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| Falun Gong practitioner Cathy | MP Scott Reid | Falun Gong practitioner Wang Yuzhi |
Facts of the Persecution
SARS and Chinese Society
Voices of Justice
Practitioners Exchange Insights
Practitioners' Stories
News and Events from Around the World
Latest News from China
(Clearwisdom.net) On the afternoon of April 14, 2003, Falun Gong
practitioners in Canada held a press conference at Parliament Hill to inform the
Canadian government and media about the lawsuit charging Jiang with genocide that was filed in U.S. District Court. They also appealed to rescue
Falun Gong practitioners' family members who are suffering persecution in China.
Canadian MP Scott Reid spoke at the press conference.
Falun Gong practitioner Cathy
MP Scott Reid
Falun Gong practitioner Wang Yuzhi
Falun Gong practitioner Cathy enumerated cases of unprecedented and inhuman persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China. She said, "Jiang, during his tenure as the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party and the President of China, is the chief perpetrator of this cruel persecution suffered by millions of people." She stated in her speech, "This systematic and massive persecution and the killing of large numbers of kind people has lasted for nearly four years. It must be stopped. Our lawsuit against the former Chinese president Jiang and his regime for their crimes is to uphold justice. For the sake of hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have been suffering from persecution, we must have Jiang charged with the crimes he has committed against Falun Gong practitioners."
In October 2002, when Jiang visited the United States, Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit against Jiang in a US district court on the charge of genocide. The federal court has accepted this case and the legal procedures are in progress.
Cathy said, "On March 18, a Switzerland-based international organization, 'Track Impunity Always' and Swiss Falun Dafa Association announced in Geneva that they would file a lawsuit against Jiang. The three major charges are torture, crimes against humanity and genocide."
"In addition to the legal procedures taking place in Switzerland, the 'Track Impunity Always' organization will coordinate with Falun Dafa Associations across the world and ally with renowned human rights attorneys to form a coalition that will work together to bring Jiang to justice."
On October 21, 2002, citizens from Canada, the United States, France, Australia, Ireland and China jointly delivered documents citing evidence of crimes committed by Jiang and two other Chinese high-ranking officials who started and carried out the persecution against Falun Gong to the World Organization Against Torture, United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Criminal Court.
Lawsuits were filed against several other high-ranking officials, including Li Lanqing, the head of the 610 Office, an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, Liu Qi, the Mayor of Beijing, and Zhao Zhifei, head of Public Security for Hubei Province, when they went abroad to visit other countries. At the end of 2001, the United States Court in New York entered a default judgment against Zhao Zhifei and charged him with wrongful death, torture, false imprisonment, crimes against humanity and other violations carried out against Falun Gong practitioners.
At the press conference, Ms. Wang Yuzhi delivered a clear message, "Retaliation and threat will not keep me from exposing the persecution". She related the persecution she had suffered when she was imprisoned in a forced labor camp in China. She also recounted the persecution her three non-practitioner relatives endured after she exposed the facts of suppression to the international community. Ms. Wang said, "In December 2002, Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit in France against the head of the 610 Office, Li Lanqing. I was one of the plaintiffs. On January 17, 2003, my younger brother, who is not a practitioner, was illegally abducted and his whereabouts still remain unknown."
Ms. Wang Yuzhi said, "On March 18, this year, during the convention of the United Nations Commission of Human Rights in Geneva, I continued to expose the persecution, and I was a witness in the lawsuit against Jiang, the one most responsible for persecuting Falun Gong. On March 19, my younger sister Wang Yuxiang and elder sister, Wang Chunyu, both non-practitioners, were simultaneously arrested."
MP Scott Reid said in his speech, "I have to say that the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has reached a new extreme. Previously we only knew that in this persecution, Falun Gong practitioners were attacked, persecuted, illegally arrested, and imprisoned without trial. Now, we've found that Falun Gong practitioners' family members who do not practice Falun Gong were also unreasonably imprisoned. Obviously, the purpose is to threaten those people who left China to live abroad. Of course, this is completely wrong." In his speech, Mr. Reid called on the Chinese government to release Wang Yuzhi's family members.
A number of media, including the Canadian National TV Station, Multi-cultural TV station, and Central News Agency, attended the press conference.
April 16, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net) Dafa practitioner Ms. Han Ming, 30, was an employee of the Pingshui Machinery Factory in Pingba County, Guizhou Province. She was illegally detained twice for persisting in Falun Dafa cultivation. On February 28, 2001 she was arrested for the third time and illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor. Ms. Han was also fired from her job.
Han Ming was detained at the Zhongba Female Forced Labor Camp in Guizhou Province, where she was brutally tortured. After a vicious guard Gu Xinying (female, 29) brutally beat her, eight guards tied Han Ming up and forcibly injected her with four doses of unknown drugs. From then on, Han Ming's muscles atrophied and her lower limbs were virtually paralyzed. She had difficulty breathing, and her mind was clouded. Her body was extremely weak, and soon she was on the verge of death. The police was afraid of taking responsibility, so they released Han Ming on September 3, 2002. After returning home, her symptoms worsened and it became even more difficult for her to breathe. Her lower limbs became completely paralyzed, and she was bedridden. After six months of suffering, Han Ming passed away on March 20, 2003.
We hope that everyone can work together to stop this abuse and murder of Falun Gong practitioners.
Responsible Parties' Phone Numbers:
Zhongba Female Forced Labor Camp in Guizhou Province: 86-851-2549207
Pingba County People's Government: 86-853-4224114
County's head: Li Shengxiang
China Guihang Corporation Pingshui Machinery Factory
Phone number: 86-853-3851731
Address: Xiaoshan Village, Xiayun Town, Pingba County, Anshun Area, Guizhou
Province, Zip code: 561104
Phone numbers of government agencies in Pingba County:
Pingba County Politics and Law Committee
Phone number: 86-853-224379
Address: Ziqiang Road, Pingba County, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561100
Pingba County Party's Propaganda Department
Phone number: 86-853-224217
Address: No. 23 Ziqiang Road, Pingba County, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561100
Pingba County Taiwan Affairs Office
Phone number: 86-853-224572
Address: No. 23 Ziqiang Road, Pingba County, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561100
Pingba County Party's Office
Phone number: 86-853-224457
Address: No. 23 Ziqiang Road, Pingba County, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561100
Anshun County Political Consultant Committee
Phone number: 86-853-224239
Address: Baocheng Road, Pingba County, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561100
Pingba County Disciplinary Inspection Committee
Phone number: 86-853-224498
Address: No. 23 Ziqiang Road, Pingba County, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561100
Pinba County People's Government Hotel's Travel Sales Unit
Phone number: 86-853-224279
Address: South Zhongshan Road, Pingba County, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561100
Anshun City Disciplinary Inspection Committee
Phone number: 86-853-223152
Address: No. 32 Ziwei Road, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561000
Anshun City Party's Office
Phone number: 86-853-223299
Address: No. 32 Ziwei Road, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561000
Anshun City Political Consultant Committee
Phone number: 86- 853-223145
Address: No. 14 Nanshui Road, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561000
Anshun Area Politics and Law Committee
Phone number: 86- 853-223084
Address: inside Dafu Garden, Ziwei Road, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561000
Anshun Area Party's Propaganda Department
Phone number: 86- 853-222474
Address: Jinhong Road, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561000
Anshun Area Party's Office
Phone number: 86- 853-222243
Address: inside the Administration Bureau Complex, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561000
Anshun Area Disciplinary Inspection Committee
Phone number: 86-853-222434
Address: inside the Administration Bureau Complex, Anshun Area, Guizhou Province, Zip code: 561000
(Clearwisdom.net)
In October 2000, a sixteen year-old Falun Dafa practitioner from Hebei Province went to Tiananmen Square to peacefully appeal for Falun Dafa. She was arrested and detained at a local detention center. To protest the illegal arrest, she went on a hunger strike at the detention center. Under orders from the deputy head and a director at the center, police officers inserted a tube through the practitioner's nose and administered a large amount of salt water, injuring her stomach. At the detention center, she and other Dafa practitioners protested together. They demanded the right to practice the Falun Gong exercises and their immediate, unconditional release. In response, the police physically abused them prior to sending them to a forced labor camp.
The girl was stripped of her clothing by the police. They used a high-powered electric baton to shock her on her face, mouth, behind the head, chest, armpits, inner thighs, and other sensitive areas of the body. She was forced to wear a set of heavy, cast iron shackles for nine days. During that time, her hands and feet were chained together so that she could not stand up straight or use the toilet on her own. The police also chained practitioners together in pairs. To force the young girl to give up the practice, the policemen placed her in solitary confinement for over three months. After ten months of detention, her father paid 4,000 Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China] to bail her out. She was also expelled from school for her belief in Falun Dafa.
Between February 2002 and November 2002, the policemen harassed the girl and her family during this so-called "sensitive period." On the evening of November 3rd, policemen from a local police station broke into their home through a window after they tried, and failed, to break in through the door. They kidnapped the girl and her mother, who tried to resist the illegal arrest. The policemen tied them together that night and used an electric baton to shock them. The next day they were both sent to a detention center. By that time, the police had already extorted 6,000 Yuan from the girl's father. He paid another 2,000 Yuan at the police station to bail out his daughter. The police, however, put the girl into a police station dormitory for the purpose of "constant surveillance." She was forced to stay there for ten days, and her family was charged 300 Yuan a day. After another 3,000 Yuan was extorted, she was finally allowed to go home.
(Clearwisdom.net)
I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from Liaoning province. I started my cultivation in 1996. After Jiang's regime began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa three times and was detained four times. I was illegally sentenced to one year forced labor education for trying to send a letter to the United Nations. After that, the police restricted my rights and had community administrators monitor me.
On August 23rd, 2001, seven people from the local police station broke into my home, beating and cursing me the whole time. Eventually, the police's kicking broke my back, and I lost feeling in both legs. My work unit dismissed me because I insisted on practicing cultivation, and my family lost financial security. The medical expenses for my injury alone cost me more than 20,000 Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.]
On April 8th, 2002, the local police kidnapped me again, confiscating all the money I had left, which was 150 Yuan, and forcefully took me to the detention center. To defend my innocence and demand my human rights, I began to protest with a hunger strike. The police and doctors from the prison had other detainees force-feed me with soy sauce, vinegar, cold water, refined salt, and raw salt, while I was handcuffed spread-eagled on the floor, unable to move. While sitting on my body, five people forced my mouth open with toothbrush handles, causing my teeth to become loose. Even now I cannot eat solid food. After they had tortured me for about 18 days with brutal techniques such as pricking my fingers with needles and beating me with wooden boards, they sent me to the Tieling Detention Center for three-years of forced labor reform. I would not cooperate with the evil, so they shocked me with electric batons and forced me to sit on "the board" while beating me until the installed metal board was broken. Pressing into the nerves of my legs, the board made both of my legs go numb. [Note: Everyday, practitioners are forced to put their hands on top of their laps, with backs straight and sitting on benches for 18 hours per day. This continued for over fifty days. The authorities even limited practitioners' restroom use time. Because of the long time spent sitting on hard benches, practitioners' buttocks had painful sores. Practitioners could not even urinate normally because of the pain.] The Tieling Detention Center continually persecuted me and did not release me until I was nothing more than just skin and bones.
