Jiang and His Followers' State Terrorism Displayed in South Africa Shooting

On the evening of June 28, 2004, during Zeng Qinghong and Bo Jilai's visit to South Africa, a shooting of Falun Dafa practitioners occurred, which shocked the world. The shooting resulted in one Falun Dafa practitioner from Australia having both of his feet wounded, with the bones in one of his feet being shattered. Many overseas media reported the incident. South African police have begun an investigation and have designated the case as an "attempted murder."

David Liang, the victim, said to the media, "When I was in Australia, my car's rear window was smashed several times. [Before that] I had stuck a Falun Dafa sign on the window. Nothing was stolen from the car during these incidents. I felt I was being persecuted in Australia, and I felt my life was threatened. Three years ago, I went to Hong Kong, and I was one of more than twenty Australian practitioners denied entrance. Customs detained me for one day, then deported me back to Australia. I know my name is on the Party's blacklist." When he was asked, "Who would possibly want to try to kill you like this?" He said, "Probably Zeng Qinghong. He is afraid because we came to sue him for his crimes."

Jiang and his followers' method for dealing with Falun Dafa practitioners is to "destroy them physically." This secret order passed down by the regime includes "deaths can be counted as suicide," and "shooting can be used to kill [them]." They even passed down a "death allowance" in each labour camp. According to a Clearwisdom report, before the 2002 Spring Festival, one of the main perpetrators in Jiang's persecution of Falun Dafa, "610 Office" Director Liu Jing, held a meeting in Nanhu Hotel of Changchun City, Jilin Province to coordinate the persecution of Falun Dafa. He was enraged and criticised Jilin Province for doing a bad job, and gave an order to "thoroughly eliminate" Falun Gong, and this directive included the order to "shoot to kill." Soon after, many reports surfaced of Falun Dafa practitioners being shot by Chinese authorities for handing out leaflets or putting up posters to expose the persecution.

Over the past five years, Falun Dafa practitioners have been through a lot of hardships. The shooting in South Africa displays Jiang's state terrorism to the whole world. In order to clearly understand the state terrorism of Jiang and his regime through this specific case, it is necessary to know the whole picture of the persecution of Falun Gong.

Jiang and His Group's Core Members

Jiang initiated the persecution of Falun Gong suddenly without discussing it with the People's Congress or the Procurator, and without an open investigation, or a trial before a court. He used his dictatorial powers to push forward the persecution, and trampled citizens' right to freedom of belief, which is protected by the Chinese constitution. Usurping the name of the people and the government, he used the power of the Party to carry out state terrorism.

Since 1999, Jiang has been the main perpetrator (the Party Secretary, the Army Chair, and the State Chair) in the persecution of Falun Dafa. His main helpers have been Luo Gan (Politburo Member, the Party Political Judiciary Secretary), Zeng Qinghong (Deputy Politburo member, the Party Personnel Minister), and Li Lanqing (Politburo Standing Committee member, Vice Premier) to name but a few. Before the persecution started, six out of seven Politburo Standing Committee members did not agree on persecuting Falun Gong; out of 22 Politburo members (including seven Standing Committee members), only Jiang and Luo Gan were eager to persecute Falun Gong (Zeng Qinghong was only a deputy Politburo member). But under high pressure from Jiang Zemin, most Politburo members and high-ranking officials have chosen to remain silent on Falun Gong issues and look the other way as Jiang and his regime commit crimes; some have even helped Jiang.

Zeng Qinghong is Jiang's friend and confidante, and is in charge of the Party's internal personnel system. He is also in charge of China's Internal Information System. When Jiang runs into problems with persecuting Falun Gong from inside the Party in terms of party members having differing opinions and theoretical objections, Zeng helps resolve the issues. Zeng is known as the "dark faced killer" inside the Party. He plays a critical role in Jiang's regime and in managing the Party, the government, the army, the media, and foreign diplomacy.

The spying activities of the Party have fully demonstrated its cruel nature and its willingness to gain political power through shedding blood and destroying lives. Shooting Falun Dafa practitioners is one of the means utilised in Jiang's acts of state terrorism. This shooting aimed at Falun Dafa practitioners which happened in South Africa is an extension of Jiang's persecution overseas.

Jiang's State Terrorism

Jiang's state terrorism has aimed at "eradicating" Falun Gong practitioners both physically and mentally, using the Party's organisation and the Chinese government. Jiang's state terrorism was truly manifested in his secret order to "ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially, destroy them physically," which has resulted in deception, torture, and cover ups.

In terms of specific conduct, Jiang's state terrorism is based on:

-strict information blockade

-poisoning people's minds with lies and fabrications

-coercing officials, police, and common people to work for them by paying them off with promotions and financial benefits, or by threatening them

-suppressing Falun Dafa practitioners by putting them under house arrest, arresting them, ransacking their homes, harassing them, putting political and financial pressure on their friends and family members, giving them prison terms, putting them through forced brainwashing, injecting them with nervous system damaging drugs, subjecting them to extremely cruel torture, and killing them.

Currently, more than 100 brutal torture methods have been exposed, at least several thousand practitioners have been sent to mental hospitals to be drugged, and at least 996 practitioners of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance" are verified to have died as a result of the government's persecution, although the actual number is much higher.

One of the most common methods Jiang and his followers use in the persecution against Falun Gong, is spying, through the use of direct monitoring, bugging phones, tailing, and so on. They use these inside China and overseas as well. Spying activities have resulted in many practitioners being arrested, sentenced to prison terms, or even tortured to death. For foreign practitioners in China, many incidents have been reported. For instance, Canadian citizen Fan Ziyu was harassed in Tianjin City. A Taiwanese man named Lin Hsiaokai was cornered and arrested by Shanghai State Security police, and threatened. As the Party Head of the spy agency, Zeng Qinghong cannot escape culpability.

Jiang's State Terrorism Extends Overseas

According to overseas media reports, after June 4th, 1989, the Party exported a large amount of spies to monitor many dissident students abroad, and this has led to Chinese spies' becoming more active abroad. Starting from the persecution of Falun Dafa in July 1999, most of these spies have begun to target Falun Dafa practitioners, and many spies focused specifically on Falun Dafa have been added. Embassy and consulate employees, together with these spies spread many of Jiang's lies overseas, and they threaten and harass overseas Falun Dafa practitioners. After Falun Dafa practitioners clarified the truth to local people and governments, these threats, harassment, and spying activities have been condemned by many countries' people and their governments. The result has been that inside the United States and Canada, where legal systems are relatively effective, the harassment and threats from Chinese embassies and spies are getting restrained.

As the Australian government has been seeking economic benefits from Jiang and his followers, the Chinese spies have been active in Australia. After the South Africa shooting, Falun Dafa practitioners and the victims' family members in Australia held a press conference. Mr. Li went to South Africa together with David Liang, the victim of the shooting. His wife Li Ying revealed to the media that her husband received threatening phone calls several days before leaving for South Africa. He was going to try to compassionately persuade the caller that such devious tricks were not good. But the caller again called two hours later, so they reported it to the police. Their van had visible Falun Dafa signs on it, and was damaged two months earlier near the Chinese Embassy. Its four tires were all slashed, all its windows were smashed, and the body was spay painted.

Currently, the world is watching this shooting in South Africa. Since Zeng Qinghong is the director of China's spy agency, it may be difficult for local police to solve this crime, especially as some individuals within the South African government have a close relationship with the Party. We hope the international community fully considers these factors and works together to find the perpetrator, and bring him to justice. We should seize this opportunity to eradicate terrorism form the whole world, and let justice reign.