On March 17, 2003, Sun Zhigang, a 27-year-old designer who graduated from university two years ago and was working as an employee at the Guangzhou Daqi Garment Company, was beaten to death by police for not carrying his ID. The police later claimed the Sun died from heart disease. When the incident was reported, the public was shocked and outraged. Under great pressure from the public opinion, the police officers responsible were eventually brought to justice.
Since 1999, an unprecedented crime that directly involves tens of millions of people and has caused the death of at least 925 people has been taking place in Mainland China, and covered by lies: It is the Jiang group's persecution of Falun Gong. Moreover, the Jiang group labels Falun Gong's peaceful and rational efforts to expose the regime's lies as "anti-Party," "anti-government," and "anti-China." They have continued to make up excuses to justify the persecution and to deceive the world. Do or have Falun Gong practitioners ever get involved in politics?
1. Falun Gong Seeks No Political Power
In the modern world, politics has become a way for people to obtain power. In China, 'everything is controlled by the political elite. Back-stabbing, lies and political power plays are commonplace among the leaders. Those in power have become over-sensitive and defensive, with their strong desire to maintain power and their fear of losing it. As a result, they react irrationally to the mere rustles of leaves in the wind and view them as potential threats to their power. As a result, those in power often strike out at the masses at will, and suffering the authorities' abuse of power, the people lose their rights. The people's legal and reasonable activities are labelled "illegal," "anti-government," or "political in nature" and suppressed because they don't conform to the power mogul's will.
Because there are millions of people practicing Falun Gong in China, Jiang Zemin (former President of China), out of fear of losing his personal power, became extremely jealous of Falun Gong. Consequently he went against the will of the people, ignored the well-being of the masses, overturned legitimate government decisions and pushed millions of innocent Falun Gong practitioners into opposition to the government and used government machinery and the police system to persecute them.
Jiang Zemin used his power to persecute Falun Gong, so it's impossible for him to win people's hearts. In order to obtain support, Jiang has made up excuses -- a common practice in China's past political movements, and put various labels on Falun Gong. He slanderously labels Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful appeals -- the right to which is endowed by the constitution of China as "political involvement" and "jeopardising social stability," and he raised the Falun Gong issue to the higher plane of a "political struggle," by which he has deceived many people who do not know the truth into assisting the persecution.
2. People should be allowed to speak up when their fellow countrymen are being abused and slaughtered
The Chinese people suffered tremendously during past political movements. As a result, they have developed fears and are afraid of getting involved in politics and keep "a safe distance" from politics, because once you are considered as being politically involved or given political labels, you would be labelled as "anti-Party," and "anti-government" which could cause you fatal disaster. The forceful politicisation and the long-term brainwashing by the government propaganda have largely twisted the Chinese people's sense of justice and have degenerated their notion of what is right and what is wrong. Jiang Zemin has taken full advantage of this unfortunate fact in pushing his crack down on Falun Gong. When faced with unreasonable abuse and even murder, Falun Gong practitioners stepped forward and appealed peacefully. The Jiang group intentionally labelled such legal and justified appeals as "anti-government" political activities, saying that such activities jeopardised social stability. Some people accepted such propaganda without a second thought, some turned a deaf ear to the Falun Gong issue in order to avoid "politics," some others agreed with such groundless malicious accusation against their conscience.
Some people have asked: Why can't Falun Gong practitioners simply practice at home instead of going out to appeal? This question itself has confused the concept of "appeal" with that of "political involvement." This misunderstanding is caused by their twisted notions. For example, if a person is brutalised by a thug, would the victim be allowed to appeal for redress of an injustice? Of course he would. Even if the thug is the highest person in power in a country, the nature of the crime remains unchanged. However, because of the Chinese government's long-term totalitarian rule, the people have become accustomed to obeying the ruler's will, and the result is that both the ruler and the people have accepted a warped notion: the personal will of the ruler is regarded as a government decision and the law, and the people should obey. If not, they are regarded as dissidents and are eliminated. The people do not bother to look into the rights and wrongs in a case, and those accused have no right to appeal. Such twisted ideology has brought countless disasters to the Chinese people.
