By a senior attorney in China

(Clearwisdom.net)

In July 1999, out of jealousy, selfish desire and an inhumane mentality, and in complete disregard of the majority opposition from the Central Political Bureau, the former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, together with his henchmen Luo Gan, Zeng Qinghong, etc., bypassed the powers of the state executive body - the State Council and the state authoritative organ - the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee and launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong. Jiang's regime ignored the specifications of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (passed and implemented on December 10, 1948; signed by the Chinese government on October 5, 1998) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (passed on December 16, 1966; effective since March 23, 1976), as well as the related terms in the Chinese Constitution, and utilized state military and police forces, public security, national security, procuratorate (prosecution system), judiciary system, civil administration, police stations, detention centers, forced labor camps, jails and other state machinery to start a frenzied and bloody persecution of nearly 100 million Falun Gong practitioners. Jiang and his followers took advantage of their power over the employment and financial issues of government employees to entice, instigate and force the entire state propaganda system and press circles to frame and slander Falun Gong; they purposely directed the public opinions and deceived the people both at home and abroad. As a result, lies were all over the place, confounding right and wrong. The regime illegally detained and sentenced Falun Gong practitioners who believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance", placed them in forced labor camps, tortured them, brainwash them, and extorted money from them. They forced Falun Gong practitioners to write and sign the so-called Repentance Statement, Guarantee Statement and Dissociation Statement. Jiang's group of scoundrels did not allow people to believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" and practice Falun Gong. Terror permeated every corner of China. At the present time, a large number of Falun Gong practitioners are still locked up in detention centers, brainwashing classes, mental hospitals, forced labor camps, and jails all over China; the cruel persecution of Falun Gong still continues.

Over the past 5 years, under the directives of Jiang, Luo Gan manipulated the "610" offices and the political judiciary systems throughout the country in the name of the Secretary of the Party's Political and Judiciary Committee. He directed police and the secret agents in the public security system to monitor the people who believe in Falun Gong, tap the phones and telecommunications of Falun Gong practitioners, illegally detain, check and destroy the mail of Falun Gong practitioners, and illegally enter Falun Gong practitioners' residences. Over a long period of time, they have also held various brainwashing classes in every district, county and city of the nation, and abducted and detained Falun Gong practitioners for forced brainwashing and "transformation," depriving them of their rights to believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" and forcing the people to believe only in the Party. They have persecuted the Falun Gong practitioners who do not follow their directives both physically and mentally. If Falun Gong practitioners refuse to be "transformed," they will be sentenced to forced labor terms or even tortured to death. After a practitioner dies, they do not inform the family of the practitioner as per the regulations. Instead, they cremate the body at their own will without following any legal procedures. In case some family members learn about the death of a practitioner and ask to have the ashes, the police would intimidate and threaten them, demanding their paying for various high fees including those for hospitalization, medical treatment, cremation, custody and so on, before they will give them the remains. In this way, they extort money from the family members of Falun Gong practitioners.

Moreover, all the appeal offices associated with the Party, the government and the People's Congress on various levels of government throughout the country have been turned into places for arresting Falun Gong practitioners, as if these places were the Public Security Bureau, the Police Department or the Secret Services. As soon as they learn that anyone entering is a Falun Gong practitioner, he or she will be detained immediately and sent to a detention center. These practitioners will then either be illegally sentenced to forced labor terms or imprisonment, and tortured there. Their goal is to destroy Falun Gong practitioners both physically and mentally. Their vicious means of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners have circumvented the legal procedures in various levels of the governments and judiciary systems; they have disregarded any judiciary procedures and scoff at the laws when dealing with Falun Gong practitioners.

According to a stipulation in the Chinese Constitution, The National People's Congressional Organization Law and The State Council Organization Law, the final right for a decision towards nationwide issues belongs to the country's highest executive organization ¨C the state council. The legislative rights and the examination and approval rights belong to the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress' Standing Committee. However, as everyone knows, the state council and its working departments have not made any decisions to eliminate Falun Gong either before or after the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang's regime, which was started on July 20, 1999.

By contrast, on April 25 the same year, about ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners, out of their trust of the people's government, went to the state council's appeals office at Fuyou Street near Zhongnanhai for a peaceful appeal. The former premier, Mr. Zhu Rongji himself arrived and met the representatives of the practitioners. He explicitly affirmed the legal rights of people for a peaceful appeal. In addition, he immediately instructed and ordered the public security and police department to investigate and solve their problems. Thus, the practitioners quickly left the appeals office on the same day.

According to the "Rules for Inquiring and Visiting" that the state council had published and executed, the practitioner's behavior and requests during their visit did not exceed the parameters of these rules. According to the stipulations in the second paragraph of the second chapter of the Constitution, Premier Zhu Rongji represented the state council and met the people and handled the issue. What he did also conformed with the Constitution and laws. In fact, Premier Zhu, as representative of the state council, gave instructions to have the problems presented in the appeal properly processed at the time. Following this incident, and before the official ban on July 20, Falun Gong practitioners no longer continued to seek redress at the appeals office; no issue existed therefore.

But in June of the same year, Jiang's gang did not respect the premier's opinion and decision and deliberately established a nationwide organization called the "610 Office" to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. On July 20^th, 1999, Jiang's regime began to utilize the nation's financial resources, material resources and manpower to insanely arrest and persecute hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners throughout the entire country. So, people could ask, "Which law or rule in the Constitution is the Jiang regime's behavior based on?" None! It simply does not exist!

