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Police making arrest of Falun Gong practitioners who peacefully appeal on the Tiananmen Square on May 11, 2000. (AFP/Getty Images)

Epoch Times Commentaries on the Communist Party – Part 9

The Epoch Times
December 30, 2004

This is the ninth of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

Foreword

The communist movement, which has made a big fanfare for over a century, has brought mankind only war, poverty, brutality, and dictatorship. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European communist parties, this disastrous and outrageous drama finally entered its last stage by the end of the last century. No one, from the ordinary citizens to the General Secretary of the Communist Party, believes in the myth of communism anymore.

The communist regime came into being due to neither “divine mandate” [1] nor democratic election. Today, with its ideology destroyed, the legitimacy of its reign is facing an unprecedented challenge.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is unwilling to leave the historical stage in accordance with the currents of history. Instead, it is using the ruthless methods developed during decades of political campaigns to renew its crazed struggle for legitimacy and to revive its dead mandate.

The CCP’s policies of reform and opening up disguise a desperate intention to maintain its group interest and totalitarian rule. Despite tight restrictions, the economic achievements earned by the hard work of the Chinese people in the past 20 years did not persuade the CCP to put down its butcher knife. Instead, the CCP stole these achievements and used them to validate its rule, making its consistently unprincipled behavior more deceptive and misleading. What is most alarming is that the CCP is going all out to destroy the moral foundation of the entire nation, attempting to turn every Chinese citizen, to various degrees, into a schemer in order to create an environment favorable for the CCP to “advance over time.”

In the historical moment today, it is especially important for us to understand clearly why the CCP acts like a band of scoundrels and to expose its villainous nature, so that the Chinese nation can achieve lasting stability and peace, enter an era free of the CCP as soon as possible, and construct a future of renewed national splendor.

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The Cultural Revolution was a time period in which “the Sun is the most red” while “the world is the darkest.” Everybody had to study Mao’s works. (Getty Images)

Epoch Times Commentaries on the Communist Party – Part 8

The Epoch Times
December 26, 2004

This is the eighth of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

Foreword

The collapse of the socialist bloc headed by the Soviet Union in the early 1990s marked the failure of communism after almost a century. However, the CCP unexpectedly survived and still controls China, a nation with one fifth of the world’s population. An unavoidable question arises: Is the CCP today still truly communist?

No one in today’s China, including Party members, believes in communism. After fifty years of socialism, the CCP has now adopted private ownership and even has a stock market. It seeks foreign investment to establish new ventures, while exploiting workers and peasants as much as it can. This is completely opposite to the ideals of communism. Despite compromising with capitalism, the CCP maintains autocratic control of the people of China. The Constitution, as revised in 2004, still rigidly states “Chinese people of various ethnicities will continue adhering to the people’s democratic dictatorship and socialist path under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong’s ideology, Deng Xiaoping’s theory and the important thought of the ‘Three Represents’…”

“The leopard has died, but its skin is still left” [1]. Today’s CCP only has “its skin” left. The CCP inherited this skin and uses it to maintain its rule over China.

What is the nature of the skin inherited by the CCP, i.e., the very organization of the CCP?

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I. The Cultish Traits of the CCP

The Communist Party is essentially an evil cult that harms mankind.

Although the Communist Party has never called itself a religion, it matches every single trait of a religion (Table 1). At the beginning of its establishment, it regarded Marxism as the absolute truth in the world. It piously worshipped Marx as its spiritual God, and exhorted people to engage in a life-long struggle for the goal of building a “communist heaven on earth.”

Table 1. Religious Traits of the CCP.

This poster, displayed in late 1966 in Beijing, shows how to deal with a so-called "enemy of the people" during the Cultural Revolution. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

Epoch Times Commentaries on the Communist Party – Part 7

The Epoch Times
December 23, 2004

This is the seventh of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

Foreword

The 55-year history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is written with blood and lies. The stories behind this bloody history are both extremely tragic and rarely known. Under the rule of the CCP, 60 to 80 million innocent Chinese people have been killed, leaving their broken families behind. Many people wonder why the CCP kills. While the CCP continues its brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and recently suppressed protesting crowds in Hanyuan with gunshots, people wonder whether they will ever see the day when the CCP will learn to speak with words rather than guns.

Mao Zedong summarized the purpose of the Cultural Revolution, “…after the chaos the world reaches peace, but in 7 or 8 years, the chaos needs to happen again.” [1] In other words, there should be a political revolution every 7 or 8 years and a crowd of people needs to be killed every 7 or 8 years.

A supporting ideology and practical requirements lie behind the CCP’s slaughters.

