(Clearwisdom.net) Dafa practitioner Ms. Tang Fafen, 33,
lived in Group Four, Village Three in Mengyang Town, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province.Facts of the Persecution
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(Clearwisdom.net, April 28, 2003) In certain areas of Mainland China, some forms have appeared. It says that everyone must fill it out, and it is entitled "The persecution facts of Falun Gong practitioners." It has entries for name, gender, age, education level, profession, address, and history of being persecuted. It is claimed that this is required by someone higher up, and after being filled out it would be delivered to those higher up, passed up layer by layer, until it is hand delivered to "the very top." As these words are circulated among practitioners, some practitioners have already recognized that this is not in accordance with the Fa principles of Dafa. The Dafa disciples' validating the Fa and saving sentient beings all come from the heart. Dafa requires that we don't have everyday people's organizations and rankings, does not allow the collection of practitioners' name lists, and this form of collecting facts of the persecution have serious omissions when measured against the Fa principles. In addition, in the process of passing around the name lists, as well as the various intermediate steps, there are serious holes in the matter of safety. It is very likely that the evil would take advantage of loopholes and create losses for Dafa disciples.
The meaning of the Dafa disciples' existence in the period of Fa-rectification is absolutely not merely to find individual release through cultivation, instead, it is to save people of the world and sentient beings in the Fa-rectification period. But exposing the evil persecution is done by Dafa disciples entirely of their own accord and voluntarily. The recommendation is that they do their best to establish means for single-line communication with the Clearwisdom website and proceed in a safe fashion. Within Dafa no name lists exist whatsoever. In situations such as this form to collect names, Dafa disciples should immediately and directly point out to the fellow disciple who were passing around the list, the things that do not conform to Dafa with good intentions of being responsible to themselves, to other practitioners, and to the Fa, so that they can improve together. In the Fa-rectification, any way of doing things that has the attachment of doing things, of zealotry, of showing off, and other human attachments mixed in is extremely dangerous, and will bring about a variety of severe consequences. So it's necessary that everyone, in the processes of persistently and steadfastly studying the Fa well, constantly remind each other and correct themselves, so as to achieve the result of reaching Consummation through cultivation and saving sentient beings to the greatest extent.
In addition, recently in the process of overseas Dafa disciples' clarifying the truth, incidents of collecting signatures among practitioners have occurred in succession. The Dafa disciples' clarifying the truth is for the purpose of people of the world receiving salvation, for the purpose of clearing away this persecution that the evil is waging against Dafa and Dafa disciples and minimizing losses. We don't seek anything of this world. So whether it is collecting signatures or other forms of clarifying the truth, we cannot cater to convenience and go after sheer numbers, but should take clarifying the truth to the masses and saving people of the world as what is fundamental, while at the same time doing our best to comprehensively consider things from the basis of Fa principles and the overall situation. We should use our collective wisdom and coordinate to make up for individuals' sloppiness in regards to the Fa, clear away the interference brought about by everyday people's mentalities, and not provide any convenient avenues for the evil to persecute us.
(Clearwisdom.net) Dafa practitioner Ms. Tang Fafen, 33,
lived in Group Four, Village Three in Mengyang Town, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province.
On March 3, 2003, Dafa practitioner Tang Fafen was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor. She was brutally tortured in the Zizhong Female Labor Camp in Sichuan Province. On April 12, 2003, Tang Fafen was released, on the verge of death, and passed away at home two days later.
In February 2002, Tang Fafen was kidnapped and sent to the Mengyang Town government, where she was illegally detained for more than four months. She was brutally beaten during her detention. Later, she escaped and was forced to leave home to avoid further persecution. Her name was on the wanted list of Pengzhou City National Security Division, Mengyang Town government and Mengyang Town Police Station. On October 7, 2002 she was arrested while distributing truth clarification materials in Zhongjiang County. She was sent back to Mengyang Town government and brutally tortured. Covered with cuts and bruises from the beatings, Ms. Tang was then sent to the Pengzhou City Brainwashing Center.
On March 3, 2003, Tang Fafen was sentenced to two years of forced labor and sent to the Nanmusi Female Labor Camp in Zizhong County. She was brutally tortured at the labor camp until she was on the verge of death. The labor camp authorities sent her back to the local government, but the local government refused to accept her. The labor camp was afraid of taking responsibility and again sent people to escort Tang Fafen to the local government. The Mengyang Town government then asked Tang Fafen's family to take her home. At this point, Ms. Tang was on her last breath. Two days later, at around 5 o'clock on April 12, 2003, Tang Fafen passed away. She left behind her elderly parents and a nine-year-old son. Her husband is still held in Pengzhou City Detention Center brainwashing center. Her family requested the government to release Tang Fafen's husband to handle the funeral affairs, but the "610 Office"* turned them down and did not release her husband.
Jiang's political group, the "610 Office" under its command and the forced labor camps have committed countless crimes against Dafa and Dafa practitioners. This is another bloody debt that the persecutors have incurred.
Related responsible government departments and personnel
Nanmusi Female Labor Camp in Zizhong County:
Head of the Education Division: Li Zhiqiang
Chief of Brigade Seven: Li Qi
Chief of Brigade Eight: Zhang Xiaofang
Mengyang Town Government office: 86-28-3829145 (government office), 86-28-3829146 (Party Committee office)
Members from the "610 Office" in Mengyang Town: Zhen Guihua (also the township head), Bai Meichun, Huang Rensong, Cai Yunlong, Tan Yanbai, Liu Zhengfang, Qiao Lijun, Zhou Pingkuan, Zhang Zongjun, Luo Xiuyou, and Zhen Hongming
Members from the "610 office" of Pengzhou City: Qiao Lijun, Yang Jianhua, Wang Dong, Luo Ke, and Yang Jianxin
* 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.
(Clearwisdom.net) When I heard that our fellow practitioner Zhang Xiaoru had been tortured to death, I felt tremendous grief and shock. Jiang started this cruel persecution and murdered many Dafa practitioners, who only wanted to be good people and to tell others from the bottom of their hearts, "Falun Dafa is good!"
Zhang Xiaoru was a kind, gentle person, and she never argued with others. When the persecution of Dafa began on July 20, 1999, she went to Beijing to appeal and was detained by the police. Her family and work unit leader pressured her to abandon cultivation, but she clarified the truth to them and firmly refused to give it up.
In March of 2000, Xiaoru went to Beijing to appeal for the first time, and was detained at the detention center. She promoted Dafa to all the prisoners and even gave away some of her clothes to other practitioners and prisoners. Everyone had a good impression of her. Two months later, her family gathered a few thousand Yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan] and bailed her out. However, the police still intruded into her house as frequently as two or three times a week. Her husband had been poisoned by the Jiang regime's slander and propaganda, and constantly pressed her to abandon cultivation. She took no notice of it. Every time after the police came, her husband beat her up badly. In August of the same year, police came to her house to harass her. Xiaoru was not able to put away the truth clarifying material in time and was spotted by the police. She was arrested and sent to the detention center. In January of 2001, she was illegally sentenced to Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp.
I heard that she was released in May 2001 and later became destitute and homeless in order to avoid further police harassment and persecution.
In June of 2002, I met Xiaoru's husband and asked about her situation. He said: "The police came so often. She ran away after I had beaten her up." I asked him: " Do you know how much we suffered when we were in prison? We did not do anything wrong. It is all because we would not abandon practicing Falun Dafa and being good people. Jiang would like to put all of us to death. Not only have you not protected your wife but you have helped the evil to persecute us, isn't that the case?" I saw that he showed some regret and I told him: "Didn't police always come to your house to look for her? You should not wait for them to come but take the initiative and go to the police station to ask them to return your wife to you. The police have forced her to leave her house and we should demand her return." After I clarified the truth of Dafa to him, and his understanding became much better. He then expressed that he would go to the police station and reason with them.
Nearly 10 months have passed, and I suddenly received the sad news that Zhang Xiaoru had been tortured to death. On February 27, 2003, while distributing Dafa materials in Puyang City, Henan Province, she and another practitioner were reported to the police, who then arrested them. Officers from Daqing Street Station took them to Hualong District Police Department, then to Puyang City Police Department (Wang Haizhen and Zhang Xiaojiang in charge).
These two practitioners were very firm, never give in during interrogation. Officers beat them and tortured them, tried to brainwash them by collaborators. Ms. Zhang died after falling from sixth floor of Puyang City Police Department building. The other practitioner's whereabouts remain unknown.
The details of Ms. Zhang's death are yet to be investigated. We hope that people who know the situation can provide relevant information.04/17/2003
(Clearwisdom.net April 19 Report) I started practicing Falun Gong in 1995. Soon, my illnesses, such as high blood pressure and a heart problem, healed completely. Because of the physical change in my body and the improvement in my morality, I realized how precious Falun Dafa is.
Toward the end of 1999, I decided to tell people the facts about Falun Gong, so I went to the appeals office in Beijing. Upon arriving there, the police arrested me and wouldn't let me say a thing. They sent me to the Ziqiang Labor Education School. The officials sent inmates to monitor me at all times, day and night. They forced me to work for 15 hours a day and eat rotten leftover food. Ten days later, the police officers interrogated me and then sent me to a detention center, where the police asked me to sit on a bench and didn't allow me to do the exercises. Whenever I tried to practice the exercises, they cursed me badly. Fifteen days later, I was released.
In the second half of 2000, I went to Beijing again to validate Dafa. I was arrested while still on the train, and was detained in Longshan Labor Camp. There a Falun Gong practitioner destroyed a cassette recording that was full of lies about Falun Gong. The police then put her into the male cells, cut off all of her hair, insulted her, and beat her badly.
A month later, I was sent to Masanjia Labor Camp. I had to work for over ten hours each day while sitting on a small bench. The police officers forced us to read materials slandering Falun Gong and attempted to instill bad thoughts about Dafa in our minds. Sometimes, they didn't allow us to sleep at night. The officials made an appearance of trying to help us, but in fact maligned Dafa and Master and distorted right and wrong. However, they could not shake Dafa disciples' determination to practice at all. The police treated the male Falun Gong practitioners even more brutally. Once they beat practitioner Yang so badly that his back was covered with cuts and bruises. It was summer, and very hot. Because they were not treated properly, the cuts became infected and crawling with vermin. They also forced Falun Gong practitioners to work in the fields in the burning sun, without providing water or food. As a result, some practitioners fainted. Although they brutally tortured Falun Gong practitioners, none of us ever changed our hearts about Falun Dafa.
On March 9, 2003
(Clearwidom.net) I am a female Dafa practitioner. In November 2000, I was arrested because I went to the Tiananmen Square to clarify the truth to people about Falun Gong being persecuted. The police attempted to send me back to my hometown but I managed to escape, and later my company fired me.
Because I continued to clarify the truth to the public, in June 2001, the police ransacked my home and took me away without a warrant. The policemen confiscated my personal belongings, including: 10,350 Yuan in cash [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan]; desk and chairs, a bed, a TV, electric shower heating equipment, cooking utensils and other day-to-day items.
In June 2001, at the police station, they tried to force me to tell them about other practitioners and the source of the truth clarification material. The policemen struck my genital area with a mop handle and also beat the arches of my feet; grabbed my hair, slapped my face, poured water on me, shocked me with electric batons, and handcuffed me to a "tiger bench" [an instrument of torture, one is forced to sit on a small iron bench with knees are tightly tied on the bench and hands tied on the back. Usually some hard objects are inserted underneath the lower legs to make it even harder to bear the pain, see illustration on http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/24/16156.html]. Since July, I have been detained at the city detention center, laboring over 10 hours a day. The police beat me by if I do not complete my work quota.
