Dear Editor,
The mastermind of mass imprisonment, torture, and killing in China has died. For hundreds of millions in China, Jiang will mostly be remembered as the architect of the most systematic, deadly, and protracted assault on Chinese citizens in decades: the persecution of Falun Gong. Jiang ordered the genocide of 70-100 million people because he felt threatened by its popularity, and belongs alongside the worst tyrants in history. The dregs of humanity that caused unmeasurable suffering upon his fellow mankind.
As a traditional spiritual and exercise discipline in the Buddhist tradition, Falun Gong quickly gained popularity in China after its public introduction in 1992. It attracted “qigong” enthusiasts and those drawn to its moral philosophy based on the virtues of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, and adherents experienced many health benefits. Indeed, Falun Gong enjoyed considerable official support from open-minded government officials, who saw it as a way to improve public health and moral values.
The consequences of Jiang’s fateful decision in 1999 have been devastating. Millions of innocent Falun Gong practitioners have been abducted from their homes, or off the street, then illegally jailed in prisons and gulags, some for over a decade with their families being torn apart. Yet, Jiang’s worst crime is the state-sanctioned mass killing of Falun Gong practitioners, so that their vital organs could be extracted and sold for organ transplantation.
Jiang Zemin’s death will not bring back to life the untold hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who may have perished over the last 23 years because of his actions, but it does bring some hope that it will open a new opportunity for people in China to follow their conscience and stop the killing of this human rights atrocity.
Katherine Combes
Kalispell