Ideologically, the CCP believes in the “dictatorship of the proletariat” and “continuous revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.” Therefore, after the CCP took over China, it killed the landowners to resolve problems with production relationships in rural areas. It killed the capitalists to reach the goal of commercial and industrial reform and solve the production relationships in the cities. After these two classes were eliminated, the problems related to the economic base were basically solved. Similarly, solving the problems related to the superstructure [2] also called for slaughter. The suppressions of the Hu Feng Anti-Party Group [3] and the Anti-Rightists Movement eliminated the intellectuals. Killing the Christians, Taoists, Buddhists and popular folk groups solved the problem of religions. Mass murders during the Cultural Revolution established, culturally and politically, the CCP’s absolute leadership. The Tiananmen Square massacre was used to prevent political crisis and squelch democratic demands. The persecution of Falun Gong is meant to resolve the issues of belief and traditional healing. These actions were all necessary for the CCP to strengthen its power and maintain its rule in the face of continual financial crisis (prices for consumer goods skyrocketed after the CCP took power and China’s economy almost collapsed after the Cultural Revolution), political crisis (some people not following the Party’s orders or some others wanting to share political rights with the Party) and crisis of belief (the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, political changes in Eastern Europe, and the Falun Gong issue). Except for the Falun Gong issue, almost all the foregoing political movements were utilized to revive the evil specter of the CCP and incite its desire for revolution. The CCP also used these political movements to test CCP members, eliminating those who did not meet the Party’s requirements.

Killing is also necessary for practical reasons. The Communist Party began as a group of thugs and scoundrels who killed to obtain power. Once this precedent was set, there was no going back. Constant terror was needed to intimidate people and force them to accept, out of fear, the absolute rule of the CCP.

On the surface, it may appear that the CCP was “forced to kill,” and that various incidents just happened to irritate the CCP evil specter and accidentally trigger CCP’s killing mechanism. In truth, these incidents serve to disguise the Party’s need to kill, and periodical killing is required by the CCP. Without these painful lessons, people might begin to think the CCP was improving and start to demand democracy, just as those idealistic students in the 1989 democratic movement did. Recurring slaughter every 7 or 8 years serves to refresh people’s memory of terror and can warn the younger generation—whoever works against the CCP, wants to challenge the CCP’s absolute leadership, or attempts to tell the truth regarding China’s history, will get a taste of the “iron fist of the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

Killing has become one of the most essential ways for the CCP to maintain power. With the escalation of its bloody debts, laying down its butcher knife would encourage people to take vengeance for the CCP’s criminal acts. Therefore, the CCP not only needed to conduct copious and thorough killing, but the slaughter also had to be done in a most brutal fashion to effectively intimidate the populace, especially early on when the CCP was establishing its rule.

Since the purpose of the killing was to instill the greatest terror, the CCP selected targets for destruction arbitrarily and irrationally. In every political movement, the CCP used the strategy of genocide. Take the “suppression of reactionaries” as an example. The CCP did not really suppress the reactionary “behaviors” but the “people” whom they called the reactionaries. If one had been enlisted and served a few days in the Nationalist (Kuomintang, KMT) army but did absolutely nothing political after the CCP gained power, this person would still be killed because of his “reactionary history.” In the process of land reform, in order to remove the “root of the problem,” the CCP often killed a landowner’s entire family.

Since 1949, the CCP has persecuted more than half the people in China. An estimated 60 million to 80 million people died from unnatural causes. This number exceeds the total number of deaths in both World Wars combined.

As with other communist countries, the wanton killing done by the CCP also includes brutal slayings of its own members in order to remove dissidents who value a sense of humanity over the Party nature. The CCP’s rule of terror falls equally on the populace and its members in an attempt to maintain an “invincible fortress.”

In a normal society, people show care and love for one another, hold life in awe and veneration and give thanks to God. In the East, people say, “Do not impose on others what you would not want done to yourself [4].” In the West, people say, “Love thy neighbor as thyself [5].” Conversely, the CCP holds that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles [6].” In order to keep alive the “struggles” within society, hatred must be generated. Not only does the CCP take lives, it encourages people to kill each other. It strives to desensitize people towards others’ suffering by surrounding them with constant killing. It wants them to become numb from frequent exposure to inhumane brutality, and develop the mentality that “the best you can hope for is to avoid being persecuted.” All these lessons taught by brutal suppression enable the CCP to maintain its rule.

In addition to the destruction of countless lives, the CCP also destroyed the soul of the Chinese people. A great many people have become conditioned to react to the CCP’s threats by entirely surrendering their reason and their principles. In a sense, these people’s souls have died—something more frightening than physical death.

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A poster from the “Criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius” campaign (AFP/Getty Images)

Epoch Times Commentaries on the Communist Party – Part 6

The Epoch Times
December 20, 2004

This is the sixth of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

Foreword

Culture is the soul of a nation. This spiritual factor is as important to mankind as physical factors such as race and land.

