This article was first published in April 2004.
(Minghui.org) Wu Yi, head of the Chinese Delegation and China's Vice President; Bo Xilai, Minister of Commerce and Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of China's Central Bank arrived are scheduled to visit the U.S. April 20-25. This is Bo Xilai's first foreign visit as China's Minister of Commerce.
Due to His Disgraceful Human Rights Record, Bo Xilai's Visit to Germany Delayed
China's recently appointed Commerce Minister Bo Xilai had planned a visit to Germany for March 25, 2004. He would have encountered condemnation and the strongest possible protest for such a visit from Falun Gong practitioners in Germany, as well as human rights groups. They requested the German government to deny Mr. Bo entry. Following this, the Chinese government postponed his visit.
According to a Radio Free Asia report, Falun Gong practitioners and human rights organizations began protesting Bo Xilai's plans. In light of these activities in Berlin, scholar Zheng Zhihong from Zhejiang University in China told reporters, "As Falun Gong practitioners, we always support business exchanges between Germany and China, but Bo Xilai has a notorious human rights record."
Bo Xilai is currently the Minister of Commerce and the former deputy secretary for the Liaoning Province Party Committee, former Dalian City Mayor and Secretary of Dalian City Party Committee. After Jiang Zemin initiated the persecution of Falun Gong, Bo Xilai spared no effort to support this persecution. Bo Xilai, one of the main perpetrators, personally ordered and orchestrated the persecution of Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners in Liaoning Province. Zheng Zhihong also pointed out, "Bo Xilai is closely adhering to Jiang Zemin's decrees in regard to the persecution of Falun Gong."
Follow Jiang's orders to persecute Falun Gong; 103 tortured to death in Liaoning Province
After Jiang started persecuting Falun Gong, Bo Xilai spared no effort to follow Jiang's orders.
According to a Clearwisdom report, on December 8, 2003, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wu Yuan, a middle school teacher from Beilu, Lingyuan City, was persecuted to death by the Shenyang City Dabei Second Prison. His family received a notice from the Dabei Second Prison. Liang Xiuyu, Wu Yuan's wife went to the prison hospital and could barely recognize the emaciated figure of her husband. His low abdomen was completely bruised, there were areas of red dots on his back, his ears and nose were stuffed with cotton balls.
Falun Gong practitioner Wang Youju, a 64-year-old woman, was the former principal of the Wafangdian Hygienic School, Dalian City. She was also a Party member. On July 22, 2000, Wang was taken away from home by persons from the Gongji local police station and sent to the Wafangdian Detention Center, where she died on July 31 in the office there.
Falun Gong practitioner Zheng Wei, male, was illegally detained at the Dalian Labor Camp because of his firm belief in Falun Gong. The labor camp officials showed no sympathy for his physical handicap and tortured him brutally. He died shortly after his release in April of 2001.
Falun Gong practitioner Zou Wenzhi from Dalian City died at the age of 54 after being beaten and tortured by police, who were trying to force him to give up his belief in Falun Dafa. He was an assistant engineer in the Alkali Manufacturing Plant of the Dahua Corporation, Dalian City, Liaoning Province. He lived in Jinzhou District and started to practice Falun Gong in 1995. On October 16, 2000, when he worked in the company, he was asked to go to the company's security division office. Persons from Dalian City's Police Department, along with the company's security personnel, arrested and beat him. His body was covered with bruises and injuries from the beatings. The medical examiner verified that although the skin had not been broken, the flesh under the skin was all smashed. He had suffered severe damage to all of his organs, including his heart. His ribs were broken, as well.
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Sun Yan was electrically shocked by team leader Wan of the Female Division. The division head Han and the political head Tan directed inmates to beat Ms. Sun. She was stripped and sexually assaulted with a knotted rope. She was also hung up in a cell with her legs spread, and hot pepper inserted into her vagina.
