The Persecution of Falun Gong Is Illegal by China's Law
(Clearwisdom.net) In July of 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced through the state-controlled media that Falun Gong is an "illegal organization," launching an unparalleled persecution against 100 million of its most outstanding citizens. The CCP minions arrested, humiliated, harassed and tortured Falun Gong practitioners without legal process or granting the right to defend themselves through legal channels. They didn't stop at these atrocities but also murdered at least 3,292 practitioners who refused to renounce their belief. The CCP committed enormous crimes, claiming without blinking an eye that they were proceeding "as stipulated by law." Researching and reviewing Chinese laws, no such law has been enacted before and during the ten years since the onset of the persecution.
1. Persecution Commenced Before Official Announcement
The CCP's persecution of Falun Gong commenced on July 20, 1999. But, the CCP regime's announcements of "Banning the Falun Gong organization" and "Prohibit Any Appeal," by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, were not published until July 22, two days later. These announcements are themselves not legal, as the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security are not legally designated agencies to make such announcements under China's Constitution.
2. Directive Changes Direction
Without adhering to legal precedence or established law, the CCP regime began its systemic persecution, and the political atmosphere mirrored the Cultural Revolution. Yet, despite all the effort put into the destruction of Falun Gong, using all of the country's resources, and former head Jiang Zemin's claiming to "eliminate Falun Gong within three months," nothing of the sort was accomplished. Therefore, on October 30, 1999, the CCP's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress published a "Decision on banning evil cult, and guarding against and punishing evil cult activities."
This "Decision" was made public five days after Jiang Zemin slandered Falun Gong and named it an "evil cult" in a written interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro on October 25, 1999, attempting to make the persecution of Falun Gong an international affair. Based on Jiang's idea, not the law, the CCP regime changed the directive for the persecution of Falun Gong from "banning an illegal organization" to "punishing an evil cult." This decision became the "legal basis" for committing horrendous atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners, claiming that it was proceeding "according to the law." If this was the so-called "law," the actions to eliminate Falun Gong three months earlier were illegal. Yet, when looking at the meaning of "evil cult" published as part of the decision, one cannot find any mention of Falun Gong.
Reviewing the "Decision" systematically, one can see that besides political slogans such as "maintaining social stability," it denounces criminal activities, which describes incidents such as "organizing mass gatherings to disrupt social order, fool others, cause deaths, rape women, swindle people out of money and property or commit other crimes because of superstition and heresy." The crimes listed in the "Decision" and the associated punishments were already addressed in China's criminal law, which has been in effect for a long time. There was no need for a new "Decision" from legislative bodies. In fact, the "Decision" was made to give credence to the suppression and persecution of Falun Gong. But from the point of law, the "Decision" has nothing to do with Falun Gong.
3. The Two "Explanations" Developed into the Largest Judicial Disgrace
Before the "Decision" was published, the CCP regime's Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate authorized the "Explanation of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate Concerning Laws Applicable to Handling Cases of Organizing and Employing Heretical Cult Organizations to Commit Crimes" ("Explanation 1") on October 9 and 8 respectively. Comparing the "Explanation 1" with the above "Decision," we can see that the language mirrored each other in content and thought. Only "Explanation 1" was written as a legal document, containing more legal jargon. Actually, the "Explanation 1" was written before the legislative bodies' "Decision." And the "Decision" was written to give power and credence to "Explanation 1." In our eyes, this has become a judicial disgrace.
According to CCP law, "Explanation 1" was the basis for prosecuting and handling cases, which carried the charge of being an evil cult. Throughout "Explanation 1," one can only find the description of an evil cult and its resulting punishments. It not once mentioned "Falun Gong." Given existing laws and legal definitions, "Explanation 1" does not apply to Falun Gong cases. The name "Falun Gong" does not apply itself as a reason for criminal charges.
The day when the "Decision" was released, the CCP's Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate immediately released a notice on implementing Standing Committee of the National People's "Decision" and "Explanation 1." In this notice, the CCP for the first time named "Falun Gong" as a criminal activity and demanded that the judiciary and prosecutors use Criminal Law #300 to punish Falun Gong practitioners. Thus, the CCP clearly told the judiciary to treat the practice of "Falun Gong" as a criminal activity, regardless of the individual's actions.
Another even more pronounced disgrace was the "Explanation of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate Concerning Laws Applicable to Handling Cases of Organizing and Employing Heretical Cult Organizations to Commit Crimes (2)" ("Explanation 2"), which was authorized on June 11, 2001. Almost every single point directly referred to what Falun Gong practitioners had been doing to clear up misconceptions about the practice and the unprecedented persecution. For example, distributing CDs, hanging banners, sending e-mails, downloading and uploading facts about the persecution, copying materials about Falun Gong, and so on, were assigned in "Explanation 2" a specific penalty. But, no explanation was given as to the harm any of these acts would bring to society, as to who would get hurt by these acts, and why they should be punished. The CCP regime attempted to use the form of "explaining" the law to cover up and maintain the persecution. This attempt confirms that what Falun Gong practitioners had done or is doing is not illegal under existing law. In order to "sustain" the persecution of Falun Gong, the CCP had to resort to this method to force the judiciary and prosecutors to cooperate with the persecution.