Cultural developments define the history of a nation’s civilization. The complete destruction of a national culture leads to the end of the nation. Ancient nations who had created glorious civilizations were considered to have vanished when their cultures disappeared, even though people of their races may have survived. China is the only country in the world whose ancient civilization has been passed down continuously for over 5,000 years. Destruction of its traditional culture is an unforgivable crime.

The Chinese culture, believed to be passed down by God, started with such myths as Pangu’s creation of heaven and the earth [1], Nüwa’s creation of humanity [2], Shennong’s identification of hundreds of medicinal herbs [3], and Cangjie’s invention of Chinese characters [4]. “Man follows the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows what is natural.” [5] The Taoist wisdom of unity of heaven and humanity has coursed through the veins of Chinese culture. “Great learning promotes the cultivation of virtue.”[6] Confucius opened a school to teach students more than 2,000 years ago and imparted to society the Confucian ideals represented by the five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. In the first century, Shakyamuni’s Buddhism traveled east to China with its emphasis on compassion and salvation for all beings. The Chinese culture became more wide-ranging and profound. Thereafter, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism became complementary beliefs in Chinese society, bringing the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) to the peak of its glory and prosperity, as is known to all under heaven.

Although the Chinese nation has experienced invasion and attack many times in history, the Chinese culture has shown great endurance and stamina, and its essence has been continuously passed down. The unity of heaven and humanity represents our ancestors’ cosmology. It is common sense that kindness will be rewarded and evil will be punished. It is an elementary virtue not to do to others what one does not want done to oneself. Loyalty, filial piety, dignity, and justice have set the social standards, and Confucius’ five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness have laid the foundation for social and personal morality. With these principles, the Chinese culture embodied honesty, kindness, harmony, and tolerance. Common Chinese people’s death memorials show reverence to “heaven, earth, monarch, parents and teacher.” This is a cultural expression of the deep-rooted Chinese traditions, which include worship of god (heaven and earth), loyalty to the country (monarch), values of family (parents), and respect for teachers. The traditional Chinese culture sought harmony between man and the universe, and emphasized an individual’s ethics and morality. It was based on the faiths of the cultivation practices of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and provided the Chinese people with tolerance, social progress, a safeguard for human morality, and righteous belief.

Unlike law, which prescribes hard rules, culture works as a soft constraint. The law enforces punishment after a crime has been committed, while culture, by nurturing morality, prevents crimes from happening in the first place. A society’s morality is often embodied in its culture.

In Chinese history, traditional culture reached its peak during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, coinciding with the height of the Chinese nation’s power. Science was also advanced and enjoyed a unique reputation among all nations. Scholars from Europe, the Middle East, and Japan came to study in Chang’an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty. Countries bordering China took China as their suzerain state. “Tens of thousands of countries came to pay tribute to China, even though they might have to be translated multiple times and clear successive customs.” [7]

After the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), China was often occupied by minority groups. This happened during the Sui (581-618AD), Tang (618-907AD), Yuan (1271-1361AD) and Qing (1644-1911AD) dynasties and in some other times when ethnic minorities established their own regimes. Nevertheless, almost all these ethnic groups were assimilated to the Chinese ways. This shows the great integrative power of traditional Chinese culture. As Confucius said, “(Thus) if the people from afar are not compliant, bring them around by cultivating (our) culture and virtue.” [8]

Since attaining power in 1949, the CCP has devoted the nation’s resources to destroying China’s traditional culture. This ill intention did not come from the CCP’s zeal for industrialization, nor from simple foolishness in worshipping Western civilization. Rather, it came from the CCP’s inherent ideological opposition to traditional Chinese culture. Thus, the CCP’s destruction of Chinese culture has been planned, well organized, and systematic, supported by the state’s use of violence. Since its establishment, the CCP has never stopped “revolutionizing” Chinese culture in the attempt to destroy its spirit completely.

Even more despicable than the CCP’s destruction of traditional culture is its intentional misuse and underhanded modification of traditional culture. The CCP has highlighted the vile parts from China’s history, things that occurred whenever people diverged from traditional values, such as internal strife for power within the royal family, the use of tactics and conspiracy, and the exercise of dictatorship and despotism. It has used these historical examples to help create the CCP’s own set of moral standards, ways of thinking, and system of discourse. In doing so, the CCP has given the false impression that the “Party culture” is actually a continuation of traditional Chinese culture. The CCP has even taken advantage of the aversion some people have for the “Party culture” to incite further abandonment of the authentic Chinese tradition.

The CCP’s destruction of traditional culture has brought disastrous consequences to China. Not only have people lost their moral bearings, they have also been forcibly indoctrinated with the CCP’s evil theories.

