In Western societies, many people believe it was the Chinese government's decision to persecute Falun Gong, and that after Jiang was no longer in power, his influence would remain the same. Is this the reality? Some facts are listed below to provide a brief discussion of this issue:
1. Since its introduction to the public, Falun Gong has always won support and recognition from all levels of government
Before the persecution began, Falun Gong was already well known in China. From its introduction to the public in May, 1992 to the beginning of the persecution in July 1999, within these 7 years, because of its amazing effects in improving people's minds and bodies in a short period of time, the number of practitioners quickly increased to over 100 million. Especially in 1998 and 1999, one could see Falun Gong practitioners everywhere among the people who did morning exercises in all the major cities of China. Witnesses recall that during this time, one could see people practicing Falun Gong wherever there was green grass in Beijing. Because people needed to go to work, many did the exercises outdoors before dawn. In a strictly controlled society such as China, without support and recognition from all levels of government, it would have been impossible for such a large mass organization and social phenomenon to exist and last for 7 years.
Before the persecution in 1999, the scene of ten thousand practitioners practicing in Shenyang is magnificent.
At the time, not only were the masses learning Falun Gong, but also seven of the Central Political Bureau members all read Zhuan Falun. Many of their relatives and friends were also practicing Falun Gong. Out of their own personal interest (instead of following orders), many high-ranking officials in the Communist Party, government and military either attended Mr. Li Hongzhi's lectures, or became Falun Gong practitioners through other means and benefited greatly from their practice. (Due to limitations of space, more details and examples are omitted.)
2. The government still supported Falun Gong even when someone was manipulating power
There were some non-harmonious voices even when the government on all levels was generally supporting Falun Gong . At the beginning of 1997, Luo Gan [1] used his power to order the police in Mainland China to conduct a secret investigation of Falun Gong across the country, with the intention to ban the practice. However, the investigation reports from the police were: "No problems found" or "No problems yet found." In July 1998, through the Chinese Ministry of Public Security Bureau #1 (a.k.a. Political Security Bureau), Luo Gan issued Public Authority [1998] # 555 "Notification about conducting investigation of Falun Gong." This document first named Falun Gong as a "cult," then asked the police departments across the country to systematically plant agents to investigate and collect evidence. Later, the investigation from the secret agents concluded that no evidence of crimes could be found related to Falun Gong.
Facing the illegal investigation and the hostility from Luo Gan, at the end of 1998, 135 well-known figures among the Falun Gong practitioners in society stood up and jointly submitted a letter to the then Chairman Jiang and Premier Zhu Rongji. The chief editor of the letter was a famous law professor at Beijing University. The letter stated that the above-mentioned "notification" from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security Bureau #1 violated the Chinese Constitution and was against the Law.
Premier Zhu Rongji quickly responded to the letter. The response basically said that the Public Security Bureau should not harass Falun Gong practitioners, but should concentrate on social security issues, and that Falun Gong had helped to save large amounts of medical costs for the country. This incident provides typical evidence that even when someone was manipulating power to frame Falun Gong, the support for Falun Gong from the government was untarnished.
However, this response from Premier Zhu was secretly withheld by Luo Gan, and was not forwarded to Falun Gong practitioners. It was not until April 25, 1999, when Falun Gong practitioners appealed to the State Council Appeals Bureau and saw Premier Zhu, that Premier Zhu learned his response had been withheld by someone. It was also not until that time that Falun Gong practitioners first learned there had been such a positive response from Premier Zhu.
3. Was the April 25 Peaceful Appeal or Jiang's Jealousy the Direct Cause of the Persecution?
The appeal of 10,000 Falun Gong practitioner to the State Council shocked the media inside and outside of China. After the persecution began in July of the same year, many people thought the appeal on April 25 was the direct cause. In fact, this is a misunderstanding, partly due to the defamation campaign from Jiang's followers, and partly due to people's general understanding that the Chinese government had always been strict and severe in matters of ideology administration. In fact, on April 25, the appeal from over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners was resolved successfully by the State Council leader. The openness and decisiveness demonstrated by the government official won praise everywhere.
