have they stopped taking their medications as well?
* maybe many of those people would also have died soon even if they had taken medication
* maybe not all Falun Gong believers thought that it was wise to stop taking medication. But their religion was banned anyways. Who can agree and follow all the innumerable prescriptions of any religious or legal system?
* all the following also reduce people's lifespan:
+
--
** riding motorcycles vs cars / buses
** smoking
** moving to a poor country to do charity there
** eating fast food
--
+
Forbidding them also has huge humanitarian costs (more expensive vehicles, creation of a black market, ...). So why not forbid them as well?

[[flg-lhz]]
===== FLG is dangerous because LHZ has too much power over followers

LHZ (Li Hongzhi) is the creator of FLG: link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Hongzhi[], or as I prefer to call it, its <<flg-religion,prophet>>.

I agree that there is danger in every religion, and specially new religions.

However the same point can be made about political parties and in particular the CCP and its chairman.

Couldn't a charismatic leader chairman gain more and more power (like Xi seems to be doing), and eventually start a war and kill millions? Or just kill some minority which is not happy about the situation.

Similarly, any charismatic leader of a pro democracy movement could become the leader of a terrorist organization.

If you ever want democracy, you will have to learn to accept the beliefs of others, and only punish them when they actually break a law.

Finally, LHZ was born in 1951, so he will die in 20 years, unless FLG is true and a miracle happens, and then this argument will become invalid.

From what I hear, LHZ has always maintained that he is the only source of truth on FLG, and therefore, so his death will very likely remove any danger once and for all.

Furthermore, it also seems to me that FLG is clearly anti-violence and self-harm, so I wonder how many would follow a contradictory order such as killing or suicide?

It is also interesting to look into the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown case. When the suicide order came, most people wanted out! Without physically controlling the followers, I don't think you can make them do much.

===== Some FLG people make phone telemarketing

I've seen that happen, they made phone calls to people in China to explain why FLG is good, and I disapprove of it.

Visual ads on the street on Internet I can stand, but not any kind of advertising that generates notifications on my feeds.

==== Falun Gong bibliography

* https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Chinese-government-against-Falun-Gong
* http://www.zhihu.com/question/23988890 (https://web.archive.org/web/20160311140407/https://www.zhihu.com/question/23988890[archive]) "全能神教在境外，法轮功也在境外，为什么他们不祸害境外人民、偏偏只祸害大陆人？"

[[news]]
== News 新闻

Trying to keep only "neutral" sources here, let me know if you spot something too biased: <<biased-media>>.

How I find them: <<anti-commie-info>>.

=== News 2019

* 2020-01 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3045657/china-human-rights-activist-ding-jiaxi-under-investigation one more human rights person Ding Jiaxi. The list is endless, should we care?

=== News 2019

* 2019-12-18 Fudan University in China removes "freedom of thought" from university charters, students protes
* 2019-10-16 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/16/gitlab_employees_gagged/ GitLab prevents employees from discussing politics at work, and will not veto clients. This is not confirmed, but I guess it is very likely in reply to the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>> given the timing. The https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/merge_requests/30656[merge request] (http://web.archive.org/web/20191017080216/https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/merge_requests/30656[archive]).
* Twitter to block operations by oppressive foreign state media
** https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/information_operations_directed_at_Hong_Kong.html Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/csodbt/twitter_suspends_nearly_1000_accounts_connected/
** https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/advertising_policies_on_state_media.html Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/csnsyn/twitter_policy_change_we_will_not_accept/
* 2019-07-12 https://www.apnews.com/a2584de07c014e4786a21bcf9f446a40 "37 countries rally around China at top UN human rights body"
** <<biased-media,(biased)>> http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-07/15/c_138229200.htm
** the full scanned letter: https://twitter.com/KevinPinner/status/1151868854781526016
* 2019-07-02 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/02/chinese-border-guards-surveillance-app-tourists-phones "Chinese border guards put secret surveillance app on tourists' phones"
* 2019-06-18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmId2ZP3h0c "Inside China's 'thought transformation' camps - BBC News" China gives BBC "access" to a chosen show camp where everyone claims is happy and willing to stay. Amazing dark-comedy like stuff.
* 2019-05-09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2hBtXdaYsQ&list=PLcZOZrP1P_V5d7RMOKXF1PT70fcfYJpgY&index=2&t=14s Cynthia Liu, daughter of Liu Changming pleas freedom on YouTube, commented upload by CBS, TODO can't find original video on YouTube, maybe they sent straight to CBS?
* 2019-04-28 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-48084019 Hong Kong: Thousands protest against China extradition law
** https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/auqkdl/biotech_giant_thermo_fisher_stops_selling_dna/
* 2019-01 https://www.apnews.com/40f7cf4c0c6e43f18121af93f1e418f7 Microsoft Bing https://www.bing.com/ search engine blocked in China
* 2019-01 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/business/china-internet-censor.html interview with Beyondsoft, a company that offers censoring services

