Third Party Commentary: Why Jiang Persecutes Falun Gong
By Lu Mei
(Clearwisdom) As of July 20th of this year, the irrational
persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin's criminal gang has lasted for five
years. Many people have a lot of questions about the suddenness of its
initiation. One of the most commonly asked questions is, "Why did Jiang
suppress Falun Gong?" Most rational individuals would find it incredible that the Jiang group
persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. How could such a huge country, with a
population of 1.3 billion, millions of soldiers, and considerable international
influence, forbid the existence of a group of people who believe in
"Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" and have no interests
in worldly pursuits? Falun Gong practitioners themselves, as the direct victims, certainly wanted
to know the answers, too. In fact, from the time Falun Gong was first suppressed
in 1999, practitioners began to actively investigate and inquire into this
issue. The media, academic circles in various countries, and many human rights
organizations also collected massive amounts of information. Although the
Party's decision-making process is for the most part hidden and many details
remain unknown, a brief analysis of the facts that have been disclosed can
easily lead to the conclusion that Jiang's suppression of Falun Gong was not
initiated by the "4.25" event, [1] in which 10,000 Falun Gong
practitioners appealed in 1999. Jiang's suppression of Falun Gong originated out
of his paranoia, hatred, and jealousy. It was and remains a persecution of Falun
Gong practitioners' minds and bodies. The deeper reason for his paranoia and
hatred was the crisis of belief within the Party itself. Then, what kind of "belief" does Jiang have? Let's take a look at
his own words. "A Communist Party member should solidly establish a Marxist view. He
should not believe in any religion. In addition, he should voluntarily promote
atheism and help the populace to raise their consciousness. For those party
members who participate in religious activities, we shall patiently educate them
so that they gradually get rid of their religious fetters. For those party
members who use religion to make a profit for themselves or even support or plan
illegal activities, (we) must take serious disciplinary actions against them
according to the party disciplines and the state laws." - From Jiang Zemin's "Pay Serious Attention to National
and Religious Work" on November 7, 1993 in Collection of Important
Literature since the 14th National People's Congress, Volume I,
Page 517 "We must emphasize that a Communist Party member is an atheist,
regardless of his family background or nationality. He must persist in
materialism and atheism. He should not believe in any religions." -From Jiang Zemin's speech "On National and Religious Issues" on
July 20, 1994 in Collection of Literature on Religion Work in the New Stage,
Volume 1, page 287 At face value, these quotes don't seem to contain any fresh ideas. They are
simply Party clich¨¦s. Considering their timing, however, it is not hard to
sense crisis of belief within the Party and the anxiety of the rulers. The
"6.4" event in 1989 [2] toppled the Party's moral legitimacy. Anyone,
party member or not, who still had some remaining conscience and basic
analytical ability, realized the cruel nature of the Party. After that night,
many people realized that the Marxism-Leninism and atheism that they had
believed in for so many years were not universally applicable truths. The Party
leaders have never denied that "the gun and the pen" (i.e., armed
violence and deceitful propaganda) have been the Party's two mainstays since its
founding in 1921. After June 4th, 1989, however, the ink in the
Party's pen started to dry up, and many refused to write more lies. Jiang, who lacked wisdom but was skilled in playing politics, had exhausted
his creativity. Surrounded by a group of villains who were equally inept, what
could they possibly put out? The following speech by Jiang exposed his
"wisdom" to us: "Marxism believes that all religions are just
the fantastic imaginings of human brains to explain those external forces that
control people's daily lives. For these people, the earth's natural forces take
on a supernatural form. At first, the natural forces were reflected in various
forms. Later, different nationalities variously personified these forces. In
other words, because of human beings' limited knowledge, people at first were
unable to understand many natural phenomena such as the movement of the
celestial bodies and what caused wind and rain and natural disasters. They
couldn't control their own destiny either. So they imagined some god who
controlled their destiny. After religion emerged, on the one hand it became the
spiritual sustenance of those ordinary people who led miserable lives. On the
other hand, it was utilized by the rulers of the past. Marxism also believes
that, as productive forces develop and as people understand more of the natural
laws and are able to control their own destinies, religions will die out and
eventually vanish." - From Jiang Zemin's "Speech during Inspection in Xinjiang"
on July 9, 1998 in Statements on Materialism And Atheism by Marx, Engels,
Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, published by the
Central Literature Publishing House in 1999, page 100 The above statement by Jiang accurately and unmistakably expressed the
Party's official definition of spiritual belief. According to this point of
view, the general populace believes in God because of ignorance and a miserable
destiny. On the other hand, knowledgeable or wealthy people believe in God
because of their ulterior motive to use religious belief to deceive others and
to consolidate their own status. To put it simply, a person who believes in God
is either a fool or a swindler. Such an absurd conclusion does not withstand even the simplest logical
inference. Even Jiang himself does not believe it. How then should we categorize
scientists and intellectuals such as Einstein, Newton and Li Shutong, an eminent
monk in modern Chinese history? Jiang himself frequently goes to temples to burn
incense and copies the Sutra of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha's Fundamental Vows
at home. Why does he do so? If we look at the above statement in another way and replace
"religion" with "communist party cult," then it sounds more
appropriate. To put it simply, a person who believes in communism is either a
swindler with ulterior motives or someone who just mimics others without
thinking independently. Regarding the future of religious belief, Jiang asserted, "As the
productive forces develop...religions will die out and eventually vanish."