In 2002, the police station charged me with "disturbing social order" and sentenced me to three years in a forced labor camp. I refused to sign the sentencing documents, and they signed it on my behalf, in order to execute it against my will. They detained me in Tangshan City's Hehuakeng Forced Labor Camp, where Falun Gong practitioners received further persecution. Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted in many ways if they do not give up cultivation. Some examples are as follows:
(Clearwisdom.net)
I am 52 years old. Simply because I practice Falun Gong, I was illegally sentenced to one year of forced labor education at Liaoyuan Labor Camp. While under a great deal of pressure and in excruciating pain, I was forced to write a "repentance statement" against my will, agreeing to not practice the exercises while in the labor camp. About one month later, I once again became clearheaded and wrote a "solemn declaration." I announced that all the statements I signed while under persecution and that were against Falun Dafa are now null and void, and that I would continue to firmly practice Falun Dafa. After this, the police treated me even more harshly. The director of the "education branch," whose name is Kong, called another practitioner named Zhao Yan, and myself to his office.
First he beat us with his fist, used the electric shock baton on us, and then fiercely kicked us. He verbally abused us all the while, and the torture lasted for over an hour. Another director named Hou was in the room at the time. In the afternoon, Zhao Yan and myself were summoned to the office of the "education branch" again. At that time director Kong, Hou, and another policeman were in the room. After Hou admonished us, Kong shocked my face and head with the electric baton , causing my mouth to bleed. He continued to kick my body with his boots and strike my stomach with his knee. He smashed my head with his elbow many times, causing me to feel dizzy. He did this until he was tired and then went off to bed.
On the morning of April 6th, the policemen of the third branch called me to their room. The leader's name was Han and there were about five or six others in the room. I saw that Zhao Yan was being tortured on the side. Han forced me to take off my jacket and trousers, which only left me wearing an undershirt and underpants. He then forced me to bend over with my hands holding the desk. Han grasped the whip with his two hands, and lashed it hard against my body. I endured only 5 blows before I fell to the ground, feeling excruciating pain. A bloody cut appeared after each lashing, and he lashed me a total of 15 times. The most agonizing lash was one against my neck. I was stunned at once when it struck me. Later, they even locked me up in the iron cage of the guardhouse, feeding me only two meals a day that consisted of half a piece of corn bread and a few small pickles. After three days of this, I could only lay on my stomach to sleep, but could not turn my body.
(Clearwisdom.net)
Ms. Sun Fengxin is 32, living in Zhenxi Village, Kangping Town, of Kangping County in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province.
Sun Fengxin went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa in October 1999, and was illegally arrested by police officers outside the door of the Appeals Office. She was then sent to the Longshan Brainwashing Center. Her strong belief was unwavering, as she refused to write or sign any statements against Dafa, and she persisted in practicing the exercises and reciting the Fa. The police used electric batons to shock her mouth, face, and all over her body, but she was still determined in her practice. The police officers then ran out of ways to torture her and asked the local police station to take her back. Sun was tortured for another ten days, and then the authorities attempted to force her to write a guarantee statement promising to give up her practice of Dafa. She firmly refused. The police officers called her family and friends to place pressure on her, but Ms. Sun remained determined in cultivation. Finally, she was released unconditionally and permitted to return home.
On December 29, 2000, the police department abducted Sun Fengxin while she was putting up banners to clarify the truth. In order to find out where the truth-clarifying materials came from, the police tied her to a bed, covered her mouth, and brutally beat and shocked her for over 8 hours, but Sun was determined to protect the other practitioners' identities. The people hired to beat her up received bonuses from the police station and went to restaurants after they were finished beating practitioners.
In 2001 the local police station sent Sun Fengxin to the Fangjialan Detention Center, where she was illegally detained for 55 days. On February 27, she was sent to the Longshan Labor Camp in Shenyang City for a sentence of 3 years.
Inside Longshan Labor Camp, the criminals were often forced to read out loud materials cursing Dafa. Sun Fengxin firmly refused to read the materials. After the criminals reported her, she was brutally beaten, and she was forced to squat for an entire hour as punishment. Despite the intense pressure from the Longshan Labor Camp, Sun Fengxin continued to practice Dafa and expose the Jiang regime's lies.
Since March 18, 2001, the Longshan Labor Camp has conducted an intensive brainwashing program. Sun was forced to squat on the floor, where she was kicked and beaten, not allowed to sleep overnight, stabbed in the knees with sharp objects and not allowed to eat or given only one quarter of the normal rations. Later on, they tied her under the bed for several consecutive days and nights. Sometimes they would force her to stand up straight continuously for long periods of time until her legs became swollen, and she felt very lightheaded. Her health became quite precarious, but the police refused to release her. Instead they refused to let her sleep and forced her to rest on hard chairs. They subjected her to the "Airplane" torture technique, forcing her head down and her arms high into the air. When Sun could no longer walk to the toilet, she had to crawl. Presently Sun Fengxin is still being detained and subjected to torture.
2003-4-19
(Clearwisdom.net April 16 report)
In mid March, Liaoyuan City Forced Labor Camp in Jilin Province made a false report that all detained Falun Gong practitioners had given up practicing Falun Gong and the rate of transformation was a hundred percent. This is completely false and a total fabrication. In gross misrepresentation, they call the cruel violence they delivered such as beating, electric shock, corporal punishment and sleep deprivation used to force Falun Gong practitioners give up their beliefs as "influencing, educating and rehabilitating."
Since May 2000, the Falun Gong practitioners detained in Liaoyuan Forced Labor Camp have been persecuted to varying degrees. The people in charge who execute the orders violated the law, conducting frenzied violence on kind Falun Gong practitioners, attempting to force practitioners to give up their belief. They stripped off practitioners' clothes, used heavy sticks, boards, rope, plastic hoses, metal pipe, wire cable, electric batons and other weapons to brutally torture Falun Gong practitioners who don't hit back while being beating or cursed. Liaoyuan City Forced Labor Camp has caused at least one death by torture and several serious injuries. (See example No. 4)
1. In May 2000, all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners had to work all day and were tortured by guards at night. Some were beaten, some received corporal punishment, and some were deprived of sleep for the whole night. Qu Hongkui became handicapped from beatings to his right knee.
2. Liu Jingrong in Unit 3 was tortured badly. Exhausted after doing labor all day, at night, the guards still forced him to lie on the cement floor of the corridor with his face down, and ordered the prisoners on duty sit on his emaciated body till dawn.
3. Zhang Weixi in Unit 1, Liu Fuan and Qu Hongkui in Unit 4 dug ditches all day and were tied up at night.
4. In June 2000, eleven Falun Gong practitioners were collected in the intensive unit. To prevent them from practicing, at night, guards either forced practitioners to bow (the corporal punishment called "Flying Swallow"), beat them with boards and hoses, or tied them on the heating pipes, bars on the windows or doorframes. Liu Jiankun was very weak from torture, but was still beaten until he had two broken ribs. They continued to force him to work during the day, and he was eventually tortured to death.
5. In September, eight practitioners who firmly adhered to their beliefs were to be released soon, but the guards resumed the brutal torture against these practitioners. Later that month, they used metal pipes to frenziedly beat these eight practitioners from 8:30am to 11am. Some practitioners were injured, some became handicapped, some passed out on the floor and some were locked in iron cages.
6. At the end of September, they started another round of intense persecution. Zhang Weixi's head was beaten until his face swelled up and was unrecognizable. He could not stand or sit, and could hardly bear the pain in his chest. Hospital examination revealed that he had several broken ribs. Qu Hongkui's right middle finger bled continuously after the fingernail was smashed off after being beaten with a metal pipe. His jawbone was dislocated, making it very difficult for him to eat. Liu Ruisheng, Zhang Chunzhi and others were shocked with electric batons until they were covered with injuries. Zhang Weixi, Liu Ruisheng, Liu Fuan, Li Changshan and others were still being illegally detained beyond their terms of one to three months.
7. In the beginning of March 2001, the directors and guards repeated this abuse against seven Falun Gong practitioners who firmly adhered to their beliefs. They took Liu Qinghua and other practitioners' clothes off, hit them on the back with wooden boards, and violently shocked them with electric batons. Liu Qinghua was badly injured from the shock treatment.
8. In the first ten days of April, the guards used ropes, cables, electric batons and other weapons to brutally beat six practitioners, including Yin Hongjiang, Zhang Yongjiu, and Liu Quanxing, simply because they declared their will to firmly practice Dafa. Zhang Yongjiu lost consciousness several times during the beatings and was then locked in the iron cage.
Later, the guards sent those practitioners who firmly adhered to their beliefs to Changtu County, Liaoning Province for forced labor.
At the end of March, several Falun Gong practitioners were secretly abducted to Liaoyuan Forced Labor Camp from Jilin City. Under the ongoing violation of human rights practiced in Liaoyuan Forced Labor Camp, their fates are even bleaker . We call on all kind people to expose the atrocities conducted in Liaoyuan Forced Labor Camp and stop the killing of kind people. We hope that people will give their attention to those Falun Gong practitioners who are being illegally detained.
(Clearwisdom.net)
On the night of December 30, 2002, the Deputy Superintendent of Shuangta and Linghe Police Department, Liu Guozheng, along with two policemen, kidnapped Dafa practitioner Wu Rongjia from Zhaoyang City, Liaoning Province at the entrance of a Dafa practitioner's apartment. They held Wu at Linghe Police Station overnight with both of his hands handcuffed to a chair. The next day, they handcuffed Rongjie's hands together and hung him with his hands suspended over his head for the whole day. Rongjie was very firm and did not give in. Around five o'clock in the evening, he was sent to the No. 1 Detention Center in Wujiawa.
On January 18, 2003, Zhaoyang City Dafa practitioners Meng Qingxiang and Zhang Cuihua went to Jianping County to clarify the truth. They were followed by police and detained in Yebaishou Town. They were inhumanly tortured at the Yebaishou Detention Center. On January 28th, the National Security Unit of Jianping County Police Branch Office sent both practitioners back to the First Detention Center in Zhaoyang City, where they were prosecuted by the Shuangta Judicial Office.
On January 22, 2003, near the Jinyuan market in Zhaoyang City, a few policemen from the National Security Unit of Shuangta Police Station detained Dafa practitioner Yan Xuguang. After being inhumanly tortured by the Shuangta District National Security Unit, he was imprisoned and persecuted at Xidayingzi Forced Labor Camp in Zhaoyang City.
Listing of responsible police officers and government officials in Zhaoyang City:
Shuangta District Police Department Branch Office Superintendent: Zhang Wenhua
Shuangta District Police Department Branch Office Deputy Superintendent: Zhang Zhiru
Shuangta District Police Department Branch Office National Security Unit Captain: Bai Wenyou
Shuangta District Police Department Branch Office National Security Unit Deputy Captain: Hou Wen
Shuangta District Judicial Office Prosecuting Division: Liu Fei
Shuangta District "610 Office"*: Qin, Wang Fucun
Long Cheng Police Department National Security Unit Captain: Huang Dianxiang, Sun Dexu
*The "610 Office" is a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to
persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well
as over the political and judiciary branches.
4/20/2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
Supervisor of the First Unit of the Public Security Bureau, Fushun City: Hao Jianguang
Policemen of the First Unit of the Public Security Bureau, Fushun City: Guan Lei, Zhang Tao and Xu Changqing
Policemen Guan Lei, Zhang Tao and Xu Changqing have directly persecuted Dafa practitioners.
Based on the latest news, Dafa practitioner Ms. Li Ying was taken away by four policemen of the First Unit of the Public Security Bureau in Fushun City at around noon on March 31, 2003. She was beaten to death at around 2 p.m. on April 2, 2003. Policemen Guan Lei, Zhang Tao and Xu Changqing are the major suspects in this brutal murder. Hao Jianguang, as the supervisor of the First Unit of the Public Security Bureau, also must bear responsibility for the death of Li Ying.