In conclusion, the conduct and evidence of persecuting Falun Gong by Jiang's regime completely violated China's Constitution and the laws; they are the ones who personally violate the Constitution with their behavior. Thus, their personal illegal conduct resulted in the barbaric persecution of Falun Gong.

As discussed above, the State Council, and only the State Council, has the authority to decide on nationwide matters, as clearly delineated in the statutes of China's "Constitution." Thus, we have to evaluate carefully the foundation from which Jiang derived his authority. Was he given the authority as the Chinese Communist Party General Secretary? We cannot accept such a contention, based on our careful review of China's Constitution. The Constitutionis very clear concerning the matter of authority. It states, "The Communist party is not an organization that falls under the state institution domain." The Constitution does not provide or grant the "Communist Party" the rights to manage national administrative functional authority. Therefore, Jiang Zemin, as the Chinese Communist Party General Secretary, does not have the appropriate authority under the Constitution to "ban" Falun Gong. Thus, we ask ourselves further: Was he granted the authority as the Central Military Committee President? There is no such provision under Regulations Nos. 93 and 94 of the "Central Military Committee," Section 4, Chapter 3 of the "Constitution". We continue our analysis to discover the basis for assuming such authority. Was he granted the authority as the chairman of the country? Thus, we review Regulation Nos. 79 to 84, Section 3, Chapter 3 of the Constitution. We find again that the "President of the People's Republic of China" also does not provide or grant such rights to the "National President." As a matter of fact, the Constitution clearly delineates such authority. The "National President" must derive its authority singularly from the decisions of the National People's Congress or Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Furthermore, it is very clear in its direction. It grants explicitly regional and functional responsibility to the President. It is very clear in that is does not grant administrative decision-making power to the President.

Thus, the language in China's Constitution is unambiguous. It was explicit in that Jiang Zemin, although he held three official positions when the decision was made to persecute Falun Gong, was not granted the administrative decision-making power to carry out such persecution. In October of 1999, during Jiang Zemin's state visit to France, he responded to media questions that "Falun Gong" is [slanderous words omitted]. As the state sanctioned Chinese media was present, it reported Jiang Zemin's announcement that Falun Gong is [slanderous words omitted] throughout China. Again this is only Jiang's opinion, but stated in an official capacity it was also a serious violation of China's Constitution!

From a review of all statutes under the constitution, none of Jiang's actions were granted under China's Constitution. Such actions were solely his personal and unsubstantiated opinions and cannot represent or be imposed on the government, given the Chinese constitution's clear language. Moreover, neither the State Council nor the person in command of the national administrative department had expressed an opinion, determined or declared that Falun Gong should be "banned". The nationwide persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin and his followers was neither approved by the State Council, nor authorized by the National People's Congress or Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Under the Constitution, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress also was not granted such authority, as it would violate the Constitution. The Constitution clearly delineates that only the State Council can hold and exercise such authority. Given the aforementioned, we clearly and logically demonstrate that the Jiang group's authority was not granted under the Constitution, and thus has no legal basis. We have thus proven the illegality of the ban on Falun Gong.

The persecution of Falun Gong by the Jiang group is in clear violation of existing Chinese laws and Constitutional authority. It has no historical precedent and is a crime that harms China's citizen and China, both internally and externally. Besides this it is a violation of human rights on a grand scale and a violation of all accords that China is signatory to.

According to the preamble and articles 1 to 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Jiang regime's abuse of power to persecute Falun Gong practitioners is in violation of this Declaration. The Declaration states that everyone is entitled to various rights such as: the right to life, liberty and security of person, the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, the right to own property alone as well as in association with others, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. All countries should unconditionally implement these rights in their respective constitution and relevant laws.

(Refer to http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html to see the full text of the declaration)

Even though the Chinese constitution stipulates that Chinese citizens have the right to freedom of thought and religion, the right to own property and the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, Jiang and his gang totally disregard the constitution and abuse their power to trample upon the constitution and persecute Falun Gong at will. Their acts have infringed upon the basic human rights of the Chinese people.

Moreover, Jiang's gang also violates the regulations set forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Covenant specifies the rights all people should be entitled to. As a state that signs the Covenant, China should also make sure its citizens have these rights listed in the Covenant.

(Refer to http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cpr.html for the full text of the Covenant)

However, during the past five years of persecution, Jiang's group has completely deprived Falun Gong practitioners of their civil and political rights. What they has done is unprecedented and is extremely brutal and evil. Their crimes have harmed all Chinese citizens.

The excuses Jiang's group uses to persecute Falun Gong are all fabricated. They manipulate the media such as: Xinhua News Agency, China Central TV, China Central Broadcasting Station and the People's Daily, to spread the lies and slander Falun Gong.

They do not allow practitioners to appeal, nor do they allow anyone to say a just word for Falun Gong practitioners. They burned Falun Gong books, not allowing people to have access to the true teachings of Falun Gong. Over 10 billion Chinese people have been deprived of their right to know the truth. For the past five years, they have been forcefully selling their lies to the Chinese people, not allowing anyone to expose their crimes. This campaign against Falun Gong has caused immeasurable harm to Falun Gong practitioners and their families, and has also brought tremendous damage to the minds of the Chinese people. Jiang and his followers will be brought to justice for their crimes of violating the Chinese constitution and International Law.

July 17, 2004