A Third Party Commentary on Why Chinese Dictator Jiang Persecutes Falun Gong

As of July the 20th 2004, the irrational persecution of Falun Gong by Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin and his criminal gang has lasted for five years. Many people have a lot of questions about the suddenness of its initiation. One of the most commonly asked questions is, "Why did Jiang suppress Falun Gong?"

Most rational individuals would find it incredible that the Jiang group persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. How could such a huge country, with a population of 1.3 billion, millions of soldiers, and considerable international influence, forbid the existence of a group of people who believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" and have no interests in worldly pursuits?

Falun Gong practitioners themselves, as the direct victims, certainly wanted to know the answers, too. In fact, from the time Falun Gong was first suppressed in 1999, practitioners began to actively investigate and enquire into this issue. The media, academic circles in various countries, and many human rights organisations also collected massive amounts of information. Although the Party's decision-making process is for the most part hidden and many details remain unknown, a brief analysis of the facts that have been disclosed can easily lead to the conclusion that Jiang's suppression of Falun Gong was not initiated by the "4.25" event¹, in which 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners appealed in 1999. Jiang's suppression of Falun Gong originated out of his paranoia, hatred, and jealousy. It was and remains a persecution of Falun Gong practitioners' minds and bodies. The deeper reason for his paranoia and hatred was the crisis of belief within the Party itself.

Then, what kind of "belief" does Jiang have? Let's take a look at his own words.

"A Communist Party member should solidly establish a Marxist view. He should not believe in any religion. In addition, he should voluntarily promote atheism and help the populace to raise their consciousness. For those party members who participate in religious activities, we shall patiently educate them so that they gradually get rid of their religious fetters. For those party members who use religion to make a profit for themselves or even support or plan illegal activities, (we) must take serious disciplinary actions against them according to the party disciplines and the state laws."

- From Jiang Zemin's "Pay Serious Attention to National and Religious Work" on November 7, 1993 in Collection of Important Literature since the 14th National People's Congress, Volume I, Page 517

"We must emphasise that a Communist Party member is an atheist, regardless of his family background or nationality. He must persist in materialism and atheism. He should not believe in any religions."

-From Jiang Zemin's speech "On National and Religious Issues" on July 20, 1994 in Collection of Literature on Religion Work in the New Stage, Volume 1, page 287

At face value, these quotes don't seem to contain any fresh ideas. They are simply Party clichés. Considering their timing, however, it is not hard to sense crisis of belief within the Party and the anxiety of the rulers. The Tiananmen Square Massacare in 1989² toppled the Party's moral legitimacy. Anyone, party member or not, who still had some remaining conscience and basic analytical ability, realised the cruel nature of the Party. After that night, many people realised that the Marxism-Leninism and atheism that they had believed in for so many years were not universally applicable truths. The Party leaders have never denied that "the gun and the pen" (i.e. armed violence and deceitful propaganda) have been the Party's two mainstays since its founding in 1921. After June the 4th 1989, however, the ink in the Party's pen started to dry up, and many refused to write more lies.

Jiang, who lacked wisdom but was skilled in playing politics, had exhausted his creativity. Surrounded by a group of villains who were equally inept, what could they possibly put out? The following speech by Jiang exposed his "wisdom" to us:

"Marxism believes that all religions are just the fantastic imaginings of human brains to explain those external forces that control people's daily lives. For these people, the earth's natural forces take on a supernatural form. At first, the natural forces were reflected in various forms. Later, different nationalities variously personified these forces. In other words, because of human beings' limited knowledge, people at first were unable to understand many natural phenomena such as the movement of the celestial bodies and what caused wind and rain and natural disasters. They couldn't control their own destiny either. So they imagined some god who controlled their destiny. After religion emerged, on the one hand it became the spiritual sustenance of those ordinary people who led miserable lives. On the other hand, it was utilised by the rulers of the past. Marxism also believes that, as productive forces develop and as people understand more of the natural laws and are able to control their own destinies, religions will die out and eventually vanish."

- From Jiang Zemin's "Speech during Inspection in Xinjiang" on July 9, 1998 in Statements on Materialism And Atheism by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, published by the Central Literature Publishing House in 1999, page 100

The above statement by Jiang accurately and unmistakably expressed the Party's official definition of spiritual belief. According to this point of view, the general populace believes in God because of ignorance and a miserable destiny. On the other hand, knowledgeable or wealthy people believe in God because of their ulterior motive to use religious belief to deceive others and to consolidate their own status. To put it simply, a person who believes in God is either a fool or a swindler.

