SOS China Chapter 25

The Communist Party Considers Falun Gong’s Theism a Threat to the Legitimacy of the Communist Regime

A true theistic belief is bound to be a significant challenge to the Communist Party. Because the legitimacy of the Communist regime was based upon the so-called “dialectical materialism” and the wish to build a “heaven on earth,” it could only rely on the leadership of the “vanguard in the world,” namely, the Communist Party. Meanwhile, the practice of atheism enabled the Communist Party to interpret freely what is virtuous and what is good or bad. As a result, there has been virtually no morality or distinction between good or bad to speak of. All that people have to remember is that the Party is always “great, glorious and correct.”

However, theism gives people an unchanging standard of good and bad. Falun Gong practitioners evaluate right or wrong based on “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.” This obviously hinders the CCP’s consistent efforts to “unify people’s thinking.”

Continuing with this analysis, there are still many other reasons. However, any one of the above five reasons is fatal to the CCP. Actually, Jiang Zemin suppresses Falun Gong for the same reasons. Jiang Zemin started his career by lying about his past, so of course he is afraid of the “truth.” Through suppressing people, he quickly became successful and powerful, so of course he dislikes “compassion.” He maintained his power through political struggles inside the Party, so of course he dislikes “tolerance.”

From a small incident we can tell how extremely petty and jealous Jiang Zemin is. The Museum of Hemudu Cultural Ruins [4] in Yuyao County (now reclassified as a City), Zhejiang Province is a major historical and cultural site under state conservation. Originally, it was Qiao Shi [5] who wrote the signature inscription for the Museum of Hemudu Cultural Ruins. In September 1992, Jiang Zemin saw Qiao Shi’s inscription when he visited the museum and his face turned dark and gloomy. The accompanying personnel were very nervous, as they knew that Jiang could not stand Qiao Shi and that Jiang liked to show off so much that he would write an inscription wherever he went, even when he went to visit the traffic police division of the Public Security Bureau in Jinan City and the Zhengzhou City’s Retired Engineers Association. The museum staff dared not slight the petty Jiang Zemin. Consequently, in May 1993, under the excuse of renovation, the museum replaced Qiao Shi’s inscription with one of Jiang’s before the re-opening.

Mao Zedong is said to have “four volumes of profound and powerful writing,” whereas the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping has a “cat theory” [9] with a flavor of practicality. Jiang Zemin exhausted his brain but could only come up with three sentences, yet he claimed to have come up with “Three Represents.” It was published into a book and promoted by the CCP through level after level of government organizations, yet it only sold because people were forced to buy it. Nevertheless, the Party members still didn’t respect Jiang Zemin even a little bit. They spread gossip about his affair with a singer, the embarrassing episodes of his singing “O Sole Mio” when he traveled abroad, and combing his hair in front of the King of Spain. When the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi, who was born an ordinary civilian, gave a lecture, the lecture hall would be filled with professors, experts and Chinese students studying abroad. Many people with doctorate or masters degrees flew thousands of miles to listen to his lectures. When Mr. Li lectured eloquently on the stage for several hours, he did it without using any notes. Afterwards, the lecture could be transcribed on paper and made into a book to be published. All these things were unbearable to Jiang Zemin, who is vain, jealous and petty.

Jiang Zemin lives an extremely lavish, lustful and corrupt life. He spent 900 million yuan (over $US 110 million) to buy a luxurious plane for his use. Jiang often drew money from public funds, by the tens of billions, for his son to do business. He used nepotism to promote his relatives and minions to high-ranking posts above the ministerial level, and he resorted to desperate and extreme measures in covering up for his cronies’ corruption and crimes. For all these reasons, Jiang is afraid of Falun Gong’s moral authority, and even more is he afraid that the topics of heaven, hell, and the principle of good and bad being rewarded accordingly, as addressed by Falun Gong, are indeed real.

Although Jiang held the greatest power in the CCP in his hands, since he lacked political achievement and talent, he often worried that he would be forced out of the power amidst the CCP’s ruthless power struggles. He is very sensitive about his status as the “core” of the power. In order to eliminate dissension, he plotted underhanded schemes to get rid of his political enemies Yang Shangkun and Yang’s brother Yang Baibing. At 15th National Congress of the Communist Party Committee (CPC) in 1997 and the 16th National Congress of the CPC in 2002, Jiang forced his opponents to leave their posts. Yet, he, on the other hand, ignored the relevant regulations and clung dearly to his post.

In 1989, the new Secretary General of the CCP Jiang Zemin held a press conference for both domestic and foreign reporters. A French reporter asked about the story of a female college student who, because of her involvement in the June 4th student movement in Tiananmen Square, was transferred to a farm in Sichuan Province to carry bricks from one place to another and was raped repeatedly by the local peasants. Jiang replied, “I don’t know if what you said is true or not, but that woman is a violent rioter. Even if it were true, she deserved it.” During the Great Cultural Revolution, Zhang Zhixin [10] was subjected to gang rape and her throat was sliced open (to prevent her from revealing the truth) when she was detained in prison. Jiang Zemin would probably also think that she deserved it. We can easily see Jiang Zemin’s scoundrel-like deviant mentality and cruelty.

In summary, Jiang Zemin’s hunger for dictatorial power, cruelty, and fear of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” are the causes for his irrationally launching the campaign to suppress Falun Gong. This is highly consistent with the way CCP operates.