(Clearwisdom.net, August 12, 2003) I am a 22-year-old graduate who has been practicing Falun Gong for almost two years. After I learned Falun Gong in 2001, I immediately experienced great benefits to my health; I felt full of energy and was no longer so tired and run-down all the time. The stress and worry of being a student just seemed to disappear. My family soon began to tell their friends how I had become a lot more peaceful, kind and happy after taking up the practice. I felt really lucky to have discovered something so wonderful and wanted to share it with everyone.
However, I soon found out about the wicked persecution, instigated by Chinese tyrant Jiang Zemin, which had already been going on for over two years in China. I was startled and confused. How could hundreds of people, including babies and the elderly, be killed for practicing the peaceful and beautiful exercises that I had learned? How could thousands be imprisoned and tortured for wanting to improve their health and become better people, just like I did? How could millions of innocent people be living in constant fear and suffering, losing their families, houses and jobs, because they wanted to live by Falun Gong's main principles: Truthfulness, Kindness, Tolerance? I immediately knew that this persecution was wrong and felt that I wanted to take action to stop it. To persecute those who want to improve their character through following Truthfulness, Kindness, Tolerance is to persecute morality, goodness and the essence of humanity. Jiang Zemin is trying to destroy human nature and make it illegal to be a good person. The people of the world must take whatever peaceful actions they can to stop him continuing his reign of terror. The courts of our just and democratic societies were actually created to deal with such wicked and brutal people. Now is our chance to use them to save the people of China.
I began to tell people about what is happening in China and about this wicked guy Jiang Zemin. After the persecution began in 1999, Jiang issued an order about Falun Gong practitioners: "Ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially and physically destroy them." What amazed me most was that the Falun Gong practitioners being severely persecuted in China were grassroots members of society: teachers, doctors, policemen and government officials. How could they suddenly change from the most respected public figures to public enemies? Jiang used China's state-controlled media to spread lies about Falun Gong practitioners and turn the hearts of the Chinese people against them. I collected information to send to the media and let people know the truth and I was more and more shocked as events unfolded. I felt that I wanted to let the Chinese people know that what they were seeing and hearing was not true: Falun Gong is good and practitioners are suffering the most severe persecution. In February 2002, I went to China.
Before my journey to China, I had several thoughts in my mind: I wanted to show the Chinese people the truth behind Jiang's lies -- Falun Gong is a part of people's lives throughout the world and by 2002 was already being practiced in around 50 countries; I wanted to let the practitioners suffering every imaginable method of torture in prisons and forced labor camps, who were going without sleep and food, who were even subject to rape and forced abortion, that Falun Gong practitioners around the world are thinking of them and are doing everything they can to secure their freedom; I wanted to show the policemen who were persecuting practitioners because they had been misled by Jiang's lies, that what they are doing is wrong and they should ignore the propaganda and listen to their conscience; and finally, I wanted to show those evil policemen in Jiang's regime, who no longer have any human heart left and who gain pride and enjoyment from persecuting Dafa practitioners, that the world knows about their evil actions and they cannot escape the tightening net. The lawsuit against Jiang Zemin is truly bringing justice to the dictator who has damaged the lives of tens of millions of innocent practitioners, and who has caused the death of countless fathers, mothers, sons and daughters due to his own jealousy and greed. I still vividly remember the story of the lady Wang Lixuan who was found with a broken neck and crushed skull after being tortured by the police; next to her lay the body of her 7-month old baby whose head was dented after he had been shackled and hung upside down. Jiang even rewards the police officers who carry out this kind of atrocity. This tyrant must be punished in the courts of law, conscience and morality for the heinous crimes against humanity that he has committed. Humankind must stand up and call for justice when the fundamental principles of our existence are under threat.
I never made it to the appeal on Tiananmen Square during my time in China. After spending the day sightseeing, I returned to my hostel to find the place swarming with police. They burst into our room and searched our stuff. They didn't want to arrest us but instead said that they would take us away to an unknown destination. Because we were not under arrest, we were not allowed to contact the British Embassy. We knew what happens to Falun Gong practitioners in China and we refused to go anywhere with the police. I saw a big policeman grab the only female in our group and drag her from the room. He threw her down the stairs and once outside he dragged her into the waiting van by her hair. We could not let the police take this lady away so myself and two others, including an elderly gentleman, followed her downstairs and were violently forced into the police van. We were taken to a detention centre, interrogated individually by groups of 3 or 4 police officers for around 3 hours and then, after 23 hours of detention were up, we were deported. Our belongings were stolen, included a video camera valued at around 1,600 pounds. The Chinese police even confiscated my bus ticket that got me home from the airport in England, though it was of no value to them.
The persecution we suffered in this ordeal was really nothing compared to the suffering Chinese practitioners have been through. When they leave their home to go to appeal on Tiananmen Square, they know it's possible that they'll never return; when they lift a banner saying "Falun Dafa is Great" they know that within the hour they could be suffering beatings and torture; when they hand out a leaflet, they know that they may never see their family again; when they tell a person the truth and let them see how evil Jiang's crimes really are, they know that this could be the last thing they ever do. The bravery, courage and adamantine determination displayed by Dafa practitioners in China is the exact opposite of Jiang's evil, violent and corrupt nature. All kind-hearted people can call for this wicked dictator to face justice in the court of law. Not only is this our duty as people of the world, but is also our honor as we see an end to his enormous crimes and know that we played a role, however small, in stopping him from harming many more innocent people.