Commentary 5: On the Collusion of Jiang Zemin and the Chinese Communist Party to Persecute Falun Gong
FOREWORD
Ms. Zhang Fuzhen, about 38 years old, was an employee of Xianhe Park, Pingdu City, Shandong Province, China. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in November 2000 and was later abducted by the authorities. According to people with knowledge of the case, the police tortured and humiliated Zhang Fuzhen, stripping her naked and shaving her whole head. They tied her to a bed with her four limbs stretched out, and she therefore was forced to relieve herself on the bed. Later, the police gave her an injection of an unknown poisonous drug. After the injection, Zhang was in so much pain that she nearly went insane. She struggled in great pain on the bed until she died. The whole process was witnessed by the local officials of the 610 Office (from a July 23, 2004 report on the Clearwisdom website). [1]
Ms. Yang Lirong, 34, was from Beimen Street, Dingzhou City, Baoding Prefecture, Hebei Province. Her family was often harassed and intimidated by the police because she practiced Falun Gong. On February 8, 2002, after a nighttime police raid, Ms. Yang’s husband, a driver in the Bureau of Standards & Meteorology, was traumatized and afraid of losing his job. He could not withstand the tremendous pressure the authorities exerted on him. Early the next morning, taking advantage of the time when their elderly parents had stepped out of the house, he strangled his wife. Yang Lirong died tragically, leaving behind a 10-year-old son. Soon afterwards, her husband reported the incident to the authorities, and the police hurried to the scene to conduct an autopsy on Ms. Yang’s body, which was still warm. They removed many organs from her body while the organs were still radiating heat and blood gushed out. A Dingzhou Public Security Bureau staff said, “This is no autopsy; it is vivisection!” (from a September 25, 2004 report on the Clearwisdom website) [2]
In the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in Heilongjiang Province, a woman who was about 7 months pregnant was hung up from a beam. Both of her hands were tied with a coarse rope that was hung over a pulley attached to the beam. The stool that supported her was removed, and she was suspended in the air. The beam was 3 to 4 meters (10 to 12 feet) above the ground. The rope went through the pulley, and one end of the rope was held by the prison guards. When the guards pulled on the rope, she would be suspended in the air; as soon as the police let go of the rope, she would quickly fall to the ground. This pregnant woman suffered painful torture like this until she had a miscarriage. Even crueler was that her husband was forced to watch his wife endure the torture (from a November 15, 2004 report on the Minghui website, an interview with Ms. Wang Yuzhi who was tortured for over 100 days in the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp). [3]
These startling tragedies occurred in modern-day China. They happened to Falun Gong practitioners, who are being brutally persecuted, and they are just a few of the countless torture cases that have taken place over the past five years of continuous persecution.
Since China began economic reforms in the late 1970s, the CCP has endeavored to build a positive, liberal image in the international community. However, the persecution of Falun Gong over the last five years, which has been bloody, irrational, widespread, vehement and brutal, has enabled the international community to once again witness the true face of the CCP and the biggest disgrace on the CCP’s human rights record. The general public in China, under the delusion that the CCP has been improving and progressing, has become used to blaming the low morality of the police for the atrocities committed by the Chinese legal system and law enforcement. However, the brutal, systematic persecution of Falun Gong is ubiquitous throughout every level of Chinese society and has completely burst the illusion of improved human rights. Many people are now pondering how such a bloody and outrageous persecution could have happened in China. The social order was stabilized after the chaos of the Great Cultural Revolution 20 years ago. Why has China entered another similar cycle of nightmarish events? Why is Falun Gong, which upholds the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” and has been promulgated in over 60 countries worldwide, being persecuted only in China, not anywhere else in the world? In this persecution, what is the relationship between Jiang Zemin and the CCP?
Jiang Zemin lacks both ability and moral integrity. Without a fine-tuned machine of violence like the CCP, which is based on slaughters and lies, he would never have been capable of launching this genocide, a genocide that is widespread throughout China and that even penetrates overseas. Similarly, the CCP would not have easily gone against the current of the historic trends and the environment created by the CCP’s recent economic reforms and attempts to connect to the world; only a self-willed dictator like Jiang Zemin who was determined to have his way could make this happen. The collusion and resonance between Jiang Zemin and the evil specter of the CCP have amplified the atrocities of the persecution to an unprecedented level. It is similar to how the resonance between the sound of a mountain climber’s equipment on accumulated snow can cause an avalanche and bring about disastrous consequences.
I. SIMILAR BACKGROUNDS GENERATE THE SAME SENSE OF CRISIS
Jiang Zemin was born in the restless year of 1926. Just as the CCP conceals its bloody history, Jiang Zemin, in front of the Party and the Chinese people, has also covered up his history of being a traitor to China.
In the year when Jiang Zemin was 17, the worldwide anti-Fascist war was in full swing. While patriotic youths went one after another to the frontline to fight Japan and save China, Jiang Zemin chose to pursue higher education in 1942 in the Central University established by the puppet regime of Wang Jingwei in Nanjing under the control of the Japanese. Investigations from various sources suggest the true reason was that Jiang Zemin’s biological father, Jiang Shijun, was once a high-ranking officer in the anti-China propaganda department of the Japanese army after Japan occupied Jiangsu Province during its invasion of China. Jiang Shijun was truly a traitor to China.
In terms of betrayal and treachery, Jiang Zemin and the CCP are the same: they are so devoid of feelings and affection for the Chinese people as to dare recklessly to kill innocent people.
In order to infiltrate the CCP to raise his own wealth and rank after the CCP won the civil war, Jiang Zemin fabricated the lie that he was adopted and raised by his uncle Jiang Shangqing, who had joined the CCP at an early age and was later shot dead by bandits. Because of his fabricated family history, he was able to be promoted from a low-ranking official to Deputy Minister of the Electronics Industry in only a few years time. Jiang’s promotion was not due to his ability, but to personal connections and favors. In his tenure as the CCP Secretary of the City of Shanghai, Jiang Zemin spared no effort in currying favor with CCP magnates like Li Xiannian and Chen Yun [7] who came to Shanghai every year for the Spring Festival. Even as the Party Secretary of Shanghai City, he once stood and waited in the deep snow for several hours in order personally to deliver a birthday cake to Li Xiannian.
The Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 was another turning point in Jiang Zemin’s life. He became the General Secretary of the CCP through suppressing a liberal newspaper, the World Economic Herald, putting the leader of the People’s Congress, Wan Li, under house arrest, and supporting the massacre. Even before the massacre took place, Jiang Zemin had delivered a secret letter to Deng Xiaoping, requesting that “resolute measures” be taken against the students; otherwise “both the nation and the Party would be subjugated.” Over the past 15 years, Jiang has conducted wanton suppression and killing of all dissidents and groups who hold independent beliefs, in the name of “stability as the overriding priority.”
Since both Russia and China started to survey their common border in 1991, Jiang Zemin has fully acknowledged the results of the invasions of China by the Tsar and the former Soviet Union, and completely accepted all the unequal treaties between Russia and China since the Aigun Treaty. Chinese lands covering over one million square kilometers have thus been permanently forfeited by him.
With Jiang Zemin’s personal history, pretending to be the orphan of a CCP martyr while in fact he was the eldest son of a Chinese traitor, he personally followed the CCP’s example of deceit; with his support of the “June 4” massacre and suppression of democratic movements and religious beliefs, he has personally adopted the CCP’s practice of killing; just as the CCP used to be under the Soviet Union’s command as a Far East branch of the Communist International so Jiang Zemin now gives out land for free; he is practiced in the betrayal so characteristic of the CCP.
Jiang Zemin and the CCP share similar, disgraceful origins and history. Because of this, both share an acute sense of insecurity regarding their power.
II. BOTH JIANG ZEMIN AND THE CCP EQUALLY FEAR “TRUTHFULNESS, COMPASSION AND TOLERANCE”
The history of the international communist movement was written with the blood of hundreds of millions of people. Nearly every communist country went through a process similar to the counter-revolutionary suppression by Stalin in the former Soviet Union. Millions or even tens of millions of innocent people were slaughtered. In the 1990s, the former Soviet Union dissolved and Eastern Europe went through drastic changes. The Communist Bloc lost more than half of its territory overnight. The CCP learned from this lesson and realized that stopping suppression and allowing the right to free speech was the equivalent to seeking its own doom. If people were allowed to express themselves freely, how could the CCP cover up its bloody atrocities? How could it justify its deceptive ideology? If suppression was stopped and people were free of threats and fears, wouldn’t they dare to choose a lifestyle and a belief other than communism? Then, how would the Communist Party maintain the social basis essential to its survival?
The CCP remains essentially the same regardless of any surface changes it might have made. After the “June 4” massacre, Jiang Zemin cried out to “eliminate any unstable factors in their embryonic stage.” Extremely afraid, he concluded that he would never give up lying to the public, and he would continue to suppress the people until they were completely immobilized.
During this period Falun Gong was introduced in China. At first, Falun Gong was regarded by many as a type of qigong [8] with an especially powerful ability to keep people healthy and fit. Later, people gradually realized the essence of Falun Gong was not its five easy exercises. Instead, Falun Gong’s essence is to teach people to become better based upon the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance."
FALUN GONG TEACHES “TRUTHFULNESS, COMPASSION AND TOLERANCE;” THE COMMUNIST PARTY BREWS “FALSEHOOD, HATRED AND STRUGGLE”
Falun Gong promotes “Truthfulness,” including only telling the truth and doing truthful things. The CCP relies on lies to brainwash people. If everyone began telling the truth, the public would learn that the CCP grew by ingratiating itself with the Soviet Union, murdering, kidnapping, taking flight when convenient, planting opium, usurping the cause of fighting against the Japanese invasion, and so on. The CCP once claimed, “Nothing significant can be accomplished without lying.” After the CCP seized power, it initiated successive political movements and incurred countless bloody debts. Promoting truthfulness would thus spell certain doom to the CCP.
Falun Gong promotes “Compassion,” including considering others first and being kind to others in all circumstances. The CCP has always advocated “brutal struggle and merciless crackdown.” The CCP's model hero, Lei Feng, once said, “We should treat our enemies mercilessly, being as cold as the severe winter.” Actually, the CCP not only treated their enemies like that, they haven’t treated their own members any better. The founders of the Communist Party, the supreme commanders and marshals, and even a chairman of the country were all mercilessly interrogated, brutally beaten and miserably tortured by their own party. The slaughter of the so-called “class enemies” was so brutal it could make one’s hair stand on end. If “compassion” had dominated society, the mass movements based upon “vice,” as initiated by the Communist Party, would have never been able to take place.
The Communist Manifesto states “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.” This represents the Communist Party's concept of history and the world. Falun Gong, promotes searching inside oneself for one’s own shortcomings in the face of conflict. This introspective and self-restrained outlook is the complete opposite of the CCP’s philosophy of struggle and attack.
Struggle has been the major means for the Communist Party to gain political power and survive. The Communist Party periodically initiated political movements to suppress certain groups of people in order to recharge itself and “revive its revolutionary fighting spirit." The process was repeated with violence and lies, in order to strengthen and renew people’s fear, so as to maintain its power.
From the ideological point of view, the philosophy that the Communist Party has relied on for its survival is completely opposite to what Falun Gong teaches.
PEOPLE WITH RIGHTEOUS BELIEFS ARE FEARLESS, WHILE THE CCP RELIES ON PEOPLE’S FEAR TO MAINTAIN ITS POLITICAL POWER
People who understand the truth are fearless. Christianity was persecuted for nearly 300 years. Numerous Christians were beheaded, burned to death or drowned, or even fed to lions, but the Christians did not give up their belief. When Buddhism experienced the Dharma tribulation in history, Buddhists also behaved faithfully in a similar manner.
The atheists’ propaganda aims to make people believe there is no heaven or hell and no karmic retribution, so that people would no longer be restrained by their conscience. Instead, they would focus on wealth and comfort as being the reality of this world. The weaknesses in human nature can then be manipulated, and intimidation and temptation can be used to control people fully. However, those with strong belief are able to see through life and death. The illusions of the secular world do not move them. They take the temptations of the earthly world and the threats to their lives lightly, thus rendering the Communist Party feeble in any efforts to manipulate them.
