By Wu Yan

(Clearwisdom.net) (continued from http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/2/14/57541.html)

Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake during the Inquisition in the middle ages. People always feel sad and angry whenever it is mentioned. In his article, Zhao Zhizhen tries to make himself out to be a Bruno at the stake. However, while he tries to gain others' sympathy, we must point out that it's Falun Gong practitioners who have been suffering the great pain of being burned at the stake.

Once you see Gao Rongrong's picture (published in Part 1), in which her face was seriously maimed by electric shocks, and read the report about Chen Zixiu's violent death by torture, you will know that I have not exaggerated what I said about the great pain of being burned at the stake. Among Falun Gong practitioners, there are also a lot of outstanding people, including intellectuals, who have been tortured badly.

Retired professor Yang Jingxia from the College of Architecture and Environment in Sichuan University is a famous environmentalist who has visited a lot of countries. From 1995 to 2000, Professor Yang Jingxia had been employed by the World Bank as a member of the "environmental protection and immigration counseling group." Professor Yang has her own company, and has two patents. She was sentenced to jail for three years for practicing Falun Gong. In her "Ten thousand word letter," which was secretly delivered out of the jail recently, she describes the whole process of being adducted by two plainclothes policemen at home, and then not allowed to sleep for 102 hours, of being beaten and tortured, then jailed in Chengdu City Detention Center, and finally being officially arrested.

A senior engineer at Chongqing University, 64-year-old Professor Zhang Yougao is an expert in photo-electricity and the group leader of a research group in the Three Gorges Dam Project. He has received the award of "advanced worker" several times. Because he went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, he was tortured in Baihelin Detention Center in Shapingba District of Chongqing for several months. Then he was sent to Xishanping Forced Labor Camp in Chongqing for a year, where he was tortured badly. After one year, his sentence was extended for another six months for no reason. After his release, he was forced to attend a brainwashing class held by the local government.

A former senior engineer in the Chinese Ministry of Space and Astronautics Industry, 60-year-old Yang Yueli, was one of the researchers who designed the first manmade satellite in China, and had been involved in many important national-level research projects. She was unlawfully detained for 41 days, and then sentenced to forced labor for one and a half years. During four months of detention in Beijing's Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp, her family was not allowed to visit her. They were not even allowed to give her toothpaste and clothes. In this labor camp, where many Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death, she was jailed in the cruel "intensive training camp" for three months, and then transferred to Beijing's Xin'an Forced Labor Camp for further torture. Due to her son's rescue efforts, she was finally rescued to Canada.

Li Baoqing, a Ph.D. supervisor in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was awarded as the "advanced worker" in the important "seventh five-year" research projects in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was also a winner of a special government grant. He was detained for 38 days for practicing Falun Gong. He was also forced to attend a brainwashing class and jailed in detention centers many times.

Forty-year-old Wu Yifeng, who was the chair of the Department of Architectural Engineering in Changchun Architecture Engineering College, and a famous expert in bridge design in Northeast China, was tortured at the Changchun City Police Department, and then sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment.

Forty-three-year-old Dr. Shen Yingbo is a professor and an outstanding scientist and chairman at Forestry University. He had the most and the highest rated publications in the school. He was held in a detention center and forced to attend brainwashing classes many times.

Twenty-eight-year-old Qu Yanlai graduated from the Department of Energy Engineering in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He had won the special award of the national Olympic competition for chemistry and the first place for mathematics. He was abducted by police from Shanghai Taopu Police Station and unlawfully sentenced to prison for five years. The young man, who was 5'9" and weighed 150 pounds was tortured so badly that he could only lie in bed or sit in a wheelchair. He was unable to take care of himself.

Similar cases are endless. These outstanding individuals were the hope of their families and also the hope of our nation's future. Their tragic stories really make one's heart grow heavy.

Before July 20, 1999, when Falun Gong practitioners began to suffer from the persecution, the CCP had already started sharpening its knives. It needed to find a way to justify its actions and mislead the public, as it has done in numerous political movements before. The interview program made by people under the orders of Zhao Zhizhen only included one-sided stories from those who hated Falun Gong. It did not include a response from Falun Gong practitioners. Moreover, it did not include a response from Falun Gong's founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. This interview did not have any scientific content or the spirit of discussing "both sides." It did not even reach the standard of a news report. In his article, Zhao Zhizhen has admitted that Chinese Central TV Station (CCTV) has taken some of their footage from this interview program. When CCTV inundated the Chinese people with this footage, the right of free speech and defense of Falun Gong practitioners and Mr. Li Hongzhi were taken away. Wasn't the "ironclad" case of former Chinese President Liu Shaoqi being a "traitor, spy, scab in the working class" produced under the same circumstance in which his right to speak was taken away?

