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The Ban on Falun Gong -- a Dictator's Whim, Not the Rule of Law (Clearwisdom.net) Jiang Zemin, China's dictator, has persecuted Falun Gong
for five years.
Five years ago, about 100 million Chinese citizens lost their freedom of
belief overnight.
Today, five years later, there have been over 1,000 verified deaths of Falun
Gong practitioners due to the persecution. And at least 6,000 practitioners have
been detained in prisons all over China and over 100,000 practitioners have been
detained in forced labor camps. Countless practitioners have been beaten,
punished physically, and extorted financially by those who are supposed to be
protectors of the law. In the five years of persecution, not only have many Falun Gong practitioners been beaten to death, beaten to disability, forced to leave
their jobs, heavily fined, had their families broken apart, and
forced into homelessness--but even their family members, their good friends, and
colleagues have been implicated as well.
After noting the persecution figures above, now it must be said that the Chinese
Government has never officially banned Falun Gong, not even for one day!
Let's briefly review what happened around that July five years ago to see if
the Chinese Government has ever banned Falun Gong or not.
On April 23 1999, policemen in Tianjin City beat practitioners who were
doing the Falun Gong exercises and illegally arrested 45 of them. That event
caused about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners to go to the Appeals Office of the
State Department in Beijing to appeal on April 25th. After the
appealing practitioners were interviewed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Zhu Rongji,
and they heard that the detained Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin had been
released, all the practitioners peacefully left.
The event seemed have been resolved properly. Two day later, on April 27th
the director of the Appeals Bureau of the State Department gave a speech to a
reporter from Xinhua News Agency and said: "We will not persecute Falun Gong."
However, as a matter of fact, on the night of April 25, Jiang Zemin, who was
then top Party chief, head of the military and president of the country, sent
official letters to all the standing committee members of the Politburo and
other top officials that was highly critical of Falun Gong. On June 7th Jiang
gave a speech at the meeting of the Politburo and described his view of Falun
Gong from a political viewpoint. He claimed that Falun Gong had a profound
political background and an international background. He also claimed that the
April 25th appeal was the most serious political event since the June
4th Tiananmen Student Movement of 1989. Later, this speech was passed
down inside the Chinese Communist Party as a secret document.
On June 10th under Jiang's control the so-called Central Falun
Gong Issue Management Leading Group was established. This is the notorious 610
Office (1). Afterwards, it was renamed as the "Management Office Against Cults"
to deceive the public.
Jiang's arrangement to eradicate Falun Gong was thereby set into motion,
but it was still in the preparation stage and was limited to within the
Communist Party. So this cannot be counted as the Chinese Government banning
Falun Gong.
On June 14th the Central Government Appeals Office and the Appeals
Office of the State Department together published an announcement over Xinhua
News Agency. It mentioned: "Many Falun Gong practitioners are gossiping that
'the police will start persecuting Falun Gong.' That is totally fabricated, a
demagogic rumor. People have the right to believe and practice Qigong and also
have the freedom not to believe in Qigong."
On July 13th to pacify the Falun Gong practitioners, the Central
Committee of the CCP published a leading article in the People's Daily
saying: "Practicing Qigong is not superstition and improving health doesn't
break the law."
But only one week later, on the morning of July 20, in 30 provinces and in
cities all over the country, a unified action was carried out. Local Falun Gong
instructors were simultaneously rounded up and arrested. The people making the
arrests didn't follow any due legal process in doing so. Later on, most of those
practitioners were sentenced to prison terms of various lengths. In other words,
on July 20th a gang calling themselves "Protectors of the law"
arrested many citizens without any legal grounds. They set up clandestine
tribunals and sent the practitioners to prison. The reason I said they didn't have
any legal grounds is that all the newly promulgated regulations for persecuting
Falun Gong had not been put into place at that time.
So on July 22nd the Civil Administration Bureau made an
announcement banning the Falun Dafa Research Association. Could this
announcement be counted as the Chinese Government banning Falun Gong?
No. The Falun Dafa Research Association only included some coordinating
persons like Wang Zhiwen, Li Chang, Yao Jie, and a few others. The overwhelming
majority of Falun Gong practitioners were not members of the association. So
this announcement couldn't be counted as banning the freedom to practice Falun
Gong by all Falun Gong practitioners. Also, the Civil Administration Bureau is
not a legislative branch of the government. This announcement was only an
administrative regulation without legal effect.
On July 22nd there was another announcement, the "6 restraints"
issued by the Public Security Department. It forbade anyone from practicing
Falun Gong in a public situation, forbade anyone from appealing for the Falun
Gong issue, and forbade anyone from spreading Falun Gong, etc. Similarly this
announcement didn't ban Falun Gong.
First, this announcement totally violated the Chinese Constitution, which
guarantees freedom of belief, association, and assembly. The Constitution also
guarantees that Chinese citizens have the right to appeal and to defend
themselves. The Constitution is the fundamental law of China. The announcement
from the Public Security Department violates the Constitution, so it doesn't
have any legal effect.
