Since July 20th of last year, Falun Gong, a spiritual movement upholding the principle of Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance), and its practitioners in Mainland China, has been subjected to a brutal crackdown unprecedented in its magnitude and terror. According to the world media and human rights organizations, over 53 Falun Gong practitioners have since died as a result of severe maltreatment; over 500 sentenced up to18 years; approximately 600 sent to mental hospitals and forcefully treated with electrical shock or injections of medications known to be damaging to the central nervous and psychological systems. Over 10,000 have been sent to labor camps without any legal proceedings; an estimated 50,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested or detained. Millions of Falun Gong books, videotapes and audiotapes were confiscated, shredded, and burned. Even more strikingly, law-enforcement personnel physically brutalized countless practitioners, and adversely affected the lives of hundreds of millions of their friends and relatives.

One cannot help but ask: What was it that started this tragedy?

Looking back, we can see the following events that took place. First there was the peaceful communication and resolution between Premier Zhu Rongji and the practitioners, who made a mass appeal at Zhongnanhai (leadership compound,) on April 25th, 1999.á This mass appeal to the leadership followed the detention and beating of Falun Gong practitioners by police, in the city of Tianjin. Later, on June 14th, officials at the State Council Appealing Bureau met with some Falun Gong practitioners, and took the opportunity to issue a statement, which reiterated that the government had never banned Falun Gong activities, and that all Chinese citizens enjoy the right to practice whatever meditation exercises they choose. The statement also cautioned Falun Gong practitioners against being victims of rumors, since, as it clarified, the government had no plan to expel Falun Gong practitioners from the party, the Youth League, or public offices.

Then, why, only three months later, did the Chinese government perform an about-face and break its own promise, by starting an all-out campaign against Falun Gong that has since led to ever-escalating persecution?

The root cause was Jiang's jealousy and narrow-mindedness. He was somehow deluded into believing that his monopoly on power had been challenged.á Extremely exasperated, and under the sensational cloak that his action was necessitated by the danger of losing control over the party and the country, he issued a directive soaked with animosity, "I don't believe the XX party cannot fix Falun Gong!"áá At these words, the full-out, open suppression of Falun Gong was underway. A minority of individuals, who shared their interests with Jiang, orchestrated it. During those three months, these people took pains to produce a variety of theories to justify the crackdown: there was the so-called "1400 death cases," the "explosion of the earth," and the "changing of the birthday," etc.

Under Jiang's directive, the suppressors manipulated the state machinery, to endlessly create propaganda and wild fabrications in the vacuum of truth and reason. They made up accusations without any evidence, blatantly tampered with facts to validate their groundless charges, extorted and deceived people, recruited and purchased the services of the dregs of humanity, and solicited the opinions of "hypocritical experts". They took the meanest measures to launch a vicious campaign of slander against the founder of Falun Gong; a teacher who had brought enormous benefits to the physical and mental well being of hundreds of millions of people worldwide, that was styled after the "Cultural-Revolution." Their evil efforts went around the world, and their motto and objective were "a lie becomes the truth after being repeated one thousand times."

Also, under Jiang's directive, the entire state machinery, ranging from the army to the police and special agents, was mobilized nationwide against Falun Gong members. They were put under surveillance, wiretapped, detained, tortured, illegally interrogated, and sentencedforced to give up their belief in Falun Gong. From innocent toddlers to senior citizens, from pregnant women and the babies still in their wombs to breast-feeding mothers, from future college students to hard-working senior experts, from loyal young soldiers to legendary retired generals, from a young man, highly educated overseas, who once made a significant financial donation to the development of China's undeveloped frontiers, to an old farmer voluntarily and quietly paving the roads for his neighbors, from law-abiding citizens to honest party officials, none could stay unscathed as long as they persisted in practicing Falun Gong.

Again, under Jiang's directive, without giving any reason, Chinese diplomats were forced to demand the retraction of recognition conferred upon Falun Gong and its founder, an act tantamount to the intervention in other countries' affairs.á Even outside China, they monitored, wiretapped, and stalked overseas Falun Gong practitioners, damaging their personal property and threatening their personal safety.á They circulated various fabrications within the overseas Chinese community, played Falun Gong members against each other and stirred up trouble in order to blame Falun Gong.