THE HIGH MORAL STANDARDS OF FALUN GONG EMBARRASS THE CCP
After the “June 4” massacre in 1989, the ideology of the CCP has gone completely bankrupt. In August 1991, the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union collapsed, followed by drastic changes in Eastern Europe. This brought enormous fear and pressure to the CCP. The legitimacy of its rule and the prospect of its survival faced unprecedented challenges as it encountered great crises both at home and abroad. At that time, the CCP was no longer able to unite its members with its original doctrines of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism. Instead, it turned to total corruption in exchange for Party members’ loyalty. In other words, whoever followed the Party would be allowed to gain personal benefits through corruption and embezzlement, an advantage impossible to non-party members. Especially after Deng Xiaoping’s tour of southern China in 1992 [6], government officials’ profiteering and corruption in real estate and the stock market have run wild in China. Illegal second wives and smuggling are everywhere. Pornography, gambling and drugs have become rampant all over China. Although it may not be fair to say that there was not a single good person in the Communist Party, the general public has long ago lost confidence in the Party’s anti-corruption efforts, and holds that more than half of the middle or high ranking government officials are involved in corruption.
At the same time, the high moral standards demonstrated by Falun Gong practitioners, who practice “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance,” resonated with kindness in the hearts of the public. More than one hundred million people were attracted to Falun Gong and started the practice. Falun Gong is a mirror of righteousness which by its very nature reveals all the unrighteousness of the CCP.
THE CCP WAS EXTREMELY JEALOUS OF THE WAY FALUN GONG WAS SPREAD AND MANAGED
The unique way Falun Gong propagates is person to person and heart to heart. Falun Gong has a loose management structure, and anyone can come and go freely as he wishes. It is very different from the strict organization of the CCP. Despite the strict organization, the political study and group activities conducted weekly or more frequently in the CCP branches existed only in form. Few Party members agreed with the Party ideology. On the contrary, Falun Gong practitioners conscientiously followed the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.” Because of the powerful effect of Falun Gong on improving people’s mental and physical health, the number of people who practiced Falun Gong grew exponentially. Practitioners voluntarily studied Mr. Li Hongzhi’s series of books and promoted Falun Gong at their own expense. In a short seven years time, the number of Falun Gong practitioners grew from none to 100 million. When they practiced the exercises in the morning, Falun Gong exercise music could be heard in almost every park in China.
The Communist Party said that Falun Gong “competes” for the masses with the CCP and that it was a “religion.” In fact, what Falun Gong brings to people is a culture and a way of life. It is an ancestral culture and the root of Chinese traditions, which the Chinese people had lost long ago. Jiang Zemin and the Communist Party feared Falun Gong, because once this traditional morality was accepted by the public, nothing could prevent it from spreading rapidly. The Chinese traditional beliefs have been forcibly shut off and tampered with by the Communist Party for decades. It would be the choice of history to return to tradition. It would be the path of return chosen by the vast majority of people after tribulations and misery. When given such a choice, people would certainly distinguish between right and wrong and are likely to leave wickedness behind. This would certainly be a fundamental denial and abandonment of what the Communist Party has promoted. This was like striking at the mortal weakness of the CCP. When the number of people who practiced Falun Gong exceeded that of the Communist Party members, you could imagine the deep fear and jealousy of the CCP.
In China, the CCP exerts total control over every part of society. In the countryside, there are Communist Party branches in every single village. In urban areas, branch offices of the CCP are found in every administrative office in the neighborhoods. In the army, government and enterprises, the Party branches reach to the very roots. Absolute monopoly and exclusive manipulation are essential measures that the CCP takes to maintain its regime. The Chinese Constitution euphemistically termed this phenomenon as “persisting in the leadership of the Party.” Falun Gong practitioners, on the other hand, were obviously more inclined to take "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” as their principles. The CCP saw this as nothing short of denying the leadership of the Party, which was absolutely unacceptable to the Party.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY CONSIDERS FALUN GONG’S THEISM A THREAT TO THE LEGITIMACY OF THE COMMUNIST REGIME
A true theistic belief is bound to be a significant challenge to the Communist Party. Because the legitimacy of the Communist regime was based upon the so-called “dialectical materialism” and the wish to build a “heaven on earth,” it could only rely on the leadership of the “vanguard in the world,” namely, the Communist Party. Meanwhile, the practice of atheism enabled the Communist Party to interpret freely what is virtuous and what is good or bad. As a result, there has been virtually no morality or distinction between good or bad to speak of. All that people have to remember is that the Party is always “great, glorious and correct.”
However, theism gives people an unchanging standard of good and bad. Falun Gong practitioners evaluate right or wrong based on “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.” This obviously hinders the CCP’s consistent efforts to “unify people’s thinking.”
Continuing with this analysis, there are still many other reasons. However, any one of the above five reasons is fatal to the CCP. Actually, Jiang Zemin suppresses Falun Gong for the same reasons. Jiang Zemin started his career by lying about his past, so of course he is afraid of the “truth.” Through suppressing people, he quickly became successful and powerful, so of course he dislikes “compassion.” He maintained his power through political struggles inside the Party, so of course he dislikes “tolerance.”
From a small incident we can tell how extremely petty and jealous Jiang Zemin is. The Museum of Hemudu Cultural Ruins [4] in Yuyao County (now reclassified as a City), Zhejiang Province is a major historical and cultural site under state conservation. Originally, it was Qiao Shi [5] who wrote the signature inscription for the Museum of Hemudu Cultural Ruins. In September 1992, Jiang Zemin saw Qiao Shi’s inscription when he visited the museum and his face turned dark and gloomy. The accompanying personnel were very nervous, as they knew that Jiang could not stand Qiao Shi and that Jiang liked to show off so much that he would write an inscription wherever he went, even when he went to visit the traffic police division of the Public Security Bureau in Jinan City and the Zhengzhou City’s Retired Engineers Association. The museum staff dared not slight the petty Jiang Zemin. Consequently, in May 1993, under the excuse of renovation, the museum replaced Qiao Shi’s inscription with one of Jiang’s before the re-opening.
