[Editor’s note: Liu Jing, Deputy Minister of the Chinese Public Security Ministry, delivered a speech at a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meeting on June 30, 2005, about the battle between the Chinese government and Falun Gong. Liu Jing is also a member of the CCP Central Committee and Director of the Central Anti-Cult Office (initially named as the "610 Office" or "Office for Handling Falun Gong Issues").
Falun Gong is a kind of qigong practice, which became popular in China after it was introduced to the public in 1992. The principle of the practice—"truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance"—shares the core values of traditional Chinese culture and is therefore easily accepted by Chinese people. But the popularity of Falun Gong concerned the then Communist Party Chief Jiang Zemin. Jiang didn’t take well to the fact that so many people were out of his control and ordered to ban the practice in China on July 20, 1999. In order to justify the crackdown, Jiang personally claimed that Falun Gong was an evil cult when he was visiting France in October 1999. Despite the ruthless persecution over the past six years by the CCP, Falun Gong has never succumbed to the suppression and has persistently appealed to the government and the public to stop the persecution all over the world, a movement they call "clarifying the truth."
Below is a transcript of Liu Jing’s speech that describes how the CCP views the situation in regard to its battle against Falun Gong. In Liu’s speech, the CCP attributes its inability to eradicate Falun Gong to the support and financial aid by a Western anti-China force led by the United States.
In all subsequent instances, "anti-cult" is used in place of "anti-evil cult," and "cult" is used in place of "evil cult." Liu Jing used the word "evil" in front of each occurrence of "cult."
"Struggle" and "battle" are used interchangeably in English. In Chinese, it’s the same word.
The transcript is based on a voice recording and has not been reviewed by the author.
The speech contains vilifying statements toward the CCP’s perceived enemies, and one may need to construe those statements with caution. More information about the battle between the Chinese government and Falun Gong can also be found in the July issue of Chinascope:"Falun Gong: 1992 – 2005."]
I am reporting to comrades the situation of our struggle against Falun Gong. ….As internal information is involved, I request that comrades keep it secret, as the struggle is quite serious.
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Our struggle against the Falun Gong cult organization has spanned over six years. On April 25, six years ago, tens of thousands of people suddenly surrounded Zhongnanhai Compound without any prior indication, it was well-organized with strict enforcement of orders and prohibitions. They appeared suddenly, and left very suddenly. Hence started our battle with the Falun Gong organization. In the past six years, under the correct leadership of the CCP Central Committee, and supported by various departments and organizations, we have attained significant victories, and have taken control of this battle inside the country, but due to the complicated influence of numerous factors, both internationally and domestically, the battle is still very severe and complicated, especially after last November [in 2004]. The Falun Gong overseas headquarters has joined hands with other enemy forces and Taiwan independence forces, and dished out the series of reactionary articles—Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, which further complicated the situation.
Speaking of the current situation of the battle, we have to consider the current international backdrop at large. We have found, in our work, that two problems of great importance are worthy of our special attention.
