When the movement to persecute Falun Gong became widespread on one night in the hot summer of 1999, I had never heard of Falun Gong before. Yet, I couldn't help questioning the legality of the persecution. Now that a year and a half has passed, nobody can tell how much public resources have been spent on this campaign of persecution. Nobody knows exactly how many people have died or been jailed and nobody can tell how many people are forced to "self-criticize" or give up their belief. This so-called political movement has put our nation in even more dissension and discord, and has made our society fall to an even lower level of morality and become more unfeeling. The development of the rule of law, which was promised by the Chinese [party name omitted] Party, has been thrown away as a worthless thing. Under the cover of "stability and unity", our country is in turmoil and plagued by crisis. The authorities used the tragic "self-immolation" that happened in Tiananmen Square on the eve of the Chinese Spring Festival [January 23] as yet another propaganda tool to condemn and demonize [Falun Gong] everywhere. What can we say when things have developed to this extent? It is obvious that our country is still following the beaten path of the Dark Ages. The country's political structure lacks the function of correcting its mistakes automatically. It goes all the way to the extreme end regardless of how ridiculous the mistake is or how obvious the truth and damages are. There is no chance to correct the mistake until after the natural death of the leaders of that generation. We are re-experiencing the tragic cost of the Anti-Rightist Struggle [1957] and the Great Cultural Revolution [1966-1976]. Who is wrong? The authorities use all means of publicity to repeat its shameless rumors again and again. They want the kind-hearted and yet simple-minded people to believe that everything is the wrongdoing of the Falun Gong practitioners. They expect to tie the entire society onto the chariot persecuting Falun Gong. They want all the people to pay for the cost of this political movement so that people will hate Falun Gong practitioners. This is an old trick: to mobilize the majority to persecute a small number of people; to create enemies amongst the people; and to instigate one group of people to fight against another group of people. The Chinese are again heading back towards the old rut that has been proven to create endless trouble. History will prove that persecuting Falun Gong is wrong. Even if the authorities are successful in smearing and demonizing Falun Gong, and even if many Falun Gong practitioners' behaviors and activities are punished according to their enacted laws, the persecution of Falun Gong in the past year and a half is still wrong. It is wrong because such a persecution was illegal from the very beginning. It has ignored the Chinese Constitution and trampled on current Chinese law. It is the illegal persecution against the people by the state power. First Mistake: Party Replaces Law The persecution of Falun Gong started with the newspaper's report of a speech by the director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the [party name omitted] Party of China on July 23, 1999, which asked to carry out the Central Committee's decision of treating and resolving the Falun Gong issue. It also reported the decision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to ban the "Falun Dafa Research Society", as well as the announcement from the Ministry of Public Security. The Central Committee's decision was obviously the origin of everything. Later, their persecution of Falun Gong used all TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines, and involved all schools, institutions, factories, residential districts, and state power organizations at different levels. The Falun Gong practitioners were deprived of their rights to exercise in public parks and lost all chances to appeal for their innocence. All of those who had experienced the Cultural Revolution are familiar with such a campaign, which totally originated from that "decision". In a republic that has a constitution and law, and that promises to rule by law, How can there be such a "decision" by the party? Included in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC) are the CCP's historical contributions, the plans to develop a "highly civilized and democratic socialist country" under the leadership of the CCP, and the united front led by the CCP. But that doesn't mean the Central Committee can make an arbitrary "decision" disregarding the law's restriction, and that the wish of a few individuals in the Central Committee can replace the law. On the contrary, the Constitution has clearly specified, "All power of the PRC belongs to the people." "The organization for people to exercise state power is the National People's Congress (NPC) and the local people's congress at different levels." If the Central Committee can replace the legislative body to legislate, why is there the people's congress? Isn't the people's congress mentioned in the Constitution meant to deceive the people? According to the Chinese Constitution and related laws, the people's congress is the legislative body, and is the only legislative body. The Central Committee does not have the right to legislate. The sudden announced "decision" of persecuting Falun Gong follows a few individuals' judgment and operates in the dark, which doesn't match the basic legality required by the Constitution. It forces the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, which are two low level administrative organizations, to set up rules, and also forces the people in the whole country to participate and follow. This is to openly insult and trample on the solemn PRC Constitution. This "decision" is wrong, and has been wrong from the very beginning. It is wrong that it is not qualified to legislate according to the Constitution. If forcefully executing the mistake is with more mistakes, then it is a typical