(Minghui.org)
(Continued from Part 1)
Persecution of Falun Gong
On July 20, 1999, then head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Jiang Zemin, launched a brutal campaign against Falun Gong practitioners. The persecution remains unabated after more than 20 years. The cruelty and the intensity of the persecution are worse than the persecution of any other righteous faiths throughout history.
Mr. Li Hongzhi began to teach Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) to the public in Changchun City, Jilin Province in 1992. The cultivation practice, based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and complemented with five sets of gentle exercises, purifies peoples’ minds and bodies, and elevates their morality. Within a few years, Falun Gong became very popular across China.
According to China’s official statistics, by 1999, the number of people practicing Falun Gong had increased to more than 100 million, and was much respected by many senior CCP officials.
Upset about Falun Gong’s popularity, Jiang launched the persecution.
The persecution has been carried out by various sectors of the CCP apparatus, including government departments, the military, the healthcare system, as well as public security, the judiciary system, the courts, etc. With strict information censorship, what has been reported about the persecution is just the tip of the iceberg.
Even so, the Minghui.org website has managed to collect a large amount of first-hand information over the last 20-odd years and is still collecting and sorting out the cases.
Scope of the Persecution
The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has been carried out throughout China, from cities to rural areas, including 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and centrally-administered municipalities.
The persecution in the regions of Heilongjiang Province, Jilin Province, Liaoning Province, Hebei Province, Shandong Province, Beijing, Sichuan Province, and Hubei Province, has been especially severe.
Practitioners who are subjected to the persecution come from all walks of life, and include professors, farmers, artists, and business owners, as well as government officials and those who work in law enforcement and the judiciary branches.
The practitioners targeted by the CCP include people of all genders and age groups, ranging from infants to the elderly in their 80s or 90s. Even pregnant women and the disabled are not spared.
Institutions where Falun Gong practitioners are tortured include local police stations, detention centers, forced labor camps, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, as well as some hotels and schools-turned brainwashing centers.
Torture Methods
According to reports on Minghui.org, torture methods used on Falun Gong practitioners include but are not limited to beatings, electric shocks, involuntary drug administration, sexual abuse, and so on.
In short, anything that would inflict harm to the practitioners is used to torture them.
Each torture method may be used in different ways to intensify the pain. For example, a victim may be suspended by one handcuffed wrist, or by both hands cuffed, hung up to a door frame, or with a thin wire. Some are hung up through a metal ring, or in a spread-eagle position, or hung upside down in the air.
Degree of Persecution
The CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong has caused significant loss of life. According to incomplete statistics, as of July 19, 2022, Minghui.org has managed to verify 4,828 cases of Falun Gong practitioners who lost their lives as a result of persecution.
This figure is only the tip of the iceberg of the actual death toll. Due to the CCP’s tight cover-up of its crimes, a large number of cases are still hidden in the dark, with much evidence destroyed at various levels, especially in relation to the massive cases of forced organ harvesting.
According to statistics from Minghui.org, as of July 10, 2019, as many as 86,050 practitioners had been unlawfully arrested, 28,143 sent to re-education through labor facilities, 17,963 illegally sentenced to prison, 18,838 forcibly put into brainwashing sessions, and 809 practitioners forced into psychiatric hospitals. Cases of various forms of persecution mounted to 518,940. Many families were destroyed, with loved ones separated or passed away.
Righteous Faith Always Pierces Through Darkness
To date, 22 years into the 21st century, the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is still going on, and happening every day in China. Despite the high-pressure and threats, and with their basic rights to life, work, speech, and belief grossly trampled, Falun Gong practitioners in China have demonstrated incredible perseverance, compassion, sincerity, and selflessness, which have in turn touched the hearts of countless people in China and abroad, including many who used to hold negative views about Falun Gong, and treated practitioners badly.
For example, while in jail, Falun Gong practitioners were often beaten up and abused by inmates, instigated by prison guards. However, practitioners showed no resentment or hard feelings towards them. They instead treated them with great compassion and sympathy.
One practitioner recalled, “Gradually, they changed their attitudes because they realized that we were good people. They watched the guards through the peep hole in the door – to protect us. Because we didn’t have exercise music in jail, when we did the second exercise, one of the inmates would watch the time and remind us to change our hand positions. They began to trust us, and talked to us about their problems. They helped us bring materials, paper, Dafa books, and so on to fellow practitioners. When guards were searching our cell, they helped hide Falun Dafa books.”
Falun Gong practitioners’ fine characters had a positive impact on the inmates. “They fought less among themselves, and verbally abused others less. Some completely stopped swearing. When they said a dirty word, they would feel very embarrassed and would stop straight away. Some inmates also studied the Fa with us. Some said, “If I had come across Falun Gong earlier, I wouldn’t have committed any crimes, and would not have been held here.”
Over the years, Falun Gong has received thousands of proclamations and awards from all over the world in recognition of its great contributions and benefits to people and communities. There are now people practicing Falun Gong in more than 100 countries across the world, and more and more people have realized the value and importance of the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, especially when the world is being ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, violence, and wars in recent times.
Mayor Kevin Hartke of the City of Chandler, Arizona, U.S.A. stated in a proclamation, “Falun practitioners’ determination and courage to stand up for Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance while facing severe persecution from the Chinese Communist Party have shown the world the value of life and the preciousness of human dignity.”
Nevada State Assemblywoman Tracy M. Brown stated in a proclamation, “In these trying, post-pandemic times, the meditative exercise of Falun Dafa has provided many Nevadans with a natural and effective option to achieve mental clarity, stress relief, and newfound energy.
“Falun Dafa not only provides individuals with a sense of inner calm and optimism during dire circumstances, but also provides a profound understanding of life and the universe.”
At present, the international community has reached a general consensus in the condemnation of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong and its practitioners. Ending the persecution and returning freedom to all Falun Gong practitioners has become a global human rights and humanitarian agenda. The CCP’s crimes against Falun Gong will definitely be dealt with in the not too distant future. The darkness will soon pass and be replaced with light.
Revelations from History
Four emperors in Chinese history, as well as the ancient Roman Empire, driven by the pursuit of power, burned scriptures and persecuted religious groups. However, the compassion and great kindness displayed by righteous believers enabled more and more people to feel the profundity and power of faith. In view of the four eradications of Buddhism in Chinese history and the persecution of Christians in ancient Rome, we could see that as time went on, more and more people became convinced by the righteous beliefs and became practitioners themselves.
The orbit of history has never changed. From 1999 to the present, 23 years have passed, and more and more people in China, from officials to the police, from those in power to ordinary people, have come to understand the truth about Falun Gong, and the persecution has become difficult to sustain.
Power is only temporary, but faith is God-given and fundamental to life. At this crucial moment, at the crossroads of history, may all kindhearted people never despise faith. No matter what happens in life, everyone comes and leaves empty-handed. Only by being clear-headed about what is truly happening, learning the truth, and holding on to our innate kindness, can we make the right choice prior to the arrival of a new era.
Related report:
Throughout History, Righteous Faith Always Pierces Through Darkness (Part 1)
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Category: News Commentary