Under the direction of then provincial governor Bo Xilai, the most severe persecution was committed in Liaoning Province. According to first-hand information, as of April 18, 2004, the deaths of 103 Falun Gong practitioners in Liaoning Province have been verified, which ranks number four among all of the Chinese provinces. Notorious places of persecution in Liaoning Province include the infamous Masanjia Labor Camp, the Dabei Prison, the Zhangshi Labor Camp, the Longshan Labor Camp and Dalian City Labor Camp. All of these places use extremely cruel torture methods on Falun Gong practitioners. At least three mental hospitals in Liaoning Province are designated to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They are the Tangjiafang Mental Hospital, the Yingkou Mental Hospital and the Lingyuan City Mental Hospital.
Dalian City, area of severe persecution
According to Clearwisdom reports, during his tenure as the mayor of Dalian City, Bo Xilai closely followed Jiang's persecution policies. He ordered two or three police officers to guard the door of each train compartment going from Dalian City to Beijing. They ordered every passenger to curse Falun Gong before they were permitted to board a train. Falun Gong practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal were arrested, tortured and fined, and some were sent to the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp.
Dalian City is one of the places in China where the persecution is most severe. At the writing of this article, it has been confirmed that 15 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death there. These only include cases where the process of persecution, the victim and persecutors have been verified. This number of confirmed deaths does not include cases where the details of the persecution are unknown. The sexual abuses at some labor camps, including the Masanjia Labor Camp and Dalian Labor Camp, are especially abominable. Dalian City Labor Camp was named "National Outstanding Work Unit in Education Reform Work." Dalian City's legal and law work units have fanatically persecuted Falun Gong, and the Department of Public Security was conferred the title of "Top Meritorious Team." Jiang Zemin then promoted Bo Xilai to be the governor of Liaoning Province.
Huge amounts of money spent in building a persecution base
A senior official from Liaoning Province's Judicial Department once said during a large meeting at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, "The money we've spent on dealing with Falun Gong has exceeded the cost of a war."
Su Jing, head of the Second Female Branch Camp at Masanjia, received a 50,000 Yuan reward for persecuting Falun Gong. In late 2001, the Longshan Labor Camp was awarded 400,000 Yuan for their "good job" in persecuting Falun Gong, and Zhangshi Labor Camp received 500,000 Yuan for persecuting Falun Gong. These numbers are only the tip of the iceberg.
According to official Chinese media, Liaoning Province's government invested one billion Yuan to re-construct the provincial prison system. More than 500 million Yuan was spent in the Masanjia area alone, located in Hong District, Shenyang City. The first prison region was finished in 2003. It covers 2000 mu (1 mu = 0.165 acres) of land, and the government moved the Dabei Prison and the Dabei Female Prison here. The Chinese government also announced the modernized prison region holds more than 10,000 prisoners. It is equipped with supermarkets and banks, and some parts are open to the public. The one billion Yuan investment caused a stir. An anonymous Chinese economist said, "For a province [Liaoning Province] with economic contributions ranking number seven in the nation and with large numbers of laid-off workers, I don't know how much this project is going to benefit the people. How authentic is the government's claim regarding humanitarian care, and how much are the open parts of prisons going to help the outside learn the true situation of human rights in China?"
Covering up the persecution with deceit
Ever since the persecution began, Jiang's group has been trying its best to cover up the persecution facts.
In October 2000, eighteen female Falun Gong practitioners were stripped naked and thrown into male cells at the Masanjia Labor Camp. After the incident was exposed in the international community, the labor camp officials invited foreign reporters to visit the labor camp and claimed there are no male cells in the labor camp. That lie was later exposed.
The 2000 United Nations Human Rights Report mentions many torture deaths of Falun Gong practitioners, and hundreds of cases of violence against female practitioners, as well as more than 400 other torture cases. The Special Rapporteur on Human Rights requested to investigate these torture cases, but the Chinese government's response was that the UN officials would be permitted to visit only a few designated prisons. This restriction was deemed unacceptable to UN officials.
Behind the Chinese authorities' propaganda is vicious brainwashing. The No. 2 Prison, Shenyang City Court and the People's Prosecutor are all aware of the death allotment of "20 people a year." If the number of deaths is below 20, no one will assume responsibility for it. Because of the quota's protective umbrella, the police and prison guards are free to relentlessly torture Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to give up their belief.
