I'm a policeman in China. I have been engaged in the persecution of Falun Gong for the past year; prohibiting Falun Gong practitioners from contacting, gathering, appealing and expressing opposing views. We found many practitioners still going to Beijing, to appeal, regardless of the time that different government branches took to re-educate them. Without any other way to prevent them from appealing, we have had to check every train heading to Beijing, for quite some time, and detain all practitioners, without exception. As to those who have been found to appeal several times, we send them to a labor camp. Until now, we have detained several hundred Falun Gong practitioners just in our area. There have been thirty-four people sent to the labor camp. The number keeps increasing.
We [security officers] all thought these people to be stubborn, too stubborn. Even after being arrested and detained, they would go to Beijing again. It is no use to call their relatives and their leaders to persuade them. Losing their jobs, detention centers, labor camps, and any other measures that could be imagined still could not stop them. Asking them in despair, "What can we do to separate you from Falun Gong?" They would answer, "Don't ask such a question. I would rather be killed." Sometimes we joked in private, "These people are not afraid; they face death more bravely than the party members in the past revolution."
I have been involved detaining or interrogating many of the Dafa practitioners. They have impressed me deeply. My doubts of the government authority have been increased by my many contacts with the practitioners. The duty of public security personnel is to maintain the stability of society. The people I have interrogated are all good people: honest, of high moral standards, committing no crimes, doing good things and having good reputations and a good influence in society.
For example, a judge in our county has worked in the court in charge of financial cases. It is common to accept gifts and invitations in such a position. After practicing Falun Gong, he refused to accept any gifts or "red wrap"(with money inside) and spent all his spare time studying the Fa and learning how to be a noble person. If all the judges acted like him, there would be no corruption in the administration of justice. But now he has been arrested, detained and cannot work. This type of good person can be found commonly among the practitioners. Intuitively, we know it is wrong to arrest Dafa practitioners and crackdown on Falun Gong. There are tens of millions of practitioners in China, from jobless workers to administrators, from peasants to college students, from young kids to ninety-year old women. It can no longer be denied that the persecution of Falun Gong has gone to extremes and has negatively affected both social stability and unity.
I have tried to understand Falun Gong and the practitioners during this period of time and from different points of view.
The Authority says Falun Gong is involved in politics. I have examined and read all the Falun Gong material confiscated from practitioners' homes and found nothing about politics. Instead I HAVE found several places in different books having words such as, "Falun Dafa practitioners, should regard cultivating xinxing as the essence; they should never become involved in state politics; should never join in any political conflicts and activities." Through the interrogation of practitioners, I found the practitioners' act of appealing was an individual action because they felt Falun Dafa had been treated unjustly and it was necessary to let the leaders and the government know the truth. There is no one instigating and organizing; there is no one "behind" any act. What they did is only to exercise their rights, granted by the Constitution, to tell the Authority the truth. Honest criticism needs no excuse and it is not a crime at all.
The Authorities say Falun Gong is accumulating money by unlawful means. Our political and security section has investigated this issue in depth and has concluded that the Falun Gong assistance centers did NOT accumulate money; the cost of all activities came from individuals or volunteers of their own wills and there were no economic crimes involved.
The Authorities say Falun Gong is a very tight organization and has secret activities. In fact, the investigation shows in the form of organization that we normally regard, that there is NO organization in Falun Gong and there are no positions of rank among the practitioners. The so-called "assistants" or "persons-in-charge" have no real power and no real position. They just organize people for practice or study and they do NOT get paid! They serve others based on their ardent love for Falun Gong. Anyone can come to learn if he wants and can quit of his own free will.
Falun Gong has been said by the Authority to harm society. To tell the truth, all the practitioners whom I know do not gamble, do not smoke or drink, do not accept or take bribes, and do not curse or beat others. They do not seek fame and wealth; they are warmhearted and modest; they obey the law and are responsible to society and others. They cannot be found in unhealthy places, such as dancehalls and public houses. They get up in the morning to practice the exercises, and study Zhuan Falun in the evening with others. They study, discuss and look inside themselves for their weaknesses and shortcomings. Any intelligent person can judge such people to be good for the society and are no harm, at all, to anyone.
In the view of the law, the persecution of Falun Gong is absolutely illegal. According to the Constitution, only the National People's Congress and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress have the right to make law, modify law, interpret law, and apply law to any significant events. Such an event, as the persecution of Falun Gong, involving over 100 million citizens and involving the "political conflict" of "major right and wrong issues" in the whole county, is impossible without a resolution the National People's Congress and without an investigation conducted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress or the State Department. Some may say the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has passed the law about "evil cults". In fact, no resolutions have even mentioned the name of "Falun Gong".
The high authority of the Public Security Department has followed the lead of the resolution to make a public statement called "Announcement". The Public Security Department is to enforce the law and has a right to make a public announcement. But it has no right to determine the character of Falun Gong and has no right to deprive the rights of tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners that are granted by the Constitution. The rules such as "Prohibition of Contact" is to restrict the freedom of the individual and that is against constitutional Rule No. 37; the rule of "Prohibition of Appeal" is to deprive the people's right of criticism to government employees and the right of appeal and charge, and that is against Constitutional Rule No. 41.
Until now, Falun Gong was not an "evil religion" on any basis of law. The words of a few government leaders can only represent their individual opinions. The slanderous statement that "Falun Gong is an evil religion" is nothing but words, made by the state-controlled media. It cannot be used as the basis of law by the branches of Public Security Department, or the procurator's offices and courts.
Out of the sense of responsibility to the people and the government, I appeal to all government branches to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. I especially hope my comrades from the Public Security Department act on their intuitive knowledge and do not walk the wrong direction into "the darkness". The future depends on what you do now.
A Policeman in China
November 6, 2000