Mao Zedong is said to have “four volumes of profound and powerful writing,” whereas the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping has a “cat theory” [9] with a flavor of practicality. Jiang Zemin exhausted his brain but could only come up with three sentences, yet he claimed to have come up with “Three Represents.” It was published into a book and promoted by the CCP through level after level of government organizations, yet it only sold because people were forced to buy it. Nevertheless, the Party members still didn’t respect Jiang Zemin even a little bit. They spread gossip about his affair with a singer, the embarrassing episodes of his singing “O Sole Mio” when he traveled abroad, and combing his hair in front of the King of Spain. When the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi, who was born an ordinary civilian, gave a lecture, the lecture hall would be filled with professors, experts and Chinese students studying abroad. Many people with doctorate or masters degrees flew thousands of miles to listen to his lectures. When Mr. Li lectured eloquently on the stage for several hours, he did it without using any notes. Afterwards, the lecture could be transcribed on paper and made into a book to be published. All these things were unbearable to Jiang Zemin, who is vain, jealous and petty.
Jiang Zemin lives an extremely lavish, lustful and corrupt life. He spent 900 million yuan (over $US 110 million) to buy a luxurious plane for his use. Jiang often drew money from public funds, by the tens of billions, for his son to do business. He used nepotism to promote his relatives and minions to high-ranking posts above the ministerial level, and he resorted to desperate and extreme measures in covering up for his cronies’ corruption and crimes. For all these reasons, Jiang is afraid of Falun Gong’s moral authority, and even more is he afraid that the topics of heaven, hell, and the principle of good and bad being rewarded accordingly, as addressed by Falun Gong, are indeed real.
Although Jiang held the greatest power in the CCP in his hands, since he lacked political achievement and talent, he often worried that he would be forced out of the power amidst the CCP’s ruthless power struggles. He is very sensitive about his status as the “core” of the power. In order to eliminate dissension, he plotted underhanded schemes to get rid of his political enemies Yang Shangkun and Yang’s brother Yang Baibing. At 15th National Congress of the Communist Party Committee (CPC) in 1997 and the 16th National Congress of the CPC in 2002, Jiang forced his opponents to leave their posts. Yet, he, on the other hand, ignored the relevant regulations and clung dearly to his post.
In 1989, the new Secretary General of the CCP Jiang Zemin held a press conference for both domestic and foreign reporters. A French reporter asked about the story of a female college student who, because of her involvement in the June 4th student movement in Tiananmen Square, was transferred to a farm in Sichuan Province to carry bricks from one place to another and was raped repeatedly by the local peasants. Jiang replied, “I don’t know if what you said is true or not, but that woman is a violent rioter. Even if it were true, she deserved it.” During the Great Cultural Revolution, Zhang Zhixin [10] was subjected to gang rape and her throat was sliced open (to prevent her from revealing the truth) when she was detained in prison. Jiang Zemin would probably also think that she deserved it. We can easily see Jiang Zemin’s scoundrel-like deviant mentality and cruelty.
In summary, Jiang Zemin’s hunger for dictatorial power, cruelty, and fear of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” are the causes for his irrationally launching the campaign to suppress Falun Gong. This is highly consistent with the way CCP operates.
III. JIANG ZEMIN AND THE CCP COLLUDED WITH EACH OTHER
Jiang Zemin is known for showing off and employing political trickery. His incompetence and ignorance are well known. Although he wholeheartedly intended to “exterminate” Falun Gong out of personal spite, he was incapable of doing much, as Falun Gong is rooted in traditional Chinese culture and has become so popular as to gain a broad social basis. However, the mechanisms of tyranny employed by the CCP, perfected through numerous movements, were in full operation, and the CCP intended to uproot Falun Gong. Jiang Zemin took advantage of his position as the General Secretary of the CCP and personally launched the crackdown against Falun Gong. The effect of collusion and resonance between Jiang Zemin and the CCP was like an avalanche caused by the shouts of a mountain climber.
Before Jiang officially issued orders for the crackdown against Falun Gong, the CCP had already begun its suppression, monitoring, investigation and fabrications for framing accusations against Falun Gong. The evil specter of the CCP instinctively felt threatened by “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance,” not to mention the unprecedented rapid growth of the practice. Undercover public security personnel in the CCP infiltrated Falun Gong as early as 1994, but they failed to discover any faults, and some even began to practice Falun Gong in earnest. In 1996, Guangming Daily violated the “Three Restrictions,” a state policy regarding qigong (i.e. that the state does not "advocate, intervene, or condemn" qigong activities), publishing an article denouncing Falun Gong’s ideology. After that, politicians with backgrounds in public security or with the title of “scientists” continually harassed Falun Gong. At the beginning of 1997, Luo Gan, Secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee of the Central Committee of CCP took advantage of his power and ordered the Public Security Bureau to carry out a nationwide investigation of Falun Gong with the intention of finding charges to justify a ban on Falun Gong. After it was reported from around the country that no evidence was found so far, Luo Gan issued a circular—No. 555—“Notification Regarding Starting an Investigation of Falun Gong” through the First Bureau of the Public Security Ministry (also called the Political Security Bureau). He first charged Falun Gong with being an “evil cult” and then ordered the police departments across the country to investigate Falun Gong systematically, using undercover personnel to collect evidence. The investigation found no evidence to support his accusation.
Before the CCP, an organization of an evil specter, could begin to crack down on Falun Gong, it needed the right person to initiate the mechanisms for suppression. How the head of CCP handled the issue was crucial. As an individual, the CCP’s chief could possess both goodness and evil—two opposite aspects of human nature. If he chose to follow his good side, then he could temporarily restrain an eruption of the vile Party nature; otherwise, the evil nature of the CCP would manifest fully.