The first one is, after the success of its anti-terrorism strategy, the United States is further pursuing its global hegemony. It has clearly strengthened its restraining tendency toward China, bringing increased external pressure on our safety and our political and social stability. As a pawn in the hands of Western anti-China forces—headed by the United States—the reactionary role played by Falun Gong has been noted more obviously. In other words, the United States is now in a better position, and their hands are not as full as before the success of the anti-terrorism strategy. We all know that Western enemy forces have never given up their strategic scheme to westernize and/or split-off [Translator’s note: Chinese word leans toward the division of people, rather than land] our country’s population. The United States has never changed its fundamental policy of restraining the development of China. With the increasing strengthening of China’s overall national power, the United States has become increasingly worried about China’s rise. It regards China more and more as a potential opponent, or a potential enemy. Prior to 9/11, when [George W.] Bush took the office of presidency for the first term, he characterized the Sino-U.S. relationship as "strategic opponents," and adopted very apparent hostile policies toward us. After the war on terrorism started on 9/11, out of its anti-terrorism need, the United States expanded its cooperation with us. Bush changed his term to "constructive cooperation" for characterizing the Sino-U.S. relationship. Even so, he has never changed his dual approach to his policy of contact and constraint. During this period, under the excuse of anti-terrorism, the United States took the opportunity to accelerate its military besiege surrounding [China]. At present, after its success in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has expanded its influence of reach and its hegemonic ambition has become further inflated. In Bush’s second term, he changed his global strategy from anti-terrorism to "ending tyranny." Recently, Bush used "comprehensive and complicated" to characterize the Sino-U.S. relationship, which has gone backwards from "constructive cooperation" to "comprehensive and complicated." [Translator’s note: This exact term has been used by Colin Powell. See news title at http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/Archive/2004/Oct/25-129480.html] It is rather apparent that the policy of restraining China has been pushed to the forefront, and a series of actions have been taken to restrain [China].
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Through this brief review, it’s not hard to see that there has been a consistent guideline behind these actions. In February this year [2005], Japan and the United States confirmed that Taiwan was a beneficiary [Translator’s note: English literature used the word "common concern" to describe the Taiwan straight in light of the treaty; see: http://taiwansecurity.org/ST/2005/ST-260205.htm] under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. Meanwhile, the United States pressured the revaluation of the [Chinese] Renminbi [yuan], and set quotas on textile exports from China. It has increasingly blamed [China] for problems regarding intellectual property. From the end of last year [2004] to the beginning of this year, the United States resorted to all kinds of approaches and did everything it could think of to prevent the E.U. from lifting its ban on weapons sales to China. Recently, the rhetoric of "China threat" has caused a temporary clamor in the United States. The Pentagon is planning on publishing its evaluation report on China’s military power. Their VIPs have also been busy at spreading the words of "China threat," antagonizing the relationship between China and other Asian-Pacific nations. This has indicated that the Sino-U.S. relationship has entered a bumpy period, or a period of numerous problems.
Why do I want to review these things? We can recall that around November of last year [2004], it was then that Falun Gong brought out the series of the Nine Commentaries. It seemed to be accidental. In fact, it was an echo, and it was an act that was echoing to end this kind of rule and this kind of regime. In the U.S. strategy of restraining China, the Taiwan issue is an important chip, and Falun Gong is a pawn for sabotaging national security and political stability. The Western anti-China forces, headed by the United States, have determined that Falun Gong is a "resistance force" in China, and it is an organization that could possibly cause turmoil in China. The disruptive and sabotaging activities of Falun Gong, in fact, are a strategic component of the Western anti-China forces in their carrying out the scheme of westernizing and splitting off China. Some comrades have often asked me why the Falun Gong issue has not been resolved. I can surely say, without the U.S. support, this issue would have long been resolved. There were about two million people who practiced, not the 70 million they claimed. After these few years of hard and painstaking work, only about 40,000 people remain with problems that we have not fully resolved. That is to say that domestically, the political and social foundation of Falun Gong has been significantly weakened. Then why do we say that this problem is not resolved? Because the role of its being a pawn remains [to be played out], because there’s U.S. support, and it continues to be rather influential overseas, and remains to be the so-called "resistance force" to be used by Americans. It’s exactly because of U.S. support, which has increased the complexity and difficulty in our battle with Falun Gong. This is an issue, and as a pawn, its reactionary role is particularly outstanding.
First, from the perspective of the dramatic changes of the former Soviet Union and eastern European countries, to the "color revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, [Translator’s note: see rose revolution in Georgia, orange revolution in Ukraine, and tulip revolution at Kyrgyzstan at http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3785139], the "velvet" action brought up by Falun Gong should raise heightened alert among us. After dishing out the Nine Commentaries, in March, they brought up the "velvet" action, which is completely equivalent to "color revolution." In order to explain this issue, I think we should analyze the situations of these countries where "color revolution" took place. I think the following are some key factors of the "color revolutions":
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1. Opposing political factions had formed, and they played the backbone and leadership role in "color revolution." [Lech] Walesa in Poland and [Vaclav] Havel in Czech in the past, and present day’s [Viktor] Yushchenko in Ukraine, those in Kyrgyzstan, etc., all played such a role.
