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My Thoughts on Clarifying the Facts to Visiting Chinese Military Personnel during the Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Aug. 24, 2004 |   Written by a US Dafa practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, I saw an article on Clearwisdom, which spoke about the activities held by the Edinburgh practitioners during the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. For those who may not have read the article, during the Tattoo this year the Chinese Liberation Army's performance troop was invited to perform. The practitioners in Edinburgh arranged to hold an anti-torture exhibition and an appeal during the Tattoo.

When I read this article I became aware that some practitioners had taken up the aggressive attitude or a notion that the Chinese Liberation Army performance troop was an extension of Jiang himself instead of seeing these people as sentient beings who had come here to attain the truth. In my opinion, this was not a compassionate way of clarifying the facts to the troop. In accepting this concept we are neglecting how we can clarify the truth to these Chinese people, e.g. give them our flyers, or allow them to meet with practitioners who are wearing yellow T-shirts printed with "Falun Dafa is Good," etc.

Instead the article explained that when the Chinese Army Performers walked past, the small choir composed of Dafa practitioners started to sing. When I read this I questioned how deeply the truth was clarified to the Chinese Army Performers? I wondered if they had never heard of how wonderful Falun Gong is or how horrible the persecution is. If they didn't have the opportunity to learn the truth about Falun Dafa while speaking with and seeing the practitioners, how they could have understood the message that was being conveyed through this song?

Jiang tightly controls the army, so very few people have the opportunity to learn the truth. At the same time, it is so important for them to learn the truth. They also deserve to be saved. Furthermore, it is not easy for people in the Chinese military to visit overseas countries, yet when they came it appeared that they did not hear the truth, that they only saw the appeal. I think this is rather unfortunate. I remember an article that I read a few years ago. It was about practitioners giving out flyers at a particular tourist attraction outside China, and when they saw Chinese military personnel, they went up to them with a smile and told them the true situation about Falun Dafa and the persecution in China. They were all curious about it and were very friendly. Many of them took flyers.

We know that Jiang himself does not represent the entire Chinese government, nor does he represent all of the Chinese people. Similarly, he does not represent these soldiers either. Therefore I feel that we should appeal against Jiang Zemin, and at the same time clarify the truth to people in the Chinese military.

This is just my personal understanding. Please feel free to correct me and share.