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The TV Show "The Story of Li Hongzhi" was the First of the Three-Step Persecution
By Dafa practitioners in Wuhan City, China
(Clearwisdom.net) Background: The TV show "The Story of Li Hongzhi" was produced and shown under the direction of then-director of Wuhan TV Station Zhao Zhizhen. He was sued in the U.S. in July, 2004 for making propaganda films inciting hatred, violence, and genocide against Falun Gong. Zhao later tried to defend himself using the excuse of "freedom of press in China." See:
The three-step persecution mentioned in the title of this article refers to
the policy issued within the 610 Office to oppress Falun Gong by "defaming
their reputation, bankrupting them financially and destroying them
physically." On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin's regime started the persecution against Falun
Gong in China, which shocked the country and the whole world. Jiang Zemin
claimed, "The Communist Party will defeat Falun Gong." The state
organs massively tracked down and arrested Falun Dafa practitioners, while
state-run media spread viciously fabricated rumors as propaganda to deceive
people. They defamed and slandered Falun Gong in order to stir up hatred toward
Falun Gong among the masses. At that time the most destructive propaganda was a TV program called
"The Story of Li Hongzhi." This show, consisting of fabricated lies
was broadcast continually to the entire country and even to the whole world
during that period. Millions of people who did not know the truth were poisoned
by it. The person who fabricated this TV show of fabricated lies was Zhao
Zhizhen. Zhao Zhizhen was the head of Wuhan TV Broadcast Station. At that time, the
public security department asked the head of Wuhan TV Broadcast Station and
reporter Song to make TV programs critical of Falun Gong and to defame Falun
Gong's founder Mr. Li Hongzhi. Therefore, making this TV program was based
neither on freedom of speech nor on the freedom of the press. It was carried out
as part of the plan to persecute Falun Gong and based on the needs of the
political persecution. To produce the TV program, Zhao Zhizhen went to Beijing, Changchun, and other
places to conduct "interviews and investigations." The show content
consisted entirely of distorted facts and fabricated false impressions, spliced
in or quoted out of context in order to defame and attack Falun Dafa and Master
Li. Here we expose to the public what we have learned of Zhao Zhizhen's
activities: 1. Who were the people that Zhao Zhizhen interviewed and used as the
witnesses in the TV show? Zhao Zhizhen found and interviewed Li Jingfeng and Li Jingchao, who were
brothers. The elder was a guide in the Beijing Military Museum and the younger
an employee of a factory in Changchun City. These brothers were among the
students of Master Li in the early times. To introduce Falun Gong to the public
and support the nation's large-scale Qigong events, Master Li had led some
students to take part in the Oriental Health Expos in Beijing and had treated
illnesses for the people there, with miraculous results. Li Jingfeng and Li
Jingchao were attached to fame and profit, and they treated people's illnesses
on their own behind Master Li's back, charging money for the treatments. Their
conduct was not in accordance with the requirements of Falun Dafa practitioners
and undermined Falun Dafa. Master Li mentioned in early Fa lectures, "No genuine Falun Dafa disciples should treat illnesses for others.
Once you treat an illness, all things in your body from Falun Dafa will be
taken back by my fashen." (Zhuan Falun) Falun Dafa is serious. Cultivating Falun Dafa is serious. Master Li had
declared at that time that the brothers were no longer Falun Dafa disciples. The
brothers were destroyed by their own attachments to fame and profit. Although Li Jingfeng and Li Jingchao regretted their actions, they did not
recognize their mistake. Instead, they harbored hatred in their minds toward
Master Li and waited for a chance to take revenge. Zhao Zhizhen, driven by his
purpose of defaming and slandering Falun Dafa, found and interviewed Li Jingfeng
and Li Jingchao and chose them as his false witnesses. They readily cooperated. 2. Zhao Zhizhen took advantage of his power as the head of Wuhan TV Broadcast
Station to use "The Light of Science and Technology" program for his
excuse. He fetched a position in the Central TV Broadcast Station as a reward.
Zhao Zhizhen and the Central TV Broadcast Station fabricated and produced this
TV show together. In fact, since July 20, 1999, the TV show "The Story of Li Hongzhi"
has been broadcast repetitively by the Central TV Broadcast Station and all the
provincial, city, and local TV broadcast stations. It became the biggest
artillery shell for Jiang's regime at the time to oppress Falun Gong and
persecute its practitioners. It also became the basis for other attacks on Falun
Gong and a psychological weapon the 610 Offices used to brainwash and persecute
practitioners. It has poisoned millions of people who did not know the truth and
stirred up their hatred toward Falun Gong. Since July 20, 1999, at least 21 Falun Gong practitioners have been
persecuted to death in Hubei Province. Among them, practitioner Peng Min of
Wuhan City was tortured to death on April 6, 2001. He was only 27 years old.
When Peng Min was illegally detained in the Qingling Detention Center of Wuchang
City, he was brutally beaten for persistently studying the Falun Gong teachings
and practicing the exercises. There were injuries all over his body. On January
9, 2001, brutal torture against him resulted in a fracture at his fifth vertebra
and compression fractures of his cervical vertebrae.
He was paralyzed by the torture, and only then was his mother allowed to take
him back home. Just when Peng Min began to recover slightly at home, he was
forcibly abducted again by more than 30 policemen from the riot squad team of
the city's police department. He was abducted and taken to the 7th
Hospital of Wuhan City for so-called "treatment." During the period
when Peng Min was detained in the 7th Hospital, the hospital, under
the instigation of the 610 Office and the Police Department, openly ignored Peng
Min's condition of being on the verge of death, and notified Peng Min's family
that he would not be released from the hospital unless he was dead! 3. On the issue of broadcasting "The Story of Li Hongzhi," Zhao
Zhizhen acted willfully, deceived practitioners, and insisted on doing evil. In June 1999, before the massive persecution started, Dafa practitioners
learned that Zhao Zhizhen had produced the deceitful TV show. They made phone
calls, and sent faxes and mail in abundance to the Wuhan TV Broadcast Station.
They sincerely pointed out that the content of the TV show was not truthful, and
requested that Wuhan TV Broadcast Station report only the truth. At the same
time, many practitioners in Wuhan City and other places also went to Wuhan TV
Broadcast Station to ask them not to air the TV show. The practitioners quietly
waited in the hall on the first floor of the TV station building, but the head
of the station did not meet them. Later the TV station even drove the
practitioners out of the door. All the practitioners stood outside of the door
calmly and without over reacting. As more and more requests to stop the broadcast came in from across the
country, Falun Gong practitioners in Wuhan City worked to stop the broadcast.
Some practitioner representatives went to talk with the personnel in charge of
the office for Wuhan TV Broadcast Station's editor-in-chief. The personnel
replied, "We will not air it. It will not be aired." Some practitioner
representatives went to the Wuhan City Police Department and requested that the
broadcast be stopped. The person who met with the representatives was a division
head, and he said, "It will not be broadcast." Some practitioner
representatives made contact with the Wuhan Mayor's office and requested that
the municipal government stop the TV station from broadcasting the deceptive TV
show. A government leader who replied on the phone answered, "We do not
know the situation. We will investigate." But, because of Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan's orders, the fabricated TV show by
Zhao Zhizhen was finally included as part of the persecution, and was broadcast
nationwide beginning in the second half of July, acting as an integral part of
the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong. January 30, 2005 |