2. Media propaganda promoted the views of opposing political factions, attacking the current regime’s dictatorship, and corruption, which laid the legal foundation and prepared in media the taking over by the opposing factions.
3. Intervention by foreign forces, which brought about the situation of coordinated internal and external actions. From the situations of the "color revolution" in these countries, the necessary external condition for "color revolutions" to succeed was the all-out support from Western countries. These countries, through non-governmental organizations in particular, infiltrated ideologically into countries where "color revolution" took place, providing funding and technical guidance, and training key members of "street politics." On the one hand, it offered support via APO [Translator’s note: might stand for Administrative Protective Order], meanwhile the governments resorted to diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, and other measures. These external factors caused the taking over of power in these "color revolution" countries through street politics.
4. There had to be timing, opportunity, and taking advantage of some accidental incidents, such as election, ballot, or a timing as such, when those in power were being forced to step down via street politics. What I call accidental events was, in fact, inevitable. It was simply an opening they had chosen for breakthrough. In going over the situations in this period, pushing forward a "color revolution," through street politics, to change the country’s polity for regime change, has become an important measure by the United States to topple other countries’ regimes. In regards to this, we have to take warning and attach importance to it.
We must stay alert and keep up strict guard against the "velvet" action brought up by Falun Gong. At the beginning of this year, a document forwarded by the Office of the CCP Central Committee pointed out that Falun Gong had totally exposed its anti-China, anti-CCP true nature, and had become a reactionary political organization funded and supported by the United States and the Taiwan independent forces, engaging in cult activities, with the goal of overthrowing the CCP. We can analyze Falun Gong activities based on the four elements of "color revolution." One, Falun Gong has turned into a political opposing faction from a cult organization, becoming the key player among various reactionary forces domestically and overseas.
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In November of last year, Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong headquarters, through secret planning with Taiwan independence activists and pro-democracy movement activists, dished out the series of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, challenging the legality of the rule of our Party, challenging the legality of our Party’s leading Chinese revolution and construction, and challenging us in political and ideological fields. They openly shouted in the Nine Commentaries, "Only when there is no CCP, can China be saved." As thus indicated, Falun Gong stripped off their many years of boasted camouflage of not opposing the government, not engaging in politics, openly unfurling their anti-China, anti-CCP banner. In March of this year, they brought up China’s "velvet" action plan, established an action committee, declared the establishment of a transitory government and [nomination of] a "president pro tempore" overseas, and on this basis were to push for a nationwide election to generate a "legal government" in order to force the CCP to give up power. This development had taken a long time.
In October 2003, Falun Gong again adjusted their struggle strategy from bringing up troubles by themselves to helping others to bring up troubles, and then form the configuration that both were involved in bringing up troubles. They planned together on June 4th and other events. Falun Gong was the main force in Hong Kong’s July 1 grand parade in 2003. They have accelerated their cooperation with other forces, held over 70 Nine Commentaries forums in more than 30 countries and regions, and reached a consensus that "the CCP is our one and only enemy." Starting in January 2005, they initiated, in coordination with over 60 groups and organizations, the campaign of withdrawing from the CCP. Presently, with the common goal to overthrow the CCP, they have unified political stands, have taken the approach of joint resistance and coordinated work, have unified an organizational foundation, adopted the primary measure of engaging in street politics to seize power, unified their trouble-making strategy, and have established, preliminarily, an anti-China, anti-CCP federation. Just last month, they established the "Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP," and named July 1 as "the Day of All People Quitting the CCP" and July as "the Month of All People Quitting the CCP," in order to bring about a new wave of anti-CCP.