[[nine-nine-six-icu]]
==== 996.ICU

https://github.com/996icu/996.ICU

Repository published in 2019-04 protesting against excessive work hours by Chinese programmers.

The name refers to:

* "996": work from 9AM to 9PM 6 days a week
* "ICU": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_care_unit[Intensive Care Unit]

Reached 180k stars in a week, and was the second most starred repository as of 2019-10 https://github.com/search?q=stars%3A%3E100&s=stars&type=Repositories[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20191023084929/https://github.com/search?q=stars%3A%3E100&s=stars&type=Repositories[archive])!!!

This is therefore the best example for Chinese tech workers that freedom of speech is a good thing.

Coverage:

* https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/b927sk/tencent_xiaomi_and_others_block_github_page/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/b8t8cc/overworked_chinese_developers_gather_on_github_to/

.996.ICU logo. https://github.com/996icu[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191023085035/https://avatars3.githubusercontent.com/u/48942249[height=400]

=== News 2018

* 2018-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/liu-changming-china-holds-officials-family-hostage-to-force-return-2018-11 China is holding a renegade official's family hostage to pressure him to come back. Western media, for the love of God, include names in Chinese news titles: Liu Changming, wife Sandra Han, children Victor and Cynthia Liu.
* 2018-08 https://theintercept.com/2018/08/08/google-censorship-china-blacklist/
* 2018-06 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/06/china-bans-online-mention-of-john-oliver-after-he-mocks-chinas-president/ https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6m5b3o
* 2018-05 https://www.whatsonweibo.com/public-shaming-of-drug-users-in-guangdong-drug-related-crimes-in-family-painted-on-houses/
* 2018-04 https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-lawmaking/china-makes-defaming-revolutionary-heroes-punishable-by-law-idUKKBN1HY16C
* 2018-04 https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/04/translation-open-letter-on-peking-university-metoo-case/ https://github.com/sikaozhe1997/Xin-Yue
* 2018-04 https://www.whatsonweibo.com/weibos-new-online-guidelines-no-homosexuality-allowed/
* 2018-04 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/congressional-leaders-urge-us-to-press-china-over-reports-of-mass-uighur-detentions/2018/04/05/9bd17c90-38b3-11e8-b57c-9445cc4dfa5e_story.html
* 2018-03 https://supchina.com/2018/03/29/no-tattoos-at-the-2018-strawberry-music-festival-in-hangzhou/ Funny pics at: http://app.myzaker.com/news/article.php?f=xiongzhang&pk=5ac0eb1877ac6465da676481
* 2018-02 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/world/asia/china-xi-jinping.html
* 2018-02 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/25/at-least-120000-muslim-uighurs-held-in-chinese-re-education-camps-report
* 2018-01 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/19/outspoken-chinese-human-rights-lawyer-yu-wensheng-arrested
* 2018-01 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-politics/hong-kong-activist-banned-from-by-election-in-what-pro-democracy-party-calls-payback-idUSKBN1FG06P
* 2018-01 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/world/asia/china-church-dynamite.html
* 2018-01 http://uk.businessinsider.com/china-marriott-tweets-censorship-2018-1?r=US&IR=T Marriott lists Taiwan as country in the website
* 2018-01 http://chuangcn.org/2018/01/the-mastermind/
* 2018-01 http://time.com/5112061/china-hip-hop-ban-tattoos-television/

