Prosecutor : We now call General Zhao Zhonghua to the witness stand.
Bailiff : Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Zhao Zhonghua: I do.
Prosecutor : good afternoon General Zhao. Could you tell us your position in the PRC immediately prior to the persecution of Falun Gong.
Zhao Zhonghua: Let's say I was at the ministerial level and I also held posts with the Chinese Communist Party and military.
Prosecutor : What would you say was the general attitude of the Chinese government towards Falun Gong before the persecution began.
Zhao Zhonghua: At first you know, the government supported the practice of Falun Gong. It has clear and visible moral and health benefits and also good psychological benefits.
The most prominent men in China positively endorsed the practice. At the time, not only was the general public learning Falun Gong, but seven of the Central Politburo members all read Zhuan Falun and many of their relatives and friends were also practicing. Many high-ranking officials in the Communist Party, government and military either attended Mr. Li Hongzhi's lectures, or became Falun Gong practitioners through other channels.
Prosecutor : Excuse me. May I ask, who is Mr. Li Hongzhi?
Zhao Zhonghua: He's the founder of Falun Dafa.
Prosecutor : Thank you. Please continue.
Zhao Zhonghua: Even I endorsed the practice. I found the practice made me calmer, a little steadier. But sitting in the double lotus position was a bit tough for me! The National Qigong Commission gave Falun Gong different awards and the reports about it in newspapers, television and radio broadcasts were positive.
Prosecutor : What happened on April 25th, 1999?
Zhao Zhonghua: In the afternoon of April 25, I got a phone call that there were thousands of Falun Gong practitioners outside Zhongnanhai : the main government compound. When I drove out there, I have to say, it was quite a sight. Ten thousand people, sitting and standing so peacefully, with such dignity, but not regimented like the military. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. These people made sure not to block traffic or pedestrians and when they left, there wasn't a scrap of litter on the ground. I know the international press reported on the gathering in a very favorable manner.
Prosecutor : What was this about? Why were these people there?
Zhao Zhonghua: I think basically some Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin had been illegally arrested for exercising their constitutional right of appeal, so other practitioners were going to Zhongnanhai to peacefully appeal their arrest. It makes sense : the main Appeals Office is on one side of Zhongnanhai and that's where citizens are supposed to go when they have a problem with the government that can't be resolved at the local level. That night, Premier Zhu Rongji went and spoke with some representatives of the group. It was very calm and their requests were reasonable, so Zhu was able to agree to them and the whole thing could have been resolved right there and then.
Prosecutor: So why wasn't it? What happened that changed things?
Zhao Zhonghua: Personally, I think Jiang was jealous of the way Zhu was able to handle things so well. Who knows what was going on in Jiang's petty little brain at that point...
Defense Attorney : Objection!
Judge: Sustained.
Zhao Zhonghua: Some say Jiang felt threatened by the ability of Falun Dafa practitioners to gather in such large numbers. After all, he's known to be incredibly insecure. Some say he was jealous of Mr. Li Hongzhi, too, because of the practitioners' obvious faith in Falun Gong and Mr. Li Hongzhi. Others say it's a tactic that was commonly used by leaders in the Communist Party to consolidate their power : first you find some benign group to target, next you label them as "counterrevolutionaries" and say how dangerous they are, then you squash them so you can show the masses how astute and strong you are.
Defense Attorney: Move to strike! Speculation.
Prosecutor: Attempt to establish motive should be allowed, your honor.
Judge: Motion to strike denied. Prosecution may proceed.
Prosecutor: General Zhao, please continue with what you saw on April 25th, 1999.
Zhao Zhonghua: A group of top officials were called to meet with Jiang that night and it was then that he shared with us his desire to completely eradicate, completely exterminate, Falun Gong. But because of the foolishness of the idea, from the beginning he received little support within the Party leadership and was also opposed by the more honest elements within the Party.
Jiang became very angry and decided to copy what Chairman Mao did in his bid to start the Cultural Revolution : he wrote personal letters to high-ranking officials within the Politburo and other high-ranking officials, and forced them to pass the letter down to Communist Party officials of a certain rank from top to bottom. That way, the direction was clear.
So Jiang went ahead and had many practitioners arrested between April 25 through July 20th of 1999. It wasn't until October that year that Jiang Zemin went to France and for the first time openly defamed Falun Gong and in person in an interview with the French "Figaro" newspaper, calling Falun Gong an "evil cult." Later in October Jiang Zemin had the People's Daily, the state-run newspaper in China, describe Falun Gong as a cult. You know, for someone who's usually so incompetent, that was actually a pretty clever move on his part. He knew a label like that is hard to shake. Then, months after he'd already illegally arrested practitioners, he forced the People's Congress to retroactively legitimize their arrest by having them unlawfully pass an "Anti-Cult Law."
Prosecutor: I'm not sure I understand. You're saying Jiang first started the persecution and then he started calling Falun Gong a cult and then he got an anti-cult law passed as a way to try to justify his actions?
Zhao Zhonghua: Yes. You know, it's like that joke where someone's at the shooting range and shoots his gun at a target, then he runs up to the target and draws the circles around his bullet to show he'd hit a bulls eye. Jiang knew that persecuting Falun Gong was illegal and unconstitutional from the start. Jiang also knew he never could have passed a law outlawing Falun Gong, nor could he have convinced people then that Falun Gong was bad, so he did the next best thing. He had an "anti-cult law" passed that was vague and had no parameters, and it never even defined what it means to be a "cult." No matter what, we all knew Falun Gong was not a cult. Most government officials didn't want to participate in the persecution, but few felt free to speak openly. I tried suggesting that we reconsider the campaign, but I was silenced and placed under house arrest. But there were many ways in which many high-level officials quietly tried to turn the situation around.
Prosecutor: People who come from free nations might ask: "Since this is just something Jiang wanted to do of his own personal accord, and it's wrong, then why didn't the entire government and machinery of the state oppose it? Why did they systematically go forward and implement it?"
Zhao Zhonghua: It's about power, really. The truth is, the Chinese government has never had a stable, rational, enduring policy. All of its policies are closely linked to the personal will of the highest holder of power. In the history of the CCP's rule, it's always been "Power comes from the barrel of a gun."
The Chinese government's governing principle is supposed to be "to serve the people." But of course Jiang serves himself by using his tremendous Party, administrative, and military power to essentially hijack the government of China. In a situation where nobody dares to say 'no,' when a dictator holding the military power can recklessly rape the will of the people and rape the law, I don't know if I would call it a "national policy." It's probably more accurate just to say the persecution against Falun Gong was "the individual will of a dictator."
Prosecutor: Thank you, General Zhou. I have no further questions.
Defense Attorney: I have no questions for this witness.
(The rest of script will be published in installments on Clearharmony over the coming days)
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