Among this anti-China, anti-CCP federation, Falun Gong is the core force and has established its bellwether position in trouble-making as a result of its strict organizational system, full-fledged propaganda machine, and abundant financial resources. After over a dozen years of painstaking buildup, Falun Gong has established organizations in more than 50 foreign countries and regions, and their activities have spread over to 70 countries and regions in each continent worldwide. There are over 50,000 people who frequently participated in trouble-making. There are more people overseas than in China. Key members total about 5,000. They have formed a multifunctional organization system, where orders are carried out smoothly. This includes the headquarters, regional coordination organizations, propaganda organizations, special trouble-making activity organizations, such as telephone activities team, educational and training organization, and peripheral supporting systems. Especially worth noting is that, after consolidation, The Epoch Times newspaper, almost matches our Guangming Daily in terms of weekly circulation. It is so-called "delivered" free. This paper has journalist stations in over 40 countries.
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"New Tang Dynasty TV" (NTDTV) rented four satellites broadcasting around the globe. Its coverage is very extensive among Chinese stations. The transmitters they rent from satellite companies are normally more than double the price of commercial use. Even the satellite companies say that this NTDTV is deep-pocketed. Normally renting of one transmitter costs US$500,000 to US$1 million, but they offer to pay US$2 million to start with. When Eutelsat tried to terminate their relationship with NTDTV, more than 40 U.S. congresspersons applied pressure, and a representative from the U.S. military applied pressure directly on the owner of Eutelsat. The representative made it clear that if the contract with NTDTV were cancelled, the U.S. military would cancel its contracts with Eutelsat worth over US$ 40 million.
Then there is the "Sound of Hope Radio Station." We all remember that there was a "Sound of Freedom Radio Station" around June 4, [1989], which only existed a brief few days. But "Sound of Hope" is of high capacity, and their headquarters and broadcasting towers are located in Taiwan. Additionally, there is a Broad Press Inc., plus over 200 websites coordinated by Clearwisdom.net. Thus forms their commanding, instigating and propaganda spreading network system, which is configured primarily around The Epoch Times, NTDTV, Sound of Hope Radio Station, and Clearwisdom net. Simply from the perspective of propaganda quantity and scale, this system exceeds the size of a regular organization. In some sense, it is equivalent to the configuration of a government’s propaganda system. This propaganda system has served as a platform, directing and coordinating various overseas and enemy forces. The facts have indicated that Falun Gong has become the core, trouble-making center of overseas anti-China and anti-CCP forces. It has become the political opposing faction, and it has become the core of overseas enemy forces.
Second, [it’s about] spreading sweeping reactionary propaganda and engaging in long-term operations and planning. We all remember that Mao Zedong said that to overthrow a power, one must carry out propaganda campaigns first. Revolutionary classes do it like this, and anti-revolutionary classes also do it like this. Falun Gong and its behind-the-scenes organizations know this principle as well. Prior to the publishing of the Nine Commentaries, the reactionary propaganda of Falun Gong concentrated on "persecution" situations. At the beginning of this year, we exposed the photos in the torture case in Huanggang, Hubei Province, as fabricated by Falun Gong. We have educated this person. He, himself, felt that he did something America wanted to do. Those torture photos were [brought out] at a time when international media were condemning the United States for abusing prisoners of [anti-terrorism] war. It brought about serious negative impact on folks who did not know the truth. [Many] condemned our state leaders, and called for sanctions against [China]. Since 1999, Falun Gong has been holding activities at each year’s U.N. Human Rights Conference. In 2001, Falun Gong gathered 1,500 practitioners in Geneva, and made a media splash in coordination with the anti-China resolution introduced by the United States. They even occupied the square in front of the U.N. headquarters for three days. The United States did not introduce anti-China resolutions this year, and about 100 Falun Gong people went there. They were in complete coordination with the United States.Until the end of last year, they were belittling and defaming our image, smearing our Party and country in coordination with [the United States].