4. Illogical and Brazen Misuse of Article 300 of Criminal Law
The so-called "law," which the CCP's Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate kept "explaining" is in fact Article 300 of China's Criminal Law. There are three articles:
"Whoever organizes and utilizes superstitious sects, secret societies, and evil religious organizations or sabotages the implementation of the state's laws and executive regulations by utilizing superstition is to be sentenced to no less than three years and no more than seven years imprisonment. When circumstances are particularly serious, imprisonment may be no less than seven years."
"Whoever organizes and utilizes superstitious sects, secret societies, and evil religious organizations or cheats others by utilizing superstition, thereby affecting the death of people, is to be punished as stipulated in the above paragraph."
"Whoever organizes and utilizes superstitious sects, secret societies, and evil religious organizations or has illicit sexual relations with women, cons people out of money and property by utilizing superstition is to be convicted and punished in accordance with the regulations of articles 236, 266 of the law."
The main point of the Article 300 is about those who "organize and utilize superstitious sects, secret societies, and evil religious organizations or sabotages the implementation of the state's laws and executive regulations by utilizing superstition." It punishes people who "organize and utilize" the activities but not the believers. In order to use this article, one should verify who are "organizing and utilizing" the activities, what are "superstitious sects, secret societies, and evil religious," what "state's laws" are being "sabotaged," and verify if these "state's laws" are "sabotaged" by the people who "organize and utilize" the activities. These are four crucial conditions to be applied to criminal acts under this article.
A typical "Falun Gong case" involves one or more Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested for distributing materials that clarify the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution. They refused to give up their belief in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance despite police's pressure or torture, and then they were charged with the "crime" of "utilizing evil cult to sabotage the implementation of the state's laws."
But, among the countless cases during the past ten or more years, there was no a single judge or prosecutor who could explain from the law why the Criminal Law against evil cult could be used when prosecuting Falun Gong practitioners, people who adhere to the principles of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. There was and is no evidence as to what organization(s) were utilized by any Falun Gong practitioner. No one could explain which state's law's implementation was sabotaged by a practitioner. No one could say how a practitioner sabotaged the implementation of the state's laws and executive regulations by distributing materials that clarified the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution. That is, among all the cases, there were only defendants, but no victims, no violations, and no consequence from the "violation." It is like someone being prosecuted for murder without there being a victim.
5. Persecuting Lawyers for Defending Falun Gong
If someone still has doubt as to what we explained above, then here is one thing that clearly shows the CCP's evil and depraved nature. They also persecute the lawyers who defend practitioners.
If laws are to be followed, there should be evidence and defense. No matter what crime a defendant is accused off, the defendant should have the right to defend himself, or hire a lawyer to defend him. It is a written law.
But the CCP openly persecutes lawyers who dare defend practitioners. The most famous lawyer who felt the CCP's wrath for defending practitioners is Gao Zhisheng. He wrote open letters to call for an end to the persecution on Falun Gong based on the results of his investigation into the matter. He was sentenced to a five-year term. Another lawyer, Guo Guoting, was forced to leave the country. Yang Zaixing was beaten many times and Wang Yonghang was arrested. There are many more lawyers that suffered for defending practitioners. There are countless cases in which the lawyers were kept from visiting their client practitioners, kept from checking documents, forbidden to defend them in court, or had their licenses revoked or not extended.
In today's world where the moral standard reached an all time low, especially in China where traditional culture has been totally destroyed, good and bad are reversed and the CCP culture has become a "natural" way of thinking for many Chinese people. Regarding Falun Gong, many Chinese could not recognize society's need for Truth-Compassion-Forbearance and were taken in by the CCP's slanderous propaganda about Falun Gong. Their minds were poisoned and they could not see the truth, even when it was right in front of them.
When one dissects established "law," claimed by the CCP to make the persecution legal, one can see that the arguments by the CCP minions are faulty and the persecution is even against the law enacted by the CCP minions. The entire scenario is so irrational, illegal and insane that the CCP minions must pretend that they contain true legal enactments so as to cover for their shameful criminal behavior. And, as we have shown above, this madness is not only treating Falun Gong as an outcast, but also others that run afoul of the CCP machinations.
In fact, the CCP has started to use the method they us on Falun Gong practitioners on minorities, unemployed workers, farmers who lost their land, people who were forced to relocate, and other individuals or groups who try to protect their rights. As long as the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong does not end, the illegal acts by the courts and Procuratorate will continue. The persecution of regular Chinese citizens under the CCP's rule will get worse, as these CCP minions are panic-stricken and want to hold on to power as long as is possible.