Having suffered hardships for several years, I still remembered that a Dafa practitioner's mission is to expose the evil and clarify the truth to people. I joined in the Fa-rectification period cultivation and prepared truth clarification materials.
One day at midnight, the police from the local police station kidnapped me and ransacked my home after they broke in with a master key. Because I did not reveal my name, the head of the police station and another policeman sat on my body, shocked me with electric batons, and punched and kicked me, again torturing me until I was unable to walk. Then they took me, with the assistance of two men, to the detention center to torture me. Another practitioner and I protested with a hunger strike and sent righteous thoughts every day. The prison doctor had me carried to the hospital for examination. Several days later, the police decided to send me to the forced labor camp for a term of three years. I kept one strong thought of leaving here. After getting to the forced labor camp, the police passed the responsibilities to each other, and finally carried me back to my cell. In the cell, I wrote a petition and tried to find a lawyer. I would not cooperate when people from the "610 Office" came several days later [the "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.]. The detainees from my cell said: "He is such a good person. If you continue to torture him like this, won't you end up torturing him to death?" They said that Jiang's actions were truly despicable.
I became very weak and thin, lying on the bed motionless and unable to take care of myself. Sometimes, I would lose consciousness. Afraid to assume responsibility for my condition, the detention center had the detainees carry me to a car on a stretcher. My parents took me home in December 2002.
At home, I made use of every minute to clarify the truth of the persecution of Dafa practitioners to all my relatives while doing well the three things that Master has asked us to do. My relatives not only understood the truth but also supported and protected me from being persecuted. In March 2003, two policemen from the local police station suddenly broke into my parents' home, asking them where I was. My parents did not tell them, so the police left; but less than thirty minute later, six people, including the head of the police station, the director of the community office, and the party secretary of the neighborhood, came back. They left again and came back after several minutes, asking my parents to write a guarantee statement. My parents refused to comply with their request. Then, the police, feeling at a loss, went to the home of my parents-in-law, who also did not cooperate with the police. Still searching for me, the police came to my parents' home again the next day. With a group of several policemen each time, they came to threaten my parents like this many times within two days, causing my parents, both over 70 years old, to be so concerned about the police coming again to interfere, that they were too nervous to eat or sleep well.
Although I am leading a homeless life to avoid being illegally arrested at home, and the persecution has rendered me unable to work, I will steadfastly safeguard Dafa no matter what hardships I suffer. I will do well with righteous thoughts and actions the three things that Master has asked us to do, and fulfill the vows we had made long ago in history.
(Clearwisdom.net)
Dafa disciple Mr. Zhang Tao, 53, was a resident of Chezhan Street, Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province. Here are some facts regarding the persecution that Zhang Tao suffered and the circumstances around his death.
On July 22, 1999, Zhang Tao went to the Heilongjiang Provincial Government in Harbin City to peacefully petition and request the unconditional release of Dafa disciples from Harbin who had been wrongfully arrested. The large number of practitioners who were there to appeal were surrounded by the military and police, and then taken to an outdoor stadium, where they spent an entire day under the baking sun. In the evening, after their names and addresses were registered and put on a list, they were picked up by the Shuangcheng Police Station and allowed to go home.
At the end of July 1999, Zhang Tao went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa and was arrested. Later, he was picked up by the Shuangcheng Liaison Office in Beijing, and then escorted back to Shuangcheng City two days later. Because Zhang Tao refused to give up his belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance" he was sent to the No.2 Detention Center. In order to force Zhang Tao to give up his belief, the guards there instigated criminal inmates to beat Zhang Tao viciously. He was forced to sit on a wooden board from morning to evening while maintaining an upright posture. In this way, he was abused for 19 days and then released on August 24. After Zhang Tao returned home, his face was very pale and his body was extremely weak. Local police and residential cadres still continuously monitored and harassed his family.
In November 1999, two district policemen, (one named Mao Youliang) broke into Zhuang Tao's home, and stole his Dafa books and a cassette recorder. They detained Zhang Tao, his wife and his daughter (both Dafa practitioners), took them into the local police station, and tried to force them to give up cultivation. They locked Zhang Tao onto a hot heating pipe, verbally abusing and beating him for 54 hours. Later, they sent him to the Shuangcheng No.2 Detention Center and illegally imprisoned him for 15 days.
On February 4, 2000, Zhang Tao once again went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa and was arrested. On the 5th, he was escorted back to Shuangcheng and locked into the No.2 Detention Center. In the end of May 2000, the Shuangcheng "610 Office"* sent him to Yimianpo Labor Camp in Heilongjiang Province and sentenced him to one year's "Reeducation Through Labor." In the labor camp, guards forced Zhang Tao to work in the quarry for over 10 hours each day. While criminal inmates carried heavy baskets of rocks in pairs, guards instigated the criminals to throw the baskets onto Zhang Tao's back. If he could not bear the load, they would beat and kick him repeatedly. Twice, Zhang Tao was beaten to the ground and could not get up. Moreover, the guards subjected Zhang Tao to forceful brainwashing in the evenings and did not allow him to rest. Between September and October 2000, Zhang Tao was tortured to such a degree that he could not maintain a clear consciousness. Under this circumstance he wrote the "Three Letters" (statements promising to give up Dafa practice and to denounce Dafa) against his conscience and was released from the labor camp on November 10, 2000. After Zhang Tao went home, through studying the Fa, his mind became clear and he realized that his actions did not conform to Dafa's principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." He immediately wrote a solemn statement declaring that the things he wrote in the labor camp were null and void. The local police station then placed him under surveillance and harassed him continuously.
On February 23, 2001 at 9 pm, as soon as Zhang Tao arrived home from a business trip, four police officers broke into his home and forcibly took him, along with his wife and daughter, to the municipal police station. The police beat and kicked Zhang Tao for over one hour and interrogated him, trying to find out the sources of Dafa materials in Shuangcheng City. He said he just returned home and had no idea. Early the next morning, they reluctantly released him. From then on, Zhang Tao was forced to stay away from his home to avoid further persecution. The local police attempted to catch him at his home many times but did not succeed.
In May 2001, Zhang Tao was arrested when he was sharing experiences with other Dafa disciples in Shuangcheng City. The police tied up his hands and escorted him onto a bus. With righteous thoughts, Zhang Tao was able to escape.
In October 2001, Zhang Tao's family of four (he also has a son) could no long afford to live in Shuangcheng. They were forced to sell their home and live on the streets.
On November 10, 2001, immediately after Zhang Tao stepped off a bus in Harbin, several plain-clothes agents kidnapped him and took him to Harbin Police Station, where he was tortured, interrogated, and robbed of 3400 Yuan. Zhang Tao was tortured on a metal chair for 12 continuous days and nights, so that his bottom became very raw, and his legs and feet badly swollen. When he was finally allowed to move, he could not even stand up. Since the police did not learn anything from interrogating Zhang Tao, they transferred him to Yaziquan Jail in Harbin, where he was detained for more than four months before being sentenced to three years of hard labor.
In March 2002, Zhang Tao was transferred to the Changlinzi Labor Camp in Harbin. Due to the prolonged persecution, Zhang Tao displayed abnormal physical symptoms-he was unable to walk and sleep, and suffered unbearable pain in his internal organs. To shirk the responsibility for his condition, the labor camp sent Zhang Tao to his brother's home in Shuangcheng City on April 10th for 15 days of medical treatment on bail. However, only 9 days after his release on bail, on the afternoon of April 19th, 2002, 7 to 8 people from the Shuangcheng "610 Office" and Harbin "Anti-Riot Squadron" arrived in two vehicles at Zhang Tao and his wife's newly rented residence. They ransacked his home, and stole their Dafa books and a cassette recorder. Two people forcefully kidnapped Zhang Tao and his wife into the vehicle and did not allow them to bring any clothing, and cursing at them loudly all the way. They carried Zhang Tao and his wife to the Shuangcheng Municipal Police Station and interrogated them about sources of Dafa truth-clarifying material. Zhang Tao was tortured while tied to a chair for the whole night. The next day, he was sent to Shuangcheng Detention Center and imprisoned for 24 days. On May 13th, he received brutal beatings from the police. On the afternoon of the same day, he was escorted back to the Changlinzi Labor Camp.
In late July, Zhang Tao went on a hunger strike to protest. Prison guards locked him into a small confinement cell, hung him by the handcuffs, and administered force-feeding. On July 31, Changlinzi Labor Camp notified Zhang Tao's brother that Zhang Tao had died of a "heart attack" (at that time, Zhang Tao's wife and daughter were in the jail and his son was missing). On August 2nd, when Zhang Tao's family members and relatives went to the Harbin No.2 Hospital to dress Zhang Tao's body, they discovered that Zhang Tao's neck was heavily bruised and badly swollen, and one of his shoulders was obviously fractured and disfigured.
* The 610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems
April 6, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net) At 7:30 p.m. on February 21, 2003, agents from the "610 Office,"* led by Xing Xu, a former Falun Gong practitioner who went astray due to brainwashing, laid an ambush inside Shiyan City's No. 15 Middle School. The "610 Office" ordered the school principal to trick Xing's mother to open her door. The agents swarmed into the house, kidnapped Xing's mother and sent her to the Xiajiadian Brainwashing Center in Shiyan City. Xing's sister stepped forward to try to stop the arrest and yelled for help. Xing Xu then ordered two doctors to forcefully give his sister an injection. Facing his sister's strong resistance, Xing Xu went up to personally hold down his sister's head and covered up her mouth. After one person pulled down her sister's pants, another one gave her an injection, most likely a tranquilizer. They left after they forced Xing Xu's sister to give them 100 Yuan in cash.
Xing Xu, male, is 34 years old. In June 2002, he was brainwashed in Shayang City of Hubei Province. In July, he started helping the "610 Office" in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners. In October 2002, he returned to Shiyan City from Shayang City, and became one of the primary assistants in the Xiajiadian Brainwashing Center, which is run by the "610 Office." He has participated in the persecution of nearly 100 Dafa practitioners.
Xing Xu: 86-719-8316482 (home), 86-13098491776 (cell)
*The 610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong,
with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other
political or judicial systems.
(Clearwisdom.net)
In the time since the Chinese New Year of 2002, there have been at least nine Japanese Falun Gong practitioners and relatives of practitioners who have suffered persecution while traveling to China to visit relatives or on business.
Ms. Cai is a Japanese Dafa practitioner. During the last Chinese New Year holiday, she went to China to visit her elderly parents. She found that she was tailed when she was at her relative's home in Beijing, and their home telephone was also monitored. The third night in Beijing when she was together with her family having dinner, seven to eight policemen barged in. They illegally went through all of her luggage and her relative's house, finally forcefully taking Ms. Cai away. The policemen took her to a small building without any signs and interrogated her for six hours. All of her truth-clarifying materials were confiscated, and her passport and other IDs were also withheld.
