If I Had A Billion Dollars

If I had a billion dollars, I would use it to do what I considered valuable. One thought popped up – would I invest the money in China?

I was born and grew up in China. That is the land that always carries me away into a realm of dreams. From deep inside my heart, I wish that she would become prosperous and strong, and that people there could live and work in peace. However, would my investment be helpful to all these dreams? First of all, would it be possible for me to even go back to invest? Over there in China, I have some schoolmates and close friends from the past; most of them are honest common people. I also have a small number of distant relatives. None of them are important people with impressive official positions. It is clear that I would have to get my business done in a “standard way,” to obtain approval seals from all official levels and couldn’t afford the slightest carelessness. In thinking about this, I had the feeling that I would be making a deal which would be sure to fail, and that reminded me of the Suzhou Industrial Park, built with investments from Singapore.

In May 1994, the Suzhou Industrial Park formally started up. Leaders from both China and Singapore visited the park with a scene of hustle and excitement. Because of my job, I have been to Suzhou. When I went there for the first time, the industrial park had already begun to take shape. The industrial park is on the way from Shanghai to Suzhou, and my driver made a detour to take me in to have a look. The roads built to complement the park were very much like those in Singapore. The entire park showed the features of Singapore: neat and clean, brand-new and well organized. It was obvious that the investment for regular construction had been significant. In Singapore, everyone from the Senior Minister to ordinary citizens held high expectations for the project. The relationship between Singapore and China was good, and the private relationship between the Senior Minister and the Chinese leaders was good, so it only seemed natural that the industrial park would have a very positive future.

Local newspapers had reported that the Senior Minister met in Beijing with the Vice Premier of China, and also met with dictator Jiang. At that time, Jiang had given the Senior Minister a clear and definite attitude on behalf of the Chinese people. Jiang regarded this industrial park, through which both China and Singapore cooperated in development, as a project of “importance among the important” in China and would ensure that it would develop well.

Of course, all these things had nothing to do with my job itself. The company we had business with was located in the Suzhou New Industrial District, which was invested in by the Suzhou City Government. Because of the competition for economic interest, conflict between the new district and the park became severe.

Despite the fact that the leaders from the Chinese side had been giving their firm promises all that time to encourage foreign investment, the Development Company of Suzhou Industrial Park prematurely carried out an adjustment of share ownership structure and the park was turned over for management by the Chinese side. Thus, Singapore could no longer continue management of the park and finished its business early. In the process, the amount of loss was not something an ordinary investor could afford. Perhaps these funds had in fact fed a large number of relevant high and low ranking officials.

In the past two years, for reasons everyone knows, it has not been convenient for me to do business in China anymore. It is said that the company I had previously visited can no longer freely use the Internet, although it is a joint venture enterprise. When talking about looking at the Minghui [Clearwisdom] website, my colleague there said, half-jokingly, “One dares not do this. It is very possible that the police car would arrive before one even connected to the website.”

Since China carried out the policies of openness and reform, many business opportunities have emerged and it seems that Chinese people all became rich. The media under the dictatorship of a monopolizing party are doing their best to exaggerate the scenes of singing and dancing in celebrations of peace. But to be practical and realistic, it is only a few people who became rich and the difference between the rich and the poor is drastic. The workers who lost their jobs, the workers who barely receive enough income to cover living expenses and the farmers who work for an entire year, yet can’t get enough food and clothing, account for the majority of the population. The downhill slide of morality and the deterioration of common practices in society have brought about numerous social problems. I remember that when I went to China for business, I stayed in the upscale hotels of that locale. I was struck dumb by the scenes after dinner: lots of women dressed in a pretty and in a coquettish way gathered at the main entrance and hotel lobby. When it got dark, they were taken away one after another. That is a society in which everyone looks up to money, and it is said that people would laugh at the poor, but not at prostitution. The taxi drivers’ businesses also seemed to be thriving because they can get this kind of customer who comes out mainly at nighttime.

The experiences of those business trips to China have made me deeply disappointed with my own country. With a deteriorated human heart, where is hope? That is, until I started practicing Falun Gong when, among cultivators, I saw the recovery in morality and human hearts that are changed towards kindness, and noticed signs of morality’s recovery on a large scale in the entire society. But then China started the cruel suppression against Falun Gong throughout the whole country. With Jiang as the chief representative, a small group of people in the central government utilized a large amount of manpower and material resources and adopted the cruelest methods in persecuting Falun Gong. With criminals ignored and no one to control them, police all over the country concentrated on arresting Falun Gong practitioners, who only wholeheartedly want to be good people, and even tortured them into disability or death. The families of illegally detained practitioners are forced to turn in money and personal property. Jobs, housing, income and children’s school enrollment, and so forth, have become bargaining chips in coercing practitioners to stop practicing. However, Falun Gong practitioners firmly hold on to their belief in Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance and would never use their practice as a commodity for trade. Even hearing of the resulting tortures they have received can make one’s hair stand on end.

Therefore, taking a panoramic view of the entirety of China, under the deteriorating system, deteriorated standards are reflected in every aspect. An ancient saying says: “Even when right, an intellectual can never reason with a soldier.” The actual situation in China is worse than that; where can the truth be spoken out? If you have had the experience of only getting permission to go through Fuyou Avenue (the street in Beijing where the Central Appeal Office is located) after cursing at others, and having witnessed the beatings inflicted with fists and boots on Falun Gong practitioners under the watchful eyes of the people at Tiananmen Square, with no exceptions even for Western practitioners, you would understand that what I have said is true. One of Jiang’s phrases from 1999 that evolved into a piece of national law, shows that there is no law to follow at all.

Considering all of these things, if I had a billion dollars, it would be better not to invest in China at this moment. If a government suppresses the principles of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance, it will lead the country towards the total collapse of morality, society and economy. Isn’t this dangerous?

Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/1/26/13524.html