By Situ Wuji
With my investments in Shandong and Fujian provinces for the last more than Later, scenes such as an alleged Falun Gong practitioner committing suicide and the A few days before National Day in 2000, I went to Beijing on business. At Tiananmen Square, I saw It was said they had come from Hebei, Henan, and Shandong provinces to appeal. They were escorted To tell you the truth, I supported the police’s action at that time and found it understandable. Maybe because it was beyond my own business, I never took Falun Gong seriously. Occasionally I I was in Taipei and called an old friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. He was in As soon as he saw me he promoted the Fa to me. He felt it was “odd” for the Chinese I was quite reluctant to watch the VCD he gave me. However, as the narrator in the video pointed It occurred to me that it was very necessary and reasonable for Falun Gong to make such a CD to At the same time, my friend took me to attend a “nine day lecture class,” a group Most of the practitioners I saw were quite refined and courteous in their speech and behavior. On May 13, 2002, there was a conference to “Celebrate Falun Dafa’s 10 Year Anniversary Since The three Chinese characters for the words “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance” were Later, during the break and before dinner, the three or four thousand people were all at the I found many ready-to-eat food boxes piled along the road. No one was in charge and no one had to That evening, there was a “Falun Gong Concert.” I should not be overcritical because To sum up my points, I realized the following: The above is my rough understanding of Falun Gong as an observer. It is derived from comparing Recently, a friend of mine in Taiwan received a fax from Shandong. It exposed three cases of In the past, I had heard similar accounts of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners. Reports like these From March 25 to 28, along with two of my friends from Shandong, we secretly investigated those In recent years, the Chinese communist party has seen Falun Gong as a great calamity. The party However, things reverse course once they reach a peak. The excessive persecution and assault on To appeal against the slander and persecution perpetrated by the Chinese communist party, Falun I am not a Falun Gong practitioner, nor am I an official of the Chinese communist party. I am Note: The title of this article is added by the editor * “610 Office” is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, April 12, 2003
10 years, I have traveled extensively in China as a Hong Kong businessman. But
I had never heard anything about Falun Gong and or noticed it until recent years,
when CCTV, radio, TV stations, and all types of media suddenly began criticizing
Falun Gong, assaulting Li Hongzhi, and reporting many events such as the “besieging”
of newspaper agents, appeals to higher authorities, and the “besieging” of Zhongnanhai
and other strongholds of the Party Central Committee.
“Self-immolation at Tiananmen Square” were broadcast on TV. That’s how I first became
familiar with Falun Gong. At that time, even though I felt annoyed by — even disliked — the
endless propaganda and criticism from CCTV, I still understood and supported the decision of the
Party Central Committee.
with my own eyes dozens of large public buses lined up along the side of Tiananmen Square, and many
policemen. At Tiananmen, there were many groups of Falun Gong practitioners, dozens in each group,
hundreds of people.
off to the public buses group by group. Some of their materials, such as banners, were confiscated
by the police and piled in the tree shadows. There was no violence at all. Police had no guns, and
those who came to appeal didn’t shout or curse. It looked like they were dealing with a large crowd
of tourists, as it was so orderly. I asked a policewoman: “What are they doing?” The
policewoman answered loudly, “Falun Gong practitioners. They came to Beijing to appeal. We are
going to send them back to their home towns.”
had read some articles about it in Hong Kong or Taiwan. Unconsciously, or maybe even purposely, I
had tried to avoid any information about Falun Gong… until one year ago, that is.
Australia to spread the Fa and to participate in the Fa-conference in Sydney. I was very surprised
that my friend, who used to be very active in the democratic movement and concerned with the
politics and the future of Taiwan, became a practitioner of Falun Gong, flying 1,000 miles to
promote Falun Gong to westerners. It was quite strange. Maybe out of curiosity or friendship, I
decided to stay two more days to wait for my good friend’s return.
communists to regard Falun Gong as [slanderous terms omitted]. He wanted me to know the truth about
the “Tiananmen Self-Immolation” and denounced the Chinese police slandering Master Li
Hongzhi and persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. He sent me some related VCDs.
out, the behavior of the Chinese policemen at the site of the self-immolation indeed aroused my
suspicions. Following the prompts of the narrator, I compared the hand gesture and the sitting
position, and I suddenly realized something: There was plenty of evidence and many ways this video
program refuted what the Chinese communists did and said.
make its point and clarify the truth. Suddenly, I understood some of reasons behind it. I hoped to
start from the beginning to know Falun Gong from the perspective of research and with an attitude of
seeking the truth.
reading, and group exercises, and to listen to some speeches that Li Hongzhi had given at different
places. This is how I got in touch with Falun Gong and what I saw. Comparing my own experiences to
the propaganda of the Chinese communists, I felt what the Chinese communists said was quite biased.
They did not seek fame and gain; they treated others kindly; they worked harmoniously among each
other, and learned from each other. They sought purity of mind and body and cultivated their bodies
and heart nature. They showed themselves to be a group of people who were most self-cultivated. From
some of his speeches on the tape, I realized Li Hongzhi’s noble and moral virtue in teaching people
to be kind and to lead people to higher levels, not like what the Chinese communists accused at all.
