Chinese Officials Use Violent Crimes to Escalate Propaganda Campaign Against Falun Gong

NEW YORK, January 3, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information Center)—Before leaving China on his most recent trip abroad, Jiang Zemin called for an escalation of the persecution of Falun Gong. In the days following, Bai Keming, Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee, called an urgent meeting with China’s Public Security Bureau officials at which he developed a scheme to connect the murderer to Falun Gong.

A source inside the Public Security Bureau has provided key information to the Falun Dafa Information Center about the recent Qiu Defeng murder case. The source disclosed that Qiu, who on December 11 murdered his uncle, was made to look like a Falun Gong practitioner after the murder in a propaganda effort engineered by Secretary Bai Keming.

FDI’s source, speaking on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the day Qiu murdered his uncle, the head of Hainan’s Public Security Bureau immediately reported the incident to Bai, saying it was a good opportunity to frame Falun Gong. Bai called an urgent meeting with related Bureau officials in which he outlined a plan to associate the murder with Falun Gong.

Within hours police had planted Falun Gong books in Qiu’s home, and a lengthy interview with a section chief from the Security Bureau was aired, detailing Qiu’s story and how supposedly practicing Falun Gong led Qiu, who had suffered from mental illness, to murder his uncle.

The reports from China’s state press about Mr. Qiu ride on the heels of similar reports alleging that a man named Fu YiBin murdered his wife and father in Beijing as a result, somehow, of Falun Gong. Both killers were declared by state media to be Falun Gong practitioners. Independent investigations into both cases have been blocked, however, and all relevant departments and offices contacted by the Information Center refused to answer any questions.

He Never Practiced Falun Gong, Family Silenced by Police: Officials’ Story Falls Apart

It appears that Secretary Bai and others were counting on public outrage over the murder and (forced) silence of the family members to be sufficient to bend public opinion against Falun Gong, for reports of the murder were put together literally overnight. By contrast, three weeks were spent preparing news of the Fu Yibin incident. Following the incident Bai and other officials dispatched police to Yutangcun Village to closely watch over Qiu’s family members. Family were told not to discuss Qiu or the murder with fellow villagers or outsiders, threatening that those who talked would be labeled “subversive” and arrested for conspiring with Falun Gong.

Bai and others at the Public Security Bureau, FDI was told, knew from their investigation that Qiu Defeng did not practice Falun Gong at all—a fact not lost on his family and friends, who told investigators he was mentally deranged and usually roamed the village. When the murder took place villagers could be heard saying that, “the lunatic killed someone.” Nobody had ever seen him practice Falun Gong or make any contact with the practice.

The first reports, released on December 12, claimed Qiu had gone to the Laocheng Police Substation the night before the murder, of his own initiative, to turn in his Falun Gong books and materials to police and “confess” that he had practiced Falun Gong since 1994. Yet multiple reports claimed the “evidence” of Qiu practicing Falun Gong was his Falun Gong books, found in his home after the murder.

Equally curious, is that police claimed that Qiu murdered his uncle out of a spiritual conviction, somehow attributed to Falun Gong. Yet, according to the police account, Qiu had only the day before renounced his practice, and now his convictions run so deep as to kill in the name of them? Odd, too, in that nothing could be a greater breach of Falun Gong’s principles than killing someone, as Falun Gong teachings call for being compassionate for all beings and to never harm, let alone kill, lives.

Reporters placed over a dozen calls to relevant media and security offices in China inquiring about these discrepancies and for verification of the story, but no party was permitted to discuss the matter. One man, at the Laocheng Police Substation, said, “I beg you… go and ask for the county office. If I say something wrong I have to (pause)… I can’t say anything.” The man then hung up.

Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson, Adam Montanaro pointed out that “the illogical, contradictory reports on the Qiu Defeng murder case fit ominously into a trend of incriminating propaganda that follows President Jiang Zemin’s recent call to ‘strengthen propaganda’ targeting Falun Gong.” Mr. Montanaro continued, “When you have people charged with governing the nation doing things like this, it really makes me wonder, is this the end of the road for them? Throughout history, such tyrants who persecute and kill innocent citizens have always come to a no good end, and it will inevitably happen in this case as well.”