The Rumor of “Organ Harvesting” Favors “Seasoning” In their daily life, people always like to add a variety of seasonings in cooking in order to greatly stimulate their appetite. In monotonous study and work, people often “add seasoning” to their life by making some small changes that make life more interesting and elegant. However, “the addition of seasoning” may not always bring out “positive energy”. For example, when “certain seasoning” is added to an ordinary event and news, an ill-disposed rumor may come into being or even have the “wings” to ravage. The rumor of “organ harvesting” invented by the cult Falun Gong favors “seasoning”. “Tragedies” are invented to blind the rational mind. The rumor of “organ harvesting” tried to win sympathy, and the rumor makers concentrated on the “tragic” side in various ways. They tried to inspire sympathy of the people (especially the Westerners) through bloody visual shocks and description of tragic scenes. The sensual shock was invented to blind the rational mind. While describing the rumor of “organ harvesting”, the cult Falun Gong invented many cruel details. For example, “[The Chinese government is] still taking the organs of Falun Gong practitioners for sale, and they do it without anaesthetizing the victims”; “Tens of thousands of people have been killed by organ harvesting”; “[Falun Gong] Members were closed in the basements of labor camps, prisons and hospitals for organ harvesting, and then they were burned”... This “exaggerated” description fully manifested the “inhumane side” in the rumor. In addition to written description, the photos were more visually shocking. Photo exhibitions about “organ harvesting” have almost become the main means for the cult Falun Gong to smear the Chinese government in Western countries. Despite the absence of definite evidence, they fabricated and spread a large number of so-called “schematic” and “imaginary” illustrations that were “bloody and cruel” to stir public sentiment. This “tragic seasoning” has undoubtedly made the rumor of “organ harvesting” “stronger”. Even some parliament members of the Western world evaluated this description as “colloquial and vivid” although it is nonsense. “Secrets” are created to stimulate curiosity and attract attention. The Falun Gong media knows propaganda well and is even better at attracting public attention by exposing highlights. To suit the prevailing public curiosity, the rumor of “organ harvesting” was not only exposed as an asserted “secret”, but also “updated in real-time” with various social hot-spot “secrets” exposed in different stages to retain public attention. For example, when it first appeared in 2006, the “organ harvesting” news was described as “a stunning secret” and included secretive words such as “concentration camp”, “imprisonment”, “organ harvesting” and “body burning”. Later, the “secret story” from the “CPC internal
intelligence” Pete, the “insider testimony” of Annie, wife of a doctor in Sujiatun, and the emotional description of “an old military doctor from Shenyang” greatly satisfied the curiosity of the public. The cult Falun Gong needed exactly such tricks to attract attention. The story didn’t end there though. In order to avoid being drowned in the vast amount of online information, the rumor of “organ harvesting” was often “attached to” various social hot issues, such as the “Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun” incident, the organ transplant conference, and some influential criminal cases in China, whose purpose was to keep the rumor going by taking advantage of those social hot issues. “Exaggeration” is added to make waves. When cooking, people sometimes make food bigger, softer and even more delicious by fermentation or frying it with starch. The rumor of “organ harvesting” invented by the cult Falun Gong was full of “expanding agent” from the beginning. For example, the Falun Gong media alleged that more than 6,000 practitioners were detained and suffered “organ harvesting” in the “Sujiatun Concentration Camp”. Ten years later, in a so-called New Report published by the Falun Gong media, the number of organs that were taken from Falun Gong prisoners in China soared to 1.5 million and the number of “organ harvesting” hospitals changed from 1 to more than 80. Li Hongzhi, the Falun Gong cult leader, once claimed that exaggeration makes news believable. Pitifully the Falun Gong media was stupid to allege that the Sujiatun Hospital took organs from 6,000-odd people while it was actually able to hold more than 300 patients. Anyway, “expanding agent” has become an indispensable ingredient in the dishes of news reported by the Falun Gong media. Then, how could the rumor dish with so much “seasonings” be cooked in a “pot”? As Gregory Globa, a Ukrainian anti-cult expert, observed, this “pot” was “media trap”. The cult Falun Gong duplicated and spread the rumor rampantly via its media and attracted eyeballs with sensational headlines. It exploited various media and even yellow news to flood credible but seemingly boring expert analyzes so as to pave the way for the spread of the rumor of “organ harvesting”. This was a “media trap” into which the Western people were misguided, without getting the truth. This is what we need to be alert to. The cult Falun Gong put so many “ingredients” in the rumor of “organ harvesting” and produced a strong soup. If the people are blinded by compassion and attracted by those “secrets”, they would become easy targets of the deception. However, a soup is a soup. Without substantive content, the diners get nothing. The rumor of “organ harvesting” is nothing but a pale soup.
A PAid AdveRtiSement
8 | RN&R | 01.10.19