Ms. Cai said that during the interrogation, one policeman divulged that they had been busy with her case for over 10 days before detaining her. From booking the airline ticket overseas to setting out on this trip, all of her activities were monitored. After arriving in Beijing, she was followed by policemen at all times.
Ms. Cai said that there were dozens of policemen involved in her abduction, some of them took the role of detaining her, some of them took the role of interrogation, some of them drove the five-car escort, some of them monitored the telephones, and some of them followed her outdoors and so on. It was as if they were dealing with some kind of serious enemy. The government spent so much money and manpower to deal with a quiet lady who just practices "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance".
Ms. Cai said, "I am just a very ordinary Dafa practitioner, yet I already received so much attention from Jiang's regime. Then how much of the ordinary people's money does the Jiang regime spend to persecute the large number of Falun Gong practitioners inside and outside China? They put so many serious cases aside, and focus their attention and resources on persecuting good people who cultivate 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance'."
Ms. Liu is a Japanese Dafa practitioner's relative, and she doesn't practice Falun Gong. She went back to China to visit her relatives during last Chinese New Year, and then returned to Japan. However, soon after she returned, she got a call from her friend in China. She was told that she was monitored as she arrived at Shanghai airport, and her whole trip from Shanghai to Heilongjiang province until she left was tailed and monitored by policemen. All the friends she contacted in China were investigated. One of her friends thought it was strange when she was investigated by officials of the Chinese National Security Agency. Ms. Liu told the story to her relative who is a Dafa practitioner, and the practitioner said, "This is nonsense, how much ordinary people's money will be wasted? So many people are laid off and have no income at present, is this the right way to spend people's money?"
Ms. Gong is a Japanese practitioner. She went on a business trip to China. As soon as she arrived in China, she was tailed and monitored until she came back to Japan. She spent the entire time in a very threatening environment.
Ms. Chen is a Dafa practitioner in Japan. Last year she went back to China to visit her family and then returned safely. However, a few days later, her parents in China were paid a visit and threatened by some officials from the Chinese National Security Agency.
In order to defame Falun Gong overseas, large numbers of Chinese agents are sent around the world to monitor, interfere with and slander overseas Falun Gong practitioners and to collect information on them.
In the past, we were given information from western media that the Jiang
regime has spent enormous amounts of money to persecute ordinary good people who
practice
"Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." On February 27, 2001, Jiang allotted 4
billion Yuan (the average monthly income in China is about 500 Yuan) to set up a
large amount of monitoring equipment for the purpose of tracking Falun Gong
practitioners. Money was used as an incentive for a large number of people
involved in persecuting Falun Gong. For example, in many areas, turning in or
capturing one Falun Gong practitioner can lead to a bonus of 3,000 to 10,000
Yuan.
The dictator Jiang has been charged with genocide in the United States, and more lawsuits are pending in other countries. He and those assisting in the persecution will be brought to justice and held accountable for their crimes.
(Clearwisdom.net)
On the evening of September 26 2002, the police used a ruse, saying, "We need to have a talk with you," to get over a hundred practitioners from Kaifeng City, Henan Province, to come to a meeting. Without following any legal procedures, the police arrested and detained them in detention centers, police stations, and brainwashing centers, just because of their belief in "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." Fifty days later, the police released some practitioners. However, the Kaifeng City Welfare Facility is still illegally detaining twenty-two practitioners. They have been detained for over six months. They have lost their personal freedom, been cursed at, and humiliated. They have been beaten up for not obeying orders, even though those orders were harsh and illegal. Some of them were placed in solitary confinement for four to as many as nine days. The cells didn't have a single shred of toilet paper. The practitioners didn't have adequate clothing to keep warm. Sometimes they didn't get any food. A drunk staff member from the local "610 Office" often beat them up, just because he felt like it.
The following is a list of the twenty-two practitioners:
Zhong Wenbin, male, sixty-years-old, a Senior Engineer with a Bachelor's Degree
Li Xuehua, female, sixty-one-years-old
Song Zengce, female, fifty-eight-years-old, a Senior Teacher with a secondary technical school degree
Wang Huifang, female, fifty-four-years-old, a Physician-in-Charge with a secondary technical school degree
Tao Wenhua, female, sixty-six-years-old, an Accountant with a high school degree
Du Xuan, female, sixty-years-old, a Nurse-in-Charge with a secondary technical school degree
Meng Fanli, female, sixty-one-years-old, a Senior Teacher with a secondary technical school degree
Zhao Yulan, female, seventy-one-years-old
Yao Peimin, female, fifty-two-years-old
Li Jinye, female, forty-four-years-old
Xin Chunting, female, fifty-one-years-old
Gou Xinmin, female, fifty-years-old
Yu Huifang, female, fifty-one-years-old
Li Surong, female, sixty-six-years-old
Xue Zhenghong, female, forty-nine-years-old
Li Zhenying, female, fifty-eight-years-old
Wang Qiuping, female, forty-eight-years-old
Qu Beihua, female, forty-six-years-old
Ma Chunling, female, forty-years-old
Yuan Xiuying, female, fifty-eight-years-old
Shi Yuqin, female
Hu Hongyan, female
Chen Longshen, a thirty-seven-year-old female practitioner with a Bachelor's Degree, was also arrested on September 26, 2002. Originally, we heard she was detained in a mental hospital, but nobody knows her current whereabouts.
Many of the practitioners have been arrested or sent to forced labor camps several times. Their homes were illegally searched and their property confiscated. They are all very steadfast Falun Dafa practitioners. We hope all fellow practitioners will send forth righteous thoughts together with the practitioners in Kaifeng City in order to eliminate the other dimensions' evil elements that try to undermine the Fa. All of us, the Kaifeng City practitioners, will uphold the Fa, not let Teacher down, and walk our paths righteously. We will completely negate all of the old forces' arrangements regarding the Fa and practitioners. We will be worthy of being called "Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples."
The following are the names of those people involved in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners.
Cheng Junbo, the Political Director of the Kaifeng City Forced Labor Camp
Xu Yinhai, the Captain of the Education Team
Gu Jianjun, the Captain of the Third Group
Liang Hongtao, the Captain of the Fourth Group
Sun Quandao, the Secretary of the City Committee of Kaifeng City
Zou Hongbin, Yu Mingde, Tianpeng, You Yong, Director Cao, and Zheng, the people who persecuted practitioners in brainwashing centers
Yang Zhiping, a policeman from the Songmen Police Substation
Shang Yingjie and Zhu Baorong, policemen from the Chengxi Police Substation
Zhang Weidong, the head of an office
Xu Qin and Feng Wei, staff members from the "610 Office" in Gulou District
Sun Dawei, the Vice Head of the Gongye Police Substation
4/11/2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
Case 1
Dafa practitioner Liu Zhaojian from Jiangyuan County, in the city of Baishan, Jilin Province used to be the deputy director of the local tax bureau. However, because he appealed for Falun Gong and firmly continued his practice, he was illegally sentenced to 2 years of forced labor education. After he was released from the labor camp, his place of work refused to arrange work for him, essentially firing him.Without any income, he led a very difficult life. In 2002, he was arrested again while hanging up a Dafa banner. He is now being detained in the Jilin City Prison.
Case 2
Dafa practitioner Xu Huijian is from the city of Changchun in Jilin Province. In April 2001 he went missing, and it was not until October 2001 that it was reported in the newspaper that he had been arrested for purchasing a computer and printer, intending to produce materials to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. Later on we learned that he was illegally sentenced to 10 years in prison and is now being detained in the Jilin City Prison.
Also detained in this prison are practitioners who were arrested for tapping into cable TV to broadcast programs clarifying the truth about Dafa. Most of them were sentenced to over 10 years in prison. Many other illegally sentenced practitioners were also sent to this prison. At present, several dozen practitioners are imprisoned here.
Two Dafa practitioners from Jiangyuan County, one named Qiao and another named Sun, are now detained at the Chaoyanggou Labor Camp in Changchun City.
 Photo taken in Shanghai on April 16. AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko. Because of the government's deliberate cover-ups, more and more Chinese people's health is in jeopardy without being aware of it. |
(Clearwisdom.net) This is the hospital ward China's Ministry of Health doesn't want you to see. There are more than 100 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) patients crammed into tiny rooms in the infectious diseases section of Beijing's You'an Hospital. "Every single one of us in this building is a SARS patient," says a nurse surnamed Zhang who worked at the People's Liberation Army Hospital (P.L.A.) No. 301 until 11 days ago, when she was diagnosed with the disease and admitted here. "There are at least 100 SARS patients here, if not several hundred. The conditions here are really bad. We're not allowed out of this room. We piss in this room, crap in this room and eat in the room. As far as I know, at least half of the patients here are doctors and nurses from other hospitals." As a Time reporter continued through the ward, another nurse who wouldn't give her name stopped him and explained, "Look, I'm not pushing you away. I do this for your own good. It's too dangerous here. It's really a terrible disease, even we who work here don't know when we'll get it. No place is safe in this hospital. All of these wards are full of SARS patients, there are over 100 at least. Don't believe the government--they never tell you the truth. They say it's a deadly disease with 4% mortality? Are you kidding me? The death rate is at least 25%. In this hospital alone, there are over 10 patients dead already."
According to the Chinese government, most of these patients--and perhaps
hundreds or even thousands of others across the nation--simply do not exist.
Before the reporter is hustled out of You'an's teeming isolation ward, nurse
Zhang warns, "Never believe what the Health Ministry tells you."
China, flush from having won the right to host both the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, may be presenting a rosy, reformist face to the rest of the world. But the country's handling of the deadly SARS epidemic, which is believed to have originated in the southern province of Guangdong last November, shows that behind closed doors Beijing can be as inscrutable and secretive as ever. Numerous reports from local doctors over the past week suggest that the nation's health-care system remains hostage to a government that values power and public order before human lives. "You foreigners value each person's life more than we do because you have fewer people in your countries," says a Shanghai-based respiratory specialist, who sits on an advisory committee dealing with epidemic diseases. "Our primary concern is social stability, and if a few people's deaths are kept secret, it's worth it to keep things stable."
The question is: Just how many deaths can be kept secret before the health epidemic itself becomes a threat to social stability? For decades, China's Ministry of Health has deliberately kept killer outbreaks hidden, hoping that deadly diseases will burn out on their own without interference, or scrutiny, from the international medical community. After all, China is a big country, it says, and it's natural for a case or two of plague or rabies to pop up; why worry the populace unnecessarily? But Beijing's emergency plan may be backfiring with SARS, which has burst out of the mainland's national boundaries to kill 116 people and infect 2,890 worldwide as of last weekend. Yet even as the deadly pneumonia proliferates around the world--Africa is the latest continent afflicted with the bug--China continues to massively underreport its own SARS epidemic. In the metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai, local doctors and nurses whisper of hundreds of cases piling up in epidemic wards. And citizens who have put faith in China's health-care system for decades are beginning to wonder whether their long-held trust has been dangerously abused.