In other words, the ultimate goal of the economic development promoted by Jiang
is to unite the Party with atheism and to eliminate any other religious beliefs. Then why did Jiang choose Falun Gong as his number one enemy to attack? Let's
use his own words to explain. On April 25, 1999, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji met with representatives of
Falun Gong practitioners in Zhongnanhai and had an equal and friendly dialogue.
He made a positive effort to remove the misunderstanding of Falun Gong in the
government. That same night, however, Jiang wrote a letter to the high-level
leaders in the Party and made a completely opposite decision. He wrote, "Could it be possible that the Marxist theory of our communism, the
materialism and the atheism that we believe in, cannot defeat what Falun Gong
promotes? If so, wouldn't it be a big joke!" - From "Letter of Comrade Jiang Zemin to the Members of the Standing
Committee of the Political Bureau and Other Related Leaders") In this letter, Jiang explicitly proposed that "the Communist
Party" and "atheism" must "defeat Falun Gong." It was a
forewarning of the bloody suppression of Falun Gong that would begin three
months later. Documents have indicated that Jiang's intention to suppress Falun
Gong can be traced back to 1996. When he discovered to his dismay that Zhuan
Falun had become one of the top ten bestsellers and that the number of
people practicing Falun Gong was increasing rapidly, he had already decided to
eradicate Falun Gong. He just hadn't found the right excuse yet. On April 25, 1999, when 10,000 practitioners went to the Central Government
to appeal for Falun Gong, Jiang finally had his long-waited excuse. In the
Political Bureau Standing Committee meeting, Jiang resisted all opposition and
resolutely advocated the public suppression of Falun Gong. He took advantage of
the cowardly and selfish mentalities of the other party leaders and rammed
through the decision to suppress Falun Gong. On June 10 he specifically
established the "610 Offices" to persecute Falun Gong. Many people thought that the massive appeal on April 25 was the reason for
the persecution. Actually they did not see the whole picture. Let me give an
example. Say a couple has a tense relationship. In a quarrel, the wife scolds
her husband, so the husband slaps her face. The wife gets mad and calls the
police to arrest her husband and they eventually divorce. Why do you think the
marriage broke up? Was it the wife's abusive language, the husband's slap or the
wife's phone call to the police? According to the logic of Jiang's letter, the suppression of Falun Gong
stemmed from the ideology: atheism criticized theism and materialism criticized
idealism, and Falun Gong, he claimed, was a feudal superstition. In 2000, Jiang Zemin discovered that using atheism as an excuse to suppress
Falun Gong did not enable him to obtain either a consensus from the Party or
widespread support from the public. So he started to seek out new excuses. In a
conference, he offered a very strange theory to prove that suppressing Falun
Gong would help to stabilize society: (ref: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2000/12/13/4085.html) "From the lessons that the Central Government has learned from the
downfall of the Soviet Union, we have decided to criticize various anti-Marxist
thoughts, beliefs and theories; to recapture and strengthen the frontline of the
proletariat ideology; and to disinfect the ideological domain. Falun Gong
advertises 'Zhen, Shan, Ren (Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance).' This gives
us an opportunity to start 'disinfecting.'" "By comparison, other Qigong organizations may not be so easy to settle.
