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Latest News from China - 10/01/2000

Oct. 3, 2000

[Mainland] Dafa posters seen in all districts and surrounding counties of Beijing

On the evening of September 20, many practitioners in Beijing put up Dafa posters declaring "Jiang Zemin can't shirk the responsibility for the persecution of Falun Gong." Four practitioners saw a bulletin board in a public park that read, "The Chinese government has banned Falun Gong. It is forbidden to practice Falun Gong at this park." It reminded them of an infamous sign posted at the front gate of a park located in the European-occupied section of Shanghai during the 1920s and 30s, "Neither Chinese nor dogs are allowed to enter this park." The practitioners put up the Dafa poster on top of the old announcement with great care. After they were done, they felt as if they had won a battle against evil, and their courage increased tenfold. In just a couple of hours, these four practitioners were able to put up more than 500 copies of the Dafa poster.

[Mainland] Falun Dafa posters seen on the streets of Changchun and Shenzhen

In the early morning hours of October 1st, countless Falun Dafa posters were seen in the city of Changchun. Articles such as "Jiang Zemin can't shirk the responsibility for the persecution of Falun Gong" were posted on the walls of apartment buildings, street corners, police stations, and power line poles. Many residents read the posters, and then walked away quietly.

The practitioners in the city of Shenzhen were inspired by the efforts of Beijing practitioners on September 20, and decided to follow suit on September 28th. Numerous copies of "Jiang Zemin can't shirk the responsibility for the persecution of Falun Gong" were seen on street corners, residential neighborhoods, public parks, entertainment complexes, phone booths, billboards, newspaper bulletin boards, and power line poles. All the practitioners who participated in this activity were able to return home safely.

[Mainland] More than a thousand practitioners arrested in Tiananmen Square on the morning of October 1st

On the morning of October 1st, 2000, after the traditional flag-raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square was completed, more than one thousand practitioners gathered in the Square to hold a peaceful appeal on behalf of Falun Dafa. They were immediately arrested. Detailed information is being gathered.

[Mainland] Eyewitness Report in Tiananmen Square on the morning of October 1st

On the morning of October 1st (Chinese National Day), Tiananmen Square was packed with holiday tourists. Uniformed and plainclothes policemen were everywhere. Shortly after 8 am, Falun Gong practitioners began to step out to hold a peaceful appeal. Large-scale arrest began to take place immediately. According to an eyewitness report, by 9:30 am, so many practitioners were taken into custody that they filled more than 25 medium and large-sized buses. They were then driven away to an unknown location. When the eyewitness left the Square, practitioners were still being rounded up.

[Mainland] The article "Serious Teaching" woke up practitioners

Since July 22 of last year, practitioners in Beijing have rarely gone public to appeal for Dafa. They made many excuses to cover up their action (or the lack of), and some even believed in the false Jingwen (short articles by Master Li) made up by the Chinese government to deceive and misguide practitioners. After reading articles such as "Advance toward Consummation through Cultivation within Fa Rectification" and "Serious Teaching," many practitioners woke up and realized the mistakes they had made. In the past, they could come up with excuses for themselves even while reading the eight latest articles by Master Li, such as not having enough time to study the Fa. But now they can no longer find any excuses for themselves, and these practitioners have decided to participate in the effort to spread the Dafa. After seeing these changes, the practitioners who had previously come out to appeal for Dafa felt encouraged and have grown more determined. Some practitioners feel that now is the time to do whatever it takes to spread the Dafa and "assist the Teacher in the human world," using all the manpower, money and time that they have.

[Mainland] September 30th Paranoid Beijing under high alert

I was on a business trip, and returned to Beijing from Jilin on September 30th. At the Jilin Train Station, many policemen rounded up people who they thought might be Falun Gong practitioners and interrogated them. Shortly after I got on the train, three or four policemen came on, and talked to each passenger one by one. The first question was whether she/he practices Falun Gong, or has read Falun Gong books. Then each person was forced to answer whether Li Hongzhi is a good person or a bad person. Anyone who hesitated in answering or whose answers were not fully satisfactory was asked the same questions over again. If the answers were still not fully satisfactory, the passenger was then taken aside and interrogated fully. The police checked people's ID cards and rummaged through their luggage. Most passengers were understandably annoyed and could not figure out why they were being treated like that. Some people did declare their hatred for Dafa but could not explain why they felt that way. A significant number of people openly said that while they are not practitioners themselves, they know quite a bit about Falun Gong and believe that Falun Gong practitioners are good people. It was easy to see that while the police appeared to be confident and in control, in reality they knew what they were doing was not right.

