(Minghui.org) June 1999 was a unique time for Falun Dafa practitioners. That month, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decided to treat Falun Dafa as its enemy and escalated individual acts of defamation for personal gain into a comprehensive, organized, and large-scale persecution. The same month also saw the launch of the Minghui website and Falun Dafa practitioners’ transition from countering the persecution as individuals to doing so as one body.
While many are familiar with the start of mass arrests on July 20, 1999, and treat that date as the beginning of the persecution, the CCP actually began organized attacks against Falun Dafa in the media and formed the 610 Office (an extralegal agency that directs the systematic suppression) the month before.
From its inception, the CCP has promoted class struggle and hatred. While destroying traditional Chinese culture and values, the Party launched one political campaign after another against those it sees as “enemies,” including landlords, capitalists, intellectuals, democracy advocates, and now Falun Dafa practitioners.
In each campaign, the CCP forces the targeted group to renounce their beliefs and material possessions. When the regime is not satisfied with the outcome, it resorts to “physically eliminating” the target.
“Elimination” is one of the CCP’s favorite words. When the regime decided to target Falun Dafa in June 1999, former Party leader Jiang Zemin established the 610 Office on June 10 of that year to ensure the persecution would be carried out systematically. Jiang specifically issued an order to “ruin [practitioners’] reputation, bankrupt them financially, and eliminate them physically.” The CCP honed this strategy for decades on other groups before turning it on Falun Dafa practitioners.
While the COVID pandemic made Wuhan a household name, fewer people know that the city also played a pivotal role in June 1999 in a nationwide defamation campaign against Falun Dafa.
That month, the director of the Wuhan Television Station and a reporter surnamed Song produced a video that slandered Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa. They were following orders from top CCP leaders that were sent through the Wuhan Police Department. After the video was completed, Jiang Zemin showed it to top Party leaders to silence any opposition to the persecution. The video was then played by China Central Television (CCTV) to turn Chinese people against Falun Dafa. A large number of media materials were produced based on this video and spread nationwide to advance the suppression.
Had the video not been produced in Wuhan at that time, the persecution may have been delayed or less severe.
Because the CCP controls the media and other avenues of information in China, it can quickly and easily manipulate public opinion to target any group or individual nationwide. For example, Liu Shaoqi succeeded Mao Zedong as chairman of China in 1959 and was publicly named Mao’s chosen successor in 1961. After the Cultural Revolution started in 1966, however, Mao began to target Liu. Within days, residents throughout China were informed–and convinced–that Liu was the worst person in the country and an enemy of the state.
A similar incident happened in June 1999 in the defamation of Falun Dafa. After Wuhan Television Station submitted the video attacking Falun Dafa to CCTV, the TV producers traveled to Changchun in Jilin Province (Mr. Li Hongzhi’s hometown) between June 22 and 25 to “collect evidence” against Falun Dafa and Mr. Li.
The two people who provided the most information to CCTV were Song Bingchen and Zhao Jiemin. Practitioners in Jilin Province questioned their motivation, as Song and Zhao had previously learned Falun Dafa but sought to profit from it by opening a healing clinic, which contradicted Falun Dafa teachings. After Mr. Li Hongzhi reprimanded them and told them to close the clinic, Song and Zhao grew resentful and waited for an opportunity to seek revenge. When the CCTV crew arrived, they tried all means to slander Mr. Li. Together with other propaganda tactics, the CCTV made up additional “evidence” and produced the notorious video that later turned the public against Falun Gong.
The CCP has now extended its propaganda operation overseas. Relying on its influence over Western media, the CCP has launched attacks against Falun Dafa through outlets like The New York Times. Many people have yet to see the CCP’s shadow behind these defamatory articles.
Manipulating U.S. media to turn Americans against other Americans comes straight out of the CCP’s playbook. After the Sino-Japanese War ended in 1945, the CCP launched a civil war against the ruling Kuomintang (Nationalist Party). While infiltrating intelligence departments and other government organs, the CCP also stirred up internal conflicts to paralyze the government. It mobilized students and workers to openly condemn the Kuomintang.
It is important for us to understand the CCP’s nature and tactics to stop the regime from continually exporting communist ideology to other countries. We have already seen the harm caused by the defamatory video that was spread throughout China by CCTV and other CCP-controlled media.
The hatred and brutality espoused by the CCP and the former Soviet regime are not new. They can be traced to Karl Marx and his Communist Manifesto.
Marx’s family was Jewish but converted to Christianity before he was born. After he entered university, Marx turned to Satanism and began to condemn traditional values and humanity. This shift is reflected in his writings.
“Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well. My soul, once true to God, Is chosen for Hell,” he wrote in the poem “The Pale Maiden” in 1837.
“Look now, my blood-dark sword shall stabUnerringly within thy soul…The hellish vapours rise and fill the brain,Till I go mad and my heart is utterly changed.See the sword—the Prince of Darkness sold it to me.For he beats the time and gives the signs.Ever more boldly I play the dance of death.”—“The Player” by Marx in 1841
In his poem “Invocation of One in Despair,” Marx wrote,
“Nothing but revenge is left to me...I shall build my throne high overhead,Cold, tremendous shall its summit be.For its bulwark—superstitious dread,For its Marshall—blackest agony.”
Through the countless tragedies that Communism has wrought over the past few decades, we now know that it is not the idealistic social system depicted by the CCP’s propaganda. Rather, it is an ideology that goes against traditional values and is filled with hatred, brutality, and lies. The sooner people see the CCP’s ideology for what it is and turn away from it, the brighter their future will be.