(Clearwisdom.net) In April 2004 Falun Gong's main book Zhuan Falun enjoyed great popularity during the three-week long El Libro Buenos Aires International Book Fair in Argentina. This is the largest book fair in South America, and people from various segments of society showed great interest in the book. In January 2005 the Spanish version of Falun Gong was published in Argentina and was circulated by several publishing houses. Despite the severe persecution in China by Jiang Zemin's communist regime, Falun Gong has been embraced by the international community. Now, Falun Gong practitioners live in over 60 countries, and Falun Gong has received over 1,200 proclamations and awards from governments and organizations throughout the world. The book Falun Gong has been translated into more than 30 languages. In the meantime, the chief perpetrator of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Jiang Zemin has become a defendant in numerous lawsuits in 14 countries, including the US, Belgium, Spain and Germany. Major accomplices in the persecution, including Zeng Qinghong, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang, Chen Zhili, Jia Qinglin and other criminal followers have also been sued in foreign courts.

The popularity of Falun Gong in the world sharply contrasts with the Jiang regime's brutal persecution. The difference exemplifies the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) dictatorship, complete disregard for the law, and wicked nature.

Early childhood education has a significant influence on the formation and development of a person's mind and intelligence. The wolf girls of India are often referred to as an example. In 1920, two baby girls, Amala (2 years old) and Kamala (8 years old), were found together in a wolves' den in Midnapore, India. The two girls were raised by wolves. Their physical bodies were similar to children their age, but their psychological abilities differed significantly from those of other children. The older girl's (Kamala) intelligence was equivalent to that of a 6-month-old baby. Much of her behavior was similar to that of a wolf. She disliked clothing and would rip off any clothes that others put on her. She crawled like a wolf and slept in dark corners during the day. At night she howled and wandered about. She had a keen sense of smell and sniffed around for food. She loved raw meat and would place meat on the ground before eating it. She ate with her mouth only, not using her hands at all to eat, and she ate no vegetables. Her teeth were very sharp and her ears could move. After long-term training and education, she managed to learn only six words in four years. In six years she began to walk like a human. When she died at age 16, her intelligence was similar to that of a 3 to 4-year-old child.

The study shows that differences in education and environment can also forge differences in people's awareness and social psychology. The wolf girls demonstrated many wolf-like traits. In China, the CCP has twisted the facts and doctored the history books. Throughout its history, the CCP has been launching ruthless campaigns during its "proletariat dictatorship." From the schools to society at large, the Communists have brainwashed generations of Chinese with their ideology and supreme-party principles. The intention is to replace people's human nature with the so-called Party-nature.

All elementary school pupils are required to wear red scarves. They are also forced to take a politics class in which the communist doctrine is the only text. The students are taught to criticize and attack CCP-defined enemies, who vary depending on the time and trend. The current target of the CCP's hate campaign is Falun Gong. Poisoned by the communist culture, the Chinese people's collective mentality is very different from people in non-communist countries. When Chinese students have studied in a foreign country they have been pleasantly surprised to learn that politics and brainwashing classes are not in their curriculum.

In Western society, principles of law and human rights are deeply rooted in people's hearts. In a Washington DC elementary school, the title for a 5th-grade composition assignment was posted outside the classroom. It read "The Right to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances." Posted below the title were students' essays that reflected their individual understandings of citizens' rights bestowed by the US Constitution. The US educational system teaches students about the law, freedom of expression and other civil rights, from the beginning. They emphasize that everyone is equal under the law and that all political parties and individuals must comply with the law.

People who grew up in a culture filled with the CCP's political struggle are heavily influenced by communist politics. Communist politics bear a deep stamp of deceit, wickedness and violence (characteristics of the CCP). To varying degrees, people from such a culture usually think and behave along Party lines, and only a few of them embrace the spirit of free expression and the rule-of-law. They analyze and politicize everything (including Falun Gong) according to the CCP's point of view. Their behavior often reflects the CCP dictatorship and theories of political struggle. In the West, on the other hand, people live according to the principles of law, their spiritual beliefs and with freedom of expression.

In ancient China people were allowed to stop a senior official's sedan chair to express their experiences of injustice. They also had the right to appeal in court. In the West Jin Dynasty (over 1,000 years ago) Emperor Jinwudi hung a drum outside the imperial court, and people were allowed to appeal their grievances by beating the drum. They could appeal directly to the central government or even to the Emperor himself. Many dynasties after the Jin Dynasty also followed this custom.

In 1996 the CCP newspaper Guangming Daily published a slanderous article to attack Falun Gong. After that, the police constantly harassed Falun Gong practitioners. On April 25, 1999 a large group of practitioners gathered to visit the China State Council Appeals Office to tell them about the illegal arrests and beating of Falun Gong practitioners by the Tianjin police. The practitioners' appeal action was perfectly legal as judged by China's laws and ancient tradition. Article 41 in China's Constitution explicitly states that citizens have the right to visit the government to petition. However, the self-centered, power-obsessed CCP went berserk and accused the Falun Gong practitioners of "besieging the government," "political manipulation" and "disrupting social order."

In recent years the Chinese government has advocated, "Harmonize with developed countries with international standards." In foreign countries that have a functional judicial system, Falun Gong practitioners' appeals would be very natural. After Jiang Zemin's regime started persecuting Falun Gong, Falun Gong practitioners have legally appealed and clarified the facts in over 60 countries. Not one of these countries has criminalized them. Every year during July, since 1999, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners from around the world peacefully gather outside the White House and the US Capitol to petition for a peaceful ending to the persecution. The US government has never accused them of seeking political power, or said that they "besiege the government." On the other side of the planet, police openly arrest and beat Falun Gong practitioners in Tiananmen Square.

