By Mei Jie, Minghui Staff Reporter
During I. Falun Gong teaches people to cultivate According to the latest During the According to a Clearwisdom.net report in November The Chinese government keeps whitewashing II. International Community Blind Spot: Ordinary We maintain that In the following Eliminate The traditional virtues espoused by Chinese Jiang's hate propaganda Taking A report published in the Washington Post on As Jiang Zemin and Through these methods, the propaganda and the brainwashing Encouraging the Corrupt and Suppressing the Good People's evil According to an investigation by the “Transformation Government officials who actively persecuted According In order to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from going to Beijing Some Falun Gong practitioners renounced their belief in Falun The essential outcome of the persecution is to turn good Implanting Hatred After Derived from this jealousy, The Jiang regime doesn't leave anyone alone At the same time, hatred against Falun Gong is To fool Under such Alienating Falun Gong In addition to instigating hatred In dealing with Falun Gong, Jiang's III. The Harm this While It is well known that virtues such as good When the general public, even the media outlets that are supposed Just as some insightful people have mentioned, (1)
the 60th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the
issue of human rights in China again came into focus. According to overseas analysts,
the issue of Falun Gong is pivotal to China's human rights. If the human
rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners are not addressed, none of
China's other human rights issues can be fundamentally improved, as the persecution
of Falun Gong is not only targeted at practitioners, but the human rights of 1.3
billion Chinese from all walks of life are all severely violated.
The Choice Between Life and Belief
“Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.” Countless Chinese people have improved their
physical health and moral standards by using these principles to guide their daily
lives. But driven by his jealousy, Jiang Zemin launched his brutal persecution
of millions of Falun Gong practitioners in 1999.
news found on the Clearwisdom.net website, by April 11, 2004, 939 Falun Gong practitioners
are verified to have been tortured to death. Eighty-nine new death cases were
reported since the beginning of this year. Among these 89 death cases, 27 took
place during the three months from January 1 to April 10, 2004.
last nearly five years, Falun Gong practitioners have been severely harmed. The
genocidal policy that aims to “defame the practitioners' reputation, bankrupt
them financially and destroy them physically,” and the directive that “killing
practitioners will be reported as suicide” force the practitioners to choose between
their lives and their belief in “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.” According
to a Clearwisdom.net report in April, the police officer Gao Yongjin from the
Hehuakeng Labor Camp, Hebei Province said every time that he gave a brainwashing
class that he was well known in the province to be able to transform everything
except the “ash box.” What does this mean? This means he would torture the practitioners
until they would renounce their belief, unless the practitioners were dead, cremated
and placed in an “ash box.”
2003, some workplaces in Jilin Province received secret documents from their supervisors,
outlining an overall policy to punish all Falun Gong practitioners at their workplaces.
For example, practitioners who are also Party members would be expelled from the
Party, teachers would be deprived of their right to teach, and factory workers
would have their contracts terminated. Workers would no longer be considered for
promotions and students would not be permitted to study for a post-graduate or
doctoral degree. By the end of 2003, the transformation rate should reach 50%
to 70%, and by 2005, 95%. If these goals could not be achieved, the practitioners
should be sent to brainwashing classes.
the severity of the persecution, and denying their use of torture; they even lie
to the international community, claiming that their policies towards Falun Gong
are humanitarian. In reality more and more torture cases are coming to light in
China, and especially with respect to Falun Gong, all means are unscrupulously
employed. At least a hundred different types of horrifying torture methods are
used against the Falun Gong practitioners, who include a high percentage of women
and senior citizens. To coerce people to change their minds and abandon their
beliefs is inhumane, no matter what means are used because it tramples on people's
basic human rights.
Chinese People's Human Rights are also Harmed
the persecution of Falun Gong is fundamentally against humanity, not only because
the lies and violence employed are immoral, but also because, with his campaign
of persecution, Jiang Zemin seeks to destroy the moral foundation that people
depend upon. During his five-year campaign to eliminate Falun Gong, Jiang has
made use of the country's infrastructure, policies, media, judicial system
and national resources. He has also made use of innocent Chinese people. Although
the targets of the persecution are Falun Gong practitioners, 1.3 billion Chinese
people are also severely harmed. This has not yet attracted the attention of the
people being harmed or of the international community.
sections, through identifying the methods of persecution we will analyze the moral
and human rights injuries suffered by the ordinary Chinese people.