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After the Nine Commentaries came out, Falun Gong mobilized all of their propaganda machines to spread the Nine Commentaries, to attack our CCP history, and to negate the success since the reform and opening up that has caught the attention of the world. Especially now they have mobilized all the propaganda machines to incite people to do the "three withdraws." That is, to withdraw from the CCP, withdraw from the Youth League, and even from the Young Pioneers. Their purpose is to prepare, media-wise, for the overthrow of the CCP and the socialist system. They resorted to various measures, with no options being ruled out, and especially notable is the deployment of modern technologies.
Falun Gong gathered a group of highly educated, new-generation elite, who mastered modern technology and media methods, and who formed various special technology task forces. From last December to the end of May this year, our relevant departments found a total of 248 websites about the Nine Commentaries, and had blocked 80 million attempted accesses to these sites, and blocked over 30 million e-mails. We must admit that there are weak links in our preventive measures in these technical fields. In other words, the Western [countries] are one step ahead of us in terms of technology measures and information security. For example, it is currently hard to calculate how many harassment calls were made. Based on our preliminary statistics, reports filed [by the authorities] alone amounted to tens of millions. Another example is tapping into satellites. Since June 23, 2002, we have been attacked by Falun Gong illegal signals 186 times, totaling 103 hours 37 minutes. Among these, 51 cases took place this year. On March 14, 17 and the evening of the 21st, six transmitters were attacked in three rounds. Each round lasted one and a half hour, resulting in interference of 18 Chinese Central Television (CCTV) and local channels. The reactionary Nine Commentaries footage appeared on TV for as long as one minute and 12 seconds, resulting in extremely negative influence. Many viewers called, "Why did images of overthrowing the CCP show up on state-run television?" Attacking satellites involves very complicated technology issues, which means that highly capable people are involved in planning and support, which makes it very hard to guard against.
We must understand, this is not only a severe threat to our national security and information security, it has also brought serious challenges to our ideological field. In fact, the Western enemy forces are taking advantage of their superior information technology to start an ideological war without any gunfire. In this regard, Falun Gong has done something the United States and Taiwan dare not to do. This is the second point.
Third, funded and supported by Western anti-China forces and Taiwan independence forces, [Falun Gong] actively acts as a pawn [serving the purpose] of being anti-China, anti-CCP. It is inevitable that Falun Gong has turned reactionary politically as they have been supported by the U.S. and Western anti-China forces. In the mid-90s of the last century, foreign intelligence agencies conducted careful research on Falun Gong, considered it a force that could be used, and suggested the organization to the U.S. government for "temporary exploit." After April 26 [1999], foreign forces increasingly saw the value of making use of Falun Gong, and further strengthened their support.
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Taking recent incidents as an example, they had frequent trouble-making activities overseas. The number of attendees easily exceeded 1,000, as they called for global campaigns, and held large-scale evening parties. This indicates that they are very sufficiently funded. As we have seen in some reports, some leading overseas democratic activists expressed their envy of Falun Gong’s source of never-ending funds. Comrades may all ask from whom do they receive the money? You can all make clear judgments, who is supporting them? Who is providing the money? Some comrades went overseas, and saw groups of old people standing by our embassies holding banners, and doing physical movements. After careful inquiry, we found that they mostly are living on social welfare. It’s this group of people, which indicates that [organizers] have lots of money [to hire these old people]!
