(Minghui.org) Among the intellectuals in China that I came across over the years, the majority of them no longer identify with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its tyranny. Some have also spoken up for Falun Gong practitioners and voiced their support.
College President: “Falun Gong Is Amazing!”
The president of my college is a renowned scholar in the nation and a close friend. He often made fun of me for being overly stubborn and proud. His wife taught human relations and advised me to read some books. I asked him how many books I’d have to read in order to become a sociable person. “For someone as stubborn as you, reading 20 books would still be far from getting results,” he teased me.
But after I took up Falun Gong, my friend was amazed to see how I became considerate and overcame my bad temper by just reading one book, Zhuan Falun, the main teaching of Falun Gong.
Having witnessed my changes, he said in public several times after the persecution started in 1999, “Falun Gong is just amazing! Jiang Zemin (the former CCP head who launched the persecution) will be held accountable for banning it.”
Later on, a female lecturer in our college and her husband, an attorney, went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. They were arrested and put in forced labor camps. Their 7-year-old son and her 79-year-old mother-in-law had to fend for themselves. The president used all his connections to get the female practitioner out of the labor camp. He even got back her salary that had been suspended by the authorities when she was incarcerated.
As I also went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, the school authorities banned me from teaching for two years. The president again used his connections to get me back to teaching a year earlier.
When the school was reviewing promotion applications in 2001, a lecturer said that he should be considered before me since he didn’t practice Falun Gong.
“What’s wrong with practicing Falun Gong?” The president countered right back, “How could you stab people in the back? Her teaching and research performance is actually better than yours.”
At the performance assessment meeting that year, the president said, “Falun Gong practitioners should be treated equally. Falun Gong practitioners in our college are role model teachers and demonstrate high moral values.”
He also praised Falun Gong in a small meeting the year after, “It has not been very long since Falun Gong was introduced to the public, but it has won people’s hearts and the government can’t stop it at all. The Communist Party needs to reflect on what they did. The relationship between its officials and the people is like water and fire – completely opposite of each other.”
Because of his support for Falun Gong, the president has been blessed with good health. He had a heart bypass operation 20 years ago, but he is still healthy and energetic, even though he is approaching 80.
Intellectuals Stay Away from the CCP
I visited one of the top 10 universities in China in 2003 and sat in several famous professors’ lectures. None of them praised the CCP but instead criticized it. One Ph.D. supervisor said at a 30-person class that the CCP has no legal basis for its reign in China. He likened the CCP to bandits who occupied China.
A professor teaching about international communist history said he knew the CCP’s propaganda to denounce Falun Gong is fake. “The CCP’s propaganda can manufacture anything if needed.” He agreed to quit the CCP. He told me that he had read Zhuan Falun and knew that it teaches people how to accumulate virtue and do good deeds and that the CCP’s persecution makes no sense.
Another time, when I tried to persuade a retired electrical engineer to quit the CCP, he said he wanted to devote his life to communism.
“Is there any CCP leader believing in communism?” I asked him.
He paused for a second and then started laughing, “Quit! I quit! I wasted my life [on the wrong thing].”
A retired economist at the municipal finance bureau said, “It’s better for China not to have the CCP. The finance bureau has no good people at all. Under the CCP’s system, good people are turned into bad ones and bad people become worse.”
I asked my younger sister to learn Falun Gong. She was hesitant out of concerns that she might jeopardize the political career of her husband, a deputy mayor.
“You should learn [Falun Gong] from your sister,” her husband said to her. “Having good health and a good temper is better than anything else. Don’t worry if the CCP does not allow you to do it – it has never done anything right.”
An economics professor said that, from an economic perspective, communism is a disaster. “China’s hope is on you guys [Falun Gong practitioners].”
A professor who is also a school dean said that he had read Zhuan Falun and felt it is very profound. He once practiced Falun Gong and felt good afterwards. Although he didn’t continue due to pressure from the persecution, he helped two students who practiced Falun Gong escape in 2001, after the police expressed the intention to arrest them.
I also met a few municipal officials at a classmate’s funeral. I talked to them about quitting the CCP. Several of them agreed to it. So did a history professor after I talked to him. He then asked me to do it for his wife. I said we needed her to acknowledge it.
“She has been wanting to quit the CCP for several years. I held her back for fear of retaliation. You don’t know how happy she will be when I tell her you have done it for her!”
There are many other PhDs and professors who agreed to quit the CCP once I brought up the topic. Younger people are more willing and quicker to accept what I said about quitting the CCP.
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