 A boy in Beijing covers his eyes with respirator. |
Even as late as last Saturday, China's health authorities continued to stick to an accounting of 60 SARS deaths and 1,300 cases--even though China's Premier Wen Jiabao visited You'an Hospital, where medical staff say the full caseload there has not been incorporated into the figures. In an effort to ease an increasingly worried populace, Beijing's recently appointed Mayor Meng Xuenong claimed last Thursday that Chinese health officials have "full control over atypical pneumonia." Meanwhile, medical authorities maintained that most SARS cases in China outside of Guangdong were "imported," proving that cities such as Beijing and Shanghai were not themselves breeding grounds for the disease.
But even as the government continued its policy of denial, a number of whistle-blowers began contesting Beijing's numbers. On Tuesday a retired military hospital surgeon alleged that in one Beijing hospital there were more than 60 SARS patients and seven deaths from the disease. A local cadre from Shenzhen told Time that during an internal meeting last week, a city health official spoke of at least six deaths there so far while still publicly denying any cases. And in Shanghai, local doctors spoke of 14 cases at one hospital, while Dr. Li Aiwu of the Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital confirmed that seven foreigners were being treated for the disease--contradicting the city's previous claim that no foreigners were suspected of having SARS. "I guess that means I don't exist," jokes a middle-age Englishman who has been confined to its 14th-floor isolation ward for a week.
The Manchester native connects with the outside world by cell phone. "The care here is good, but I must admit I'm feeling a little cut off from the real world."
China's continued obfuscation contributed to the U.S.'s issuing a travel advisory warning against nonessential trips to China. At about the same time, Malaysia barred all tourists from mainland China and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the government reacted to the continued increase in local SARS cases and criticism it had been slow in dealing with the disease by finally ordering household contacts of confirmed patients to stay in home quarantine. Travelers wishing to fly from Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok airport would also have their temperature taken before they were allowed to board their flights. In the mainland, luxury-hotel occupancy in Shanghai has slipped from the usual overbooked 120% this time of year to 30%. High-level trips by former U.S. President George Bush, Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and a World Economic Forum event have been postponed or canceled. "The drop-off in visitors is worse than in 1989," grumbles a Shanghai foreign-affairs official, referring to the foreign exodus after the Tiananmen crackdown.
In a country where mass revolts have regularly paralyzed empires and regimes, the Communist Party is apprehensive about panicking the people. And now that China's booming economy is more dependent than ever on foreign investment--54% of Shanghai's industrial output, for instance, derives from foreign-owned or partially foreign-owned companies--the Party is doubly concerned about maintaining the appearance of stability. "Look at what happened in Hong Kong, where everybody's scared and wearing a mask," explains a senior aide to Shanghai's vice mayor, blaming the foreign media for stirring up jitters about the killer virus. "We don't want everyone to get panicked like that for no reason and destroy our economy." Furthermore, with the major May 1 holiday week rapidly approaching, local tourism officials are worried that the SARS scare will deter Chinese from traveling and spending their yuan.
China has a long history of not facing up to its medical problems. Prior to SARS, the country had been notoriously unwilling to publicly admit to its burgeoning AIDS epidemic. When news trickled out three years ago of tens of thousands of farmers in central China infected by HIV after selling blood to traffickers using tainted equipment, the government delayed more than a year before conceding the truth. Even then, Beijing insisted the virus contaminated only one tiny village in Henan province. Finally, in 2002, the Chinese leadership revised its HIV estimate from 30,000 cases to 1 million--in a single day. Similar night-and-fog tactics kept quiet an outbreak of food poisoning in the northeastern province of Liaoning last month, when three schoolchildren died and 3,000 were sickened after drinking tainted soy milk. Even with hundreds of students flocking to hospitals, local authorities denied for weeks that there was anything amiss.
Most doctors are too frightened of losing their jobs to tell the truth about such cover-ups. A doctor who told a TIME reporter that there were dozens of SARS cases being isolated in a tuberculosis ward at Beijing's No. 309 People's Liberation Army Hospital backed out of continuing the discussion, saying, "I'm embarrassed that I can't talk to you. I had really wanted to, but I'm young and I can't afford to lose my job." But other brave souls are finding the courage to speak out. Last week, in a case first reported by Time, retired military surgeon Jiang Yanyong alleged that at the same hospital there were 60 SARS cases and seven deaths, and that at the P.L.A.'s No. 301 Hospital (where nurse Zhang works) at least 10 doctors and nurses had contracted the disease from their patients. Jiang, who initially submitted his statement to the state TV channel CCTV 4 but received no response, says he was spurred to report more accurate numbers because he was so dismayed that the Ministry of Health reported only 12 cases and three deaths in the capital in early April. According to Jiang, another military hospital, No. 302, admitted two SARS patients first diagnosed at No. 301 in early March just as Beijing was convening the politically sensitive National People's Congress. It was only after both patients had died, says Jiang, that health authorities called a meeting, but instead of instructing doctors on how to contain the disease through public-education campaigns, Jiang says medical officials told physicians they were "forbidden to publicize" the SARS deaths "in order to ensure stability."
Doctors in Shanghai have faced similar political interference. Early last week, physicians at a hospital in the city's Huangpu district were called in by their superior to discuss a new policy initiative straight from the municipal health bureau. For the past couple of months, doctors had been clandestinely searching the Internet for information about SARS, and they hoped for solid information from their director. Instead, he told them not to wear masks in the hospital, save in isolation wards and a few select diagnostic rooms. The gathered physicians were confused. One top administrator meekly said, "I thought wearing masks was supposed to stop SARS from spreading to medical staff." Their superior responded curtly, "Wearing a mask will scare the patients. We do not want panic, especially since SARS has already been controlled."
Local health authorities can get away with such reckless policies because there's little oversight from above. Health Minister Zhang Wenkang actually ranks lower in the government hierarchy than the Communist Party secretaries of Shanghai and Guangdong. That gives the regional Party bosses far more power than the Health Minister to dictate even medical policies in their fiefdoms. Furthermore, each city's center for disease control (CDC), which is responsible for updating China's SARS caseload, reports first to the local Party boss, then to the Ministry of Health. The head of each city's local health bureau is appointed by local Party cadres, not by the Ministry of Health. That structure means local health workers have little incentive to reveal the true magnitude of the crisis.
Even doctors on the front lines have been left in the dark, sometimes to their detriment. At Beijing's You'an Hospital, for instance, nurse Zhang estimates that about half of those in the isolation ward are medical staff from other area hospitals. To complicate matters further, the only people who are officially allowed to diagnose SARS in China are CDC researchers, not the physicians who are treating the patients. "I had a patient whose symptoms clearly seemed to be those of a SARS-positive patient," says a doctor who consults at a hospital in a leafy district of Shanghai. "But after I contacted the CDC, the patient was suddenly transferred without my knowledge and I never found out whether he had the disease or not." The physician presumes the patient did indeed have SARS; otherwise, why would he have been transferred so mysteriously? "We doctors are all left with a lot of questions," he says. "I think it's shameful to not let us know what's going on." That information blackout has resulted in unnecessary deaths as local doctors have resorted to trial-and-error treatments rather than using therapies that have proved relatively effective in other hospitals. Physicians in some Guangdong hospitals, for example, were told by Beijing to treat SARS patients for mycoplasma pneumonia and chlamydia pneumonia, which are bacterial infections, even though they had already found that a combination of antiviral medications and steroids showed better results.
Part of the confusion might be springing from China's accounting methods. Current diagnostic tests for SARS are unreliable at best, and doctors worldwide have had to diagnose primarily by evaluating symptoms and proximity to other SARS patients. But with places like Beijing refusing to acknowledge true numbers of infected patients, it becomes difficult to prove that a person has been near a SARS patient, because those victims aren't supposed to exist in the first place. That, plus a more stringent set of requirements applied before confirming a case as SARS means that many patients who would be diagnosed as having the virus elsewhere in the world are only considered "suspected" cases in China. The English patient at the Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, for instance, has been quarantined for a week, yet the physicians there have told him there's no way they can tell whether he has SARS. "I've heard that in other countries they're able to diagnose within a few days," he says, between dry coughs. "Why can't they diagnose our cases? It's very strange." (The Englishman's doctor says he is treating the man's case as SARS, although the CDC has yet to confirm the case as such.)
Last Thursday it seemed the Ministry of Health couldn't even agree on its own SARS count. At a press briefing in Beijing, Qi Xiaoqiu, director of the Ministry of Health's Disease Control Department, said China's official SARS statistics include "confirmed and suspected cases." Just minutes later Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei told reporters that the numbers he had stated referred only to confirmed cases. Either way, experts agree that the ministry's reckoning still seems far too low. Mainland doctors fret that with continuing ignorance about the disease, the virus could spread even farther. Misinformation abounds: a Shenzhen-based health official named Zhang Shunxiang warned last week that people shouldn't wear masks because they impede proper breathing and contribute to public panic--contrary to advice given almost everywhere else in the world. State-run newspapers in the mainland suggested that a protein-rich potion containing cicada shells and silkworms could be a SARS panacea. Even more worrisome is the possibility that the disease is making its way into China's estimated 100 million-strong migrant worker community, which has little access to health care. Already, doctors suspect that the first case of SARS in Beijing was a migrant who worked in Guangdong. If the virus is indeed infecting members of China's vast floating population, experts fear it could spread quickly into the country's undeveloped interior. With much of China still in the dark about the killer bug, the worst may be yet to come.
----With reporting by Bu Hua/Shanghai and Huang Yong
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501030421-443226-1,00.html
[Editor's Note: This article was written by a non-practitioner and does not necessarily represent the understanding of Falun Gong practitioners.]
After Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spread to many countries around the world and caused dozens of deaths, the state controlled media in China were finally allowed to reveal the extent of the epidemic. However, it has been at least four months since the initial report of this disease in Guangdong Province in China. Bao Tong [Mr. Zhao Ziyang, the former General Secretary of Chinese Communist Party, was forced to step down because he was sympathetic to the 1989 students' democratic movement in Tiananmen Square. Mr. Bao was his secretary.], a former official of the Chinese Communist Party central government, said that blocking reports about SARS is the biggest scandal created by the Chinese Government in the twenty-first century. Bao Tong's comments, presented below, represent his personal viewpoint.
Looking at the Credibility of China's Official Propaganda in Light of the SARS Epidemic
Last fall, SARS first surfaced in Southern China; however, none of the media in China reported the problem. While civilians were not aware of SARS and had no protection, this dangerous disease started quietly spreading across China. It went from Guangdong Province to other provinces, and from China to other countries including Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Canada. In Hong Kong, within a few weeks, there were more than 700 SARS patients, of which 16 died. Fortunately, Hong Kong still has freedom of the press and the media quickly reported the outbreak, which warned people, raised the awareness of the residents, and caused the Hong Kong authorities to intensify the prevention and control of the disease. The media publicized the status of the epidemic to people in Hong Kong and the rest of the world, which provided valuable information.
There is no freedom of the press in China. Just like widespread corruption, the epidemic was hidden in a black box. A search of Xinhuanet.com revealed that not a single report about SARS was published since last fall. There was no report about the source of SARS, or any information about SARS development, trends, or precautionary measures. The central government used all means to keep the information from being published outside of China, yet it allowed the media to report the overall or even local patient numbers and the number of deaths, as if this severe epidemic happened outside the earth or it was just not important.