In a normal society that respects the law, legal awareness is common sense. Appealing to the government for grievance is reasonable and legal. The government's job is to protect citizens' rights. Petitioning to the government over grievances is very natural and is never considered political. From this perspective, the Falun Gong issue can be seen as a civil rights issue and a legal issue. The CCP, with its rigid political mindset, distorts the legal issue into a political issue and refuses to abide by the law. Jiang Zemin has even secretly instructed his followers "Don't consider the law when dealing with Falun Gong." He openly violated China's Constitution and laws while shamelessly accusing Falun Gong practitioners of "violation of the law."

The CCP's long-term political campaigns, its dirty and cruel power struggles and the propaganda of the Party culture has turned "politics" into a strange word. On one hand, the CCP advocates "everything serves politics" and encourages its members to show an interest in politics. The CCP has forced people to endorse their politics as "great, glorious and correct." On the other hand, average citizens are portrayed as dirty and dangerous if the government called them "political," implying that they are trying to seize power from the communists. These people automatically became the enemy of the government. As a result, people avoid being called political like they avoided the plague. The CCP not only deprived Falun Gong practitioners' of their right to appeal, it also forced Falun Gong practitioners to wear a "political" hat from the beginning of the persecution. This is not only used to justify the persecution, but it is also used to mislead people and encourage them to hate and isolate Falun Gong practitioners.

As the special editorial series, the Epoch Times "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" reports, one of the nine traits of the communist party is "deception." Lying, fabrication and misleading are inherent in the CCP's nature. The CCP regards Falun Gong practitioners as its number one enemy. Whenever Falun Gong practitioners take action to oppose the persecution, the communists accuse them of "being political," "disrupting social order," "working with anti-China forces" and other ridiculous labels. Some people brainwashed Chinese by the Party culture automatically subscribe to these views and charges. They are unknowingly helping the CCP to harm good people.

The CCP's Party culture has severely distorted the concept of politics. As Falun Gong practitioners, we should ask ourselves, "What is political activity?" Politicians are after fame, financial benefits and power. Falun Gong practitioners view these motives as efforts to gain in society. They are basically people's attachments. Falun Gong practitioners are not supposed to pursue these things; on the contrary, their purpose of cultivation is to get rid of these attachments. Political motivation and power have nothing in common with Falun Gong principles. Genuine cultivators never get interested in politics. In Chinese history, many people, even emperors abandoned all their status and possessions to become monks.

It's clear that political pursuit violates Falun Gong principles. Falun Gong practitioners as a group have no have no desire to seek positions of power in government, and they are not attempting to build a utopia in the world, as the CCP claims for itself. Falun Gong practitioners have continually stated that they are not political. Since Falun Gong helps people to improve their morality, people in other countries call Falun Gong a "spiritual movement." People in other countries don't label Falun Gong as having a political nature. Throughout the years, Falun Gong practitioners have followed its principles and steered clear of politics. But why do some people continue to believe the CCP's accusations linking Falun Gong to politics? There are several reasons.

First, the CCP conceals the facts from people and fabricates "evidence" to slander Falun Gong. It bombards the public with lies such as "political motivation." Some people are thoroughly brainwashed by the CCP propaganda and believe anything the CCP says. They blindly agree with the CCP's every judgment, and they have completely lost the ability to think independently.

Second, in China today many people worship power. When Jiang Zemin started the persecution, how many people believed that Falun Gong could hold on? During the CCP's long-term bloody rule of terror, people have been terrified and fooled so badly that they no longer dare to doubt or challenge the Party's power. Even after Falun Gong practitioners reiterated their position of no politics, many still couldn't believe them. On a deeper level, the CCP has lied to the Chinese people for a long time. The CCP's moral corruption has deteriorated the entire country, causing the Chinese people to distrust each other. The increase in the amount of cases in which fathers demand a DNA test of newborn children in China has exemplified just how bad things have become. People don't even trust their most-loved ones. Some people don't believe that honesty still exists in the world, so they can't imagine that good people such as Falun Gong practitioners still exist.

Thirdly, because the CCP has destroyed China's traditional culture, many Chinese people can only see things through the CCP's twisted definitions of the culture; thus they find it hard to comprehend the real purpose of cultivation. As Falun Gong spread more widely, and more people became practitioners, some people in China (especially some highly educated people) worried about a strong Falun Gong movement getting involved in politics and gaining power in the government. Referring to Chinese history, they wondered if Falun Gong would ever become interested in politics. It was difficult for them to see through the CCP's lies. Falun Gong does not emphasize politics, and Falun Gong is not a religion, so how could "a merging of government and religion" take place? Falun Gong would never get involved in politics, not in the past, not now, not in the future.

Due to unsubstantiated fears, some people have remained indifferent to the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. These people might think they are neutral, but in reality they are helping the perpetrators.

Fourth, the CCP philosophy of class-struggle forces people to develop a confrontational mentality. They tend to see people and the government as opponents instead of as partners. Falun Gong is apolitical, but some peoples' minds are oriented or formed by the CCP political culture, and they make judgments based on CCP-encouraged biases.

(To be continued)

March 26, 2005