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July 4th Parade in LA

2008-07-06T17:13:00.000-07:00

Falun Dafa team at the 2008 Huntington Beach 4th of July Parade and Pier Festival
(click on photos to enlarge)

Help!!!

2008-06-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

In April of last year, I wrote in this blog about Wenny, my best friend in China. Her Chinese name is Wen. Last night I just learned terrible news from China. Wen, who is a Falun Dafa (aka Falun Gong) practitioner, was arrested in Beijing on May 14 as a part of the communist government's persecution of Falun Gong. Her family could not find a lawyer for her since most lawyers in China do not dare to defend Falun Gong due to the fear of losing their job or even ending up in jail themselves.

Falun Gong is a Buddha School Qigong which teaches people to cultivate themselves according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. The brutal persecution started in 1999 when the estimated number of Falun Gong practitioners in China was 70 - 100 million, overtaking the number of the Chinese Communist Party members. The government tried everything to crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners, including arresting and torturing them. Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death, and some became the victims of the bloody organ harvesting. The persecution has been going on for almost nine years now. Since the end of last year, the government has stepped up the persecution because they wanted to silence all dissenting voices before the upcoming Olympics so that the country will appear to be homogeneous. Between the end of 2007 and March 2008, more than 1,800 arrests that have been documented.

Back in 2000, my friend Wen, together with many practitioners, went to appeal to the high officials in Beijing and asked for the right to continue their practice. She was detained and sent to a "brainwashing center". She ran away in early 2001 and became destitute in order to avoid being recognized and persecuted again. In November 2001, she was discovered by police and was arrested again. She was on hunger strikes during the one month detention she had to endure at the Xicheng Detention Center in Beijing. She was later taken to the Fangshan Brainwashing Center, where police used all means to torment her mentally and physically - including physical torture and sexual assault. Since January 2002 she was on run again and did not return home for six years. Apparently she returned to her home last month and police took her away again.

Wen is a very close friend of mine and she has been almost like a sister to me. Because of the persecution, I have not seen her since 2000. I lost contact with her between 2000 and 2004 and only learned these horrifying things afterwards. Right now she is being detained at the Haidian Police Station in Beijing. I will try my best to rescue her. I'm looking for ways to do it in both China and U.S..

If you would like to help - yes you can help - please join the
Millions of Signature Global Campaign on the Global Effort to Stop the Beijing's Persecution of Falun Gong before the 2008 Olympics Games.

Download the petition form:
individual or multiple
And send your signed copy back to
Mailing address: P. O. Box 55-1698, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O. C.
Email: millionsignatures@stopccpspersecution.net

The petition will be sent to various governments, parliaments, national Olympic Committees, and international organizations such as the UN and the International Olympic Committee, before the opening of the Olympics. At the moment I'm writing this message, there have been 621,554 signatures from 104 countries and areas since January. For more information on the petition or forms in other languages, please visit
Millions of Signature Global Campaign. Please give your voice too - help Stop the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Persecution of Falun Gong!

May 13: World Falun Dafa Day

2008-05-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Celebrating the World Falun Dafa Day in Los Angeles. Photos from Santa Monica Beach, California, Sunday May 11th.

April 25 - Ninth Anniversary

2008-04-26T23:40:00.000-07:00

April 25, 1999, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appeal in Beijing

Recalling the "April 25" Peaceful Appeal

By Li Ming

(Clearwisdom.net) Nine years ago, on April 25, 1999, more than ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners went to appeal in Beijing of their own accord. This large-scale, peaceful appeal under the Chinese Communist regime shocked the world and was viewed as a miracle in China's recent history. Soon afterwards, Jiang Zemin's clique launched mass arrests of Falun Gong practitioners nationwide on July 20, 1999, marking the beginning of a most brutal persecution of cultivators. What was it about the "April 25" appeal that so frightened the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)?

Recalling "April 25"

On April 11, 1999, He Zuoxiu published an article titled "I Do Not Agree with Adolescents Practicing Qigong" in the magazine Science and Technology for Youth (published by Tianjin College of Education). The article singled out and attacked Falun Gong by fabricating stories, slandering and falsely blaming Falun Gong, vilifying the image of Falun Gong practitioners, and defaming the founder of Falun Gong. After the article was published, some practitioners in Tianjin felt that they needed to clarify the facts to the departments involved and hoped to mitigate the article's adverse impact by talking with the editorial office of the magazine. From April 18 to 24, several practitioners went to Tianjin College of Education and a few other relevant departments to clarify the facts.

On April 23 and 24, officials from the Tianjin Bureau of Public Security sent armed police officers to beat and disperse Falun Gong practitioners who went to appeal. Some practitioners were injured and bleeding; 45 were arrested by the police. When practitioners asked for their release, officials from the Tianjin Municipal Government told them that the Ministry of Public Security had intervened in the matter, and without authorization from Beijing, the arrested practitioners would not be released. The authorities of the Bureau of Public Security in Tianjin suggested to the practitioners, "Go to Beijing. The matter can only be resolved if you go to Beijing."

The fact is that, long before 1999, officials from the Ministry of Public Security had assigned agents to investigate Falun Gong nationwide in an attempt to collect evidence to prosecute Falun Gong. However, they could not find anything of which to accuse Falun Gong. For years, there had been attacks on Falun Gong in the government-controlled media, but this time it had accelerated to the point where armed policemen used violence against practitioners. The intensified persecution shocked practitioners and news about the "Tianjin incident" quickly spread among them around the country.

On the evening of April 24, practitioners from various places, who trusted and had high expectations in the central government, went to the Appeals Office of the State Council, hoping that the "Tianjin Incident" could be resolved in a just and fair manner. Around lunchtime on April 25, China's then-Premier Zhu Rongji received Falun Gong representatives, who raised three requests: 1) Release the arrested practitioners in Tianjin; 2) Allow practitioners to have a relaxed cultivation environment; 3) Allow the publication of Falun Gong books.

The peaceful appeal in Beijing, in which more than ten thousand practitioners participated, remained in good order from the beginning to the end, without any noise, posters, or slogans. After Premier Zhu received Falun Gong representatives and made a preliminary decision to resolve the matter, Falun Gong practitioners left quietly. The peaceful appeal and the end result gained praise from the international community at that time.

However, Jiang Zemin was furious over Falun Gong's peaceful and rational appeal on April 25. He went berserk and personally launched the comprehensive persecution against Falun Gong on July 20, 1999.

Falun Gong's peaceful appeal demonstrated the true demeanor of spiritual cultivation

Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful appeal demonstrated the true demeanor of spiritual cultivation. The three requests raised by practitioners during their appeal on April 25 not only reflects the fact that they cherish their spiritual practice, but also demonstrates their firm adherence to the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and their efforts to safeguard the rights of the broad mass of people, so that they would be able to practice spiritual cultivation. The fact is that, after people started to practice Falun Gong, they regained good health, and many who were terminally ill gained a second life. Falun Gong helped people understand the principle of "good will be rewarded with good, and evil with evil" and enabled young people who had gone astray to mend their ways. Falun Gong has helped people to understand the meaning of life and let go of personal fame and gains, be kind to people, and think of others in all circumstances. As a result, their family life has become harmonious, conflicts between neighbors were dissolved, social environments and social order have greatly been improved, and all these have naturally improved the quality of life for people and their living environment. None of these is achieved by political or economic means, but a natural result of Falun Gong cultivation that enables people to return to their true nature and to improve their moral standard.

The peaceful "April 25" appeal effectively demonstrated the demeanor of Falun Dafa spiritual cultivators. They asked for a relaxed cultivation environment so that people could enjoy the basic right to return to their true selves and be good people through cultivation based on the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." This is something fantastic for any civilized society and will only bring tremendous benefits to the society. This is also the reason why Falun Gong has been able to spread to over 80 countries and regions within such a short time of a few years, and has received over a thousand proclamations from various countries in recognition of Falun Gong's merits.

The CCP is most fearful of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance"

Why was the CCP so frightened by Falun Gong's peaceful appeal?

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party has offered penetrating analysis on the evil nature of the CCP. No matter how hard the CCP tries to beautify itself, it cannot conceal its deceitful, evil, and violent nature. The history of the CCP is one of evilness, which destroys the morals of humanity. This Party stops at no evil and has been guilty of embezzlement and corruption, whoring, burning down people's property, killing, and seizing public wealth. The Party head, Jiang Zemin, even sold out China's territories as head of state. As evil personified, the Party forbids people from having morals or a conscience.

For close to 60 years under the tyranny of the Communist regime, China's five thousand years of divine culture has been ruthlessly destroyed through the CCP's political purge movements, such as the "Anti-three" and "Anti-five" campaigns, the "Great Leap Forward," the "Anti-Rightists" movement, the "Great Cultural Revolution," and more. The CCP has forced the Chinese people to betray their basic code of human conduct handed down by traditional Chinese culture. Around 80 million people have perished due to these purge movements the CCP has inflicted upon China. The CCP is speeding up the destruction of human nature in its ruthless killing.

The CCP needs evil conditions to support its existence, and the destruction of human nature and human morality provides the very soil for the Communist regime to maintain its living. For this reason, the noble demeanor demonstrated by Falun Gong practitioners during the peaceful "April 25" appeal and their just request for the right to practice spiritual cultivation became a thing to be greatly feared by the regime. The fact that Falun Gong attracted close to 100 million people from all walks of life in China within a short period of a few years, by word of mouth, from heart to heart, and the fact that so many people from all sectors have taken the path of cultivation and become kindhearted, scared the CCP most.

See through the evil CCP for what it is and be a dignified Chinese

During the last nine years, in order to continue the persecution, the CCP has used lies to slander and defame Falun Gong and used personal interests and benefits as well as threats to bind the Chinese people to its persecution machine, making them directly or indirectly participate in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners who believe in the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." The CCP is purposefully destroying people's morals and conscience.

In recent years during the persecution of Falun Gong, China has experienced natural and man-made calamities one after another, and criminal cases of all kinds are on the rise. The people living in China sense this intensely.

While persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, the Communist regime uses all kinds of evil means to destroy people's morals and conscience and abuses human nature. Its conduct has enraged heaven and earth and it cannot be tolerated. The time when gods bring the evil CCP to account is not far away!

As Chinese people, including the Communist members and high-ranking Communist officials, we are descendants of Yandi and Huangdi: why would you choose to sink so low and confuse "loving the Party" with "Loving China" and become sacrificial objects for the evil CCP? Gods cherish every being, and each being should also cherish his or her own life in the first place!

For the last nine years, Falun Gong practitioners have given no thought to their own life or death and have made unremitting efforts in clarifying the facts to people and distributing the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. The reason for this is to help people recognize the evil nature of the CCP, break away from it, and reject it, so that they can be clean Chinese people and be able to choose a bright future for themselves.

(http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/4/26/96771.html)

Human Rights Torch Relay Arrives in Los Angeles

2008-04-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

April 8, 2008. California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher holds Human Rights Torch with Diana Mathias, representing the Goddess of Justice.

Human Rights Torch Relay Arrives in Los Angeles

"Feels Like 1936 Again"

2008-03-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

Winner of The 9th Annual Great American Song

The Olympic Spirit hangs its head in shame
When police states are allowed to host the games
Like Germany when Hitler reigned supreme
Seeking glory for his murderous regime

Now China wants to shine upon that stage
East and West are eager to engage
But human rights the CCP * disdains
Feels like 1936 again.

Can you hold an international track meet
When you got a labor camp right down the street?
Can you sponsor the Olympics in 08
When you still imprison people for their faith?

The CCP will change what can be seen
They'll even paint the grass and mountains green
But their evil nature always will remain
Feels like 1936 again.

They torture people seven days a week
The shock batons are sizzling as we speak
They harvest organs from the Falun Gong
Then cremate them to hide what's going on.

Put me on your blacklist I don't care
I hope the people boycott this affair
The stench of genocide is in the wind
Feels like 1936 again.

Reports about the slaughter of the Jews
Quite often didn't even make the news
The world still seems to have a tendency
To ignore big crimes against humanity

When virtue comes in second place to trade
Freedom, hope and justice start to fade
The Olympic flame is flickering and dim
Feels like 1936 again

* The letters "CCP" are an abbreviation of "Chinese Communist Party."

To listen to the song, go to
Feels Like 1936 Again

L.A. Rally

2008-03-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

February 23, Los Angeles City Hall

I, Too, Have a Dream

2008-01-23T23:19:00.000-08:00

This was the Martin Luther King Day speech by Dr. Sen Yang, a Falun Dafa practitioner, in Georgia on Monday, January 21.

http://www.youmaker.com/

I, Too, Have a Dream

Channel 4 news video

2008-01-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

I saw this Channel 4 news video and thought I'd like to share it here in case you haven't seen. Dissident crackdown in China

Falun Gong Group’s Performance Is Outstanding in the 2008 New Year Parade in London

2008-01-06T22:26:00.001-08:00

Falun Gong Group’s Performance Is Outstanding in the 2008 New Year Parade in London
By a Dafa Practitioner in London

倫敦大遊行　法輪功備受稱讚（圖）
文／倫敦大法弟子
明慧網二零零八年一月四日】二零零八年新年伊始，由法輪功學員組成的天國樂團分別出現在歐洲的倫敦和巴黎、香港、臺灣等地的新年慶典和集會遊行中。他們用音樂和表演把法輪大法的美好和新年祝福帶給了成千上萬世界各地的人們，天國樂團氣勢磅礴的演奏令人感到振奮和鼓舞。其中出現在倫敦新年大遊行中的天國樂團，其精彩亮相帶給了人們強烈的震撼。
At the beginning of the New Year 2008, the Divine Land Marching Band, which is composed of Falun Gong practitioners, were invited to participate in various parades and other activities celebrating the New Year in London, Paris, Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively. Through performing music, it brought Falun Dafa’s magnificence and New Year blessing to tens of millions of people across the globe. The Marching Band’s breathtaking performance inspired many people and deeply touched their hearts. Among others, the wonderful performance of the Marching Band in the grand parade celebrating the New Year in London was highly acclaimed by people there.

法輪功天國樂團經過英國議會大廈Falun Dafa Divine Land Marching Band passes the U.K. Houses of Parliament.