=== News 2017

* 2017-12 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/25/world/asia/china-wu-gan-sentence.html
* 2017-11 低端人口 Low-end population
** https://qz.com/1138395/low-end-population-what-you-need-to-know-about-chinas-crackdown-on-migrant-workers/
* 2017-11 https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/7a7hf9/the_worlds_largest_academic_publisher_blocks/ Springer nature pulls sensitive articles. TODO article list.
* 2017-09 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/business/china-whatsapp-blocked.html
* 2017-08 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-muslim-minority-school-language-ban-han-xinjiang-uyghur-hotan-hetian-government-communist-a7873446.html
* 2017-07 https://qz.com/1056938/cambridge-university-press-china-quarterly-complies-with-censorship-removes-300-articles-on-topics-like-tiananmen-and-tibet-in-china/ Book list: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-file-manager/file/59970028145fd05f66868bf5?utm_content=bufferb652b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20170905214500/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-file-manager/file/59970028145fd05f66868bf5?utm_content=bufferb652b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
* 2017-07 https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/29/apple-removes-vpn-apps-from-the-app-store-in-china/
* 2017-07 http://shanghaiist.com/2017/07/26/liu-xia-home-visit.php
* 2017-06 http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/ordered-05092017155554.html Uyghurs studying abroad ordered to return to China
* 2017-06 http://www.whatsonweibo.com/new-rules-online-videos-china-no-displays-homosexuality/
* 2017-06 http://mashable.com/2017/06/23/china-bans-livestreaming/#FJ4h.sLYQqq9
* 2017-05 https://qz.com/989454/a-chinese-students-commencement-speech-at-the-university-of-maryland-praising-fresh-air-and-democracy-is-riling-chinas-internet/
* 2017-05 http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1000233/at-wedding-market%2C-mothers-of-gays-and-lesbians-face-resistance
* 2017-05 https://ktar.com/story/1564381/ap-exclusive-china-lawyers-family-says-us-helped-them-flee
* 2017-04 https://citizenlab.ca/2017/04/we-cant-chat-709-crackdown-discussions-blocked-on-weibo-and-wechat/
* 2017-04 https://chinachange.org/2017/05/03/breaking-lawyer-chen-jiangang-with-family-and-two-friends-seized-by-armed-police-in-yunnan/
* 2017-03 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-39137293 BBC Team forced to sign confession

=== News 2016

* 2016-11 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/38005603 Election china style, BBC interview with Chinese candidate, while thugs block him physically from nocking the door: Funny / scary stuff. https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/5dfigb/this_is_democracy_chinesestyle/
* 2016-11 https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/5ai1s6/chinese_citizen_arrested_after_wearing_xitler/ https://wqw2010.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/101.html Possible Twitter: https://twitter.com/kwonpyong
* 2016-09: http://qz.com/783026/china-censorship-chinese-citizens-are-being-arrested-for-sharing-news-about-the-wukan-village-rebellion-online/ http://qz.com/781989/foreign-journalists-are-wanted-for-3000-by-chinese-authorities-for-inciting-unrest-in-a-village/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wukan_protests
* 2016-06 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/28/china-lady-gaga-ban-list-hostile-foreign-forces-meeting-dalai-lama
* 2016-06 https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/78775b09e64d85f08547287cab204b48b2491192/China/2016/2016-06-08-programthink-zhao.md first GitHub takedown, see also: <<programthink>>
* 2016 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/asia/china-britain-queen-xi-jinping.html?_r=0 queen says Chinese were rude in state visit
* 2016 http://shanghaiist.com/2016/05/06/dont_eat_that_banana.php Sexy banana eating forbidden
* 201X http://qz.com/671211/chinas-propaganda-outlets-have-leaped-the-top-of-facebook-even-though-it-banned-at-home/ Chinese government uses forbidden media in China like Facebook and Twitter, possibly click farmed
* 2016-04 http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/01/26/china-threatens-sanctions-against-u-s-companies-is-this-the-future/ China economic sanctions companies that sell weapons to Taiwan (some of those companies also sell civilian products to China)
* 2016-04 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-demands-shutdown-disneylife-service-887599 Disney Life blocked
* 2016-04 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-demands-shutdown-apples-film-886831 Apple iTunes and iBooks blocked
* 2016 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-35968855 China's 'Great Firewall' blocks its creator
* 2016 Panama papers 巴拿马文件
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B7%B4%E6%8B%BF%E9%A6%AC%E6%96%87%E4%BB%B6
** mention Deng Jiagui 邓家贵 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Jiagui , who is <<xi-jinping>>'s brother-in-law
* 2016 http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/mar/04/china-bans-gay-people-television-clampdown-xi-jinping-censorship gay depiction banned on television
* 2016 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35496562 Armani Communist - http://www.ibtimes.com/xi-jinping-wants-overhaul-image-chinas-rich-kids-1961207 - first section of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKQ5ijFZ_j8
* 2016 http://freebeacon.com/national-security/chinese-defector-reveals-beijings-secrets/ Ling Wancheng defects
* 2016 http://chinachange.org/2016/01/21/activist-in-xinjiang-sentenced-to-19-years-for-online-writings-and-rights-activities/ Zhang Haitao (张海涛) faces 19 years in jail for his blog posts
* 2016 http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/20/technology/facebook-android-tor/ Facebook Android app implements Tor option
* 2016 https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/41y6ig/hong_kong_movie_predicts_dark_future_for_city/ Honk Kong (2016) movie