Such an absurd conclusion does not withstand even the simplest logical inference. Even Jiang himself does not believe it. How then should we categorise scientists and intellectuals such as Einstein, Newton and Li Shutong, an eminent monk in modern Chinese history? Jiang himself frequently goes to temples to burn incense and copies the Sutra of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha's Fundamental Vows at home. Why does he do so?

If we look at the above statement in another way and replace "religion" with "communist party cult" then it sounds more appropriate. To put it simply, a person who believes in communism is either a swindler with ulterior motives or someone who just mimics others without thinking independently.

Regarding the future of religious belief, Jiang asserted, "As the productive forces develop...religions will die out and eventually vanish." In other words, the ultimate goal of the economic development promoted by Jiang is to unite the Party with atheism and to eliminate any other religious beliefs.

Then why did Jiang choose Falun Gong as his number one enemy to attack? Let's use his own words to explain.

On April the 25th 1999, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji met with representatives of Falun Gong practitioners in Zhongnanhai and had an equal and friendly dialogue. He made a positive effort to remove the misunderstanding of Falun Gong in the government. That same night, however, Jiang wrote a letter to the high-level leaders in the Party and made a completely opposite decision. He wrote,

"Could it be possible that the Marxist theory of our communism, the materialism and the atheism that we believe in, cannot defeat what Falun Gong promotes? If so, wouldn't it be a big joke!"

- From "Letter of Comrade Jiang Zemin to the Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and Other Related Leaders")

In this letter, Jiang explicitly proposed that "the Communist Party" and "atheism" must "defeat Falun Gong." It was a forewarning of the bloody suppression of Falun Gong that would begin three months later. Documents have indicated that Jiang's intention to suppress Falun Gong can be traced back to 1996. When he discovered to his dismay that a book containing the principle teachings of Falun Gong called Zhuan Falun had become one of the top ten bestsellers and that the number of people practising Falun Gong was increasing rapidly, he had already decided to eradicate Falun Gong. He just hadn't found the right excuse yet.

On April the 25th 1999, when 10,000 practitioners went to the Central Government to appeal for Falun Gong, Jiang finally had his long-waited excuse. In the Political Bureau Standing Committee meeting, Jiang resisted all opposition and resolutely advocated the public suppression of Falun Gong. He took advantage of the cowardly and selfish mentalities of the other party leaders and rammed through the decision to suppress Falun Gong. On the 10th of June he specifically established the "6-10 Offices³" to persecute Falun Gong.

Many people thought that the massive appeal on the 25th of April was the reason for the persecution. Actually they did not see the whole picture. Let me give an example. Say a couple has a tense relationship. In a quarrel, the wife scolds her husband, so the husband slaps her face. The wife gets mad and calls the police to arrest her husband and they eventually divorce. Why do you think the marriage broke up? Was it the wife's abusive language, the husband's slap or the wife's phone call to the police?

According to the logic of Jiang's letter, the suppression of Falun Gong stemmed from the ideology: atheism criticised theism and materialism criticised idealism, and Falun Gong, he claimed, was a feudal superstition.

In 2000, Jiang Zemin discovered that using atheism as an excuse to suppress Falun Gong did not enable him to obtain either a consensus from the Party or widespread support from the public. So he started to seek out new excuses. In a conference, he offered a very strange theory to prove that suppressing Falun Gong would help to stabilise society:

"From the lessons that the Central Government has learnt from the downfall of the Soviet Union, we have decided to criticise various anti-Marxist thoughts, beliefs and theories; to recapture and strengthen the front-line of the proletariat ideology; and to disinfect the ideological domain. Falun Gong advertises 'Zhen, Shan, Ren (Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance).' This gives us an opportunity to start 'disinfecting.'"