However, as a popular saying goes, "However loud and misleading are the slogans of the liar, they can never become the truth."á Even the deadliest absolute power is too weak to cover up the truth. In the past year, practitioners in China and abroad have truly taken Zhen-Shan-Ren to their heart, and have come face to face with blood and a bleak life. They rose up against abuse and violence, and braved public scorn and contempt. In China, they petitioned to reflect the truth, continually appealed to the government for a peaceful resolution, and set aside their lives to expose the plight of fellow practitioners to the international media. Outside China, practitioners tirelessly told the truth to international organizations, national governments, media and all kind-hearted people, calling on them to provide humanitarian assistance. The people of the world have come to know the true story about Falun Gong; in the meantime, the shameful and evil conduct of Jiang Zemin has been exposed to broad daylight.á The misled people have started thinking about it all over again and getting closer and closer to the truth. Support for and sympathy with Falun Gong are coming from increasingly diverse segments of the society, and more and more kind-hearted people in the international community are condemning the crackdown.

Jiang himself knew the suppression was anything but justified.á It has pulled both him and his subordinates into a quagmire. Although his vicious hatchet men have tried their best, the noble spirit and unbendable will of the practitioners are unshakable. Just as pointed by Mr. Li Hongzhi, "The understanding of the truth of the cosmos by students of Dafa cultivation is their elevation through reason and application. It is futile for man, regardless of what perspective he takes, to negate the Fa and principles of the universe that are beyond all theories of human society."á Still, Jiang found it hard to come to terms with the truth. Unmoved by the candor of practitioners' words and defiant of the condemnations from the international community, he soldiered on recklessly and opportunistically, putting the destiny of the whole nation at stake. In fact, on every international trip, Jiang, as a national leader, did not care to fill the position of the evil campaign's top pitchman. Tucked in his pockets were booklets containing utter lies against Falun Gong. Painstakingly, he went about misinforming and spreading propaganda in a desperate effort to justify the suppression and his vicious campaign.

Fully aware that the international community and overseas Falun Gong practitioners would demand that he stop the senseless crackdown, Jiang had the affront to tell his well-practiced lies during the CBS interview; which was held in anticipation of his participation in the recent world summit meeting in New York. He shamelessly made up the story that the founder of Falun Gong had proclaimed himself to be the "reincarnation of Buddha and Jesus Christ," with the carefully calculated goal of alienating religious people and western society from Falun Gong.á For anybody who has read through the books or watched the videotaped lectures given by Falun Gong's founder, nowhere can one find any mention of his so-called "reincarnation".á Ironically, it was Mr. Li Hongzhi who made it clear in his statement issued on July 22, 1999, that "Never have I said I am Sakyamuni (Buddha)."á At his lecture on October 17, 1998, Master Li also explicitly stated, "I am not Jesus."á All these are on record and can be easily verified. Where could the CBS remark come from if Jiang were not a master of telling lies with a straight face?á

If a national leader of a large country was willing to challenge the high odds against him and openly tell lies to the people of the world, what his willing hatchet men would say, takes no imagination to predict. Isn't this the misfortune of the Chinese people?á Shouldn't the natural disasters and accidents occurring in China, at a much higher-than-normal frequency, since the persecution started be something worth mulling over now?

Actually, it is getting even easier to figure out how the so-called charges of "1400 deaths," "earth explosion" and "changing birthday" came about.

In the face of the hard evidence of the past year, it is self-evident who is righteous and who is not. At a time when the truth is suppressed by high-handedness, when Zhen-Shan-Ren is blasphemed by the false whirlwind of evil, when social morality is trampled on without mercy, when the human beings' belief in gods and Buddhas is attacked cold-heartedly, the victims of the campaign are not only Falun Gong practitioners, but all kind-hearted and peace-loving world citizens.

To all the people thus cherished, let's make our voice of justice be heard. Let's expose the fabrications and stop the evil.

á

September 25, 2000

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Category: Journeys of Cultivation