=== News 2015

* 2015-11 http://technode.com/2015/11/24/surge-advanced-proxy-tool-ios-pulled-app-store/
* 2015-09 https://www.hongkongfp.com/2015/09/03/in-pictures-censored-memes-search-terms-and-images-from-chinas-wwii-parade/
* 2015 https://news.vice.com/article/the-missing-hong-kong-booksellers-family-isnt-buying-his-televised-confession Gui Minhai, 51, from publisher Mighty Current who was going to publish a book about <<xi-jinping>>'s love life.
** Lam Wingkee is another one of the detaine bookselers
*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lam_Wing-kee
*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHq0f_eGLhE 2016 interview in freedom
*** https://china-journal.org/2019/04/27/abducted-hong-kong-bookseller-has-fled-to-taiwan-to-avoid-extradition-to-china/
* 2015 Taiwan #1
** https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3tz3jq/what_is_the_point_of_the_taiwan_1_thing/
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqZ9xrxhHk
* 2015 Taiwanese beauty queen kicked out of Miss Earth pageant for refusing to change `Taiwan ROC' sash to `Chinese Taipei' http://shanghaiist.com/2015/11/23/miss-earth-ting-wen-yin.php
* 2015 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/08/speech-enables-speech-china-takes-aim-its-coders https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks shadowsocks creator threatened
* 2015 http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-34630829 Lego refuses to sell to Ai Weiwei
* 2015 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/world/asia/china-bao-zhuoxuan-son-wang-yu-rights-lawyer-house-arrest.html Bao Zhuoxuan 16-year old son of human rights layer in house arrest
* 2015 Human rights activists crackdown 200+ in jail
** http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/world/asia/china-crackdown-human-rights-lawyers.html
** http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/13/china/china-activists-arrests/
** http://time.com/3954935/china-arrests-lawyers-human-rights/
** https://program-think.blogspot.com/2015/07/weekly-share-90.html
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B710%E3%80%8C%E7%B6%AD%E6%AC%8A%E5%BE%8B%E5%B8%AB%E3%80%8D%E5%A4%A7%E6%8A%93%E6%8D%95%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6
** #710律师劫
** https://program-think.blogspot.com/2015/07/weekly-share-90.html
* 2015-03 China forces real usernames on the net, and provoking ones
** https://advox.globalvoices.org/2015/04/16/new-internet-rules-in-china-target-usernames-avatars-as-subversive-tools/
** http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/28/china-username-policy-purge/