Introduced to Public” at “Sun-Moon Lake.” As a tourist, I went there to observe their
activities. There were three or four thousand people, all wearing the yellow clothes and standing in
lines to do the exercises together at the tourist boat docks. To the sound of the gentle and
melodious music, they slowly moved, which was quite beautiful and orderly.
formed by the crowd and could be seen from a distance. I thought in my mind, “It’s quite clear
that Master Li Hongzhi teaches his disciples to be honest, to be kind to others, and to be tolerant.
It’s all about the principle and the philosophy of life.” I wished that “Truthfulness,
Compassion, Tolerance” could be the golden words for me to live by and to conduct myself in
society.
small dock, which is just a few hundred meters long. People just sat on the ground, in threes or
fives, or tens. Some exchanged experiences; some just talked about family trifles; some corrected
each other on the movements of the exercises. They all kept their voices low, speaking quietly. No
one called out loudly or made noise. With the loudspeaker only playing gentle and stimulating folk
music, there was no disturbing racket.
distribute food. Everyone was self¨Crestrained, taking the food in an orderly way. Some voluntarily
collected the garbage, and the empty boxes and bottles just disappeared without a trace. Everything
was going on quietly just like a family. The ground was clean and everyone still sat on the ground;
it manifested the harmony and tacit understanding among the several thousand people. From the bottom
of my heart, I was shocked and deeply moved. I could only respect these people. I think they are the
most self-restrained, most excellent group. They should be our role models.
they were apparently not professional musicians. What made me curious about it was the words the
host and hostess used. They called and asked the Chinese communists to treat kindly their
“fellow practitioners” in China. The words they used were so cordial, just like the
“comrade” used by the communists. They said that the mainland of China and Taiwan were one
family and both were Chinese with the same language and the same race.
Incident” to clarify the facts and to refute the slander about Falun Gong practitioners made by
the Chinese communist party. They declare that practitioners will not self-immolate nor commit
suicide. They do not acknowledge the people who self-immolated as their fellow practitioners.
intervene in politics. To regard Falun Gong as a political organization that intends to subvert the
Chinese communist party is a claim that simply cannot be supported by facts.
Falun Gong. They believe that Jiang is the one who labeled Falun Gong [slanderous term omitted]. Luo
is the one responsible for staging and clumsily directing the farcical “Tiananmen
Self-immolation Incident.”
stop the persecution in China and to treat their fellow practitioners well.
the propaganda disseminated by the Chinese communist party with my own experience. I do not wish to
criticize the communist party, but I do not believe nor agree in any way that Falun Gong should be
labeled or treated as a [slanderous term omitted].
persecution in Qingdao City in which Dafa disciples’ families had been broken apart because of the
Chinese police actions.
are being constantly posted on the web but I never believed them. Because I know a few Chinese
police, I asked them for verification, and expressed to them my concerns. They always refuted and
denied the accusations. Thus, I decided to pay a visit to Qingdao myself to investigate the truth of
the fax content.
persecution cases of Falun Gong practitioners. The results made me quite angry. I really cannot
believe it. The information in the fax was all true.
has categorized Falun Gong as a political organization that aims to overturn the communist
government. Luo is in charge of the persecution of Falun Gong at the federal level, the 6-10 Task
Force has been established within police departments with Vice Minister Liu Jing as the person in
charge, and provinces and cities throughout China have established “610 Offices”* to
specifically handle any information related to Falun Gong. To deal with Falun Gong practitioners,
the communist party has deployed agents everywhere to prohibit Falun Gong associations and to ban or
regulate practitioner activities. Customs also checks relentlessly to block information related to
Falun Gong from coming into and going out of China and to disrupt the means of contact between
practitioners. They try everything to completely block them.
Falun Gong has brought about negative effects. Falun Gong is oppressed in China, labeled as a
[slanderous term omitted]. The people have no choice and are too frightened to speak out. But they
do not entirely believe the Chinese communist party’s propaganda, which is a sign that they do not
agree with the way the government is treating Falun Gong. Overseas, Falun Gong is spreading rapidly.
Over a hundred thousand practitioners and Falun Gong associations simultaneously appeared in
countries and regions around the world. This is not what Jiang had expected.
Gong practitioners overseas often protest at times that grab the media’s attention, and in front of
the Chinese consulates. At first, local governments and police were on their guard with shields and
police batons, but the situation quickly changed, for the authorities soon saw that there were no
rallies, no speech making, no flier distributing, no advertising. In short, there was no extreme
behavior at all during the appeals. The only things that could be seen and heard were the banners
with the words “Falun Dafa is good” and the gentle music performed on traditional Chinese
instruments. No matter the number of participants or the size of the events, they always do the
exercises along with the music, which is graceful and moving. Thus, the governments overseas and the
police have come to welcome and respect these peaceful, rational, gentle, and kind
“protestors.” Jiang could not have expected this, either.
just a freelance writer from Hong Kong who likes to poke around in other people’s business. What I
write is based on evidence, and I want to share these personal opinions with others. I hope that
there will be an opportunity for me to investigate the true motives of the Chinese communist party
for trying to eliminate Falun Gong, as well as the influence Falun Gong has on Chinese humanities
and culture.
with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other
political and judiciary systems.
Posting date: 2/Oct/2003
Original article date: 12/April/2003
Category: Open Furm