Secondly, the Public Security Department is not legislative, so it doesn't
have the right to issue laws. Outside China, this would be the equivalent of the
police making the laws! The only legislative body in China is the People's
Congress. So the "6 restraints" announcement is not a law. At most, it can be
counted as an administrative rule. If a person violates an administrative
rule, that person cannot be convicted of a crime, nor be sentenced to prison. At
most, the person can be fined, and taken into "administrative custody". In
China, the law says that one can be held under administrative custody for no
more than 15 days.
Thirdly, if the authorities deem someone to be somehow related to Falun Gong,
they can be arrested arbitrarily even though they are not a Falun Gong
practitioner. If someone was mistakenly arrested as a Falun Gong practitioner,
they can neither appeal nor lodge a complaint. If the person appeals, that would
violate the rule of "forbidding anybody from appealing for any Falun Gong
related issues." So the principle of this announcement is that there is no need
for any reason to arrest you, and you cannot appeal. In the past five years,
there have been many non-practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal for
different reasons. The most common reasons are that they were forced to leave
their job, forced to relocate to allow a dam to be built, or forced to relocate
to allow for new urban construction, etc. Many of them were intentionally
arrested as Falun Gong practitioners because that is the simplest way to arrest
people. It does not require any legal process, and the people who are arrested
are not allowed to appeal. So it is guaranteed that the arrest is proper.
So this "6 restraints announcement" is only an illegal administrative rule
issued by the Public Security Department under Jiang's instruction. It was an
attempt to ban Falun Gong, but it doesn't have any legal effect. So the Chinese
Government still has not banned Falun Gong. Saying that China banned Falun Gong
is just a word game designed by Jiang.
On July 23 1999, the People's Daily announced that the Central Committee of
the CCP decided to punish the "cult". Many people felt that the Chinese
Government was banning Falun Gong. It was a pity. Although the Central Committee
of the CCP made the decision, the decision still doesn't have any legal effect.
In China, neither the People's Daily (a state-run newspaper) nor the Central
Committee of the CCP (akin to the Cabinet in the Parliamentary system, or the
Executive Branch in the US system) is legislative. They don't have the right to
make laws. The Central Committee of the CCP announced that the country would be
managed by following its decision. This was also announced by the People's
Daily.
The headquarters of Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong is the "610 Office." By
its nature, the "610 Office" is an out-and-out illegal organization. There is no
legal basis for its existence. It is an illegal organization established by Jiang
with usurped national resources. The Chinese legal system, encompassing the
Public Security system, the Procuratorate, the courts, and the existing laws are
enough to handle any legal issue. The only reason the 610 Office was created
was to "legalize" the limitless treachery the dictator planned to commit outside
the bounds of existing law.
The 610 Office is beyond the law. As it was established, no existing laws
can challenge it or stop it. China has seen such a body before. The 610 Office
is just like the "Cultural Revolution Leading Group" which allowed Chairman Mao
to tear the country apart during the political campaign known as the "Great
Cultural Revolution". The very existence of the 610 Office breaks the law.
There are 610 Offices in each administrative level from the Chinese central
government to the local governments. The cost of the salaries and daily supplies
of the officials in 610 offices is equivalent to building tens of thousands of
schools. This huge expense is being paid by all Chinese people.
In 1999, more than 20 years after the Cultural Revolution ended, China was
working hard to recover its legal system from the sham it had become. The newly
established legal system had seemingly begun to work. If a person violated the
law, only that person could be held responsibile and punished. China has a
complete system of Public Security, Procuratorate, and Courts. China also has
Criminal Law. Essentially, all the citizens of the Peoples Republic of China
should comply with the Law, including the members of the Central Committee of
CCP. But, the Law had become an unnecessary obstruction in the path of Jiang
Zemin, so he founded the extra-judicial 610 Office.
In the past five years the 610 offices, under Jiang's control, have
commanded and controlled each level of the Communist Party and government
organizations, Public Security, Procuratorate, and Courts, labor reform system,
labor education system, the national security system, and news media. It works
just like the Cultural Revolution Leading Group of the Central Committee of the
CCP.
The 610 Offices possess absolute power. Whoever the 610 Office decides to
sentence or send to forced labor camp, nobody dares to ask for evidence or turn
down the decision. Whatever fabricated news they decide to publish or broadcast,
nobody dares to refuse. They don't dare to verify the authenticity of the news.
In prisons and forced labor camps, if Falun Gong practitioners are killed because
they refuse to give up their belief, the killer may claim that they had the
order from the 610 office saying that no matter what means are used to treat
Falun Gong practitioners, they cannot be held responsible for the result.
In this way, during that summer five years ago, Jiang launched and
commanded the biggest political movement since Mao's Great Cultural Revolution,
establishing the 610 Office and usurping China's national resources.
Notes:
(1) "610 Office": a bureau specifically created by
the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each
level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and
judiciary branches. Posting date: 7/30/2004 |