=== News pre-2015

* 2014 https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/4hmhzt/xinjiang_massacre_2014_resulted_in_30005000_deaths/ something very serious happened in Xinjiang.
* 2014 https://youtu.be/Gq1B3Hgclyo?t=261 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/china-media-watchdog-bans-wordplay-puns pun control
* 2013 https://www.ft.com/content/db8b9e36-1119-11e8-940e-08320fc2a277 Peter Humphrey
* 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuctech. One of the most blocked on Wikipedia according to: link:complete-gfw-rulebook-for-wikipedia-v3.0.pdf[] Nutech Namiba Hu Haifeng corruption scandal 纳米比亚威视胡海峰腐败丑闻
* 2011 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Chinese_pro-democracy_protests https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E8%8C%89%E8%8E%89%E8%8A%B1%E9%9D%A9%E5%91%BD Chinese pro-democracy protests
* 2010 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8682145.stm 10 month Xinjiang internet blackout
* 2009 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tan_Zuoren#2009_court_case Ai Weiwei documentary about it: https://aiweiwei.com/documentaries/disturbing-the-peace/index.html
* 2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu-dreg_project 豆腐渣工程 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%27s_Unnatural_Disaster:_The_Tears_of_Sichuan_Province
* 2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenzhou_train_collision#Government_response https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E5%B9%B4%E7%94%AC%E5%8F%B0%E6%B8%A9%E9%93%81%E8%B7%AF%E5%88%97%E8%BD%A6%E8%BF%BD%E5%B0%BE%E4%BA%8B%E6%95%85 Wenzhou train collision 2011年甬台温铁路列车追尾事故:
* 2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Tibetan_unrest https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E5%B9%B4%E8%A5%BF%E8%97%8F%E9%AA%9A%E4%B9%B1 Tibetan unrest 西藏骚乱
** https://file.wikileaks.org/file/tibet-protest-photos/ Good gory photos from the event.
* 2005 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongzhou_protests https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%9C%E6%B4%B2%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6 Dongzhou protests
* 1999 http://www.lionsroar.com/apple-thinks-different-about-the-dalai-lama-in-china-2/ Apple censors Dalai Lama for China
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Chinese_student_demonstrations https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AB%E5%85%AD%E5%AD%A6%E6%BD%AE 八六学潮
* 1987–1989 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987%E2%80%9389_Tibetan_unrest https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989%E5%B9%B4%E6%8B%89%E8%90%A8%E9%AA%9A%E4%B9%B1. Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jylh1qfOG4, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMZgoRuPJBg Tibetan unrest 年拉萨骚乱
* 1978, 1997 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Spring https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E4%B9%8B%E6%98%A5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Wall https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A5%BF%E5%8D%95%E6%B0%91%E4%B8%BB%E5%A2%99

[[tiananmen]]
==== Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 六四事件

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%9B%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddess_of_Democracy https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中国国际广播电台
* AP footage is pretty good, just do a search on the archive:
** http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/China-Student-Demonstrations/5d1cd01250c9e5e9397f20ef9f1327df
** http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/China-Student-Demonstrations/cfc6890746010c73f9414e20906268aa
* Zhang Shijun is the most notable soldier who spoke up it seems:
** https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/03/china-detains-writer-of-critical-web-letter-to-hu/
** https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/flashbacks-06042018133558.html
** https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/20/tiananmen-square-china-zhang-shijun
* http://www.ursulagauthier.fr/tiananmen-15-minutes-dapocalypse/  (https://web.archive.org/web/20190607142501/http://www.ursulagauthier.fr/tiananmen-15-minutes-dapocalypse/[archive]) a few gory photos

.Sea of protesters in Tiananmen Square. No, not even that many people can influence dictatorships if they don't have weapons. https://abcnews.go.com/International/tiananmen-square-29th-anniversary-crackdown/story?id=55564966[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20190714002904im_/https://s.abcnews.com/images/International/tiananmen-massacre-gty-04-jpo-180531_hpEmbed_3x2_992.jpg[height=400]

.Corpses by the road in after the Tiananmen Square Protests were crushed. http://www.ursulagauthier.fr/tiananmen-15-minutes-dapocalypse/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20190607142501im_/http://www.ursulagauthier.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Tiananmen-7-715x1024.jpg[height=400]

[[tank-man]]
===== Tank Man 坦克人

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9D%A6%E5%85%8B%E4%BA%BA

Good list of all known photos: https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/30/the-other-tank-man-photographs/

A list of Tank Man parodies can be found at: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tank-man

CNN video of Tank Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeFzeNAHEhU[] but not showing removal, ridiculous, is there a full raw footage somewhere?