At the underground tunnel of the Beijing train station, I also saw a large number of anti-riot police in full riot gear. Who knows what kind of "riot" they are anticipating?

[Jilin Province] Police search the train station for Falun Gong practitioners

In order to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from going to Beijing to appeal for Dafa, the local police have been conducting a search of all passengers at the train station. Anyone whose final destination was Beijing was forced to get off the train and interrogated at the police station. Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and taken into custody on the spot - 38 practitioners were taken into custody from a single train car, alone. In addition, some police even followed practitioners to Beijing to see who their contacts in Beijing are, so that they can do even more damage. The police discovered a gathering place of practitioners in Beijing this way. The practitioners are asked to be on high alert, and make sure they are not being followed to prevent more damage from taking place.

[Mainland] On the streets of Beijing, "there is a sentry at every third step, and a checkpoint at every fifth"

In recent days, many more policemen have showed up on the streets of Beijing all of a sudden. One really feels as if "there is a sentry at every third step, and a checkpoint at every fifth." Police cars with siren blasting can be seen and heard everywhere. An old Chinese saying "whenever the world is peaceful and there is no disturbance, count on the foolish to worry endlessly" is truly happening in real-life. Isn't it easy to see who is behind all the instability?

[Chengdu, Sichuan] Practitioners placed under house arrest during the "National Day" celebration

During the weeklong National Day Celebration, many companies in Chengdu have put Falun Gong practitioners under house arrest at the workplace by forcing them to work mandatory overtime.

On September 29, the police visited all the web kiosks in Chengdu. They were told to pay attention to what websites their customers were visiting, and report anyone who visited Falun Gong websites.

[Mainland] Irish practitioner Zhao Ming sent to labor camps

Irish practitioner Zhao Ming, 30, was a graduate student studying at the computer science department of Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland. In January, Zhao Ming returned to Beijing to submit appeal letters for Falun Gong at several governmental agencies. As a result, he was forcefully sent back to his hometown of Changchun, and the police illegally confiscated his passport. They told him that the only way to get his passport back was to write a statement promising he would never practice Falun Gong again, but Zhao Ming refused to write such a statement. Because his passport was confiscated, he was not able to return to Ireland to complete his graduate study. Having no financial means to support himself, Zhao Ming returned to Beijing to look for a job in March. The police declared him to be a "Falun Gong organizer" and put him on the wanted list.

On May 13, he went to the home of a fellow practitioner in Beijing, and was arrested there by a government agent who followed him secretly. He was taken into the Haidian police station, and has not been heard from since. It is only now that his loved ones found out where he is - he is being held at the Beijing Daxin County Male Labor Station. Zhao Ming has suffered much at the labor camp - the guards and prisoners have beaten him severely and repeatedly used electric batons to shock him. He is only allowed to sleep two hours every day. The guards tried to force him to write anti-Falun Gong material. When he refused to do so, they surrounded him and beat him to the verge of death. It is difficult to describe the amount of his suffering with words. All the Falun Gong practitioners at the labor camp are being treated in this fashion. The labor camp is like a hell on earth, and this is how Jiang Zemin ordered his lackeys to "transform" the kind-hearted practitioners. This is the truth behind the government propaganda that "right now the Chinese human rights record is at its best."

[Mainland] Practitioners arrested for receiving a package from their own daughter

A practitioner, who is a student at a Beijing university, sent a package containing Master Li's new books to her parents living in a northeastern Chinese province. The package was mailed to her father's work address, and her father's employer opened up the package illegally. When they found the books, they reported the father to the police. He was taken away, and his home was completely ransacked. How could this be happening? It was against the law in the first place to open another person's private mail, yet it became the reason to arrest people and ransack their home. How is this different from being a bandit and a common thief?

[Beijing] Three practitioners arrested

On the evening of September 29, Beijing practitioners Zhou Yanhua and Zhang Shulin went to the home of fellow practitioner Liu Naihua. The police from the Chaoyang district surrounded Liu's home, and took away the three practitioners.

[Changchu] Practitioners physically abused

The police in Changchu rounded up practitioners who refused to write statements promising to give up Falun Gong and sent them to a "military training" camp to punish them. There, the practitioners endured terrible physical abuse.

Bai Xiaojun's legs became severely swollen after being repeatedly kicked. He is still bedridden and unable to take care of himself. While doing chores in the cafeteria, practitioner Liu Siyi talked to another practitioner briefly, and this caused him to be kicked and beaten by guard Sun Tianjun. The head of the camp Li Jianjun not only did not stop this from happening, but instead he watched the beating with a look of pride and satisfaction.

At the beginning of September, guard Guo Huaicheng gave practitioner Zheng Yongguang a terrible beating for no apparent reason while conducting an interrogation. Zheng was beaten to the ground, his face ashen, and he could not stand up. Later he fainted and was sent to the hospital. There was severe internal bleeding; it turned out that his pancreas had ruptured and had to be removed.

Guard Fan Shuqiang used an electric baton to shock practitioner Han Yuzhu more than ten times. Jiao Shoutong's face was purple from a terrible beating. Fellow practitioner Zhang Wei was beaten in a similar fashion twice.

[Sichuan] Local government opens private prisons to persecute Falun Gong practitioners

Chen Quanjin and Zhou Lei are the heads of the local Communist party branch in the township of Sanser (Pengzhou City, Sichuan province). They illegally opened a private prison inside the local government building, and have detained practitioners (Chen Zurong, Tan Yanfang, Xiang Wangzheng, among others) since June. They openly said that the only way for the practitioners to get out of the prison is to pay them five to ten thousand RMB, easily more than the life savings of an ordinary family. This is what happens in Emperor Jiang's China, where there is supposedly a law for everything.

[Chengdu] Practitioner arrested under false pretense

The local Shuangnan Police Station ordered Chengdu practitioner Guo Hualin to write anti-Falun Gong material. When he refused to do so, the police told him to go to the police station to talk. When he showed up, he was promptly arrested. On September 21, he was sent to the newly built Pujiang County Detention Center. Because the walls and ground were still wet, the detention center was infested with mosquitoes and flies. Guo's arrest was a direct result of the added pressure that Luo Gan put on the local government to address the "Falun Gong problem" even more forcefully during his visit to Chengdu in September. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is still escalating.

[Sichuan] More Sichuan practitioners sent to labor camp

Since August, the local government has stepped up its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Guangan County, Sichuan Province. The number of practitioners sent to labor camps has increased significantly. Before August, six practitioners were sent to the labor camps:

Cao Junjiang, male, 29 Xiang Lang, male, 28 Jiang Heping, male, 50 Li Lin, female, 35 Wang Shiying, female, 35 Zhang Ming, male, 47

Since August, eight more practitioners have been sent to labor camps. They were all taken by the police from their own homes, and sentenced to serve time at labor camps after cursory show trials held behind closed doors. These eight practitioners are:

Zhang Congyuan, female, 52 Wu Xueqin, female, 28 Deng Yuanxu, female, 50 Lei Xinlian, female, 50 Hu Xuchun, female, 32 Liu Lin, female, 26 Hu Xiaocui, female, 31 Huang Linchuan, male, 31

[Mainland] Police ransack practitioners' homes looking for Falun Gong books

In the evening of September 29, at a certain county in the Jiamusi region, the local police raided the homes of known Falun Gong practitioners. They found and confiscated Falun Gong books.

Several days ago, four practitioners, who had been detained for more than three months, were officially given separate 1-year sentences at labor camps.

[Beijing] Practitioner escapes arrest

In the morning of September 29, Dan Liang (alias), a young professor at a famous Beijing university, was working in his office when he suddenly received a call from the department office. He was told to come to the department office, where a city government official was waiting to have a "heart-to-heart" talk with him. Dan Liang knew it was a trap, so he just got up and left. It is well known that around July 22, many practitioners were invited to have such "heart-to-heart" talks. They were arrested and sent to labor camps, where they have been beaten and persecuted endlessly. Is this the way that the Party holds "heart-to-heart" talks?