Jiang Zemin Is the Main Culprit Behind the Persecution of Falun Gong -- Part 1

Jiang's jealousy could not be contained. When Luo Gan and those in charge of the top-level offices of appeal reported on the Falun Gong practitioners' appeal on April 25 at Zhongnanhai, Jiang Zemin shook his hands in rage, shouting, "Crush Falun Gong! Crush it! Crush it completely!" This forceful outburst shocked everyone who witnessed it.

On the evening of April 25, 1999, Jiang wrote a letter to every standing member of the Political Bureau and made it an official document of the central committee, to be distributed to lower administrations. His behaviour imitated Mao Zedong's actions during the Great Cultural Revolution. At the first meeting discussing the "Zhongnanhai Incident" with the standing members of the Party, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji said, "Just let them practice Falun Gong." President Jiang became enraged, shouting, "Muddle head! Muddle head! Falun Gong will destroy the Party and the nation!" As a "Rightist" who had suffered from many years' unfair treatment, Zhu Rongji was silenced on Falun Gong from that point on.

The April 25 "Zhongnanhai Incident" was not the direct reason for the persecution of Falun Gong. The central government had already peacefully resolved the 10,000 person strong appeal. Jiang's hatred of Falun Gong was deep-rooted. Disregarding the will of the majority of the veteran leaders, he overthrew the civilised treatment of Falun Gong proposed by the Prime Minister of the Chinese Government and denounced Falun Gong as the most formidable enemy threatening his position as the "core leader" of the Party. Taking advantage of the name and power of the party and the country, he launched the persecution of Falun Gong, completely out of his jealousy, arrogance and lust for power. Facing this abusive use of power, the key leaders of the Chinese Government retreated and became silent.

Ref: http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/7/12/53895.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/7/13/38091.html

II. How Jiang Personally Plotted and Mobilised the Persecution

In a desperate attempt to defend his power, Jiang Zemin lost all sense of reason. He openly violated the Chinese Constitution to initiate the persecution of Falun Gong.

A. Jiang's speech at the meeting of the Politburo on June 7, 1999

On June 7, 1999, Jiang Zemin gave a speech about the Falun Gong issue at the meeting of the central government's Politburo. On June 13, 1999, the central government office printed and distributed Jiang's speech. The speech detailed the persecution of Falun Gong.

In this speech, Jiang stated: "The central government has agreed to establish a committee to specially deal with 'Falun Gong.' Comrade Li Lanqing will serve as Director, Ding Guan-gen and Luo Gan, as Deputy Directors, and the comrades responsible for related departments, as members, to discuss measures to solve the 'Falun Gong' issue. The central government must coordinate with various government departments, various provinces, autonomous regions, and autonomous cities." In fact, Jiang referred to himself as "the Central Government." At that time, among seven committee members, six were against the persecution of Falun Gong.

Jiang Zemin groundlessly defined the nature of the Falun Gong issue as a "political battle," regarding Falun Gong as a political enemy of the party. He mobilised the whole party and the government to plan for the persecution. Between April 25 and June 7, Jiang Zemin finished his systematic plans, outlining concrete actions.

B. Establishing the "610 office" -- an Agency Specifically Founded to Persecute Falun Gong

As dictated in Jiang's speech of June 7, on June 10, Jiang's regime established the "the Leadership Team Office on the Issue of Falun Gong," thereafter known as the "610 Office." This agency is the decision-making and enforcement agency, headed by Li Lanqing. It is a permanent office under the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the Party Central Committee, personally controlled by Luo Gan. Its key members include the people in charge from the a number of government agencies, including the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, the State Security Ministry, the Public Security Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and the Propaganda Ministry. The "610 Office" is the highest-level governmental agency and is an extremely effective tool for terrorism. Its only function is to persecute Falun Gong through organising and directing a number of persecution activities. This office is responsible for all the issues related to Falun Gong and is the general headquarters for the systematic persecution of Falun Gong. The crimes committed under this agency are countless and shocking.

From the central government down to local municipalities, the "610 Office" ignores all laws, exercising absolute power. Its authority oversteps the Court, the People's Congress, the State Department, the Public Security Ministry, and the Procuratorate. Its officials can arbitrarily arrest and extort money from Falun Gong practitioners by torture, or escalate the persecution at will. The "610 office" is an illegal organisation controlled by Jiang Zemin, and is completely composed of corrupt political officials. Its emergence and existence have no legal basis, as it is solely a product of Jiang Zemin's personal power and demented ambition.

