Chinese Government Media Silent on NTD TV Interview With Mr. Li Hongzhi

On January 20, 2004, NTD TV (New Tang Dynasty TV) conducted a half-hour special interview with Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong. This is the first time Mr. Li appeared in the media since late 1999. Dozens of TV stations, newspapers and Internet websites around the world reported the news.

AP (Associated Press) published a report entitled "Falun Gong Founder Says Government Envious."

An AP reporter contacted the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and received a response containing a hard-line attack against Falun Gong. However, so far all Party mouthpiece media, including Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily, and even the web version of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not commented on Mr. Li's interview. The AP reporter received a "standard answer" from the Foreign Affairs spokesman only when it sought out some sort of comment.

Jiang Zemin's group never passes up a chance to attack Falun Gong, but it's remaining silent when the media around the world are reporting Mr. Li's interview. It seems that the contents of the interview struck at the Jiang regime's biggest weakness: he ordered the persecution of millions of innocent people out of jealousy and paranoia.

Jiang Zemin's own statement that "I just don't believe I can't fix Falun Gong" is a transparent show of his resentment.

Jiang started the persecution in spite of opposition from other Chinese leaders, and he was also chiefly responsible for the persecution's escalation. This is an unprecedented unilateral action by China's highest government official.

On April 25, 1999, around 10,000 Falun Gong practitioner went to Beijing and asked for the release of Falun Gong practitioners who had been illegally arrested in Tianjin. Premier Zhu Rongji gave the practitioners a satisfactory response, but Jiang coerced the Politburo to act according to his wishes.

In his letter addressed to the Politburo, Jiang Zemin requested that a "610 Office" be established to coordinate and carry out the persecution throughout the country. This is an organisation that is similar to the "Cultural Revolution Leadership Group" that overrode all other judicial and legislative bodies.

During a visit to France, Jiang Zemin publicly proclaimed Falun Gong to be an undesirable group, and the Chinese government media hastily followed his example in concocting similar propaganda.

During an interview with a CBS reporter, Jiang Zemin used ridiculous lies to directly slander the founder of Falun Gong.

During an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, Jiang Zemin slipped a book filled with gory pictures slandering Falun Gong into the hands of then U.S president Bill Clinton.

So paranoid was Jiang Zemin during all of his foreign visits that he often threatened foreign governments with cancelling the visit to make sure he would not have to be confronted with anything related to Falun Gong.

Jiang also personally issued a series of secret orders, including "death of Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be counted as suicide;" "a body shall be directly cremated without investigating the person's identification;" "defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially and destroy them physically."

In fact, in the past four years, people felt the effects of his extreme, irrational actions stemming from his jealousy and paranoia.

Mr. Li said in the interview that many people realised that the persecution of Falun Gong has consumed a large portion of the Chinese national GDP. If Falun Gong's reputation is not restored and the persecution not stopped, true stability will not be achieved in Chinese society. However, if one wants to restore Falun Gong's reputation, then one will have to award justice to the families of Falun Gong practitioners who were tortured to death, whose homes were ransacked, who were fined large amounts of money, who were disabled from torture, who were subject to extortion, to incarceration in mental hospitals, etc. Who will take this responsibility? The ringleader responsible for the Falun Gong persecution will therefore be brought to justice, and that is why he desperately clings to money and power.

Regarding Jiang Zemin's universal unpopularity, Mr. Li Hongzhi pointed out that the whole world has seen his cruelty and stupidity.

If the official Chinese media wanted to try to contradict Mr. Li's words instead of using their standard lies, they would never dare to publish Mr. Li's words alongside theirs. The government media's lack of comment on Mr. Li's interview could be seen as a reflection of other Chinese leaders' and government officials' acknowledgement.