花車上，法輪功學員向觀眾展示祥和美好的法輪功功法Falun Gong practitioners demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises on a float in the procession.
跳著傳統扇子舞，法輪功女學員們翩翩經過倫敦的著名標誌“大笨鍾”Female Falun Gong practitioners pass the famous Big Ben in London, while performing the traditional Chinese fan dance.
法輪功遊行隊伍穿過圍滿觀眾的街道Falun Gong procession passes crowded streets in London.
今年英國法輪功團體再一次參加了倫敦新年大遊行，遊行現場的五十余萬觀眾親眼目睹了法輪功學員在花車上盛開的蓮花裏平靜祥和的功法表演男學員雄渾有力的旗舞與女學員優美典雅的中國傳統扇子舞以及以“再現神韻”為主題的造型精美、內涵深遠的花車。而令倫敦觀眾分外驚喜的是他們已經十分熟悉的法輪功隊伍中增加了打頭陣的軍樂團——首次出現在倫敦新年大遊行中的天國樂團。
The U.K. Falun Gong group was once again invited to participate in the New Year grand parade in London this year. There were about 500,000 people saw the group’s magnificent performances, including the demonstration of the peaceful Falun Gong exercises in a blossoming lotus flower on a float, the vigorous flag dance performed by male practitioners, the traditional Chinese fan dance performed by female practitioners, and the beautiful float delicately designed to feature the splendor of the “Divine Performing Arts’ Chinese Spectacular.” What really surprised people in London was the breathtaking performance by the Divine Land Marching Band, which led the Falun Gong procession in the New Year grand parade.
樂隊成員演奏了 “法輪大法好”、“法鼓法號震十方”和“歡樂頌”等樂曲，鏗鏘有力的鼓聲驚天動地，被活動現場主持人譽為“最大嗓門的參與隊伍”，法輪功學員整體隊伍經過時，現場主持人通過擴音器向無數觀眾介紹法輪大法的美好。樂聲過處，現場觀眾紛紛鼓掌、不斷喝彩，臉上露出燦爛的笑容，接著高興的向排列在天國樂團後面的其他法輪功學員招手示意，很多人主動的向法輪功學員喊 “Happy New Year！”，並對法輪功學員發放的手工蓮花爭相索要、愛不釋手。
The Band played "Falun Dafa is Good", "Drums and Trumpets Shake the World in Ten Directions" and "Song of Joy" along the parade route. The drums’ sonorous sound was so marvelous and breathtaking that the Band was praised as the “group with most outstanding sound” by the host of the activity. When Falun Gong procession passed the platform, the host especially introduced the goodness of Falun Data to the spectators through the loudspeaker. When the Band passed by, the spectators clapped tumultuously one after another, and their faces were wearing beaming smiles. Some waved their hands to other Falun Gong practitioners behind the Band; others took initiative to exclaim “Happy New Year!” to Falun Gong practitioners, and still others asked for paper-folded lotus flowers distributed by practitioners.
在約一個半小時的遊行過程中，天國樂團成員一直保持著整齊有力的步伐，並不斷的對觀眾的熱情鼓勵和喝彩報以微笑。在遊行快要結束的時候，倫敦的天空下起了細雨，而天國樂團仍然保持隊伍整齊、精神抖擻的面貌直至遊行結束。遊行活動組織者在遊行結束後對法輪功學員表示：他對天國樂團在法輪功隊伍中的出現感到很吃驚，樂隊的表演非常好，很高興他們能來來參加遊行。他還評價說近幾年來法輪功遊行隊伍一年比一年好，今年的表演是最棒的！

Throughout the course of the parade, which lasted about one and a half hours, members of the Band marched in unison and kept smiling all the time in response to the spectators’ warm applause. When the parade was about to end, it started drizzling in London area; however, the practitioners were still in high spirits and marched in orderly lines to the end of the parade. After the parade came to a close, the organizer of the event told some practitioners that he was surprised to see the Divine Land Marching Band in the procession of Falun Gong, and that he was amazed by the its wonderful performance. He added that he was pleased to see Falun Gong practitioners participating in the parade, and that Falun Gong group’s performance has been better and better in recent years, especially this year.
參加遊行的天國樂團成員們都為自己能夠為這麼多觀眾展示法輪大法的美好感到很高興。第一次參加天國樂團表演的英國小姑娘克利斯蒂在遊行結束後高興的說遊行太棒了，她看到觀眾對天國樂團不斷歡呼。當被問到現場感受時，來自臺灣、頭一次在國外表演的一位年輕女學員回答說：看到觀眾們聽到天國樂團演奏時的高興勁兒自己很感動，而在演出行進過程中只能以微笑來與觀眾交流互動。她為自己能夠克服困難來到倫敦參加這次活動感到很自豪。住在倫敦、曾經參加過天國樂團在歐洲其他城市表演的汪先生說他感到很多觀眾真的喜歡天國樂團的表演，他看到有很多人在跟著樂曲興奮的拍手、甚至跳躍。
The members of the Band who joined the parade were glad that they were able to display the magnificence of Falun Dafa to so many spectators. After the parade, a British girl by the name of Christine, who joined the Band and participated in the parade for the first time, said that it was great to participate in the parade, and that she saw the spectators hailed the Band from time to time. When asked about her feelings, a young female practitioner from Taiwan who performed overseas for the first time said that she was moved by the spectators’ exciting response to the Band’s performance. As a result, she kept smiling to interact with the spectators throughout the parade. She was proud of being able to make it through some difficulties to participate in the activity in London this time. Mr. Wang, a member of the Band who has participated in the Band’s performance in various cities in Europe, said that he felt that many people really like the Band’s performance, and that he witnessed many people clap and even dance along the music played by the Band.
觀看二零零八年倫敦新年大遊行的觀眾再次感受了法輪大法的祥和美好，以及法輪功學員展示的中華神傳文化的資訊，他們更為天國樂團集體展現的力量所深深的震撼。
The spectators seeing the 2008 New Year grand parade in London once again witnessed the peacefulness and wonderfulness of Falun Dafa as well as the magnificence of traditional Chinese divine culture. Among others, they were deeply amazed by overwhelming vigor presented by the Divine Land Marching Band.

遊行結束後，參加遊行的所有法輪功學員來到一街頭公園集體照相，恭祝師尊新年好。在這一過程中有一對英國老夫婦一直在一旁靜靜的看著。隨後告訴上前問候法輪功學員，他們叫鮑勃和珍妮，是倫敦當地的居民，年年觀看新年遊行，很喜歡法輪功團隊的表演，發現法輪功的展示表演每年都有更新，今年增加的軍樂隊表演讓他們感到很振奮。
After the parade, all practitioners participating in the event moved to a nearby park to poise for group photos, which would be sent to Master Li as New Year greetings. During the process, an elderly British couple saw the practitioners quietly. They told a practitioner who talked to them afterward that they were London residents by the names of Bob and Jenny, and they have watched the New Year Parade every year. They really liked Falun Gong group’s performance very much, and found that the group’s performances were added some variety every year. They were especially inspired by the Marching Band’s performance this year.
其中珍妮還說她覺的法輪功隊伍中花車上的跳舞女孩兒的大照片太漂亮了。當法輪功學員告訴她那是神韻藝術團舞蹈演員的照片，而神韻藝術團將要在今年二月來倫敦表演時，珍妮和鮑勃高興的說他們一定要買票去看。
Jenny added that the young female dancer’s huge photo on the float in the Falun Gong procession was very beautiful. When Falun Gong practitioners told her that it was the photo of a dancer of the Divine Performing Arts, which would perform in London in February, both Jenny and Bob were very delighted to hear that and said that they would definitely go see the show.
遊行的第二天晚上，在倫敦中使館前二十四小時和平抗議的法輪功學員托尼遇到了每週三晚上來中使館前抗議的“自由西藏”成員——一對來自德國的老夫婦，他們平時已經瞭解了中共邪黨對法輪功的迫害。這一天他們一見到托尼，就興奮的說：昨天在遊行隊伍中見到你們法輪功了，沒有想到你們法輪功這麼厲害，隊伍這麼大，特別是那個樂隊，鼓聲太震撼人心了，相信在六英里之內的人都可能聽到，你們幹的真好。
In the following evening, Tony, a practitioner who participated in an around-the-clock peaceful protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in London, met an elderly German couple who were members of the Free Tibet Campaign and have staged a protest at the Embassy every Wednesday evening regularly. The couple had already known the Chinese Communist regime’s evil persecution against Falun Gong. Upon seeing Tony, they excitedly said, “I saw the Falun Gong procession in the parade yesterday. It was amazing that Falun Gong group was so wonderful and the procession was so long. Especially the sonorous sound of the drums in the Marching Band was indeed extremely breathtaking. I think all of the people within six miles might have heard of it. Good for you!”
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/1/4/169627.html

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T00:22:00.000-08:00

Solis joins call for Beijing woman's release

2007-12-21T06:58:00.000-08:00

Kenneth Todd Ruiz, staff writer of Pasadena Star News
Article Launched: 12/20/2007 02:04:08 PM PST

PASADENA -- A second member of Congress wrote a letter on behalf of a local woman whose mother is being held in a Beijing labor camp.

Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monta, sent letters Thursday to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on behalf of Baldwin Park resident Yaning Liu urging the release of her mother Shuying Li, 64.

Li has spent the past year in a labor re-education camp after police found literature related to a spiritual practice banned by the Communist government.

"If Ms. Li has been detained solely because of her religious beliefs and her interest in the Falun Gong, I respectfully request that you release her immediately based on the humanitarian issues involved," Solis said in her letter to the Chinese president.

Her letters were sent one day after Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, sent a similar written request through the Chinese Embassy.

Solis asked Rice to investigate Li's detention and consider using official diplomatic channels to push for Li's release.

Copies of the letter can be seen at reporter Kenneth Todd Ruiz' blog at www.insidesocal.com/pasadenapolitics.

Congressional letters for Yaning's mother Shuying Li

2007-12-20T11:43:00.001-08:00

Letter from U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff to Chinese President Hu Jintao:

Letter from Congresswoman Hilda Solis to Chinese President Hu Jintao:

Letter from Congresswoman Hilda Solis to the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

Schiff lobbies China to free woman

2007-12-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

Mother held in labor camp
By Kenneth Todd Ruiz, Staff Writer of Pasadena Star News
Article Launched: 12/19/2007 10:59:55 PM PST

A copy of Rep. Schiff's letter

PASADENA - After months of pleading for help to secure her mother's release from a Chinese labor camp, a local woman's persistence has paid off.

In a letter sent to President Hu Jintao of the People's Republic of China, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, called for the release of Shuying Li, 64.

Li is being held at the Beijing Women's Labor Camp, where she was sent for practicing a spiritual tradition banned by the Communist government, according to Li's daughter, Yaning Liu of Baldwin Park.

"If the only charges against Ms. Li are based on her potential interest in Falun Gong, I urge her immediate release on humanitarian grounds," Schiff wrote in the letter.

Schiff issued a separate statement Wednesday afternoon, expanding on his letter.

"I deplore action in China and elsewhere that inhibits an individual's right to free expression, and want to encourage the Chinese leadership to release anyone being held on the basis of their religious beliefs," Schiff stated.

On Dec. 15, 2006, Beijing police arrested Li after finding literature pertaining to Falun Gong.

The mainland government banned Falun Gong for "advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability," according to a

July 22, 1999, report from China's state-run media.
In recent months, Liu had joined a coalition of groups protesting the inclusion of a Beijing Olympic Games float in next month's Rose Parade because of China's rights record.

That record is getting worse, according to the U.S. Department of State's most recent report on China.

In the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has cracked down on dissidents, reporters and its own citizens, jailing many without trial, according to international human rights organizations.

"Keen to present its best face to the world during the prestigious sporting event, the city is racing against time to improve the behavior of local residents," according to a Wednesday report from the People's Republic of China's official press agency.

Calling it "administrative detention," Chinese authorities have sent about 250,000 Chinese into so-called "education through labor" camps without trial, according to Amnesty International.

Torture is commonly employed, according to Amnesty.

Last month, Schiff complained in writing to the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games that China has not kept its Olympic promises.

"Despite explicit promises made by Chinese government officials in 2001, the Chinese government has not taken serious steps to expand basic rights and freedom," his letter said.

Citing Li's age, Schiff conveyed Liu's concern that her mother's "health is suffering due to the harsh conditions within the Labor Camp."

Liu said she was excited and happy Monday night when a member of Schiff's staff called with news the congressman would lend his aid.

"Among all the officials I contacted so far, Congressman Schiff is the only one who responded to my plea and offered help," she said.

Liu lived in Pasadena when she made her request and has since relocated to Baldwin Park.

Several other members of the House of Representatives and the Senate have not responded to her requests, she said, including her Baldwin Park representative, Rep Hilda Solis, D-El Monte.

"I basically begged her to help me, and I seldom beg," Liu said.

Solis' Chief of Staff Don Lyster said that request hadn't made it up to his boss and that it was now being evaluated and investigated for a pending determination.

He didn't rule out the possibility Solis would join in calling for Li's release.

Liu is optimistic public pressure will help secure her mother's release.

After all, she said, Chinese authorities recently freed an elderly couple after their daughter, Cher Fu, convinced congressional representatives from her home state of Washington to lobby on her behalf.

After initially being referred by Schiff to the U.S. Department of State, Liu said she was surprised and grateful that Pasadena Councilwoman Jacque Robinson followed up with the congressman's office.

"If it was me, I'd want help as well, no matter where it came from," Robinson said. "It's not like I had 100 people calling and coming to my office asking for help."

Robinson said the action didn't run counter to the positions of the city and the mayor, who recently declined to help Liu.

And, she said, Liu kept coming to council meetings and didn't quit,

"She was persistent," Robinson said.

todd.ruiz@sgvn.com

(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4444

www.insidesocal.com/pasadenapolitics

Woman works to free mother held in China

2007-12-16T23:45:00.000-08:00

Bogaard refuses request to help
By Kenneth Todd Ruiz, Staff Writer of Pasadena Star News
Article Launched: 12/16/2007 12:46:39 AM PST

On the evening of Dec. 12, 2006, three policemen from the Shuangyushu Police Substation in Beijing took Shuying Li into custody for possessing Falun Gong literature, according to her daughter Yaning Liu of Baldwin Park.

