As a veteran Party member, I have gone through quite a few tests of political campaigns. Nevertheless, I have a lot of doubts about the brutal campaign, initiated by Comrade Jiang Zemin ("Jiang" for short in the rest of the article), to suppress Falun Gong. I'd like to invite those who are concerned about our country and our people, to analyze carefully and reflect together on the problems involved in it.
- Policy-making procedure
- Motivations involved
- Investigation of Falun Gong
Jiang raised the Falun Gong issue to a height of Party and national doom. If it is really so, in making decisions on such an important issue, a plenary session of the Central Committee should be held, or at least members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau who are present in Beijing should be summoned to discuss it, and then carry out a decision when consensus is reached. This is the procedure specified in the Party constitution and nobody has the right to abuse it. However, in dealing with the Falun Gong issue, none of the above procedures have been followed. The campaign was totally based on a letter to the members of the Standing Committee, which was written by Jiang. Moreover, this letter was transmitted to the whole Party simultaneously when it was sent to the members of the Standing Committee. From then on, all decisions about how to deal with the Falun Gong issue have been made by Jiang alone, with no collective decision at all. As for the event of "4.25", that the masses gathered to appeal to authorities due to conflicts in practicing exercises, it should be handled by the leaders of the State Council, because one of the State Council's functions is to handle such issues. In dealing with such an issue, which is of vital importance to the nation's economy and the people's livelihood, Jiang arbitrarily ignored the collective leadership of the Central Committee and imposed his own viewpoints upon the members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and the National People's Congress. This is an act of extremely monopolizing power and replacing the Party and the law with himself.
The reason why Jiang made such an issue out of Falun Gong lies in his conspiracies: at a session of the Political Bureau, Jiang once said, "Although I was acknowledged as the core of the third generation of leaders, such a core hasn't been formed yet" (not the exact words). In recent years, Comrade Rongji has achieved great success in handling both international affairs and domestic government affairs, which has earned him prestige higher than Jiang's. Comrade Ruihuan has enjoyed the ardent support of the people because of his capability, pragmatic style and caring for the people. In contrast, Jiang has forfeited popular support and prestige because he was slack in handling the issue of the bombed embassy (in Yugoslavia), because he was not strict in countering corruption and checking unhealthy tendencies within the Party, and because he didn't employ the proper policies on the Taiwan issue, etc. Therefore, Jiang seized on Falun Gong, which the other leaders supported or knew about, and made an issue of it, with an intention to display his high level understanding of Marxism and seek political advantage in the Party, and simultaneously retaliate against premier Zhu and other leaders through so-called "political problems". Earlier, he couldn't wait to instigate the Propaganda Ministry of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to put up his huge photo alongside those of Chairman Mao and Comrade Deng Xiaoping. He has been engaged in individual worship, which Comrade Deng Xiaoping strongly opposed.
Jiang has never done any objective or thorough investigation of Falun Gong, let alone realize that Falun Gong enjoys the ardent support of people because it values self-cultivation and nurtures virtues, especially when the general mood of society is not, currently, following the correct path. In fact, lots of people in the departments under the Party Central Committee are practicing Falun Dafa. Before last year, Jiang paid no attention to the feedback from the relevant departments and the letters written by some veteran comrades. On the day "4.25", he sat in a police car and had a look around Fuyou Street, which he called an investigation. After that, he wrote a letter and gave instructions, making irresponsible comments that there was someone plotting and controlling behind the scenes (implying that some leaders in the Central Committee supported it), that it was a trial with guiding principles, premeditated, political background, etc. He thus made the wrong judgment toward the peaceful collective appealing of practitioners. This mistake would surely lead to the dissatisfaction of the common people. In response, Jiang carried out his suppression campaign. He whipped up the propaganda machine to confuse right and wrong so as to conceal the truth and deceive the populace who didn't know the truth, which was another mistake after the initial one. To be exact, it is Jiang's own mistakes rather than that of the Party or the collective leadership of the state that pushed Falun Gong practitioners to the opposite position of the government and thus created this historical unjust case.
