By Jared Berry
Idaho Falls, Idaho
While I personally don't agree with the Chinese government's response to the Falun Gong, I strongly disagree with The Daily Universe's treatment of the Falun Gong situation. The coverage provided by The Daily Universe reflected an unknowledgeable bias on the part of the writer.
The writer stated that 'many were treated in a way that is typical of the Chinese government, a government frequently criticized for its human rights violations.' This implies that the Chinese government's modus operandi is that of violent suppression of its citizens.
From my experience, this is not the case. While visiting Tiananmen Square last December, I witnessed the police arrest several Falun Gong members. Their methods were no different than American police arresting a lawbreaker. Compared with what I witnessed after the BYU-Utah game, the Beijing police behaved like Miss Manners.
Any organization that advocates public self-incineration would be illegal in the United States as well. While we point our fingers at human-rights violations committed by the Chinese government, let us not forget that we live under a government that thinks it was justified killing dozens of its citizens by burning down the Branch Davidians' compound in Waco, Texas.
Making statements calling human-rights violations by the Chinese government 'typical' shows The Daily Universe's lack of perspective. The church has worked long and hard to establish its now strong relationship with the Chinese government. Inflammatory remarks made against the legitimate ruling regime of China are extremely detrimental to the church's current position.
Earlier this year, the Chinese ambassador visited BYU, making a large literary donation to the library. It's a good thing he wasn't here to read the critical statements published on the front page of The Daily Universe, or BYU would have more to worry about than his sudden decision to retract the donation. Among our student body are scores of Chinese students, several of whom are sons and daughters of high-ranking government officials. These offensive words could easily leak back to their parents, letting them know the views published in BYU's official newspaper.
As a part of BYU, anything published by The Daily Universe reflects on the church's university and therefore reflects on the church in general. Hopefully in the future The Daily Universe will control the amount of spin it publishes to keep from offending students or high-ranking Chinese government officials.