Several quick cuts by CBS news that give a good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSbx352cn8A

.Arthur Tsang's photo of Tank Man. https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/30/the-other-tank-man-photographs/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20190808091019im_/http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-CZ715_tam2_G_20140529081612.jpg[height=400]

.Stuart Franklin's wider view photo of Tank Man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tankman_new_longshot_StuartFranklin.jpg[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/28/Tankman_new_longshot_StuartFranklin.jpg[height=400]

.Terril Jones photo taken at ground level with Tank Man on background and men running away on the foreground. The photo was only published in 2009. https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/30/the-other-tank-man-photographs/[Source]
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191030232817im_/http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-CZ712_TAM_G_20140529081150.jpg[height=400]

.Photoshop of Arthur Tsang's photo of Tank Man with huge rubber ducks replacing the tanks. Inspired by a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSo5MqQVwCY[huge inflatable rubber duck sculpture floating in Hong Kong in 2013]. https://petapixel.com/2013/06/05/yellow-duck-version-of-tank-man-photo-goes-viral-amidst-chinese-censorship[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20140722052337im_/http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/06/duckytankman.jpg[height=400]

.Rough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego[Lego] model of the Tank Man scene https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1499216-tank-man[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/save/_embed/https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/499/216/29f.png[height=400]

[[dissidents]]
== Dissidents 持不同政见者

Other lists:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_dissidents
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E5%85%B1%E5%92%8C%E5%9C%8B%E6%8C%81%E4%B8%8D%E5%90%8C%E6%94%BF%E8%A6%8B%E8%80%85%E5%88%97%E8%A1%A8

[[xu-xiaodong]]
=== Xu Xiaodong "Mad Dog" 徐晓冬

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Xiaodong
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%90%E6%99%93%E5%86%AC

MMA fighter who beat up some kung-fu masters to prove that MMA is more effective than their traditional styles.

As of 2019, he had 14 Weibo accounts blocked (created one, got blocked, created another, got blocked, etc.). Source: https://www.inkstonenews.com/society/chinas-mma-fighter-xu-xiaodong-fight-survival/article/3047417

Profiles and news:

* 2020-01-28 https://www.inkstonenews.com/society/chinas-mma-fighter-xu-xiaodong-fight-survival/article/3047417

.Uphold science, eradicate superstition "崇尚科学，破除迷信" 1999 poster by the CCP created as an <<falun-gong,anti-Falun Gong>> propaganda likely based on a http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel1/10/20000710/137317.html[more widely widespread slogan] (https://web.archive.org/web/20090428155413/http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel1/10/20000710/137317.html[archive]). So why is Xiaodong not being supported by the CCP now that he is beating superstition back into its place? Once again, <<censorship-makes-countries-poorer>>. https://chineseposters.net/themes/falun-gong.php[Source].
image::http://web.archive.org/web/20191206090021im_/http://chineseposters.net/images/e13-891.jpg[height=400]

.2017 Xu Xiaodong (MMA) Vs. Wei Lei (Tai Chi) summary GIF. https://www.inkstonenews.com/society/chinas-mma-fighter-xu-xiaodong-fight-survival/article/3047417[Source].
image::http://web.archive.org/web/20200201020038if_/https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/2020/01/24/01.gif[height=400]

.2017 Xu Xiaodong (MMA) Vs. Wei Lei (Tai Chi) full fight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XwXaCbfIGw[Source].
video::0XwXaCbfIGw[youtube,height=400,width=600]

[[programthink]]
=== Programthink 编程随想

Very popular Chinese language anonymous blogger that publishes software programming tutorials and political content since 2009, often negative about the CCP, in particular <<censorship,anti-censorship>> and <<brainwashed-by-usa,anti-CCP-brainwashing>>.

* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%BC%96%E7%A8%8B%E9%9A%8F%E6%83%B3%E7%9A%84%E5%8D%9A%E5%AE%A2 (there is no English page as of January 2020)
* https://program-think.blogspot.com/ The blog. Blocked in China with the rest of 
** 2020 categorized summary of the best posts of all time: https://program-think.blogspot.com/2020/01/11-years-blogging.html
* https://github.com/programthink
** https://github.com/programthink/zhao manually curated database of maps relationships between Chinese politicians, was the first GitHub gov-takedown: https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/36e76c34682d2b52eef405ca6f57e1b9ddde3086/China/2016/2016-06-08-programthink-zhao.md
* https://twitter.com/programthink
* DW coverage (Chinese): https://www.dw.com/zh/2013%E5%BE%B7%E5%9B%BD%E4%B9%8B%E5%A3%B0%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85%E5%8D%9A%E5%AE%A2%E5%A4%A7%E8%B5%9B%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87%E6%8F%90%E5%90%8D%E5%8D%9A%E5%AE%A2%E6%8F%AD%E6%99%93/a-16716065 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191202233838/https://www.dw.com/zh/2013%E5%BE%B7%E5%9B%BD%E4%B9%8B%E5%A3%B0%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85%E5%8D%9A%E5%AE%A2%E5%A4%A7%E8%B5%9B%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87%E6%8F%90%E5%90%8D%E5%8D%9A%E5%AE%A2%E6%8F%AD%E6%99%93/a-16716065[archive]) 2013德国之声国际博客大赛——中文提名博客揭晓 ""

.Programthink uses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thinker[Rodin's The Thinker sculpture] as its avatar. https://github.com/programthink/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191218082236if_/https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/4027957?s=400&v=4[height=400]

== Media 媒体

Sources of information pertinent to this repository.

=== Commentary media

The following offer interesting commentary, but not to be used as primary sources:

* https://china-journal.org
* http://www.chinafile.com Some good articles. "ChinaFile is an online magazine published by the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society", based in New York.

=== Biased media

I consider the media in this section biased, and never cite it for fact checking.

==== Chinese government media

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinhua_News_Agency
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E5%8D%8E%E7%A4%BE
** http://www.xinhuanet.com/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Daily
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E6%97%A5%E6%8A%A5
** http://people.cn/
** https://twitter.com/PDChina
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Daily
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AD%94%E5%AD%90%E5%AD%A6%E9%99%A2
** http://www.economist.com/node/17969895
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Radio_International
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85%E5%B9%BF%E6%92%AD%E7%94%B5%E5%8F%B0
** http://www.cri.cn | http://english.cri.cn/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Central_Television
** https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgrNz-aDmcr2uuto8_DL2jg CGTN, CCTV's international branch in English
* http://facts.org.cn/
** http://wap.kaiwind.com/
** I have no proof that this is linked to the government, but it is very likely, even the Chinese embassy website links to it:
*** http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/lj/t36322.htm
*** http://web.archive.org/web/20180414233331/http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/lj/t36322.htm

[[confucious-institute]]
===== Confucious institute 孔子学院

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute

News and reports:

* 2019-09 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-49511231 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191013185933/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-49511231[archive]) "Confucius Institutes: The growth of China's controversial cultural branch"
* 2019-01 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2019/01/11/u-s-universities-have-shut-down-confucius-institutes-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20190616134959/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2019/01/11/u-s-universities-have-shut-down-confucius-institutes-heres-what-you-need-to-know/[archive]) "Why U.S. universities are shutting down China-funded Confucius Institutes"

[[cssa]]
===== Chinese Students and Scholars Association 中国学生学者联合会

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Students_and_Scholars_Association

Abbreviation: CSSA.

News and reports:

* 2019-10-13 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-13/cssa-influence-australian-universities-documents-revealed/11587454 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191014032348/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-13/cssa-influence-australian-universities-documents-revealed/11587454[archive]) "Chinese Students and Scholars Association's deep links to the embassy revealed" in Australia.
* 2018-03-07 https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/07/chinas-long-arm-reaches-into-american-campuses-chinese-students-scholars-association-university-communist-party/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20191012103953/https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/07/chinas-long-arm-reaches-into-american-campuses-chinese-students-scholars-association-university-communist-party/[archive])

==== Falun Gong media

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E7%BA%AA%E5%85%83%E6%97%B6%E6%8A%A5
* http://en.minghui.org/
** http://falundafa.org/ links to it
** http://www.clearwisdom.net/
* http://www.secretchina.com/
* http://fofg.org/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_of_Hope
** http://www.soundofhope.org/
** http://www.bayvoice.net/gb/
* http://lotus-sacre.com/
* https://en.tuidang.org/
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuidang_movement
* http://dongtaiwang.com
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freegate

===== New Tang Dinasty Television

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Tang_Dynasty_Television