I have participated in several signature collections outside China. All were personal activities. The signature collectors politely query the passerby in public, answer their questions, and fully respect their personal freedom of choice. The voluntary signature drive is meant for people to express their will. But in China, where all kinds of calamities have been occurring, such voluntary "signature" drives, like all other organizations and methods that are meant to speak out for people, have become Jiang Zemin and his follower's tool to arbitrarily enslave and humiliate people.
Anybody with a little bit of conscience knows that choosing to "cultivate one's mind and heart" is a human being's basic right, and that it is a reasonable and legal individual pursuit.
When Jiang Zemin increasingly felt that "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance" were out of tune with him, he would not spare a glimpse at people's basic rights and legal interests and started trampling them. He said, "I don't believe that I cannot fix Falun Gong." The heavenly--granted cultivation rights of a hundred million people were then cruelly deprived.
He imitated the "book burnings and burying Confucian scholars alive." [After Emperor Qinshihuang unified China in 221 BC, he ordered book burnings and burying Confucian scholars alive in order to secure his power. He believed that educated people would endanger his reign. Only agricultural books and fortune--telling related books were kept.] Pornographic and violent books and periodicals have flooded the market. The books that teach people to be good are burned. Why? It's simple. When they wildly criticize Falun Gong and expose the so--called "truth," people will not be able to find the original books to compare and will have to unwillingly listen to Jiang Zemin's "truth," smears and rumors.
There is no place to file complaints. The policemen and plainclothes agents stayed at all levels of the government Appealing Offices. They would admonish and brutally beat whoever came and mentioned Falun Gong. There is not even a place to speak up. In the end, they simply removed the Appealing Offices.
But they would have never expected that Falun Gong practitioners would firmly uphold the truth and cultivate "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance." They calmly faced the evil and offered salvation to people with compassion. Their speeches and activities were open and straightforward, and have touched heaven and earth.
Jiang Zemin and his followers are running amuck; human lives are nothing in their eyes. Wonton destruction of human lives is their routine. They first declared Falun Gong as "disturbing social stability" and an "[Chinese government's slanderous word omitted]," and then escalated the issue to "anti--Party, anti--State, anti--people" and "collaborating with western anti--China forces." They detained, savagely beat, and brutally tortured Falun Gong practitioners. They sent practitioners to forced labor camps and sentenced them to jail terms. Jiang Zemin secretly ordered, "Thoroughly discredit them [Falun Gong practitioners], financially destroy them, and physically eradicate them." "Torture them at will and as long as they are still breathing." "[Falun Gong practitioners] tortured to death are counted as having committed suicide." Over 160 upright and kind--hearted Chinese have been tortured to death simply because they would not give up their pursuit of happy and beautiful lives. Tens of thousands of people have been sent to labor camps or sentenced to jail terms. Countless families have been broken. Many families and friends are living in horror. This is the true picture of the human rights of thousands and thousands of peaceful citizens who simply want to be good people; they are barehanded and have no political pursuit under Jiang Zemin's dictatorship.
Falun Gong practitioners cultivate "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance." They have achieved "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance" in what they have been doing. In order to let more people know the truth, they have given up their personal interests and are promoting Dafa and revealing the truth with compassion and with their lives.
As the international support of human rights gets stronger and stronger, Jiang Zemin, who has done things offensive to Gods and reason, feels more and more a guilty conscience. Under his brutal dictatorship, in order to keep their posts, officials at different levels are unable to tell righteous from evil and are forced to be the executive tools in Jiang's persecution. The hands of Jiang and his criminal group have been stained with people's blood. They have committed monstrous crimes to the country and the people. Now, they are not content with hauling only their officials to go to hell with them, they want to haul the people of the entire country to be their guilty tools, to suffer for the faults of Jiang Zemin. This is the malicious purpose of the "million--signature" drive.
Jiang Zemin imposed his jealousy of Falun Gong and his self--inflated selfish desire onto the people of the entire country. If an official supports the righteous, follows his conscience, and is unwilling to persecute Falun Gong, then he has to be careful with his position. He may be replaced from the post, and even fired. When stopped on the street, if one doesn't want to speak badly of people as requested by policemen, then he cannot avoid a trip to the police station. If an ordinary person has his own mind, doesn't want to attend the "study class" [to learn the anti--Falun Gong materials], or doesn't want to "sign" [on the anti--Falun Gong petition], he may loose his job. If an elementary student doesn't want to sign, then two policemen would carry him and force him to sign. Some students who refused to sign have already been expelled from school or will be expelled.
"Signing" has become Jiang Zemin's way to trap good people. He has gone even further than "pointing to a deer, calling it a horse". [During Qin Dynasty (246B.C. ~ 206B.C.), Prime Minister Zhao Gao was plotting to rebel. He was afraid that other officials would not follow him. He made a test. He presented a deer to the emperor as a gift and told him, "This is a horse." The emperor laughed, "You are wrong. You are calling a deer a horse." When the people around were asked, some kept silent, some said it was a horse, and some said it was as deer. Then Zhao Gao secretly killed those who said it was a deer.] Today, Jiang Zemin is pointing to the righteous, calling it evil. The signature drive in such a brutal political environment has lost its meaning of polling. Instead, it is another solid piece of evidence of Jiang Zemin's vicious dictatorship.
A school with 2,000 students finished all of their signature collections within 20 minutes. This is the true picture of the "million--signature" drive. From this we can tell that people have been totally let down by the government. The government forces its people to sign as a mere formality. Isn't this a terrible sign?
It is said that Jiang Zemin is planning to take the signatures (which were collected under threats to take away ones' positions, jobs, and studies) to the UN Human Rights Meeting in Geneva, in order to prove his "best time of human rights." He has lost all sense of shame. Since Jiang could commit all manners of crimes in China and arbitrarily humiliate the pitiable Chinese, he thought he could deceive the international society at will as well. If the Chinese have indeed the most basic human rights, why doesn't Jiang Zemin invite a third party to come inspect China?
Whether one is righteous or evil, true or false, the people in the world have their own judgement. Jiang Zemin, who defiles public opinion, will not be able to escape from the punishment of the heavenly law.
March 3, 2001
Category: Perspective
