Reference Material: As If Awakening From a Dream - A Young Man Learns the Truth About The Chinese Communist Party's Bloody Path of History

Note that Reference Materials such as this do not necessarily represent the thoughts of Falun Gong practitioners, but are provided as they may offer some insight into the persecution of Falun Gong and place it into a broader context

When I was small, I liked to listen to stories from history. When I grew up, I paid even more attention to history. However, before long, a friend and history professor said something that woke me up as if I'd been dreaming. He said, "Do you know the three main causes of huge losses of human life in the twentieth century? One was the genocide of 6 million Jews by the Nazis in World War II. The second was the 33.6 million dead from fighting in World War I and World War II. The third was the 84.5 million killed by the Communist Party in the world's Communist countries."

What? More than 80 million? That was more than twice than the total that died in the World Wars. Although I had heard that Stalin had killed many, the total number is twice that of those who died in the two World Wars. I was dumbfounded.

"That's mainly in the former Soviet Union, isn't it? Our Chinese Communist Party has been always the great, glorious and correct Party, right? And the numbers you quote must include those who died during the liberation itself, right? [Editors' Note: "liberation" is a CCP euphemism for the bloody rebellion that put the Party in power in 1949] Of course many people would have died in such a war!" I had unwittingly become a volunteer protector of the Party's reputation.

My friend glanced at me and sighed. Then he said slowly, "What I'm about to tell you are all examples of the huge numbers of death that have resulted from the Party's past injustices. Due to the country's strict information blockade on such politically sensitive information, I can't provide with you with a complete picture. Yet simply considering the data already published is quite shocking."

"In 1949, the year the Party redefined the country of China, landlords and wealthy farmers were repressed across the land. The number of people shot by the People's army was officially claimed to be 2 million according to the Xinhua Monthly Newspaper Special Edition for the First Anniversary of the New China, 1950, and New China's Economic Achievements by Bo Yibo, 1952. Specialists studying the situation more closely, however, have estimated that the true number of deaths could well be 100 million.

"During one of the Chinese Communist Party's periods of heightened repression, the so-called "movement against the right" in 1957, then Chairman Mao Zedong pointed out in the first publication of his On Correctly Managing the Internal Contradiction among the People that the Public Security [a CCP euphemism for a police force dedicated to catering to the repressive whims of the dictator's regime] had killed at least 800,000 in the movement against "the right". These words of Mao Zedong were deleted when the article was later published in his book. Another publication, Recalling Several Significant Decisions and Events by the Publisher of the Communist Party School of the Central Government from June, 1993, said that "Among the 550,000 people who were accused of being in the 'rightist' group, about 99 percent of them were falsely accused.

"During the movement against the 'right inclination' within the Chinese Communist Party, the section of "deep feeling of grief in re-considering" in volume 1, Part Two, Chapter 5 of Complete Reflection of The National History of the People's Republic of China pointed out that there were 8.07 million party members, cadres and concourses (members of the public at large) who were criticized and dealt various forms of punishment. Among them were 4.33 million Party members and cadres and 3.74 million regular citizens.

"During the period of the so-called three years of natural disasters, from 1959 to 1961, the "obligatory requisition" [This refers to a government campaign that forced farmers to sell their crops, rice, etc. to the government. Grossly mismanaged, this interference in the country's food supply led to widespread famine and a huge number of people facing starvation and death]. According to statistics from provincial government officials attending a meeting in Beijing at the time, the total number of deaths was 45,000,000 (forty-five million). This was the most devastating loss of human life due to famine in the world this century. What actually happened was that the capacity of government facilities to store all of the food coming in was dramatically less than the supply of food. Instead of being able to better feed the country's people, the government ended up exporting huge quantities of food to foreign countries at bargain prices. Nothing was left for the starving millions in China.

"According to official statistics in the book Collection of Spring Wind Turning to Spring Rain, within the two and a half years in the late 1970's and early 1980's, Chinese people around the country made many million appeals for redressment to the government. It is estimated that some 10 million people had been misjudged in that era' government campaigns of repression, and suffered grave injustices as a result. We can guess that maybe several million died as a result of political persecution in the time of the Cultural Revolution, and that some 100 million suffered brute repression. Those familiar with the true situation would probably agree that these are conservative estimates.

