Oftentimes, there are people who ask me: "Is Falun Gong involved in politics?" I reply: "No, Falun Gong is a cultivation practice for body and mind." Then, the next question for me is: "Why does the Chinese Communist Party crackdown on Falun Gong?" Of course, Westerners and Easterners would expect different answers for the same question. Westerners find it unconceivable, as this is something [the crackdown] that would never happen in their countries, whereas, Easterners would like to know if you are hiding something. But I, [to this question,] have no choice but to say: "I myself would like to ask Jiang Zemin -- why he is so hostile to Falun Gong which teaches people to cultivate body and mind and has never been confrontational to the Government." Of course, it is impossible for me to have such a chance but this thought remains in my mind. Nonetheless, MikeWallace's interview with Jiang inspired me a lot.
During the interview, Jiang claimed that the founder of Falun Gong "calls himself 'a reincarnation of the Bodhisattva and a reincarnation of Jesus'." I was puzzled. Some time ago, the Chinese media used to say that [the founder of Falun Gong] "implied that he was a reincarnation of Sakyamuni (Siddhartha Gautama)," while now the wording has been changed. Is it possible that President Jiang forgot the prepared lines? It seems that it is not easy to contrive a lie. After I thought it over, I came to understand more of the logic behind it. Recently, there are words about further suppressing Falun Gong. In order to do this, there has to be some excuses to convince people. In the west, the public is, in general, sympathetic to Falun Gong and there are more and more people who are concerned with the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. To divert Westerners' attention and confuse people, something new has to be cooked up. "Collusion with anti-China forces in the West" cannot stir up Americans' patriotism, the "1400 examples" have been exposed, and Sakyamuni is a God in the East. It seems that only "calling himself a reincarnation of Jesus" would be able to make Westerners dismayed. When one is out to maliciously charge someone, one can always trump up the charge!
Nonetheless, lies cannot be exposed after all. Although the CBS interview was broadcast in Mainland China, people were not 'lucky' enough to hear this part of President Jiang's statement.
As a matter of fact, most people have already discerned some truth: what Jiang and the Chinese media have been spreading are the excuses that they use to crackdown on Falun Gong and to conceal the evil crimes they have committed. The evil is afraid of being exposed. When the truth reveals itself to the world, the evil will be eliminated. When knowing that more than fifty Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death, when knowing millions of people were persecuted because of their unshakeable resolve in their belief and practice of Falun Gong, when seeing the peace and determination of Falun Gong practitioners, lies will collapse naturally and people will discern what is good and what is evil.
More and more people are giving the cry for justice: Stop the suppression of Falun Gong!
A practitioner
September 13, 2000