During the pro-democracy student movement in 1989, Zhao Ziyang, then General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee, had no intention of suppressing the students. It was the eight party elders controlling the CCP who insisted on suppressing the students. Deng Xiaoping said at that time, “(We would) kill 200,000 people in exchange for 20 years of stability.” The so-called “20 years of stability” actually meant 20 years of rule by the CCP. This idea conformed to the CCP’s fundamental goal of being a dictatorship, so it was accepted by the CCP.
Regarding the Falun Gong issue, out of the seven members of the Standing Committee of Politburo of the CCP Central Committee, Jiang Zemin was the only one who insisted on the suppression. The excuse Jiang provided was that it was related to “the survival of the Party and the country.” This touched the most sensitive nerve of the CCP and provoked the CCP’s tendency toward struggle. Jiang Zemin’s attempt to maintain his personal power and the CCP’s attempt to maintain dictatorship by a single party were highly unified on this point.
On the evening of July 19, 1999, Jiang Zemin chaired a conference of the CCP’s highest-ranking officials. He overrode the law with his political power, personally “unified” the understanding of all members present, and personally decided to launch a massive crackdown on Falun Gong. He banned Falun Gong in the name of the Chinese government and deceived the public. The CCP, China’s government, and the violent mechanisms employed by the CCP were used to their full extent in an overwhelming suppression of millions of innocent Falun Gong practitioners.
If the General Secretary of the CCP at that time had been someone other than Jiang Zemin, the suppression of Falun Gong would not have taken place. In that respect, we can say that the CCP used Jiang Zemin.
On the other hand, if the CCP had not incurred so many bloody debts with its scoundrel, immoral and savage nature, it would not have considered Falun Gong to be a threat. Without the CCP’s complete and pervasive control over every part of society, Jiang Zemin’s intention to suppress Falun Gong would not have gained organization, financing, and propaganda, or the support of diplomats, personnel and equipment, or the support of prisons, police, the National Security Department, and army, or the so-called “support” from the circles of religions, science and technology, democratic parties, workers’ unions, Youth Corps Committees, Women's Associations and so on. In this respect, we can say that Jiang Zemin used the CCP.
IV. HOW JIANG ZEMIN USES THE CCP TO PERSECUTE FALUN GONG
By taking advantage of the CCP’s organizational principle that “the entire membership of the Party must be subordinated to the Central Committee,” Jiang Zemin exploited the state machinery controlled by the CCP to serve the objective of persecuting Falun Gong. The CCP-controlled apparatus includes the army, the media, public security personnel, the police, para-military police, state security forces, judicial system, the National People’s Congress, diplomatic personnel as well as sham religious groups. The army and para-military police, all of whom are controlled by the CCP, have directly taken part in the abduction and arrest of Falun Gong practitioners. The news media in China have assisted Jiang’s regime in spreading lies and smearing Falun Gong. The state security system has been exploited by Jiang Zemin personally in gathering and submitting information, fabricating lies, and falsifying intelligence. The National People’s Congress and the judicial system have put on the “legal” appearance and the garb of “rule of law” to justify crimes committed by Jiang Zemin and CCP, effectively deceiving people from all walks of life. They have turned themselves into an instrument for the service and protection of Jiang Zemin. At the same time, the diplomatic system has spread lies in the international community and enticed foreign governments, senior officials and international media with political and economic incentives so that they will remain silent regarding the issue of the persecution of Falun Gong.
During the Central Committee’s working conference, in which the suppression of Falun Gong was ordered, Jiang Zemin claimed, “I just don’t believe that the CCP can’t beat Falun Gong.” In planning the strategy of the suppression, three policies were put in place: “to ruin [Falun Gong practitioners'] reputations, bankrupt [them] financially, and destroy [them] physically.” A suppression campaign subsequently went into full operation.
EXPLOITING THE MEDIA TO BLOCK THE FLOW OF INFORMATION
The policy of “ruining [Falun Gong practitioners’] reputations” has been carried out by the media, which are under the absolute control of the CCP. Starting on July 22, 1999, the third day into the campaign of arresting Falun Gong practitioners across the country, the CCP-controlled news media launched a full-scale anti-Falun Gong propaganda blitz. Take the Beijing-based China Central Television (CCTV) as an example. In the remaining months of 1999, CCTV spent seven hours a day broadcasting preprogrammed footage to spread lies about Falun Gong. Producers of these programs started by distorting and falsifying speeches by Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong, then threw in cases of so-called suicide, murder, and death due to refusal of medical treatment. They did everything they could to smear and frame Falun Gong and its founder.
The most publicized case was removing the word “not” from what Mr. Li Hongzhi once said at a public event, that “The incident of the so-called explosion of the earth does not exist.” The CCTV program turned this statement into: “The explosion of the earth does exist,” Therefore claiming that Falun Gong spreads Doomsday theories. Subterfuge is also employed in order to mislead the public, for example transferring the offences of ordinary criminals to Falun Gong practitioners. A murder committed by the mentally deranged Fu Yibin in Beijing and a fatal poisoning by a beggar in Zhejiang Province were both blamed on Falun Gong. The CCP then uses the media to instigate hatred among the deceived public, justifying and seeking support for the unpopular, bloody persecution.
Over 2,000 newspapers, over 1,000 magazines, and hundreds of local TV and radio stations under the absolute control of the CCP became overloaded in their all-out propaganda smear campaign of Falun Gong. These propaganda programs were further spread to every other country outside of China via the official Xinhua News Agency, China News Services, H.K. China News Agency, and other CCP-controlled overseas media. Based on incomplete statistics, within only six months, over 300,000 news articles and programs smearing and targeting Falun Gong were published or broadcast, poisoning the minds of countless deceived people.
At overseas Chinese embassies and consulates, a large number of albums, CD’s, and publications criticizing and pretending to “expose” Falun Gong were on display. Special columns were set up on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website to criticize and “expose” Falun Gong.
In addition, at the end of 1999 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in New Zealand, Jiang Zemin completely dispensed with any pretence and handed out a pamphlet defaming Falun Gong to each and every one of the heads of state of more than ten countries attending the conference. In France, Jiang Zemin, in violation of the Chinese constitution, labeled Falun Gong as an “evil cult” to foreign media in order to “ruin [Falun Gong practitioners’] reputations.”
The black cloud of oppression choking the country signaled that something as drastic as the Cultural Revolution was about to start all over again.
The most despicable was the so-called “self-immolation” incident staged in January 2001, which was reported worldwide at unprecedented speed via Xinhua News Agency to frame Falun Gong. The incident has since been criticized by numerous international organizations, including the NGO International Education and Development Agency at the United Nations in Geneva, as a government-staged action meant to deceive people. During questioning, a member of the TV crew admitted that some of the footage shown on CCTV was in fact shot afterwards. The scoundrel nature of the oppressors is obvious. One can’t help but wonder how these “Falun Gong disciples facing death unflinchingly” (referring to the self-immolators) could be so cooperative with the CCP authorities so as to let them shoot the footage of self-immolation again.
No lies can survive the light of day. While spinning out rumors and fabricating lies, the CCP also has done everything in its power to block the flow of information. It has relentlessly suppressed any overseas reports on Falun Gong activities as well as any reasonable defense by Falun Gong practitioners. All Falun Gong books and other documents have been destroyed without exception. Extreme measures have been taken to guard against any foreign media attempts to interview Falun Gong practitioners in China, including expelling journalists from China, pressuring foreign news media, or forcing them to be silent by threatening to ban them from China.
As for the Falun Gong practitioners in China who have tried to transmit overseas the facts about Falun Gong and materials documenting inhumane suppression by the authorities, the CCP also has adopted extreme and brutal measures in suppressing them. Li Yanhua, a woman around 60, was from Dashiqian city, Lianning province. She was kidnapped by the police when handing out materials with information about the persecution of Falun Gong on February 1, 2001, and was beaten to death by the police. To cover up their crimes, the police said that she died from being “entranced by Falun Gong.”
At Tsinghua University alone, over a dozen teachers and students were given long prison terms for handing out materials on Falun Gong. After exposing the facts about the rape suffered in detention by Ms. Wei Xingyan, a Falun Gong practitioner and graduate student at Chongqing University, seven Falun Gong practitioners in Chongqing were charged and given long prison terms.
IMPOSING FINES AND RANSACKING HOMES WITHOUT DUE PROCESS
The entire state apparatus of the CCP has carried out a policy of “bankrupting [Falun Gong practitioners] financially.” In the more than five years since the start of the suppression, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been fined amounts ranging from thousands of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan in efforts to intimidate them and cause them severe financial loss. With no justification whatsoever, local governments, work units, police stations and public security departments have arbitrarily imposed these fines. Those who are forced to pay the fines are not issued any receipts or referred to any articles of law for explanation. There is no due process.
Ransacking homes is another form of robbery and intimidation inflicted on Falun Gong practitioners. Those who have held firm in their belief have had to face unwarranted searches with the police ransacking their residence at any moment. Their cash and other valuables have been confiscated without justification. In the countryside, even stored grain and other food products have not been spared. Likewise, none of the items taken away from Falun Gong practitioners have been documented nor any receipts ever issued. Usually those who confiscate the practitioners’ property keep it for themselves.
At the same time, Falun Gong practitioners have also faced the penalty of being laid off. In the countryside the authorities have threatened to confiscate practitioners’ land. The CCP has not overlooked the elderly who are retired. Their pension plans have been terminated and the government has evicted them from their residences. Some Falun Dafa practitioners in business have had their properties confiscated and bank accounts frozen.
In carrying out these policies, the CCP took the approach of guilt by association. That is, if there were Falun Gong practitioners found in any particular work unit or state enterprise, the leaders and the employees of these units would not receive bonuses, nor would they get promoted. The goal is to instigate hatred against Falun Gong practitioners in society. Family members and relatives of Falun Gong practitioners also face the threat of dismissal from work, of having their children expelled from school, and of being evicted from their residences. All these measures serve the same purpose: cutting off all possible sources of income for Falun Gong practitioners in order to force them to give up their belief.
BRUTAL ACTS OF TORTURE AND WANTON KILLING
The gruesome policy of “destroying [Falun Gong practitioners] physically” has been primarily carried out by the police, procuratorate [11] and the court system in China. Based on statistics gathered by the Clearwisdom website, at least 1,143 Falun Gong practitioners have died from persecution in the last five years. The deaths have occurred in over 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities under the direct leadership of the central government. By October 1, 2004, the province recording the greatest number of deaths was Heilongjiang, followed by Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Sichuan, and Hubei. The youngest to die was only 10 months old, the oldest 82 years old. Women accounted for 51.3%. Those over 50 accounted for 38.8%. CCP officials have admitted privately that the actual number of Falun Gong practitioners who have died from persecution is much higher.
The brutal tortures used on Falun Gong practitioners are many and varied. Beating, whipping, electric shock torture, freezing, tying with ropes, handcuffing and shackling for extended periods, burning with open flame, lit cigarettes or hot irons, being cuffed and hung up, being forced to stand or kneel down for a long time, being jabbed with bamboo sticks or metal wires, sexual abuse, and rape are just a handful of examples. In October 2000, guards at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning province stripped the clothes completely off 18 female Falun Gong practitioners and threw them into the prison cells for male inmates to rape and abuse at will. All these crimes have been documented in full and are too numerous to list.
Another common form, among many, of inhumane torture is the abusive use of “psychiatric treatment.” Normal, rational, and healthy Falun Gong practitioners have been unlawfully locked up in psychiatric facilities and injected with unknown drugs capable of destroying a person’s central nervous system. Some practitioners, as a result, have suffered partial or complete paralysis. Some have lost the sight in both eyes or lost hearing in both ears. Some have experienced the destruction of muscles or internal organs. Some have lost part or all of their memory and become mentally retarded. The internal organs of some practitioners have been severely injured. Some have suffered complete mental collapse. Some even died shortly after being injected with the drugs.