Original article date: 4/16/2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
After July 20, 1999, when Jiang's regime announced the ban of Falun Dafa, Dafa practitioners all over the country went to Beijing to appeal, one after another. In mid-August I arrived in Beijing too, and prepared to go to appeal on Tiananmen Square. Having the feeling that I might be arrested, I left everything but a Dafa book in the home of a fellow practitioner in Beijing. We reached Tiananmen Square just after 6:00 a.m. There were many Dafa practitioners gathered there, and we distributed Teacher's articles to them. At that moment some practitioners urged me to leave. A little while later, police there started to search people's handbags. I left but was stopped by a policeman as I was crossing a nearby underground passage. He searched through my bag, found a copy of "Hong Yin", and asked me, "How long have you cultivated?" "Three years," I answered. Then I was brought to some holding cells at Qianmen, where more than 20 other practitioners and I were detained, together with some mental patients.
Two of us were taken out and beaten by policemen. For two days we were denied food. One evening we were picked up by police from our home province's liaison office in Beijing. Along the way, one female practitioner jumped from the vehicle and escaped, and the rest of us were brought to a small house near the province's liaison office in Beijing. In one room, over 20 practitioners were imprisoned, sitting on the damp, cold floor.
That night we were piled into a bus. They took away our shoes and pressed some practitioners down on the bus floor. After the bus arrived in my hometown, four of us were transferred to the local police station. By noon, there was only one police officer watching us, and the three of us female practitioners wanted to escape. At that moment the one policeman happened to be picking up a phone call, so one female practitioner opened a window and jumped out. Seeing that one of us escaped, the policeman jumped out of the window to pursue her. The policemen who came for the male practitioner also rushed out in pursuit. I told another female practitioner to go immediately. She jumped out of a window and I jumped out of another window in the corridor. I shut the window after jumping out and ran to a wall that had one side piled with cement bags. I climbed to the top of the cement bag pile and climbed over a 2-meter-high wall. Amazingly I was unhurt from jumping down from the wall.
The weather was hot, and walking made me breathless. In a small shop I bought bread and a bottle of water, and bought an old bicycle from the owner. It was 4:00 a.m.
It became darker and darker, and there were no vehicles or people along the way. Loneliness welled up in my heart; I so wanted to be together with fellow practitioners. I was exhausted and starved, so I stopped to take a rest by the roadside. I lost the bread and water on the way, and had to sleep on the ground. The ground in Northeast China in early autumn is quite cold. I was chilled all over and had to sleep on some garbage bags. I was awakened by the cold after a little while, and I got on my bicycle to continue the journey.
I was quite cold, wearing only short sleeves and a skirt. Finally, I was told the way to Beijing and headed in that direction. Later I found a shop, where I bought some trousers and a vest. At that time I had only 10 Yuan left, but there was still over 300 miles to travel.
I found a plastic cover on the way, and slept on it when I was tired. When I woke up, my wrist and buttocks were so painful -- too painful to sit down. I bore the pain and continued the journey. To validate Dafa, I would advance without fear and endure any hardship.
After riding nearly 190 miles, I hitchhiked a ride on a vehicle by making up an excuse. I felt uneasy for not telling them the truth. I apologized to them and told them that I was a Falun Gong practitioner and was being pursued by the police. To my surprise, they said: "Why didn't you tell us at the beginning? If you are Falun Gong practitioner, we are very happy to take you. It is nice to meet a kind Falun Gong practitioner." On the way I talked with them about Dafa. The second morning I returned to Beijing.
After reading Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference, and reflecting on the journey of Fa-rectification during the past few years, I have seen what I did well, and what I didn't do well in the earlier period. When comparing with the Fa, it is easy to examine our past experiences, and this helps us do well in denying the old forces in the future. We have come this far on the journey. With Teacher and the Fa, I believe we will be able to do everything with firmer and purer hearts on the path ahead.
(Clearwisdom.net)
I'm a college student. When I was 12 years old my mother was hospitalized with a heart ailment. After paying more than 30,000 Yuan* to prominent doctors and specialists, the problem actually worsened. Two months after someone introduced the book Zhuan Falun to my mom, she started to learn Falun Gong. Her heart disease was cured, along with more than 10 other diseases such as high blood pressure, gastritis, and nephritis, all miraculously cured. The most amazing thing was her full head of white hair changed to black. So I knew Dafa was not ordinary. I started to practice Dafa together with my mom. My family's worries were gone, and happiness and joy were with us.
On July 20, 1999, Jiang's regime began to persecute Falun Gong. My family has endured much suffering. Mom was detained six times for her belief in Falun Dafa. My family's home has been searched and items confiscated four times. My family has paid more than 37,000 Yuan through extortion and salary deductions. Police have come to harass my family more than 40 times. We are only a few out of the 100 million practitioners in China who have experienced the persecution.
During this trial of righteousness and evil, I have gone to Beijing three times to validate Dafa, and have stepped onto Tiananmen Square twice.
The first time was on April 25, 1999. We appealed for the release of 45 practitioners who were illegally detained in Tianjin City. Between 4:40 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. that day, practitioners on the west side saw many Falun's of different sizes and colors appear in the sky. Some were as big as an umbrella and some were as small as a ping-pong ball. They were flying and dancing in the sky. The scene lasted more than 20 minutes. Some fellow practitioners were doing Heshi [pressing the hands together in front of the chest] and some were moved to tears. Even the police and pedestrians kept saying, "Quick, look there! Quick, look there." After hearing that the detained practitioners had been released, we left at 9 p.m. and returned home the same day.
The second time was on New Year's Day, 2001. We came to Tiananmen Square in the morning. The first thing we saw was a huge red Dafa banner, nearly 100 meters long. The policemen spent a long time trying to seize it. In the end they cut it up, piece by piece. That morning, countless practitioners had been taken away. An old man in a wheelchair came into the square from the southwest calling out loudly, "Falun Dafa is good." Immediately following was a father carrying a 3- or 4-year-old boy and holding a banner that said, "Clear our Master's name" over his head. Sometimes, at the same spot, three or four people would call out at the same time, "Falun Dafa is good," and "Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa." Sometimes, at different spots, several colorful banners would be unfurled at the same time. An older woman with a full head of white hair called out, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance teaches people to be kind. Master is here to save people. The persecution is wrong." She kept calling out even after she was put into the police van. I saw young practitioners running around the square while holding the banners and calling out, "Falun Dafa is good." I saw elderly practitioners beaten by police, even before taking out their banners, their heads bloodied. A six- or seven-year-old girl in a police van called out "Falun Dafa is good" along with the other practitioners in the van. Although many plainclothes police were spread around the square, the banners and statements arose one after another. In the afternoon, a 100-meter-long banner was unfurled. I saw clearly the mighty power of the Fa and I felt proud for the magnificent feats of the fellow practitioners.
On July 20, 2001, I went with a fellow practitioner who was a year older than me to Beijing to validate Dafa. Just stepping onto the square, we saw many police officers both walking around and standing at assigned posts. Some patrolled around the square repeatedly. Many plainclothes police were hidden at the corners and looked around like some kind of predator. They did not frighten us, however. We started to place truth-clarifying signs around the square quietly while reciting the verse of Fa-rectification in our minds. Suddenly there were many people gathering at the center of the square. We went there to check. Five or six police were pushing around a practitioner about 20 years old. They still held the banner taken from the practitioner. The practitioner was calm, and talked to the police loudly and sternly. "Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa. I am a practitioner. What you do is against the constitution, is a violation of human rights and breaking the law." These police were very uneasy and hastily pushed her into the police van. Through the window of the van, I saw that they pushed her down, and then proceeded to punch and kick her. I was shocked. They even treated a gentle young woman so ruthlessly.
A few minutes later, another practitioner, who looked like a college student, came forward, and then another. They were all forcibly pushed into the police van. At that moment, I couldn't hold back my tears. I was proud of their magnificent feats. I also felt agonized for the current situation in China. I suddenly realized why all these great practitioners wanted to take action. They were risking their lives to try to awaken people. The righteousness of the fellow practitioners encouraged me. I finished hanging all 50 signs I had brought with me. As I put a sign on one pole of Tiananmen Building, a police officer saw me. I was not scared. While sending forth strong righteous thoughts to keep him immobile, I continued to do what I had come to do. That officer indeed did not move toward me.
In order to awaken and save more sentient beings that were deceived by the regime's lies, I tried to make more truth-clarifying materials . I would only spend 17--60 Yuan out of 100 Yuan for food. I thought to myself that no matter how hard it is, I'm not suffering as much as those practitioners in jail. I had saved about 2,000 Yuan during the past several years, and all of it was used for truth-clarifying materials to expose the evil and to stop the persecution. I mailed the materials to different government branches, including the police departments, academic institutions, "610 Offices"* and police, as well as to ordinary people. One day the Section Chief of the Political and Security Department came to the college, and asked the dean for my notebook in order to check my handwriting. The dean asked me whether I mailed the truth-clarifying materials to the police departments, and told me that they came to check me. I told the dean, "I want to tell them about the Fa so that they will stop doing things that bring damage to others as well as themselves." The dean was scared and said, "It can bring trouble." He took the notebook of another practitioner for the police to check the handwriting.
With my limited ability, I'm doing my best to validate the mighty power of the Fa.
* Yuan: Chinese currency. 500 Yuan is the average monthly income in urban areas of China.
* "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 18, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net) I am a 12-year-old sixth grade student. When I was in first grade, I suffered from inflamed kidneys and went to two hospitals for treatment, but neither of them could help me. In the end, I went to a hospital in Beijing. This cost my parents over 10,000 Yuan, but they could not help me. I was diagnosed with chronic nephritis. My mother cried in distress, but her elder sister comforted her by saying, "Don't cry, it's no use crying, we need to have this child practice Falun Gong." So I started my cultivation of Falun Dafa.
I was on a one-term sick leave. During this time, I went with my grandma to the practice site. When someone read Zhuan Falun, I read along in a low voice. Soon after, something amazing happened, as I was able to read the whole book. At the same time, Teacher cleaned up my body. I could tell because I was sweating non-stop, and my health kept improving. Very soon I recovered. My grandpa was still concerned about my health and took me to the hospital for a check up. The results showed that I was fine.
On July 20th, 1999, they banned Falun Gong. We were not allowed to do the exercises and study the Fa. Even though I was still young, I knew that Dafa and our benevolent Teacher saved me. When I heard that my grandma and my sister were going to the appeals office, I asked my grandma why they were going there. My grandma answered, "We are going there just to say some words of truth, which is, Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa." I said, "I want to go to the appeal office to say Falun Dafa is good, too." So the three of us headed for Beijing. Unexpectedly, when we arrived at the Beijing railway station, there were police everywhere. We weren't allowed to get out of the station; I was so disappointed.
Our school's teachers were ordered to organize students to sign their names to denounce Dafa. I refused. I know that Teacher teaches Dafa practitioners to comply with "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," to be kind to others, to think about others first, and to be good people. There is nothing wrong with that. I will follow our Teacher closely, keep up with Fa rectification, and continue my cultivation with no regrets.
Originally posted on April 18, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net)
A few days ago a fellow practitioner told me this story that had happened to her family:
Before the Chinese New Year, my husband's brother suddenly became ill. When the hospital diagnosed him as having cancer, the whole family went into chaos. During the Chinese New Year holidays every family member worried about his illness. After the Chinese New Year, the hospital notified his family that he was in the final stage of cancer; he could not be expected to live more than two months. No one in the family could figure out what to do, other than feeling sorry and sad for him.
Because I insisted on practicing Falun Gong, I had been arrested and detained several times after I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. My husband's sisters all pleaded with me to give up my practice. I told them I would never do so. Due to the Jiang regime's slander and lies, they were very angry with me for not giving up my practice. Now my family was suffering with this terrible news; could I use this opportunity to tell them about the facts?
I went to the hospital and told my ailing brother-in-law, "My little brother, with the critical condition that you are in, no medical treatment can save your life. Only my Teacher can save you. If you truly believe in it, you better start reading this book, Zhuan Falun, right now. This is a book from heaven. This can save your life." My little brother took the book and held it in his hands, he said in tears, "I will, I will for sure read this book with all my heart."
