The TV Show "The Story of Li Hongzhi" was the First Part of the Three-Step Persecution Process

Background: The TV show "The Story of Li Hongzhi" was produced and shown under the direction of then-director of Wuhan TV Station Zhao Zhizhen. He was sued in the U.S. in July of 2004 for making propaganda films inciting hatred, violence, and genocide against Falun Gong. Zhao later tried to defend himself using the excuse of "freedom of press in China."

See:
http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200407/20867.html

The three-step persecution mentioned in the title of this article refers to the policy issued within the 6-10 Office (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) to oppress Falun Gong by "defaming their reputation, bankrupting them financially and destroying them physically."

On July 20th, 1999, Jiang Zemin's regime started the persecution against Falun Gong in China, which shocked the country and the whole world. Jiang Zemin claimed, "The Communist Party will defeat Falun Gong." The state organs massively tracked down and arrested Falun Dafa practitioners, while state-run media spread viciously fabricated rumours as propaganda to deceive people. They defamed and slandered Falun Gong in order to stir up hatred toward Falun Gong among the masses.

At that time the most destructive propaganda was a TV program called "The Story of Li Hongzhi." This show, consisting of fabricated lies was broadcast continually to the entire country and even to the whole world during that period. Millions of people who did not know the truth were poisoned by it. The person who fabricated this TV show of fabricated lies was Zhao Zhizhen.

Zhao Zhizhen was the head of Wuhan TV Broadcast Station. At that time, the public security department asked the head of Wuhan TV Broadcast Station and reporter Song to make TV programs critical of Falun Gong and to defame Falun Gong's founder Mr. Li Hongzhi. Therefore, making this TV program was based neither on freedom of speech nor on the freedom of the press. It was carried out as part of the plan to persecute Falun Gong and based on the needs of the political persecution.

To produce the TV program, Zhao Zhizhen went to Beijing, Changchun, and other places to conduct "interviews and investigations." The show content consisted entirely of distorted facts and fabricated false impressions, spliced in or quoted out of context in order to defame and attack Falun Dafa and Master Li. Here we expose to the public what we have learned of Zhao Zhizhen's activities:

1. Who were the people that Zhao Zhizhen interviewed and used as the witnesses in the TV show?

Zhao Zhizhen found and interviewed Li Jingfeng and Li Jingchao, who were brothers. The elder of the two worked as a guide in the Beijing Military Museum and the younger an employee of a factory in Changchun City. These brothers were among the students of Master Li in the early times. To introduce Falun Gong to the public and support the nation's large-scale Qigong events, Master Li had led some students to take part in the Oriental Health Expos in Beijing and had treated illnesses for the people there, with miraculous results. Li Jingfeng and Li Jingchao were attached to fame and profit, and they treated people's illnesses on their own behind Master Li's back, charging money for the treatments. Their conduct was not in accordance with the requirements of Falun Dafa practitioners and undermined Falun Dafa. Master Li mentioned in early lectures,

"No genuine Falun Dafa disciples should treat illnesses for others. Once you treat an illness, all things in your body from Falun Dafa will be taken back by my fashen." (Zhuan Falun)

Falun Dafa is serious. Cultivating Falun Dafa is serious. Master Li had declared at that time that the brothers were no longer Falun Dafa disciples. The brothers were destroyed by their own attachments to fame and profit.

Although Li Jingfeng and Li Jingchao regretted their actions, they did not recognise their mistake. Instead, they harboured hatred in their minds toward Master Li and waited for a chance to take revenge. Zhao Zhizhen, driven by his purpose of defaming and slandering Falun Dafa, found and interviewed Li Jingfeng and Li Jingchao and chose them as his false witnesses. They readily cooperated.

2. Zhao Zhizhen took advantage of his power as the head of Wuhan TV Broadcast Station to use "The Light of Science and Technology" program for his excuse. He fetched a position in the Central TV Broadcast Station as a reward. Zhao Zhizhen and the Central TV Broadcast Station fabricated and produced this TV show together.

In fact, since July 20th, 1999, the TV show "The Story of Li Hongzhi" has been broadcast repetitively by the Central TV Broadcast Station and all the provincial, city, and local TV broadcast stations. It became the biggest artillery shell for Jiang's regime at the time to oppress Falun Gong and persecute its practitioners. It also became the basis for other attacks on Falun Gong and a psychological weapon the 6-10 Offices used to brainwash and persecute practitioners. It has poisoned millions of people who did not know the truth and stirred up their hatred toward Falun Gong.

Since July 20th, 1999, at least 21 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death in Hubei Province. Among them, practitioner Peng Min of Wuhan City was tortured to death on April 6th, 2001. He was only 27 years old. When Peng Min was illegally detained in the Qingling Detention Centre of Wuchang City, he was brutally beaten for persistently studying the Falun Gong teachings and practising the exercises. There were injuries all over his body. On January 9th, 2001, brutal torture against him resulted in a fracture at his fifth vertebra and compression fractures of his cervical vertebrae. He was paralysed by the torture, and only then was his mother allowed to take him back home. Just when Peng Min began to recover slightly at home, he was forcibly abducted again by more than 30 policemen from the riot squad team of the city's police department. He was abducted and taken to the 7th Hospital of Wuhan City for so-called "treatment." During the period when Peng Min was detained in the 7th Hospital, the hospital, under the instigation of the 610 Office and the Police Department, openly ignored Peng Min's condition of being on the verge of death, and notified Peng Min's family that he would not be released from the hospital unless he was dead!

3. On the issue of broadcasting "The Story of Li Hongzhi," Zhao Zhizhen acted wilfully, deceived practitioners, and insisted on doing evil.

In June 1999, before the massive persecution started, Falun Dafa practitioners learned that Zhao Zhizhen had produced the deceitful TV show. They made phone calls, and sent faxes and mail in abundance to the Wuhan TV Broadcast Station. They sincerely pointed out that the content of the TV show was not truthful, and requested that Wuhan TV Broadcast Station report only the truth. At the same time, many practitioners in Wuhan City and other places also went to Wuhan TV Broadcast Station to ask them not to air the TV show. The practitioners quietly waited in the hall on the first floor of the TV station building, but the head of the station did not meet them. Later the TV station even drove the practitioners out of the door. All the practitioners stood outside of the door calmly and without over reacting.

As more and more requests to stop the broadcast came in from across the country, Falun Gong practitioners in Wuhan City worked to stop the broadcast. Some practitioner representatives went to talk with the personnel in charge of the office for Wuhan TV Broadcast Station's editor-in-chief. The personnel replied, "We will not air it. It will not be aired." Some practitioner representatives went to the Wuhan City Police Department and requested that the broadcast be stopped. The person who met with the representatives was a division head, and he said, "It will not be broadcast." Some practitioner representatives made contact with the Wuhan Mayor's office and requested that the municipal government stop the TV station from broadcasting the deceptive TV show. A government leader who replied on the phone answered, "We do not know the situation. We will investigate."

But, because of Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan's orders, the fabricated TV show by Zhao Zhizhen was finally included as part of the persecution, and was broadcast nationwide beginning in the second half of July, acting as an integral part of the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong.