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The Strong Contrast Between Prisons on Opposite Sides of the Taiwan Strait (Photos)

August 15, 2006 |   By Guo Feng

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently the Asian Zhengwu Website published two articles: "The Nine-day Lecture Series of Falun Dafa" and "Tainan Prison Cleans People’s Minds." They described how Falun Gong is spread in the prisons of Taiwan, how it inspired the Buddha nature of the prisoners, how it caused them to truly regret what they had done and changed them into good people. After reading this, I was truly moved.


A nine-day lecture series of Falun Dafa was held in Tainan Prison

Jiang Zemin and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Persecutes Falun Gong

It is well known that because of its prominent effect on healing people’s illnesses and improving their health, Falun Gong became widely popular in China after its introduction to the public in 1992. According to an official survey by the Chinese government, the number of practitioners of Falun Gong had reached between 70-100 million. These people had all improved their health and elevated their moral standard after cultivating in Falun Dafa. It saved a large amount of medical expenses. On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin, out of his jealousy of the huge number of Falun Gong practitioners, began the savage persecution of the good-natured practitioners. He utilized the media in the entire nation to continuously broadcast fabricated stories such as self-immolation, murder and conning money, to incite hatred of citizens against Falun Gong.

The Chinese Communist Party and Jiang’s gang persecutes Falun Gong practitioners with various means, ranging from ransacking homes, fining, threatening, abducting, imprisoning, penalizing by association, forced brainwashing, torturing, and injecting nerve-damaging drugs. So far 2920 practitioners have been killed. Thousands upon thousands of practitioners around the country were illegally put in forced labor camps and physically injured or disabled. They lost their education, jobs, were forced to flee from their homes, and their families were broken.


Liaoning Province practitioner Gao Rongrong was shocked and defaced with electric batons by prison guards

Practitioner Zhang Zhong, originally weighed 156 lb, and became a skeleton after being tortured

After the Chinese government began its large scale persecution of Falun Gong, the forced labor camps jailed over 100,000 practitioners. The prisons and forced labor camps forced practitioners to give up their belief in Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance by physically torturing, psychologically distorting, and financially devastating practitioners. It caused thousands of practitioners to be killed. The physical torture in the labor camps mainly was comprised of shocking with high voltage electric batons, beating, long periods of sleep deprivation, being forced to stand or squat, force-feeding, tying up, and forced drug injection. Psychological damage included writing pledges promising to give up cultivation, constant bombardment with anti-Falun Gong propaganda, humiliation of the person’s moral character and belief, close monitoring around the clock, and implicating the family members.


Heilongjiang Province practitioner Wang Xinchun lost both his feet due to the persecution

Hebei Province practitioner Liu Jizhi was beaten and raped. Her hips and legs were badly bruised.

In early March, 2006, the media reported that members of the Chinese Communist Party coordinated the extraction of organs from living practitioners in labor camps, prisons, jails, detention centers, and hospitals. They sold the organs for profit and cremated the bodies afterwards to hide their crimes. On July 6, an independent investigation group, consisting of the former director of the Asian Pacific Division of Canada’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and member of Parliament Mr. David Kilgour, and human rights lawyer David Matas, presented their report on vital organs being seized from Falun Gong practitioners in China, to Canadians. They concluded that "there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners." According to the media, the Canadian government is planning to conduct an investigation into the allegations in the report.


Canadian independent investigation group concludes allegations of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners are true

Dafa is Spread in Taiwan and Benefits those Behind Bars

On the opposite side of the Taiwan Strait from Mainland China the situation is entirely different. Since its introduction into Taiwan in 1995, Falun Gong followers increased from a few hundred to over 300,000, and the number continues to increase. Falun Gong benefits people’s physical and mental health and helps the country. It is fully accepted and approved by all levels of society. The Tainan Prison mentioned above is not an isolated case. If we look at the overall picture of how Falun Gong is expanding rapidly in Taiwan, the contrast between Taiwan and Mainland China becomes especially sharp.