violent case of illegal usurpation. If we acquiesce in such violence, our constitution would be dead, and we would be the citizens of a "Republic" without the protection of a constitution. Even if we could survive today, we would one day end up in a situation worse than slavery. I am not exaggerating things just to scare people. We have all experienced it, and it is still fresh in our memories. How can we forget it so easily? Second Mistake: Legislation Replaces Justice During the three months from July 1999 to October 1999, the widespread campaign persecution against the entire country was performed without any law or legal procedure. It was done in exactly the same way as all political campaigns that had happened again and again, in the past 50 years in China, which were all proven to have caused serious damage to the state and the people. Even the makers of this "decision" [to persecute Falun Gong] realized that such a campaign lacked any basic legality. They thought about going through some legal procedure. While at that time, they had been helping some people to persecute some other people for three months. On October 30, the NPC, which had been trying hard to firmly make some legislative decisions on their own, decided to ban evil cults, prevent and punish the activities of the evil xx. Some of the things in the world must be honest and sincere to be decent. Legislation is one of such things. In order to scare others, legislating under disguise cannot avoid making themselves look foolish by trying to be smart. In the modern history of the world's civilization, nothing could be more shameful, pitiable, or sad than the NPC's legislation on October 30, 1999. It turned the Chinese NPC, the Chinese Constitution, and the Chinese people into international laughingstocks. This NPC's decision, which gives arbitrary definition and uses vague language, does not carry the quality of being a law, not to mention the background of making this legislation "under order", or that the persecution had been going on vigorously for three months before this, or that the persecuting first, legislating later, and using the law to approve past activities have violated the fundamental requirements of legislation. The concept of "evil xx" lacks semantic definition, let alone a strict legal definition. We are unable to look up the phrase "evil xx" in Cihai, Ciyuan, or Xinhua Dictionary [all three are well known Chinese dictionaries]. "Evil xx" is only a phrase used according to one's personal judgement in daily life. Without any legal definition of "evil xx", the NPC announced a ban of evil xx organizations and those evil xx were illegal. Such a "decision" has offended the authority of law. It is actually a law to punish anybody at will, and to label anybody as an "evil xx" when they want to ban his activities. The Constitution of PRC stated, "The citizens of the PRC have the freedom of belief and religion." "No state organization, social organization, or individual can force a citizen to believe in or not to believe in a religion, or discriminate a citizen who believes in or does not believe in a religion." This "decision" has obviously violated the Constitution. Article 300 in the Criminal Law of the PRC specifies, "Those who organize and use superstitious sects, secret societies, and evil xx's, or use superstition to damage the country's law and the implementation of the administrative rules are subjected to imprisonment of 3 to 7 years. Those whose cases are especially serious are subjected to imprisonment of more than 7 years." "Those who organize and use superstitious sects, secret societies, and evil xx's, or use superstition to deceive others and have caused death are punished as in the above Article." "Those who organize and use superstitious sects, secret societies, and evil xx's, or use superstition to rape women and to defraud money and property are punished according to Article 236 and 266 in this Law." These provisions are aimed at criminal activities, not at the specific belief of a religion or organization, or individuals who have joined such organizations. To judge whether a behavior is guilty or not one must go through the legal procedure in the courts and obtain a decree according to Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law. The NPC's decision uses vague languages to declare some religion or belief as guilty and ban it, disregarding the existing laws. Such a decision to use legislation to replace justice has become the tool of persecuting people and is an unconstitutional act of exceeding one's power and abusing the law. Third Mistake: You are Guilty if I Say You are On the same day the NPC made the infamous "decision", the Highest People's Court and the People's Supreme Procuratorate published an explanation on the issues regarding how to apply the laws of handling the cases of organizing and using evil xx organizations to commit crimes. The people's congress is a legislative body. The Highest People's Court is a justice organization. The People's Supreme Procuratorate is a procuratorial organ in the administrative system. Even if we agree with a leader that the PRC does not need the Western separation of the three powers; even if we know that these three organizations are under the Party's united leadership; and even if they just follow the procedures in the Constitution in FORM; how can they make a separate "decision" AND give an "explanation" on the same day? To cover up the constitutional misdeed, the "explanation" made six standards, which expanded the criminal activities identified in Article 300 of the Criminal Law specific to religion, belief, and organization. Since Falun Gong was identified as an evil xx, from then on, a citizen would be guilty simply for "believing" in Falun Gong even if he has done nothing. Such a citizen would lose their freedom and be arrested, detained and tortured without any legal procedure. This is a typical illegal and vicious law. Once such law is carried out in China, the violation of