PASADENA - No longer standing quietly at the edge of international protests over China's human rights record leading up to next year's Olympic Games in Beijing, Yaning Liu holds up a simple sign: "Help free my Mom."

A year ago Saturday, three police officers entered her parents' home in Beijing, searched it and, after finding Falun Gong literature, arrested her mother, Shuying Li, 64, Liu said.

It's impossible to independently verify specific details of Liu's account. She provided a copy of what she said was a "receipt" of her mother's arrest, the only documentation Liu says her family has ever received from authorities in Beijing.

Calls and e-mails to the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles' Political and Press Section were not returned.

But when the objections to China's rights record turned local in the summer, Liu, an otherwise deeply introverted Baldwin Park resident who works for a downtown L.A. law firm, found herself among the steady stream of people showing up at Pasadena City Council meetings to speak against a Beijing 2008 entry in next year's Rose Parade.

She has also attended a number of protests at the Tournament of Roses and City Hall. Next, she says, she'll join Falun Gong adherents on New Year's Day, turning their backs as the entry passes them during the parade.

Since China banned Falun Gong in 1999, reportedly after thousands of adherents had a silent protest around several government buildings, followers claim they have been falsely arrested and detained without trial and even tortured.

For Liu, the Beijing float controversy has provided an opportunity for her to focus media scrutiny and public pressure to help secure her mother's release. If that makes her an opportunist, she says, then so be it.

"I'm nobody," Liu said in a recent interview. "After my mother was arrested, I wrote to the newspaper and nobody replied."

The police who took her mother never said where they were taking her, she said. More than a month passed before her father received notice. She'd been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in a labor re-education camp.

There was no due process, no trial, no evidence presented, according to Liu.

As this story was being prepared, Liu said her 69-year-old father had called with disturbing news. Four government officials had paid him a visit.

"They asked my father to talk to me and try to persuade me from not talking to the press and interrupting their Olympic celebration," she said.

According to Liu, her mother is being held inside Beijing Women's Labor Camp.

She could be among about 250,000 Chinese now being held under administrative detention, according to a rough estimate by Amnesty International.

"They are not charging these people, they are not giving them a trial. All of this is in the hands of local police, who can do whatever they want," said Suzanne Wright, an Amnesty International specialist on Chinese affairs.

And they are commonly tortured, she added.

Media reports indicate such detentions by members of the Chinese government are increasing, ostensibly to remove signs of dissent before the international press corps arrive next year.

"Chinese authorities in Beijing have said they want to possibly extend the use of re-education through labor to clean up Beijing before the Olympics," Wright said. "They're using the Olympics as an excuse to continue using an illegal form of detention."

According to Liu, this was not her mother's first arrest. In 2000, she was sentenced to three years in prison for practicing Falun Gong, Liu said.

Jie Li of Alhambra was 23 when she was sentenced alongside Li, she said. She recalled the retired educator as a "very warm-hearted" woman, who helped her survive while in detention.

"She helped others too, even criminals under the age of 18," Jie Li said. "She helped teach them, because she's a teacher. She teached them some math and so on."

In June 2006, Jie Li said, both of them were moved to a detention center in Xicheng, Pasadena's sister city.

It's that relationship that Liu has asked Mayor Bill Bogaard to leverage, given Beijing's interest in using the Rose Parade to help kick off its Olympic celebrations.

For weeks, Liu had asked Bogaard to use his relationship with officials in Xicheng to urge for her mother's release.

Responding by e-mail, he declined last month.

"I want you to know that I understand fully your concern and desire for help, from any and every source, in attaining your mother's release," Bogaard wrote. "This must be a very difficult time for you and for all of the members of your family."

Bogaard on Friday said granting her request would be unlikely to have an impact and would open the gates to similar requests that would "discredit" his role as mayor.

"I'm elected for local affairs, and if I get into the business of pleading on behalf of every deserving person in the San Gabriel Valley, I am confident it will discredit my role as mayor of Pasadena," he said, adding he's resolved to focus solely on domestic matters.

Bogaard was instrumental in bringing the Beijing float to the parade. Visiting Beijing several years ago as part of the sister city program, he committed Pasadena's aid to that effort without seeking consensus from the City Council.

That crossed the line into advocating for Chinese interests, Liu contends.

"It's hypocritical," she said. "When he invited the float, he must have known what was happening in China. But now, even after everything he's heard, he seems to be abandoning his conscience. It's no excuse to say there's too many lives to be saved."

Shuying todd.ruiz@sgvn.com

(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4444

www.insidesocal.com/pasadenapolitics

Human Rights Day declared

2007-12-15T12:40:00.001-08:00

Mayor Bogaard responds to critics of China float in Rose Parade

By Kenneth Todd Ruiz, Staff Writer of Pasadena Star News

Article Launched: 12/11/2007 10:45:19 PM PST

PASADENA - Without mentioning the bitter debate over Beijing's Olympic Rose Parade float, Mayor Bill Bogaard followed through with the city's response to critics by declaring this past Monday Human Rights Day in Pasadena.

"I have the pleasure of issuing on behalf of this City Council a proclamation that, for the first time in Pasadena, celebrates and spotlights the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted on Dec. 10, 1948, 59 years ago," Bogaard said at Monday's City Council meeting.

The proclamation, an idea introduced by the mayor at an Oct. 29 meeting devoted to complaints about the float, followed a letter he sent to Pasadena's sister cities in response to hours of public testimony at council meetings on Chinese human-rights abuses.

The mayor's letter explains the council decided to endorse the U.N. declaration in response to "comments from various persons ... that the presence of a float celebrating the Beijing Olympics 2008 would potentially embarrass Pasadena because of the frequent allegations of human rights violations in China...."

Because Bogaard helped bring the float to the parade, those who lobbied the council for a stronger statement said they were disappointed by the letter.

"Pasadena used to set an example for others to follow, but as I look at this letter, it doesn't say anything," said former Councilman Bill Paparian, who also served as mayor during his time in office.

Paparian, a lawyer, has supported a coalition of disparate human-rights groups and local individuals who feel China's worsening human-rights record - as reported by the U.S. State Department - is antithetical to the ideals of the Olympics.

For months, they've lobbied the City Council to use what leverage Pasadena may have as parade host and sister city to send a signal to Beijing.

"Here's a situation where Mayor Bogaard had a hand in bringing the float to Pasadena, and now he's reluctant to say anything untoward about the float or China," Paparian said.

Bogaard did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.

Ann Lau, who chairs the Visual Artists Guild and is one of the leading float critics, gave the mayor's letter a "zero."

The report says little about the council's position on human rights, she said, and only references "allegations" of the Chinese government's abuses.

"It's more than allegations. These are actual people who suffered these atrocities, and they heard testimony from these people in person," Lau said. "It's unbelievable the mayor would believe that was all made up for him."

Last week, Lau's group funded a provocative billboard by Reporters Without Borders on Arroyo Parkway at Del Mar Boulevard.

It's designed to call attention to journalists and Internet critics jailed by the Communist government.

The letter makes reference to a failed motion by council members Chris Holden and Jacque Robinson, who voted for a resolution addressing China's record.

On Saturday, the Pasadena Coalition for Human Rights - formed in opposition to the China float - exhibited photos of its campaign at the Jackie Robinson Center.

Urging residents to "turn their backs" on the Beijing float come New Year's Day, Paparian gave Lau the two parade tickets he receives as former mayor.

todd.ruiz@sgvn.com

(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4444

www.insidesocal.com/pasadenapolitics

'Too many lives to save?'

2007-12-07T13:52:00.001-08:00

Activists and Mayor Bill Bogaard pay separate visits to Pasadena’s human rights billboard

By Joe Piasecki

Bill Bogaard just had to look. About 90 minutes before activists officially unveiled a billboard decrying human rights abuses in China, Pasadena’s mayor on Monday was heading to a meeting in Los Angeles, but instead turned north on Arroyo Parkway, he said, to be among the first to catch a glimpse.

The billboard, a depiction of the iconic interlocking Olympic rings as handcuffs with the words “Beijing 08” in big and red letters underneath, was designed by Reporters Without Borders, a group critical of China’s suppression of journalists and Internet users as well as plans for the Rose Parade to include a float representing that country and its role as host of the coming Summer Games — a float that Bogaard personally helped get into the parade.

“Today, China is the world’s biggest prison for journalists and cyber dissidents. Censorship is widespread,” said Lucie Morillon, who is in charge of the press freedom group’s US affairs and flew in for the unveiling of the billboard.

“The Olympic Games are not just a sports event, but a celebration of freedom — and too many dissidents are not going to be able to take part in this celebration because they are in jail in China,” she continued. “Reporters Without Borders does not condone the presence of the Beijing 2008 float at the Rose Parade because we understand it could be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese regime, and we’re not comfortable with that.”

Bogaard, however, is perhaps the float’s highest-profile supporter. Although it has made him a target for criticism from a coalition of religious and political activists, Bogaard — who was not expected to attend the billboard’s unveiling — defends his position as a difference of opinion over the meaning of the controversial float and the role of city officials in what he describes as international affairs.

“I understand those who criticize me because of supporting the float, but I’m on a different track because I say the float is to celebrate the Olympics, which the Rose Parade has a long tradition

of doing, and not intended to validate or approve the country of China … or any conduct we would all recognize as inappropriate,” said Bogaard.

One of his critics is Yaning Liu, an area woman who asked Bogaard to personally send a letter to Chinese officials advocating the release of her 64-year-old mother from a labor camp where she is being held for illegal religious practices. It was a request Bogaard recently declined.

“It’s been a difficult time,” said Bogaard of the float controversy, “because my fundamental thinking is that neither I nor the city have the competence to engage in international diplomacy at the level and with the impact that [activists] want.”

Since the Tournament of Roses announced this summer that American business interests including the Pasadena-based Avery Dennison Corp. would be sponsoring a float celebrating the Beijing Olympics, Bogaard and the council have been pressed to speak out against the imprisonment and torture of those in China whose religious and political activities are deemed illegal by the country’s communist government.

Starting with protests by local practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement suppressed by Chinese officials, a coalition of local anti-float activists has grown over the past six months to include Tibetan and Burmese Americans, the Visual Artists Guild, former Pasadena Mayor Bill Paparian, labor activist Bob McCloskey and even a local Catholic priest.

“I’m here really as a voice for the voiceless, for those people who suffer on a daily basis just to practice their faith in freedom like we do here in Pasadena,” said the Rev. Gerard O’Brien, pastor of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church on Orange Grove Boulevard, who spoke Monday in front of the billboard.

In China, Catholics who are loyal to the Vatican have been imprisoned and allegedly even killed for practicing outside of the government-sanctioned church.

Photos of several jailed Catholic bishops, activists and reporters will be featured Saturday in a human rights exhibit at the Jackie Robinson Center being prepared by the Visual Artists Guild, which is asking parade viewers to turn their backs to the float as it passes.

The exhibit also loosely marks the 59th anniversary on Dec. 10 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document introduced by Bogaard and adopted by Pasadena City Council members last month as a response to activists but criticized for stopping short of a direct rebuke of China.

On Nov. 28, Bogaard mailed a copy of that declaration to Pasadena sister cities, including one in China, with a letter describing council actions as the outcome of people “expressing concerns that the presence of a float celebrating the Beijing Olympics 2008 would potentially embarrass Pasadena because of the frequent allegations of human rights violations in China.”

More telling at a personal level was the letter Bogaard sent to Liu, who like her mother practices Falun Gong.

“Some causes — like yours — cry out for correction. One is inclined to join in demanding change,” wrote Bogaard, but “… In the case of your mother, I have no reason to believe that my communication will have any impact on the recipient.”

In the letter, Bogaard reiterates his belief that he was not elected to deal with international affairs. He also resolves to decline all similar requests in the future, believing he would be swamped with requests for an involvement in numerous matters that he’d find difficult to justify.

Liu said she felt Bogaard’s reluctance toward international activism contradicts his early support for efforts to bring the Beijing float to Pasadena, but was most disheartened by his other conclusion — that even if he did write the letter, it wouldn’t make a difference.

“How can you say there are too many lives to save?” she asked.

http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=5411&IssueNum=101

Hollywood Parade

2007-11-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

Our Falun Dafa team in Hollywood's Santa Parade (used to be called Hollywood Christmas Parade) in Los Angeles, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007:

(click on photos to see larger versions)

Human Right Torch

2007-11-10T23:55:00.000-08:00

Human Right Torch

From mount Olympus the mighty flame was lit,
The radiant flag, the interlocking rings,
Friendship and glory, giving freely,
Co-operation for peace, justice, human rights and freedom.

In the skies, on Earth, oceans, valleys,
Life is in flight, our souls calling out.
May the sacred Olympic flag always ripple high
In the blue sky

Bei Jing Olympics, two thousand and eight,
Menacing feeling is filling the air.
Eighty million skeletons pave the prosperous road,
Tears of blood built the palace of grandeur.

End the persecution, bring back human kindness,
Handcuffs cannot replace the interlocking rings
Let human rights light up the earth
The Olympic purity cannot be stained with blood

From mount Olympus the mighty flame was lit,
The radiant flag, the interlocking rings,
Friendship and glory, giving freely,
Co-operation for peace, justice, human rights and freedom.

In the skies, on Earth, oceans, valleys,
Life is in flight, our souls calling out.
May the sacred Olympic flag always ripple high
In the blue sky!

chinese mp3 download
http://big5.zhengjian.org/music/gequ/zhongwengequ/dahechang/2007/0808/26662.html

english mp3 download (含五線譜下載)
http://big5.zhengjian.org/music/gequ/waiwengequ/yingwen/2007/1008/26692.html

Is anybody listening

2007-11-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

photo: Yaning (one of the blogers here) outside Tournament House in Pasadena, CA

Read the article from "Pasadena Weekly":
Is anybody listening?