Oddly enough, a search of Xinhuanet.com using the key word "SARS" found it mentioned in the "Stock Market Review," or in such headlines as "The pharmaceutical industry sector and vinegar industry became the hot spot because of the recent SARS epidemic." What else was found? A short news item on March 19 stated that the Chinese Health Minister told the WHO representatives in China, "Some areas in Guangdong Province have had SARS since November 2002. The Chinese Government has treated it with high importance and quickly organized medical institutions and experts to treat the patients, analyze the causes, and adopt precautionary measures. Currently the epidemic is under control. Most patients have recovered. The people's lives and workplaces have returned to normal." "The WHO representative in China highly praised the effective measures taken by the Chinese Government." This piece of news was published right before the Political Bureau meeting. It painted a false, but indeed pretty, picture of peace and prosperity but did not provide any practical information for the public. Facing such a fatal epidemic, it only talked about taking "effective measures" but did not tell people what the "effective measures taken by China to prevent and control the SARS" were!
Not until April 1, almost half a year after the first case of SARS was reported, did Xinhuanet.com publish the first article telling people how to protect themselves against SARS.
If the media had been allowed to cover the issue openly at the beginning of the outbreak, reveal the reality of the situation and the risk to the public and to people's lives, it would have resulted in the necessary precautions being instituted earlier. How many lives could have been saved in China and elsewhere?
If the WHO representative in China had not requested a meeting with the Chinese Health Minister, how could the cover-up have been detected? How many more people would have died?
(Clearwisdom.net) BEIJING, April 17 (AFP) - China appeared to ignore Thursday urgent demands by the World Health Organization (WHO) that it better report and publicize the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Health officials announced 13 new cases of the respiratory disease, but none were in Beijing where WHO experts Wednesday estimated up to 200 cases of the pneumonia-like disease could be lurking.
The WHO also believes more than 1,000 patients are "under observation" for the deadly disease in the Chinese capital.
Beijing has officially reported 40 cases in the capital with four fatalities and again refused Thursday to acknowledge its figures were inaccurate.
"I think the Ministry of Health is working hard to make these figures accurate to enable relevant departments to make better further judgment and prevention," was as far as foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao was prepared to go.
The WHO estimates however are just that, given what they say is the lack of openness at Beijing hospitals and an inadequate SARS surveillance and reporting system.
Officials at China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) refused Thursday to issue new numbers other those that the health ministry had handed over to WHO.
The WHO has demanded an urgent improvement in the nation's SARS surveillance system and more open and accurate reporting on the epidemic by the government.
The state-controlled press however largely ignored this Thursday, failing to report the WHO's concerns or its estimates on cases in Beijing.
European Union commissioner Chris Patten joined growing international condemnation of China, telling it Thursday to come clean about the extent of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Patten, Hong Kong's last governor before the territory was handed over to China in 1997, said Beijing had to be more upfront.
"I hope this will be the last occasion on which the international community will have to call for much greater transparency from China," he said in Sydney.
"I don't think they have told everything that has happened with SARS."
In an apparent response to the global condemnation of Beijing's actions over SARS, foreign journalists Thursday were taken on a tour of several hospitals and medical clinics, but doctors refused to diverge from the government's official numbers.
Of the 13 new cases reported Thursday, nine were in southern Guangdong province where the disease first emerged last November and where most of China's cases are located.
There was one new case each in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Autonomous Region and southwestern Sichuan province, Jim Rademaekers, WHO information officer said.
In addition, one case was reported in Shanghai, making a total of two confirmed SARS cases in the eastern metropolis.
The case in the remote Ningxia was the first case so far reported in that region.
A second round of emergency training in SARS diagnosis and treatment for doctors and medical workers nationwide was meanwhile announced to take place in Beijing Thursday and Friday, state media said.
China is the region worst affected by the SARS virus, which has spread rapidly around the world in the past two months killing more than 160 people and infecting over 3,000.
Chinese medical officials claim that as SARS is a newly discovered disease, it has been difficult to differentiate SARS symptoms from other forms of respiratory diseases and pneumonia, leading to the slow response in identifying and treating the illness.
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/an/Qhealth-pneumonia-china.RgzN_DAH.html
(Clearwisdom.net) According to reports from M2 Presswire on April 14, United Nations Commission on Human Rights continues with consideration of civil and political rights.
According to the report, Karen Parker, of International Educational Development, condemned numerous States for having used the fight against terrorism to carry out repressive policies against domestic opposition. In the case of China, the persecution of practitioners of the Falun Gong was among the worst such violations of human rights.
Adrian Barattnychy of Freedom House, said that sixteen countries were included in this year's list of most repressive regimes. China was in the list. The Freedom House also regularly monitored the persecution of religious minorities in a number of countries, including China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria and Sudan.
D. LONG, of Association for the Prevention of Torture, said the absolute character of the prohibition of torture was today seriously challenged. Many States continued to use torture and to submit persons to inhuman conditions of detention and to break the customary principle of non-refoulement. Recently several States had tried to justify these acts, notably in the name of fighting terrorism.
States could not on the one side sign and ratify international conventions and on the other side fail not only to take measures to implement them but moreover violate them. All States were urged to take effective measures to implement their international obligations and to stop torture. States also were urged to give priority to the ratification of the new Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.
(Clearwisdom.net)
James R. Langevin
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515-3902
April 14, 2003
The honorable Colin L.Powell
Secretary
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am writing to express my serious concern regarding the arrest and detainment of Ruifeng Zhang and his wife, Yanxiang Xu, in China. Their family and friends in the United States have expressed great dismay at their imprisonment, and I urge you to intervene in this matter.
Shortly after the Chinese government began persecuting followers of Falun Gong in 1999, the couple went to Beijing to appeal to the Chinese government that they stop their actions. They were immediately arrested, and while they were released soon after, they were arrested many times and currently remain in detention. Ruifeng Zhang was sentenced to three and a half years in June 2000 and was not allowed appeal his sentence. He is currently being held in Jidong Prison in Fengnan City, Hebei Province. Yanxiang Xu was arrested in April 2002 after a phone conversation with a relative from the United States that mentioned Falun Gong, and was sentenced to three years in Shijiazhuang Labor Camp.
The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners cannot be ignored by the world community. I am greatly disheartened that the Chinese government has worked to stifle the voice of this movement and has taken such drastic punitive measures against its followers. I respectfully and urgently ask that you do everything possible to ensure Ruifeng Zhang and Yanxiang Xu are returned safely to their family.
Sincerely,
James R. Langevin
Member of Congress
(Clearwisdom.net)
(Clearwisdom.net)
To the Director of
Daxing Xian, Xinan Nuzi Laojiao Nongchang
(Yuan Tiantanghe Nongchang)
Beijing 102609
People's Republic of China
Berlin, 31st March 2003
Dear Sir,
As a member of the German Parliament and as Spokesman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, my attention has been drawn to the fate of Falun Gong practitioners in China in general, and to the case of Ms. Xiong Wei in particular. I am writing to you to express my deep concern about the imprisonment of more than 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners in forced labour camps (such as the camp you are the director of) and the confirmed death toll of more than 630. Since the People's Republic of China has signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, I am urging you to make a contribution so that human rights are no longer violated in China.
Ms. Xiong Wei has lived in Berlin, Germany for many years and has worked for a Chinese German enterprise. She was detained while distributing information on Falun Gong on January 5th 2002 in Beijing and has since been brought to Daxing Xian, Sinan Nuzi Laojiao Nongchang. Since Ms. Xiong Wei has only peacefully exercised her rights to freedom of expression and belief, I am urging you to do everything possible to ensure her safe and immediate release.
Moreover I ask you to provide me with information about the moves you intend to make in this direction.
Yours sincerely
[Signed by a German MP]
The MP's name has been omitted to avoid harassment from the Jiang regime
Article from: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200304/11760.html
April 2, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net) Several months ago, because of being busy in doing Fa-rectification work and a lack of clearly understanding the importance in studying the Fa, my pace of Fa-study had become very sluggish. I couldn't study the Fa with a calm mind. Sometimes I even couldn't finish one lecture a day, not to mention practicing the exercises. Therefore, I was in very poor state. I felt tired. I felt unsatisfied in doing ordinary work as well as Dafa work, and sometimes I encountered troubles. The worst was that many human notions that I thought I had gone through during my cultivation came back again. Although righteous thoughts could play a certain role, I still felt I couldn't root out all the interference I encountered and the attachments that appeared again.
In the past, when I was in a better state, I would study two lectures of the Fa in the morning with fellow practitioners at one study group and one lecture in the evening at another study group. At that time, I read Zhuan Falun so fluently that my mouth could read faster than my eyes. It seemed that I had merged together with the Fa. It was also very easy to do Dafa work as well. I didn't realize it was because of my intensive Fa-study that the Dafa work could be done so smoothly. Moving to a new area, in the new environment, since I was the only practitioner in that area, I had been doing both spreading the Fa and clarifying the truth to Chinese people. I studied the Fa much less, and as a result, the state I mentioned above developed. Thinking it over thoroughly, I finally realized the reason behind it was that I did not devote enough time to study the Fa. I immediately had the thought to resume reading three lectures every day, and was eager to begin.
After sharing with a fellow practitioner from a neighboring state, we decided to study two lectures of the Fa together in the morning and one lecture in the evening on our own. His company was very close to my home. Everything seemed so natural and was arranged that way. We started our daily schedule of studying three lectures. Since the Fa-rectification work couldn't be held up, we slept less in order to study the Fa more.
On the first day, my fellow practitioner had a hard time waking me up at 6:00 a.m. I felt very sleepy when we started to read the Fa since I'd gone to sleep late the previous day. After the second page, I began to wake up and became more clearheaded. I became more invigorated as the reading continued. That day when I was at work, I felt very serene and compassionate, and felt the Fa inside of me. My relations with fellow colleagues became more harmonious. The wonder and sacredness of the Fa often made me silently recite Master's poem "Falun Dafa is Good." It's hard to describe how wonderful and serene I felt in my mind. I had a deeper understanding to Master's poem "Mighty Virtue," "Dafa never leaves the body, Heart contains Zhen-Shan-Ren; A great Arhat in the world, Spirits and ghosts fear the most." (HongYin, unofficial translation)
At the 2003 Los Angeles Conference, it was an honor for me to listen to Master again. As soon as Master appeared on the stage, I began crying. There are no words to describe the mighty benevolence of our respected Master, the mighty wonder of Dafa and how fortunate we are to be "under the greatest mercy since the beginning of Heaven and Earth and under Buddha's infinite grace" ("Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples" from Essentials for Further Advancement II) I never felt so moved like this before. It was the period of intensive Fa-study that made me deeply understand the sacredness and the solemnness of the Fa, and the might and benevolence of the Fa. My belief and respect of Master and the Fa deepened.
