The Null Device

the Chinese Al-Qaeda?

Chinese-based spiritual movement/terrorist group (depending on whom you believe) Falun Gong have reportedly hacked one of China's main TV satellites, broadcasting a pro-Falun Gong banner on TV channels. (Mind you, this news comes from The Australian, a publication of News Corp., whose executives have outspokenly condemned Falun Gong and defended the Chinese government's hard line against the group. Make of that what you will.)

There are 6 comments on "the Chinese Al-Qaeda?":

Posted by: bzackey Wed Jul 3 17:10:15 2002

In almost every bleak science fiction vision of the future, dissident groups break into government programming in order to communicate with the masses. Up until now, the main goal for hacking something has usually been theft or simple vandalism. The future is now, baby!

Posted by: Jimbob http://the-fix.org Thu Jul 4 01:30:26 2002

I dunno if Falun Gong deserves all the funky-groovy-Resistance-reading support it gets in Australia. If the Fred Nile Group / Festival of Light (just to pick a random religious organisation) hacked ABC TV and started putting Jesus-lovin' banners all over Rage i'd be mighty pissed off. Not that the Aussie government is oppressing Fred Nile or anything, but hey, it's all about religun.

Posted by: bzackey Thu Jul 4 04:00:55 2002

It's all about the romanticism and style that comes from the forbidden. I'd be way more inclined to listen to some fundy if he risked torture and imprisonment for exposing me to his message. How could you dismiss a televangelist as a get-rich-quick con artist if his beliefs are obviously sincere enough to risk a terrible punishment for no apparent reward?

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Jul 4 04:27:18 2002

The way I understand it, Falun Gong's main crime was to challenge the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party as the only organisation that can organise popular movements. The Communists cannot abide this (their order is based on the Party's supremacy in this area, which is jealously guarded), and as such declared war. That Falun Gong are just a meditation movement (and not for "democracy" or any other such evil) is irrelevant.

Then again, the Coms could be right in being afraid; AFAIK, the Enlightenment, which helped end the age of aristocracy in Europe, spread through Freemasonry, which was also a spiritual movement of sorts.

Posted by: bzackey Thu Jul 4 18:05:11 2002

I'm not even sure how much they really care about the concept of Communism, either. The CCP's only goal is to maintain its grip on all forms of power and expression, which causes them to violently break up unofficial labor unions with methods as brutal as any the capitalists ever used. Those Chi-Coms desperately want to make an example out of the Falun Gong movement, but the fact that they just keep on meditating is deeply embarrassing for the government.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Fri Jul 5 03:48:26 2002

Apparently there is a lot of continuity between the Communist bureaucracy in China and the feudal/imperial bureaucracy it replaced; with people whose ancestors were imperial bureaucrats for generations doing the same thing in the Party. Which suggests that "socialism with Chinese characteristics" is much the same sort of thing, only in Marxist/Leninist drag.