The "610 office" specialises in political persecution, completely overriding laws at the same level of government. In this way it is similar to the notorious Gestapo of Nazi Germany, the ruthless KGB of the former Soviet Union, and the "Cultural Revolution Central Leading Group," a much feared branch of the Chinese government that existed in the time of Great Cultural Revolution. Local offices have been established in all provinces, cities, autonomous regions and municipalities. Each local "610 Office" is backed by the local Party Political and Judicial Committee.

Ref: http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/7/12/53895.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/7/13/38091.html

C. The Decision to Carry Out the Planned Persecution

With much careful plotting and planning, everything was prepared. On July 19, 1999 Jiang Zemin held a high-level meeting, in which he attempted to form a cohesive group to follow his thinking and make the final decision to suppress and persecute Falun Gong. The official campaign of unified action began the next morning, with nationwide arrests of "Falun Gong key members." After years of preparation, Jiang Zemin's planned persecution of Falun Gong was revealed. On July 20, under the name of the "Central Government" Jiang Zemin issued Document No.13 to ban Falun Gong, and claimed, "This is a severe political battle."
At 3:00 p.m. on July 22, Jiang' regime suddenly interrupted normal the TV programming, and broadcast an announcement banning "the Falun Dafa Research Society" on CCTV (China Central TV Station). Under the name of Chinese Government, the Public Security Ministry, and the Civil Administration Department, Falun Gong was officially labelled as an "illegal organisation." At a press conference, the Foreign Department also made the same announcement. Thereafter, the official propaganda machines controlled by Jiang's regime focused on issuing long articles filled with Cultural Revolution-style slander and invectives. They started nationwide arrests of Falun Gong practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. Fear spread throughout the country. Soon, a large number of Falun Gong books were destroyed.

With large-scale arrests, beatings, brainwashing, forced labour, illegal sentencing, torture, as well as creation of new laws regarding religion, manipulation of criminal law etc., the means of persecution escalated.

The nationwide arrests on July 20, 1999 marked a prelude to the systematic "open attack" on Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners responded heroically to uphold justice with their lives.

Jiang Zemin defined the nature of this persecution. He personally plotted, organised, planned, mobilised and ultimately issued the final orders, playing the principal and decisive role. At that time Jiang simultaneously held three important posts: the Chinese Party Secretary General, the Chinese President, and the Head of the Central Military Committee. He easily over-rode the majority of committee members who were against the persecution. Every step of the persecution of Falun Gong was generated by his speech or command, and he is personally responsible for these atrocities against humanity.

III. How Jiang Pushed the Persecution Forward and Used Acts of State Terrorism to Practice Genocide

While the persecution of Falun Gong was instigated by Jiang Zemin, he used his power to force the government officials to support it. Both the ban on Falun Gong and the persecution violate the Chinese Constitution. In order to "eradicate" Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin made systematic arrangements, promoted the persecution with lies, and conducted inhumane state terrorism.

A. Defining the Nature of the Persecution from Politics and Law

Jiang Zemin's speech on June 7 labelled the Falun Gong issue as "a political battle," and on July 20 he defined Falun Gong as an "illegal organisation." Because the persecution of Falun Gong was opposed by many people within the Party, and with the growing move toward legality in modern society, Jiang sought vague phrases in the law to be manipulated.

On October 25, 1999, during his visit to France, Jiang Zemin was interviewed by the French daily, Le Figaro. In the interview, he violated the constitution by referring to Falun Gong as "[defamatory words respectfully omitted]" The People's Daily, also acted outside the law when they ran a special unsigned editorial piece. Using a tone from the "Cultural Revolution," the article slandered Falun Gong with lies and negative labels. In order to establish a "legal basis" for persecuting Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin forced the People's Congress to publicise a "law against evil religions" on October 30, 1999. This law was filled with unclear terms and vague definitions. Before the persecution began, the law was used to "investigate legal responsibility." Now this ambiguous law was given "renewed power" to fill the gap and establish the "legal basis" for Jiang Zemin's purely illegal conduct.

