[Clearwisdom.net] The child of a non-practitioner of Falun Gong living in Australia went back to China to have a vacation. Seeing slanderous reports on Falun Gong show up frequently on TV, he asked his family: "Do you think that this propaganda is true? Although we don't practice Falun Gong, I know a friend of my mom, a Falun Gong practitioner, who is very nice. In Australia, the conduct of the Falun Gong practitioners that I have seen is polite; even their appeals and protests are just for peacefully practicing the movements. They are very polite when they distribute materials. Why is it that Falun Gong pictures on Chinese TVs all demonstrate suicide, killing or mental insanity? Do you ever suspect the authenticity of these reports?" His family panicked after hearing this, and immediately told him: "My gosh, there is only one voice all over the country, how do you dare say something for Falun Gong? You are just a child and do not know what you are talking about." The child said with reason and justice: "I am already 18 years old and will go to university soon. I have my own mind. Even though I don't know exactly about Falun Gong, every one has the right to their beliefs. Whether Falun Gong is good or bad or whether the book is good or bad, the only people who are suitable to speak are the Falun Gong practitioners. It's better to let the practitioners talk about the benefits and harm themselves. TV repeatedly claimed there were over two thousand people who died from practicing Falun Gong. No matter whether the exact number of practitioners is one hundred million or twenty million, the facts are that the majority of practitioners are alive. Why didn't they allow the majority to speak out? Those who appealed must have benefited from Falun Gong, why I didn't hear from those people on Chinese TV? I can tell this even as a child. If Falun Gong is so bad, it is really unnecessary to utilize all the nation-wide propaganda sent out by the government. Please think about it, do we see the mice slandered on TV? But whenever the mouse comes out to the street, everybody will catch it. You can see how silly this is. From my view, the crackdown of Falun Gong in China has lasted for more than one year, and it hasn't been put down. This has shown the great strength of Falun Gong; and it must be not too bad, otherwise nobody would dare to protest publicly in Tiananmen Square. You can see the thieves, corrupted officials, and criminals that do everything in secrecy and dare not show up publicly. Thus it doesn't matter even how much propaganda there is and how good the broadcasters are, if they are not true, they count for nothing".

All the adults were surprised and even a bit happy to hear all these words and they told the child: "You are grown up now and have your own mind. Do you think we really believe in what we see from TV? No, we don't. You just don't know how (brutal) the Chinese government is in persecuting its (disobeying) citizens. We are old enough to know that we should not argue with the government." The child said sincerely: "The emperor who did not wear clothes did not have any clothes on him. I knew this from my favorite story "The Emperor's New Clothes" when I was a small kid. Isn't what is happening in China now a replay of the story?"

A practitioner in Australia

March 4, 2001