WASHINGTON—The persecution of Falun Gong in China, launched by communist leader Jiang Zemin in July 1999, has persisted for 16 years. Now, there are signs that its political foundations are on increasingly shaky ground. A movement that aims to bring Jiang to justice for his role in leading the campaign is gathering momentum, and the Falun Gong community hopes that it will eventually result in the criminal prosecution of Jiang for his role in the attempted destruction of the group.
Friends and supporters of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners as well as congressional staffers participated in a forum on Capitol Hill, Sept. 15, to inform members of Congress, the press, and the public of the status of the movement and its objectives.
“Over 178,000 Falun Gong practitioners and their family members filed criminal complaints—lawsuits—against Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), between the end of May and September 14, 2015. They urge the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in China to bring Jiang to justice for orchestrating the persecution of Falun Gong,” said Frank Lee, the spokesman for Falun Dafa Practitioners Association in Washington, D.C.
The plaintiffs are from mainland China and 27 other countries. Among them, 3,495 became handicapped or had family members tortured to death; 22,287 were incarcerated in forced labor camps or prisons; and 54,449 were held in detention centers or brainwashing centers.
The snowballing of lawsuits all became possible when certain provisions of China’s Supreme People’s Court took effect on May 1. Courts could now accept written complaints without exception, and the legal right to sue would now be protected, at least on paper. These complaints cannot be automatically dismissed as they were in the past. Consequently, lawsuits against Jiang Zemin have shot up.