- From Jiang Zemin's "Main Points in a Speech in an Important Conference" (2000)

Three messages were disclosed in this section of Jiang's speech. First, the Party was clearly aware of its crisis of belief and decided to attack those who no longer believed in it. Secondly, the so-called "disinfection" is actually a total ban achieved with naked force and violence. It is surprising that Jiang spoke of this so frankly and without reservation. Think about it: if he had only been talking about critiques or ideological discussions or logically convincing people, how could it possibly "cause violent unrest, even assassination, poisonous gas, explosion and such kinds of terrorist activities?" Thirdly, Jiang clearly knew of Falun Gong's principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance." He knew that Falun Gong practitioners were a group of peaceful citizens who would not "hit back when attacked or talk back when insulted." So he decided that "We could go all out to attack it" without worrying about the Falun Gong practitioners resorting to violence, no matter how they were treated.

Actually, if Jiang really wanted people to choose the "truth" that the Party publicizes, instead of conspiring against all kinds of qigong⁴, here is a simple way. Allow the non-party public to freely practice any type of qigong, as long as they don't violate the law. At the same time, vigorously organize Marxist-and-Leninist study groups among Party members. Create some kind of gymnastics based upon the habits of Marx, Lenin and the Chinese Party leaders so that the Party members can exercise together. According to the theory of the Party, the public is intelligent. When the people fully understand the mental and physical harm qigong is responsible for, when they see that all the party members in the Marxism-and-Leninism study groups are healthy and kind-hearted, then would Jiang still need to use violence to suppress qigong? It would be hard to stop people from joining in the Marxist-and-Leninist study groups. Marxism-and-Leninism might even spread all over the world.

This is such a good idea. Even if Jiang couldn't figure it out, what about his senior advisors Zeng Qinghong or He Zuoxiu? How come they couldn't figure out such a clever strategy? Wasn't He Zuoxiu a so-called "scholar"? Because everybody knew that it wouldn't work like this. Why? In the Party's words, feudal superstition is so deceitful that not only would the public get lost in it, but also the Party members in the Marxist-Leninist study groups would be confused by those "heretical beliefs." Then, who would listen to the Central Party Committee? Without its authority, the Party's survival becomes a problem. Without the Party, there would be no new China. If the Party were to fall, wouldn't China revert back to the extremely evil, old society? Wouldn't billions of people have to suffer again? What marvellous logic! The first half about the "deceitful" nature of feudal superstition is well recognized in China. The second half is a theory that was fabricated by the communists, who hoped that everyone would accept it.

In other words, the Party knew from top to bottom that it had no truth with which to attract anyone at all. It seized its power with guns. Any folk beliefs, even strange ones, as long as they were not what the Party advocated, were more attractive than Marxism or Leninism. The only advantage of studying Marxism or Leninism was to learn deceitful tricks, to join the Communist Party, and to get rich.

One of the many charges used by Jiang's group to defame Falun Gong was that Falun Gong "competed" for people's hearts. This "indictment" was a frank one and reflected certain facts. Otherwise it would be unnecessary for the chinese media the People's Daily to publish the news that "Communist Party members are forbidden to practise Falun Dafa" on its front page. I wish the Party's propaganda department would further explain how Falun Gong "competed" for people's hearts. This wording gradually disappeared and was later replaced by totally fabricated news such as self-immolation, suicide, murder and poisoning.

It is fairly easy to figure out that Jiang suppressed Falun Gong because he was so jealous of Falun Gong's popularity. At the same time that the number of cultivators grew so rapidly, he became less and less popular. He lost his senses due to jealousy, and this was the most foolish thing he has ever done.

There is an old saying, "The one who wins the hearts of the people wins the world." Jiang couldn't possibly be unaware of this saying, but he does not understand that people's hearts can only be won and not seized.

And what is Falun Gong's perspective on this persecution? As Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, said, "Never in history has someone who persecuted those with upright faiths ever succeeded." ("Coercion Cannot Change People's Hearts") The end result is set. It's only a matter of time before the persecution ends.

Terms:

[1] "4.25" event: On April the 25th 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing Appeal Office to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong and request the release of Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested. Premier Zhu Rongji had a friendly dialog with the representatives of Falun Gong practitioners and agreed to resolve the issue. The practitioners then peacefully left.

[2] "6.4" event: also called "Tian'an'men Massacre on June 4th". On June 4th, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party ordered the People's Liberation Army into Beijing to violently suppress the citizens who had been protesting peacefully for months for a less corrupt and more democratic system.

[3] "6-10 offices": an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

[4] Qigong - Chinese traditional exercices for cultivating "qi" or vital energy.