It seemed that my manager at work had not been satisfied with my work performance. The reason on the surface seemed that my new work field was not what I had studied in school, and I couldn't quickly figure it out. In fact it was the old forces taking advantage. Looking inward, I found a notion of irresponsibility toward my work. I always tried to avoid more work and was anxious to go home to do Fa-rectification work. It seemed I was diligent in cultivation, but that was an omission. Although I found one of my omissions, the environment at the work remained the same. Although it improved a little after exchanging experiences with fellow practitioners, I still felt it was difficult. Until one day, about two weeks later when starting the intensive Fa-study, just after finishing the reading, I suddenly recalled Master's words, "Work is work. Cultivation is cultivation. But your xinxing improvement through cultivation will be reflected in [your handling of] specific issues at work" (Fa-Lecture at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun) Thinking of myself, I realized I mixed up work and cultivation and therefore was not clear what was the job responsibility. I tried never to offend anybody at work, so therefore some of the work was delayed. My state of mind changed after I enlightened to the principle. And with more Fa study, the work environment around me became more harmonious and purified. My manager's attitude changed for the better.
My wife worked in another state. She is involved in much Dafa work and often works very late. With a bit of a mentality of the pursuit of comfort, she couldn't study the Fa and practice the exercises regularly. She felt exhausted for a long time. We all felt we should have a breakthrough and helped to motivate each other after we decided to strengthen the Fa-study, "Share in learning and share in cultivation"("Solid Cultivation," Hong Yin) At the beginning, my wife had a hard time waking up even with two alarms. So I called her to wake her up. She started to study three lectures of the Fa per day also. My wife told me that she treated the Fa study as homework before and often felt sleepy while reading the book. It would take her one and half hours to read one lecture. After strengthening her study, she is now able to calm down easily and read three lectures in two and a half hours. Fa study is no longer treated as a job, but is done out of a desire from deep in her heart.
Soon another practitioner began to join her in the mornings. Together they send forth righteous thoughts at 5:00 a.m., read two lectures of the Fa, practice for one hour and then go to work. In the evening, they read one more lecture together again. Both of them feel very energized. My wife only sleeps two or three hours every night but is full of energy. She also feels it is easier to do things than before. The other practitioner and I also felt we should strengthen our exercises as well. Otherwise, with an ordinary body, it would be hard to persist in our study and study the Fa with a calm mind. Therefore one week ago, we started to practice the exercises for an hour and study two lectures of the Fa after we send forth righteous thoughts at 5:00 a.m. If every Dafa disciple can study the Fa more and study with a calm mind, what state would the Fa-rectification be in as a whole?
Let us remember Master's words, "No matter how difficult your environment is, no matter how busy you get, you cannot forget to study the Fa. You must study the Fa, because it is the absolute, most fundamental guarantee of your improvement... As long as you study, any problem can be solved. As long as you cultivate and as long as you're able to understand the Fa from the Fa, there's nothing you can't achieve." ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.")
(Clearwisdom.net) On the topic of studying the Fa, I would like to talk about my experience and discuss this with everybody.
After I broke out of detention with Master's protection, I was quite puzzled over some practitioners' giving in to the pressure of persecution. At the same time, I thought about how to be firm.
Later, a practitioner reminded me of Master's words, "the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts" ("Drive out Interference," Essentials for Further Advancement II ) Yes, this is the answer. From then on, I started to study the Fa more.
Later, I found that I was going after quantity, instead of paying attention to whether I had learned something. I made some improvement, and started to read out loud. In the past I could finish 3 lectures in two hours. Now I finish only one lecture. But I make sure that I understand what I am reading. The result has been rather good.
After some time, I found that I had been reading only Zhuan Falun. Master has over 20 books. Then I made a plan. Every day after I finish a lecture, I would arrange some time to study other books. I read the other books in turn, and then start from the beginning again. I found the result is even better.
A practitioner told me that besides studying the Fa, I should cultivate firmly, which was a wake-up call for me.
Another practitioner said, "Actually studying the Fa includes many things already. It also includes cultivating firmly, because the Fa is capable of all things." I felt this statement is right too. Then I made a summary, and felt that if I want to "study the Fa well," I have to study the Fa more, read the book with concentration, and do as told by Master. Then it is to "study the Fa well."
One day, when I was reading the section of "A Clear and Clean Mind," (Zhuan Falun) I suddenly came to understand a deeper meaning of "read the book with concentration." There is no external method that one can use to settle down the mind. Only by getting rid of attachments can we truly settle down the mind. Isn't this cultivating firmly?
"Sincerity is a prerequisite if you are to rectify your heart." (Chapter III Cultivation of Xinxing, Falun Gong) A sincere attitude is critical. After I studied Master's Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference, I realized that as Dafa disciples, we should seek to assimilate to Dafa, and follow Dafa's requirements unconditionally. We cannot look for something according to our attachments.
(Clearwisdom.net)
The advancement of Dafa practitioners as one body is the holistic manifestation of Dafa's mighty virtue and power. The pressing barrier that each practitioner now faces, and must break through, is as Master told us, "humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking" ("Lunyu" from Zhuan Falun). The key to fundamentally changing humankind's conventional thinking is cultivating every bit of our thinking according to the principles of Dafa.
The scheme that the old forces have used to persecute Dafa practitioners is that generation after generation the old forces established the principles for humankind to live by, and these principles lead mankind to develop various notions. Dafa practitioners have also been living by these principles for generation after generation. Various human notions have been leading people to develop various attachments, and the more adherent to those notions one becomes, the stronger one's attachments will be. During this Fa-rectification period, the old forces have taken advantage of those attachments to initiate a so-called test to persecute Dafa practitioners. The key to letting go of one's attachments is to change one's notions. Various attachments manifest themselves in one's thinking. Dafa practitioners' thinking comes mainly from three sources: notions, external interference, and the principles in Dafa. We have to practice the principles in Dafa to eradicate various notions and to eliminate external interference. The human notions are what we must let go of during our cultivation, and we should consider and think over any problems from the perspective of Dafa.
Now the evil forces' persecution against Dafa practitioners has reached an insane extent. Thus, whenever an unrighteous state surfaces, we must immediately recognize and discard the attachments that the evil forces use as excuses to persecute Dafa practitioners. And at the same time, we should deepen our understanding of the principles of Dafa. Then the unrighteous state will vanish. For some fellow practitioners who have been in an unrighteous state for a long time, it is necessary to send forth righteous thoughts to help them eliminate the evil forces that persecute them. However, the key is to share experiences and understanding in the principles of Dafa so that we can advance together, discovering and letting go of our attachments - the excuses used by the evil forces to persecute Dafa practitioners. But sometimes not only is there no sign of improvement, but the persecution becomes even more severe. Why is this happening? From my understanding, this is because Dafa practitioners still have human notions and other attachments that they have not let go. At the same time, under the persecution, Dafa practitioners have developed other attachments such as fear, suspicion (why the evil cannot be eliminated), annoyance, and anxiety. Sometimes, practitioners have even developed weak thinking towards Dafa. All of these attachments are used by the evil as excuses to reside in the field of our dimensions and continue the persecution. Therefore, we should eliminate all the attachments which the evil forces lurk behind.
While helping fellow practitioners, it is more important to encourage and remind them, so as to help them regain their righteous belief in Dafa, and continue their cultivation in the Fa, instead of asking fellow practitioners to attain our understanding level and standard. The advancement in cultivation is mainly based on how Dafa practitioners treat Dafa and Master in their heart. As fellow practitioners' righteous thoughts grow stronger and stronger, they will strive to study the Fa more diligently so that they can be guided to the Fa, and develop essential and intrinsic transformations within themselves.
Helping fellow practitioners is also a way to harmonize and complete one's own mechanism, and is a part of one's own cultivation. Helping fellow practitioners also improves ourselves.
First of all, we need to have a compassionate heart. During the process of experience sharing and discussion, we will find some fellow practitioners who are unwilling to expose their attachments, which in fact is to expose the evil forces. The dilemma is how can we help fellow practitioners if they do not want to share? This depends upon whether we can remain calm and unmoved, or whether we become uneasy and anxious. If a fellow practitioner has good enlightenment quality, we can help them to regain their righteous state in a short time. Will we then develop the attachment of zealotry because of the joy and happiness from our accomplishment? Will we feel resentful, anxious, or even disheartened when fellow practitioners are very tenacious? Will we develop a selfishness attachment to feel that it is a waste to take us several days to help fellow practitioners? Will we always cultivate ourselves, given whatever problems we may run into?
As Teacher explained,
"I think that you absolutely shouldn't be disheartened. Do this compassionately no matter who it is, and with a compassion that can melt steel you'll be able to do well." ("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
Any attachment appearing in the process of helping fellow practitioners will become a kind of barrier. We have to immediately eliminate that attachment and the evil old forces lurking behind it, and use our kind heart and compassion, and the Fa principles at different levels, to help fellow practitioners. This is completely for the benefit of fellow practitioners, and for showing consideration to them, and there is not any selfish purpose or self-interest at all.
"The Buddha light illuminates everywhere,
Propriety and justice rectify and harmonize everything.
Strive forward together,
A bright future lies ahead."
("In Harmony With the Fa" from Hong Yin, unofficial translation)
(Clearwisdom.net) Through studying the Fa, I have gradually expanded my point of view when looking at problems. When I am not able to clearly perceive a problem, when I cannot let go of my attachments, or when I cannot surmount tribulations, I enlarge my own point of view. When I look horizontally, I see a small continent, the small earth, the solar system, the Milky Way, the small universe, the celestial body, and the greater celestial body... Those attachments, those tribulations are just like tiny bits of dust within dust. Looking vertically, I see a hundred years of a human life, five thousand years of the history of different dynasties, billions of years, even--Kalpa turning into hundreds of millions of Kalpa.... Forever returning to this earth and repeating Samsara.
In the book Falun Gong, Master says, "Yet as a practitioner you will find the things that people take seriously to be very, very trivial--even too trivial--because your goal is extremely long-term and far-reaching. You will live as long as this universe. Then think about those things again: It doesn't matter if you have them or not. You can put them all behind you when you think from a broader perspective. "
(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, the evil forces in China have stepped up their efforts to find and destroy Dafa material production sites. Since February, several sites have been destroyed. Looking from the human level, it was mainly caused by cell phone surveillance. Therefore, the practitioners in China started to be careful with their contact methods and cell phone communications. But is this the most effective means to solve this problem? Have we thought about why the recent persecutions were aided by cell phone surveillance? Actually, many things at the human level have two sides. We should apply ordinary people's things wisely to serve the purpose of clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings.
Recently, several fellow practitioners discussed this issue and came up with the following reasons:
1. The Fa-rectification process is accelerating and the evil is desperately struggling. It disrupts and destructs by all means.
2. Some practitioners are so attached to cell phones that the evil can take advantage of their loopholes. As far as we know, practitioners in some areas not only just regard the cell phone as a tool for communication, but started to compare the price and appearance of the phone. Some practitioners' handsets are more than 1000 Yuan, some even close to 2000 Yuan. When a fellow practitioner pointed out this problem, a practitioner did not seek inside but cover up his attachment and replied, "The 1000-Yuan handset has good quality. I am using it for Dafa not for myself." I know that 400 Yuan can buy a new old model handset with good quality. However, that practitioner was not willing to use that kind since "it is too big, it doesn't look good, and it tends to draw attention." Using these kinds of excuses, he did not consider the suggestion. Think about it, if we care about the good looks of a handset, where do we different from Sakyamuni's disciples who were comparing their rice bowls? If we do not get rid of this attachment, isn't this something that can be taken advantage by the evil? "As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.") Having seen that we have this kind of attachment, the old forces decided, "OK, I will make your handsets have problems so that you can get rid of your attachments." We are thus unintentionally following the path arranged by the old forces. During the Fa-rectification period, we should pay more attention to the cultivation and upgrading of our xinxing and getting rid of all of our attachments so that the old force can not use them to hinder us in helping Fa-rectification work.