After just a few days my little brother was discharged from the hospital. I went to visit him and he looked healthy with rosy cheeks, completely devoid of symptoms of illness. His wife told me, "Ever since you gave him Zhuan Falun he kept on reading it day and night. His condition improved and he no longer felt sick." My little brother cried to me, "It is Teacher and Dafa who saved my life. Sister, please teach me the exercises. I did not understand about practitioners before, but now that I have personally experienced the wonder of Dafa, I want to become a practitioner, too."
Now the two months have passed. Not only did my little brother not die, he has become healthier with each passing day. The whole family, relatives and friends witnessed his transformation, and they are all astounded by the miracle of Dafa. Some of them have started reading Dafa books, some have asked for Dafa information and VCDs so that they can also learn the truth of Dafa.
 |
| EUGENE HOSHIKO/AP A nurse wears a protective mask at Shanghai's No. 6 People's Hospital |
As panic about SARS spreads in hard-hit Beijing and throughout China's underdeveloped interior, Shanghai has so far appeared strangely untouched by the mystery virus. Local health officials in Shanghai on Thursday reported only two confirmed cases and 16 suspected cases, of which two are foreigners. In contrast, Beijing has reported more than 750 confirmed SARS cases. Wary that foreign investment might flee Shanghai the way it has from Hong Kong, central government officials early this week sent a directive to Shanghai municipal authorities asking city officials to continue promoting what has been touted as essentially a "SARS-free city," a vice-mayoral aide told TIME.
But is Shanghai really in the clear? Doctors in this city of 16 million have begun voicing doubts about the veracity of the government figures. Local medical staff also allege that World Health Organization experts, who are concluding a monitoring trip to Shanghai, are being shown what one doctor at the No. 6 People's Hospital describes as "a sanitized version of Shanghai's SARS problem." A doctor at the Shanghai Contagious Diseases Hospital told TIME that there are more than 30 suspected cases have been admitted to their hospital's facilities, nearly double the official suspected caseload for the whole city. He and other doctors also say that Shanghai's requirements for diagnosing SARS are much more stringent than elsewhere in the world and that if the standards used in, say, Hong Kong were applied in Shanghai, many of the suspected caseload would be shifted to confirmed cases.
At the Huashan Hospital in a leafy district of Shanghai, doctors and nurses confirmed there were seven suspected cases at their hospital, although the hospital's official press liaison says they currently have none. The patients are being kept in a makeshift isolation ward housed in a dilapidated building formerly used for hepatitis patients. Doctors and nurses were not wearing full isolation suits; many were simply wearing four or five simple surgical masks over each other. But on Wednesday, security guards waiting for possible WHO visitors were ushering foreigners to a fancy high-rise building nearby. On the 15th floor of this building, medical staff in isolation suits greeted visitors, while other staff conspicuously sprayed disinfectant around the ward. There were several newly made signs in English pointing out the "respiratory clinic" and other facilities. No such sprucing-up measures, however, had been taken at the makeshift ward where patients were actually being kept.
Meanwhile, at the No. 6 People's Hospital, director He Mengqiao formally denied that there were any suspected cases there, instead maintaining that the hospital was merely a "monitoring station." Yet just 10 minutes earlier, another doctor who mistakenly assumed a reporter was affiliated with the WHO, showed X-rays of a 14-year-old patient suspected of having the disease. He said that other students at the patient's school in Xuhui district were also running fevers and were being monitored.
Also on Wednesday, top Shanghai Communist Party officials met with local official media to discuss the city's SARS situation. The meeting was classified as "neibu," or internal, meaning that the information would not be disseminated to the public. Officials told the gathered media that Shanghai would not escape the SARS epidemic, despite previous public assurances to the contrary. The party cadres also said that the WHO had told them that the U.N. agency did not believe the government figures of only two confirmed cases. Large-scale events in the city were to be cancelled, and Shanghai's much-vaunted auto exhibition was closed early after rumors that SARS-positive patients had visited the show. The media were instructed to ramp up a SARS public education campaign, so city residents would know how to prevent the spread of the virus.
But party officials then cautioned that "Shanghai's SARS caseload was still a state secret," according to one journalist who attended the meeting. The state media was not to report any SARS statistics higher than the government-sanctioned figures, nor were Shanghai journalists allowed to interview any SARS patients or their families. "Readers are going to be very confused," complained the journalist. "On the one hand, we tell them there are almost no cases in Shanghai. On the other hand, we tell them that they must be very vigilant in avoiding the disease. But if Shanghai has barely any cases, why does the public need to be worried about SARS?"
http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/daily/0,9754,446260,00.html
NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - The deadly flu-like disease SARS could be "China's Chernobyl," a disaster leading to more political openness in the Communist country, two former U.S. ambassadors to China said on Friday.
Former envoys Winston Lord and J. Stapleton Roy, speaking at the annual meeting of the prominent Chinese-American group "Committee of 100," compared the ongoing SARS crisis to that faced by the Soviet Union almost exactly 17 years earlier, on April 26, 1986, the date of the world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine.
"I hope it will be China's Chernobyl," Lord said, referring to some analysts' views that the nuclear accident led to reforms in the secretive Communist system and contributed to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.
Soviet era documents released this week before the 17th anniversary of the catastrophe showed the Soviet secret police knew the plant was dangerous long before the disaster.
"SARS showed that the Chinese political system has got to catch up with the technology," Lord said. "In the age of the Internet and cell phones that it could keep this sickness secret from the Chinese people and ultimately the world ... the Chinese ought to get on top of this and change that system.
"It's going to cost them diplomatically and economically. I say this as a friend of China who continues to work for good relations but I believe in being candid," said Lord, who was ambassador to Beijing just before the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of students demonstrating for political reforms.
"I agree with Win Lord's comment that he hopes it is China's Chernobyl in the sense that it sends a very clear message that they have to be more transparent," Roy said.
The World Health Organization and other groups have accused China of concealing the severity of the SARS outbreak, robbing them of the opportunity to investigate it early and prevent it spreading across China and to other countries.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a respiratory infection with a mortality rate of about six percent, has killed at least 276 people and infected about 4,800 in 25 countries, hitting Asia particularly hard.
Some five million people were exposed to radiation or otherwise affected when a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl burst into flames, killing more than 4,000 people involved in the cleanup and sickening or disabling another 40,000.
The Chinese health minister and mayor of Beijing were fired on Sunday over the cover-up of the SARS epidemic.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25334425.htm
(Clearwisdom.net) According to Hong Kong's Chinese language Apple Daily newspaper, with the spread of rumor that the city would be closed, there appeared a sudden exodus from Beijing. People from outside Beijing who used to try everything to stay in Beijing, are now trying to flee from it. Migrant workers and university students flocked to train and bus stations and airports in the hope of getting out of Beijing. There also appeared a panic buying of rice and oil at supermarkets in Beijing.
A sea of people heading for Beijing Railway Station (AFP)
It is rumored that the city would be closed, migrant workers and university students flee back to their hometown
With the threat that SARS cases are increasing by more than 100 per day, Beijing looks as if it is under siege. Supermarkets are filled with citizens who are in a panic to buy rice and oil. Railway stations are crowded with migrant workers and university students in white surgical masks. The media kept announcing which buildings and trains are being infected. The Beijing authorities finally cancelled classes for Beijing
's 1.7 million students from primary and secondary schools for two weeks.The internal memorandum of the Beijing authorities listed extremely dangerous areas, including 14 hospitals, and railway stations including Sanlitun, Yonganli, Fuchengmen and Dongzhimen. Places such as university campuses, East Square, Zhongguancun Building and the Business Bureau are listed as places with a high risk of SARS infection.
SARS epidemic is in a growth stage
The Guangdong Province Disease Control and Prevention expert team leader Mr. Zhong Nanshan, who is attending a meeting in Beijing, said that from the outbreak of the SARS to its final suppression might need three months. Beijing is now at the growth stage. In other words, it will take at least several months before the number of SARS cases declines.
Beijing
's Ministry of Education declared yesterday that all schools in the city would suspend classes for two weeks from today until May 7. 1.7 million school students are affected by the cancellation of classes.A sea of passengers in white masks thronged yesterday in Beijing Railway Station. A migrant worker from Henan Province, Deng Pao, said, "I'm going home because I'm scared of getting sick." He said that he had been in Beijing for two months and had a good job, but it was not worth it if he was infected with SARS. Many passengers would rather wait outside than linger in enclosed waiting rooms. A 20-year-old university student Cao Shu, who was waiting for the train home, said that his train would not leave for another six hours, but he did not want to wait inside.
Classrooms at universities are almost vacant
Over a dozen universities have been discovered as being infected with SARS. Many of them have cancelled classes. Nine out of ten classrooms are left vacant at universities that still have some classes in session. A university student from Central Finance and Economics University said that SARS was discovered on campus on April 10, but the school authorities hid the news from students. On April 17, "The entire teaching building and dormitories have been vacant, most students have left. Many dormitories are in a big mess, there's paper all over the ground."
Along with the exodus, the virus may be spreading to other places. Provinces such as Jiangsu, Hubei, Qinghai and Gansu are urgently looking for people who have been on the same trains or flights with SARS patients.
Panic-buying of basic goods in Beijing
The Beijing government yesterday denied the rumor about "closing the city to prevent the epidemic," but another rumor was being circulated that martial law would be enforced that day. A large number of Beijing citizens rushed to supermarkets to buy rice, oil, salt, vinegar and other daily necessities.
Several supermarkets downtown and in the suburbs have sold out of rice. Some shops increased the price of rice, but citizens kept buying. A citizen said, "Even though I'm not worried about closing the city, I don't go out very often right now. I'll stay home for longer periods of time, so that's why I'm buying such large quantities of daily necessities."
Other than Guangdong Province and Beijing, a rumor is spreading that Taiyuan City will soon be closed. The same panic buying of basic goods occurred there as well.
Citizens are in a panic as the number of SARS cases soar in Beijing
The Voice of America reported on April 24, SARS cases published in Beijing have been increasing by over 100 people for three consecutive days, causing panic among the citizens.
SARS rumors are flying everywhere, and many citizens are afraid that the SARS epidemic may be out of control. The panic buying of medicine, food and other basic goods have caused the shortage of some daily necessities on the market.
The Beijing government asked for assistance from Commerce Department, requesting ten provinces and cities to guarantee daily necessities such as food and medicine in Beijing. In addition, the authorities have shut down one of the biggest hospitals in Beijing due to SARS.
An official said that Beijing University People's Hospital was closed Thursday morning, but he didn't give details.
SARS has spread to dozens of countries around the world, with 251 deaths and thousands of people infected. China is the worst hit area with 110 deaths and 2,400 cases of infections reported.
 A drugstore in Beijing provides large quantity of Chinese traditional medicine claimed to be able to prevent SARS (AFP photo). |
(Clearwisdom.net) The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) continues to spread in China. The Chinese government dispatched teams to Ningxia Province, Inner Mongolia and other places to supervise the prevention and treatment of SARS. Meanwhile, organized tours towards countryside and hinterland are prohibited.
According to report from BBC on April 22, 157 new cases were reported officially in China, increasing the total of confirmed SARS cases to 2158. Ninety-seven people have died. In addition, there are more than 900 probable cases. Most of the new cases occurred in Beijing area.
At present, only seven among the 31 provinces in China temporarily have no cases found.
New Leaders, Tardy Gesture
The way China handled SARS outbreak in the previous period of time drew extensive criticism from the international society. The new Chinese government led by Hu Jintao finally came up with new moves over the weekend.
The President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao started appearing on national TV frequently and stood at the forefront in preventing and treating SARS.
However, other high-ranking officials in the Central Political Bureau appeared to be abnormally quiet. Even Jiang Zemin, who usually enjoys showing up in the media, also sealed his lips. He was still the President of China when SARS broke out.
The appearance of the situation aroused different hypotheses from political analysts. Some considered that the group of Jiang Zemin might "draw back" and wait for others to make mistakes and then seize the opportunity for political gain. The Mayor of Beijing Meng Xuenong was removed from his Party post as an example.
Potential Crisis in Rural Area
The Chinese government announced the dispatching of medical teams to Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Guangdong Province, where SARS was believed to have initially broken out. The Chinese Prime Minister and government officials of lower levels continued to emphasize the severity of the epidemic and demanded local officials truthfully and accurately report the situation.
Many Chinese people still don't feel that the government officials have started telling the truth and are very indignant.
One opinion holds that SARS is not only an infection on the verge of being out of control, but is also a political crisis, which may cause far-reaching effects on the relationship between the government and the common people.
BBC China correspondent Ma Qinglong said that it became clearer and clearer that the most serious threat caused by SARS outbreak might appear in the poor rural area, where medical facilities and funds were severely in short supply and the people usually didn't have money to go to hospital to receive necessary medical treatment.
The Chinese government said that a 100 million US dollar special fund was allocated to ensure that SARS patients receive medical treatment. Qilu Evening Paper in Shandong Province reported that the Qingdao City offered a 1000-Yuan reward to the first individual or hospital that discovered a SARS case in Qingdao, so as to prevent the spread of the virus.
At Lingkou Town Middle School in Luoyang County, Shaanxi Province, hundreds of students were ill after taking some Chinese medicine claimed to be able to prevent SARS.
World Health Organization experts continued to visit Shanghai to investigate the prevention work against SARS.
Hong Kong Becomes to Be an Empty Ghost Town
Shenzhen, a city located in the Guangdong Province, started on Wednesday to install temperature checking systems at the transit pass between Shenzhen and Hong Kong to check people coming and going. Shenzhen will install similar instruments at the airport and harbors.
The Hong Kong government reported five new death cases on Tuesday. The death toll in Hong Kong increased to 99, and the number of infected cases became 1434.
While people are trying to avoid traveling or going out for fear of being infected by the SARS virus, the outbreak of SARS is bringing tremendous losses to China's economy.
BBC Beijing Correspondent Williams reported that China's economy is undergoing a huge attack from the SARS outbreak. In many shops, restaurants and hotels in Beijing, visitors are quite scarce. Some local Hong Kong residents said that Hong Kong has become an empty ghost town.
China cancelled the one-week May First holiday to prevent people from traveling and causing even broader spread of SARS. The State Department issued orders on Monday to local areas to still have the 5-day holiday.
(Clearwisdom.net) The placebo (from Latin "I will please") effect is a phenomenon that patients feel better after they've been treated with control pills (e.g. sugar pills). This phenomenon has been observed throughout the field of medicine and few physicians would challenge it.1-5 Recently, a study finds that common knee surgery is no better than placebo.6 The nocebo (from Latin "I will harm") effect is the opposite of the placebo effect, and this phenomenon suggests negative expectation can affect subjects negatively.7-10 The placebo/nocebo effect indicates that the human mind can play an important role in shaping a patient's response to illness and medical treatments. The nocebo effect creates negative expectations about symptoms and can have devastating influence on patient recovery. Just as the placebo effect works by making patients believe they will get better, the nocebo effect can serve to make patients worse and even cause death.9 In one experiment, asthmatic patients breathed in a vapor that researchers told them was a chemical irritant or allergen. Nearly half of the patients experienced breathing problems, with a dozen developing full-blown attacks. When subjects were "treated" with a substance they believed to be a bronchodilating medicine, and recovered immediately. In actuality, both the "irritant" and the "medicine" were a nebulized saltwater solution. The bronchial constriction was caused - or cured by the patients' expectations alone.11 The nocebo test is so unethical that very little research has been done in the medical history, because it severely violates the fundamental ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence (do no harm).12
Therefore, the placebo effect cannot be separated from pharmacological benefits either since the patients' mind in a drug treatment group can also affect the patients' response to medical treatment. As a matter of fact, the placebo effect also plays an important role in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and it is impossible to rule out the placebo effect in the subjects who had positive response to CAM, such as Qigong, Yoga, musical therapies, meditation, and many other alternative therapeutic methods. Only when the nocebo effect is taken into account during a clinical trial, can the therapeutical effectiveness of a drug or any other treatments be confirmed. However, ethics and legitimacy challenge the use of nocebo test in clinical trials since the nocebo effect may be responsible for substantial variety of pathology throughout the world .13
It has been reported that Falun Gong has great potency in curing disease and keeping fit . We may presume that health-promoting phenotype may not result from the placebo effect (if we may consider Falun Gong practicing in human health as a clinical trial). Since in this "clinical trial," the crackdown on Falun Gong in China might be viewed as a very severe test to examine whether the potency of Falun Gong results from the placebo effect. A comprehensive, vicious suppression of Falun Dafa practitioners has been initiated since 1999. The Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested, beaten, sent to labor camps, sentenced to jail, and all radio stations, television stations, and the press have been used to create negative impression on Falun Gong nationwide and worldwide.14 Since 1999, at least 451 people have died as a result of police torture and brutality since the crackdown. Any potential good consequences that may result from the positive expectation (placebo effect) must have completely vanished in front of such an inhuman and cruel nocebo effect. Yet, in spite of the nocebo effect from the crackdown on Falun Gong, and in spite of initial negative thoughts and doubts among some Falun Gong practitioners and most have continued to practice their believing and have attained astonishing health promoting benefits in the process.14,15
If we consider the effects of Falun Gong practice on human health, we would also conclude that, a) the Falun Gong's positive effects on human health has exceed many modalities used today in clinical practice, and b), as a clinical trial, it is the only study that has passed the most inhuman and stringent nocebo test. This is an outstanding result in medical history in light of the fact that 90% of clinical trials fail to show benefit due to the placebo effect.
Reference:
1. Beecher H. The powerful placebo. JAMA 1955;159:1602-1606.
2. Shapiro AK. Placebo effects in medicine, psychotherapy, and psychoanalysis. In: Bergin A, Garfield S, editors. Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change. New York: Wiley and Sons; 1971.
3. Benson H, Epstein MD. The placebo effect. A neglected asset in the care of patients. Jama 1975;232(12):1225-7.
4. Stefano GB, Fricchione GL, Slingsby BT, Benson H. The placebo effect and relaxation response: neural processes and their coupling to constitutive nitric oxide. Brain Res Brain Res Rev 2001;35(1):1-19.
5. Walsh BT, Seidman SN, Sysko R, Gould M. Placebo response in studies of major depression: variable, substantial, and growing. Jama 2002;287(14):1840-7.
6. Moseley JB, O'Malley K, Petersen NJ, Menke TJ, Brody BA, Kuykendall DH, Hollingsworth JC, Ashton CM, Wray NP. A controlled trial of arthroscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee. N Engl J Med 2002;347(2):81-8.
7. Schweiger A, Parducci A. Nocebo: the psychologic induction of pain. Pavlov J Biol Sci 1981;16(3):140-3.
8. Spiegel H. Nocebo: the power of suggestibility. Prev Med 1997;26(5 Pt 1):616-21.
9. Benson H. The nocebo effect: history and physiology. Prev Med 1997;26(5 Pt 1):612-5.
10. Barsky AJ, Saintfort R, Rogers MP, Borus JF. Nonspecific medication side effects and the nocebo phenomenon. Jama 2002;287(5):622-7.
11. Morse G. The nocebo effect. Hippocrates 1999;13(10):http://www.hippocrates.com/archive/november1999/11departments/11integrative.html.
12. Beauchamp T, Childress J. Principles of biomedical ethics. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 2001.
13. Hahn RA. The nocebo phenomenon: concept, evidence, and implications for public health. Prev Med 1997;26(5 Pt 1):607-11.
14. http://www.clearwisdom.net.
15. http://www.faluninfo.net.
April 25, 2003 Friday Final Edition
By SUSAN MITCHELL
On Jan. 21, 2001 The Guelph Mercury published an article by staff reporter Joanne Shuttleworth of
an Introduction to Falun Gong workshop I conducted at the Bookshelf Cafe. It was a great article
titled "Falun Gong Practitioners Safe Here."
But on the other side of the world two days later, the unthinkable happened in Tiananmen Square in
Beijing, China: five people set themselves on fire (at least, CNN reporters on the scene said there
were five. One week later, the Jiang regime's propaganda machine said there were seven). And the
Jiang regime said they were Falun Gong practitioners, even though killing of any kind is strictly
forbidden by the practice.
On Feb. 6, a couple of weeks later, Philip Pan of the Washington Post filed a comprehensive report
for the world to see. He had traveled to the city of Kaifeng to interview neighbours of the only
person who died on the Square that day. His article finished with the words, "No one ever saw
them practice Falun Gong."
I've kept in touch with my friends in Guelph and I was sent a copy of the letter to the editor from
Tao Liu. He said, "While in China, I heard two stories on the television news," and then
he basically reiterated the Jiang regime's propaganda.
It is a perfect example of how one dictator has poisoned the minds of people around the world
because of his paranoia about maintaining control.
Falun Gong cured my cancer and enabled me to return to full time office work after five years of
sickness so I spend a great deal of my spare time writing, to mitigate Jiang's poison.
His regime initially used its propaganda machine to support Falun Gong, until a government survey
concluded that the number of practitioners exceeded membership in the Communist Party. Then, in
violation of the Chinese constitution, Jiang himself pushed through new legislation to persecute
people who exercise their constitutional rights of belief, and freedom of peaceful assembly. Believe
it or not, it is currently illegal in China to display the Chinese characters for truth, compassion
and tolerance (Zhen, Shan, Ren).
But what Jiang never considered was that his victims who escaped from China would sue him for
genocide and for the crimes against humanity he has inflicted on tens of millions of his citizens
over the last four years.
Lawsuits have been filed in the U.S.A., France and Switzerland, and soon, an already formed
coalition of human rights lawyers in many other countries will do the same. The lawsuits charge
Jiang, and thousands of his police and authorities with crimes against humanity and genocide. The
names were identified by victims who have endured torture, or relatives of those who were murdered.
And the criminals will be brought to justice in international courts, just like former South
American dictator Auguste Pinochet and the
former Yugoslavian leaders currently on trial at the International Court in The Hague. Soon, the
people of China will again be free to live their lives according to the noble universal principles
of truth, compassion and tolerance.
P.S. Tao Liu questioned the age of the practice. Originally called Falun Xulian Dafa (The Great
Cultivation Way of the Law Wheel), it was handed down from a Master to only one disciple throughout
the centuries. In his lecture in Guangzhou in 1992, Master Li Hongzhi said that he did not change
the fifth exercise, but adapted the first four exercises a little, to make them more suitable for
popularization and brought them out to help bring people to high spiritual levels. In that sense,
one could say that it is a new practice, but its essence and its principles are ancient.
Susan Mitchell lives in Toronto.
Other than controlling the media in China, the Chinese ruling Party also
tries to control the media abroad. (AFP picture)
(Clearwisdom.net) April 18th Report: the Chinese ruling Party has always tried to control the foreign media in the form of investments. Recently, through reports on the war in Iraq, some U.S. officials noticed the Party's gaining foothold in some U.S. media. Recently, the tendency displayed in much of the Chinese media abroad has attracted the attention of overseas Chinese people.
According to a report in Taipei's Liberty Times by journalist Yang Guowen from April 18th, the Taiwanese intelligence agency recently discovered that the Chinese government has listed gradual manipulation of Taiwan's media as one of its important Taiwan-related projects. Several transfers of tens of millions of New Taiwan Dollars to the newspapers and T.V. stations in Taiwan with a form of investment were recorded after passing through several countries and areas. The intelligence department does not exclude the possibility of the Party using the media as cover in an attempt to collect political and societal information in Taiwan, as well as instituting a subtle form of brainwashing. Currently, the intelligence department is conducting an investigation.
