曾几何时，美国人需要飞越半个地球才能亲身领略到中国国家安全机器的铁爪。但现在再不需要了。由于过份急于摧毁任何可能对他们的专制政权构成威胁的民众运动，这些日子，中国的当权者们不仅正在拼命地对他们本国13亿国民进行着异乎寻常的迫害，而且将同样的手段延伸到了美国的领土上。

尤其要提的是，北京试图将其臭名昭著的精神标准推行给美国的几百个市长，不论城市大小，从洛杉矶，到巴尔的摩，以至伊利诺州的考恩贝特（Cornbelt）。北京的这个跨国计划甚至影响到了象“皮欧利亚星报(Peoria Journal Star)”这样的地方报纸。该报说去年4月26日“一个例行的看来无害的对于中国的一个宗教团体的褒奖，却将伊利诺州的一些市长卷进了本与他们无关的外交关系的领域中。”

皮欧利亚星报所指的“宗教团体”，就是北京最明显的打击目标：法轮功。法轮功也叫法轮大法，10年前在中国开始传播。他显然对数千万的人有着巨大的吸引力，他们想寻找比已经破产的腐朽的共产主义意识形态更能让人满意的信仰。
1999年4月，一万多名法轮功学员在靠近天安门广场的共产党首府进行和平请愿以后，中国的统治者就称其为“XX”，并开展了铲除法轮功的运动。从此，中国政府对法轮功学员开始了前所未有的监禁和酷刑，并屠杀了许多中国国内的法轮功学员。华尔街日报记者伊恩ܧ约翰逊因在他的系列报导中记录下了中国政府的这些虐待行径，而于去年获得了普利策奖。报导包括了陈子秀的案件－－这位58岁的妇女因拒绝放弃法轮功而在中国政府的监禁中被毒打折磨致死。

中国境外的法轮功学员，做出的顺理成章的反应就是通过寻求支持来针对这场镇压。这就也成了美国的市长们如何被牵扯进来的原因。一直以来，美国的市长们已经广泛形成了一种礼仪式的习惯，为各式各样的团体，各种主题或者不同项目的庆祝日子颁发种类不同的褒奖公告。在美国，法轮功学员向很多市长申请褒奖状，以表彰他们的活动。

中国政府不满足于对在中国的法轮功学员的迫害，他们还要求美国官员拒绝在美国的法轮功学员，甚至要求他们在这里－－美国的土地上迫害法轮功学员。采用的方法往往是，某位来自中国驻华盛顿大使馆或者是（各地）领事馆的中国官员通过写信、打电话、或者是登门造访，把严重误导性资料与恐吓战术结合起来，在一些情况下还暗示着诡诈的外交与商业压力。

比较典型的例子是桑地市市长兰迪.福培尔（Randy Voepel）的经历。桑地市（Santee）是加州圣地亚哥郡边缘的一个只有58000人口的小城市。一年多前，福培尔先生收到了新上任的中国驻洛杉矶领馆总领事蓝里军（音译）的一封信。信中首先致以热烈的问候，然后就直接了当地将法轮功运动描述为营造恐慌局面“末日论”教派，说如果美国置之不理，最终会“危害社会稳定”。他在信中还写到中国“愿意与贵市建立和发展友好关系”，但暗示这需要满足中国的愿望。蓝在信中进一步怂恿“不要给予法轮功以任何形式的褒奖和支持”，并极力主张禁止法轮功注册成为任何形式的正式社团。

福培尔先生的反应很不一般。他是参加过越战的老战士，非常重视美国的自由。福培尔先生在回信中写道：“你的信令我本人感到寒心到了极点。我实在震惊于一个共产党国家会不惜耗费如此大的精力来压制我们国家一贯接受的东西（自由理念）……我对中国和世界其他地区的中国人民怀有极大的敬意，但我必须坦诚相告，我实在忧虑于贵国政府对人权的压制，你（在此信中）提出的要求恰恰证实了这种人权压制”。随后，福培尔先生向法轮功颁发了一份市长公告，褒奖法轮功。

其他一些官员，比如前加州萨拉托嘎市市长斯坦.保格斯安，以及伊利诺州许多小城镇的市长们都顶住了来自中国的压力。但是，也有许多市长在压力面前屈膝了，这些人包括旧金山，西雅图，巴尔的摩和洛杉矶的市长，这些市长们在1999年时将已经颁发给法轮功的褒奖状又收回去了。类似的例子，还有密西根州威斯兰德市（Westland）的罗伯特.托马斯市长，他去年取消了他所宣布的3月4至9日的“法轮大法周”。他在随后写给法轮功申请人的一封信中解释道：“我收到了中华人民共和国驻芝加哥领事馆的资料，资料中说明了你们组织的性质……因此我决定取消我的公告。”同时他还“尽责地”将信件复印件送往中国驻芝加哥领事馆。