We must especially point out that the Taiwan independence forces are even more in tune with Falun Gong, and they offer support from all perspectives. We have investigated and found that satellite-attacking equipment is installed in Taiwan. The "Sound of Hope Radio Station" is located in Taipei. The Taiwan independence forces were important in supporting this recent publishing of the Nine Commentaries overseas. The head of Falun Gong in Taiwan, Chang Ching-hsi, a professor at Taiwan National University, sent Nine Commentaries articles to Chen Shui-bian. Chen replied in his letter, praising that "the viewpoints are indeed unique." Chen ordered relevant departments to offer Falun Gong political and financial support. Annette Lu, [Translator’s note: Vice-President of Taiwan, whose name is also spelled as Lu Hsiu-lien] pretended that she had started practicing Falun Gong. Falun Gong has actively helped Taiwan independence forces. On March 26 of this year, the "opposing anti-secession law" parade was said to have over one million participants, but it was actually a parade of only 20,000 or so people. Falun Gong was an important organizer. They organized three tiers, each with 3,000-6,000 people, totaling at least 10,000 participants. They unfurled banners which read "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party is the Best Remedy to Oppose Anti-Secession Law."
Fourth, conducting an all-out reactionary propaganda campaign targeting inside [China], in an attempt to re-establish teams, to intervene in domestic affairs, and to prepare for "velvet" action. After the publishing of the Nine Commentaries, our overall judgment was that the noise was loud overseas while there was little action domestically. As the infiltration has continued, there has been relatively significant negative impact domestically. The current propaganda calls for Falun Gong [followers] inside China to do "three things" well during the "Fa-rectification." That is to spread the Nine Commentaries, guide people to see clearly the CCP’s true nature, and to spread the three withdraws. On the other hand, they did everything possible to get involved in mass incidents, to try to direct various mass incidents toward the direction of dissatisfaction with the Party and government, and to intertwine Falun Gong activities with people’s demand based on their own interests, and to push forward a "velvet" action.
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Recently there have developed two tendencies in domestic Falun Gong activities. One is underground activities have turned apparently political. One province did a survey of 87 Falun Gong people who had exposure to the Nine Commentaries, and found that over 50 percent of them were in agreement of the opinion [of the Nine Commentaries], and only 13 percent opposed it. We have solved anti-CCP cases in Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning Province, Shanghai, Henan Province, Jinan City [in Shandong Province], Heilongjiang Province, Hubei Province, Guangdong Province, and Chongqing. One employee of a water resources bureau openly persuaded people to quit the CCP on the bus and inside the bureau’s family quarters. May 13 [2005] was World Falun Gong Dafa Day, which was Li Hongzhi’s birthday. There appeared a huge 13 meter by 1.5 meter [43 feet by 5 feet] banner in the downtown of a province capital city, which read, "Stop the Persecution; Say Farewell to the CCP." Just last month, one teacher openly told her elementary school pupils, "The red ties you wear are soaked with the blood of those killed by the CCP." She tried to stir up emotions among these kids to quit the Young Pioneers. This is a political tendency.
The second tendency is that dissatisfied people in society are gradually gathering under the torn-up banner of Falun Gong. This tendency that develops among domestic liberalization activists and people who are dissatisfied with the Party and the society is worth our special attention.
Recently, Falun Gong has planned the "four withdraws/quits," which are ridiculous and, shameless. First is to withdraw from the stock market—causing the stock market to collapse. Second is to withdraw money from banks and cause banks to bankrupt, resulting in social chaos. Third is to quit your job and cause "herd behavior," resulting in social turmoil. The fourth is to quit eating, instigating persons in the mainland to declare a group hunger strike, to be followed by overseas persons. If someone dies as a result, then the practitioner will be declared internally to have reached consummation. Publicly, the United States and U.N. will [be urged] to stop the CCP’s brutality.
Hence, comrades should pay serious attention to these two tendencies.
These are the two issues I communicate to comrades which should be worth our special attention. Overall, Falun Gong has become a political opposing faction, the core, key force joined by various overseas enemy forces confronting us. Hence, presently and in a rather lengthy period of time to come, Falun Gong has a realistic damage and threat potential to our national security. The battle with Falun Gong is a matter that is related to the Party’s ruling status, and it is an enduring, political battle that is related to maintaining societal stability.