Why Are Jiang Zemin’s Crimes Unpardonable and Cannot Be Forgotten?

(Minghui.org) After Jiang Zemin, former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), died on November 30, some people said we should no longer judge him since traditional Chinese culture values forgiveness. Such an opinion is a result of failure to distinguish crimes from mistakes. In fact, glossing over crimes has always been one tactic used by the CCP to cover up the tremendous harm it caused to the Chinese people in the past few decades. When the CCP suppressed Chinese citizens, forgiveness is not part of its vocabulary. When Jiang launched the persecution of innocent Falun Gong practitioners in July 1999 for their faith in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, he gave the order of “killing with no mercy”. 

If a person makes a mistake but does not violate the law, their victim may choose to forgive them and give them another opportunity to correct the mistake. However, if someone breaks the law and harms the innocent (such as murder), neglecting the crime would be a sin since doing so is no different from acting as an accomplice. It’d also send the wrong signal to others that committing crimes bear no consequences. This is why we must hold wrongdoers accountable and impose appropriate punishment. 

As the top CCP leader, Jiang gave away about one million square kilometers (390,000 square miles) of fertile land to Russia. His family has amassed a fortune of at least $500 billion. During his tenure, his policies also caused tremendous damage to natural resources and pollution to the environment. These debts he owed to Chinese people cannot be simply written off. 

Jiang rose to the top position by ruthlessly cracking down on the student democratic movement in 1989; his promiscuous lifestyle was disgusting; his ruling with corruption not only led to corrupt officials, but also resulted in nationwide moral decay – sex industry, gambling, drug dealing, and counterfeit goods. 

After Falun Gong was introduced to the public in 1992, its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance quickly drew numerous practitioners. Jiang was jealous of Falun Gong’s popularity and feared losing control of the people, so he launched the persecution of the peaceful practice in July 1999. He established the extrajudicial agency of the 610 Office to carry out his persecution. 

Jiang vowed to eradicate Falun Gong in three months and gave orders to “defame their [Falun Gong practitioners’] reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically” as well as “to treat torture death as suicide.” As of today, nearly 5,000 practitioners have been confirmed to have lost their lives to the persecution. The forced organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, in particular, is referred to by human rights lawyers as a new form of evil on this planet. 

Qin Hui, a Chancellor in the Song Dynasty, was notorious for persecuting his political enemy, General Yue Fei. After Qin died, people made a bronze statue of his kneeling down in front of Yue’s tomb. The statue stands today and serves as a lesson for later generations. Adolf Hitler died, but the crimes of Nazis were never forgotten and criminals were pursued regardless of where they lived. Similarly, Jiang’s crimes will not be forgotten. He and his accomplices will also be held accountable.