It perhaps would cause violent unrest, even assassination, poisonous gas,
explosion and such kinds of terrorist activities, which will bring us tremendous
difficulty and will undermine the stability of the society. Thus, it will not
achieve the effect of the punishment. But Falun Gong stresses 'Zhen, Shan, Ren
(Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance).' We can go all out to attack it. In the
future, we can effectively use the experience against Falun Gong on other Qigong
organizations." - From Jiang Zemin's "Main Points in a Speech in an
Important Conference" (2000) Three messages were disclosed in this section of Jiang's speech. First, the
Party was clearly aware of its crisis of belief and decided to attack those who
no longer believed in it. Secondly, the so-called "disinfection" is
actually a total ban achieved with naked force and violence. It is surprising
that Jiang spoke of this so frankly and without reservation. Think about it: if
he had only been talking about critiques or ideological discussions or logically
convincing people, how could it possibly "cause violent unrest, even
assassination, poisonous gas, explosion and such kinds of terrorist
activities?" Thirdly, Jiang clearly knew of Falun Gong's
principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance." He knew that
Falun Gong practitioners were a group of peaceful citizens who would not
"hit back when attacked or talk back when insulted." So he decided
that "We could go all out to attack it" without worrying about
the Falun Gong practitioners resorting to violence, no matter how they were
treated. Actually, if Jiang really wanted people to choose the "truth" that
the Party publicizes, instead of conspiring against all kinds of qigong, here is
a simple way. Allow the non-party public to freely practice any type of qigong,
as long as they don't violate the law. At the same time, vigorously organize
Marxist-and-Leninist study groups among Party members. Create some kind of
gymnastics based upon the habits of Marx, Lenin and the Chinese Party leaders so
that the Party members can exercise together. According to the theory of the
Party, the public is intelligent. When the people fully understand the mental
and physical harm qigong is responsible for, when they see that all the party
members in the Marxism-and-Leninism study groups are healthy and kind-hearted,
then would Jiang still need to use violence to suppress qigong? It would be hard
to stop people from joining in the Marxist-and-Leninist study groups.
Marxism-and-Leninism might even spread all over the world. This is such a good idea. Even if Jiang couldn't figure it out, what about
his senior advisors Zeng Qinghong or He Zuoxiu? How come they couldn't figure
out such a clever strategy? Wasn't He Zuoxiu a so-called "scholar"?
Because everybody knew that it wouldn't work like this. Why? In the Party's
words, feudal superstition is so deceitful that not only would the public get
lost in it, but also the Party members in the Marxist- Leninist study groups
would be confused by those "heretical beliefs." Then, who would listen
to the Central Party Committee? Without its authority, the Party's survival
becomes a problem. Without the Party, there would be no new China. If the Party
were to fall, wouldn't China revert back to the extremely evil, old society?
Wouldn't billions of people have to suffer again? What marvelous logic! The
first half about the "deceitful" nature of feudal superstition is well
recognized in China. The second half is a theory that was fabricated by the
communists, who hoped that everyone would accept it. In other words, the Party knew from top to bottom that it had no truth with
which to attract anyone at all. It seized its power with guns. Any folk beliefs,
even strange ones, as long as they were not what the Party advocated, were more
attractive than Marxism or Leninism. The only advantage of studying Marxism or
Leninism was to learn deceitful tricks, to join the Communist Party, and to get
rich. One of the many charges used by Jiang's group to defame Falun Gong was that
Falun Gong "competed" for people's hearts. This "indictment"
was a frank one and reflected certain facts. Otherwise it would be unnecessary
for the People's Daily to publish the news that "Communist Party
members are forbidden to practice Falun Dafa" on its front page. I wish the
Party's propaganda department would further explain how Falun Gong
"competed" for people's hearts. This wording gradually disappeared and
was later replaced by totally fabricated news such as self-immolation, suicide,
murder and poisoning. It is fairly easy to figure out that Jiang suppressed Falun Gong because he
was so jealous of Falun Gong's popularity. At the same time that the number of
cultivators grew so rapidly, he became less and less popular. He lost his senses
due to jealousy, and this was the most foolish thing he has ever done. There is an old saying, "The one who wins the hearts of the people wins
the world." Jiang couldn't possibly be unaware of this saying, but he does
not understand that people's hearts can only be won and not seized. And what is Falun Gong's perspective on this persecution? As Mr. Li Hongzhi,
the founder of Falun Gong, said, "Never in history has someone who
persecuted those with upright faiths ever succeeded." ("Coercion
Cannot Change People's Hearts") The end result is set. It's only a matter
of time before the persecution ends. [1] "4.25" event: On April 25, 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong
practitioners went to Beijing Appeal Office to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong
and request the release of Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested. Premier
Zhu Rongji had a friendly dialog with the representatives of Falun Gong
practitioners and agreed to resolve the issue. The practitioners then peacefully
left. [2] "6.4" event: also called "Tian'an'men Massacre on
June 4th". On June 4th, 1989, the Chinese Communist
Party ordered the People's Liberation Army into Beijing to violently suppress
the citizens who had been protesting peacefully for months for a less corrupt
and more democratic system. [3] "610 offices": an agency specifically created to persecute
Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party
and all other political and judiciary systems. July 23, 2004
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/7/25/80146.html
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