Sources from an anonymous high-level Communist Party official indicate that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plans to make the practice of Falun Gong legal in China, and to restore its reputation. In the language of the CCP, Falun Gong will be “redressed.” High-level officials have clandestinely sent out investigators to Shanghai and other areas in China to collect people’s opinions about the “610 Office,” a nationwide network of administrative agencies created to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The information collected will be used to draft a policy for ending the more than five years-long persecution.

Beginning in 2001, as more information was revealed about the Chinese government’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, the fervor of the campaign has slightly diminished and the government has appeared to put more effort into covering up the anti-Falun Gong campaign.

In 2002, the first high-level official proposal to overturn the persecution was introduced. Sources inside the Party say that Jiang Zemin, who had not been able to eradicate Falun Gong, felt humiliated and did not want to end the persecution. A rift has grown between the two different sides over the issue during the last two years. This past September, Jiang was removed from his post as the head of the armed forces by his political rivals. Although he fought to keep his power, he failed. After Jiang’s removal, high-level CCP officials again introduced a proposal to put an end to the persecution. Their doing so suggests that Jiang’s political power in the Party has completely collapsed.

OUT OF POWER: Jiang Zemin, removed as Chair of China’s military in September. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

Falun Gong Demands Those Responsible Be Punished

Falun Gong considers Jiang Zemin the main person responsible for the persecution. Other individuals who have been actively following Jiang in persecuting Falun Gong include: Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang and Liu Jing. Luo Gan, the secretary of the Committee of Political Science and Law, and the Chief Prosecutor of the People's Supreme Procuratorate, executed the persecution against Falun Gong. Zhou Yongkang, the Director of the Public Security Department, aggressively followed Jiang in the persecution and intensified it. Liu Jing, head of the “610 Office,” has authority over all the institutions persecuting Falun Gong.

On January 20, 2004, in an interview with New Tang Dynasty TV, Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, said “If they want to overturn the persecution against Falun Gong, they must explain to the practitioners and their families who suffered from the persecution, who is responsible [for the persecution]. Then they will have to prosecute the prime evil culprit.”

Dr. Terri Marsh, lead attorney for the United States Falun Gong practitioners in a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, said that she is working on pushing the international legal community to form an institution to try Jiang, Luo Gan and other officials, which would be similar to the International Tribunal used at Nuremberg. Dr. Marsh suggested that those who are involved in the persecution against Falun Gong in China should immediately turn against the persecution and, if necessary, they should resign their positions. Dr. Marsh said this is the right thing to do morally, and may also lessen the sentences they will receive.

“The Party Is Always Correct”

Throughout its 80 years of existence, the CCP has always moved from one crisis to another, and has always dealt with each crisis with terror meant to reassert the CCP’s authority and power.

The Cultural Revolution, a manipulative game of power launched by Mao Zedong, caused great suffering and turmoil in China, with huge numbers of people persecuted. When the Communist Party “redressed” the Cultural Revolution, only the “Gang of Four” was arrested. Police officers who had directly taken part in the persecution were secretly executed.

The principle that guided the CCP in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution is “the Party is always correct.” The Gang of Four was made the scapegoat for all that had gone wrong, with the Party itself left blameless. The victims of the persecution had no choice but to be grateful for the restoration of their reputations (even if posthumously), no matter how badly things had been mishandled.

Experts on China predict that the CCP will use overturning the persecution against Falun Gong as an opportunity to try to distract the people from their complaints, and to alleviate pressure from the international community. The CCP now recognizes that Jiang Zemin has driven the Party down a dead-end road with his persecution of Falun Gong, and will attempt to sustain its rule by using the case of Falun Gong to demonstrate once again that “the CCP is always great, glorious and correct.”

The People No Longer Trust the Party

Recently in Wanzhou, Chongqing, a peasant was disabled from being beaten with a pole by a government employee. Thousands of people then protested. The people wished to send the government the message that they no longer trust the government.

This lack of trust surely owes a great deal to the government’s handling of Falun Gong. Five years ago, Jiang Zemin used the criminal law to sentence people for appealing in Beijing, in an attempt quickly to eliminate the practice of Falun Gong. This was a first step taken by the government in openly violating the Chinese constitution. What was done in Beijing was soon done throughout the country, and people everywhere were denied their basic right to appeal to the government for the redress of mistreatment.

Due to the strict blockade of news by the CCP, the Chinese people do not know the truth about what kind of persecution innocent Falun Gong practitioners suffer in jails, prisons, and labor camps. When Falun Gong is redressed, people will know the truth about the killing and mistreatment of practitioners by the CCP. This knowledge will deepen the people’s distrust of the Party, and may cause them to want to overthrow the rule of the CCP. The Party will have a difficult time replaying its theme of being “great, glorious and correct” when it overturns the persecution against Falun Gong.

When Hu Jintao, the new leader of the CCP, first assumed power, he announced his intention of boosting the ability of the CCP to rule. Obviously, the CCP has realized its political power is in serious trouble.