(Clearwisdom.Net)

The following comments are from new friends I've met online in Internet chat rooms:

• "I'm a software engineer in China. I hope Falun Gong will be redressed in the future! History will prove who is evil. I hope one day I will see that you're practicing Falun Gong freely in China. Don't be disappointed with China, the Chinese people are great!"

• "My dad has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. I feel so bad that I cannot see his smile! But I'm also happy for him, because he is a great person! He is worthy of my admiration! I love my parents (my mom was also just released from jail). Although I'm living a worse life than other people, I never blame them or anybody. Because I understand them, I will encourage them!"

• "It is so great here [in this chat room]!! I now understand so much... Thank you! I don't know whether I'll be able to login next time, because we have very bad Internet blocking here... I know the people who practice Falun Dafa are all very good people, this is my own experience. I got to know Falun Dafa from the Falun Dafa practitioners detained in the detention center. They are very righteous in the detention center. I admire them very much. After I got out, I also learned from them; at the very least I want to be a good person.

Some Falun Dafa practitioners that I knew are still suffering in jail. One practitioner was sentenced to four years in prison although he's innocent. He has an advanced college degree, a very nice person! Even now, when I think about this, I want to cry, really... in there it's very painful -- people who have never been there could never really understand it. Criminals should suffer like that, but the Falun Dafa practitioners are all innocent, framed. It's not reasonable at all to detain them.

They're enduring silently in there, please save them! And they don't even know each other, they're not organized at all... every one detained there would either be sent to forced labor camp or sentenced to prison. Distributing a flyer will result in a sentence of one, two, or three years in a forced labor camp. Falun Dafa practitioners are punished more harshly than real criminals, really.

What they suffer in there is not just physical pain, but also spiritual torture, which is different from criminals. The detention center also tells the criminal heads of each cell to monitor the practitioners, and they detain only one practitioner in each cell. If there are more practitioners, they immediately transfer them to other places or sentence them to jail. It's very fast. The efficiency of the Communist Party is very low, but on this issue they're very fast. If the practitioners go on a hunger strike they will be force-fed. If they can't complete the load of heavy forced labor, they are beaten. Please save them! You know, the Party's mental torture is even harder than the physical torture. The practitioners will never get their jail terms reduced, please save them!

When I got out, I wanted to practice Falun Dafa and be a particle of Dafa. However, right now because of all kinds of reasons, I cannot be counted as a Falun Dafa disciple, but I admire and honor them from deep down in my heart, and I believe in Falun Dafa. That's why at least I've learned to be a genuinely good person from Falun Dafa."

• "I also want to learn Falun Dafa. Before, I didn't have time to learn Dafa and I didn't even know Falun Dafa. Now I really want to learn Dafa, but I have nowhere to buy the books, what should I do?"

• "Also write to those who say cracking down on Falun Dafa is right. What civilized country in the world would first beat up people before a court trial, and also rape people and rob them of their property???"

• "Where can I buy books about Falun Gong? Is it possible to read the books online? It's hard to get books in China."

• "I'm not a Falun Gong practitioner, but I don't hate or reject Falun Gong. Many people I know are practicing Falun Gong. And I really never could see how practicing Falun Gong can cause mental problems! I don't know the principles of Falun Gong, but the people practicing Falun Gong are not like what Jiang said! Everybody should think about it: from 1992 to July 1999, who has ever read in the papers or heard from the media about something like Falun Gong practitioners from a certain area committing suicide or killing others?"

• "Our locality also has been harassing and arresting Falun Gong practitioners. Some people who could be my grandmother were detained in a middle school during the summer. They took off their clothes and forced them to run on the playground. What is this? I would say it's a moral disaster! Who does not have parents? What have they done? Did they rob anybody? Did they kill anybody? Those who really kill or rob are left alone!"

• "It really takes willpower to do things like this. You guys are great, that you could take the risk of losing your life."

• "I think it's very obvious who's right and who's wrong!

I think everybody has the right to decide what one wants to do or wants to think. No country or organization has the right to force others to do anything. Humans are not machines; you can't just give an order and force them to do something, not caring whether it's right or wrong. I feel that China is a country where there are no human rights. One person says "OK", then it's OK; one person says "no", then it's no. If you don't listen to me, I then make you lose your job. Furthermore, I put you in jail. How sad...

I also haven't read any Falun Gong books. I just see the result. Many countries in the world have all said that Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted. In Germany, a Falun Gong practitioner who has been persecuted can get asylum. If it's a [slanderous term omitted] how come so many developed countries don't overrule it? They are countries that understand human rights; China - Ah - how depressing..."

February 10, 2003