Epoch Times: Why Falun Gong is Still Appealing in New York (Photos)
A Falun Gong display on a busy street corner. (The Epoch
Times) NEW YORK - They came to the city a week before the Republican convention, and
they have no plans for leaving anytime soon. Throughout Manhattan, from Ground
Zero to 86th Street, from the Port Authority to the UN, they stand on street
corners, holding banners, passing out newspapers, telling the passersby that
friends, relatives, and fellow practitioners in China are being brutally
persecuted for doing five simple exercises and for believing that "Truth,
Compassion, Tolerance" are worthwhile values. These are practitioners of Falun Gong, an exercise and meditation system
practiced peacefully all around the world, except in China, the land of its
origin. In China, Falun Gong is a crime. Jealous of Falun Gong's widespread popularity and frightened by the
overwhelming number of practitioners, then-dictator Jiang Zemin outlawed the
practice in 1999, setting into motion a violent campaign aimed at eradicating
Falun Gong.
Plainclothes police pin a practitioner and press a handcuff
against the practitioner's throat in Tiananmen Square. Over the objection of many of his top ministers, Jiang ordered a round of
midnight arrests, show trials, and long prison sentences-up to 18 years- for
volunteer Falun Gong instructors throughout Beijing. Although the government had looked favorably upon Falun Gong prior to this-
citing Falun Gong's health benefits for easing the burden on China's crumbling
public health system- on July 22, 1999, practicing Falun Gong became an illegal
act in China, and 100 million Falun Gong practitioner became criminals. Simultaneously, Jiang launched a worldwide propaganda campaign, telling
governments around the world that Falun Gong practitioners were a threat to
stability everywhere they went. Chinese Embassy officials contacted mayors, governors, and even college
presidents in America, claiming that international relations would be damaged if
US government officials acknowledged that Falun Gong is good. Heads of state
around the world were pressured by the Chinese government to prohibit Falun Gong
appeals, threatened with economic retribution if Falun Gong practitioners were
allowed to plead their case in those countries. Meanwhile, in China, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were
being rounded up, incarcerated in slave labor camps, and subjected to the most
heinous tortures imaginable- from the medieval to the modern, from burning with
hot irons to electrocution with cattle prods.
A military policeman in Tiananmen Square arrests practitioners for holding up
banners inscribed "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance." The Chinese government's objective is "transforming" and "reeducating"
practitioners- abusing them until they agree to make anti-Falun Gong propaganda
videos or sign statements renouncing the practice. Many practitioners, however,
find the inner strength to hold to their values, endure the torture, and refuse
to give in. Just as the Patrick Henry said "Give me liberty or give me death,"
Falun Gong practitioners are saying, "Without Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance,
life is meaningless. We will not surrender." Nor will they fight back. After five years of vicious persecution, there has
not been a single report- even from the Chinese government- of Falun Gong
practitioners using force or violence, even is self-defense. In China, Falun Gong is on TV every day-in fabricated news reports slandering
the practice and justifying the persecution. In America, Falun Gong rarely
appears in the mainstream media; when it does, it is a page-three, local news
report about a community event. Because China has a potentially huge media
market- 300 million television sets in what is still, outside of the large
cities, a very backward nation- the world media has been unwilling to challenge
China's requirement of self-imposed censorship to report the truth about Falun
Gong. The major media outlets remember that China shut down the BBC last year
until the BBC agreed to comply with government content standards. Our supposedly
"free" media actually costs a lot to operate, and financial concerns often
outweigh principles of press freedom.
Falun Gong Practitioners displaying a banner and distributing information in
Bryant Park in New York. (The Epoch Times) That is why they are out there- those Falun Gong practitioners with the signs
and banners, the pictures of torture victims, doing the five exercises, quietly
meditating- they are bypassing the Chinese media blockade, spreading the truth
one New Yorkers one at a time. They come from all around the world, they stay as long as they can, they are
replaced by others. They spend their free time and their vacation days telling
New Yorkers that this persecution will end when enough people know about it,
telling New Yorkers that they can help save lives. These practitioners are not asking for anything but a bit of attention to
their cause; they are only asking people to learn about the situation in China.
These practitioners would like nothing more than to go back to their homes to
practice in peace. Until their fellow practitioners in China can do the same, expect to see them
in New York. Source: http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-10-4/23570.html
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