(Clearwisdom.net)
Berkeley, California, shares a sister city relationship with Haidian District in Beijing -- where atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners have been widely reported on Clearwisdom Website. Ms. Zhao Xin, a professor at the Beijing Industrial and Commercial College, was brutally beaten by Haidian District police in June 2000. As a result, her neck was broken and she suffered in the hospital for six months before she finally passed away. Tsinghua University (located in Haidian District) has also been following Jiang's order to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Since 1999, over 300 students and faculty members from Tsinghua University have been expelled from school, forced into brainwashing classes, sent to labor camps or sentenced to jails.
Recently, Berkeley City Council passed a resolution supporting Falun Gong and sent a letter to officials of the Haidian district of Beijing, as well as to other related Chinese officials, requesting a reply to the reported abuses against Falun Gong practitioners there. The letter also appeals to the Chinese government to resolve these matters without resorting to further violence. The Berkeley Peace and Justice Committee first passed the resolution before unanimously referring it to the City Council. This resolution not only supports Falun Gong practitioners from California, but also is the first action taken by a California municipality to use its relationship with China to urge the Chinese government to improve its human rights record. Therefore, this resolution plays an active role in stopping the persecution.
On the day of the Berkeley City Council meeting, July 9, 2002, over one dozen practitioners from Berkeley East Bay Area were in attendance. The resolution on Falun Gong was listed as one item on the agenda.
Right before the beginning of the meeting a problem arose. Suddenly we were informed that there would be a real possibility that the resolution would be removed from the agenda. We did not accept this in our minds and sent forth righteous thoughts continuously.
During "public comments," speakers are chosen through a lottery. There were at least 40-50 people waiting to speak, but only 10 names were to be drawn. Amazingly, in the room filled with people, 5 of the 10 names drawn were Falun Gong practitioners!
A western practitioner first talked about his experience of being beaten near Tiananmen Square, a 68 year old gentleman then told the story of how he recovered from severe diseases on the first day of his practice, followed by the touching story of a 74 year old practitioner who participated in the 900 mile SOS Walk from Seattle to San Francisco last summer. A practitioner couple also demonstrated the Dafa exercises. All of the city officials as well as the audience listened attentively to the practitioners' speeches, and were startled to learn about the brutalities that are happening in China.
In the end, the resolution was passed, and this way several officials of the City of Berkeley positioned themselves very well in support of Dafa. In attendance that evening was a large citizen audience, and two local cable TV channels, and one Radio channel who reported the five practitioners' stories on live broadcasts.
Many citizens and officials congratulated the practitioners on the passing of the resolution. One official said to practitioners, "Although one resolution may not play too big a role in stopping the persecution, it is still very important to expose the evil deeds of those perpetrators because they are afraid of being exposed."