In Mainland China, appeal bureaus are set up by the government to listen to the people. All levels of the Party and administrative departments have appeal offices. For example, the appeal bureau for the State Council is located on Fuyou Street, which is right next to the Zhongnanhai Government compound. On April 25, 1999, upon hearing the news that the police in Tianjin had arrested and beaten practitioners, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners came to the appeal bureau for the State Council from different areas, hoping to directly appeal to the officials in the central government.
On April 25, then Premier Zhu Rongji came out of the Zhongnanhai government compound and talked to the Falun Gong practitioners. He asked: "Why have you come here, didn't I already issue comments on your practice?" Practitioners answered: "What comments? We never heard of them. í Policemen in Tianjin illegally beat practitioners and arrested over 30 Falun Gong practitioners. We were told this could not be resolved locally, and that we should appeal to the central government."
After listening to the report of the situation, Premier Zhu issued the order to release the arrested practitioners that same day. After confirming that the practitioners would be released, the over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners who came to appeal quietly dispersed. The three requests the Falun Gong practitioners made at the time were: 1) immediately release the arrested Falun Gong practitioners, 2) Falun Gong should have the legal right to practice, 3) Allow legal publication of Falun Gong books. Premier Zhu asked Falun Gong practitioners to continue discussing with officials at the State Council Appeal Bureau and police security bureau, etc. regarding the latter two requests. Hence after the practitioners left on April 25, on the 26th and 27th, as a representative for the Falun Gong practitioners, Mr. Li Chang, a member of the former Chinese Falun Gong Research Society[2] went back to the appeal bureau to continue friendly discussions with relevant officials.
However, faced with the obvious facts of Premier Zhu Rongji's enlightened handling of the Tianjin Incident, Falun Gong practitioners' large-scale appeal on April 25, and the practitioners' sincere support of Falun Gong, a wicked person's strong jealousy finally came to the surface.
4. According to His Personal Will, Jiang Repudiated Premier Zhu's Decision and Forcibly Pursued the Persecution
On the evening of April 25, Jiang suddenly wrote a letter to the Political Bureau and sent a copy to every committee member of Political Bureau, calling for emergency meetings several times over this incident. During the meeting, Jiang openly and strongly cursed Zhu Rongji, "Muddle-headed! Muddle-headed!" He brazenly repudiated the Premier's progressive decision that was in the process of being implemented and forced the government to accept his personal decision, which was irrational and violated China's Constitution.
In the face of Jiang's intimidation, all high-ranking officials of the Chinese government were afraid and became silent.
Seeing this, Jiang and Luo Gan went even further and soon established the "610 Office." They started to make use of all meetings and public occasions to force everyone to express their attitudes and pledge their allegiance. Therefore, from this perspective, during the process in which Jiang was forcibly carrying out his personal will, the Chinese government was manipulated and intimidated by the evil because of personal fear, and later, it too also became a victim of this persecution.
From the great amount of testimonies and material evidence that Falun Gong practitioners have published on Minghui to expose the persecution, we can see that when some local policemen treated Falun Gong practitioners badly, practitioners usually questioned them peacefully and seriously according to law and principles, but the excuses that those policemen often gave right away were usually the same: "You can go to (reason with) Jiang Zemin. It is Jiang that asks (us) to do this."
Someone may ask why the persecution was not launched between April 25 and July 20? This is a question that is worth looking back and discussing, but because of space limitations of this article, we cannot deal with it in detail here. In brief, during this process, it was a battle between the righteous and evil; it was full of confusion, and the thugs following Jiang were attempting to find incriminating details that they could use to justify the persecution and silence people's vocal objections. Of course, the reality was that the persecution was groundless, but it was still forcibly carried out.
On July 20, 1999, Jiang ordered the Central Civil Affairs Department, which is responsible for the registration of groups and organizations, to issue a notice banning Falun Gong, a non-governmental group that had voluntarily withdrawn its registration in 1996.
However, there is still another important fact: according to China's constitution and International Human Rights Convention, even if a spiritual group is not registered, their beliefs are still legitimate and legal because the freedom of belief is a fundamental human right. In the past four years, Jiang has made use of the terrorist "610 office" to carry out the policy of' "defaming their reputations, bankrupting them financially, destroying them physically" against Falun Gong practitioners. They willfully arrest, beat, detain, punish, dismiss, forcibly "brainwash" practitioners, and use the propaganda machinery of the entire country to carry out the lying and hatred-inciting propaganda and force everyone to oppose Falun Gong. This article will skip the volumes of facts of the persecution because of space limitations.
