US takes a double standard on cult

A Xinhua commentary that moved on the news agency's wires yesterday criticized some anti-China elements in the United States for their interference in China's internal affairs under the guise of "safeguarding human rights" and their double standard on the issue of cults.

Since July 1999, when the Chinese Government lawfully banned Falun Gong, US anti-China forces have played the cult as a new card in the ongoing human rights game, the commentary stated, giving the following examples:

On November 18, the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution demanding that the Clinton administration pressure China on the issue of Falun Gong. The proposal was passed "unanimously" in the presence of only seven or eight congressmen since Congress was about to recess.

On March 23, a representative of the US Government attacked all the countries that it clashes with at the United Nations Human Rights Commission conference in Geneva. During the attack on China, the representative linked the Falun Gong cult to the issue of human rights.

It is widely known that Falun Gong is a cult that has forcibly indoctrinated its practitioners with its dangerous theories and brainwashed them with its peculiar "spiritual" beliefs, which have done irreparable emotional and physical damage to them.

To date, more than 1,500 Falun Gong practitioners have died as a result of the teachings of cult founder Li Hongzhi, while many other Falun Gong believers have gone insane, been disowned by their families, and even committed murder, the commentary stated.

Falun Gong members have frequently held illegal gatherings to demonstrate against those who have proclaimed different views, infringing on others' human rights and endangering social stability.

Some in the United States willingly support the Falun Gong cult that is acting against human rights and humankind. "Have they forgotten the slogan of 'protecting human rights' that they chant every day?" the Xinhua commentary asked.

The US Government, which is clear-minded when cults infringe on the human rights of Americans, has never been softhearted when cracking down on cults in the United States, the commentary stated.

On May 13, 1985, in a siege against a local cult group, police in Philadelphia used helicopters to drop C-4 explosives, killing 11 people including five children. Sixty families were killed during the police action.

On February 28, 1993, dozens of US marshals and FBI agents, together with 450 police officers and soldiers, scores of tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters, joined in a massive assault on the Branch Davidian cult at Waco, Texas. Eighty-six cult members were killed in a fiery blaze after authorities tear-gassed the Davidian compound.

The US Government, which is keenly aware of the threat cults pose to social order, has turned to judicial and administrative means and even used armed forces to crack down on domestic cult groups.

The "human rights guardians" in the United States are well aware of the dangerous nature of cults and they did not put forward any human rights proposals when there was a heavy presence of armed police officers, tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters in the attacks against cults and even the headquarters of the cult groups were leveled.

Its actions in the United States are acceptable for American "human rights guardians," but anti-China forces in the United States roared when the Chinese Government legally banned a cult group that did not follow legally required registration procedures.

"You're infringing on human rights," shouted anti-China elements in the United States.

"While the United States is allowed to set a fire, China is not allowed to light a lamp," the commentary stated. The United States has adopted a double standard on the issue of human rights, the commentary pointed out, stressing that the aim of the double standard is to serve US interests.