[Minghui Net]
Just before the 2nd anniversary of the "April 25 Incident" in 1999, the Information Center for the Chinese Human Rights and Democracy Movement, headquartered in Hong Kong, publicly released two top-secret documents disclosing President Jiang Zemin's attitudes and intentions towards Falun Gong before the formal crackdown. The documents were authentic, judging from their contents. One of the documents was the text of a speech given by Jiang Zemin at the Central Politics Committee Meeting held on June 7, 1999. In this speech, Jiang claimed, "Falun Gong has a very deep political and social background. It even has a very complex international background... The Falun Gong event is the most serious incident that has happened since the political storm of 1989." He also related Falun Gong to "anti-China forces" and "hostile forces." On June 13, this document was distributed by the Central General Office of the Chinese XX Party (CGOCCP) to different levels of government offices as a top-secret document . (It was entitled "Top-Secret -- CGOCCP No.1999-30 'A Notice about CGOCCP's Publishing of Comrade Jiang Zemin's Speech at the Central Politics Committee Meeting Regarding Immediately Handling the Issue of Falun Gong.") On June 10 1999, the "Falun Gong Event Office", (later also called "Office 610") was expressly set up to monitor Falun Gong.
I joined the April 25 Central Compound Appeal and witnessed many things. I would like to do an historical review of the April 25 incident based on my personal experiences. I heard about the Tianjin incident from my parents on the evening of April 24, 1999. (Here I won't recount the Tianjin incident, since Minghui net has run many reports about it already.) My parents told me that on the following day they would go to the Appeals Department of the State Council to resolve the Tianjin incident, in which some practitioners had been beaten and arrested by police for trying to discuss and clarify a published article that unfairly slandered Falun Gong. I told them that I also wanted to go. My father made me aware of the following issues: The first was that whether I wanted to go or not was an individual decision and that I needed to be responsible for my own decisions. The second was that I should keep a benevolent heart and should not fight with the police. The third was that if people with ulterior motives came to stir up trouble while pretending to be practitioners, I needed to cooperate with the police and turn them in.
On the following morning, we left home at around 4am. We arrived very early so we stood only about 30 meters away from the front gate of the Central Compound on Fuyou Street. I looked around and saw practitioners standing in an orderly manner on the sidewalks. We even left the sloping banks of the sidewalk open for the convenience of blind people. There were so many practitioners present that I was not able to see the end of the line. At around 9am, I saw Premier Zhu Rongji coming out of the Central Compound.
Premier Zhu walked up to us. We moved in a bit. Some practitioners then reminded us that we should stand back and maintain order. Premier Zhu was more than 20 meters away from where I was standing so I was not able to hear what he said. After a few moments, I saw some practitioners raising their hands. I found out later that Premier Zhu was asking for representatives to speak with him in the Central Compound. Premier Zhu selected three practitioners and went back with them to the Central Compound.
The atmosphere there was very peaceful. Some practitioners said they saw a Falun in the sky when Premier Zhu went back to the Central Compound with the three practitioners.
There were policemen in front of us, standing 30 meters apart from each other. The police were very much at ease and sometimes they gathered together to chat. Sometimes, they went to the foot of the Compound's wall and sat down to take a break. They didn't maintain a constant watch on us, nor did they carry police batons or other weapons.
Sometime in the afternoon, the atmosphere suddenly became very tense. I remember that many armed policemen ran out of the Central Compound and stood 2 or 3 meters apart in front of us. Some practitioners said, "It seems that President Jiang Zemin is coming." I was very glad since I thought the problem would be solved if we had the opportunity to talk to our president directly. I believe many other practitioners had the same thought. Generally speaking, practitioners are trusting and they prefer to assume that other people are good. About 20 minutes after the police stood in proper order, several cars with dark tinted windows came through. I couldn't see the people inside the cars since the cars traveled south at a very high speed. Some practitioners said that one of the cars belonged to President Jiang Zemin. We could clearly see that Premier Zhu Rongji and President Jiang Zemin had different ways of dealing with the masses.
At around 9 pm that night, the word circulated that the problem had been solved and that we should leave. So in an orderly fashion, all of the practitioners quickly left the Central Compound.
The crackdown on Falun Gong started immediately after the April 25 incident. We heard in many regions that practitioners were driven out of practice sites and people were prohibited from practicing Falun Gong. The situation seemed to improve somewhat on June 14, 1999. However, later we found out that this was actually the prelude to a vicious scheme.
On the morning of June 14, I turned on the television and watched the morning news. The central television channel was broadcasting an article from the Xinhua News Agency entitled "The Speech from the Person in Charge of the Appeals Department of the General Office of the Central Government and the State Council after Handling Falun Gong Practitioners' Appeal." Here I excerpt some paragraphs from the speech --
1. "Recently, Falun Gong practitioners have heard some rumors such as 'The Public Security Department is going to launch a crackdown on Falun Gong', and, 'the XX Party and XX Youth League members will be expelled from the Party and they will lose their League or governmental positions if they continued to practice Falun Gong.' These are all nonsensical, demagogic rumors."
2. "The Party and the government always have a very clear attitude towards normal practices or exercises aimed at fitness and health. Now I'll repeat it again, different levels of governments have never forbidden any normal practices or exercises aimed at fitness and health. People have the freedom to believe and practice any of the practices and they also have the right to not believe or practice any of them."
Although the speech did say, "It is definitely not allowable to promote superstition, spread rumors, nor disturb social stability in the name of practicing and spreading exercises," all kind-hearted practitioners took this as the government's routine language that was used everywhere.
Now, in looking at the top-secret documents recently exposed in Hong Kong, I realize that the speech actually revealed a hidden conspiracy. It has been well-established that the Chinese government has a so-called "Office 610" dedicated to the persecution of Falun Gong. The Hong Kong document indicated that this office was first established on June 10, 1999. The way this office was named has significance. The Chinese usually name big historical events using numbers, such as "54 Movement" [Influenced by Russia's October Revolution, the May 4 Movement of 1919 was considered the first XX movement in Chinese history/translator], "77 Incident" [Japanese invasion on July 7, 1937/translator], and "64 Incident" [Chinese government brutally cracked down on the Chinese students' protest for democracy at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989/translator], etc. These numbers usually indicate the dates when the respective events occurred. "Office 610" no doubt was first established on June 10, 1999. Also, in order to prevent the public from figuring out the secret missions of some agencies based on the agencies' names, the Chinese government numerically names secret agencies as well. It seems that in the early stage, Jiang Zemin did not want his intentions to persecute Falun Gong to be noticed by local governments. Therefore, in the beginning, "Office 610" was not known under its current name of "Office of Persecuting and Preventing XX." But after the persecution began, the name itself has become an indicator of Jiang's early conspiracy.
Jiang does not have the talent to direct and manage the country, but he is good at playing politics. Right after "Office 610" was established on June 10, 1999, the Appeals Department of the Central Government sent out a public statement on June 14, 1999, "The rumor regarding the Public Safety Department persecuting Falun Gong has absolutely no basis," and "All government offices have never forbidden any normal exercise activities," etc.
On the basis of this statement, all Falun Gong practitioners maintained all of their activities openly in public without any vigilance. This allowed the government to very easily launch a secret investigation. After Jiang thought that he had garnered enough information about the "organizers," he initiated the brutal persecution.
But the dark forces led by Jiang were not aware that "A true Tao never has a fixed form," and didn't expect that practitioners would maintain their righteous minds to overcome Jiang's criminal actions. Due to the on-going persecution, more and more people have gradually become aware of Jiang's evil nature.
Men will reap what they sow. History will eventually justify those who stood by the truth and supported Falun Gong.
