CHINA CELEBRATES NATIONAL DAY WITH MORE REPRESSION

the head of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin has ordered the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security to conduct a nationwide roundup of Falun Gong practitioners. This new, large-scale operation against Falun Gong is already underway in the name of "maintaining social stability" and to mark the PRC´s National Day on October 1, a Falun Gong website reported..
Those arrested have been immediately thrown into jail, labour camps, or mental institutions, regardless of whether they are local residents or just visitors. Sources say that Beijing has become emboldened about making arrests on such a large scale because it believes that Western countries and international media are currently too preoccupied with the terrorist attacks in the U.S. to notice this human rights abuse, the site said.
However this is not the only cause for concern - executions are also on the rise. It has become traditional for the Chinese authorities to escalate the number of death sentences and executions in the run-up to festivities.
On September 28, Chinese media reported six executions in South China, following mass sentencing rallies in Zuhai city, to the North of Macau. The condemned included a woman. This mass execution followed a much bigger one in Wenzhou city, were 20 people were put to death.
“In return for participation in the grand coalition against terrorism set up after the September 11 attacks on the US, China feels it has a green light to carry out further breaches of human rights with a new crackdown on its political rivals or dissenters, immediately described as terrorists,” Hands Off Cain’s general secretary Sergio D’Elia said.
“It would be very serious if the West, in the name of the terrorism emergency, turns a blind eye to these violations or to clampdowns on internal dissenters by illiberal countries.”