By Li Zhiqing

(Clearwisdom.net) On the evening of June 28, 2004, Australian Falun Gong practitioners were shot at by unknown gunmen while driving down a highway from Johannesburg International Airport to the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. The practitioners' purpose in South Africa was to file a lawsuit against Zeng Qinghong during his visit there. The practitioner who was wounded in the shooting was wearing a jacket that bore the words "Falun Dafa" in English, identifying him as a Falun Dafa practitioner. This is the first time in the five years of persecution that overseas Falun Gong practitioners have had to endure such a life-threatening incident, and the shock was felt around the world. Many pieces of evidence point to Zeng Qinghong as the covert director of this incident.

Analysis of the case has eliminated the possibility of a random incident. The South African police have indicated that this shooting did not occur in an area with a high rate of crime. If it were a random incident, such as if the Falun Gong practitioners had unfortunately encountered some drunk or otherwise irrational scoundrels, then the scoundrel would likely have randomly shot and then run away. In this incident, however, the gunman shot from the passenger side while his car was behind Mr. Liang's car. He kept shooting until both cars were moving side-by-side, or parallel with each other. The gunshots lasted about ten seconds. Therefore, the shooting was obviously premeditated, and this is not an ordinary case of random crime.

The wounded Falun Gong practitioner, Mr. David Liang, said, "The attacker began firing a few shots at us as they approached, but I was shocked when I realized that they were accelerating as I accelerated, and slowing down whenever I slowed down." Mr. Liang was the driver when the shooting occurred. From his description, we can determine that the gunmen fired several shots before Liang was hit, and they even attempted to adjust their driving speed in order to fire more shots. The gunmen used a military AK-47 assault rifle to automatically fire in a continuous burst, at least five shots of which hit Liang's car. From this we can determine that the incident was very likely to be an intentional assassination, or at least a case of terrorist intimidation and for preventing the practitioners from serving the lawsuit documents to Zeng. In fact, the South African police also classified this case as "attempted murder."

Since the incident can be classified as an assassination attempt as explained above, and the assassins appeared to be clear-headed, keen-witted and capable, there must have been an intense criminal motive in order to result in such a serious consequence. What could be the possible motives?

One possible motive is robbery, but this possibility can be easily eliminated, because the practitioners were not robbed when they could have been so easily robbed. In addition, the Falun Gong practitioners were not at all wealthy and to economize, five of them were sharing a car. So they were not the type of victims that would normally be the chosen victims of a robbery. When the car was disabled by the shots and came to a stop, the gunmen fled the scene without stopping to rob anyone. So we can eliminate robbery as a possible motive.

Another possible motive might have been revenge. To kill for revenge requires a very strong personal resentment. The Falun Gong practitioners came from far way in Australia. They had no contacts with any of the local people, so they could not have had any personal enemies among the local people. They didn't have any personal enemies in Australia either. It had been only two hours since their arrival at the airport. Even if they had had any personal enemies in Australia, how would they have so clearly known the practitioners' itinerary, and so promptly hired a local hit man to assassinate them? Even if they did have such a strong hatred against the practitioners, after spending so much effort to learn the practitioner's schedule, and following them all the way from Australia to South Africa, why did they give up the best opportunity to exact their revenge when the car was disabled and stopped? Obviously, this is an unreasonable scenario, so the gunmen did not shoot for the motive of revenge.

If the motive was neither robbery nor revenge, then there can be only one explanation for the motive, which is that the gunmen were on a special assignment. The only reason why these Falun Gong practitioners came to South Africa was to bring a lawsuit against Zeng Qinghong and to stop the persecution of Falun Gong through legal channels. The practitioners had no personal enemies. The local people, who didn't even know them, would not ruthlessly shoot them without reason. The overseas Falun Gong practitioners have been resisting the persecution of Falun Gong for five years without yet encountering such a life-threatening event. So if anyone wanted to assassinate Falun Gong practitioners, it must have been related to the lawsuit, which was the purpose of the practitioner's trip to South Africa. Zeng Qinghong himself, as well as the Chinese Embassy in South Africa, truly hated and feared the visiting Falun Gong practitioners, and would also have had a motive, that of stopping the lawsuit. Anyone else would not have been sufficiently motivated, unless they had been assigned to do it.

