Understanding the Illegitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party's Laws

July 20, 2009 marks the ten-year anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong. I'd like to discuss the legal issues of the persecution, and to provide some perspectives to both Dafa disciples and the international community on the Chinese Communist Party and this persecution.

During the last few decades of the CCP's ( Chinese communist party) rule in China, the government has abandoned the law whenever such action serves its interest. When it needs the facade of the rule of law to be accepted by the international community, it passes new laws. It also requires that citizens follow the law blindly and fear the law, and states "Laws are tools of the ruling class." Chinese citizens are unable to judge the legitimacy of the CCP's rule itself.

There are issues of whether the law itself is kind or evil, whether the law conforms to the human nature of kindness, and whether the law protects basic human rights. In my personal opinion, if the law is used by a regime only as a tool to persecute innocent citizens and protect the rights of a few people with ulterior motives, then the law has lost its legitimacy.

I'll give an example. More than sixty years ago, when the Nazis were on trial in Nuremberg, all of the Nazi soldiers used the same defence. Those who enforce the law should not be punishable by law, and killing the Jews was enforcing the law, so the individuals should not be held accountable. Since ancient times, it has been widely believed that those who enforce the law are not punishable for their actions. What was different with Hitler was that he created a "perfect" system of persecution by law. He first established that the Jews be separated from the other ethnic groups. Secondly, he passed laws to prohibit Jews from engaging in business, depriving them of their wealth. Thirdly, he passed forced labour laws, sending the physically capable Jews to forced labour, so that they could be annihilated after they were exhausted. This was how six million Jews were killed. Yet all of this was done by Nazis following the law.

The judges were unsure what to do. They had to stop the trial and discuss the issue. If the judges agreed that the Nazis were following the law, then they would have no choice but to release them. If the judges disagreed with that defence, they must clearly articulate why.

Gustav Radbruch, a famous German philosopher, had a very penetrating statement on the concept of law. He said that law can be divided into superior law and inferior law. Superior law being based on human common rationality and displaying human dignity and rights, and inferior law dishonouring human rationality, ignoring human dignity and disregarding human rights. He asserted that inferior law was evil law, and evil law was not law at all.

The views of Mr. Radbruch were widely agreed upon by the judges. The judges believed that what the Nazis practiced was not the law, and that they committed a crime. When the trials opened again, the judges used this reasoning to defeat the Nazis' defense, completing the Nuremberg trials. Some of the perpetrators were hung, and others were sentenced to long prison terms.

In the case of the CCP, since it began the persecution against Falun Gong, the laws related to the persecution were passed for the sole purpose of persecuting Dafa practitioners who follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. The laws destroyed human morality and caused many innocent people to be killed. By their nature, they are far worse than the laws passed by the Nazis. Such laws are vicious and need not be followed. The legislative process to create those laws was actually a crime.
During the ten years of persecution, the CCP has used laws to send practitioners to labour camps and prisons, harass them, harvest their organs while they were still alive, and issue arrest warrants on Master Li. These are all criminal acts. More and more non-practitioner lawyers have stepped forward to defend Dafa practitioners. This has shocked the CCP and encouraged the common people. But why did the judges always rule that the practitioners were guilty? Of course this partly has to do with the fact that those who work in the criminal justice system in China are controlled by the CCP and have lost their sense of justice. But is there also a factor of Dafa disciples having an unclear understanding of the illegitimacy of the laws?

Master told us to deny all arrangements by the old forces. Shouldn't we also step out of the confines of the evil laws? Dafa disciples in China, those who support justice, as well as government officials outside of China, should understand that in the CCP dictatorship, there is no rule of law similar to that of Western democratic countries. The CCP's laws are illegitimate, and don't have the basic characteristics of laws.