Statistics indicate that cases of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted with “psychiatric treatment” have spread to 23 out of 33 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities under the direct leadership of the central government in China. At least 100 psychiatric facilities at the provincial, city, county or district level have engaged in the persecution. Based on the number and distribution of these cases, it is clear that the abuse of psychiatric drugs on Falun Gong practitioners has been a well-planned, systematically carried out, top-down policy. At least 1,000 mentally healthy Falun Gong practitioners were sent to psychiatric facilities or drug rehabilitation centers against their will. Many of them were forcibly injected or force-fed numerous drugs capable of destroying someone’s nervous system. These Falun Gong practitioners were also tied with ropes and tortured with electric shock. At least 15 of them died from excessive abuse alone.
THE 610 OFFICE EXTENDS ITS TENTACLES BEYOND THE FRAMEWORK OF THE LAW
On June 7, 1999, Jiang Zemin slandered Falun Gong without any basis at a Politburo meeting of the CCP. He classified the issue of Falun Gong as a “class struggle,” labeled Falun Gong practitioners as the CCP’s political enemy, provoked the CCP’s reflex for struggle, and passed orders to set up the “Office for Dealing with the Falun Gong Issue” in the Central Committee. Since it was established on June 10, it is called the “610 Office.” After that, 610 Offices were set up across the country at all levels of government, from the highest to the lowest, to be specifically in charge of all affairs relating to the suppression of Falun Gong. The Political and Judiciary Committee, the media, public security organs, the procuratorate, people’s courts, and national security organs subordinate to the leadership of the CCP Committee serve as the thugs and hitmen for the 610 Office. The 610 Office technically reports to the State Council, but in fact, is a Party organization that is allowed to exist outside of the established framework of the state and the Chinese government, free from any legal restriction, regulation or national policies. It is an all-powerful organization very similar to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo, with powers far above and beyond the legal and judiciary systems, employing the resources of the country as it sees fit. On July 22, 1999, after Jiang Zemin issued the order to suppress Falun Gong, the Xinhua News Agency released the speeches by people in charge of the CCP Central Organizational Ministry and the CCP Central Propaganda Ministry, giving open support to the persecution of Falun Gong launched by Jiang Zemin. All of these entities cooperated under the CCP’s strict organization to carry out Jiang Zemin’s vicious scheme.
So many cases have proven that neither the public security departments, nor the procuratorate, nor the people’s courts have the power to make their own decisions on cases related to Falun Gong. They have to take orders from the 610 Office. When the family members of many Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested, detained and tortured to death inquired and complained to public security, procuratorial bodies and people’s courts, they were told that all decisions would be made by the 610 Office.
However, the existence of the 610 Office has no legal basis. When it issued orders to all organs under the system of the CCP, there were usually no written commands or notifications, only oral communication. Moreover, it stipulated that all those who receive the orders were forbidden from making sound or video recordings or even written notes.
Using this type of temporary arm of the dictatorship is a tactic the Party has often repeated, totally ignorant of the law. During all previous political purge movements, the Party always utilized irregular tactics and set up irregular temporary organs, such as the Central Cultural Revolution Team, to lead and spread the Chinese Communist Party’s tyranny to the whole country.
During its long-term reign of tyranny and heavy-handed ruling, the Party has created the strongest and most evil system of state terror with violence, lies and information blockage. Its inhumanity and level of deceit are at a highly professional level. Its scale and extent are unprecedented. In all previous political movements, the Party was accumulating systematic and effective methods and experience to punish, harm and kill people in the cruelest, craftiest and most duplicitous ways imaginable. In one case mentioned earlier, the husband could not stand the threats and harassment by the police and killed his kind-hearted wife. This is the evil fruit of the CCP’s state terror, including deceit by the media, political pressure, guilt by association, and intimidation, in order to warp human nature and instigate hatred.
USING THE MILITARY AND NATIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES TO CARRY OUT THE PERSECUTION
The Party controls all state military forces, which allows it to do as it wants, without fear, when it suppresses people. In the suppression of Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin not only employed police and para-military police, but also directly employed armed military forces during July and August of 1999, when hundreds of thousands and even millions of empty-handed common people from all over the country intended to go to Beijing and appeal for Falun Gong. Soldiers were assigned to places inside the city of Beijing. All main thoroughfares to Beijing were lined with soldiers carrying loaded guns. They cooperated with police to intercept and arrest the Falun Gong practitioners who went to appeal. Jiang Zemin’s direct allocation of the CCP’s armed forces paved the way for the bloody persecution.
The Party controls the state finances, which provide financial backing for Jiang Zemin to persecute Falun Gong. A high-ranking officer of the Justice Department of Liaoning Province once said in a conference at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp of Liaoning Province, “The financial resources used to deal with Falun Gong have exceeded the outlay for a war.”
It is not clear yet how much of the state’s economic resources and the earnings from people’s sweat and toil the CCP has employed to persecute Falun Gong. However, it is not hard to see that it would be an enormous figure. In 2001, information from inside the Party’s Public Security Department showed that, at just the one place of Tiananmen Square, the expense of arresting Falun Gong practitioners was 1.7 to 2.5 million yuan per day, which amounts to 620 to 910 million yuan per year. In the whole country, from cities to remote rural areas, from the police in police stations and public security departments to the personnel at all branches of the “610 Office,” Jiang Zemin employed at least a few million people to persecute Falun Gong. The cost in wages alone may exceed one hundred billion yuan per year. Moreover, Jiang Zemin spent huge amounts to expand forced labor camps to detain Falun Gong practitioners and build brainwashing centers and bases. For example, in December 2001, Jiang Zemin expended 4.2 billion yuan at one time to build brainwashing centers and bases to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners. Jiang Zemin also used monetary incentives to stimulate and encourage greater numbers of people to participate in persecuting Falun Gong. In many areas, the prize for arresting a Falun Gong practitioner was several thousand and even ten thousand yuan. The Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province is one of the most evil places in the persecution of Falun Gong. The Party once awarded camp director Su 50,000 yuan and deputy director Shao 30,000 yuan.
Jiang Zemin, the former general secretary of the CCP, is the person who launched the persecution of Falun Gong and the person who plotted and commanded it. He utilized the mechanisms of the CCP to launch the persecution of Falun Gong. He bears inescapable responsibility for this historic crime. However, if there were no CCP with its mechanism of violence formed through many political movements, Jiang Zemin would have had no way to launch and carry out the evil persecution.
