Xinhua blasts America's double standard on cults

Xinhua News Agency published a commentary Thursday criticizing 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 banned Falun Gong in accordance with law, the US anti-China forces have used the cult as a new card to play in the ongoing human rights game, the article says, listing the following examples^On November 18, the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution demanding that the US government pressure China on the issue of Falun Gong. The proposal was passed "unanimously" in the presence of only seven or eight congressmen, as the Congress was about to recess.

On March 23, 2000, representative of the US government attacked all the countries that it clashes with at the UN Human Rights Commission Conference in Geneva, and during the attack on China, the representative linked the Falun Gong cult with the issue of human rights.

It is widely known that the 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, according to the article.

Meanwhile, Falun Gong members have frequently held illegal gatherings to protest 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 commentator asks.

The US government, which is clear-minded on the infringement of American people's human rights by cults, has never been softhearted when cracking down on cults in the United States, the article says.

On May 13, 1985, in a siege against a local cult group, the US police in Philadelphia used helicopters to drop C-4 explosives, killing 11 people including five children. A total of 60 families were destroyed during the police action.

On February 28, 1993, dozens of US federal marshals and FBI agents, together with 450 armed police officers and soldiers, scores of tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters, joined in a massive assault on a branch of the Davidian cult organization at Waco, Texas. Eighty-six cult members died in fires.

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 was leveled, the article says, adding that all these are acceptable for the "human rights guardians" in the United States.

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 was leveled, the article says, adding that all these are acceptable for the "human rights guardians" in the United States.

However, it says, anti-China forces in the United States roared when the Chinese government legally banned a cult group that had not followed legal registration procedures.

"You'e 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 says.

The United States has adopted a double standard on the issue of human rights, it points out, stressing that the aim of the double stgandard is to serve the interests of the US itself.

Sensible people know that cults threaten normal social order and must not be allowed to spread in any country. The US government has been vigilant against the formation of cults and has taken preventive measures to stop them. As for those cult groups that have become powerful enough to endanger the society, the US government has taken measures to restrict or prohibit them, and even used armed forces to attack them.