What is more sad is that this TV program was used as a major brainwashing tool, as it was shown repeatedly to practitioners who were jailed in prisons, labor camps, and brainwashing classes all over China. When these Falun Gong practitioners were being tortured, when Gao Rongrong's face was being maimed, when Chen Zixiu was tortured to death, when a lot of intellectuals were framed, and when Chinese citizens' right of assembly was taken away, Zhao Zhizhen and other people founded the "Chinese Anti-cult Association" to make the political movement of persecuting Falun Gong appear to be justified and to eradicate Falun Gong. This "anti-cult association" is actually an evil association just like the Inquisition. In this association, there are not only people like the member of the Chinese Academy of Science, He Zuoxiu, who has no research achievements and often quotes the words of high-ranking Chinese government officials, but also the Catholic bishop appointed by the Chinese government, Fu Tieshan. Everyone knows that the bishop does not belong to the scientific community, but no one can tell if he is a Catholic or a member of the CCP. These are the so-called "experts from various fields with great research achievements and good reputation" referred to in Zhao Zhizhen's article.

Zhao Zhizhen's reaction to being sued by Falun Gong practitioners has nothing to do with protecting science. Science should not be protected this way. While practitioners' free speech was taken away, they interviewed people who had been brainwashed to hate Falun Gong and collected one-sided stories, and then repeatedly showed these interviews, thereby intensively brainwashing the public in turn. Is this what they call protecting science? When practitioners' right of assembly was taken away, when practitioners were subjected to torture and suffered unjust treatment in prisons, they formed an association to frame and attack them. Is this protecting science? If Einstein, who devoted his life to protecting human rights, knew that this is how they were "protecting science," how much would he suffer?

Although Zhao Zhizhen tried to make himself out to be a hero like Bruno, who suffered unjust treatment, Zhao has not suffered any persecution. It is a peaceful and reasonable self-defense action that Falun Gong practitioners have taken in suing Zhao Zhizhen in a court that has an independent judiciary in a democratic country. Zhao Zhizhen accused Falun Gong of "gagging intellectuals' mouths and banning different opinions so that they could reach the purpose of 'digging out heaven's eye, polluting people's hearts'." This accusation is just as ridiculous and fabricated as the Red Guard armies' accusations against "The landlords, rich farmers, anti-revolutionaries, bad people and rightists" (5 categories of people who were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution) and the framed intellectuals for "rebelling and trying to make Chinese people to suffer again." Falun Gong has no military or organizations such as the Commission of Political and Judiciary Affairs and Propaganda Department, and Falun Gong has never tried to "gag intellectuals' mouths" or block different opinions. Conversely, many Falun Gong practitioners, including the intellectuals, have been imprisoned, had their mouths silenced and been banned for having different opinions. They have been abducted, tortured and killed for trying to exercise their right of free speech.

It is Zhao Zhizhen and the regime that supports him, the CCP, who are "digging out heaven's eye and polluting people's hearts." Zhao Zhizhen kept silent about this CCP regime's corruption, and of its stealing money that belonged to the Chinese people to persecute innocent people who have no power. Zhao Zhizhen pretended not to see the fact that the CCP regime tried to hide the truth about SARS, which caused many preventable deaths. Zhao Zhizhen didn't say a word when many intellectuals were tortured in the dark prisons. Instead, he formed that evil association to help the dictators persecute Falun Gong practitioners. This is what Zhao Zhizhen claimed to be "the moral standard and righteousness of this group," in his article.

Why does Zhao Zhizhen try to pose as a protector of science? This is because science has already become the mainstream thought in modern society, and has absolute authority. To pose as a protector of science, 1) there is no risk, 2) he can obtain support from others, and 3) he can claim this accusation is against the whole scientific community, instead of just against him, so that the whole scientific community will share this hatred and fight with him. But the accusation against him is exactly due to his instigation of hatred, which is totally against the spirit of science. The accusation against him is not an attack on science, nor does it pose any harm to the truth. Two Nobel Prize winners, Lenart and Stark, who helped the Nazis to instigate hatred, had much more scientific achievement and much higher academic reputations than the "honor and glories" about which Zhao Zhizhen has bragged. However, when they were accused, no one has ever said that it was an attack on the scientific community. I wish Zhao Zhizhen would face his own behavior and his position in the scientific community. He should not try to pose as the representative or guard of science and truth, because this blasphemes science and truth.

Zhao Zhizhen tries to portray himself as Bruno being burned at the stake, but he is more like an Inquisitor. When he gained laurels and wreathes from people like Cao Yuan, while bragging about "the honor and glories" and boasting that "he will enjoy his time with his friends, laughing and chatting," Falun Gong practitioners, however, are suffering from the flame of the burning stake, and the scorn and discrimination from the deceived population. Zhao Zhizhen's laugh cannot cover up Falun Gong practitioners' cries of pain in prisons. It cannot cover Gao Rongrong's maimed face. It cannot cover the blood from Chen Zhixiu's dead body. It cannot cover the devastation of the children who have been orphaned by the persecution, and it cannot cover the misery of the many intellectuals in prison.

02/02/2005

(To be continued)