"In November last year, a book named Exposing the Secret Crimes of Communism. This 846 page book states that 45.72 million died as a result of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party since the establishment of the Peoples' Republic, which is the largest number of deaths recorded among all of the Socialist countries. Another source, the Disney World Record, states that the Chinese Communist Party has killed 63.78 million innocent people, under the heading of "genocides".

"Cambodia was regarded as a butcher's place from the view of western society. However, in the mid and late period of the 1970's, the total number of the people killed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge was 10 to 20 million, a number that, shocking as it is, pales in comparison to perhaps 50 million killed in Communist China. But Party policy ensured that the western world has never been allowed to know the true extent of the repression in China."

My friend the professor could barely continue to speak. It was very hard for me, too, just listening to what he had to say.

"What I've just said takes into consideration only the larger political movements, without considering the many smaller ones. Also, it considers only the people most directly affected, without any consideration for the countless family members that were indirectly persecuted. It also doesn't take into account those who were persecuted for their spiritual beliefs, only those persecuted for their political beliefs. More examples, such as the "Four Cleanings", "Social Education", the student uprising that culminated with the June 4, 1989 massacre on Tiananmen Square, and "Strict Attack" against all kinds of lawbreaking after the new "openness" policy, as well as the suppression of Falun Gong and workers on strike, and peasants who protested heavy taxation. The number of people involved is overwhelming. Take Falun Gong as an example. Previously it was claimed officially that there were 70 million practitioners. Now no one is allowed to practice it. Isn't persecution because of one's beliefs against the Constitution? Furthermore, when suppressing the student uprising in 1989 and Falun Gong in recent years, the government forced everyone it could to speak out against those being repressed, as if to justify the persecution. This is simply yet another form of persecution, which has lost the people of China their freedom of thought.

"Another example is the requirement for registration of one's permanent residence in China's cities and countryside. From ancient times until the Party rewrote the rules, rural folks left the countryside to seek work in the cities and no one would stop them. However, just after establishing the Peoples' Republic, the Party implemented the requirement for registration of permanent residence, requiring rural dwellers to stay in the countryside, forcing farmers to continue working under the harshest conditions while earning the least amongst all levels of China's society. Isn't the exploitation and deception of rural dwellers a kind of persecution too?"

The professor found that I did not understand. So he began to summarise.... "If we don't count the problems of the peasants forced to stay in poverty in the countryside, and don't count spiritual persecution, adding up the number of deaths, and adding in their closest family members... parents, brothers, sisters and children, the number of people persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party exceeds one half of the Chinese population! Don't forget that the population was only 600 to 700 million before Mao's "Cultural Revolution".

"Half of the people had been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party?" I repeated the number mechanically, totally dumbfounded.

"Do you remember when we were small, we sang a song called 'Sing a Mountain Song for the Party to Hear, I Regard the Party as mother'? The Communist Party persecuted us, yet taught our children to call it "mother". Could there be such rascals and evil demons in the world? Could there be even bigger lies than this in the world? "

"You said that the Communist Party is evil demons? Rascals? This..." I was questioning weakly there.

"They hurt you and then deceive you into thinking that they have done you a favour, that they are in fact good. This they achieved by way of spiritual persecution! Remember the old saying that it is a fool who tripped over the same stone many times. The Chinese were harmed again and again, however there are still many people who did not recognise it, and are waiting to be deceived again next time."

I sat there senselessly and could not regain a clear mind for some time. In the past I had been angry with corruption and underhanded Party dealings, but I had always told myself that errors are unavoidable. If we correct the errors, our Party would still have a bright future. Later, I had pinned my hopes on evolution and internal changes in the Party. Yet more and more of my wishful thinking met with dashed hopes, time and time again. But still I didn't dare doubt the Party, and as a result continued to be deceived and unaware of its true evil nature.

Faced with the facts of the Party's bloody history, I cannot help but feel deeply ashamed. Half of people in China have been persecuted. Next year it could be my turn. My goodness! It's like I just awoke to see an evil demon that eats people opening its mouth and walking towards me. Heavens above, please quickly come and save the Chinese people!