Thorny issue prompts 'generic' statement from council

2007-10-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

Oct 29, 2007 at 09:00 PM
By Kenneth Todd Ruiz, Staff Writer Pasadena Star News, Article Launched: 10/29/2007 11:11:37 PM PDT

PASADENA - A Catholic monk's withered arm, deformed from what was described as years of torture, only compounded the City Council's unease Monday night as it considered a response to wide-ranging complaints over China's participation in the 2008 Rose Parade.

Thrust into the spotlight by a local controversy that has grown into a referendum on China's suitability as Olympic host, the council resembled an international court as the dozens of speakers lined up to deliver testimony on the balance of that nation's past and current abuses.

Some were present to support the Beijing Olympic float, an idea years in the making with the help of the city's own Sister City Committee and Mayor Bill Bogaard, designed to celebrate the spirit of the Olympic Games.

Ultimately the council agreed to endorse a 60-year-old "universal declaration" of human rights from the United Nations to be sent to federal officials and all of Pasadena's sister cities, including one at the heart of the debate -- Xicheng, a Beijing district.

No action was taken regarding the float itself.

Float supporters were eclipsed by a vocal majority, from local residents to international human rights organizations, which used the phalanx of cameras and media coverage to declare China had broken its promises to clean up its act with respect to human rights.

"It's symbolic," said Bob McCloskey, a local labor union activist. "The Olympics are going to happen, but they made commitments to improve human rights and they haven't."

McCloskey added imprisonment and abuse of workers to the balance of religious persecution, trafficking in human body parts, complicity in abuses in Sudan and Burma, quashing dissent, jailing journalists and more.

In a striking piece of visual testimony, Peter Zhou Bangjiu held high his emaciated arm he said was the result of years of torture and abuse because he wouldn't comply with the Communist Party's directives about how he practiced Roman Catholicism.

Bogaard said he thoughtfully weighed calls for his recusal from the discussion but said he was confident in his ability to be fair. As for those critical of China's rights record, the mayor added he respected "their right to have those views" but again strenously avoided making any statements which could be perceived as critical of China. After the meeting, he again declined to comment on China's record.

First to speak was Kenneth Hardy, the chairman of the advisory board whose report was before the council. The council delivered high praise for the report but rejected most of its recommendations.

Making a pre-emptive move against the argument that the debate was too big or exceeded the bounds of the City Council, Hardy cited examples when the city took positions on external matters and called attention to the mayor and Sister City Commission's role in making the float happen.

"By having the sister city relationship itself, the city has already decided to step outside of its borders," he said, adding that the commission was struck by float supporters' "profound lack of sensitivity to their fellow Chinese" who have complained.

Hardy also alluded to a parallel between Beijing today and Berlin in 1936 when Adolf Hitler presided over the Olympic Games.

Providing counterpoint, Sister City Chairman Fred Alcantar said his group was part of promoting human rights but discouraged the council from taking action he considered out of its jurisdiction.

"We don't believe the remedy should come from the local level," he said.

That point was raised most directly by District 6 Councilman Steve Madison:

"I don't believe I was elected by my constituents to express opinions on international matters."

Just as the council didn't issue a resolution condemning Al Qaida for Sept. 11, Madison said, weighing in on the issue would open the door for Pasadena to be asked to address any number of perceived unjustices. "We don't have a sister city relationship with Al Qaida," said Councilman Chris Holden in response. "We do have one with China."

There was unanimous consensus to support the concept of human rights, but the council hesitated when it came to applying that to China specifically.

Councilmembers Victor Gordo, Chris Holden and Jacque Robinson favored a more direct statement designed for China.

"If they come back and say we have a problem with your view of human rights, then we'll have to re-evaluate wheter that city is the right fit for Pasadena," Gordo said.

Gordo accepted the idea of including a letter that said the resolution came in response to "allegations of human rights abuses" by China, but Holden urged the council to focus on the matter at hand.

Saying they'd "side-stepped the whole issue of the float," he suggested sending a specific statement to China, which only Councilwoman Jacque Robinson supported.

As the meeting adjourned, Ann Lau, president of the human rights group Visual Artists Guild, held up a drawing she made of a chicken.

The cost of the Beijing Olympic float, estimated at $400,000, was split between Avery Dennison Corp. and an association of Chinese-American organizations, at least one of which is an entity that was created by the Chinese Government.

(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4444

www.insidesocal.com/pasadenapolitics

Human Rights Commission recommendations

1 The City Council shall create an ad-hoc committee for the purpose of reaching out and communicating with the various individuals and the groups in this matter, the expectation is that the dialogue will result in some concrete action, as discussed above. The ad-hoc committee shall include members of the City Council, the Human Relations Commission, and any others the City Council believes will contribute to this matter.

2 The ad-hoc committee shall report back to the City Council in no later than 30 days. At that time the City Council shall take a final position on the matter. The City Council should entertain any and all of the options discussed and take into consideration the efforts of the involved parties to communicate, to reach some sort of understanding over the issues, and to agree on some concrete action. If some action is agreed to by the parties, then that could be submitted to the City Council for review and, if sufficient, ratification as its final action in the matter.

3 After the ad-hoc committee reports back, the City Council shall also issue a resolution expressing the central importance of human rights principles and concern over the human rights issues in China. The resolution shall reflect upon those matters discussed as well as take into consideration any good faith efforts at interaction, or lack thereof, and shall be communicated in an appropriate manner to the Xicheng District of Beijing.

(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4444

www.insidesocal.com/pasadenapolitics

Chinese New Year Spectacular

2007-10-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

This is a poster for the 2008 "Chinese New Year Spectacular" (click to enlarge), Los Angeles.

This is part of a global tour of 50 cities and 120 shows during the Chinese New Year Season, The Year of the Rat. A rare chance to see authentic Chinese culture.
In New York, Paris, London, Taipei, Sydney, Toronto, San Francisco, Berlin, Seoul,.... For more information you may visit the official site of NTDTV's Chinese New Year Spectacular.

Artwork by an Imprisoned Practitioner

2007-10-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

I'm very touched by this artwork and I'd like to share it here (click to enlarge):

Artwork by an Imprisoned Practitioner: Presenting Birthday Peaches

It was made by a Falun Dafa practitioner who was unlawfully imprisoned in the Heilongjiang Provincial Jail for Women. She used red and black ballpoint pens to construct this picture under very difficult circumstances. The painting was made to celebrate the 12th anniversary of esteemed Master's introduction of Falun Dafa and to congratulate Master's birthday.

The Difference Is in a Single Thought

2007-10-05T00:59:00.000-07:00

The Difference Is in a Single Thought

By Luwen

(Clearwisdom.net) Li Linfu (who died in 752 A.D.) was Prime Minister for Emperor Tang Xuan Zong (713-756 A.D.) of the Tang Dynasty. He lived on the east side of Luoyang City. When he was 20 years old he had yet to take up serious studies, though he enjoyed swimming, hunting, and was fond of falcons and dogs. He often stood upside down on his hands and leaned against a wall to rest. One day he met a Taoist who told him, "Although you are very good at this, you may one day fall suddenly into a calamity, and then it will be too late!" Li Linfu immediately stood up normally and said that he would cultivate himself and practice morality from then on, learn to be respectful and prudent, and give up his bad behavior. The Taoist said, "I've traveled the world for 500 years and you're the only one I've met who has a predestined relationship with the divine. After you've completed your cultivation and consummated you can rise up in broad daylight and leave (becoming an immortal) (from the book Yi Shi). If you don't wish to cultivate you can be Prime Minister for twenty peaceful years and wield great power. Now go home and think about what you want, and come back and see me in three days."

When the day arrived, Li Linfu told the Taoist, "I'm a young member of the Emperor's clan and have been chivalrous since childhood. I'd rather be a Prime Minister for twenty years and have great power than become an immortal. That's my decision."

Upon hearing Li Linfu's words the Taoist said sadly, "I've only met one predestined person in 500 years, and he'd rather cling to power in the human world and miss his opportunity to cultivate. What a pity!"

Li Linfu was very regretful and wanted to change his mind, but the Taoist said, "A person's first thought is most important. The Gods have already heard your wish, and it's too late to change it now."

The Taoist cautioned him, "When you serve as an official you should do good deeds and help people as much as you can. Don't kill innocent people. Don't become vicious and never commit crimes. In 300 years I'll teach you how to cultivate and you can still become an immortal." Li Linfu agreed to obey, while falling to his knees and crying, and said goodbye to the Taoist.

Not long after, Li Linfu became very successful in his career, made steady progress and soon became the Prime Minister. However, he was shrewd and calculating, with ulterior motives and a silver tongue, and Emperor Tang Xuan Zong liked him very much. He established a big prison and killed many dissidents. Many people were falsely accused, and the common people led miserable lives.

One day the Taoist suddenly showed up at the Prime Minister's office. Li Linfu saw him and recognized him as the same old man who'd taught him so many years before. He was extremely ashamed and fearful, and was at a loss for words. He remembered that the Taoist had told him he'd be "Prime Minister for twenty years." He realized his time was up, yet he hadn't fulfilled any of the teachings. He felt sick to the stomach and immediately knelt before the Taoist.

The Taoist said, "Many years ago you promised to do what I asked you, but you haven't done any of it. I asked you to do good deeds, yet you are sly and vicious and have killed many innocent people. The Heavenly Gods know every single detail of your crimes and your punishment is horrifying!" Li Linfu kowtowed continuously when he heard that.

Li Linfu asked the Taoist, "I remember you said in 300 years I'd have the opportunity to become an immortal. Is it still possible?" The Taoist replied, "What you've done is against the laws of Heaven. There will be negative consequences and we'll have to add another 300 years, so you won't get another chance until 600 years have past."

Li Linfu was extremely regretful.

February 9, 2007

Posting date: 2/27/2007
Original article date: 2/27/2007
Category: Open Forum
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/2/10/148633.html

"Human Rights Torch Relay" Videos

2007-09-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Some video clips from the "Human Rights Torch Relay":

Athens	Munich	Berlin
Romania	Paris

Human Rights Torch Continues on to Vienna

2007-09-16T00:55:00.000-07:00

By Florian Godovits

Epoch Times Germany Staff

Ricardo Leppe carries the torch of the "Global Human Rights Torch Relay" through the streets of Vienna. (The Epoch Times)

VIENNA—"The world should know what's happening in China", explained Ricardo Leppe, 17, who carried the torch of the "Global Human Rights Torch Relay" through the streets of Vienna on Tuesday, September 11th. He and his schoolmates from a high school in Wiener Neustadt/Lower Austria all ran "to stop the Olympics 2008 in Beijing," as one of Ricardo´s schoolmates put it.

A sudden rain shower poured down when the torch was handed over to the Austrian MP Alfred Steinhauser, Judiciary speaker of Austria´s Green Party, on Michaelerplatz in Vienna´s inner city area. Next to him, soprano soloist Melanie Fleck sang the waltz-intro of the song "Human Rights Torch in Beijing" in Chinese when the torch was handed from Steinhauser to Leppe, to then make its way through the inner city area of Vienna.

"The weather doesn't support us, but many people do", said the President of the Austrian section of the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM), Katharina Grieb. The IGFM is among many other human rights organisations like CIPFG (Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong) or Save Tibet who support the human rights torch-relay.

Members of all parties in Austria supported the event, but not a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing. Artists and athletes also spoke out at the event which was followed by a nearly 4 hour long concert in front of one of the most visited sights of Vienna, the former Habsburg-residency Hofburg.

Austrian MP and Green Party spokesperson Alfred Steinhauser receives the Human Rights torch from Romania on September 11th at Vienna´s Michaelerplatz. (The Epoch Times)

"Torture, executions, organ-harvesting, persecution of various religious and ethnic groups – you name it. China breaks each and every article of the 30 articles of the UN´s Human Rights Declaration", Grieb said. This would disqualify China as a host for such a big event like the Olympic Games.

"We have to use the higher exposure of China to public awareness during the Olympics", said MP Steinhauser. "In a country like China, where cruelty and disrespect against human beings are shown so much, we have to think of other opportunities than just dialogue. But at the moment I think we should talk".

"Those athletes going to China must be aware that they are supporting a system of oppression" said high-school athletics coach Peter Steinwender, who accompanied the torch on its 4-kilometer-path with his students "For sure, I think a boycott of the Games in Beijing is the right thing", he added.

China-born Australian citizen Jane Dai arrived with her seven-year-old daughter Fadu who lost her father through the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Ms. Dai's husband, Fadu's father, was tortured to death in a labour camp. She appealed "to all mothers on earth" to bring an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Children like her own, said Dai, would ask us in the future, "What did we do about this matter?".

Czech Vice Premier Supports the Human Rights Torch Rally

2007-09-16T00:48:00.000-07:00

by Epoch Times Staff

Miss Xinxia Jiang receives the torch from Martin Bursik Minister of Environment while MP Katerina Jacques look on. (The Epoch Times)

PRAGUE—Many distinguished politicians, athletes and artists from the Czech Republic came out to Prague's Old Town Square to support the global Human Rights Torch Relay.

Martin Bursik, Vice-Premier of the Czech Republic and Minister for the Environment, carried the torch directly to the stage in the Old Town Square. There he passed the torch to Ms. Xinxia Jiang, a Falun Gong practitioner who was brutally tortured in a Chinese Communist Party labor camp. "Rather than talking about my feelings I want to talk about the human rights situation in China," said Mr. Bursik in answer to the moderator's question about how he felt after running with the torch. He also gave a short interview to The Epoch Times on the spot.

ET: During your coming discussions with the Chinese representatives will you mention the kind of things we have just heard from you on the stage?

Martin Bursik: Absolutely. When we hoisted the Tibetan flag in front of the Ministry of Environment in Prague, the Chinese ambassador immediately called me for a talk. At that time I was very busy for several weeks. But now they have again asked me for a meeting and I have confirmed the date. I will meet madame ambassador next week and I discuss those issues. Why? I'm concerned and very clear and they come straight from my heart. I'm sure this time there is more time to discuss human rights issues and I am sure the talks about the human right are going to be more open then before.

ET: Will you also mention persecution of the Falun Gong meditation practice?