In fact, Mr. Li Qizhong, who accompanied Mr. David Liang to South Africa, received a threatening phone call just a few days prior to the trip. Two months ago, Mr. Li's van, bearing obvious Falun Gong signs, was seriously damaged near the Chinese Embassy in Sydney. All four tires had been punctured flat and all the windows smashed. The outside of the van had been spray painted all over with various colors. Mr. David Liang's name was on a "black list" circulated by the Chinese Embassies. He was refused entry into Hong Kong three years ago when he traveled there to attend a Falun Gong activity. The windows and doors of his Falun Gong sign bearing car were bashed in a few times, although nothing was ever stolen from the car. These facts indicate that these two Falun Gong practitioners were being watched all the time. They were being watched not for any personal reasons, but by agents of the Chinese Embassy for practicing Falun Gong in Australia. The threats they received just prior to this incident fully indicate that the shooting was closely related to their status as Falun Gong practitioners and to their South African mission to sue Zeng Qinghong. Thus, all these clues are motives leading to Zeng Qinghong.

Motive is only one necessary factor for a significant incident to occur. Daringness and capability are two other necessary factors. Let's compare Zeng Qinghong and the Chinese Embassy in South Africa. Think about it …quot; in such a significant case as assassination in a foreign territory, even if the Chinese Embassy had intended to do it, they couldn't be more careful. In addition, the person coming to South Africa was Zeng Qinghong, who was the henchman and close ally to Jiang. The embassy would not dare to act rashly without first knowing Zeng's ideas. It would create a tremendously negative influence if it were not what Zeng wanted. The one in the embassy who ordered it would not only risk losing his job, but would even risk losing his own life. Hence, the final decision of an incident like this would have to come from Zeng Qinghong, although the detailed execution might be carried out by the Chinese embassy, or by the system of special agents directed by Zeng Qinghong through the leader of the local organize crime gangs.

Take another look at Zeng Qinghong. He belongs the so-called "Prince Party" in China,(1) and he is also Jiang's henchman. He is cruel and merciless, and does not care at all about any laws, whether human or divine. He frequently employs high-pressure thug tactics to deal with his opponents and is internally known by officials by the nickname "butcher." Recently, a series of incidents occurred in Hong Kong, in which members of an organized criminal gang had threatened congressmen and entertainers. These incidents were all related to Zeng's way of handling his opponents. When handling international affairs, Party officials including Jiang himself deceivingly and hypocritically pretend to be moderates. But Zeng Qinghong never bothered to hide his belligerence with a facade. So treating Falun Gong practitioners in South Africa with such gangster-like tactics could be said to conform to Zeng Qinghong's character. Basically, no one else among the most daring has a sufficiently malicious nature to do so

From the aspect of capability, the shooting took place during the short, two-hour window when Falun Gong practitioners were on their way from the airport to their hotel. Unless it had been prearranged, and the practitioners closely watched and followed, it would never have been possible for the gunmen to meet the practitioners on the same freeway, going the same direction, at a driving speed of 110 km per hour (or 68 mph). Therefore, someone must have accurately known the travel itinerary of the Australian practitioners beforehand. They closely watched the practitioners, and ambushed them in advance, while still near the airport. There undoubtedly had to be a huge intelligence network of special agents. The threats received by Falun Gong practitioners prior to their trip, actually provide an important clue to this shooting incident. Who would threaten the practitioners against their efforts to sue Zeng Qinghong? Who has the capability to monitor the practitioners so closely? Who has a global network of special agents at their disposal? Of course all of these questions point to Zeng Qinghong, who heads the Chinese system of special agents.

From the above analysis of the motives for assassination, and the daring and capability required to carry out the shooting incident, Zeng Qinghong best fits the qualifications as the perpetrator to have plotted and directed the assassination attempt. Zeng Qinghong, with his cruel and merciless disposition and network of special agents, is the only one who could have carried out such an assassination attempt by hired gunmen, in order to prevent the lawsuit against him by the Falun Gong practitioners. Therefore, the covert director of this deplorable incident is certain to have been Zeng Qinghong.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2004/7/3/78545.html