(Clearwidom.net)
In the past fifty years of China's history, massive political movements have taken place one after another. Each time, many innocent people were implicated and their lives were ruined simply because they were related to or associated with those who were labeled as "enemies of the people."
The mechanism of implication was most widely used during the Cultural Revolution. When a person was labeled as an "enemy of the people" either because he or she used to be a landlord, a wealthy person, or a "right-wing element," that person's children, family members, and relatives would be implicated. Even their friends, neighbors, and co-workers might be investigated and have actions taken against them. Those who were implicated were often forced to report on that person who might be their parent, their family member, or their best friend in order to demonstrate that they had "drawn a clear line" between themselves and that person. Otherwise, the same suffering that person faced would also be imposed on them.
History is repeating itself. In July 1999, Jiang Zemin publicly started a brutal persecution against Falun Gong. He abused his political power to launch a massive movement against Falun Gong practitioners. He actively promoted the implication method by forcing the leaders in different levels of government and employers to sign documents agreeing to persecute Falun Gong practitioners by threatening their careers and personal interests. If practitioners in their organizations or under their employment stepped out to practice Falun Gong publicly or went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, the leaders involved would be demoted. A penalty would be imposed on the practitioner's employer. In this way, many people and organizations were forced to participate in the persecution since these people were afraid of the risk involved in upholding justice for Falun Gong.
The "Chen Lei Incident" is an example. Ms. Chen Lei is a practitioner from Xinji City of Hebei Province. She was a middle school teacher. She was illegally abducted and taken to a detention center on the Chinese New Year of 2001. Five days later, she was released after the authorities extorted three thousand yuan from her family. When school reopened after the holiday, some of her students learned that she had spent her Chinese New Year holiday at a detention center. To clarify the truth, Chen Lei told four of her classes about how she was persecuted. The parents of one of her students reported on her to the local "610 Office." Wang Xudong, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of Hebei Province, commented, "This Chen Lei incident is shocking" and "Thorough investigation needs to be conducted." Many people were implicated and became victims of the persecution.
Chen Lei was illegally arrested on February 23, 2001. She was detained at the Xinji Detention Center and suffered inhumane torture. Half of her students of the four classes were investigated. Mi Lijun, the headmaster of her middle school, who is also a Falun Gong practitioner, was fired from his job and illegally detained at a detention center. The official records of Pang Yusuo, the Director of the Xinji City Education Bureau, were tainted, as it was falsely documented that he had committed a crime. Under such huge pressure, Pang Yusuo forced all the headmasters in his area to sign a document acknowledging that they would be fired from their jobs if a similar "Falun Gong incident" occurred in their schools. Later, Zhao Bo, the deputy mayor of Xinji City, personally launched a big wave of "petitions", collecting signatures against Falun Gong in all primary and middle schools. Any person, be it a student or teacher, would be dismissed or fired from school permanently if he or she refused to sign the "petition."
When a person practices Falun Gong in the privacy of his or her home or appeals to higher authorities for Falun Gong, a huge financial penalty may be imposed on the whole family. Their children might not be allowed to continue to attend school or join the army. They might be fired from their jobs and lose their source of income. Some people, under the pressure of this state terrorism, were forced to divorce their spouses who are Falun Gong practitioners.
Ms. Yang Lirong was a practitioner from Dingzhou City of Baoding Area in Hebei Province. She was harassed and persecuted because she refused to give up practicing Falun Gong. The local police went to her home many times, threatening and harassing her family. Yang's husband was afraid that he might lose his job, so he often beat Yang. Still, Yang was steadfast in her belief of Falun Gong. The police illegally sent her to brainwashing classes three times. There was a lot of tension between Yang and her husband at home.
In February 2002, the police went to her house again and illegally searched her home and threatened her husband. Yang's husband was terrified by this state terrorism and lost his mind. Early the next day, while their parents were away from home, he suffocated Yang to death. Their child was only ten years old at the time.
Now let's look at Falun Gong in the United States.
A Chinese man lived in Virginia. He graduated from China's Science and Technology University, and then got his Ph.D. in the U.S.. He found a job and worked in the U.S., and earned a very decent income. His mother, a Falun Gong practitioner, lived with him. He loved and respected his mother very much, but when the persecution started in China, thousands of miles away, he felt that having a Falun Gong practitioner as his mother was a disadvantage for his future. He asked his mother many times to stop practicing Falun Gong. One year after the persecution started, he told his mother that he wanted her to leave. The second he said that, his conscience was stirred. He cried and apologized to his mother and asked her to continue to live with him. One year later, when the persecution escalated, he couldn't stand the pressure any more. He drove his mother away from home even though she didn't understand any English.
Under the pressure of implication, people panic. In order to protect themselves and avoid being implicated, some of them went against their conscience. Some people even helped the Jiang regime to persecute practitioners who follow the principles of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance. Some people refused to lend a hand to their relatives. Some people tried to get rid of their family members just because they were Falun Gong practitioners. For those that didn't want to act against their conscience, many of them chose to keep quiet and to bear the suffering silently, but many people don't value justice, virtue, or conscience. Some people even question, "What is the value of conscience?"
The persecution of Falun Gong is a brutal political movement launched by Jiang Zemin. He claimed it was a decision by the Central Government and commanded governments at different levels to follow the Central Government in carrying out the persecution. He used implication as a powerful tool to drive even the lowest level of governance of townships and communities to follow him. The Jiang regime used media to fabricate and propagate lies against Falun Gong. They framed practitioners and planted hatred and terror in people's hearts. They put pictures of the founder of Falun Gong down on the ground at the crossings of crowded streets so people had to step on them. They don't allow some tourists to visit the Tiananmen Gate unless they denounced Falun Gong. Students, including primary school pupils, were forced to sign "petitions" against Falun Gong. At prisons and forced labor camps, those corrupt police, who inhumanely torture Falun Gong practitioners, are rewarded with many bonuses. The title of "Representative to the People's Congress" is even granted to those most committed to carrying out the persecution.
The Jiang regime have also used economic interests to try to export the implication mechanism to other countries. They tried to force other countries to interfere with Falun Gong practitioner's legal activities abroad.
Jiang's implication policy is a form of state terrorism. It is not only a threat to the freedom of belief and human rights, but also damaging to people's conscience and virtues. This state terrorism is devastating China, and damaging its great legacy.
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Category: Perspectives