Police beating a Falun Gong practitioner on Tiananmen Square
In summary, this persecution of Falun Gong, was totally initiated by Jiang himself, who coerced all government officials to follow. The initiation and carrying-out of the persecution violated China's Constitution and were completely founded on Jiang's personal decision and lying propaganda.
5. The ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in mainland China is mainly due to its momentum and Jiang's personal fear
Since Jiang officially left office in March, 2003, no one in the newly appointed central leadership has been willing to take responsibility for the huge crimes that have emanated from the persecution of Falun Gong. As the social problem is so huge and the number of people affected and involved in this persecution have been so large, there hasn't been anyone who has the nerve to stand up to publicly stop the persecution and resolve the grave conflicts that have been harming China's social stability and severely damaging China's economic development. [3] Therefore, the persecution continues because no one can check it.
Indeed, Jiang's personal fear is also one of the factors for the continuation of the persecution. Jiang knows very well, just as the general public does, that he himself has to take all the responsibility for the crimes perpetrated in this persecution. If the persecution campaign is negated, he personally has to face being brought to justice and punished severely. Especially since March 2003, no one but Jiang and Luo Gan have continued to brazenly push forward the campaign. However, it has been widely circulated among the people that Luo Gan has died of SARS recently.
Although Jiang is still brazenly chairing the Central Military Commission, there is no doubt that he is an old and weak loner who has behaved frivolously and selfishly all along. He has never had any military exploits, but manipulate and control the handful of vile persons with money and rank in the military forces. It won't come as a surprise when this vile clown is exposed and punished someday.
Conclusion
In this persecution that Jiang single-handedly started and sustained to his utmost, those who have suffered from direct persecution and mental anguish are not limited to the more than 100 million Falun Gong practitioners and their families. The people all over China and around the world have been wronged in being deceived by the lies that were used to further the suppression. In the near future, the facts will be completely made known, and people and governments everywhere, in the course of discovering the truth, will understand the huge losses caused to them morally, spiritually, and economically by this persecution. At that time, those who understood the truth earlier and had the courage to stand up for justice will feel incomparably fortunate.
Note 1: Luo Gang became the head of the "610 Office" shortly after April 25, 1999. The 610 Office is officially known as the "Leadership Committee Office to Deal with the Falun Gong Problem". The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee 610 Office was established on June 10, 1999, thereby gaining its name. This was the executive body for carrying out policies from the central Leadership Committee Office to Deal with the Falun Gong Problem, and established by the Chinese Communist Party Political and Legal Committee. Luo Gang is directly in charge of this office and is responsible for carrying out the policy of "defaming their reputations, bankrupting them financially, destroying them physically"
Note 2: The name "China Falun Gong Research Society" was used by Falun Gong to register with the Chinese Qigong Society. In 1996, because Falun Gong was unwilling to become wrapped up in the wave of Qigong being used to garner profits and get rich, the Falun Gong Research Society voluntarily withdrew, and the entity "Falun Dafa Research Society" was no longer active.
Later, on July 20, 1999, the Central Civil Affairs Department declared its decision to rescind the Falun Gong Society's registration, but in fact it was rescinding a non-existent registration. The so-called "evidence" it used was a set of slanderous documents concocted by a group of a few individuals in 1994. Regarding these slanderous documents, the China Falun Gong Society had submitted three detailed reports to the China Qigong Scientific Research Society (and referred to relevant ministries) on February 9, 1995. One of the reports specifically addressed each of the charges made by the eight people in Changchun, completely clearing up these false charges. At the time, leaders in the ministries said to us: "So it turns out that Falun Gong is so good, why didn't you contact us earlier? We hope to have more communication in the future."
Note 3: References Clearwisdom article "WOIPFLG: Jiang Zemin's Regime Draws Upon Massive National Financial Resources In Its Persecution of Falun Gong" at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/3/26/33799.html published on March 23, 2003.
