| Early 1997
|
Public Security Bureau under leadership of Luo Gan
begins a nationwide investigation into Falun Gong trying to find
evidence that it is a subversive organisation. No evidence is found
so the investigation ceases. |
|
|
| May 1998
|
Scientist He Zuoxiou (Luo Gan's brother in law) denounces
Falun Gong in an interview on Beijing television. Many practitioners
visit the TV station or write letters telling of their own positive
experiences of Falun Gong and correcting misinformation. As a result
the TV station broadcasts a positive programme.
National Sports Commission surveys 12,553 Falun Gong practitioners
and finds a health improvement rate of 97.9%. |
|
|
| July 21, 1998
|
New Public Security Bureau initiative to try and find
incriminating evidence against Falun Gong. |
|
|
| July - December
1998 |
Detailed investigation into Falun Gong by a group
of retired National People's Congress members led by Qiao Shi. Concludes
that "Falun Gong only benefits and does no harm to the nation
and the people". Report sent to the Politburo headed by Jiang
Zemin. |
|
|
| April 11, 1999
|
He Zuoxiu publishes an article slandering Falun Gong
in the Tianjin College of Education's Youth Reader magazine. |
|
|
| April 18-24,
1999 |
Practitioners go to Tianjin College and Government
offices to exercise their legal right of appeal against injustice
and to explain the errors in the article. |
|
|
| April 23-24,
1999 |
Public Security Bureau in Tianjin sends riot police
to beat up peaceful practitioners who sustain injuries. 45 people
arrested and Tianjin police say they cannot be released without
authorization from Beijing. Practitioners actually told to "Go
to Beijing. Only Beijing can solve this problem." |
|
|
| April 25, 1999 |
Approximately 18,000 practitioners show up outside
the Central Government compound at Zhongnanhai having passed the
word around over the previous 12 hours at practice sites and via
email. They are manouvered by the police into surrounding the compound,
but are quiet and peaceful. Delegates meet with Premier Zhu Rongji
and Luo Gan. Premier assures them that: "the Government is
not against anyone exercising for their health" and that: "Nobody
has said Falun Gong is an anti-Government organisation". However,
he also said: "If you want to have your problems resolved,
you should immediately leave Zhongnanhai". The practitioners
duly departed leaving not a scrap of litter behind. Practitioners
held in Tianjin are released on instructions from Beijing.
The entire event was peaceful and characterised by orderliness.
"Unlike student protesters who noisily thronged the streets
of Beijing with colourful banners and pungent slogans ten years
ago, Sunday's demonstrators drew no attention to themselves and
attracted no notice until there were suddenly many thousand of them
sitting quietly in one of the most politically sensitive locations
in the nation," New York Times reported. |
|
|
| April 26, 1999 |
Office of the CPC Central Committee issues a circular
informing all Govt. Depts. about 25 April and requiring everyone
to state whether they practise Falun Gong and whether they participated
in the appeal at Zhongnanhai. All members of the armed forces are
ordered to stop practising Falun Gong or face severe punishment. |
|
|
| April 27, 1999
|
Meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing.
Jiang Zemin is extremely angry that the Public Security Bureau had
been unaware that the appeal was going to take place. Accuses Luo
Gan of incompetence and overrules Zhu Rongji's more conciliatory
approach. Jiang believes there must be 'masterminds' behind the
scenes who might be political opponents or foreign interests, despite
the fact that security has no evidence for this. |
|
|
| May, June 1999
|
Falun Gong exercises in various locations ruthlessly
broken up by police often using high-pressure water hoses. |
|
|
| 7 June, 1999
|
Jiang states in a speech that: "The issue of
Falun Gong has a very deep political and social background and even
a complicated international background…It is the most serious
incident since the political turbulence in 1989." |
|
|
| June 10, 1999 |
The Establishment of the "610 Office".
Jiang ordered the establishment of what he called "a leadership
group that will specialise in handling the 'Falun Gong' issue,"
and appointed the three chiefs to the group including the head
of the Political and Judiciary Committee, Luo Gan. Utilising a
top-down, by-any-means-necessary approach, Jiang has whipped the
nation's security apparatus into a frenzied system of bribery,
extortion and systematic torture.
Those who carry out the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners
are, themselves, victims who are often forced into a choice between
their moral conscience and their job, their sense of duty to the
people and their livelihood. The 610 Office is an illegal, above-the-law
entity reporting directly to the Politburo, and with jurisdiction
over the entire country.
(As reported in the Pulitzer-Prize winning series of articles
by the Wall Street Journal's Ian Johnson.)
|
|
|
|
|
