An Analysis of Jiang Zemin’s Role in the Persecution of Falun Gong
(AFDI) – Over the last four years, China watchers have proposed a variety of socio-political reasons for why the Chinese regime moved to crush Falun Gong – a benign exercise and meditation practice with ancient Chinese roots.
The answer, however, is perhaps more simple – and disturbing – than most have guessed. When the nation-wide persecution campaign against Falun Gong in China began in July 1999, many believed the campaign to be another mass movement orchestrated and backed by the Communist Party leadership as a whole.
Over the last four years, however, much information has been brought to light that demonstrates how then-Communist Party head, Jiang Zemin, not only formulated the policy of “eradicating” Falun Gong himself, but actually went against the decision of the entire Politburo Standing Committee – who were advocating for Falun Gong at the time – to enact the persecutory campaign against Falun Gong.
“For the past four years, the full capacity of the Chinese regime has been mobilized against Falun Gong,” says US Falun Dafa Information Centre spokesman, Dr. Shiyu Zhou. “But it was the will and direction of one man that set it in motion – Jiang Zemin.”
“Jiang was jealous of Falun Gong founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi, because of Falun Gong’s popularity among the people,” Dr. Zhou explains. “He was also jealous of Premier Zhu Rongji’s enlightened handling of the April 25th appeal. It all comes down to Jiang’s jealousy. It may sound petty at first, but looking at the persecution that has been brought down upon Falun Gong in China…clearly extreme jealousy in the heart of a man holding that much power in the Chinese Communist regime is very, very dangerous.”
“This is a man who individually made this decision … [Jiang Zemin] went against many other people in his own politburo who did not want to do this to Falun Gong, some of whom even practiced the Falun Gong or had relatives who practiced Falun Gong. So we need to hold him accountable.”
— Ambassador Mark Palmer, Former U.S. Ambassador
Posting date: 5/Aug/2003
Original article date: 5/Aug/2003
Category: Media Release
