Article from "The Epoch Times": The Persecution Wastes Tremendous National Resources

Zhao Ming, a graduate of Qinghua University, is now studying for his Masters degree at Trinity College Dublin, in Ireland. He returned to China to visit his parents at the end of 1999 and was arrested in early 2000. He was imprisoned in Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp in Beijing for twenty-two months. With the effort of people from all levels of Irish society and the international community, he was later released. Now he is one of forty plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. Recently, a reporter of the Epoch Times interviewed Zhao Ming when he was attending a press conference concerning the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin in Berlin.

Reporter: Zhao Ming, since you were rescued from the Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp in Beijing and returned to Ireland last year, you have spared no effort in exposing China’s persecution of Falun Gong…As one of the plaintiffs [in this lawsuit], have you exclusively come to Germany to support the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin this time?

Zhao Ming: I was imprisoned in the Tuanhe Forced Labour Camp in Beijing for twenty two months, and suffered the most vicious persecution, including cruel torture, brainwashing and spiritual abuse. I fully understand how cruel this persecution is. Four of my friends were tortured to death. But I was the luckiest one, since I studied abroad, and Ireland is a country that supports human rights. Because of the great efforts of the international community, I was released. It is very rare to have a case like mine. Therefore I must do my utmost to expose this persecution and tell people how brutal and evil the persecution in China is. In order to end this persecution as soon as possible, I have always done my best to tell people what is going on in China. During the past year, we have used a variety of legal approaches to get Jiang Zemin and other officials who have persecuted Falun Gong in various countries to end this persecution.

Reporter: Can we say that Falun Gong practitioners have been moving from having a passive attitude towards a more active attitude?

Zhao Ming: This is so. When the suppression first started, people didn’t know what Falun Gong was about. Many foreign media just quoted the lies and propaganda fabricated by Chinese media. In the beginning, we only explained that we didn’t do anything wrong, and that the persecution is not right. After I was rescued and released, the entire situation had already been changed. Countries worldwide have acknowledged that Falun Gong is a peaceful spiritual practice that is being persecuted. What we should do now is end this persecution as soon as possible. Therefore, we mainly resort to legal means, via lawsuits in various countries around the world. On one hand, our objective is to expose the entire illegality of this persecution, but on the other hand, we want to bring those perpetrators to justice eventually, because it is feasible according to international law. The Chinese officials who have persecuted Falun Gong should be held responsible for the crimes they have committed.

Reporter: Some people in Mainland China think that Falun Gong is an internal Chinese issue, and that filing lawsuits in foreign countries may affect China’s image. What impact do you think the Falun Gong lawsuits against Jiang Zemin may have on China?

Zhao Ming: This issue has been very clear for some time now. Falun Gong is by no means an internal Chinese issue, instead it has already become an international issue. The Jiang regime not only persecutes Falun Gong practitioners in China, but it also disseminates materials slandering Falun Gong to governments and mass media around the world through its embassies. They try to use every possible means to influence or control the Chinese media around the world, and even western media. They have also taken advantage of national interest in trade to influence governments, and even the United Nations, so as to force them to remain silent. In the meantime, they deprive Falun Gong practitioners of their rights to freedom in democratic western countries. Moreover they defame Falun Gong practitioners. The persecution is aimed at “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance,” and is aimed at Falun Gong, a righteous spiritual belief. So, this persecution is tantamount to harming all human beings. If human beings don’t have a righteous belief, we will eventually end up killing each other. Sooner or later humans will find that what [the Jiang regime] has harmed is the entire human race. Therefore it is by no means an internal Chinese issue.

According to my personal experience with this oppression, the persecution is not only a regional problem or a problem with individual policemen, it is a nationwide act of terrorism conducted by a politically deviated regime under the guidance of Jiang Zemin. Not only does it harm China as a nation, but it brings disaster to the country and its people as well.

Reporter: Can you elaborate on this further?

Zhao Ming: At present, this persecution has wasted tremendous national resources in China. To our knowledge, they have spent several billion Yuan to purchase surveillance systems and other equipment to monitor Falun Gong practitioners nationwide. When I was in a forced labour camp, they disguised the labour camp as an environment with good human rights to deceive the international community and media. Every forced labour camp was funded with several million Yuan to modernise its facilities. The entire police system was also given a large scale Internet surveillance system. Internationally, they bribed some small countries by providing them with free economic aid in order persuade them to remain silent within the U.N. and this has wasted more than 100 billion Yuan in Chinese resources. The reason China has not collapsed financially to date is that it relies upon the infusion of foreign investment and its propaganda to hide the extent of its national debt, i.e. they use tomorrow’s money to support today’s expenditures. They only postpone the collapse of China’s economy. When people see China’s economy collapsing in the future, and find that they are short of revenue, they will know that the Jiang regime is really the culprit that has brought disaster to the country and its people.

As for China's image, it has long been ruined by the deviated regime that abuses human rights, and oppresses obedient and compassionate people. They have never truly cherished China's image. Therefore, only after we end this persecution and enable Chinese people to have freedom and human rights, can Chinese people truly obtain benefits. The so-called patriotism and defending China’s image are nothing but propaganda fabricated by Jiang’s regime. It is a strategy to continue the persecution.

Reporter: What do you think of the arguments made by China such as: "The subsistence rights are superior to human rights; only after people have enough food, are they qualified to talk about human rights?”

Zhao Ming: That is another lie perpetrated by Jiang’s regime to deceive the international media. Having enough food has never been contradictory to human rights. I have never heard of the argument that only after Falun Gong is persecuted can people have enough food to eat. Once I talked about my experiences of being persecuted in China at an international conference, and met some people from so-called "non-governmental" human rights organisations in China. They said that China is now developing its economy, and our talking about the persecution would affect China's economic development. In actuality, that is a fabrication. Before the persecution, there were more than one hundred million people cultivating Falun Gong in China. Currently the money spent on monitoring and oppressing these practitioners is astronomical, whereas the wealth created by these practitioners in the past when they were able to work peacefully and normally was tremendous. Therefore the difference between these two scenarios is immeasurable. I have never heard of the saying that this persecution can enable Chinese people to become better off, or make poor farmers have enough food to eat. This idea is completely illogical.

Reporter: Then do you think the purpose of persecuting Falun Gong is to safeguard their political power?

Zhao Ming: Through what I have observed, it is actually not so. I have practised Falun Gong for nearly ten years now, since 1994. I used to study at Qinghua University, which is one of the best universities in the country. At that time, those who practised Falun Gong in Qinghua University were people with Masters or PhD degrees, Professors, or PhD candidates’ mentors, etc. Many of them practised Falun Gong because they found that practising Falun Gong could really enable people to improve their body and mind fundamentally. Furthermore, it not only has miraculous effects on healing illnesses and keeping fit, but it can also improve human moral standards. People who majored in science like us were very much convinced by Falun Gong’s interpretation of the truth of the universe. Among them, I didn’t find anyone becoming involved in politics, apart from those already engaged in politics like mayors or public officials. But, on the whole, no one has taken advantage of Falun Gong to get involved in politics. And in the entire process of persecuting Falun Gong, nothing is good for the Chinese government. Instead, it has made the Chinese regime completely lose its popularity among the people, and resulted in the destruction not only of this regime but also the future of China. The key issue is that Jiang’s deviated regime is taking advantage of politics to seek personal gain. It is entirely against humanity, and is vicious. Jiang wants to materialise his vicious and jealous personal goal by giving people a hard time. He is completely irrational, and cannot be judged with any normal logic or rational thinking.