Not long ago, Peng Chuibin, publisher of the Jinmen Evening News was charged with violation of the Statute for Punishment of Betrayal of Military Secrets and an unsuccessful attempt to prying into state secrets, a violation of the criminal law, by using his newspaper office as a cover to collect military secrets. He is currently under detention. The intelligence department said this is another shocking case of suspected information prying, using the news media. This has attracted the attention of high Taiwanese government officials.
The intelligence office received a report claiming the Party learned that many morning, many evening and Internet newspaper editions closed down due to financial difficulty, the environment of running media is much worse than before. Because it is easy for newspaper employees to obtain important government information and information on Taiwanese people's opinions, the Party made policies geared toward Taiwan and decided to make active investments in Taiwan media.
Individuals from the foreign branch of the Taiwanese intelligence department pointed out that several deposits in the amount of tens of millions of New Taiwan Dollars have been transferred to Taiwan through "third countries" and were used as investments for the news media.
The intelligence department investigated the source of the funds and found that in order to invest in Taiwan news media, some of these investors moved funds over "half the globe" before reaching Taiwan, while part of the money was transferred to Taiwan through countries that have no diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Intelligence officers think this action indicates an attempt to prevent the Taiwanese government from discovering the source of these investments. The purpose for these investments are highly suspicious.
The newspaper and T.V. stations these intelligence officers have been watching recently made drastic changes in reporting style from the time before these investments were made. They added many reports on political and civil issues in China, clearly from a pro-Party standpoint. For example, they made positive comments on the Sixteenth People's Congress, the construction of the Three Gorges Dam and the development of technology in China.
This change is very unusual, and intelligence officers think the Party is trying to influence the Taiwanese people's opinion as part of a cultural invasion through the news media.
Intelligence officers also said so far no evidence exists that the news media in Taiwan have committed crimes. They are expanding the investigation and, to ensure the security of Taiwan, their focus centers on whether or not the Chinese government has controlled the media, and whether they collected political and societal information in Taiwan.
April 18, 2003
(Clearwisdm.net)
My name is Xie Yunhua, a Falun Dafa practitioner in Japan. My younger brother Xie Yunhuan is persecuted in China because he is a Falun Dafa practitioner. He has been illegally sentenced to 10 years, and is locked in No.1 Team, No. 3 block, Hadagang Prison, Jidong County, Heilongjiang Province.
In that prison, only non-practitioner family members are allowed to visit. All visitors of Falun Dafa practitioners have to talk on the other side of a glass screen, and a police officer always stands beside Falun Dafa practitioners. If the discussion is about "sensitive topics," the visit will be terminated. There is only 30 minutes visitation time per month. There are 10 illegally detained Falun Dafa practitioners in this prison. Police forbid Falun Dafa practitioners to communicate with each other, so they locked them separately in different teams. They were forced to go to the coalmine to do heavy labor in over time shifts.
I ask the global community and all overseas Falun Dafa practitioners to help expose the evil nature of Jiang and his regime, to save people who are deceived by the lies, and to help my brother and all other Falun Dafa practitioners being persecuted in China.
Below is contact information:
Hadagang Prison switch board, 86-467-5741060.
No.3 block switch board of Hadagang Prison, 86-467-5607137, ext-8011/8017/8019.
Officer in Charge Zou Dechen, 86-467-5741487(h).
Officer in Charge Zhao Rubin, 86-467-5741060, ext-8770(o).
Director Wang Jinlong, 86-467-5741099(h), 86-467-5607871/5607140(o)
Vice Director Zhao Jiwen.
Background Information:
Xie Yunhuan, 27 years old, started cultivating Falun Dafa in 1996. He came to Japan to study abroad in April 1999, and returned to China in February 2000 to visit his family. The police wanted to capture Yunhuan because my mother was a volunteer assistant, and my family has 6 Falun Dafa practitioners. Our house phone is tapped, and my mother, my sister, my sister-in-law all had been illegally detained several times. Yunhuan had to become homeless in order to avoid being illegally arrested at home for a long period of time. After March 2001, no one heard from him. But on July 2001, we received a message from him that he had been arrested and detained in Tuanhe Labor Camp in Beijing on March 12, 2001. He was forced into brainwashing class, afflicted with scabies during that period of time, and experienced indescribable tortures.
At the end of July 2001, Yunhuan had been escorted back to No.1 Detention Center in Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province, and illegally detained until August 2002. At the end of August 2002, Jiguan District Court of Jixi City conducted a sham trial. The court ignored the law and constitution, and sentenced him to 10 years in prison based on false confessions (see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/9/20/26686.html) He was brutally tortured by the police before and after the trial.
From the arrest to the detention, the government did not follow any legal procedures, and none of my family members were allowed to see him. We can learn a little bit of facts of how he endured torture from letters he wrote occasionally. The police shocked Dafa practitioners with electric batons. We had to pay 50 Yuan to police whenever we wanted to send things to him. The daily needs are sold many times higher inside the jail. Once my family bought food for 200 Yuan to send to him. After the food went through the police and cell head, Yunhuan only received 2 bags of preserved vegetables, which only cost 2 Yuan. Yunhuan hardly ate enough during the detention period. His first jail room was less that 20 square meters, but it contained more than 40 people. We learned that his spirit has been sometimes high, and sometimes low from his letters, but he never lost his righteous thoughts. I am truly worried over how long his body can endure all these mistreatments.
At the beginning of September 2002, the police heard that my mother went back home (she had left home earlier in order to avoid being arrested). Police Li Qinghua and other policemen from Political Security Office in Jidong County Station surrounded my home. They did not find my mother. Then they searched my brother's home, found several Dafa books, and detained my sister-in-law the next day in the no.1 Detention Center in Jixi City over 1 week. My brother had to pay through friends 1700 Yuan (more than 3 months average monthly pay of an urban worker) to have her released. She witnessed the prison guards from the no.1 Detention Center in Jixi City use the electric batons to shock female Falun Dafa practitioner's private areas, in order to force Dafa practitioners to write guarantee statements. There are still many Falun Dafa practitioners detained in No.1 Detention Center in Jixi City. Female Falun Dafa practitioners have endured different forms of torture; some of their nipples have been burned and scarred by electric batons.
I finally saw Yunhuan after being detained for 18 months, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He is very thin now. He had been tortured 42 days without sleep, and had no food when he was escorted back to No.1 Detention Center in Jixi City. He only had a bowl of soup every morning and afternoon. He would get shocked by the electric baton whenever he closed his eyes. Some of the other Dafa practitioners experienced even worse torture.
Situations of My Other Family Members Being Persecuted
My whole family began to practice Falun Dafa in 1996. My mother Zhang Qingmin, 60-years-old, was illegally detained 5-6 times by Jidong County police since January 2000, and received a sentence of 3-4 months in jail. Her former employer withheld her retirement pension for more than 2 years. She became homeless in order to avoid being illegally arrested at home for almost 2 years. She was even sentenced to 2 years at labor camp by the Jidong County police station without her presence. Police would withdraw money from my mother's retirement pension to cover various expenses without cause.
My sister-in-law, Zhao Yumei, is 38 years old. She went to Beijing to appeal with my mother and brother Yunhuan in December 2000. My brother Yunhuan escaped successfully. But my mother had been arrested, and went on hunger strike for 9 days before being released. The Jidong County police detained my mother upon her returning home. My sister-in-law had been arrested together with my mother in Beijing. She was illegally detained in Jidong County Detention Center for nearly 4 months. My brother had to pay 6000 Yuan to have her released. Her house was searched in August 2002, and she was detained in Jixi No.1 Detention Center for one week. She suffered mental and physical abuse in the detention center, and had to pay 1700 Yuan to be released.
My sister Xie Mingjuan is 35 years old. She has been illegally detained 4 times. She became homeless with my mother for 6 months in the year of 2000. She went to Tiananmen Square to validate the Fa at the beginning of 2001, and she was arrested and illegally detained. She was also placed under heavy surveillance for several months. Her neighbors and colleagues closely observed her activities. Her salary was withheld for 1 year. She had been sentenced to 2 years, but her employer, Jidong County Power Company, got her released on parole by vouching for her. She only receives 200 Yuan basic living pay monthly, because the workplace withheld her salary.
My other younger brother, Xie Yunjie, is 31 years old. In January 2000, he went to Tiananmen Square to hold up a truth-clarifying banner and was arrested. He was detained for 39 days in the Bin County Police Station in Heilongjiang Province. His employer released him. Because he is a technology expert at his workplace, his employer designated special personnel to closely track him everyday.
Related articles: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/9/20/26686.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/11/1/28319.html
April 18, 2003
April 25, 2003, Friday
MELBOURNE, April 25-- Melbourne's Falun Gong community held a candlelight vigil tonight to mark the fourth anniversary of a protest they say led to China banning and persecuting its members.
About 80 followers of the spiritual movement gathered outside the Chinese consulate in the
eastern suburb of Toorak, from 6pm to 8pm (AEST), meditating and holding candles and banners.
Falun Gong spokesman Michael Pearson-Smith said the vigil marked the anniversary of about 10,000
followers of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, staging a silent sit-in around Zhongnanhai
government compound in Beijing on April 25, 1999.
The Chinese government outlawed the movement the following June.
Falun Gong claims 100 million [practitioners] around the world.
Mr Pearson-Smith said the Chinese government continued to lie about its treatment for Falun Gong
practitioners, just as it underestimated the number of SARS cases in Beijing, which this week was
revealed to be 10 times greater than first reported.
"They are trying to eradicate Falun Gong completely," he told AAP.
"They are saying they're not, but they are."
Mr Pearson-Smith said the vigil would raise awareness of the movement's plight among consulate staff
and the Melbourne community.
"Obviously, it's not what you might call a spectacular, vociferous demonstration or
anything," he said.
"It's one of many vigils by which we'll remind people the deaths are escalating."
(Clearwisdom.net) April 25, 2003 is the 4th anniversary of April 25 peaceful appeal. At 11:00 am, Los Angeles Dafa practitioners held a press conference in front of the Chinese Consulate to disclose the facts of the peaceful appeal and strongly demand that the Chinese regime stop its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
On April 25, 2003 Falun Gong practitioners and supporters of the greater Los Angeles area appealed in front of the Chinese Consulate in downtown L.A. They called for an end to the State-run persecution of their meditation practice in China. Falun Gong is a mind-body meditation practice that centers on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
"When people are abused, they should be able to appeal. This is a person's most basic right, dignity, and conscience", says Michael Ye, a professor at U.S.C and a Falun Gong practitioner who participated in the commemoration event on Friday.
That is what they did four years ago. On April 25, 1999 over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside of the "Appeals Office" in China's capital Beijing. They traveled there to silently appeal to the government to put an end to the violence and State-sponsored propaganda and libel directed at the practice. The gathering followed a series of peaceful appeals throughout China.
By all accounts, the historic 1999 appeal was a peaceful, beautiful display of civil rights. The road as well as exits and entrances to buildings (such as the Zhongnanhai residential compound) where left conspicuously clear, and those present were orderly and quiet. That night, however, Chinese President Jiang Zemin began using this appeal as an excuse to start a campaign against the millions of innocent Falun Gong practitioners.
The Chinese government isolated Falun Gong, the most popular form of qigong practices in China, as early as 1996, when the practiceí s main text, Zhuan Falun (you can view this book for free at www.falundafa.org), became a best seller in Beijing. Even though Falun Gong has never had a political agenda, Jiang Zemin's regime became both fearful and jealous of the increasing popularity of the self-improvement practice, the largest non-Party entity in China. At the same time, some analysts have pointed out that Jiang saw an opportunity to strengthen his own power base by attacking another group, a technique used extensively by Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s.
In July 1999, three months after the peaceful appeal, Jiang Zemin officially banned Falun Gong. The ferocity of his campaign has led some China watchers to believe that he has become obsessed with Falun Gong and is thus waging a personal crusade against innocent people.