最近，中国甚至厚颜无耻到了向犹他州盐湖城的市长施压。盐湖城目前正在举办奥林匹克运动会。中国也将于2008年举办奥林匹克运动会。上个月，中国大使馆的使团副团长何亚非（音译）拜访了盐湖城市长罗基.安德森（Rocky Anderson）。去年，安德森市长向法轮功颁发了褒奖状。何先生在给安德森先生的“安全通报”中就法轮功问题发出了警告。法轮功也跟许多组织一样向市长办公室提出了在奥运会期间进行和平示威的申请，2月7日，安德森先生让法轮功示威活动如期进行。一位市长发言人说，示威是如此的和平，以至于我们认为法轮功的唯一问题就是“他们行走得太慢了”。

确实有六名法轮功学员采取了有点进攻性的抗议方式，为的是驳斥中国所谓的国际社会“谴责法轮功XX”运动，因为中国官方新华社的网站标志上就是这样写着。北京市市长刘淇本月初去参加奥运会，在旧金山机场转机时，他们把依据“1789年外国人侵权赔偿条例”和“1992年酷刑受害者保护条例”起诉的法律文件送达到他的手上，指控他在北京纵容对法轮功学员滥施酷刑。中国外交部谴责这起诉讼是“卑鄙的伎俩”。刘先生去年曾宣布，北京为筹备主办2008年奥运会，将“坚决粉碎法轮功和其他XX”。现在他本人尚需应诉。

很显然，结合着打坐、炼功和超自然观点的法轮功不一定符合每个人的胃口。然而，美国的精神本身就是以个人的自由选择为核心的，不仅市场生意如此，在信仰方面也是这样。中国的消灭法轮功运动甚至搞到了美国领土上，这不仅仅是与美国的原则相违背的问题，这也是与中国在更大范围的活动相呼应，中国国家安全机构由于极端惧怕任何可能对北京的一党专制构成威胁的事物，已经把它的触角悄悄地伸进了美国无数华裔社区，用尽办法威胁中国学者，骚扰流亡的中国异见人士和威胁那些支持台湾成为世界上唯一成熟的中国民主政体的人们。

布什总统今明两天在北京访问，将与中国领导人寻求共同的立场。但届时也是提醒江泽民主席及其同志们的一个好机会：迫害和平的精神运动是一种丑陋、残酷、尴尬的恶习，本该在中国内部就尽力除掉，而大可不必拿到世界其它地方来现眼。

Will Chinese Repression
Play in Peoria?
Beijing's campaign against an "evil cult" comes to America.

BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
Thursday, February 21, 2002 12:01 a.m. EST

Time was when Americans had to travel halfway around the world to feel the steely touch of China's state security apparatus. No longer. In their fervor to trample any grassroots movements that might challenge their power, China's rulers are hustling these days to share their bizarre, oppressive tactics not only with their own 1.3 billion citizens, but with folks all across America.

In particular, Beijing has been offering its own nasty brand of spiritual guidance to hundreds of American mayors, in big cities and small towns, from Los Angeles to Baltimore to the Illinois Corn Belt. This Beijing outreach program has even played in such local papers as the Peoria Journal Star, which noted last April 26 that "a routine, seemingly harmless proclamation recognizing a Chinese religious group has thrust a group of Illinois mayors into the unlikely realm of foreign diplomacy."

Beijing's most visible target, the "religious group" to which the Peoria newspaper refers, is the Falun Gong. This spiritual movement, also known as the Falun Dafa, began spreading 10 years ago inside China, where it evidently holds huge appeal for tens of millions seeking some form of faith more gratifying than the bankrupt and corrosive state ideology of communism.

After some 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners staged a peaceful demonstration in April 1999 in front of Communist Party headquarters near Tiananmen Square, China's rulers condemned it as an "evil cult" and embarked on an official campaign to wipe it out. Since then, China has racked up quite a record of jailing, torturing and in scores of cases killing Falun Gong followers inside China. The Wall Street Journal's Ian Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize last year for his stories documenting such Chinese government abuses, including the case of Chen Zixiu, a 58-year-old woman who was beaten and tortured to death in Chinese state custody for refusing to renounce Falun Gong.

Falun Gong followers outside China have responded--reasonably enough--by seeking gestures of support. Which is how America's mayors get into the act. It is a widespread and largely decorative habit of U.S. mayors to issue all sorts of proclamations, celebrating a great welter of groups, themes and causes of the day. Falun Gong practitioners here in America have asked many mayors in recent years to issue proclamations honoring their movement.

