Can the Chinese Embassy in South Africa Cover Up Zeng Qinghong's Crimes?

By Gu Cunfeng

(Clearwisdom.net) On the evening of June 28, 2004, nine Australian Falun Gong practitioners were followed shortly after they left Johannesburg International Airport in South Africa. On their way to the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, they were shot at by an unknown gunman. Driver David Liang was shot, and the bones in one of his feet were shattered.

This shooting incident did not appear to be a random attack because the gunman targeted a group of Falun Gong practitioners who were complete strangers in South Africa, who could not have had local enemies. Plus, the gunman and his cohorts did not try to steal anything. The practitioners were shot at with a military AK47 rifle, and at least five gunshots hit the car. If it had been a random attack, the gunman would have quickly fled after randomly firing some shots; however, he continued to fire upon the practitioners as his car and the practitioners' car were driving side by side, suggesting that this was a well-planned murder attempt.

Because Falun Gong is being persecuted only in China, and the attacked practitioners were planning to file a lawsuit against Vice President Zeng Qinghong during his visit in South Africa, it is believed that Zeng is the behind-the-scenes plotter who might have hired hit men to murder the practitioners in order to stop the lawsuit.

As a matter of fact, gangster-like behavior is a very serious problem among Chinese officials, with revenge tactics, including hiring thugs to murder enemies, being very common. In Guangdong Province, there was a case in which a deputy mayor hired a hit man for 500,000 yuan to murder the mayor. In Fujian Province, a deputy director of the Environmental Protection Bureau hired thugs to murder the director. Recently, some officials in the State Auditing Administration claimed to have eliminated someone by hiring thugs for 200,000 yuan. Zeng Qinghong is notorious because he is in charge of the secret agent system and has helped Jiang get rid of his political enemies. Officials call him the "black face murderer" behind his back.

In the past five years of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong, Zeng Qinghong has played a significant role. Nearly a thousand practitioners are verified to have died of torture, but the actual death toll is believed to be over several thousand. In China, many incidents have occurred in which police have shot at practitioners. Overseas, there have been numerous incidents in which Chinese consulates were involved in hiring thugs to threaten or beat Falun Gong practitioners. Zeng Qinghong has been sued by Falun Gong practitioners in various countries; therefore, he is very afraid of Falun Gong and also harbors strong hatred towards Falun Gong practitioners. When he visited South Africa this time, he knew that Falun Gong would seek to bring him to justice through legal means; therefore, after the shooting incident, Zeng became the logical suspect.

According to David Liang, the practitioner who was shot, he was denied entrance to Hong Kong three years ago when he went there to visit. It was clear, then, that his name had been put on a blacklist long ago. The car he drives in Australia has Falun Gong symbols on the outside. Several times the doors of the car have been damaged, but nothing was stolen from his car. This suggests that he has been frequently tailed for some time. This time, when he and other practitioners went to South Africa, they arrived at the airport about 6:00 p.m., and were attacked at 8:30 p.m. Without instructions from Zeng Qinghong or other Chinese officials, or without a complete secret agency system's operation, no one could have organized such a shooting within such a short period of time.

In response to the shooting incident, Chinese Embassy officials in South Africa have not said a single word to condemn the violence, or to request that an investigation be conducted to bring the criminal to justice, nor did they utter one sentence to comfort the victims. Rather, the embassy officials tried their best to distance Zeng Qinghong from the shooting incident, and used extremely vicious words to attack Falun Gong. The embassy's actions have had the effect of making people angry and sad. Any official who still has a conscience would be indignant at Zeng's brutality in hiring thugs to murder innocent people. However, the embassy officials dared to claim that Falun Gong plotted to frame Zeng Qinghong. Falun Gong practitioners' seeking to bring Chinese officials who have committed crimes to justice through legal means is considered by the embassy as, "making trouble and endangering the safety of the country" and "damaging the image of the Chinese people overseas." Such allegations are really shameful. The Chinese Embassy's attack on Falun Gong can only make people see more clearly its hatred towards Falun Gong, its ugliness and hypocrisy and its obvious involvement with this shooting incident.

Can the Chinese Embassy in South Africa relieve Zeng Qinghong from responsibility? No one who has done evil deeds can forever cover up the truth and escape justice.

Of course, people who lack compassion wouldn't understand the principle that a righteous cause enjoys abundant support, whereas a vicious cause loses support. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has enraged people who know the truth and they condemn the violence committed by Jiang's group. They are sympathetic to the victims, and they actively extend their help and support the victims in their quest for justice. This is all because such people have conscience and a sense of justice. They oppose the violence and the people who commit evil acts -- not China itself or the Chinese people. Those who persecute the innocent and attack kindhearted people are not qualified to represent the Chinese nation and the Chinese people. They are truly the dregs of the Chinese nation and it is they who are the real anti-China forces.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/7/2/78480.html

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