- Way in handling this issue
- Management method
- Consequences caused
Jiang showed duplicity and was malfeasant in handling the issue of Falun Gong. On one hand, when he requested to transmit the letter about "4.25" he wrote to the members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau to the whole country immediately, in an attempt to force the other leaders of the Central Committee to express their consent by creating an atmosphere; on the other hand, he specifically requested that in transmitting the letter to local governments, local authorities should express the spirit of the letter in their own words out of their own comprehension, and not read the letter or mention that it was from Jiang. He demanded that the general office of the Central Committee fax the letter out as a top-secret document and then destroy all the relevant documents, even the original letter. It can be seen from this that he had a guilty conscience, fearing to be caught or to take the historic responsibility for this offence. After "4.25", Jiang brought huge pressure to bear on the general office and the Central Committee of Politics and Law. Meanwhile, he personally dispatched personnel to many places to fabricate evidence secretly and even bribe liars to attack Falun Dafa; he also mobilized public security personnel and armed police in preparation to suppress practitioners at any moment by force. However, on June 9, he arranged the Office of Letters and Calls (i.e. letters of complaint from the people and the calls they make to lodge complaints/by translator) to openly 'refute a rumor' to the world: "it is absolutely a rumor out of thin air, confusing the people's minds, that 'the Public Security Department is about to suppress the practitioners, that Party members and cadres who practice Falun Gong are about to be dismissed from the Party and their positions'." and promise that "anybody can participate in any health-improving activities and exercises". Forty days later, on July 19, such a 'rumor' that he had just refuted was declared to be official regulations and was issued in the form of formal documents. A horrific political campaign along with armed suppression was launched nationwide. Such contradictory, self-deceiving conduct of a hypocrite not only shocked the other leaders of the Central Committee, but also humiliated China in front of the people of the world.
People practice Falun Gong to improve their health. Such an issue, at the most, is just an issue of personal belief. Ideological issues can only be resolved by achieving consensus in opinions and understandings, and should never be treated rashly with armed suppression. Just think, an ordinary worker with no power or influence can bring about a complete theory by which hundreds of millions of people around the world, including numerous scientists and scholars, are sincerely and spontaneously convinced in their hearts. Such a theory cannot be just something ordinary. In contrast, as the ruling party in control of the entire national propaganda machine, when we want to promote a point of view, we still need to propagandize it and force people to study it, and even so, the public may not accept it. The fact that so many people spontaneously and resolutely want to study Falun Gong proves that it is really a good thing. It is never the style of our party but the most foolish and inept behavior to seal off public opinion and constrain people's beliefs. The people's hearts are not earned by dismissing, cracking down, sentencing, torture, and psychological intimidation. These extreme measures can only alienate their hearts. Why should we, the 'party of people', fear the people? People trust us, so they appeal to us. Hence, we should greet them warmly, specially assign personnel to hear their voices, patiently answer their questions, sincerely solve problems for them, and do our work on behalf of the people. Only in this way can we do well in serving our country. If the leader goes against popular sentiments, if he is condemned by both overseas and domestic people and cannot face the people, how can he still be a leader and guide the country?
Because of Jiang's erroneous decision, our Party and government are in a very passive situation in dealing with the Falun Gong issue, and have no way to extricate. People are hurt and the treasury is drained, with no easy end in sight. Last year, Jiang mistakenly evaluated the situation and planned to resolve this issue before October 1999. In the end, not only did he fail to resolve it, but also a lot of people went to appeal. Jiang added to his initial mistake with more mistakes in letting the army, police, secret agents, and public security personnel take over the Office of Letters and Calls, arresting the people who went there to appeal, and suppressing them as if they were enemies and criminals, resulting in more discontent among the people. This year he had to deploy blockage after blockage, arrest group after group (as a rough estimation, there have been tens of thousands of people sentenced to jail or labor camps for practicing Falun Dafa all over the country. Most of them were backbone and excellent people of their former work units. Currently, even on the internal computer network of the Public Security Department for ordering circularly the arrest of a criminal at large, most of the storage was used to hold the information of Falun Dafa practitioners, including senior females and middle school students.). Furthermore, he transferred the contravention to local authorities by punishing local leaders who failed to prevent the people from appealing, causing a lot of trouble to administrative leaders at all levels nationwide such that their complaints were heard everywhere. Now, many non-practitioners are also indignant and strongly against such a 'far left' way. In fact, the cause of the problem was Jiang's erroneous decision; his persisting in going his own wrong way resulted in the current situation, induced huge losses to the Party and the country, and brought severe sufferings to a multitude of people. It is really devastating to our Party and our country!
All of us Party member's, civil servants, should reflect upon this: our goal is to seek welfare for people; we can only exist by linking ourselves with people as close as flesh and blood. Thus, only through treating them kindly, complying with their wills, and resolving their discontent, can we earn the hearts of people, receive cordial support from them, and have a stable country. Only a fatuous and corrupted ruler will regard the people as enemies, and his fate is destined to be in great danger.
October 1, 2000