the True and Retain the False
society, such as “promises must be kept,” “be true to your word,” “treat people
with sincerity” etc. have all been challenged during the large-scale persecution
of Falun Gong. Many media and news organizations in China received instruction
from Jiang Zemin and “610 Offices” [a Gestapo-like agency created by Jiang
Zemin to oversee the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, with absolute authority
over all local and provincial governments] of all levels from the very beginning
of the persecution to report negatively about Falun Gong. According to evidence
provided by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun
Gong [WOIPFG], in July 1999 at the start of the persecution, the Chinese government
used the state-controlled media to spread propaganda. They fabricated stories
about practitioners being mentally ill, committing suicide, about the deaths of
1,400 people who allegedly wouldn't take medicine, etc., all of which closely
conformed with Jiang's instructions to the “610 Office” in his public speeches.
These lies have been perpetuated for the past five years. A typical fabrication
was the Tiananmen Square “Self-immolation Incident” staged at the beginning of
2001 by Jiang's followers and designed to demonize and incite hatred against
Falun Gong by people who did not know the truth.
not only deprives the Chinese people of their right to know and their right to
information, it also capitalizes on people's trust in the national media
to brainwash them and instigate hatred. Then they promote such hate propaganda
to the whole society through local government channels, through the Party and
Youth committees, education circles, culture circles, through the so-called “Anti-Cult
Association,” worker's unions and women's associations. Jiang's
regime further spreads it throughout the world by diplomatic means.
an example from the field of education, on February 6, 2001, based on direct orders
from Wang Maolin, head of the central “610 Office,” Zhou Qiang, the first secretary
of the Youth League Central Committee and Zhao Yong, head of the Youth League
Central Committee, nearly eight million young people in 100 cities throughout
China were directly exploited to participate in anti-Falun Gong propaganda activities.
Within one day, they posted more than 500,000 propaganda pictures, distributed
more than ten million flyers and held more than 200 gatherings. In the month of
February 2001, over 1500 youth groups in over 100 cities under the impetus of
the brainwashed young students who didn't know the truth about Falun Gong,
motivated over 12 million community residents to sign their names on the guarantee
that they “won't believe or spread and will resist” Falun Gong. Jiang's
regime made use of the impressionable youths to spread the anti-Falun Gong campaign
throughout society.
August 5, 2001 quoted a Chinese official as saying that whether the campaign would
be effective would depend on three elements: violence, propaganda and brainwashing.
He said that high-pressure propaganda was critical. When the Chinese society turns
against Falun Gong, the pressure on Falun Gong practitioners to give up their
belief would increase, and it would be much easier for the government to use violence
in forcing the practitioners to renounce their belief.
the “610 Office” perpetrators spread lies, they also jointly blocked circulation
of truthful information about Falun Gong. When the persecution first began, Jiang's
regime destroyed huge numbers of Falun Gong books and video and audio materials
so people could not directly learn about Falun Gong. They also hired large numbers
of Internet police to monitor the Internet, blocking overseas Falun Gong websites.
People were thrown into jail just for sending an email to their family or friends
that mentioned the truth about Falun Gong. He Lizhi, the husband of Canadian resident
Ms. Zhang Li is such an example. Falun Gong practitioner Liu Jie was beaten to
death for giving people postcards inscribed with the words Truthfulness- Compassion-Tolerance.
Falun Gong practitioners such as Liu Chengjun, who clarified the truth by tapping
into a local cable TV system, were tortured to death. Some were sentenced to lengthy
prison terms.
of the whole Chinese population have inflicted severe harm to the Chinese people.
side is being encouraged during this ongoing persecution. Political pressure and
financial interests have led many Chinese people to choose self-interest over
justice and morality to participate in the persecution. Most people in the Chinese
government judge the performance of local government officials by whether they
can effectively stop Falun Gong practitioners within their precincts from going
to Beijing to appeal. The head officials of a local government would be removed
from his post if a Falun Gong practitioner from a subordinate precinct appealed
in Beijing. Jiang's regime stops at nothing in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners
who appealed in Beijing. According to a report in Press Freedom Guardian,
the central government ordered Party agencies all over China to treat control
of Falun Gong activities as their top priority. The local officials' achievements
in this area is an important criterion in their work evaluation. When many Falun
Gong practitioners were going to Beijing to appeal, Beijing held provincial meetings
during which the three provinces with the most number of Falun Gong practitioners
appealing were named and reproached.