Over the pat four years, Jiang has detained hundreds of thousands, and has sent tens of thousands of men, women, and children from all walks of life to be "reeducated" in labor camps. To this day, the details of 669 deaths from police abuse and torture have been confirmed. Sources within the Chinese government, however, indicate that the actual number of victims is well into the thousands. For his persecution, Jiang Zemin is being sued for accounts of torture, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Moreover, the regime has orchestrated an extensive propaganda campaign that has also taken advantage of the corporate media. First, China's State-run media exports lies about Falun Gong on a daily basis (We just experienced one such lie when the regime tried to cover up the spread of SARS, leading to a still unknown number of deaths worldwide). One such lie about Falun Gong and Falun Gong's founder, is the fake "self-immolation" (to see why it's fake go to: http://faluninfo.net/videosonline.asp). Second, China has used leverage to pressure most Chinese language media, including publications in the U.S., to follow the Party line. Third, the regime has struck multi-billion dollar contracts with companies such as Rupert Murdoch's BBC, CNN, Yahoo and others, which have limited or even tainted their coverage of Falun Gong. The overall result has been a shortage of accurate information about Falun Gong and the persecution.
Meanwhile, over these four years of persecution Falun Gong practitioners in China have remained peaceful, not once resorting to violence. They have risked their lives and put in a lot of effort to tell the world that Falun Gong is a good and peaceful individual practice, that Falun Gong is not against the Chinese government and that they are being persecuted simply for trying to be good people.
(Clearwisdom.net) In the evening of April 25, 2003, Dallas Falun Gong practitioners held a three-hour activity including group practice, candle light vigil and sending forth righteous thoughts on JFK Plaza to commemorate the 4th anniversary of the April 25 peaceful appeal. The activities drew the attention of passers-by, some of whom wanted to learn the exercises from us.
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| Group practice | Appeal for release of Charles Li | Send forth righteous thoughts |
(Clearwisdom.net) From 9:00 am to 3:00 pm of April 25, 2003, New York Dafa practitioners gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate in New York to commemorate the 4th Anniversary of the April 25 peaceful appeal.
(Clearwisdom.net) On April 25 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside of the Zhongnanhai Government compound in Beijing in a peaceful appeal to the Chinese authorities to stop their unfair treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji met with practitioners and a resolution was reached that was amicable to both sides. However, Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin created lies about the events of April 25th and used them to turn the government against Falun Gong and against a large number of people in the Chinese society. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners continued to escalate since that day, reaching the enormous proportions of 2003, when the official death toll of Falun Gong practitioners has reached over 660, whilst Chinese Government internal figures put it at over 1500. All of these people have been killed because they want to improve their health through practising Falun Gong and want to conduct their lives by the principles of this practice: Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.
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Since April 25th 1999, Falun Gong practitioners have commemorated the noble actions of their fellow
practitioners in China by holding peaceful appeals. On April 25, 2003, UK Falun Gong practitioners
met at the Chinese Embassy in London and held a press conference as part of the worldwide activities
on this day. Practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts at the top of every hour to support the
lawsuit against Chinese dictator Jiang, instigator of the persecution against Falun Gong. This
lawsuit has been filed in America and Jiang is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.
The prosecution of the Chinese leader for his horrific large-scale persecution of tens of millions
of innocent people has sent shockwaves through Chinese society. Falun Gong practitioners all over
the world have been sending forth righteous thoughts and telling people the facts about this
lawsuit.
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| Chairman of the European Falun Dafa Association Peter Jauhal | Lord Thurlow |
Speakers at the press conference included Chairman of the European Falun Dafa Association, Peter
Jauhal, and Lord Thurlow. Lord Thurlow talked about the comprehensive nature of this persecution
throughout the Chinese society and asked for all kind-hearted people to help to stop these
atrocities. Peter Jauhal outlined the events on April 25th 1999 and pointed out the true nature of
the Chinese regime that has been revealed in their handling of the SARS crisis, where they have lied
to the governments of the world and risked the lives of the world's people to conceal the scale of
the outbreak and to prevent damage to their international image.
Two UK practitioners, whose family members are imprisoned in China because they practise Falun Gong, also gave speeches at the press conference. Zhu Baosheng talked about his sister from Beijing, who was imprisoned in 2000 for handing out leaflets revealing the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong. Weiguo Xie talked about his fiancée Yongjie Zhu, who was secretly detained and sentenced in 2002 because she practises Falun Gong. Her family members were threatened by Chinese agents because Weiguo took part in UK activities revealing the Jiang regime's persecution of Dafa practitioners. At the press conference, Weiguo talked about the support he has received from the UK people and media in his efforts to rescue his fiancée. These two UK practitioners then proceeded to Downing Street to deliver over 10,000 petition signatures to the Prime Minister of England, calling for the release of their family members. They hope that with the support of the UK government, their family members can be released from the Beijing prisons where they are unlawfully held and where they could be suffering horrific violations of human rights, including torture and beatings.
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| Zhu BaoSheng and Dr. Weiguo Xie | Delivering a petition to the Prime Minister |
Whilst some practitioners continued the permanent peaceful appeal opposite the Chinese Embassy, which is now in its 323rd day, others appealed outside Downing Street for action from the UK government to rescue the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China. All of the world's governments should use their power and influence to publicly stand up for the basic rights of the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China. Jiang's regime is torturing and murdering those who are trying to improve their health and be good people. The regime's evil actions have blackened China's name and will be remembered in infamy.
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Opposite Downing Street
á
Source: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200304/11978.html
(Clearwisdom.net) Orange County and San Bernardino County of Southern California proclaimed Falun Dafa Week recently. Local Falun Gong practitioners received resolutions and proclamations from districts and cities in these two counties, which praised the service and contributions of Falun Dafa practitioners to the local communities. Several county assembly members said in the proclamations that Falun Dafa's contribution to society has been widely recognized by leaders and communities in California.
April 21 to 27 is Orange County Falun Dafa Week. On April 23, 2003, local Falun Dafa practitioners held a celebration activity, introduced the worldwide spread of Falun Dafa to the local residents, and taught the exercises.
(Clearwisdom.net)
[Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province] Falun Dafa Practitioner Yu Shuang Is Sent to a Forced Labor Camp
On February 18, the police illegally arrested Yu Shuang, a surgeon, at his work place at Daqing City Longfeng Electric Power Factory Hospital and sent him to a brainwashing session organized at Daqing Oil Management Bureau. Six days later, they sent him to Longfeng Detention Center. Recently, the police from Xiangyang Police Station informed Yu's family that he would be sentenced to three years in a labor camp because he had been detained before and he practiced the exercises in the detention center. On April 14, they sent Yu Shuang to a forced labor camp.
[Tieling City, Liaoning Province] The Police at Tieling City Detention Center
Cruelly Torture Falun Dafa Practitioner Lu Jianhua
In October 2002, the police illegally arrested Lu Jianhua, female, 40 years old, from Xijiang Province and sent her back to the Tieling City Detention Center. In the detention center, the police hung her up, denied her use of the toilet for a long period of time, and beat her chest and abdomen. Her hands became numb. She could only move two of her fingers and her whole body was covered with bruises. Despite this, guard Wang Lijun still forced her to perform heavy labor. The police extorted 40,000 Yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan] from her. In November 2002, she started a hunger strike to protest the torture, and currently her situation is serious.
[Gaoyi County, Hebei Province] The Police Persecute Falun Dafa Practitioners
Since July 20, 1999, the police from Gaoyi County Police Department set up a record for each practitioner in the county. Every practitioner was charged 10 Yuan for the record. The police have been harassing and monitoring the practitioners during "politically sensitive dates" and tried to force them to repeatedly write so-called guarantees to quit practicing Falun Gong.
[Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province] Falun Dafa Practitioners Liu Qunming and Liu Hui Are Illegally Arrested
In the morning of March 9, 2003, about thirty police officers from Changan Police Branch and Changfeng Police Station illegally arrested Liu Qunming and his daughter Liu Hui from their home. The police confiscated the house and took all the valuables including a TV, a VCR, a VCD player, two bank certificates of over 20,000 Yuan and 1000 Yuan in cash.
Telephone number for Changfeng Police Station: 86-311-6856943
[Fenxi County, Shanxi Province] A List of Some Illegally Sentenced Falun Dafa Practitioners
Wang Xiumin, female, 34 years old, 3 years in prison
Li Fang'e, female, 47 years old, 3 years in Xindian Forced Labor Camp in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Her three sons, Qin Xin (14 years old), Qin Yun (13 years old), and Qin Yu (10 years old) are also Dafa practitioners. They are suffering hardships and have had to live separately with some relatives.
Wang Yunxiu, female, 36 years old, 3 years in Xindian Forced Labor Camp
Wang Xiuqing, female, 35 years old, 3 years in Xindian Forced Labor Camp
Wang Haiyou, male, 56 years old, 3 years in prison, is currently being held at Fenxi County
Detention Center.
Li Haie, male, 55 years old, was sentenced to one year and extended to another year because he was
firmin his belief.
[Shenyang City, Liaoning Province] Personnel From "610" Office Send Falun Dafa Practitioner Wang Qiuping to a Brainwashing Center
On March 3, 2003, the personnel from "610" Office [a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches] arrested Wang Qiuping at home and sent him to a brainwashing center in Zhangshi Forced Labor Camp.
[Pingshan County, Hebei Province] Falun Dafa Practitioner Wang Cuixia Is Illegally Sentenced to Forced Labor
In December 2002, the police from Pingshan County Police Department illegally arrested Wang Cuixia for distributing Dafa materials. She was held at Pingshan Detention Center, where she went on a hunger strike in order to protest the persecution. The director of the detention center personally let some police force-feed her and sent her to Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp. The camp refused to take her because of her high blood pressure and sent her back. However, the police from the police department later sentenced her to one year and sent her to Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp again.
[Pingshan County, Hebei Province] The Police Arrest Falun Dafa Practitioner Zhao Junfeng
In the evening of March 26, 200, following a tip, the police from Pingshan County Police Department arrested Zhao Junfeng at his home. In the police department, Zhao went on a hunger strike to protest and refused to cooperate with the authorities. They sent him to Pingshan Detention Center three days later and have been detaining him since.
The Director's Office of Pingshan County Police Department: 86-311-2911615
Wang Genting, the Deputy Director of Pingshan County Police Department and the Director of the county's "610 Office": 86-311-2911266 (w), 86-311-2943106 (h)
Feng Qingfang at the county's Politics and Security Section: 86-311-2913739 (h)
Pingshan County Detention Center: 86-311-2913496
[Zhengzhou, Henan Province] The Police Arrest Falun Dafa Practitioner Zhao Zhongqiu
Zhao Zhongqui of Fenghuangtai in Jinshui District was arrested at the beginning of April for distributing Dafa materials. We do not know his current whereabouts.
[Shanhaiguan, Hebei Province] Falun Dafa Practitioner Guo Hongping Is Illegally Sentenced to Forced Labor
In September 2002, the police from Daonan Police Station illegally arrested Guo Hongping. Recently, they sentenced her to Tangshang Forced Labor Camp. Some police revealed that they arrested Guo in order to complete the quota assigned by their superiors. When she was held at the detention center, the police from Daonan Police Station asked her family to pay a so-called meal fee. They did not release Guo since her family did not have the money to pay the fee.
[Fushun City, Liaoning Province] The Police From Liushan Police Station Illegally Arrest Falun Dafa Practitioners He Suxiang and Tan Yanli
Around 2 p.m. on March 4, 2003, several police officers came to He Suxiang's home. They tried to grab Teacher's picture and Suxiang sternly asked them to stop. They then arrested her to the station without her coat and shoes. Suxiang shouted, "Falun Dafa is good" along the way. In the station, the police brutally beat and tortured her. They ransacked her house twice and arrested two practitioners who came to visit her.
On March 5, the police arrested Tan Yanli at her home. Currently, Suxiang and Yanli are being persecuted at the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. The other two arrested practitioners' whereabouts are unknown.