When treated with injustice, people should naturally speak up, and they should be allowed to speak up and to clarify the truth.
When Sun Zhigang (whose story was mentioned at the beginning of this article) was beaten to death with no legitimate reason, the people stepped forward and spoke out. Consequently, the responsible police officers were brought to justice. Why is it then that when our innocent fellow Chinese people are being abused and murdered simply because they practice Falun Gong, and when Falun Gong practitioners appeal for redress of the injustice and clarify the truth, they are slanderously labelled as "anti-government" and "politically motivated", and their appeals are used as excuses for even more brutal persecution? Why is it that the Jiang group not only deprived Falun Gong practitioners of their right to appeal, but also led people to misunderstand their righteous actions?
Jiang's group desperately needs people to confuse the notions of right and wrong, and they have reinforced such twisted confusion with brainwashing so that they can deceive themselves as well as others and poison the minds of the people. Their purpose is to use their power to manipulate the law for their own self-interests, and to crack down on tens of millions of kind-hearted people in mainstream society. It is Jiang's group who are truly ignoring the well-being of the people and they are the ones who are truly jeopardising social stability.
The irrational and savage persecution by Jiang's group is the true and only reason for Falun Going practitioners' appeal and their truth clarification. If there were no persecution, there would be no anti-persecution activities. Falun Gong practitioners' resistance to the persecution in the past few years is totally legal and justifiable. Everything they have done is for resisting and stopping the persecution, and has nothing to do with politics.
3. The resistance to the persecution targets only the wrongdoers and assailants
Out of his extreme jealousy, Jiang Zemin launched the unjustifiable persecution of Falun Gong, a persecution that has in the past five years wasted huge amount of money and manpower, caused severe confusion in the China''s politics, economy, legality, ideology and morality, and brought tremendous calamity to the country and the people. Up to one hundred million Falun Gong practitioners and their family have been maliciously persecuted.
Falun Gong practitioners' resistance to the persecution only targets the murderers, assailants and criminals who have committed atrocities during the persecution. It aims at the hearts of the people and has nothing to do with 'political aspirations, power or controlling the state', etc. The persecution aims to destroy Falun Gong practitioners' belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. All those who have committed crimes in the persecution'' cannot escape the responsibility for their crimes by hiding behind their excuses, be they political power or even "orders from higher authorities." Their betrayal to the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and their fierce persecution of Falun Gong practitioners will bring themselves to trials by human laws and heavenly principles.
Outside of China, Jiang Zemin and his accomplices such as Li Lanqing, Zeng Qinghong, Luo Gan, Wu Guanzheng, Zhou Yongkang, etc., have been sued with charges of torture, human rights violations and slander. Over twenty cities around the world have held gatherings to "bring Jiang Zemin to justice around the world." Fawanghuihui Net has exposed the names and crimes of tens of thousands of criminals who participated in the persecution of Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners' recent campaign to bring Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Liu Jing and Zhou Yongkang to Justice, and to investigate and punish those murderers also aims at resisting the persecution and bringing the persecution to an end.
Through Falun Gong practitioners' persistent efforts in clarifying the truth and resisting the persecution, more and more people have come to know the truth about Falun Gong. We believe that it won't be long before the arch-criminal and all his henchmen will be brought to justice, just like the lawless police who beat Sun Zhigang to death.
4. Look at the Falun Gong issue from the right perspective
Over the past several decades China has seen political movements one after another, so some people have become accustomed to viewing everything around them with the notion of political struggle; some have developed a strong feeling of political crisis, and they worry about "subjugation of the Party and the country" and are concerned about possible social crisis or turbulence. These people hold a political bias towards Falun Gong. Jiang Zemin spread lies that Falun Gong "is involved in politics" and "has hidden political agendas," which fit well with these people's notions and they therefore readily accept Jiang's lies without thinking.