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong,, in early
September 2001, the “610 Office,” headed by Luo Gan, issued a secret order, “It
is permitted to secretly arrest and detain Falun Gong practitioners; those police
officers who spot Falun Gong practitioners but do not arrest them will be fired
and their household registration will be suspended.” The numerous secret orders
issued by people from the “610 Office” on persecuting Falun Gong directly has
resulted in a drastic increase of torture deaths of Falun Gong practitioners.
quotas” requiring a certain number or percentage of Falun Gong practitioners to
be “transformed” (forced to give up their belief) were issued to local work units
and labor camps. To fulfill these quotas under such high pressure, officials in
provincial, city and county police departments, labor camps and brainwashing classes
cruelly tortured Falun Gong practitioners physically and mentally and also tried
to destroy them financially.
Falun Gong practitioners were promoted, such as Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang and Wu
Guanzheng. Labor camp guards, police officers, and officials such as Su Jing,
head of the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp and Chen You, political head of the
Tiananmen Police Department in Beijing, were rewarded and praised as “heroes.”
Even prisoners who tortured Falun Gong practitioners received reduced sentences.
to investigative reports by the WOIPFG, in May 2002, Jiang and Luo issued
“internal orders” to entice police officers with monetary rewards to arrest Falun
Gong practitioners. According to a news source in Guangdong Province, all local
security agencies received this order. The document states that a security officer
can earn 3,000 Yuan (1) for arresting a person who is “still practicing Falun
Gong.” According to Clearwisdom.net, there is confirmation that up until April
10, 2004, twenty-six Falun Gong practitioners have died from torture in Guangdong
Province.
to appeal, some local authorities put photos of Falun Gong's founder on the
ground at the entrances of bus stations, railway stations and ferries. In some
areas, passengers were asked to slander Falun Gong and its founder. People who
refused to do so were arrested as Falun Gong practitioners. Jilin Province Railway
System train tickets are printed with slanderous anti-Falun Gong statements on
the back. Passengers are forced to read those sentences before they can get on
the train.
Gong against their will because they could not bear the tremendous social and
psychological pressure. After they gave up the practice (or were “transformed”
as it is called in labor camps), they were forced to write some statement to slander
the practice that had brought them health and lifted their moral standard, and
Teacher, whom they respected so much. Furthermore, they were required to slander
Falun Gong publicly on television and in newspapers and to cover up the brutal
persecution and torture taking place in labor camps. Labor camps even use those
who betrayed “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance” to brainwash other Falun Gong
practitioners. Many of those brainwashed people were able to awaken later and
come back to the practice. When they looked back at this special experience of
being transformed from a good person into a bad person, they described it as “making
you want to die.”
people bad and bad people worse.
the persecution began in July 1999, China's state-run media published article
after article slandering Falun Gong, and at the same time published numerous articles
to boost Jiang Zemin's “Three Representatives” theory. Whether such high
contrast propaganda can make people accord with the “Three Representatives” is
not clear, but Jiang's jealousy is obvious. Because of such jealousy, even
from the very beginning Jiang looked at differences in beliefs as contradictions
between the Party and the Party's enemies.
competitiveness and hatred are purposely spread and deepened in Chinese society.
After the deception of the staged “Self-immolation” came out, the state-controlled
criticism of Falun Gong turned into a nation-wide campaign to condemn Falun Gong.
Hate-propaganda has been spread to every corner of China through radio, newspaper
and television. In Chinese official reports, numerous anti-Falun Gong seminars
described the persecution of Falun Gong as a serious political battle that shouldn't
be taken lightly, and they even suggested that the government reinforce the persecution
of Falun Gong. The hatred flowing in people's veins became denser and denser
with each passing day.