According to an AFP report from Beijing on March 12, 2001, the Chief Justice of China's Supreme Court, Xiao Yang, was sternly questioned by the deputies of the People's Congress. One deputy, Lina Chen, complained that China's judicial system's lack of respect for human rights has become more and more severe, and that the then 19-month-long persecution of Falun Gong demonstrated "intensified self-contradiction."

B. From Creating the Genocide Policy and General Guidelines to Actual Implementation

Jiang Zemin's general policy of "eradication" is as follows: "Defame their reputation, bankrupt them financially, destroy them physically." In addition, many specific secret orders and genocidal policies were passed down through the "610 Office." Examples of such policies include, "No measures are too excessive," "No responsibility if beaten to death," "Consider it suicide if beaten to death," and "Cremate the body immediately without confirming the identity." Whenever festivals and politically sensitive days approached, Jiang's regime gave orders to the effect of "destroying" or "eradicating" Falun Gong. The systematic mass arrest of Falun Gong practitioners takes place nationwide.

In the above-mentioned "Key Points at an Important Meeting," by Jiang Zemin, Jiang explained how to perpetuate the persecution of Falun Gong by ordering "the special action group" to continue strengthening their actions and to design many back-up plans so as to ensure that any murder of Falun Gong practitioners would be seamless and undetectable.

In order to expose these lies and deception and to let people in Jilin Province know the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution, several Falun Gong practitioners in Changchun bravely tapped into the cable television network, exposing the persecution and breaking the information blockade. On March 5, 2002 they successfully showed "Falun Dafa Around the World," "Self-immolation or Staged Event" and other truth-clarifying programs on TV in Changchun and Songyuan City. This courageous action shocked the world. Jiang's regime panicked and became furious. Jiang Zemin, in a fit of hysteria, issued secret orders to "kill without mercy." He furthermore ordered the creation of death lists all over the nation. Liu Jing, the head of the "610 Office" at the Central Committee, went with others to Changchun City, giving orders to "solve the case by the set time." In response, Jilin Province made use of this opportunity to arrest Falun Gong practitioners on a large scale. For a while, the "red terror" covered the entire area of Changchun City.

In Changchun alone, over 5,000 people were arrested. Some died in the process of being arrested and being tortured to obtain a confession. All the Falun Gong practitioners who participated in tapping into the TV network to show the truth-clarifying programs were abducted and tortured to obtain information and confessions. They were illegally sentenced to long terms prison. The longest was 20 years. Even after Liu Chenjun, one of the key participants of the event, was abducted, handcuffed and shackled, the police fired two bullets into his leg. He suffered all kinds of cruel torture while being held in the detention centre and was placed on a tiger bench (1) for 52 days. Liu Chenjun was tortured to death on December 26, 2003, after he had suffered brutal torture for 21 months.

Jiang Zemin, through the "610 Office," has implemented a policy of genocide towards millions of Falun Gong practitioners for more that four years. The policy involves recklessly arresting, beating, detaining, punishing, depriving practitioners of employment and forcefully "transforming" them [forcing them to renounce Falun Gong]. Jiang has used the entire nation's propaganda facilities to spread lies, to instigate hatred, and to force all people to turn against Falun Gong. In this way, he systematically and cruelly persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. Many more facts of the persecution will not be presented here, due to the limited length of this article.

C. Using the National System to Suppress Falun Gong

Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong by using the entire nation's institutions is comprehensive and systematic. In the process, every part of the nation, from the central government all the way to every level of the local governments (province, city, county, district, town and village) and all other institutions, are used to persecute Falun Gong. In fact, all of the human, material and financial resources of China are used to persecute Falun Gong. The administration, the judiciary, the army, the police, public security, the courts, national security, TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, the Internet, science and technology agencies, diplomatic agencies, neighbourhood communities, institutions, all companies, plants, schools and family units are used to persecute Falun Gong. The nation's laws have been distorted and changed by Jiang's regime at random to support the persecution. Jiang's regime is a criminal gang that has abused the nation's political and legal systems, the national policies and regulations, literally the entire structure of the nation, to persecute Falun Gong.