MB I will. I have met David Kilgour in Prague (editor's note: former Canadian Secretary of State, investigator of organ harvesting in Chinese prisons) and I listened to his report in the Czech Parliament, where he described the appalling circumstances of forced organ harvesting. That is one side of the issue—the indirect evidence, transcripts of phone conversations with hospital staff, etc. On the other side there is the commonly known fact that Falun Gong is persecuted in China—there is no doubt about that. So of course I will talk about this matter.

Runners Ondrej Liska, MP and Martin Bursik, Minister of Environment, bring the torch to Prague 's Old Town Square. (The Epoch Times)

ET: Are the Chinese representatives planning a state visit to the Czech Republic?

MB The earliest opportunity I will meet the Chinese Minister of the Environment will be during my visit to Bali. There will then be discussions about new commitments in the area of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases and it is very important for the world to know how China will stand to this matter. This Chinese Minister is known to be one of the "reformists" in today's China and I intend to schedule bilateral talks with him.

Lukas Pollert, Olympic gold medal for whitewater canoeing, carried the torch together with actor Jan Budar on the next stretch to the Chinese Embassy. He briefly addressed the matter as a sportsman and an Olympic medallist.

ET: Do you think it will help the chilling situation of human rights in China, if the athletes will not go to the Olympics?

LP That is not a solution. During the Olympic Games in Moscow 1980, when "half of the world" did not attend, it was shown that this approach does not pay off. When a sportsman goes to a competition, he's in fact going to compete with his friends, as sport is entertainment and not politics; it is entertainment. But from their position, the athletes should call attention to human rights abuses—in addition, as persons of note, they can do it very effectively. For example, they can talk to the reporters before they depart for Olympics and also in China itself. One's conscience is a part of the sport and sportsman should know what kind of country it is he's going to compete in and what are the problems there.

ET: Do you believe the Global Human Right Torch Relay is the very thing that can make a change?

LP As a punk-rocker before the year 1989 [Editor's Note: In 1989 the communist regime in Czechoslovakia fell.] I participated in completely "hopeless" protests. And I would have never dreamt any change would come. And indeed it did come. Even small protests are worthwhile, although it takes painstaking effort and a lot of time.

Eva Kacanu, Czech representative in the shot put, spoke on behalf of paraplegic Olympians. She described experiences from her recent competition in Taiwan, when the communist regime in mainland China prevented her fellow competitors from attending. She described her prescription for improving the human rights situation in China: "The athletes who are to go to China, should go there in any case and raise there, on the spot, their voices for human rights. If the Olympians and Paralympians unite on that, there's nothing they can't achieve."

Jan Ruml, prisoner of conscience, former Minister of Interior, MP, vice-chairman of the Czech Senate and the current head of the Olympic Watch (Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games in a Free and Democratic Country), was also one of those who wished luck to the Torch Relay: "The Olympic Charter emphasizes respect for the individual and the harmonious development of human personality and upholding of human dignity. None of this is happening in today's China. Thus I think China does not qualify to stage the Olympic Games. I consider this torch to be the sole, correct and proper Olympic Torch and I wish it as much sunshine, as we have today here in Prague."

A number of artists and musicians also made their comments on the stage about human rights abuses in China.

Pepa Nos, songster said: "The ideas of communism were perverse already from their very origin and everyone knows that. But harvesting organs from people who practice Falun Gong meditation ... to dismantle a person for parts and then to sell them ... that is a beastliness that goes beyond the framework of even the communist ideology."

Ridina Ahmed, singer, asked for "Human rights in China, human rights everywhere."

Matej Ruppert, singer for the band Monkey Business, said, "Communist China can never comply with the ideals of the Olympic movement."

Lesek Semelka, also a singer, opined, "Communists said that music with a big beat undermines socialism and in fact it ultimately turned out to be that the big beat music has really contributed to the fall of communism in our country. Artificial songs created by the order of the government could always be recognized by the absence of artistic quality. Good music can help a good thing and I believe in the curative, purifying power of a good song. Even though my songs do not address the question of human rights in China, I'm here because I feel a certain moral obligation. When we had communism here, surely there were demonstrations in many democratic countries to help us all the same, and many people attended them."

During the ceremony at the Old Town Square, various notables read letters of support to the Human Rights Torch Relay including the ex-president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel, Defence Secretary Vlasta Parkanova, Vice-Premier for European Affairs Mr. Alexandr Vondra, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Karel Schwarzenberg, Bishop Monsignor Václav Malý, silver Olympic silver medalist Adolfina Tacova and Bishop Monsignor Vojtech Cikrle.

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay

2007-09-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay, a year long event initiated by the CIPFG on August 9, is currently relaying in Europe. It has gained much support wherever it goes. It will arrive in Timisoara, Romania on Sept. 10th and Vienna, Austria on the 11th.

As of August 28, 2007, there are 150 cities in 37 countries and regions that have registered to participate in the Human Rights Torch Relay. They are:

Greece, Germany, Czech, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, France, Slovakia, Lithuania, Italy, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, Holland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, Ethiopia, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Macau, Hong Kong and China.

Visit www.humanrightstorch.org for more updates and information.

US Congressman Speaks Out Against China Hosting the Olympics (Photo)

2007-09-06T01:49:00.000-07:00

US Congressman Frank Wolf gave a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on July 16 that strongly condemned the Chinese Communist authority's human rights violations, the persecution of Falun Gong, and organ harvesting. Congressman Wolf said, "And despite all of these abhorrent acts, China was still awarded the honor of hosting the 2008 Olympics. The Olympic Games: an event designed to lift up 'the educational value of a good example and respect for universal, fundamental, ethical principles,' according to its own charter. Does China's behavior sound like a 'good example' to the rest of the world? Or that it is reflecting "fundamental, ethical principles" that all nations should aspire to? "

US Congressman the Honorable Frank Wolf

Congressman Wolf said, "America must be a country that stands up for basic decency and human rights. America must speak out on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves--men and women who are being persecuted for their religious or political beliefs. Our foreign policy must be a policy that helps promote human rights and freedom. Not a policy that sides with dictators who oppress their own citizens."

Congressman Wolf continued, "China of today is worse than the China of yesterday, or of last year, or of the last decade.

"Imagine a country where factory workers have no workplace safety, labor or environmental protections, and are required to work 80 hour-weeks for no more than $110 per month to produce goods for export.

[...]

"Imagine a country which tortures and imprisons Catholic bishops, Protestant church leaders, Muslim worshipers, Falun Gong followers, and Buddhist monks and nuns just because of their faith and systematically destroys churches and confiscates Bibles.

"Imagine a country which has a thriving business of harvesting and selling for transplant kidneys, corneas, and other human organs from executed prisoners who are thrown in prison with no trial or sentencing procedures.

"Imagine a country which maintains an extensive system of gulags--slave labor camps, also known as the "laogai"--as large as existed in the former Soviet Union, that are used for brainwashing and 'reeducation through labor.'

"Sadly, none of this is imaginary. Such a nation exists. It is the People's Republic of China.

"Sadly, too, that's just part of the list of egregious actions."
He talked about human rights and trade, "There are some who assert that human rights are something that should come once stability has been attained. They say that protection of human rights comes second to attaining economic power and wealth. We must reject that notion.

"During the debate over granting China permanent normal trade relations status, proponents argued that economic liberalization would lead to political liberalization in China, that exposing China to the West's ideas and values would lead them to play a more constructive role in the international community, and that the US and other industrialized nations could influence China through economic activity to better respect the rights of its citizens to fundamental human rights and the unfettered practice of their faith.

"Instead, we have seen why the protection of basic liberties should not come second to economic growth. The China of today is worse than the China of yesterday, or of last year, or of the last decade. China is not progressing. It is regressing. It is more violent, more repressive, and more resistant to democratic values than it was before we opened our ports to freely accept Chinese products.

[...]

"And despite all of these abhorrent acts, China was still awarded the honor of hosting the 2008 Olympics. The Olympic Games: an event designed to lift up 'the educational value of a good example and respect for universal, fundamental ethical principles,' according to its own charter. Does China's behavior sound like a 'good example' to the rest of the world? Or that it is reflecting 'fundamental ethical principles' that all nations should aspire to?

"Amnesty International reports that the Chinese government is rounding up people in the streets of Beijing that might 'threaten stability' during the Olympic Games and is detaining them without trial. Human Rights Watch reports that the Chinese government is tightening restrictions on domestic and foreign media in an effort to control what information leaks out about China's repressive and violent nature during coverage of the Olympics.

"China's desperation to conceal its true character leading up to the Games smacks of the Nazi bid for the Olympic Games. Analysts are likening the 2008 Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Olympics, in which Nazi Germany soft-pedaled its anti-Semitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, fooling the international community with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany under the guise of the Olympic Games.

"Like the Nazi regime in 1936 Berlin, the Chinese government is preparing for the Olympics by hiring US firms to handle public relations and marketing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"Where is the outrage over China's unacceptable behavior? The facts are before us. The United States can no longer say that things are improving in China.

"America must be a country that stands up for basic decency and human rights. America must speak out on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves--men and women who are being persecuted for their religious or political beliefs. Our foreign policy must be a policy that helps promote human rights and freedom. Not a policy that sides with dictators who oppress their own citizens."

He emphasized, "China poses a threat not only to its own citizens, but to the entire world," and "The United States government and American consumers must be vigilant about protecting the values that we hold dear."

Posting date: 7/21/2007
Original article date: 7/21/2007
Category: Worldwide Support
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/7/18/159119.html

Precious Memories

2007-09-04T02:44:00.000-07:00

master

Born in the period of the Cosmos's Last Havoc and laden with karma, it is my extraordinary predestined good fortune to encounter Dafa and bask in the luminance of Buddha's infinite grace while Master is promoting the Dafa of the Cosmos. Whenever I recollect these fleeting moments of my life, I realize they priceless and incomparably precious, and I feel so blessed.

I cried the moment I saw Master

In April 1994, I was fortunate to have attended the 7th “Fa” Lecture in Changchun City, Jilin Province. My first impression of Master was that he was so different from the rest of us. He was amiable and approachable. He had a smile all the time, and he was so incomparably gentle, considerate and kind. He thought about his disciples all the time. His attire was simple, yet he was elegantly noble.

Master often sacrificed his own time off in order to help disciples learn the Fa well and advance in their cultivation. He always arrived early to the class, and tirelessly answered questions for everybody. I was like everyone else, always wanted to hang around Master a little longer and listen to him expounding on the Fa more, so I also got to the class early every time. Once, I sat up in the balcony and watched as practitioners started to arrive one after another. Just then I saw Master enter the lecture hall, talking to a practitioner. As soon as I saw Master, my tears welled up all of a sudden. I thought to myself, how come I cried the moment I saw Master? It so happened that day during the lecture, Master mentioned that some of us did not know why we cried the moment we saw Him, and that it was because our knowing sides knew what Teacher had given us. I suddenly realized why I cried when I saw Master: Master had given me so much, so very much, that my knowing side felt it and was moved and cried. Could my human side not cry as well? Later, through Master's lectures on the Fa, I learned that Master gave us a lot; he scooped us up from hell and purified us, he then passed on the Fa of the Cosmos to us – the Fa that one might not come across in eons. He gave us a ladder to ascend to Heaven.

Master said in “Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles” (Feb 25, 2006),

“This Fa-rectification is to effect fundamental changes throughout the entire cosmos. That is why during Dafa disciples' cultivation things are being adjusted for them anew, starting from the microcosmic level, and whatever isn't needed is removed directly. It changes the state of a being at a fundamental level. It's different from how things were when people cultivated before.”

Just think of what Master has done for us! Master has bestowed upon us the title, “Fa-rectification Period Dafa Disciples,” and has given us the sacred mission to save sentient beings, validate Dafa, and safeguard the Cosmos. Master has given us the opportunity to establish our mighty virtue. As Dafa disciples existing side by side with Master during the Fa-rectification period, we are the envy of all the beings in the Cosmos. These are honors that will never be presented in the Cosmos again.

Some practitioners understand it well: “It is not easy for Master to spread the Fa; all these years from the outset, He has not paused for one moment. There are many issues we will never know, or be able to understand.”

Now that Fa-rectification has reached the final stage, and we have emerged from countless difficulties and perils under Master's guidance, I can feel Master's grandness and Buddha's infinite grace. They so magnificent that I could not even begin to describe them with human language.

Master’s boundless compassion

Some people came to the class cursing the whole time. There were indeed people like this. One such person enrolled in the class at the same time as me. He showed no respect for Master. On the way home after each class, everyone was so excited and touched, and recounted the compassion and wonderful time during Master’s lecture, yet this person was constantly interrupting with comments that were very disrespectful to Master. We tried to persuade him otherwise, but he did not take heed. I was upset with him and never joined him again after class.

This person often sat in the first eight rows, right in front of Master’s podium. How could Master not be aware of his bad thoughts? Yet from what I could see each time, when Master finished his lecture and came down from the podium to correct disciples’ exercise movements, as he walked back and forth between the first couple of rows, he had a smile on his face and was full of compassion while watching over each practitioner. When Master came to this person, he also looked at him compassionately the same way, without any difference. This incident really touched me. I felt that Master was not an ordinary person, that he is a saint. I had attended classes by other Qigong masters before. They were crowded around by their followers amidst a plethora of constant flattery. If any students had any suggestion of veiled criticism, the master would immediately explode in the class, and would even retaliate. But our Master’s heart was not moved by this disrespectful person, instead he showed great compassion and tolerance, and took no notice whatsoever of the impertinence. Later, Master said during his lecture, “There were people who were cursing at me even while at my classes. I don't mind. I just want to save you.” (“Fa-Lecture during the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference”) Such enormous capacity of tolerance and boundless compassion! Who can even come close?

During my cultivation later on, whenever I encountered conflicts in “xinxing” and tribulations difficult to overcome, I often thought of Master’s great compassion, tolerance, and his heart that encompasses everyone. Who is Master? He is the creator of the boundless cosmos and countless sentient beings. He is also the arbiter of the cosmos. For the people who cursed at him, He is able to be so forgiving and still want to save them. What a capacity of tolerance and compassion! And I am but a tiny little being, a microcosmic life form on a speck of dust in the cosmos. Whenever I encounter problems, I still argue endlessly for what is right and wrong, and from inside out. Aren't I pitiful? Each time I think of this, Master’s compassion and tolerance give me the needed courage, strength and motivation to raise my xinxing.