— everyone must declare his/her position on Falun Gong. People who support or
sympathize with Falun Gong could lose their jobs, be deprived of education, or
even be imprisoned. According to investigative reports from the WOIPFG,
the 2003 Master's Program admission process of East China Normal University
stated clearly that prospective students must state their attitude and understanding
of some important political issues (such as “Falun Gong,” etc). According to a
Clearwisdom.net report, a female college student in Guizhou City who didn't
practice Falun Gong was abducted by police simply because she was considered “a
Falun Gong sympathizer.”
written into school textbooks and included in all levels of exams. For example,
in the Politics exam for the 2001 Master's Program admission (according to
media reports, more than a half million people enrolled in the 2001 Master's
Program admission exam), Questions 18 and 22 in the second section (multiple-choice
questions) are related to Falun Gong. Both questions and their answers slander
and accuse Falun Gong practitioners as being weird and dangerous.
the international community and prevent them from criticizing its persecution
of Falun Gong, Jiang's group again used the deceived public to get what they
wanted: this time it was “A Million Signatures.” According to investigative reports
of the WOIPFG, the “Million Signature” campaign started in Beijing on January
11, 2001, and was spread throughout the whole country. In mid March, the “China
Anti-cult Association” (CACA) brought 100 rolls of signed fabric to the United
Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva in 2001. The cloth weighed about a ton
and the host claimed that there were around 1.5 million signatures, about 0.1%
of the Chinese population. The WOIPFG report also pointed out that since
the Chinese government prohibits multi-provincial non-governmental organization
activities, this nation-wide “Million Signatures” campaign completely relied on
governmental organizations to carry it out. For example, the Tianjin Communist
Youth League Committee organized the campaign in Tianjin City; one of the signature
collecting sites in Jiangxi Province was located in the provincial government
compound, the Department of Education and local Commissions of Education jointly
organized the signature collection in colleges and universities.
hateful propaganda, few people can think rationally and calmly. A group of people
who practice “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance” cannot be understood and respected
by society, but instead become targets of hatred.
Practitioners Using Various Means
towards Falun Gong practitioners through propaganda, Jiang's regime also
uses various means to isolate practitioners from the rest of the citizens. These
means include implicating practitioners' family members, rewarding people
who report practitioners to the authorities, and monitoring the information flow
on the Internet. Even if practitioners are not sent to labor camps or brainwashing
classes, they are still under great pressure and close surveillance by family
members, street committees, workplace leaders and local police stations. In the
cities of Changchun and Dalian in Northeastern China, some street committees even
carry out a policy of having five people monitor a single practitioner. Just because
of their steadfastness toward their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance,
practitioners are isolated and alienated.
regime has resorted to its usual tactic, that is, to instigate a majority (95%)
of the public to attack a minority (5%) they do not like. Numerous people have
felt the threat of such state-run terrorism. Also, in order to be part of the
majority, many people betray their conscience and even turn in their own family
members or relatives to the authorities to show that they are loyal to the government.
Liu Jing, head of the central “610 Office” once made the following statement in
his public speech when he said something good about the forced labor education
system in China, “Wives are happy to send their husbands to labor camps to receive
re-education through labor.” Such a statement clearly exposes the warped nature
of this persecution that attacks human morality.
Persecution of Human Morality Has Caused to Society is Immeasurable
trying to brainwash a Falun Gong practitioner, an official in Guizhou Province
said, “We do not currently promote Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance in China.”
During the past several years of the persecution against Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin
and Luo Gan (head of the “610 Office”) once made it clear that “we don't
care about murder or arson, we only arrest Falun Gong [practitioners].” Under
such a policy, corruption in China is running rampant and social order is going
downhill at a feverish pace.
faith, sincerity, kindness, tolerance and understanding are a guarantee of social
stability and security. If we deny these virtues, what's left for a country
and a nation?
to adhere to the principle of good faith most strictly, do not mind telling lies,
every word they say is a lie. Out of their own self-interest, people hurt each
other, yet they are not ashamed of their behavior at all. They pay no respect
to the principles of not fighting back or not cursing back when being hit or cursed
at, and their minds are filled with hatred and strife. Who can anticipate what
kinds of potential peril those people will bring to society? When Jiang's
followers are persecuting Falun Gong, they are also destroying the most fundamental
thread of humanity and morality.
many people inside and outside of China have come to know about the existence
and brutality of the persecution. In an environment without pressure and threats,
they would have expressed their support for Falun Gong. However, when they were
warned that they could lose their job, have their reputation smeared, be labeled
as allied with anti-China forces, or lose opportunities to do business in China
if they did not take the same stand as the authorities, they would not dare to
say just words, and they would simply let the persecution of human rights and
freedom of belief continue without saying a word. Some people even help the evil-doers
do evil. Such damage to human morality and conscience is impossible to measure.
Yuan is the currency in China; 500 Yuan is equal to the average monthly income
of an urban worker.
Posting date: 4/May/2004
Original
article date: 12/April/2004
Category: Open
Forum