There is another situation where some practitioners say, "The cell phone is so useful to us. How can we do anything without it?" Unintentionally, they become dependant on the cell phone. I think that this is also a loophole where the old forces could take advantage. A Dafa practitioner with a righteous mind and actions should learn to look at issues comprehensively. Many things at the human level have two sides, the advantage and the disadvantage. We should consider using, how to use, or not using a thing based on whether it can be used wisely to serve the purpose of clarifying the truth and saving the people. How can we have the mentality of not being able to do anything without a cell phone? The cell phone is only one of the tools that we use on the path of Fa-rectification. We can use it but we do not have to use it. The key is our hearts. Any attachment to anything can become an obstacle on our path. Therefore, we must strictly measure ourselves against the Fa in all aspects.
April 9, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in 1999 and was detained for over two years. During that time, I was transferred to more than ten different places where Falun Gong practitioners were detained, such as a police station, a brainwashing class, a detention center, a custody center, a labor camp, and a prison. We were required to turn in a sum of money every month for our lodging. I told my family not to give them a penny. I had not booked those places to stay. Rather, I had been arrested and detained there. Due to the illegal detention, I was deprived of a normal life and the opportunity to work. Instead of giving them money, I should ask them for monetary compensation.
My family never gave them any money. In the end, my work place and neighborhood committee turned in the money in my name. Once I held a hunger strike in the hospital and was at the verge of dying. The police department branch tried to extort 10,000 Yuan from my family for my release, (the average monthly income of an urban worker is 500 Yuan) but my family refused to pay. They then reduced the amount to 5,000 Yuan, but my family told them: "We don't care about his release. You may send him wherever you want." The police were afraid of being responsible for my death, so they sent me home without taking a penny from my family.
The police and officials who do not abide by the law extort money from practitioners' families. They would set some practitioners free upon receiving a large amount of money and arrest them again soon afterwards. The police are not trustworthy.
Ever since 1999, no matter where I was detained, my family never gave them any money. In the end, I was able to get out of the evil den openly and nobly. Not only practitioners, but their families also should not follow the evil's instructions. This way, their dirty tricks will be to no avail.
A practitioner was arrested while passing out truth-clarifying flyers. The police deceived her by saying, "As long as you answer our questions truthfully, you will be set free." She did as they requested, but was still sent to the labor camp. When another practitioner was arrested, the police showed her a fake transcript of the interrogation of another practitioner, saying that he had told them everything and had given his fingerprint. As a result, she answered their questions in the interrogation. In fact, the other practitioner had never been arrested.
The police have no good reason to arrest people who live by "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." Therefore, we shouldn't follow their instructions in the first place. If we do, we are actually putting ourselves into a dangerous situation.
If we have righteous thoughts and actions, and can really be as solid as diamond, the evil will be stopped for certain.
(Clearwisdom.net)
At the end of 1995, a friend of mine introduced me to Falun Gong. As soon as I began reading the book Falun Gong, I could not put it down. I have never read such a good book, and I thought that this was the most important book I had read, and what I had been looking for my entire life. I read it in one sitting, and went to buy it from the bookstore. At the time, it was very difficult to obtain this book.
I did not know what it meant to be a really good person until I read the principles explained in the book on how to be a good person. Previously, I felt that I was a good person, and many people also said that I was good, but when measured by the standard of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance", I was actually very far away from being truly good. I was a businessman, and it was not easy for me to behave according to what was taught in the book, so I thought I would wait and learn Falun Gong after I stop doing business in the future. Because I had just begun cultivation, I didn't study the Fa very diligently. I read the book, and practiced the exercises when I had time. Even though I was not so diligent, many of my illnesses were healed within half a month, such as shortage of blood circulation to my heart, heart disease, stress-related illnesses, etc. I felt light and full of energy. In the past, these illnesses made me suffer greatly. I had life-saver pills with me at all times, and there were quite a few occasions when my illnesses were so severe that I almost lost my life. I visited many hospitals, spent a lot of money, and my illnesses could not be cured. However, I recovered very quickly soon after I learned Dafa; it was such a miracle. In the beginning, I really dared not believe that such a miracle could happen to me.
I have now experienced the feeling of having no sickness. I became determined to cultivate in Dafa all the way to the end. Since then, I truly became a genuine, steadfast cultivator, and disciplined myself according to the standards of being a good person, as taught in the book. In the past, I often lost my temper because of the illnesses, but now I understand the principle of being tolerant. When I have differing opinions with others, I no longer get upset easily. In the past, I didn't like to do housework, and argued with my wife; now I act according to the requirements in the book, and no longer complain about others. My family is more harmonious.
I conduct business in an electronic product mall. I discipline myself according to "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." I do not lie, nor do I take any dishonest money. When people come to buy things for their companies, I tell them about the relationship of gain and loss. Good advice is harsh to the ear, and although they do not always like to listen, I still tell them one by one.
One day, a person came to buy calendar watches for his company, and he wanted me to write an extra amount on the receipt, so that he could make a profit for himself from the difference between the amount of his actual payment and that shown on the receipt. As I refused him, he got angry and went to other shops. However, he soon returned because he could not find the product at other places. He asked me again. I told him, if he took so much money into his own pocket secretly, how much De [virtue] he would lose. I told him where he could buy the product in another mall. However, after a few hours, he returned again because he could not find the watches. He asked me if I could lower the price by two more Yuan per watch. I replied that as long as he would not profit at the company's expense, I would not mind making less money. The deal was done.
Many people in the mall learned Dafa. Now, none of our stalls sell to people who request us to write a higher amount on the receipt so that they can profit from the difference. We stopped their bad behavior by not cooperating with them. This is to benefit the public, and helps these people do fewer bad things that would make them lose De. In the past, I sometimes argued with other people in order to fight for businesses; after I started cultivation in Dafa, I got along with others very well. They all said that I had changed. All of this is due to the power of Dafa. It helps people to improve their moral standards, and benefits both mind and body tremendously.
(Clearwisdom.net) From March 8 to March 28 2003, there was a Falun Gong photo exhibition at the public library in Lillehammer. Lillehammer is a very well-known tourist attraction since the Winter Olympics were held there in 1994. The librarians were very friendly and enthusiastically accepted when a practitioner asked them if a Falun Dafa photo exhibition could be held there.
The exhibition showed pictures of Falun Dafa being practiced around the
world, as well as evidence of the Jiang regime's horrific persecution of Dafa
practitioners in China. The display included the books of Falun Dafa and a video
showing Master Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Dafa, teaching the exercises.
Leaflets and other materials were posted nearby for interested people to take
home. Practitioners showed the librarian a beautiful red banner reading "The
World Needs Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance". The librarian liked the banner a
lot and asked if it could be hung from the ceiling for everyone to see,
commenting, "That is exactly what we need now!"
Through this exhibition, many people got the chance to learn more about the practice of Falun Dafa. They also got to see the truth behind the lies spread by the Jiang regime.
Article from: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200304/11763.html
(Clearwisdom.net) The Falun Gong photo exhibition held in the Wuerzburg Adult University on Muenz Street portrays a vivid contrast between peaceful exercises and barbaric persecution. These photos demonstrate how China persecutes and tortures the practitioners of this spiritual movement; people are being tortured to death or sent to labor camps. Among the imprisoned practitioners is Xiong Wei, a student of Berlin Industrial University. At this moment, German Falun Gong practitioners are putting a lot of effort into ensuring her release.
Apart from the photos exposing brutality, there are also photos revealing the elegance and beauty of Falun Gong and introducing its popularity around the world. There are many people practicing this cultivation system worldwide, which is composed of five sets of exercises and was introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in China in 1992. The Wuerzburg practitioners organized this photo display with the support of the city's Cultural Bureau and it ends on April 11th.
"Falun Gong does not get involved in politics and is not a religion," stated one of the Falun Gong practitioners in Wuerzburg. The basic purpose of this spiritual movement is to teach one to be a good person at all times and live by the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance". Now there are over 100 million people in over 60 countries practicing Falun Gong.
The Chairman of the Adult University in Wuerzburg emphasized that "Looking for a path to peace is particularly important in the modern world. Falun Gong reveals to us a righteous path to internal and external peace."
Four years ago [Jiang's regime] launched the persecution against Falun Gong. One of the practitioners in Wuerzburg said, "At first, the Chinese authorities responded positively to the spiritual practice because many practitioners suffering from chronic diseases regained their health through their cultivation."
Article from: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200304/11762.html
Energy Channels open with Falun Gong
Falun Gong introduced itself in the culture centre of Kemi on Saturday. Everyone who was interested could try the exercises of Falun Gong, which were practiced slowly and peacefully in accordance with Chinese music. The exercises open and cleanse the body's energy channels. Ms. Ritva Heinonen, who tried the exercises, praised the practice and said it felt good. Powerful exercises even made the body sweat.
Practicing Falun Gong together with her husband, Mrs. Anja Pekkarinen told about the positive effects of the practice and also about the brutal persecution that practitioners in China have been suffering from.
"As a Falun Gong practitioner I cannot accept any kind of persecution. As we tour around Finland, we also tell about other groups that are being persecuted," Anja Pekkarinen
Mr. Janne Rautiainen and Ms. Aila-Kaarina N r?from the City of Kemi and Anja Pekkarinen and her husband Veijo were at Saturday at culture centre in the city of Kemi, telling about Falun Gong, which is also known as Falun Dafa.
Anja and Veijo Pekkarinen got interested in Falun Dafa approximately 2 years ago, when Anja read from newspaper about youths who were practicing the exercises of Falun Dafa in one park in the city of Oulu. She decided to go try the practice.
"Different changes occurred in me soon. I became more tolerant and different ailments started to heal. My husband also got interested in Falun Gong when he discovered its effects," tells Anja Pekkarinen.
Mr. Janne Rautiainen found information about Falun Gong from the Internet.
"I've always been interested in things related to the east and about a year ago I started to look for information about qigong. I then found out that in Falun Dafa there were many views that corresponded to my own views. I feel that with Falun Dafa my mental burden has removed. I feel better inwardly and material things feel less interesting," Janne Rautiainen says.
Physical Exercise and Cultivating the Mind
Falun Dafa is one form of the ancient Chinese qigong practice, which has been founded by Chinese Li Hongzhi. He brought his practice to the public in 1992 and ever since it has attracted millions of practitioners worldwide.
Qigong is cultivation practice of mind and body which is practiced through different physical exercises and meditation. Everyone might have an image of Chinese people who practice qigong early morning in parks. Falun Dafa is different from other qigong practices for apart from the physical exercises it stresses the improvement of morality of a person in everyday life.