Teaching by words and deeds, a role model for the disciples

Master teaches disciples, “He is full of great aspirations while minding minor details.” (“Essentials for Further Advancement”) All disciples know what great aspirations are, but what is the standard for “minding minor details?” In the article published on Clearwisdom, “Recollection of Master with Gratitude,” practitioners recalled that Master always held a proper and dignified posture while walking, resting, sitting or reclining. In all the years, they never saw Master sit cross-legged on the chair or sofa, or stretch out. For elderly practitioners, Master took good care of them; and when seeing guests off, Master stood at the door until they were out of sight. Reflecting on myself, have I been able to do that? I am far away from this standard.

Master was very frugal. During the class, we saw that Master's clothes were not new but they fit well and were clean. Other practitioners mentioned that the wool sweater Master wore had been carefully mended in places. I was shocked. In today’s society, who wears clothes with mended patches? Yet our most revered Master wore such clothes. Master once bought a $2 pair of shoes for his daughter. Master would pick up the discarded outer leaves of vegetables and take them home, Master picked up and ate the rice grains off the table and floor, and Master ate the half-bowls of noodles left behind by some practitioners. I cried after reading these accounts. Compared to Master’s behavior, I was so ashamed of myself. Since ancient times, it was always the disciples who provided for the master, yet our Master bought meals for his disciples and never wanted a penny from his disciples. During the classes, Master shed tears when he heard that some disciples had instant noodles for meals. Yet Master Himself ate instant noodles all year long when He held classes. Since ancient times, who has seen such benevolence towards disciples by a master? Even the Dafa books that save sentient beings were given free by Master.

Each and every incident and story of Master teaching the Fa touched people's hearts, and moved people to tears. Even so, after the persecution began on July 20, 1999, evil authorities fabricated stories such as Master was “amassing a fortune,” and “living in luxury in a mansion,” to attack and defame Master. With irrefutable evidence, aren't such false stories shown to be lies? This reminded me that shortly after July 20, CCTV defamed Master for “amassing a fortune.” I said to the wicked people on CCTV, “What fortune to amass? This whole cosmos was created by Master. The whole cosmos is Master’s, and he is the wealthiest. What fortune does he need to amass?”

Master' greatness and noble manner, and Master’s teaching, “He is full of great aspirations while minding minor details” will always be the role model for the disciples.

[Editor's comment: Master’s frugal life style has earned the disciples’ deep respect. But we must not mistakenly think that the Great Enlightened Beings who save people must endure the same hardship and poverty as those whose lives are being saved, and that this is the only way to save people. Such misguided belief has been an area of confusion for some people amidst the wicked Party's lies after the persecution started.]

Posting date: 4/7/2007
Original article date: 4/7/2007
Category: Latest News from China
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/3/14/150711.html

Israel Arrests Men Who Mediated China Organ Transplants

2007-09-04T00:38:00.000-07:00

Four men accused of pocketing millions of dollars that patients had paid for organ transplants in Asia were arrested in Israel last week. The main suspect admitted to an Israeli newspaper that the organs were coming from Chinese death row inmates and prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners.

Report on Israel's largest newspaper Yediot Achronot

Yaron Izhak Yodukin, CEO of Medikt Ltd. and its Israeli counterpart, was arrested for not reporting millions of dollars in income earned by mediating organ transplants for Israelis in China and the Philippines. In recent years, hundreds of Israelis are reported to have traveled to Asia for transplants.

According to Yediot Achronot, Israel's largest newspaper, the country's authorities began investigating Yodukin's activities after he said in an undercover interview nine months ago that the organs his company was helping to provide in China came from political prisoners, death row inmates and people arrested for practicing Falun Gong.

During the investigation, the authorities reportedly discovered that Yodukin's company had been turning in fraudulent receipts to a national healthcare provider and thereby avoiding tax payments on millions of dollars in earnings.

According to Yediot, the receipts reported costs of organ transplants that were much higher than in reality. By charging Israelis more than what was necessary, Yodukin and his colleagues then pocketed the difference, amounting to as much as six million dollars.

Suspected of aiding Yodukin in his tax fraud scheme are his assistant Peleg Matan, Medikt manager Ilan Perry, and a company lawyer whose name has yet to be made public. All three were also arrested last week.

Adding to the seriousness of the episode have been reports that senior administrators in one of the country's main healthcare providers-- Kupat Cholim Klalit-- were somehow involved or aware of what Yodukin and his associates were doing. Yediot reported this week that some of them are also expected to be questioned.

Source: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-8-5/58390.html

Posting date: 8/9/2007
Original article date: 8/9/2007
Category: Open Forum
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/8/8/160460.html

Exploring Cycles of Incarnation: A Mother and Her Son

2007-09-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

by Hang Ming

[PureInsight.org] I am a Mainland Chinese living in the United States. It was purely by coincidence that I started to explore past lives and to confirm a belief shared by many cultures that good deeds will ultimately be rewarded in this life or the next. The year 1995 was the darkest period in my life. I fell into depression after a severe car accident and a failed romantic relationship. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. I lost faith in life. I asked myself repeatedly the meaning of life. On the other hand, I also believed that each man must carry out certain responsibilities for society so I must not allow myself to become overcome with depression. Eventually I began to feel strongly about pursuing the meaning of life and a person's responsibilities in life.

As a start, I began to recall the car accident. It should have been just a purely random accident, but there were some signs that told me that it was not. There seemed to be the result of some unknown forces at work. Three days before the car accident, someone told me to take precautions because he thought I was going to run into a big trouble. I didn't believe him at all. "How can anyone predict the future?" I thought. Going against all probabilities, I did have a severe car accident three days after the warning. It was then I decided to conduct my own research on lives and incarnations. I did a lot of reading and two books written by western psychiatrists were very inspiring to me, especially Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives, a million-copy bestseller by Dr. Brian L. Weiss, a noted psychiatrist and a graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School. I followed the instructions in his book for hypnosis and tried to hypnotize my friends as experiments. I found that I have a natural gift for hypnosis and have became quite good at hypnotizing people over time. I found out that all the volunteers who participated started to make very positive changes in their lives after the hypnosis and their experiences had very good influences on their families and society. In this series of exploring the cycle of incarnations, I will share some real stories of incarnations I heard during the hypnosis sessions with my friends.

A Restaurant Owner and Her Son
A friend of mine is a restaurant owner and often quarreled with her son. She had a career plan for her son, but her son was determined to take a different path. "I have been slaving away in the restaurant to make more money for your education," she thought. "I have your best interests in mind when I plan your future, but you are not grateful for my efforts and my good intentions. You even quarrel with me constantly!" She told me that she had become so frustrated with her son that she began to lose interest in running the restaurant and wanted to retire. Later her son agreed to be hypnotized as an effort to improve their relationship. My friend was present during the hypnosis when her son visited many of his previous lives, so they both learned the cause and effect relationships between them.

First, the son visited a previous life in India. He moaned for water and said that he was a lonely old man accompanied by a monkey only. There was a drought in his village and he volunteered to go out and seek a source of water. He traveled in the desert and struggled to keep going, leaning on a walking cane. After a lot of trials and tribulations, he finally found a water resource following the lead of his monkey. He was overwhelmed with joy and hurried back to report his discovery to the chief of the tribe. Because of him, his entire village of people survived the drought. The chief of his tribe was immensely grateful to him. The chief became his father in the present life. His father has been very affectionate to him. Obviously he has been trying to repay him for what he had done in the previous life. There was also something else that is worth mentioning. He also saw his future girlfriend in the present life although he has not met her yet. The daughter of the chief will be his girlfriend in the present life. Although he is only 19 years old and has not met his girlfriend in the present life, she is going to enter his life soon.

Next, he visited another of his previous lives set in Korea. In that life he was a handsome young man in a village. He fought with another young man from the village for a girl. During the fight, his opponent cut his right lower arm with a knife and fled from the scene. We were shocked to find that my friend's son carries a birthmark in the present life in the same location on his right lower arm that looks very much like a scar. I asked him if he had met the young man in the present life. He said that he has met him and the young man has become a good friend of his in New York in the present life. The friend has been extremely nice to him. Obviously he has been trying to repay him for the assault in the previous life. I asked him about the girl they were fighting over again, and he told me that she has not entered his life yet.

Finally he visited a previous life in Taiwan. He was the owner of a pharmacy in Taiwan. One day a farming woman entered his pharmacy timidly. She told him, "My entire family has become ill and I need medicine right away, but we cannot afford the expenses. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to give us some medicine for free?" He was a kindhearted man. He could tell that the farming woman was not a fraud and she truly needed medicine, so he gladly gave away the medicine and saved the lives of her entire family. The farming woman was very grateful and pledged that she would repay him. It appears that one's wish in one life will determine the next life. They become a family in the present life. The farming woman became his mother in this life.

My friend immediately understood the cause and effect relationship between them. All the hard labors and sacrifices she has made for her son resulted from the debt she had pledged to repay in the previous life. The many incarnations of her son that were revealed under hypnosis demonstrated that each man's destiny is a result of what he has done in his previous lives. Even as a mother, she can change her son's life no more than she can change hers. She decided to resign herself to god's will and let her son take the path he has chosen. She had thought that she was doing a good thing to arrange his future, but that may not be his destiny.

After the hypnosis, they stopped fighting. My friend's son continues his studies and my friend closed her restaurant and started a new business.

This story of my friend and her son has illustrated that the cause and effect relationship, as well as karmic retribution, are by no means creations of the ancient Chinese people's imagination or superstition.

Human Rights Torch Relay Arrives in Berlin

2007-08-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

The Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR) that was lit in Greece, the sacred place of the Olympics, arrived in the German capital of Berlin on August 18. That afternoon, the European branch of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), the German International Society for Human Rights, the Union of Victim Associations of Communist Tyranny (UOKG) and the Library Association to Commemorate the Victims of Communist Tyranny held a greeting ceremony for the arrival of the HRTR at Berlin Olympic Stadium.

German torch carrier, former East German athlete Ines Geipel, who set the world record with her partners for the 4x100m relay, taking over the Human Rights Torch from seven-year-old Chen Fadu, who lost her father because of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, and who carried the torch all the way from the HRTR Lighting ceremony in Greece. (Cao Gong/The Epoch Times)

Shortly after the greeting ceremony, German torch carrier and famous former East German athlete Ines Geipel raised the torch high and led the welcoming team as it ran through downtown Berlin and arrived with the torch in front of William Memorial Church in the Breischeidplatz square. That evening, bands coming from Berlin and other European cities held a "Berlin Human Rights Torch Relay Welcoming" ceremony and open-air concert at Breischeidplatz.

Traditional Chinese Culture - "Role Model to the World" by Yuan Cai (Part 1)

2007-08-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

(Clearwisdom.net) Yuan Cai, also named Yuan Junzai, was born in Xinan (now Changshan City, Zhejiang Province) in the Song Dynasty （960-1279）. He was number three in the emperor's examination in Xinglong Year One, and served as high as the Prosecutor. He once served as the mayor of Leqing County, and was known for his integrity and straightforwardness. To educate the local citizens and improve the moral standards of the general public, he wrote Suxun (meaning "lessons for the general public") in the 5th year of Xiao Emperor of the Song Dynasty, to teach people how to deal with people and to behave in society. Later the book was renamed Shifan (meaning "role model to the world") and was also called Shifan by Mr. Yuan. It was widely circulated and had a profound impact. It became the first book to read for many private schools. Intellects throughout history have thought highly of the book. I am citing a part of its contents here to give readers a flavor of the divine culture of China, in which people respect heaven and comply with their fate, and emphasize respect and morality. This way we can understand the standard that ancient people have lived by. (Note: The paragraph titles are added by the author)

One should treat others with respect whether they are rich or poor, noble or common

There are some people in this world who cannot treat everyone with equal respect. They treat people according to their wealth and status and divide them into classes. When they see a rich or noble person they will be very polite. The wealthier and the higher-ranking the person is, the more humble they will be toward him. When they meet their fellow townsman who is poor and of lower status, they will be arrogant and look down upon him. They seldom help or take care of the lower class people. We should know that other people's wealth cannot add to our own glory, and other people's poverty cannot add to our shame either. Why change our attitude according to others' financial or social status? A person with high moral character and wisdom would never act this way.

Being noble or common are all predestined

One's moral character is entirely independent of one's position. A person with higher moral character is not necessarily rich or noble; and a person with bad moral character does not always have a bad fate either. If that were the case, people such as Confucius and Yan Hui (a favorite student of Confucius) ought to have been prime ministers, and none of the prime ministers in the past history could have been corrupt. To cultivate our moral character is what we need to do; it is not to achieve any particular goal of profit or self-interest. Otherwise, one would relax his cultivation once the goal is not reached. He may then change his earlier belief and turn into a bad person.

Nowadays there are many ignorant people in this world who are rich, and also many that are intelligent but very poor. These are all determined by the heaven, and we do not need to search for a reason for it. Knowing this principle and accepting it peacefully can save one much anxiety.

"Human Rights Torch" was lit

2007-08-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

The Goddess of Justice makes her way through the crowd onto the stage
at the Human Rights Torch Relay opening ceremony

On the evening of August 9, 2007, the Global Human Rights Torch Relay was launched on Syntagma Square, in front of the Hellenic Parliament buildings in Athens, Greece. Representatives of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) from four delegations in Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia and other supporters from various organizations observed the grand occasion at the birthplace of the Olympic movement, one year ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The ceremony launched the year-long journey of the "Global Human Rights Torch Relay.

