The
world should be horrified by the evidence of genocide emerging from East
Turkestan, but we shouldn’t be so surprised. To a large extent, the Chinese
Communist Party is merely repeating the game-plan they used to launch their
wholesale crackdown on Falun Dafa (or Falun Gong). Today, Party propaganda
tells the world they are simply rotting out terrorists. In the case, of Falun
Gong, it was religious extremism. Filmmakers Jason Loftus & Eric Pedicelli
ask the hard questions about the incident used to justify the anti-Falun Gong campaign
that the Western media should have in the riveting expose documentary, Ask No
Questions, which premiered at the 2020 Slamdance Film Festival, in Park
City.
Falun
Dafa is a spiritual practice combining Buddhism and Taoism that is not inherently
political, but its rapid growth spooked the Communism Party, so true to form, they
prohibited it. Those who still practiced, were subjected to physical and mental
torture in re-education camps. Whoever refused to recant became slave laborers
in work camps (much like what is happening in East Turkestan).
For
a while, the world expressed concern over this naked repression of Falun Gong, but
the release of video tape supposedly documenting practitioners self-immolating
on Tiananmen Square largely defused the issue. (In fact, the IOC rewarded the CCP
for their brutality by approving China’s bid for the 2008 Olympics.) Ever
since, the incident has made practitioners like Loftus defensive. Yet, when he
took a hard look at the tape, he noticed some suspicious inconsistencies. CNN
reporter Lisa Weaver (who happened to be on the Square at that very moment) had
questions about the official story, but she was not allowed to follow-up,
because CNN wanted to protect its Beijing bureau.
Throughout
Ask No Questions, Loftus points out the strange circumstances surrounding
the incident, starting with the fact the self-immolators had no known history
of practicing Falun Dafa. He also interviews at length Chen Ruichang, a former
state television official and Falun Dafa practitioner, who refused to recant
despite the brutal torture he endured in a prison camp.
Some
of Loftus’s evidence is circumstantial, but he readily identifies it as such.
He never overblows or overplays any objections to the official story, but the cumulative
effect is overwhelming. Perhaps most chillingly, Loftus & Pedicelli identify
the parallels between the alleged Falun Dafa incident and a false flag
self-immolation chronicled in Wang Lixiong’s novel Yellow Peril, which
the CCP authorities would be well familiar with, since they banned it in China.
Loftus
appears throughout the film, providing a personal perspective, but he still
marshals his case quite credibly and persuasively. He raises so many legitimate
questions, it really puts CNN to shame. Again, there is no hyperventilating and
no over-reaching, just reasonable questions. However, there is one critical point
Loftus misses. The possible (likely) framing of Falun Dafa did not just impact
practitioners. The world’s subsequent acceptance emboldened the CCP to apply
such tactics against the Uyghurs in East Turkestan and they are already
starting to roll them out in Tibet. Regardless, this is an incisive documentary
that arrives at a perfect time. Highly and urgently recommended, Ask No
Questions screens again this Wednesday (1/29), as part of this year’s
Slamdance.