"We strive to live according to principle: Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance," says Mrs. Anja Pekkarinen.
There is also related literature to Falun Dafa by the founder Li Hongzhi, like books, Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong, which deepen the principles of Falun Dafa. Many can first try the exercises without getting to know about the literature itself.
The Exercises Made Sweat Run
At Saturday all people who were interested could come try the exercises of Falun Dafa. There are five gentle exercises that purify and relax the body. It includes different stretching, slow vertical movements and meditation. Surprisingly breathing didn't have importance while practicing the movements.
"Thoughts need to be free, and one should not think about things," Anja Pekkarinen advises.
Ms. Irja Saloranta and Ms. Ritva Hentonen showed up to try the effect of the Falun Dafa exercises.
"Movements felt very nice. I don't know was it the energy or what, but my feet became all wet while practicing," Ms. Heinonen smiles
Mr. Veijo Pekkarinen affirms that sweating is normal, also a feeling of becoming bigger is common. The music that is playing on background helps in concentration and it helps performing the movements in a group.
Anja ja Veijo Pekkarinen has studied Falun Dafa watching the videotapes. Also all the other material is very easily available from the internet and one can contact other practitioners of Falun Dafa in the internet too.
Practitioners of Falun Dafa want to emphasize that cultivation practice is not a religion or sect. Practitioners don't need to give up their personal thinking or freedom, all the activities are also free. Practitioners of Falun Dafa also don't worship the founder of the practice, Li Hongzhi, even though he is well respected.
"We live just normal life and go to work. The most significant change is how we meet with other people. We consider other people and care for them. I cannot talk badly to anyone anymore, without apologizing," Anja Pekkarinen comments.
(Clearwisdom.net) On April 12 2003, Falun Dafa practitioners from Iowa and
nearby states participated in the annual Versa Parade at Iowa State University.
With the contribution of the local practitioners, the activity was very
successful. Over ten thousand people, including Americans, Chinese students and
scholars, and other international students witnessed the beauty of Falun Dafa.
The practitioners in charge of the display booth met many Chinese visitors. They greeted the practitioners in a friendly way and some of them took the initiative to talk to us. One Chinese lady came to the booth and said, "Your Falun Gong procession is very good every year." Another Chinese man said Falun Gong was persecuted because the principle of "Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance" was the opposite of the Chinese communist party. Referring to the lawsuit against Jiang, he said, "He ought to be tried." A Chinese student expressed his fear of the long reach of the Jiang regime, saying, "I dare not speak openly like you. I admire your courage." Many Chinese said they met Falun Gong practitioners everywhere. Many Americans showed their support for Falun Dafa and expressed their sympathy to the practitioners being persecuted in China.
(Clearwisdom.net) On April 12, 2003, practitioners were invited to the World
Taiji Qigong Day at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, a yearly festival organized
by Orange County. This is the second year in a row that Falun Gong has
participated in this event. Last year, since it was the first time for Falun
Gong to attend the festival, a few Chinese groups were defensive toward us at
the beginning. Later when they saw the peaceful practitioners and how Falun Gong
was welcomed by the mainstream society, they soon changed their attitude.
Practicing the exercises beside the tables
Teaching the exercises
Young Japanese practitioner Alisa and her grandfather
Soon after we started to practice the exercises, the strong energy field attracted many Qigong practitioners. Many Westerners and Chinese came to our table to request information and some of them wanted to learn the exercises. When we were teaching the exercises, the people learning exercises grew from one to four, then four to ten. Later, the people surrounded the teaching practitioners for three layers. After the exercise teaching, we distributed flyers to them and told them to attend the group practice near their homes. When we saw the people's enthusiasm to learn about Falun Dafa, we were deeply moved and immediately remembered our duty to save sentient beings.
(Clearwisdom.net)
Comments on Current Events
The following is an excerpt from the article "A Trade with No Possible Bargain."
With regard to the case against Jiang, the Chinese government expressed to the U.S. through diplomatic channels that they would "sacrifice anything in order to end the lawsuit." We do not know whether Jiang's "sacrifice anything" is meant as a threat or a tempting deal. If it's a threat, what could they possibly do to effectively threaten the United States? Stop foreign relations? Jiang does not dare and even if he did, he does not have the ability to so. What could Jiang use to bribe the United States? What would he use to make good on his promises? Mussolini mistook a soldier who was coming to rescue him as someone coming to execute him, and promised the soldier an empire to rule. If Jiang is offering a prize, probably it is the same kind of bounced check. No matter what Jiang would use as his payment in the trade, his threats and bribes are absolutely unacceptable and invalid. Throughout history, there was Hitler's suicide, and Mussolini's dead body exposed under the sun. Their destinies have revealed to us that no matter what price dictators are willing to pay in their final days, their ultimate demises are all shameful.
Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions
The following is an excerpt from the article "Use Righteous Thoughts to Resist Persecution, Walk Out of the Wanjia Labor Camp in a Dignified Manner."
In January 2001, my employer and the Hedong Police Substation unjustly sentenced me to one year of labor camp, because I absolutely refused to write guarantee papers [guaranteeing to stop practicing Falun Gong]. They sent me to the Wanjia labor camp. I endured a great deal of mental and physical torture there, including force-feeding, and being locked in a small cell [A practitioner is locked up in a very small cell individually. The guards handcuff a practitioner on his back in a fixed position, in which the practitioner can neither move nor lie down. Usually the small cell is very damp and cutoff from sunlight. Practitioners have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served each day. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is often difficult for practitioners to breathe], and I grew scabies all over my body. I am a cultivator, so I definitely study the Fa and do the exercise no matter where I am, including in the labor camp. Thus, they tied my hands to the doors. The evil has used up all their means in persecuting us, trying unsuccessfully to destroy our faith and reach their goal of stopping us from practicing. I took the Fa as my Teacher every moment, and remained unmoved no matter how they persecuted me. I walked out of that labor camp in January 2002.
The following is an excerpt from the article "Only If We Refuse to Cooperate with the Evil, Can We Walk out of the Tribulations."
I was arrested when I went to some fellow practitioners' house. Police also arrested two other practitioners. One of them was an old lady, who refused to answer any questions, and she was released in two days. The other one answered all the questions the police asked, and was sent to a labor camp. I refused to answer any questions, and went on hunger strike. I was sentenced to seven years in prison. I was sent to Dabei Prison. I absolutely would not wear the prisoner's uniform. The police could not do anything to me, even the male prisoners gave me thumbs up with admiration. After twelve days of hunger strike, I almost died. They had to release me. Only if we use righteous thoughts and righteous actions, can we negate the old force's arrangements, and walk out of the tribulations.
The Truth and Peoples' Hearts
I am a construction worker. I disciplined myself according to Falun Dafa after I obtained the Fa in 1997. Once some one gave me an extra 500 Yuan [one month of average salary] after the bricklaying job I did. I gave the extra money back. In 2000, I was riding my bike across a bridge, when a small vehicle made a turn, violating a traffic law, and bumped me and my bike and I fell down together. I got up and let him go. Upon arriving at the construction site, my employer and supervisor all said I should have had that driver pay me. I thought, I am a Falun Dafa practitioner, I should think of others first.
Facts of the Persecution
The police in the Beijing Women's Labor Camp beat and force Falun Dafa practitioners to give up practicing. They put solid Falun Dafa practitioners in isolation, prohibit them from sleeping, force them to squat for long periods of time, force them to stand in an "army corps posture" [Practitioners are left exposed under the scorching sun. Their feet are planted on the fiery ground. The skin on their faces peel off from sunburn. Practitioners are also forced to sit on the ground. Their buttocks are covered with sores from sitting for a long time], not allowed to sit, and only given corn bread [made from cornmeal and water] to eat.
News and Activities around the World
During a Sunday group Fa-study session in Ireland, Falun Dafa practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts every hour on the hour, supporting the trial in the United States against the head evil. Throughout history, whoever helped the evil never had a happy ending. We hope those following the evil or who are forced by orders to do so, pull out before it is too late. Treat Falun Dafa and Falun Dafa practitioners well.
(Clearwisdom.net) A "solemn declaration" is a person's public statement declaring to the world that whatever he or she has done or said under duress or deception that was against Falun Dafa is null and void. Most of these statements have come from Falun Dafa practitioners in China who wished to express regret that, in the face of physical torture and brainwashing, they had signed documents renouncing Dafa and guaranteeing not to practice again. Also, as more and more people in China learn the truth about how they have been deceived and lied to by the Jiang regime, many non-practitioners are also submitting "solemn declarations."
Here are some examples of the Solemn Declarations:
Please click here for more Solemn Declarations.
(Clearwisdom.net)
The Party Secretary of the Politics and Law Committee in Dongmaquan Town, Wuqing District, Tianjing City died of a stroke.
Hao Yuliang (male) was the Party secretary of Dongmaquan Town, Wuqing District, Tianjing city. Since Jiang started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, Hao has acted as an accomplice and made great efforts to support the persecution. He has searched for and seized Falun Dafa books, arrested and beaten practitioners, and forced them to write "guarantee letters". He has also forced practitioners to pay so-called 'deposits', held brainwashing classes to change the minds of firm practitioners and send them to labor camps. At the end of 2001, he sought in vain to be reelected and was replaced by somebody else. He suddenly had a stroke. On March 23, 2003 he died suddenly at the age of 53.
Three Persons Receive Karmic Retribution for Misdeeds In This Life
1. Ban Zhengzhong, lived in resident housing in Factory No. 3532 outside the South Gate in Langfang City, Hebei Province. He frequently conducted surveillance on Falun Gong practitioners outside the gate. He died of diabetes on December 7, 2002.
2. Zhou Jianshi always asserted that he did not believe in the principle of karmic retribution and he tore Falun Gong truth clarifying materials down off the wall. His son was also an accomplice to the surveillance of Falun Gong practitioners. His karmic retribution arrived when Zhou Jianshi became blind as the result of a beating he received at the hands of his son. Both of his sons died last year also. Currently, he is over 80 years old and walks only painfully with the aid of a stick.
3. Zhao Chengmin, was ordered to spy on Dafa practitioners while pedaling a tricycle to make a living. A few days ago he had to go to a hospital to have one of his legs amputated. His other leg will also be amputated.
Some Vicious People Received Karmic Retribution
Ge Le, a thug in Wencheng Town, Jing County, Hebei Province got Hepatitis B.
Another thug Fu Wenzhong from WangQiansi Town, Jing County, Hebei province tore off Master Li's picture, and died several days later. His face wore a terrified expression in death.
Another thug, Zhang Yansheng from Wangqiansi Town, Jing County, Hebei Province, had his Jeep burned and damaged.
Tao X, the head of Wencheng Town police station has become paralyzed.
Note: Every time when we have to report this type of news, our hearts become heavy. These people should have lived their lives with a kind heart, but under pressure from Jiang's clique, they were either forced to or willingly participated in the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners, which have driven many kindhearted common people to the dead way and yet they themselves will not be able to avoid the punishment of heavenly principles. If Jiang's regime had not issued its evil orders, these people would have ended up differently.