D. Collecting Signatures by Violating the Consciousness of the People

Jiang Zemin and the "610 Office" have severely violated the human rights of Chinese citizens in carrying out their various persecution campaigns against Falun Gong. In order to avoid being condemned by the international community, Jiang's regime played the game of collecting signatures, using power to make the people who were deceived and confused to "support" their persecution against Falun Gong. In reality, except for a very small portion of the people who were willing to be used by Jiang's regime, how many of the people who signed petitions knew the truth about Falun Gong? How many of them knew the truth of Jiang's persecution against Falun Gong? Furthermore, many of these signatures were obtained through uniform requirements and designated by work units. Even primary and middle school students were ordered to sign. What Jiang did through the signature campaign was to completely ravage the consciousness of the people. Think about it, did Jiang need the people to express their attitude in this way, if his persecution was legal?

E. Extending the Lies and Persecution Abroad

At the APEC meeting held in New Zealand in September 1999, Jiang Zemin, the Chairman of China at that time, personally distributed, to each of the leaders of the countries participating in the meeting, brochures slandering Falun Gong. His action of "going into battle stripped to the waist" astonished many western diplomats and leaders to the point of staring dumbfounded.

This ridiculous action by Jiang became an "example" for Chinese embassies and consulates around the world. Some political followers from the embassies and consulates followed suit by sending materials slandering Falun Gong to their host governments and to people at all levels of society, thus poisoning and harming the international community.

Also, Jiang's regime seduced the international community by using economic incentives and causing some of the international media to be silent about the persecution of Falun Gong. He also designated agencies from the National Security Department to collect information on Falun Gong and create a list of Falun Gong practitioners abroad for the purpose of compiling a blacklist. Some political followers in the embassies and consulates directly interfered with local governments' normal activities of supporting Falun Gong. Several consulates even went as far as harassing local Falun Gong practitioners.

IV. Jiang Personally Directed and "Mobilised Forces"

Although Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan have exhausted their means of directing and implementing the persecution both on and off the public stage, the evil suppression did not win the hearts of the people right from the start. Apart from Shandong Province, Liaoning Province and a few others, many provinces and cities were not interested in the suppression, ignoring the orders of the persecution as if they did not exist. They even resisted secretly. Seeing the suppression gradually lose the support of the people and become more and more difficult to sustain, Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan forcefully implemented the "system of association and responsibility" by luring and intimidating communities one after another. As a result, many officials at the provincial, city and local levels began to imitate what the central government was doing, by allocating huge amounts of money, gathering together various criminals and using them as henchmen, setting up more "610 Offices" and giving bonuses and promotions as rewards for persecuting Falun Gong.

For a while, many transient petty criminals and detained criminals became staff members of the"610 Offices." For example, in Pi County, Sichuan Province, a former vice director of the Police Department, who committed serious crimes of smuggling and selling drugs and might have been executed, suddenly became the head of the "610 Office" in the county and was reinstated to his original position. The first thing he did after returning to office was to violate the Chinese constitution and laws by detaining all Falun Gong practitioners in the county without due process.

Jiang Zemin and his followers directly ordered the persecution throughout the entire nation, either by giving direct orders by phone or by designating people to coordinate or "inspect." The following are a few examples of their methods:

When the persecution started in July 1999, Jiang Zemin personally made a phone call to one of the key leaders of the Jilin Province Committee. He indicated that Jilin Province would be the key target of suppression and that they should cooperate well in the bloody persecution of Falun Gong. In order to enforce the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Jilin Province, Jiang Zemin sent Lin Zhiyan, one of the key officials who suppressed the students in the Democracy movement in 1989, to become the Provincial Deputy Party Secretary of Jilin Province. In this capacity, he was responsible for suppressing Falun Gong. As soon as Lin was in the position, he showed his ferocity. He directly participated in the persecution by visiting the major forced labour camps in the province to personally instruct the labour camp staff in the use of the "transformation with violence" policy. He enforced the policy by ordering the police and staff to "beat hard," "beat to death," "shoot to death," "kill them all," and so on. Thus, he staged human tragedies one after another.

