(Clearwisdom.net) Before July 20, 1999, Luo Gan, head of the Political and Judiciary Committee, and other officers, used their political power to persecute Falun Gong practitioners and to gain promotions or other benefits. Practitioners have compassionately, peacefully, and rationally tried many ways and many times to explain the facts about Falun Gong to the authorities. However, the persecution of Falun Gong has not stopped.

Although everyone knew that Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appealed to the government in Beijing on April 25, 1999, because of the "Tianjin Incident," Luo Gan ordered a relative, He Zuoxiu, to find a way to slander Falun Gong. Zhang Lichang, head of Tianjin City Secretarial Committee, ordered police officers to beat and arrest the practitioners who were clarifying the truth in Tianjin City. He also declared that he had the support of the authorities in Beijing.

Recently, the official news agency of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reported that Zhang Lichang had died. A reporter from Radio France Internationale (RFI) interviewed a Falun Gong practitioner about this incident and broadcast the following to Asia-Pacific and Paris on the morning of January 12, 2008.

RFI: Zhang Lichang was the head of the Tianjin City Committee for 10 years and was promoted to Beijing last year. There was a rumor that he committed a crime, but it wasn't confirmed. When Zhang was no longer in the spotlight, the CCP news agency reported his death at 68 due to a health problem on January 10, 2008. Tianjin City is the birthplace of the persecution of Falun Gong. Please listen to Zhang Jiaping, spokesman for Falun Gong in Paris, as he gives his view of Zhang Lichang.

Zhang Jianping: Zhang Lichang was the main person who persecuted Falun Gong. Everyone knew that the CCP used the incident of 10,000 plus people surrounding the Appeals Office of the State Council at Zhongnanhai as an excuse to persecute Falun Gong. Actually, what happened at the Appeals Office wasn't a planned event. The people were just there exercising their constitutional right to appeal to the State Council at Zhongnanhai. In simple terms, that is all there was to it. Tianjin authorities said that Beijing authorities ordered them to beat and arrest dozens of Falun Gong practitioners. This incident caused thousands of practitioners to go to Beijing to clear the name of Falun Gong.

RTI: Do you mean that if the initial incident had been resolved that practitioners would not have gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong?

Zhang Jianping: Yes, it just because Zhang Lichang took an aggressive and uncompromising stance to "never cooperate, never regret." The person in charge of the CCP Political and Judiciary Committee who wanted to promote Luo Gan ordered his relative, He Zuoxiu, to pose as a scientist and submit an article to a magazine published by the Tianjin Teaching Institute that slandered Falun Gong. However, Beijing television stations revealed that the article was not based on fact. But He Zuoxiu still used the article to slander Falun Gong in Tianjin.

Of course, everyone in China knows that the Secretary of the CCP strongly influenced the events in this incident. Zhang Lichang planned to persecute Falun Gong several times; he also organized some exhibitions that slandered Falun Gong.

According to Falun Gong statistics, Tianjin City ranks fifteenth in all provinces, cities, and autonomous regions in the number of practitioners who have died as a direct result of the persecution. Specifically, 44 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death, and over 12,000 practitioners have been illegally arrested, tortured, sentenced without trial, and sent to forced labor camps. Zhang Lichang was the person responsible for the crime of persecuting Falun Gong.

According to inside sources, the main perpetrators of the persecution of Falun Gong have brought karmic retribution to Tianjin City. For example, Song Pingshun, former director of the Public Security Bureau, secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee, head of the 610 Office, and under suspicion for acquiring over 100 million yuan through corrupt dealings, committed suicide in May 2007. Li Buojin, former chief of the Tianjin City Procuratorate and deputy director of the Public Security Bureau, was sent to jail in June 2006 for his involvement in corruption. Now, Zhang Lichang, head of the Secretarial Committee of Tianjin City, has died.

These incidents show what happens to people who have arranged and administered the persecution. They are also a warning to others who have persecuted Falun Gong--you might initially be promoted or gain other benefits from persecuting Falun Gong, but there is a heavenly principle that good is rewarded with good and evil provokes karmic retribution. I hope that the people who have participated or actively persecuted Falun Gong will take note of this.