Zhanghua County Youth Prison, Yilan County Sanxing Prison, Tainan Prison, Jiayi Prison, Pingdong Prison, and Liudao Prison, etc. all began including Falun Gong into the prison rehabilitation schedule one after another. Life in prison is dull and hard. The Falun Gong class is the most anticipated day for many inmates. They learn how to be a good person after reading the book Zhuan Falun, and reduce their physical and mental stress. The principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" causes distinctive changes in many inmates. They are no long restless and easily agitated. They become more calm and polite. The gracefulness showed by practitioners who volunteer to teach in the prison deeply impressed the prison officials and inmates who came to the classes. They were greatly praised.


Inmates learn the exercise "Buddha showing a thousand hands"

Inmates learn the exercise "Strengthening divine powers"

Zhanghua County Youth Prison has conducted ten sessions of study classes since 2002, with each session lasting for about a month. The warden said, "We often invite other groups to come and help with the rehab work, but we have never seen so many participants as when Falun Gong classes were held. There are so many participants every time. This truly touched me and I believe that there must be some powerful force supporting you guys. So besides encouraging the inmates to participate, I joined the class too." The rehab department manager Wang Enxian also said that after the inmates learned Falun Gong, not only did they have more energy, but incidents of altercations, fist fights, and other violations were reduced greatly. "In the past month, they did not have any altercations."

Yilan practitioners regularly went to Sanxing Prison in the county to spread Dafa beginning in December 2002. They were positively recognized by the prison officials and inmates alike for what they have done in the past five years. The prison rehab department manager said, "To those inmates undergoing forced drug rehab, I did not have a single day go by without writing a violation ticket. When the Falun Gong 9-day session began, a miracle occurred on the sixth day. I did not have to write any violation tickets and the incidents just disappeared." The manager has written a plan: "They will put Falun Gong into the vocational training classes. Every inmate is encouraged to take a total of 9-hours of Falun Gong classes before their release. In addition, they will open a weekly class of one and a half hours in the drug-rehab."


Inmates listen to practitioners sharing their experiences

Tainan District Attorney’s Office teaches parolees Falun Gong

In 2002, practitioners began to teach Falun Gong to inmates in Tainan Prison, hoping to bring the joy of having physical and mental health improvement to more people. Many inmates appreciated the profound meaning of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" and decided to straighten the directions of their lives. Many of them joined in the Dafa cultivation. At first, the class was held only in the first workshop. Because of the good reception, it expanded to twenty workshops in 2005. Tainan Prison provides access to the inmates and guards to the classes held by all religious groups. Falun Dafa was always assessed to be one of the most well received groups. On April 3, 2006, the first 9-day lecture session was held. The inmates all felt that it was very beneficial, and hope that the same session can be held again in the future.

Because of its remarkable contributions, Taizhong Detention Center issued a certificate of appreciation to the Falun Dafa Association on December 20, 2003. The certificate had four big characters saying "Immeasurable Contributions" on it, referring to Falun Gong practitioners' work of going to the detention center every week to teach Falun Gong and help rehabilitate the inmates, and remarkably improve their physical and spiritual health.


Appreciation certificate from Taizhong Detention Center

Appreciation certificate from Attorney General’s Office of Martial Court

The Situation in the Prisons - A Sharp Contrast Between Two Sides

Comparing the current situation of practitioners being arrested, imprisoned, forced to go through brainwashing, and tortured by Jiang’s regime in China, Taiwan is having many practitioners help prisons in their inmate rehab work which has had great results in inspiring the good nature of the inmates. Practitioners brought the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion Forbearance" to police and inmates. The prisons issued appreciation certificates to the practitioners, and the inmates truly approve of it. Some inmates not only read the book and cultivate by themselves, they also introduce Zhuan Falun to their family members. It has improved their mental states and caused the atmosphere around the prison to be very calm and peaceful.

Both sides of the Taiwan Strait have the same ancestry and inherited the same Chinese culture, but the treatment Falun Gong is receiving is in sharp contrast from one side to the other. For seven years, practitioners around the world have tried all sorts of means to let people know the facts about Falun Gong and inspire their good nature. It has allowed the facts to be known to the whole world. People can now see that the time when justice will prevail is near and the day that the Chinese Communist Party collapses is imminent. I sincerely hope that good people will step forward and work together to end this brutal persecution of Falun Gong.


Police in Mainland China arrest practitioners who appealed to the government

10,000 people supporting the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin in front of the Taiwan president’s compound