(Clearwisdom.net) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Jiang Zemin misused the government machinery and launched the nationwide persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. The media, the judicial system, the administrative system, the national security bureau (spy network), and diplomats abroad were instructed to propagate slanderous information about Falun Gong, while all Falun Gong publications and websites were banned. To date, more than 100,000 practitioners have been sent to labor camps and prisons, and more than 3,000 practitioners have been tortured to death. Despite everything that has happened, Falun Gong practitioners nevertheless persevere in their belief and peacefully oppose the persecution. They have withstood the most fanatical smear campaign by a group known for its tendency toward mass slaughter and ruthless political movements.

In the past nine years, practitioners' efforts to end the persecution have included distributing flyers and holding parades, candlelight vigils, anti-torture exhibits, press conferences, artistic performances, and face-to-face talks with government officials. They have established media outlets of their own and filed lawsuits against Jiang Zemin, Li Lanqing, and Luo Gan, top Party bosses responsible for directing the persecution. They have also broken through the information blockade set up by the Communist Party and directly transmitted information about Falun Gong to people in Mainland China. The contrast between the brutality of the Party and the peaceful resilience of Falun Gong has become one of the defining struggles of our time--the age-old battle between good and evil.

In Taiwan, the government, the legislative branch, and numerous social groups have publicly denounced the persecution as a transgression against humankind.

The President and Vice President Condemned the Persecution

According to an April 27, 2006, report by Central News Agency, on orders from the Communist Party, certain individuals have harvested organs from living Falun Gong practitioners and sold them for transplant surgeries. They cremate the bodies afterwards to destroy the evidence. The report attracted international attention. Taiwan President Chen Shui-Bian said that same day, "The Party's suppression of Falun Gong only generates more aversion toward totalitarian Communist rule, as freedom of belief is a universally accepted value. Instead of covering up organ harvesting in vain, the Party should conduct investigations and bring all involved to justice. The Party should also make amends to its human rights' record and prevent future encroachments in this area."

Vice President Lu Xiulian appeared on TV on July 20, 2002, and voiced her support for Falun Gong as well as opposition against the Party's persecution and blatant disregard for the practitioners' rights. She solemnly condemned the Party, saying, "Falun Gong is innocent, the persecutors are the true criminals." She also wished the practitioners well.

Taiwan's Legislative Yuan Passed a Resolution

The Legislative Yuan is similar to a parliament in European countries, and the function of the members of the Legislative Yuan is similar to that of US senators. On June 8, 2004, 126 members of the Legislative Yuan, across party lines, proposed a resolution demanding that the Chinese government immediately release all arrested and detained Falun Gong practitioners and end the persecution of Falun Gong. The resolution was passed unanimously.

10,000 practitioners gathered on Kaidagelan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on November 15, 2003. They called for a public trial of Jiang Zemin and an end to the persecution. Also present were legislators Lin Zhuoshui, Lin Chongmuo, Guo Rongzong, and Sun Guohua; Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Liao Pen-Yen; Wei Qianfeng, deputy director of Taiwan's Human Rights Improvement Association; and Wu Huilin, Chairman of the Chinese Association for Human Rights, all of whom took a public stand against Communist tyranny.

10,000-people rally in front of the Presidential Office Building on November 15, 2003

High Resolution Picture

Freedom Times report: 10,000 people practice the Falun Gong exercises and support the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin

Indignant Lawyers Sound Off

The Taiwan National Bar Association, the largest association in the Taiwanese legal arena, published a resolution on October 25, 2003, to support Falun Gong practitioners' global lawsuits against Jiang Zemin and to urge the regime to immediately release all illegally incarcerated Taiwanese practitioners. This was the first bar association in the world that openly expressed support for Falun Gong practitioners' lawsuits against Jiang Zemin.

The Taiwan National Bar Association (TNBA) has more than 4,000 members. The board of directors at TNBA held a meeting on October 25, 2003, to elect a new chairman and supervisor. After the election, they discussed the resolution that 18 members had proposed to support Falun Gong. After an enthusiastic discussion, they unanimously voted for the resolution and subsequently made a public statement announcing their decision.


Taiwan National Bar Association (TNBA) supports lawsuits against Jiang Zemin

To voice support for six lawyers in Beijing who were defending Falun Gong practitioners, lawyer Chiu Huang-chuan, deputy director of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) Asian Delegation and Director of the Cheng Nan-jung Foundation, invited human rights lawyers in Taiwan to take part in a press conference on May 5, 2007. The press conference called on the international community to condemn the Communist Party's deprivation of lawyers' rights, supported the six lawyers in Beijing who stood up for their principles, and demanded that the Party immediately release Falun Gong practitioners unlawfully imprisoned and stop the suppression of religious freedom in China.


Lawyer representatives signed an open letter to international human rights organizations, legal associations, and Chinese President Hu Jintao

SOS Walk and Bike Tour

Several practitioners started an SOS Walk in Taiwan to help rescue fellow practitioners jailed in China. Two groups set off from Taipei and Yilan and ended in Kaohsiung two weeks later. In 2003 and 2004, practitioners held two SOS Bicycle Tours to raise awareness of the persecution.