Requests to Chinese government:

1. Stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately and release all practitioners incarcerated for their faith

2. Stop the persecution of friends and supporters and defense lawyers of Falun Gong practitioners (e.g. Gao Zhisheng, Li Hong)

3. Hold discussions with CIPFG to arrange details on the opening up of labour camps, prisons, hospitals and related secretive facilities for inspection by CIPFG independent investigator

The Olympic Charter:

“Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on ...respect for universal fundamental ethical principles...with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”

“Safeguarding the dignity of the individual is a fundamental requirement of the Olympics.” (IOC Code of Ethics)

We hope the 2008 Olympic spirit will bring the Chinese people hope, tolerance, peace, friendship, freedom of belief, freedom of speech and an overall improvement in their basic human rights.

www.HumanRightsTorch.org
www.cipfg.org

Human Rights Torch Relay

2007-08-04T23:43:00.000-07:00

To protest the Chinese Communist Regime's anti-peace and anti-Olympic Spirit crimes, of organ harvesting crimes against Falun Gong and increased deterioration in human rights persecutions, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution on Falun Gong (CIPFG) has formally announced to the international community, the request that “Anti-Humanity Crimes and Olympic Games cannot co-exist in China”. In June, the CIPFG introduced plans for a Global Human Rights Torch Relay, with the aim of symbolising protection of humanity and respect for life through a global relay. It is a call for the international community to prevent the Olympic Games – a symbol of world peace – from turning into the “Bloody Harvest Games”.

The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) consists of more than 300 public officials, lawyers, doctors, religious leaders, and human rights advocates. The torch of "Human Rights Torch Relay" will be ignited in Athens, Greece, on August 9, 2007. It will end in Aisa before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, crossing five continents in an effort to alert the world to the worsening of human rights in communist China.

The torch relay is spreading a message, "No Human Rights, No Beijing 2008" and to protest the Chinese Communist Regime's anti-peace and anti-Olympics Spirit.

fulfilling

2007-07-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

The heavenly beings in this painting represent all races and cultures. There are practitioners of spiritual practice of Falun Gong in over 60 countries around the world. Its practitioners represent every ethnic group and every walk of life. Although Falun Gong originated in China, the search for truth and enlightenment is universal.

technique: Oil on Canvas
year: 2003
dimensions: 79 in x 47 in

7.20

2007-07-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

July 20 marks the eighth year the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been brutally persecuting Falun Gong (Falun Dafa). It is the time to end it!

YouTube video:
Why is Falun Dafa persecuted in China?

My Letter to Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard

2007-07-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

Re: Rescue our family members arrested in Beijing for practicing Falun Gong

July 13, 2007

Dear Honorable Mayor Bill Bogaard:

First, I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak at the city council meeting on June 25, 2007. I especially appreciate Councilmember Chris Holden’s comment about that the city can use the relationship developed with Beijing to pressure China to improve its human rights condition. And I would like to ask you to write a letter to Chinese President Jintao Hu or Beijing Mayor Qishan Wang to request an immediate release of my mother Shuying Li and my friend Hongwei’s husband Dongwei Bu. They are both Falun Gong practitioners and were arrested last year due to Beijing government’s clearing the streets for 2008 Olympic.

Enclosed are the signatures we collected for our petition to rescue our family members.

I hope you understand, as Falun Gong practitioners, we only pleaded the Chinese government to allow us to practice Falun Gong openly and with dignity. It’s hardly a political agenda. Moreover, before the crackdown in July 1999, the Chinese government even encouraged people to practice Falun Gong because it can save a lot of money for the government on health care.

In the early 1990s, China’s health care system was already heading towards bankruptcy. A lot of Chinese people, especially elderly people sought alternative ways to improve their health, such as practicing Qigong. And among all the Qigong exercises, Falun Gong is not only free of charge but also very effective. It has five sets of gentle exercises, and it teaches people to assimilate to Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Those are the traditional values deeply rooted in Chinese culture, and therefore were easily accepted by many people. I’ve participated group practice in Beijing that had as many as 3000 people attended. The state-run newspapers sometimes published stories of good deeds done by Falun Gong practitioners. And the television showed the chief of China’s General Administration of Sport, Wu Shaozu visited the Falun Gong practice site in Changchun City in northeast China.

However, after July 1999, Falun Gong suddenly became an “evil cult that threatened social stability and spread superstitious thinking”. Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin said during a CCP Central Committee meeting to arrange for the persecution of Falun Gong, “I just don't believe the CCP can't defeat Falun Gong.” He issued the policy, “Ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially and annihilate them physically” and set up a deadline for “Falun Gong to be eradicated within three months.” A bloody genocide was thus initiated.

In 2000, my mother was kidnapped by the policemen on Chinese New Year’s eve. Eight months later, she and other eight Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to prison on October 12, 2000. It was not an open trial. Each defendant could only have one family member to audit and the courthouse was strictly guarded. Even the bus stops nearby where re-routed on that day. My father couldn’t talk to her on court and he had no rights to lodge an appeal or engage a lawyer for her because the court does not allow it.

Between February 4, 2000 and October 12, 2000, we did not know her whereabouts. Later we learned that she had been detained in Beijing Public Security Bureau Branch Seven where they keep prisoners on death roll. Then she was transferred to Beijing Xicheng District Detention Center. After the trial, she was jailed in Beijing Tuanhe Juvenile Prison until she was released on February 1, 2003.

In Tuanhe Juvenile Prison, she and a lot of other Falun Gong practitioners were separated to different platoons with each platoon composed of 100 criminal prisoners. The policemen even encouraged prisoners to harass her while for example waiting in line to get meal. They would also ask the prisoners to give my mother and other Falun Gong practitioners false articles of Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong, in order to trick them to give up.

Even after she was released in 2003, the policemen of Shuangyushu substation are still watching my parents closely. They tapped into our telephone and they would pay a visit to my parents every couple of months. My letters and packages sent to my parents were often times opened and damaged.

Since 2008 Olympics Games is approaching, the Chinese communist party started several massive arrests to clear the streets. As a result, my mother was arrested again on December 15, 2006. That evening, three policemen broke into my parents’ home and started to search for Falun Gong materials. Once they found some, they arrested my mother.

A month later, they “sentenced” my mother to 2.5 years force labor and now she is now jailed in the Beijing Female Labor Camp in Daxing district.

This is a horrible experience for my family. However, it has happened to millions of families in China since the Chinese community seized control in 1949. So many innocent people have been taken away from their loved ones arbitrarily because they were not consistent with the Chinese communist party’s ideology. And because of the community party’s relentless persecution and brainwashing, many Chinese people have learned the lesson and adopted lives without spiritual pursuit. Especially after the economic reform, some people would do anything in seek of money and personal interests. That’s why we have seen so much corruption and poisonous food coming from China. It hurt Chinese society and started to hurt the rest of the world as well.

Eight years has past since the first crackdown of Falun Gong. As an American Mayor, you have the power to help us end this persecution and rescue our family members. Please use that power to help us.

We appreciate your attention to this matter. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours truly,

Yaning Liu

Petition

2007-07-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

In the evening of July 4th at U.S. Independent Day celebration, Yaning (one of our bloggers here) and Hongwei (whose story was posted in April) brought a petition to the Rose Bowl fireworks and collected signatures before the event.

SOS! Urgent: Rescue Our family Members Persecuted in China
They Were Arrested Due to Beijing Government's Clearing The City For 2008 Olympics

Photo: one page of the petition. (click to enlarge)

They collected 450 signatures on that day. The petition will be sent to related officials regarding the Rose Parade. For more background on the petition please see Yaning's earlier post No cause for celebration, an article published on local newspaper, and stories from Yaning and Hongwei which were posted in April.

4th of July

2007-07-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

The L.A. Huntington Beach 4th of July celebration features the largest U.S. Independence Day parade west of the Mississippi River. Here are a few photos of our Falun Dafa team. I was carrying a flag (behind the waist drum team). You can see my flag - the green one - but perhaps you can't see me.

Taiwan Falun Dafa Association Protests Hong Kong Government's Acquiescence to the CCP to Deport Taiwan Practitioners

2007-06-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

The 12 Taiwan Falun Gong practitioners in the picture arrived in Hong Kong on June 25 but they were refused entry into Hong Kong and had to stay in the airport overnight

By a Taiwan practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) Shortly before the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong's being returned to China, a group of Falun Gong practitioners were refused entry to Hong Kong and deported. Among them was attorney Chu Wanqi, Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Foundation Asia. The Hong Kong Immigration Office couldn't give an explanation for the deportations. The Taiwan Falun Dafa Association held a press conference on June 27, 2007, to vehemently protest Hong Kong's action.

Attorney Chu said she successfully entered Hong Kong on June 19, 2007. Only a few days later, when she traveled to Hong Kong on June 24 with a valid visa, she was lead into a separate room by an immigration officer, who told her that her presence in Hong Kong would not be in Hong Kong's best interests and that "upper levels" had decided not to allow her to enter.

Attorney Chu Wanqi publicized an internal email from an airline company.

Chu also publicized an internal email from an airline company, revealing that Hong Kong Immigration had received a "Black List" and then told Taiwan airline companies to help keep Falun Gong practitioners from flying to Hong Kong for the July holiday.

A the translation of an excerpt of the email:
"At 5 p.m. today (June 25, 2007), Director of Airport Control Chen Meng Ling from the Hong Kong Customs and Immigration Department called our company and gave instructions concerning emergency action to keep Falun Gong practitioners from entering Hong Kong.
"On July 1, 2007, Hong Kong will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of is return to China. Falun Gong are not welcomed travelers so airline companies from Taiwan must comply with the following regulations:
From June 26 to July 1, the restriction applies to all flights from Taipei, Kaoshiung, and Taichung to Hong Kong.

Everyday at 5 p.m., a Hong Kong Customs and Immigration Office agent will come to our company to retrieve a list of all passengers flying to Hong Kong the following day. An employee in our department has agreed to provide the passengers' names.
Hong Kong will check the list of names. If they find a targeted person, they will check with the seating department again and also fax a rejection letter to us. Then our department will notify the specific Taiwan airport to stop the passenger.

When the flight leaves Taiwan, a Hong Kong agent will come to get the list of on-board passengers.
The targeted travelers will be refused entry to Hong Kong, so our airline has been asked to give high priority for seats to deport them back to Taiwan."
Attorney Chu said the email shows not only that Hong Kong has a black list but also that it is asking airline companies to cooperate with it. On the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China, when China is claiming that its relationship with Hong Kong is "One Country Two Systems" and "Highly Autonomous," it is actually attempting to deprive the Falun Gong practitioners' of their legal right to obtain a visa, board an airplane, and enter Hong Kong. She called on the Taiwan Government and world public figures to protest to the government of Hong Kong.

According to a survey by the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association, up until June 27, 40 Falun Gong practitioners had been refused entry into Hong Kong, and 246 practitioners were refused a visa to Hong Kong.
The Cabinet of the Mainland Committee of Taiwan, which is in charge of relations with China, issued a statement on June 25, calling on the Hong Kong government to stop unfriendly actions that disrespect human rights. If Hong Kong doesn't improve immediately, it is showing the world how Hong Kong has resorted to self-restrictions, and it will have a very negative affect on Hong Kong's image as a free society.

The Committee emphasized that Falun Gong is a legal organization in Hong Kong and that attorney Chu Wanqi has a valid visa from the Hong Kong government. Yet she was refused entry to Hong Kong and was treated rudely at Hong Kong Customs. How could such a violation of human rights happen in Hong Kong, which always claims it is ruled by law?

The Committee also said that this will affect the exchange between Taiwan and Hong Kong. It expressed concern that the Hong Kong government handle this issue properly so as not to harm the exchange between Taiwan and Hong Kong and not destroy Hong Kong's image as a free society. The Committee also wants the Hong Kong government to protect Taiwan travelers so that they can legally enter and leave Hong Kong and be assured of their safety and rights while in Hong Kong.

The Taiwan Falun Dafa Association then issued a three-point statement. It protested Hong Kong's forced deportation of a human rights lawyer and Falun Gong practitioners, an act that infringes on the rights of the people of Taiwan. It denounced the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party's black list that makes a mockery of Hong Kong's "One Country Two Systems" policy and its judicial independence. It called for Hu Jintai to stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately and bring Jiang Zemin to justice.

The statement from the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association also called on the international community to be aware of how China is pressuring Hong Kong to abandon the "One Country Two Systems" policy and move toward being an accomplice of the Chinese Communist Party in violating human rights.

Posting date: 6/29/2007Original article date: 6/29/2007Category: Falun Dafa

WorldwideChinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/6/27/157731.html

No cause for celebration

2007-06-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

No cause for celebration
--Falun Gong practitioners object to planned Chinese Olympic Rose Parade float
By Joe Piasecki / Pasadena Weekly

http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=4721&IssueNum=75

Broadcast to millions of people around the globe at the start of each year, Pasadena's annual Tournament of Roses Parade is anything but your average street party.

Featuring the likes of President Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, baseball great Hank Aaron and entertainment icons such as Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Carol Burnett as grand marshals over its 12-decade history, the parade is a far-reaching statement about the American way of life — and all from little old Pasadena.

That's why some local Chinese Americans are outraged by the recent announcement that next year's parade will include a float representing the People's Republic of China, believing the inclusion of an authoritarian regime charged with human rights abuses is sending the wrong message out to the world.

The float, sponsored by local business interests, is designed to salute the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing as part of the upcoming parade's theme “Passport to the World's Celebrations.”

But to Jianzhong (John) Li, a Caltech laboratory technical aide who sought asylum from the Chinese government after 1989's Tiananmen Square violence, the upcoming Olympics are no cause for celebration.

Li is one of more than three dozen regular members of Caltech's Falun Gong club, dedicated to the exercise- and meditation-based spiritual movement outlawed by the Chinese government in 1999.

Since that time, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained without public trial and sent to labor camps, where some of them suffer government-sanctioned torture, according to Amnesty International's Web site.

Last year, the Falun Gong-owned newspaper Epoch Times carried a story that the government was killing practitioners to harvest their organs, a claim journalist Wenyi Wang famously shouted at Chinese President Jiang Zemin during his visit last year to the White House.

“The Chinese are using the Rose Parade to show the world that a country, without caring about human rights, can achieve so much. It reminds me of the Olympic Games in 1936, which gave Hitler an opportunity to demonstrate for the world how efficient Nazi Germany was,” said Li, who started practicing Falun Gong in 1996 as a Caltech PhD student and chairman of the school's Chinese Student Association.

Those strong feelings are shared by Yaning (Jenny) Liu, a former Pasadena resident who is trying to free her mother from a labor and re-education camp in Beijing, where she is currently held without benefit of a public trial for practicing Falun Gong.

