June 23, 2001
In the past seven days, we have learned of 7 Falun Gong practitioners who have died in police custody.
One of those was a man named Zhang Shengfan. Zhang Shengfan was said by his neighbors to be a friendly, witty man. Small and thin, he was disabled, and could only walk with the help of a cane. He made a living tutoring children in his home. Just over a week ago police drug him from his home, manhandling him as easily, according to eyewitnesses, as though he were a sparrow. In the police van the police could be seen beating him as though they were in a frenzy. At the police station a badly battered Zhang Shengfan was seen being unloaded. A few days later his family was notified of his death.
Why did the death of Zhang Shengfan occur? Why, that is, except of course for the obvious reason that he was a practitioner of Falun Gong in the China of Jiang Zemin? Zhang Shengfan's hometown of Shuangcheng City had, just before his death, implemented a new law just announced by the Chinese government. That law specifically targets Falun Gong, which it describes as a "reactionary political organization." In explaining this label, the Chinese government has claimed that Falun Gong "colludes with western anti-Chinese forces" and is a "tool being used by the Taiwan independence group." With the announcement of this law, the government called for an even greater intensification of the persecution of Falun Gong. Zhang Shengfan appears to have been the victim of this new law and this new campaign.
In a society such as China, the new labels being attached to Falun Gong are of the greatest importance. Jiang Zemin appears to be leading his country backwards into the madness of the Cultural Revolution, when good people throughout China were branded as enemies of socialism, as reactionaries, and as anti-Chinese. Jiang Zemin originally claimed that the campaign against Falun Gong was a campaign against superstition. With each failure of his campaign Jiang has made the government's rhetoric more extreme, and the ever more extreme rhetoric has justified ever more extreme measures. How far he has come. Now he wants to claim that the persecution of Falun Gong is a political struggle. In doing so he has signaled to those who do his bidding that Jiang is now leading them into something like a war - if one can call "war" the violent persecution by a totalitarian state of a non-violent and defenseless minority.
This week has been a bad one, perhaps the worst since the persecution began. However, the bad news this week has brought is only an extension of trends that have been in motion all year, as the death rate has increased with each new campaign announced by Jiang Zemin. In June, 2000, after one year of persecution, we knew of 67 practitioners who had died. We now know of 229 deaths, an increase of 243% in one year.
So, what happened to Zhang Shengfan is not anything new. But the reasons given for what happened to him are new. Why has Jiang Zemin ordered this newest intensification of the persecution, and adopted this Cultural Revolution style rhetoric? The answer is simple. The people of China have stopped believing the propaganda against Falun Gong. They know that Falun Gong is good. They know that Falun Gong is not political. And they know that the government has been doing something very wrong. The raising of the level of violence in China that occurred this week is the reaction of a government that knows it is losing the hearts of the people, and that only knows of one way to respond - to increase the killing. All of those who support Falun Gong around the world have to understand that the situation in China is now suddenly more dangerous than ever before, and have to expect that for the moment things will only get more violent and more brutal.
The practitioners of Falun Gong know of only one way to respond to the government's persecution. That is to remain faithful to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance; to practice non-violence; to appeal to the Chinese government that it obey its own laws and honor the fundamental rights of its people; and to appeal to governments and kind-hearted people around the world for support and for help in bringing this terrible time to an end.
At today's press conference we are thrilled to have as our honored guests three women each of whom suffered from this persecution, undergoing arrest, detention, and abuse, but each of whom were released and allowed to return their homes in the United States and Canada due to international protest. Their presence with us here today gives dramatic evidence of what can be achieved when governments and people of conscience around the world work together to support the practitioners of Falun Gong in their legitimate demands that China respect their fundamental human rights.
Let us today remember Dr. Teng Chunyan, the U. S. permanent resident and Falun Gong practitioner arrested in China and now serving time in one of the hellholes they call labor camps. She was arrested for shooting video that exposes the way in which doctors in China are torturing practitioners in mental hospitals. Let us work tirelessly until we bring Dr. Teng Chunyan home.
Category: April 25 Events