On April 25, 1999, ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners participated in a peaceful appeal, which some people find hard to understand. Some judge it from a political view point and believe that Falun Gong is "highly organised." They further conclude that Falun Gong is a tight organisation with a large amount of hidden funds in operation, and that Falun Gong holds great political potential or has enormous ability for political operation as a "non-political" entity. In fact, it is something very simple to understand if one looks at Falun Gong without any political bias and notions. Let's take Lei Feng [the Chinese moral exemplar in the 1960’s] for example.' Nowadays many people cannot 'understand Lei Feng's behaviour, saying that Lei Feng must have been paid to do the good deeds for which he became famous for. If not just one or two, but many people voluntarily emulate Lei Feng -- for example if there are ten thousand people going to Tiananmen Square on the weekend to clean the trash -- it might look like that a giant and tight organisation operates behind the scenes.
Falun Gong practitioners follow "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" in their cultivation practice. They strive to improve their moral standard and to become good citizens. Their anti-persecution activities are spontaneous individual efforts. When faced with unfair and unjust treatment, they feel from their heart that they need to clarify the facts to the government. Because there are so many Falun Gong practitioners in society, and many of them simultaneously went to appeal for Falun Gong and they happened to arrive at the appeal office at the same time. If you look through a glass tainted by political bias, these highly self-controlled and spontaneous efforts may appear to be a political act.
Although Falun Gong practitioners have repeatedly denied having tight organisation and political objectives, some people still don't believe them, because these people are accustomed to making judgements based on political notions and biases. Let's take a step back, and assume that Falun Gong had a strong, rigorous organisation and robust finances, and they indeed had a political agenda, then why would they deny it? China is full of unemployed and unhappy people, why didn't Falun Gong take advantage of the situation and attract more people to join their "organisation"? After all, people in politics always want to have more people in their organisation, don't they?' Furthermore, if Falun Gong indeed had "secret political objectives" as some people are led to believe, then during more than four years of the brutal persecution, wouldn't they have somehow 'revealed their objectives? The fact is, in more than four years, Falun Gong have never had any political slogans, declarations or any political agendas. The practitioners all follow "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" and they have walked along a pure and righteous cultivation path.
In cultivation, people believe: "Master teaches you the way, cultivation depends on your own effort."
Throughout history, genuine cultivators never had interests in politics and political power. Falun Gong requires that every practitioner becomes a good person by following "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" as their guideline in life. Practitioners improve their moral standard and give up the competitive mentality for power and personal gains. They are required to follow the principle of "No Politics." Falun Gong cultivation focuses on moral improvement; cultivation is voluntary. People make their own choices. Falun Gong practitioners ask for no more than a fair environment for their cultivation practice.
5. Uphold the principle of "No Politics"
The principles of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" transcend cultural and geographical boundaries. They are not limited by ethnicity and ideology. Falun Gong benefits any kind of society and government. In fact, before the persecution, Falun Gong greatly benefited the Chinese government as well as the people. Falun Gong reduced the medical-care burden on the government, and enabled millions of people to improve their health and morals. Falun Gong has brought happiness to millions of families, improved public morality and played an active and positive role in maintaining social order and economic development. Despite the Jiang regime's brutal persecution, people who have learned the truth continue to take up Falun Gong practice. Especially recently, we have seen a large number of new practitioners. Falun Gong's popularity outside of China is increasing. Falun Gong practitioners now live in over 60 countries. By mid-February 2004, Falun Gong had received 1,223 proclamations issued by various governments, members of congress and a variety of other different organisations in recognition and in honor of Falun Dafa and the founder.
Today's China is full of social problems, such as official corruption, economic disparity between the rich and poor and decline in morality. Some people who are unhappy with what is happening in society and with the current politics want to find a way out in Falun Gong. They may feel that Falun Gong offers the solution to these problems. But in fact, Falun Gong is not about solving any of these problems, but to 'teach people the principles of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" so that they can improve themselves in cultivation.
Falun Gong cultivation is a spontaneous and individual action by each practitioner. Practitioners come from all social stratum and all walks of life in society. Through cultivation, practitioners' morality has greatly improved, which in turn has benefited society and helped stabilise the public order. Falun Gong is cultivation. This is the case either in peaceful time or during the persecution. Falun Gong has nothing to do with the degenerate "politics" created by the Chinese rulers in recent history to control people.
* * *
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source.
more ...