The Chinese government, not content with persecuting the Falun Gong in China, has responded by urging local U.S. officials to shun or even persecute them right here in America. The approach, made variously by letter, phone call or personal visit from a Chinese official based at China's Washington embassy or one of its numerous consulates, tends to combine gross disinformation with scare tactics and, in some cases, slyly implied diplomatic and commercial pressure.

Typical is the experience of Santee, Calif., a city of 58,000 on the outskirts of San Diego County. A little over a year ago, Mayor Randy Voepel received a letter from the newly arrived Chinese consul general in Los Angeles, Lan Lijun. Mr. Lan's letter began with a cheery greeting and rolled right along to describe the Falun Gong movement as a "doomsday" cult that creates "a panic atmosphere" and if left unchecked in America could end up "jeopardizing your social stability." Noting that China would "like to establish and develop friendly relations with your city"--and implying this would require complying with China's wishes--Mr. Lan's letter went on to urge that "no recognition and support in any form should be given to the Falun Gong" and urged banning them from registration as any kind of official organization.

Not so typical was Mr. Voepel's reaction. A Vietnam War veteran, he wrote back: "Your letter personally chilled me to my bones. I was shocked that a Communist Nation would go to this amount of trouble to suppress what is routinely accepted in this country. . . . I have the greatest respect for the Chinese people in your country and everywhere else in the world, but must be honest in my concern for the suppression of human rights by your government as evidenced by your request." Mr. Voepel then issued a mayoral proclamation commending the Falun Gong.

Some other officials, such as former Saratoga, Calif., mayor Stan Bogosian and a raft of mayors in Illinois, have stood up to China's pressure. But many have kowtowed, including the mayors of San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore and Los Angeles--all of whom in 1999 rescinded proclamations they had issued for the Falun Gong. In Westland, Mich., last year, then-mayor Robert Thomas designated March 4 through 9 as Falun Dafa Week, but later explained in a letter to the Falun Gong petitioners, which he dutifully copied to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago: "I have received information from the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Chicago, explaining the real nature of your organization. . . . I hereby rescind the proclamation."

China has been brazen enough to pressure even the mayor of Salt Lake City--currently hosting the Olympics, as Beijing is slated to do in 2008. Last month the Chinese Embassy's deputy chief of mission, He Yafei, paid a call on Mayor Rocky Anderson, who had issued a proclamation last year honoring the Falun Gong. As part of a "security briefing" for Mr. Anderson, Mr. He's message included warnings about the Falun Gong, one of many groups that had applied for permission to hold a peaceful demonstration during the Olympics. Mr. Anderson let the demonstration go ahead, on Feb. 7. It was so peaceful, says a mayoral spokesman, that the sole problem with the Falun Gong was that "they walked very slow."

A half dozen Falun Gong practitioners did engage in a somewhat more aggressive protest against China's international "Condemn Falun Gong Cult" campaign, as the logo goes on the official Web site of China's Xinhua state news agency. When Beijing's Mayor Liu Qi arrived in the San Francisco airport earlier this month, en route to attend the Olympics, they served him with papers for a lawsuit filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 and the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1992, for letting grave abuses against Falun Gong followers go unchecked in Beijing. China's Foreign Ministry has denounced the lawsuit as "a nasty trick." Mr. Liu himself, who announced last year that Beijing in preparing to host the 2008 Olympics would "resolutely smash and crack down on Falun Gong and other evil cults," has yet to respond.

Obviously the Falun Gong, with its blend of meditation, exercise and otherworldly visions, may not be everyone's cup of tea. But the soul of America itself centers on allowing individual choice, not only in market transactions, but in matters of faith. China's campaign to snuff out the movement even on U.S. soil not only runs counter to American principles. It also fits into an even larger pattern in which Chinese state security, with its desperate fear of anything that might challenge party dictatorship in Beijing, has snaked its tentacles into numerous communities in the U.S., trying in various ways to intimidate China scholars, harass exiled Chinese dissidents and bully supporters of the world's only full-blown Chinese democracy, on Taiwan.

President Bush is in Beijing today and tomorrow, seeking common ground with his Chinese hosts. It would also be a good moment to remind President Jiang Zemin and his comrades that persecution of a peaceful spiritual movement is the kind of ugly, cruel and embarrassing practice that they need to be trying to shed inside China itself--not share with the wider world.

Ms. Rosett is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. Her column appears Thursdays on OpinionJournal.com and in The Wall Street Journal Europe as "Letter From America."

原文网址：
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/cRosett/?id=105001666