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Jiang is unleashing the dog on a child doing the Falun Gong exercises. The Chinese text in the cartoon says "Luo Gan and the 610 Office – malicious dogs killing the innocent." (Epoch Times)

Epoch Times Commentaries on the Communist Party – Part 5

The Epoch Times
December 18, 2004

This is the fifth of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

Foreword

Ms. Zhang Fuzhen, about 38 years old, was an employee of Xianhe Park, Pingdu City, Shandong Province, China. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in November 2000 and was later abducted by the authorities. According to people with knowledge of the case, the police tortured and humiliated Zhang Fuzhen, stripping her naked and shaving her whole head. They tied her to a bed with her four limbs stretched out, and she therefore was forced to relieve herself on the bed. Later, the police gave her an injection of an unknown poisonous drug. After the injection, Zhang was in so much pain that she nearly went insane. She struggled in great pain on the bed until she died. The whole process was witnessed by the local officials of the 610 Office (from a July 23, 2004 report on the Clearwisdom website) [1].

Ms. Yang Lirong, 34, was from Beimen Street, Dingzhou City, Baoding Prefecture, Hebei Province. Her family was often harassed and intimidated by the police because she practiced Falun Gong. On February 8, 2002, after a nighttime police raid, Ms. Yang’s husband, a driver in the Bureau of Standards & Meteorology, was traumatized and afraid of losing his job. He could not withstand the tremendous pressure the authorities exerted on him. Early the next morning, taking advantage of the time when their elderly parents had stepped out of the house, he strangled his wife. Yang Lirong died tragically, leaving behind a 10-year-old son. Soon afterwards, her husband reported the incident to the authorities, and the police hurried to the scene to conduct an autopsy on Ms. Yang’s body, which was still warm. They removed many organs from her body while the organs were still radiating heat and blood gushed out. A Dingzhou Public Security Bureau staff said, “This is no autopsy; it is vivisection!” (from a September 25, 2004 report on the Clearwisdom website) [2]

In the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp in Heilongjiang Province, a woman who was about 7 months pregnant was hung up from a beam. Both of her hands were tied with a coarse rope that was hung over a pulley attached to the beam. The stool that supported her was removed, and she was suspended in the air. The beam was 3 to 4 meters (10 to 12 feet) above the ground. The rope went through the pulley, and one end of the rope was held by the prison guards. When the guards pulled on the rope, she would be suspended in the air; as soon as the police let go of the rope, she would quickly fall to the ground. This pregnant woman suffered painful torture like this until she had a miscarriage. Even crueler was that her husband was forced to watch his wife endure the torture (from a November 15, 2004 report on the Minghui website, an interview with Ms. Wang Yuzhi who was tortured for over 100 days in the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp). [3]

These startling tragedies occurred in modern-day China. They happened to Falun Gong practitioners, who are being brutally persecuted, and they are just a few of the countless torture cases that have taken place over the past five years of continuous persecution.

Since China began economic reforms in the late 1970s, the CCP has endeavored to build a positive, liberal image in the international community. However, the persecution of Falun Gong over the last five years, which has been bloody, irrational, widespread, vehement and brutal, has enabled the international community to once again witness the true face of the CCP and the biggest disgrace on the CCP’s human rights record. The general public in China, under the delusion that the CCP has been improving and progressing, has become used to blaming the low morality of the police for the atrocities committed by the Chinese legal system and law enforcement. However, the brutal, systematic persecution of Falun Gong is ubiquitous throughout every level of Chinese society and has completely burst the illusion of improved human rights. Many people are now pondering how such a bloody and outrageous persecution could have happened in China. The social order was stabilized after the chaos of the Great Cultural Revolution 20 years ago. Why has China entered another similar cycle of nightmarish events? Why is Falun Gong, which upholds the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” and has been promulgated in over 60 countries worldwide, being persecuted only in China, not anywhere else in the world? In this persecution, what is the relationship between Jiang Zemin and the CCP?

Jiang Zemin lacks both ability and moral integrity. Without a fine-tuned machine of violence like the CCP, which is based on slaughters and lies, he would never have been capable of launching this genocide, a genocide that is widespread throughout China and that even penetrates overseas. Similarly, the CCP would not have easily gone against the current of the historic trends and the environment created by the CCP’s recent economic reforms and attempts to connect to the world; only a self-willed dictator like Jiang Zemin who was determined to have his way could make this happen. The collusion and resonance between Jiang Zemin and the evil specter of the CCP have amplified the atrocities of the persecution to an unprecedented level. It is similar to how the resonance between the sound of a mountain climber’s equipment on accumulated snow can cause an avalanche and bring about disastrous consequences.

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