Jiang Zemin and the Party make use of each other. They risk everyone’s condemnation to oppose “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance” for the interest of a person and a party. Their collusion is the real reason why such a tragic and absurd crime was able to occur.
V. JIANG ZEMIN BRINGS DOWN THE CHINESE COMMUNITY PARTY FROM THE INSIDE
Motivated by his personal interests, Jiang Zemin utilized the inherent evil of the CCP to launch the immense persecution aimed at the innocent people who followed “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance.” He launched a punitive movement against a social force most beneficial and least harmful to the country and society. This persecution not only drags the country and people down into crime and disaster, but also defeats the Party at its very foundation.
Jiang Zemin utilized the Party to relentlessly employ all manner of evil means all over the world to deal with Falun Gong. Law, morality and humanity all suffered great harm, which destroys at the root all credibility for the regime’s maintenance of power.
Jiang’s regime employed all available financial, material and human resources to suppress Falun Gong, which caused an enormous burden for the country and society and huge pressure on the financial system. The Party has no way to sustain the doomed persecution for an extended period of time. It could only use ordinary people’s savings, issue national bonds, and entice foreign investment to keep it going.
During the persecution, the Party and Jiang Zemin have devised all kinds of devious, brutal and deceitful tactics, employing its entire repertoire of treachery and evildoing in order to persecute Falun Gong.
The Party and Jiang Zemin employed every known propaganda tool to fabricate rumors, denigrate Falun Gong, and make excuses for the suppression and persecution. However, no lie can last forever. Once the lies are finally exposed, and when all the evil is revealed by the failure of the persecution and becomes known to all, their propaganda methods will no longer be able to deceive. The Party will lose its credibility and people’s hearts completely.
At the beginning of the suppression of Falun Gong in 1999, Jiang Zemin intended to solve the issue of Falun Gong in “three months.” However, the Party underestimated the power of Falun Gong and the power of tradition and belief.
Since ancient times, the evil has never been able to eliminate the righteous. It cannot eradicate kindness from people’s hearts. Five years have passed. Falun Gong still is Falun Gong. Moreover, Falun Gong has spread widely all over the world. Jiang Zemin and the Party have suffered a severe defeat in this combat between good and evil. And their devious, cruel and evil nature is fully exposed. The notorious Jiang Zemin is now beset with troubles both at home and abroad and is facing many lawsuits and appeals seeking to bring him to justice.
The Party originally intended to make use of the suppression to consolidate its tyranny. However, the result is that it was not able to “recharge” but instead exhausted its own energy. Now the Party is too far gone to resuscitate. It is just like a rotten, withered tree. It will collapse by itself in a gust of wind. Any pipe dream of salvaging the CCP is against the trend of history. It will not only be in vain, but also destroy the participants’ own future.
CONCLUSION
The former general secretary of the CCP Jiang Zemin is the one who launched, plotted and commanded the evil persecution. Jiang Zemin fully utilized the CCP’s power, position, disciplinary methods, and mechanisms for political movements to start this persecution against Falun Gong. He bears unshirkable responsibility for this historic crime. On the other hand, if there were no CCP, Jiang Zemin would have been unable to launch and conduct this evil persecution. From the day it came into being, the CCP has turned against righteousness and goodness. With suppression as its tool of choice and persecution as its expertise, the CCP based its reign on strict mind control that follows a single, central party. By its very nature, the CCP dreads “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance” and regards Falun Gong as the enemy. Therefore, its suppression and persecution of Falun Gong was inevitable. While attacking “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance,” Jiang Zemin and the CCP gave the opportunity for falsehood, evil, violence, poison, wickedness, and corruption to propagate. What followed was a widespread moral decline in the land of China, which affected everyone.
The collusion between the CCP and Jiang Zemin has tied their fates together. Falun Gong is now suing Jiang Zemin. The day Jiang is brought to justice, the fate of the CCP will be self-evident.
Heavenly principles will not tolerate those who conduct inhumane persecution against a group of good people that follow “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance.” The evil actions of Jiang Zemin and the CCP will also become a perpetual and profound lesson for mankind.
NOTES:
[1] More information about this case can be found on: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/7/23/50560p.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/6/7/48981p.html
[2] More information about this case can be found on:
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/9/25/52796.html
[3] Related information is also available from: http://search.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/7/9/79007.html (in Chinese)
[4] Li Xiannian (1902 – 1992), former president of China (1983-1988) and president of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (1988-1992). He was the father-in-law of Jiang Zemin. Chen Yun (1905-1995), one of the most influential leaders of Communist China. Chen was a Politburo Standing Committee member for decades and was chairman of the Central Advisory Committee from 1987 to 1992.
[5] Qigong is a generic name in Chinese for energy exercises. There are many schools of qigong, most of which are rooted in traditional spiritual beliefs. Falun Gong is a form of qigong.
[6] In 1992, Deng Xiaoping came out of semi-retirement, toured Shenzhen in southern China near Hong Kong, and gave speeches to promote a socialist market economy in China. Deng’s tour is largely considered to have rekindled China’s economic reform after a lull beginning with the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.
[7] Discovered in 1973, Hemudu Cultural Ruins, 7,000 years old, is an important village ruin of the Chinese New Stone Age.
[8] Former chairman of the Chinese National People’s Congress.
[9] Deng once said, “Black cat or white cat, it’s a good cat as long as it catches mice,” meaning that the goal of the economic reforms was to bring prosperity to the people, regardless of the form being socialist or capitalist.
[10] A female intellectual who was tortured to death by the CCP in the Great Cultural Revolution for being outspoken in telling the truth.
[11] The Chinese state organ responsible for prosecution and legal supervision. Its functions include deciding on arrest and prosecution of major criminal cases, conducting investigations, initiating and supporting public prosecutions, interpreting the law in specific applications, supervising court decisions, monitoring judicial procedures, and supervision over activities of prisons, detention centers, and labor camps
