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Chinese Government Media Silent on NTD TV Interview With Mr. Li Hongzhi
By Minghui reporter Ouyang Fei (Clearwisdom.net) On January 20, 2004, NTD TV (New Tang Dynasty TV)
conducted a half-hour special interview with Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of
Falun Gong. This is the first time Mr. Li appeared in the media since late 1999.
Dozens of TV stations, newspapers and Internet websites around the world
reported the news.
AP (Associated Press) published a report entitled "Falun Gong
Founder Says Government Envious."
An AP reporter contacted the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
received a response containing a hard-line attack against Falun Gong. However,
so far all Party mouthpiece media, including Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily,
and even the web version of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not commented on
Mr. Li's interview. The AP reporter received a "standard answer" from the
Foreign Affairs spokesman only when it sought out some sort of comment.
Jiang Zemin's group never passes up a chance to attack Falun Gong, but it's
remaining silent when the media around the world are reporting Mr. Li's
interview. It seems that the contents of the interview struck at the Jiang
regime's biggest weakness: he ordered the persecution of millions of innocent
people out of jealousy and paranoia.
Jiang Zemin's own statement that "I just don't believe I can't fix Falun
Gong" is a transparent show of his resentment.
Jiang started the persecution in spite of opposition from other Chinese
leaders, and he was also chiefly responsible for the persecution's escalation.
This is an unprecedented unilateral action by China's highest government
official.
On April 25, 1999, around 10,000 Falun Gong practitioner went to Beijing and
asked for the release of Falun Gong practitioners who had been illegally
arrested in Tianjin. Premier Zhu Rongji gave the practitioners a satisfactory
response, but Jiang coerced the Politburo to act according to his wishes.
In his letter addressed to the Politburo, Jiang Zemin requested that a "610
Office" be established to coordinate and carry out the persecution throughout
the country. This is an organization that is similar to the "Cultural Revolution
Leadership Group" that overrode all other judicial and legislative bodies.
During a visit to France, Jiang Zemin publicly proclaimed Falun Gong to be an
undesirable group, and the Chinese government media hastily followed his example
in concocting similar propaganda.
During an interview with a CBS reporter, Jiang Zemin used ridiculous lies to
directly slander the founder of Falun Gong.
During an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, Jiang Zemin slipped a
book filled with gory pictures slandering Falun Gong into the hands of then U.S
president Bill Clinton.
So paranoid was Jiang Zemin during all of his foreign visits that he often
threatened foreign governments with canceling the visit to make sure he would
not have to be confronted with anything related to Falun Gong.
Jiang also personally issued a series of secret orders, including "death of
Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be counted as
suicide;" "a body shall be directly cremated without investigating the person's
identification;" "defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially and
destroy them physically."
In fact, in the past four years, people felt the effects of his extreme,
irrational actions stemming from his jealousy and paranoia.
Mr. Li said in the interview that many people realized that the persecution
of Falun Gong has consumed a large portion of the Chinese national GDP. If Falun
Gong's reputation is not restored and the persecution not stopped, true
stability will not be achieved in Chinese society. However, if one wants to
restore Falun Gong's reputation, then one will have to award justice to the
families of Falun Gong practitioners who were tortured to death, whose homes
were ransacked, who were fined large amounts of money, who were disabled from
torture, who were subject to extortion, to incarceration in mental hospitals,
etc. Who will take this responsibility? The ringleader responsible for the Falun
Gong persecution will therefore be brought to justice, and that is why he
desperately clings to money and power.
Regarding Jiang Zemin's universal unpopularity, Mr. Li Hongzhi pointed out
that the whole world has seen his cruelty and stupidity.
If the official Chinese media wanted to try to contradict Mr. Li's words
instead of using their standard lies, they would never dare to publish Mr. Li's
words alongside theirs. The government media's lack of comment on Mr. Li's
interview could be seen as a reflection of other Chinese leaders' and government
officials' acknowledgement. |