(Clearwisdom.net)

I have been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for most of my life. Shortly after I entered the workforce after college, CCP agents went to my company and forced the management to fire me. The reason was that I was sympathetic towards democratic ideals. It was clear to me then that it's very difficult to continue to be a person of conscience and independent thinking under the rule of the CCP.

It took me quite some effort to find another company that was willing to hire me. Soon I was fortunate enough to encounter Falun Dafa. After reading Zhuan Falun, I found answers to my life's questions. I was in awe of Dafa and thus began my cultivation. I relinquished my interest in politics, realizing that everything in the human world was predetermined and as a cultivator I shouldn't worry about the rise and fall of a given government. I thought that I should be able to live a peaceful life from then on since I no longer cared about the CCP.

But I was wrong. Even though Falun Dafa cultivators are the last group of people who would interfere with any government or try to gain power, they are still persecuted by the CCP. Because of my cultivation, my home was ransacked five times, I was formally detained four times, and I was placed under administrative detention twice. I was under house arrest for over a year, and once held in jail for five years. I lost my job, and all my personal property, including my computer and books, was taken away. My family was destroyed, and I had nowhere to go.

Why does the CCP persecute a group of people who have no interest in secular matters? I came to the answer after years of thinking. The CCP is narrow-minded and jealous. Any person or group that does not yield to its power is targeted as an enemy and subjected to persecution. Even though Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity are allowed to exist in China, people who believe in those religions must first express their allegiance to the CCP, otherwise they will be persecuted. The CCP allows different religions only on the surface, when in reality the religions have no independence.

I realized that one only has two options under the CCP's rule: suppress independent thought and follow the CCP or keep your independence at your own peril.

When I thought further, I saw that it wasn't just those with particularly strong inclinations for independent thought that were singled out. Everyone is a potential target for persecution by the CCP.

Who doesn't have independent thoughts? Who doesn't want to live a life of his own choosing? It's just that people dare not express or even possess their own thoughts after so many years of CCP rule.

Some do not perceive that they are being persecuted--it appears to them that the CCP may treat them even better in the future, but let us look at the record of history.

Since its establishment, the CCP has launched numerous political movements to attack various groups of people. It first targeted land owners, then capitalists, followed by intellectuals. Religious people and farmers were the next in line to be persecuted. From 1959-1961, over 30 million people died in the great famine caused by CCP policies. Shortly afterwards, the Cultural Revolution destroyed the lives of so many.

Who can forget the June 4 student democracy movement in 1989, in which many students and citizens were killed? Starting in 1999, the CCP began to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Over the years, the CCP has persecuted first one group and then another.

Those that the CCP considers friends today may tomorrow become its enemies. Those cursed by the CCP before are now the most revered entrepreneurs and foreign investors. One day it may attack the entrepreneurs and investors as it did before. When it comes to the CCP, anything is possible. It only cares about staying in power using whatever means necessary, and once it decides upon a course of action, it can always cook up an excuse to justify it.

You may ask, "I didn't offend the CCP, why would it persecute me?"

It's very easy to answer this question. A woman may be sexually assaulted just because she is pretty. A pedestrian may be robbed just because he has money in his pocket. The CCP's nature is to infringe upon others and it does not matter at all whether you did anything to offend it.

Of course, the CCP always tries to deceive people even as it harms them. I pity the Chinese people. After experiencing so many rounds of persecution, many of them still harbor illusions and hopes for the CCP.

As I see it, the only way out for the Chinese people is to learn a lesson from history, rationally analyze the CCP, and recognize its true nature. Only by doing so can they get away from the persecution and bring about the CCP's downfall.

I'd rather stand up to the CCP and live a normal life with dignity than bend to it.