“China’s thought police are so omnipresent Chinese dissidents refer to them as the “dark empire” or the “invisible black hand.”

Operating from an unmarked office complex at 5 West Chang’an Ave. in Beijing, not far from Tiananmen Square and the senior party leaders’ residence compound known as Zhongnanhai, China’s Central Propaganda Department runs one of the most intrusive and all-pervasive social monitoring systems in the world.

The department controls all state-run culture, education, sport, science and technology, health and media sectors in China. It supervises the work of all mass organizations, ranging from trade unions to artists co-ops, and it runs branch offices at all levels of the Chinese bureaucracy. Yet the department has no real legal basis in China’s constitution and is accountable to no one but China’s collective leadership, who have authorized the propaganda department to oversee the implementation of current ideology in China.

“The role of the propaganda system in the current era in China is akin to that of the church in medieval Europe,” says Anne-Marie Brady, a China expert who wrote the book Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda Thought in Contemporary China.
Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/10/16/peter-goodspeed-invisible-black-hand-controls-all-said-done/#ixzz12dmNbRIS

“Bodies exhibit prodecer admits: “We do know that they come out of prisons (in China)”

read more here at kmox.com

Some St. Louisans who grew up in China are expressing their anguish over an exhibit of Chinese bodies — preserved in plastic — opening this weekend at the Galleria.

Peng Su, a local spokeswoman for the Falun Gong meditation movement,  fears some of the bodies may have been political prisoners.

“As Falun Gong members, we have been persecuted in China severely,” Su said, “and we know how horrible China’s human rights record is, so we have a big concern who those bodies are.”

Those bodies — ten in all — dissected, dipped in plastic and displayed under track lights — are of unknown origin .   Bowing to pressure form the Missouri Attorney General, the show’s promoter, Premier Exhibitions, agreed to put up a disclaimer, admitting the bodies came from the Chinese Bureau of Police.

Defending the exhibit,  Premiere’s Dr. Roy Glover, says he believes strongly that none of the dead were political prisoners.

“Since I didn’t go to China and I didn’t personally receive the bodies, nor did anybody from Premier Exhibitions go to China to receive the bodies, we cannot one-hundred percent guarantee that to the public,” Glover said, “Do we believe that they are executed prisoners?  No.  Do we have confidence in our partner?  Yes.  Do we have affidavits from our partner?  Yes.”

“We do know that they come out of prisons,” Koster said, “that they are unclaimed bodies in the country of China.   But there is no way to either verify or disprove the allegation that they are political prisoners

In the end,  Koster and Premier Exhibitions agreed to post a disclaimer on the wall, which will greet customers who attend.

“Premier cannot independently verify the complete provenance of the human remains in this exhibition.  They were obtained from a plastination facility in China, which received them from medical and research universities in China.  These universities received the remains from medical examiner authorities in the Chinese Bureau of Police.   The specimens are unclaimed by the next of kin and there is no written documentation that any of the persons consented to the plastination and/or exhibition of their bodies.”

AP: Contender for Nobel prize is in Chinese prison

read all- When the police came for Liu Xiaobo on a December night nearly two years ago, they didn’t tell the dissident author why he was being taken away again. The line in the detention order for his “suspected crime” was left blank.

But Liu and the dozen officers who crowded into his dark Beijing apartment knew the reason. He was hours from releasing Charter 08, the China democracy movement’s most comprehensive call yet for peaceful reform. The document would be viewed by the ruling Communist Party as a direct challenge to its 60-year monopoly on political power.

Liu was sentenced last Christmas Day to 11 years in prison for subversion. The 54-year old literary critic is now a favorite to win the Nobel Peace Prize — in what would be a major embarrassment to the Chinese government.

ET: Visiting Chinese Officials Sued by Falun Gong in Taiwan

HONG KONG—Practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual practice filed lawsuits against three high ranking Chinese communist cadres on official state visits to Taiwan. The officials are accused of participating in the persecution of Falun Gong in mainland China. Several Hong Kong lawmakers and human rights activists voiced their support.

The three mainland officials being indicted are Guangdong provincial governor Huang Huahua, acting Shaanxi provincial governor Zhao Yongzheng, and director of State Administration for Religious Affairs Wang Zuoan.

Hong Kong lawmaker Yiu-chung Leung, said the cases are “big strikes” against Beijing’s dictatorial rule. “It [the Chinese regime] needs to understand: other governments are concerned! The persecution of dissenters and religious groups should be stopped,” he said.

After being served letters of indictment during their Taiwan trips earlier this month, both Zhao and Wang cut their visits short and made low-profile exits.

Leung said he hoped these cases in Taiwan would set examples for other nations to follow suit, to carry out the international human rights obligations they are signatory to.

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China’s Propaganda King Influences Irish Media During State Visit