According to reports by AP, AFP, CNN, BBC, and others on October 1st, Beijing's public security officers and military police arrested more than a thousand Falun Gong practitioners who had gone to peacefully appeal in Tiananmen Square. The police beat the practitioners and stuffed them into police vans, and news reporters and others who were taking photographs or videotaping the appeal activities had their camera equipment confiscated and their film exposed. A number of tourists were utterly stunned by the brutality of the public security officers while other onlookers angrily chastised and tried to stop the public security officers from engaging in violence.
Prior to the October 1st PRC National Day, the Minghui Net website run by Falun Gong practitioners posted an open letter from Mainland Chinese practitioners entitled: "Jiang Zemin: Stop this Reckless Behavior that is Disgracing China." The letter said that if Jiang were to use October 1st as an excuse to step up the persecution, the Falun Gong practitioners in China would go together to Tiananmen Square to make a peaceful appeal. The reason behind this was that since July 20th of last year, every time a holiday or festival or a so-called 'sensitive' day rolls around, Jiang Zemin always gets the public security officers to go out and recklessly arrest Falun Gong practitioners. To date, tens of thousands of innocent practitioners have been captured, incarcerated, or sent for 're-education' through forced labor. Some detention centers and labor re-education camps use torture methods indiscriminately. Based on incomplete estimates, there have already been more than 50 Dafa practitioners, none of whom ever fought back, abused to death. Falun Gong practitioners feel that in today's world, as we enter the 21st century, Jiang Zemin's policy of brutalizing the people on such a large scale is writing an extremely shameful page in the history of the Chinese people.
Before this October 1st, Jiang Zemin and others were continuing to defame and harm Falun Gong and trying to prove that "The Persecution is Reasonable" on the one hand, and on the other hand, they were actively making arrangements for a further crackdown. According to reliable sources, on August 21st, China's Public Security Bureau held a secret nationwide Public Security governmental and judicial system teleconference to convey the spirit of Jiang Zemin's handling of the Falun Gong issue. Its key points were: step up the attack on Falun Gong; strive to eradicate it within three months. They were plotting to severely punish those they had determined to be the "backbone" practitioners prior to the National Day celebrations. At the same time, they also plotted to execute a batch of steadfast Falun Gong practitioners to attain the murderous goal of "kill one and warn a hundred." At the same time, they secretly used their power to order the Ministry of Finance to do a "secret appropriation of funds," one item of which was to be used to build a prison to incarcerate the masses of Falun Gong practitioners, and that item alone already came out to be about RMB 50 million (about US$6.25 million).
In September, the Public Security Bureau even formally issued Falun Gong persecution documents. Based on the direction of these documents, all the regions across China started to illegally round up and detain Falun Gong practitioners, secretly putting those who were steadfast in their faith into labor re-education, using torture to force practitioners to say that they were going to give up practicing cultivation, and so on.
For these reasons, Mainland Chinese practitioners issued this "Jiang Zemin" essay to warn Jiang not to disregard the livelihood of the people and the national interest and not continue "to behave so recklessly, with complete disregard for the facts, for the law, and for the system of government to turn a blind eye to the principles of the heavens and to the will of the people."
Moreover, Jiang Zemin is going against the advice of others and continues to treat Falun Gong as the enemy. He attempted to manipulate public opinion overseas under the banner of the "China Ministry of Public Security news source," taking parts out of context from two recent essays posted on Minghui Net discussing 'Fa rectification cultivation practice' and they were passing judgment on cultivation matters that they have no understanding of. They claimed that "these two articles are extremely incendiary" and that the Falun Gong founder is "supporting practitioners to go to Beijing," and so on and so forth. And, even with the vast majority of the central leadership opposing it, they took action in all areas (including Beijing). As a result, large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners who have faced harassment in their daily lives and their jobs from all sides over the past year decided to go to Tiananmen Square during the National Day celebration period to peacefully appeal and tell even more people in the world that "Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa." After going through more than 14 months of brutal persecution, the practitioners' peaceful actions today are completely reasonable and just.
Actually, over the past year, Falun Gong practitioners have stepped out to call for an end to the persecution at the risk of being arrested and abused, used a pure and compassionate heart to explain the reality of Falun Dafa to the people, and let people know the truth about the cruel suppression that Falun Gong has endured for over a year. This is not only for the sake of the survival and right to practice of the tens of millions of Mainland Chinese practitioners, but also for the stability of the society, the prosperity of the people, and the glory of the nation. This is completely different in kind from a few people playing politics for their selfish interests while sacrificing the welfare of the masses.
At present, Falun Gong practitioners all over the world are closely watching everything that is happening in China (especially Beijing). We, in conjunction with the practitioners in Mainland China, hereby call upon the Chinese government: stop Jiang Zemin and his cohorts on this path that is destroying the nation and hurting the people; stop their suppression of Falun Gong, return the good name of the founder of Falun Gong, and give back the vast numbers of peaceful, good-hearted practitioners a free and legal environment in which to practice.
Falun Dafa Information Center
October 1, 2000