Facing the growing difficulty in sustaining the persecution, Jiang Zemin stepped out in person to monitor the battle. For instance, seeing that Guangdong Province treated the persecution negatively, Jiang went to Guangdong in February 2000 to command in person, criticising Guangdong Province for its "weak suppression," and for "being too weak." He ordered Li Changchun, the premier of Guangdong Province, to do "self-criticism" at the Political Standing Committee and sent a fax to the Shenzhen City Committee, ordering them to "keep control of their battlefield." Under great pressure from Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan, Guangdong Province finally began to send Falun Gong practitioners to forced labour camps in February of 2000. Chinese President Hu Jintao's university classmate was among the first group of Falun Gong practitioners sent to forced labour camps. Well-informed people remarked, "What Jiang did is actually to kill two birds with one stone." He not only set an example of persecuting Falun Gong in Guangdong Province, but also put a label of shame on Hu Jintao.

Another example was when SARS exploded in 2003. In order to escape from SARS, Jiang Zemin fled from Beijing, but he did not forget his persecution of Falun Gong. After he went to Dalian city, Liaoning Province in May, Dalian City's Political and Judicial Committee and the city Police Department began to arrest many Falun Gong practitioners. After that, the Political and Judicial Committee and the Public Security Bureau of Liaoning Province issued quotas for sentencing practitioners to prisons, forced labour camps and detention centres. These quotas were issued to all the cities and counties in the province in the name of reorganising. (see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2000/12/13/4085.html)

Jiang designated Luo Gan and Liu Jing to oversee the persecution of Falun Gong. For instance, Luo Gan stayed in person at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province, to monitor the persecution in September and October 2000. As a result, there occurred the terrifying event where eighteen steadfast female Falun Gong practitioners were violated by being thrown totally naked into the male criminal inmates' cellblock.

In 2001, Luo Gan came to Changchun City, Jilin Province to check on the persecution of Falun Gong. He was not satisfied with the local "transformation ratio." This terrified Hong Hu (premier of Jilin Province) who went to the Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City on April 5, to issue orders to "forcefully transform" practitioners. His directives lead to another round of brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners at the labour camp.

Right before the Spring Festival in February 2002, Liu Jing, the head of the "610 Office" of the Central Committee, held a meeting to organise the persecution of Falun Gong at the Nanhu Hotel in Changchun City. At the meeting, Liu Jing was enraged, criticising Jilin Province for not administering the persecution well and for not issuing the orders to completely eradicate Falun Gong. The order to shoot any Falun Gong practitioners who were caught distributing truth-clarifying flyers was issued at this meeting. After that, the police department in Changchun conducted a large-scale manhunt and arrested Falun Gong practitioners over the course of several nights. The order was as follows: One may shoot Falun Gong practitioners to death if found posting truth clarifying materials and hanging banners. Clearwisdom.net reported that practitioners were shot by police in Mishan City, Heilongjiang Province and in Anshan City, Liaoning Province. On February 16, 2002 the police in Anshan City shot three Falun Gong practitioners while they were being illegally abducted. One policeman shot four bullets and hit the leg of one of the Falun Gong practitioners. Du Yongshan, a policeman in Mishan City, shot practitioner Jiang Honglu in the leg (the leg was broken by the bullet) at 2:00 a.m. on the first day of the Chinese New Year, just because he was posting Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials.

(1) Tiger bench. Practitioners are forced to sit on a small iron bench that is approximately 20 cm (6 inches) tall with their knees tied together. With their hands tied behind their backs or sometimes placed on their knees, they are forced to sit straight up and look straight ahead. They are not allowed to turn their heads, close their eyes, talk to anyone or move at all. Several inmates are assigned to watch over the practitioners and force them to remain motionless while sitting on the bench. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the practitioners' lower legs or ankles to make it more painful and more difficult for them to tolerate this abuse.

Ref: http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/2/20/67987.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/9/45890.html

(To be continued)

* * *

You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source.

Related Articles

• While Irish Falun Gong Practitioners were Commemorating the "4.25" Peaceful Appeal, an Eyewitness Pointed Out that the Persecution is a "Long-Premeditated Scheme"
• Falun Dafa Flyer Posted on a Police Station's Door Brings about Release of Practitioners
• Morality and Justice or Vested Interests--The Persecution of Falun Gong Forces People to Make Choices
• Liaoning Province High School Student Expelled for Exposing the Persecution of Falun Gong
• England: My Trip to Geneva
• Swedish Daily: “People Who are Locked up in Labour Camps in China are Suffering”