[Fushun City, Liaoning Province] Falun Dafa Practitioner Chen Dongping Is Arrested
On March 4, 2003, the police arrested Chen Dongping at home and confiscated the house. We do not know his whereabouts. His wife Jiang Jie is also a Dafa practitioner, who was tortured at Fushun City Labor Camp and Masanjia Forced Labor Camp for two years. She walked out of the camp in the end of 2001 and has been homeless since in order to avoid the persecution. Tragically, they had to leave their school age child at home alone.
[Fushun City, Liaoning Province] The Police Arrest Female Falun Dafa Practitioners
On February 24, 2003, the police from Wulaotun Police Station illegally arrested He Guirong. On March 4, 2003, the police from Dongzhou District Police Branch illegally arrested Qian Zhengying and Zhao Yulan.
[China] The Jiang Regime Persecutes People With Public Money
According to reliable information from the police, the Jiang regime provides double salaries to retired police assigned to monitor and arrest Falun Gong practitioners who clarify the truth and distribute flyers to people.
[Zibo City, Shandong Province] The Law Enforcement Education Center Is Actually a Brainwashing Center
The personnel from Zibo City Law Enforcement Education Center have been holding brainwashing sessions to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners for a long time and forced the practitioners' families to pay the costs. Recently they have colluded with personnel from Zichuan District's "610" Office and plan to send the practitioners in Zichuan District to the brainwashing center for separate sessions.
[Huaiyang County, Henan Province] The Police Arrest Eight Falun Dafa Practitioners
At 8 p.m. on April 8, 2003, Geng Shouling, the head of Security Squad in Huaiyang County Police Department, and ten police officers including Li Changfeng from Lutai Town Police Station broke into the homes of practitioners Zheng Xianjin and Zheng Ruizhen and took them to the station. Later they brought the practitioners to Huaiyang Detention Center and interrogated them all night by means of torture. Around the same time on April 8, practitioners Niu Yanpo of Zhuji Village, Liu, and Jian Yongzhen and his wife from Doumen Village were arrested. On the evening of March 18, 2003, the police from the county's police department arrested practitioners Mr. Lei Defa and Ms. Wang Lanying.
Currently, Jian Yongzhen and his wife, Zheng Xianjin, Zheng Ruizhen, and another practitioner Zhu Guilan are illegally held at a brainwashing center in a detention center. More than a dozen practitioners, including Niu Yanpo, Liu, and Wang Lanying are being held at Huaiyang Detention Center. We do not know Lei Defa's whereabouts.
[Shanxi Province] Falun Dafa Practitioner Zhang Cuirong Has Been Missing For Over Two Years After Going to Beijing to Appeal
Zhang Cuirong is a 60-year-old retired worker from Shanxi Diesel Machine Factory. On December 18, 2000, she and seven other practitioners went to Beijing to validate Dafa. At Tiananmen Square, they shouted loudly from the bottom of their hearts: "Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa. Restore the reputation of our Teacher." The police arrested them at the scene. Zhang was thrown onto a bus and sent to Beijing Dongcheng District Police Branch.
We have not heard any information regarding her since then. For the past two years, Zhang's children have been searching for her in many places, including Beijing and Changchun. They also went to more than a dozen police branches. However, the authorities have been denying that they detained her.
[Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province] The Police Arrest Over a Dozen Falun Dafa Practitioners
On March 12, 2002, the Liaoyuan City "610 Office" started to search and arrest practitioners on a blacklist and those who had left home to avoid the persecution. Thirteen practitioners were illegally arrested, they include: Zhang Cunzhi, Liu Duansheng, Zhang Jingli, Ms. Mao Yafeng, Chen Jun, Ran Xiaoxia and her husband, Zhang Yangang, and Ms. Liang Lichuan. The police brutally tortured the practitioners. They beat Ran's husband in front of her and then beat her in front of her husband. The couple left a teenage child at home alone. Mao Yafeng vomited large quantities of blood as result of the beating. The hospital has diagnosed her with severe internal trauma of the heart and lungs. She left a 27-month-old daughter at home. We do not know her current situation now.
We heard that before the 16th People's Congress, the authorities secretly sentenced several practitioners including Li Zhonghua and Ms. Liu Xiaolian. Their whereabouts are unknown.
[Jilin Province] A Village Woman Gives Up Practicing Falun Gong Under Pressure and Died of Previous Illness
Hu Baolan, a village woman, had a stroke when she was 55 years old. She could not do any housework, had to walk with a cane, took lots of medication every day, and suffered much pain. In 1997, when she was 59 years old, she started to practice Falun Gong. Within 20 days, she could walk without the cane, her other illnesses started to improve and she looked younger. She could do all the housework and did not have to take medicine. She was telling everyone that Falun Gong is very good.
However, since July 20, 1999, the police began to search practitioners' homes and to take away the books. They would arrest anyone who still practiced Falun Gong. Out of fear, Hu Baolan stopped practicing Falun Gong, saying, "I can't practice. I am afraid that they are going to arrest me."
At the beginning of November 2002, Hu Baolan had another stroke and was admitted to the county's hospital. Her family spent nearly 10,000 Yuan and she was not getting better. She told her visitors, "Had I persisted in practicing Falun Gong, this wouldn't have happened. This is all because I stopped practicing Falun Gong." Hu Baolan passed away on December 30, 2002 after being denied the change to practice Falun Gong and improve her health by the Jiang regime.
(Clearwisdom.net)
1. [Beijing] Six Falun Dafa Practitioners Face Stiff Sentences in Beijing
Falun Dafa practitioners Li Kai, Huang Jian, Ma Jin, Wei Shijun, Wang Guiqing (female), and Shi Jingping (female) were unlawfully placed under arrest in the summer of 2002. They are currently being held and face stiff sentences in the detention center affiliated with the Qincheng Prison, where many well-known political prisoners have served their terms.
2. [Changchun City, Jilin Province] New Round of Persecution of Falun Dafa Practitioners Starts in Changchun City, Jilin Province
Recently, orders from higher authorities have been issued to organizations and enterprises in Changchun City to re-register all Falun Dafa practitioners. The registration includes those who have been forced, against their conscience, to write "guarantees" stating that they would give up practicing Falun Gong. The orders stated that all Party members must decide between their Party membership and Falun Gong. They have to either sign the "five statements" [denouncing Falun Gong] or withdraw from the Party. Subsequent brainwashing sessions have been planned in individual organizations and enterprises against those who will not give up their belief. Anyone who remains steadfast in his or her belief will then be dismissed from work and sent to a centralized brainwashing center.
3. [Weihai City, Shandong Province] Police Arrest Falun Dafa Practitioner Huang Min
On February 18, 2003, Huang Min was arrested while distributing Falun Gong materials. Huang is being held in Weihai City, Shandong Province. A warrant of highest priority has been issued by the Public Security Ministry, offering a 60,000-Yuan award, 50000 financed by the ministry and the remaining 10000 paid by local authorities, for Huang's arrest. The head of the central "610 Office" Li Lanqing is personally in charge of this case.
[500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.]
[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]
4. [Benxi City, Liaoning Province] Members of the "610 Office" Start Frenzied Persecution of Falun Dafa Practitioners
Prior to the April 25 anniversary [of Falun Gong practitioners appealing in Appeals Office outside the Zhongnanhai compound in 1999], the Benxi City "610 Office" has started a new round of frenzied persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Orders have been issued to check out each and every practitioner at home. Officers from local police stations have forced their way into practitioners' homes to force them to sign statements. Anyone who refuses to do so is immediately taken to the Weiningying Rehabilitation Institute for brainwashing. Ms. Wang Guimei, 62 years old, was among those abducted.
In the afternoon of April 14, 2003, Ms. Wang suddenly received a phone call while she was at her daughter's home. It was from a police officer who said, "I just got assigned to this jurisdiction, and would like to pay you a visit." When he arrived, the officer immediately demanded that Ms. Wang sign a statement promising not to practice Falun Gong, which she refused. After insisting for almost an hour, the officer finally left. Wang then prepared to leave for her own home. As soon as she stepped out of the building, officers who had been on a stakeout there abducted her and sent her to the Weiningying Rehabilitation Institute for brainwashing.
5. [Heishan County, Liaoning Province] Police Officers Forcibly Take Away Falun Dafa Practitioner Yin Xiuping
In March 2002, Yin Xiuping was turned in to the police when telling others the facts about Falun Gong. She was besieged by officers from the local police department. However she managed to escape and had been staying away from home to avoid arrest.
On March 15, 2003, police officer Bi Shijun spotted Yin Xiuping in the family quarters of the Heishan County Liquor Factory. Officer Bi grabbed Ms. Yin and held on to her. Yin refused to follow him. Officer Bi hit Ms. Yin, who is over 50 years old, as hard as he could, which attracted a crowd of on-lookers. In the end Bi called in two more officers to forcibly take her away. Sources say that Ms. Yin has staged a hunger strike to protest the unlawful interrogation, and the police force-fed her, knocking out some of her teeth in the process. She is currently being held in a detention center. Officers claimed, "She is not to be released even if she dies, which would be her own fault." Concurrently, another Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Huang Xiaodong is being held in custody.
6. [Qianguo County, Jilin Province] Falun Dafa Practitioner Ren Linbo Is Unlawfully Sent to Forced Labor Camp
Ms. Ren Linbo, over 20 years old, is from Jianbala Village at Taohaotai Township in Qianguo County, Jilin Province. In May 2001, police abducted Ms. Ren and her father (over 70 years old) while they were distributing leaflets containing facts about Falun Gong. They were detained for fifteen days and were released only after their family paid over 2,000 Yuan. In March 2000, Ms. Ren was practicing Falun Gong exercises at home, and someone turned her in. The local police department had promised a 500-Yuan reward to every informant who turns in a Falun Gong practitioner. All three members of her family were arrested, and a tape recorder for playing the exercise music was confiscated. Her father was detained for half a month. Ren Linbo was unlawfully sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor camp for not giving up her belief and thrown into the Yinmahe Forced Labor Camp in Jiutai. There she has been suffering physical and mental torture ever since.
7. [Songyuan City, Jilin Province] Police Extort Money from Falun Dafa Practitioner Cui Yan
Ms. Cui Yan, over 40 years old, is from the Lianhuapao area in Songyuan City, Jilin Province. In March 2002, she was arrested and sentenced to three years of forced labor only because a copy of Falun Gong was found in her home. She was held in the Heizuizi Women's Forced Labor Camp in Changchun City, Jilin Province. As of March 2003, her family has exhausted their resources and paid authorities over 20,000 Yuan in order to get her out of the labor camp.
8. [Beijing] Beijing Stages Show of Qigong Exercises
Recently authorities in Beijing have invited the public to practice various Qigong exercises including the "Game of Five Birds." One coordinator revealed that this activity was directly targeted against Falun Gong. Each residential area has to send in people to attend. It is not yet clear if this charade is being staged to support official claims that "the public has the right to practice qigong exercises" or to force Falun Gong practitioners to practice a different Qigong method, a policy previously enforced in some labor camps housing Falun Gong practitioners.
April 16, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net) This event happened in a city in Liaoning Province and was related to us by a police officer.
In the winter of 2002, police received an emergency call reporting Dafa practitioners who were posting Dafa flyers on a utility pole. The policemen had to go out in the cold weather to look into the situation, but they could not find anything. The second day the policemen called the informers to come for their rewards. A man and two sisters in their 30s arrived, but instead of being rewarded, the policemen cursed them. The two sisters still insisted that they could recognize the two Dafa practitioners.
The policemen then let them lead the way to arrest the Dafa practitioners. Through different streets they walked, for a long time, but they could not find any Dafa practitioners. The policemen were very cold and grew angry after walking for a long time in the cold winter weather. They beat up the three informers and then cuffed them to a heating radiator overnight.
The third day, each informer was fined 5,000 Yuan. Afterwards, an older sister of the two sisters came to argue with the policemen. The police detained her, too, for harboring the two sisters. She was also beaten up and then fined 8,000 Yuan before she was let go.
(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.
Please click here for more Solemn Declarations.