During World War II, the Nazis in Germany tried to cover up its persecution of the Jews, but during the post-war trials, their propaganda materials became incriminating evidence, as they were part of the effort to cover up these crimes. These materials are still on exhibit at museums in New York City, Washington, DC and many other places around the world.
During Bo Xilai's tenure as Mayor of Dalian City, as secretary of Dalian City Party Committee and as Governor of Liaoning Province, he frequently arranged for the persecution of Falun Gong during meetings and reports. According to investigations by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, Bo Xilai's arrangements for the persecution of Falun Gong include:
Corruption and cover-up
Overseas Chinese media have reported that Bo Xilai is not only financially corrupt, he also managed to procure a fraudulent Ph.D. degree from the Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. Xia Deren, the former president of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, was promoted to be the deputy governor of Liaoning Province and later mayor of Dalian City. During the Two Party Meetings in March 2003, the situation in Liaoning Province was summarized by some as, "Lots of laid-off workers, lots of jobless people, lots of social unrest, lots of migrant farmers, lots of filthy rich government officials, lots of government money lost, lots of highly ranked officials go to foreign countries to 'study,' lots of destitute people commit suicide, lots of clubs for the supremely rich, lots of people go to Beijing to appeal."
A-class criminals in the Nuremberg Trials
In the well-known Nuremberg Trials, Nazi war criminals were divided into A-class, B-class and C-class according to the crimes they had committed. Nazi military officers who had personally participated in the Jewish massacres were classified as C-class war criminals. The commanders who gave orders behind the scenes were classified as A-class war criminals. It was these A-class criminals who were sentenced to capital punishment, because if it had not been for these commanders behind the scenes giving the orders, the massacres wouldn't have happened. Those who initiated and directed the persecution of Falun Gong in China will not be able to avoid meeting justice for their evil deeds. It was Jiang Zemin who initiated the persecution of Falun Gong. Together with Luo Gan, Liu Jing, and Zhou Yongkang, these four are the major responsible individuals for directing it. Other officials who closely followed Jiang's orders, such as Bo Xilai, will not be able to escape justice either for what they have done in the persecution of Falun Gong.
Bo Xilai served with lawsuit
On April 22, as Bo entered Fairmont Hotel in Washington D.C. to attend a dinner banquet, he was served with a lawsuit for his genocide, torture, and crimes against humanity.
Jiang Zemin, the head criminal responsible for persecuting Falun Gong, has been charged with genocide, torture, crimes against humanity, deprivation of the right to life, and conspiracy. Lawsuits were filed in the U.S., Belgium, Spain, Germany, Taiwan, Korea and other countries. Bo Xilai and other followers of Jiang, including Luo Gan, Zeng Qinghong, Li Lanqing, Zhao Zhifei, Liu Qi, Xia Deren, Zhou Yongkang, Wu Guanzheng, Sun Jiazheng, Song Fatang, Yang Guanghong, Wang Donghua, Tang Xianqiang, Xu Youfang, Wen Shizhen, Song Shanyun were and are also subjects of lawsuits in the U.S., Belgium, France, Iceland, Finland, Moldova, Algeria, Spain, Taiwan, Korea and Germany.
In late January 2004, the Canadian Royal Mounted Police received a list of names of 45 people who initiated and actively participated in the persecution of Falun Gong, as well as evidence of the crimes that they have committed. The 45 people include Jiang Zemin, Li Lanqing, Luo Gan, Liu Jing, Zhou Yongkang, among others. The Canadian Royal Mounted Police has accepted the list of names and the evidence. It has been verified that they have added the persecution of Falun Gong in China into their official record and included it in Canada's Record of Crimes against Humanity and the War Crimes Program. If any individual who is suspected to have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong enters Canada, the Canadian police will immediately open an investigation and can take action against the said individual.
On March 9, 2004, WOIPFG and Friends of Falun Gong submitted to the US government a list of names of 102 Chinese government officials, including Jiang Zemin, Li Lanqing, Luo Gan, Liu Jing, Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai, who should bear most of the responsibility in the persecution of Falun Gong, and asked the U.S. government to bar them from entering the United States.