SOS Walk to rescue incarcerated fellow practitioners in China

Youth Bicycle Tour, August 2004

Candlelight Vigil and Signature Collection

In the past nine years, the Party and Jiang's clique have detained, beaten, raped, electrically shocked, and injected Falun Gong practitioners with psychotic drugs and have even harvested organs from living practitioners. The brutality defies imagination. It has been verified that at least 3,150 practitioners have died from persecution, while countless others have been sent to detention centers, forced labor camps, prisons, brainwashing centers, and mental institutions all across the country.

Candlelight vigil during December 2000 Taiwan Falun Dafa Conference
to commemorate fellow practitioners tortured to death

In July 2004, people signed a banner to oppose the persecution after a shooting incident in South Africa on June 28.

Anti-torture Exhibit

Taiwanese practitioners have reenacted tortures employed by the Party against Falun Gong practitioners in China at public places in Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Nantou, Jiayi, Tainan, and Gaoxiong since 2004. There are more than 100 reported torture methods, including use of electric batons, dungeons, force-feeding with brine and feces, sleep deprivation, rape, the Tiger Bench, and many others.


Reenactment of torture methods

People signed petitions to help end persecution

Exposing the Persecution All Over the World

Many Taiwanese practitioners experienced improved physical and mental well-being after practicing Falun Gong, and they traveled to other parts of Southeast Asia, the US, and Europe to share the wonder of Falun Dafa with others and also to expose the persecution.

Taiwanese practitioners lending a hand at a Falun Gong booth in Hong Kong

Several hundred Taiwanese practitioners in an anti-persecution parade in Washington, DC

Condemning Organ Harvesting

Council members who represent different counties and cities also condemned the Party's atrocities. By February 18, 2007, among the 23 counties and cities of Taiwan, 18 councils of Chiayi County, Yilan County, Eelung City, Hualien County, Tainan City, Yunlin County, Pingtung County, Penghu County, Changhua County, Hsinchu County, Taichung City, Taitung County, Kaohsiung City, Taoyuan County, Taichung County, Miaoli County, Taipei County, and Kaohsiung County passed resolutions condemning the Communist Party's atrocity of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. The councils of the other five counties and cities are in the process of cosigning the resolutions.


Pingdong County Councilor Pan Yulong, who initiated the proposal, declared his support for Falun Gong practitioners

Tainan County Councilor Wang Yayun (woman in the center with long hair) stands with Falun Gong practitioners. The banner reads, "Falun Dafa, 'Truth-Compassion-Tolerance.'"

Truth-Compassion-Tolerance Art Exhibit and Picture Exhibit

The sponsors of the "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" Art Exhibit toured Taipei for the first time in February 2005, followed by 23 counties and universities, including Taiwan University, Chengchi University, Tsinghua University, Jiaotung Unversity, Chungyang University, Science and Technology University of Yunlin, Chungcheng University, Haiyang University, Tunghua University, Education College of Hualian, Yilan, and Chungshan University. The paintings were warmly welcomed by the general public as the artists, all Falun Gong practitioners, expressed their understandings of life and the universe, as well as exposing the brutality of the persecution, through the works.

Curator explaining the paintings to the public

The "Falun Dafa Practitioners Validating the Fa" photo exhibition was first presented to the public at the Taibei Municipal Social Education Hall in August 2005 and subsequently visited counties and cities throughout Taiwan.

The exhibit included 140 photographs, which recorded many precious and significant moments, including how practitioners carried out their anti-persecution efforts and the difficult the path of Fa-rectification. It presented the Fa's compassion and beauty and showed how the Fa had brought harmony to many. The stories presented in the pictures reflected the ancient principle, "Good will be rewarded with good and evil will meet with retribution."


Contemplative crowd inside the exhibit hall

CIPFG and the One-Million Signatures Movement

More than 400 individuals from different walks of life formed the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) on April 4, 2006, for the purpose of independent, direct, and unimpeded investigations into the persecution of Falun Gong and the organ harvesting issue in China. The organization launched the "One-Million Signatures against the Persecution" campaign on January 1, 2008. The signatures will be submitted to the United Nations and foreign governments in hopes they will call on the Chinese Communist Party to end the persecution of Falun Gong. As of May 11, 2008, nearly 290,000 Taiwanese have signed the petition, including seven county chiefs, 13 legislators, 108 councilors, 18 township chiefs, 30 aboriginal representatives, 52 village chiefs, 104 administrative chiefs, 14 lawyers, 95 school principals, as well as doctors and public prosecutors.

The widespread support for Falun Gong in Taiwan is in sharp contrast to the brutality in Mainland China, although both places speak the same language. The persecution will not last, and as more and more people around the world rise up and voice their opposition to the tyranny, justice will prevail and those responsible will be held accountable for their crimes. Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan have persevered for the past nine years in following "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance," and they will continue to expose the persecution until it is brought to an end.

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Category: Dafa Day Perspectives