human rights and persecution of people cannot be avoided. Innocent people would meet unexpected trouble for having provoked nobody, but were not willing to give up what they believed. When they really have no reason to persecute the peaceful people who abide by the law, they made up the so-called crime of "hindering the implementation of the law": I have made the "law" that Falun Gong is a xx. If you believe Falun Gong is not a xx, then you have committed the crime of "hindering the implementation of the law." If you are said to be guilty, then you cannot be innocent. Is there any other such unreasonable law in the world? If such "explanation" is also law, why are there the courts? Under such a vicious law, can the people find protection in the courts? Fourth Mistake: Do Not Allow People to File Complaints; Self Eradicate the Way to Correct Errors The day before the announcement of the Central Committee's decision, the Ministry of Civil Affairs made a decision to ban the Falun Dafa Research Society. The Ministry of Public Security then followed the decision and announced six rules, all of which began with the word "Forbid". According to the announcement, your freedom of religion, speech, assembly, and press would be deprived as long as you believed in Falun Gong, regardless of who you were, and whether you had done anything. The Ministry of Public Security has no legislative power, nor judicial power. It is only an executive body. It imposes such rules, which violates the Constitution to the state of being absolutely ridiculous. But such an announcement is being executed. Its fourth rules specified, "Forbid any assembly, march, or protest to protect and promote Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) by sitting quietly or filing complaints." With such a vicious law, China allows only the government to make an unjust verdict, but disallows the people to file complaints. They completely disregard the courts or legal procedures. It is meant to give permission to violating all laws, human or divine, to all public security personnel nationwide. With such a vicious law, they force people to clarify their positions, restrict their traveling, ransack homes illegally, and deprive people of freedom. Such a vicious law appeared as the new millennium started. It is so peremptory that it makes people mouths open in dismay. How can a great country of ours, which we claimed is a civilized country, tolerate these things to run wild in this day and age? The persecution of Falun Gong is not only the disaster for Falun Gong practitioners, but also the disaster for the reform and opening, and the development of the rule of law in China. The persecution of Falun Gong is once again the manifestation of the old autocratic system. From the decisions of the high level to the execution at lower levels, they started the outdated national persecution machine with: transmitting the document to the lower levels, coordinating the media, monitoring at different levels, requiring everybody to position, abusing state power, and using the courts and jails. Upon the starting of this machine, the development of the rule of law after the reform and opening had been ruined in just one night. They completely destroyed the normal communication mechanism between the people and the government. The only thing left is the relationship of undisguised persecution and obedience. Mao Zedong [former Chinese leader before 1980's] said, "It is always effective to concentrate on class struggle." With these words, he threw China into scores of years of disaster of purgatory. China was finally able to end the Cultural Revolution when Mao passed away. When the Chinese looked around, we found that we were far behind the world's trends. Many people had spent precious time in their lives cruelly fighting with each other. How many Chinese have died and suffered in the midst of these political campaigns? How much moral decline and bitterness have been accumulated? How many people have determined to make descendents firmly remember not to fight with each other, after drawing lessons from the bitter experience? But we have not established the solid rule of law. We do not possess the capability of systematically preventing the internal fighting. Now we are witnessing the Chinese coming back to the well worn path. Nobody can stop the catastrophe when the system has not been improved. When can we come back and learn from the lesson? Before that, how many lives will such political campaigns take away or ruin? Today, after a year-and-half of propaganda from the government, many people have gradually accepted the government's statements and thought that Falun Gong practitioners are against the government and are the sources of all problems. Many people thought, "Nothing would happen if Falun Gong doesn't go to Tiananmen." Some people also said, "Nothing would happen as long as the Falun Gong practitioners practice at home." First of all, such statements have failed to distinguish right from wrong, tacitly consented to the government's illegal act, and reduced the people's legal fields. These statements are not true either. The reason that the government spread such statements was to shift the blame on Falun Gong practitioners after they failed their attempt to clear out Falun Gong. Having experienced the Cultural Revolution, we should still remember that people's legal rights should not be nibbled up. If you gave up part of your rights today, you would not be able to stop the power from taking away all of your rights. Today, the persecution of Falun Gong is continuing. The land of China is silent, as if it were in the Dark Ages. All opposing voices have been blocked. The Chinese are forced to accept such wrongdoings [and government's statements] and will have to pay for the cost. Don't say that the persecution of Falun Gong has nothing to do with you. History will not only prove the persecution is wrong, but also make all Chinese pay a bitter price to accept the conclusion. February 18, 2001