During a telephone call to her parents' home in mid-December, Liu learned that 64-year-old Shuying Li had been taken from her home by government agents, who seized books about Falun Gong as evidence against her. Authorities prevented Liu's father from visiting his wife or appealing on her behalf, merely sending him notice that Li would serve at least 30 months in the work camp.

Despite some human rights reforms, the Chinese government has increased repression of activists and restrictions on domestic journalists in the run-up to hosting the Olympics, according to an April report by Amnesty International.

“This is very sad,” said Liu of the upcoming Rose Parade float. “We're dealing with a government that persecutes its own people.”

Tournament of Roses President CL Keedy, a longtime Pasadena resident and owner of a tax service franchise, said he did not expect such reactions.

“Our intention is not to offend anyone or any group. The Olympics is a world celebration of athletic endeavors, so it fits with this year's theme of the Rose Parade. The Olympics is the issue, not the politics,” said Keedy, who added that the parade will feature floats and marching bands from at least nine other countries.

Keedy also said that although the Beijing Olympics Committee did give their approval for the float, it is not directly funded by the People's Republic of China.

This isn't the only time that the Rose Parade has been the focus of international controversy. Back in 1992, the Tournament chose Cristobal Colon, a Spanish duke and a descendant of Christopher Columbus, to serve as grand marshal of the event, the theme of which was “Voyages of Discovery” to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New World.

But not everyone viewed that anniversary the same way. Native American and other civil rights groups denounced Columbus and his crew as rapists and pillagers and protested the selection of Colon.

The Tournament of Roses eventually selected a co-grand marshal, then-Independent Congressman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, to share the honors of leading the parade and presiding over the annual Rose Bowl college football game.

China's float is sponsored by both the Roundtable of Southern California Chinese-American Organizations and the locally based Avery Dennison Corp., which has done business in China for more than a decade.

Pasadena, Keedy also pointed out, already has a sister city in China. Xicheng, an administrative district of the Beijing municipality, became one of five Pasadena sister cities in 1999, a status that has led to annual cultural exchanges between the two cities, said Alan Lamson, chair of the China Subcommittee of the Pasadena Sister Cities Committee.

“We suggested it would be a good move to celebrate the Beijing Olympics. A delegation came in late December 2004 to scope out the parade,” said Lamson, who taught English at Pasadena City College for more than 30 years.

Although concerns about China's human rights record entered into the initial sister cities discussion and do crop up from time to time, he said, “Our position is that it's much better to get to know someone, even if you disagree with them... to hear their point of view and to get them to see your point of view. That's been more beneficial than to say, ‘Sorry, we don't want to have a relationship with you.'”

Xicheng borders Tiananmen Square as well as the Forbidden City and is located to the north of the Daxing district, where Liu believes her mother is believed to be held.

Despite reforms to its death penalty system and rules governing foreign journalists, the coming Olympics have been met with “moves to expand detention without trial and ‘house arrest' of activists and by a tightening of controls over domestic media and the Internet,” said Amnesty International Deputy Asia Pacific Director Catherine Baber in an April 30 press release.

In December, Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to the Beijing Olympic committee calling for an end to mass arrests and increased speech restrictions. “Human rights violations have taken place even in direct relation to the organization of the games,” it reads, alleging that some 300,000 Beijing residents have been evicted from their homes during redevelopment efforts.

“If we want to invite the Chinese government to have a float in Pasadena, we should raise the issue of a family member of a [former] Pasadena resident in a labor camp because of the Olympics,” said Wen Chen, an employee of Caltech and member of its Falun Gong Club.

On Monday, 15 other members of the club gathered on campus to voice their disappointment in the Tournament of Roses' decision.

Although she hopes the Olympics will eventually force China to change, Chen fears the games are designed “to fool Chinese people that their government is welcomed by international society and doesn't have to change, and [to] cover up the eyes of Western countries.”

Last week, United Press International reported results of a UPI/Zogby poll that found although more than 46 percent of Americans surveyed feel China will not make human rights reforms due to the Olympics, nearly 80 percent also said that the US should not protest the summer games.

Such widespread disinterest in China's human rights record, particularly involving Falun Gong practitioners, has raised a few questions for Caltech's Li about his new home, America.

“For a long time our society has blindfolded ourselves regarding human rights issues in China because there is so much money to play the public relations game. Here everything is for sale now, and that's what has ruined our moral values,” he said.

Before the Persecution

2007-06-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

During the seven years from May 1992 to July 1999, the number of Falun Gong practitioners in China reached 70 to 100 million, based on internal investigations conducted by the Ministry of Public Security. The following chronicles are selected reports about Falun Gong published before the persecution started in 1999 - all positive:

June 1993: The Chinese Qigong magazine published a special report on Falun Gong and Mr. Li Hongzhi.

April, May, August 1994: Window to Art magazine published special reports on Falun Gong and Mr. Li Hongzhi in three monthly issues.

March 1996: Beijing Youth and Beijing Evenings named book "Zhuan Falun" in the top 10 best seller list.

May 15, 1998: China's CCTV aired a 10 minutes news about Falun Gong in Changchun in the evening news. The news report is very positive.

July 19, 1998: China Economy Times published an article titled, "I Can Stand Up!" This article reported a story of Xie Xiufen, a housewife from Handan City, Hebei Province, who had been paralyzed for over 16 years, but was able to walk after she started practicing Falun Gong.

August 11, 1998: Beijing Daily published an article describing Beijing citizens practicing various exercises, especially Falun Gong, in the morning. The article included a photo of practitioners practicing the Falun Gong exercises.

August 28, 1998, China Youth published a report, "Holiday of Life", reporting 1,500 Falun Gong practitioners attending the opening ceremony of the Asian Sports Festival in Shenyang, and highlighted it with two photos of Falun Gong team as the title pictures.

December 31, 1998: Shenxin Times devoted a whole page of the newspaper to a special report on Falun Gong. The headlines in the page included a summary of Falun Gong, "Falun Gong's Mind Body Cultivation Becomes Popular in Pengchen; 3,000 Practitioners Enjoy Practicing Falun Gong," "Falun Gong Group Practice Sites in College; College Professors and Students Want to Learn Falun Gong," "Falun Gong's Miraculous Healing Power; Many Patients Benefited from Falun Gong," etc. The stories were accompanied by seven color photos of Falun Dafa experience-sharing conferences and group practices.

China Youth, August 28, 1998, "Holiday of Life" on Falun Gong

A thank-you letter

2007-06-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

Before Chinese communist government started the persecution on Falun Gong in July 1999, Falun Gong and Master Li Hongzhi were well recognized in China and received many honoring awards. Below is a thank-you letter from an organization under China's Ministry of Public Security (which later became one of the main departments that execute government's orders on the persecution) , dated in 1993.

----------------------------------
The Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China
Thank-you letter to
The China Qigong Science Research Society

To: Mr. Zhang, Zhenhuan, Chairman of the China Qigong Science Research Society

The Third National Outstanding JianyiYongwei Individuals Honoring Conference, which was co-sponsored by the Central Propaganda Ministry and the Public Security Ministry, has been successfully wrapped up. Many representatives attending the Conference got injured or disabled from fighting against criminals. After conventional medical treatment, many of them still suffered from various symptoms. To help those outstanding individuals alleviate their sufferings, CJYF had formally submitted a request to CQSRS to invite Mr. Li, Hongzhi, founder of China Falun Gong, to offer free health recovery treatment to the outstanding figures during the Conference. Our request received immediate endorsement from general secretary Mr. Zhang, Jian, deputy general secretary Mr. Guan, Qian and Director Mr. Fei, Dequan.

On August 24, upon our invitation, Mr. Li Hongzhi made a special trip to the Public Security Ministry and offered treatment to Chairman Wang, Fang. On August 30, Mr. Li, Hongzhi, leading a group of Falun Gong masters (veteran practitioners), offered treatment to up to 100 representatives at the Conference venue. Because of the remarkable effectiveness, the treatment received wide acclamation. Prior to the treatment, some people were suffering from ailments left over from knife and gunshot injuries. After the treatment, they were relieved of such symptoms as pain, numbness and chronic weakness. Those suffering from brain injury post illnesses recovered sober mind after the treatment, and were relieved of such symptoms as headache and dizziness. Some people were ridded of tumors right on the spot. Some excreted gall stones in 24 hours after receiving the treatment. Some people suffered from stomach diseases, heart diseases or arthritis. After the treatment, all of them were relieved of symptoms right on the site. Among those almost 100 people receiving treatment, only one person claimed no obvious effects. All others felt obvious improvements of various degrees. The representatives treated by Falun Gong were very grateful for this event arranged by the China JianyiYongwei Foundation and credited it as a tangible help offered during the Conference. Whereas the leaders of CQSRS and Mr. Li, Hongzhi directly offered that help, and the activity would help promote the general public's sense of voluntarily combating criminal activities, we hereby express our sincere thanks to you, other CQSRS leaders and Mr. Li, Hongzhi!

We hope that our activities will receive continuous support from your Society and all walks of life.

China JianyiYongwei Foundation (Valor Foundation)
August 31, 1993
----------------------------------

Original letter in Chinese (click on image to enlarge)

Victoria share

2007-06-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

Glad to share something of mine with you.

My name is Victoria. I am a Falun Gong practitioner, very fortunate to practice Falun Dafa.

Before cultivating Falun Gong, I was weak, always in sickness. Falun Gong has improved my immune system, apparently effective in healing and fitness. Now I seldom take medicine.

Before cultivating Falun Gong, I had many shortcomings. For example, I was egocentric for consideration, turndown for criticisms and zealous for fortune, etc. Nowadays, I frequently give myself reminders to think other people prior to me, to let go of vanity and to introspect if behave inappropriately today.

Falun Gong brings serenity to my mind and instructs me to think lightly of human pursuits. “Contentment brings happiness”（知足常樂）and “To let nature takes its course“（順其自然）．With cultivation, I understand these two sentences, experiencing joy of harmony and peace. What is more important, I know the genuine purpose of what I have to be a human being in this world.

Today, Falun Gong flourishes and prospers in 83 countries. The growing numbers of people are participating in Falun Dafa cultivation group every day. Everyone learns and practices Falun Gong free of charge. By means of Falun Gong practicing, you can get a healthier body and improve your moral character.

As long as you cultivate Falun Gong, you will know how wonderful it is

Why Persecution

2007-06-04T00:46:00.000-07:00

Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa) is a an ancient form of Qigong, and it is a cultivation method with the principles of Zhen, Shan, and Ren (Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance). The former Chinese Communist leader Jiang Zemin launched the persecution on Falun Gong in July 1999. Jiang was insecure about his authority and jealous of Falun Gong's popularity - by the late 1990's, 70-100 million people were practicing in China, outnumbering the CCP membership. But why would any government feel threatened by a group of peaceful people who have no political interests, and who measure themselves by the stand of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance?

A friend of mine from Malaysia, who is not a practitioner but knows I am one, once told me: "I think I understand why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can't stand Falun Gong - it's because Falun Gong is so good. It's the same reason why the CCP could not stand Confucius - he is just "too" good." (Note: Confucius had been respected by Chinese people for more than 2000 years as the Greatest Master in the history, whose philosophy, emphasizing on Ren, Yi, Li, Zhi, Xin (benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, faith), is a main part of the essence of traditional Chinese culture. Mao Zedong, an ex-leader of the CCP, started the infamous Anti-Confucius Campaign in the 70s. All Chinese people, from children to elderly, were required to criticize Confucius.)

Falun Gong's principles of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance stand in direct opposition to the nature of the CCP, which defies traditional values and does not allow any freedom of belief. The head of the CCP fears losing control over people's minds, which is the main method they have been using to maintain their power. The CCP created one after another so-called "political movements", under which some people would be labeled as "bad people" and other "good" people are encouraged to use whatever methods to "destroy" the "enemies". Due to these "movements", 60 to 80 million innocent Chinese people have been killed during the 57 years of the CCP's rule over China.

The main target of the CCP is currently Falun Gong practitioners. Jiang Zemin initially swore to "eliminate Falun Gong in three months". Since then, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally detained in prisons, labor camps, and so-called mental hospitals for refusing to denounce Falun Gong. They are routinely beaten, tortured, raped, and injected with nerve damaging drugs. Part of Jiang Zemin's policy of genocide against Falun Gong practitioners has included "defaming their reputations, bankrupting them financially, and destroying them physically." Over 2,800 have been confirmed dead as a result of torture by March of 2006. The real figure is believed MUCH higher than this.

The CCP's brutal persecution on Falun Gong has been going on for almost 8 years. However, they did not succeed to "eliminate Falun Gong". In quite a contrary, Falun Dafa has been spreading to everywhere in the world. And even in mainland China, it is still growing. One of my aunts, who lives in southern China, started to practice Falun Gong two years ago (there is quite an amazing story here). Last year when I visited Beijing, my sister-in-law asked me to teach her Falun Gong as soon as she saw me, before I even had chance to mention anything about Falun Gong.

On Campus

2007-05-25T23:17:00.000-07:00

Falun Club in my university organized a "Traditional Chinese Art Performance and Craft Show" on campus, jointly with Asian Pacific Student Union. It was a part of Asian Heritage Week. Here are two photos on some of the performances by Falun Gong practitioners. I was there helping with booths (not in the photos). Yaning (another blogger in this blog) was there too and she was collecting signatures on appealing for the release of her mother, who's illegally detained in China for practicing Falun Dafa.

lotus dance

waist drum

I went to Malaysia ^^

2007-05-22T00:24:00.000-07:00

hi ~guys
i went to malaysia peforment in 19-20 May 2007.
Malaysia is a wonderful country.
we went to Petronas Twin Towers at night,it is very high and beautiful.
Malysia is also very hot.My sweat just like a river.(do you believe that..ha^^ )
i had a good experince in malaysia.^^
some report as follow:

Taiwan Divine Land Marching Band plays in front of the Petronas Twin Towers, attracting many residents to watch

Taiwan Divine Land Marching Band plays at "Eye on Malaysia" Ferris Wheel, attracting tourists to watch and take photos

Divine Land Marching Band plays on the square at "Eye on Malaysia" Ferris Wheel

Divine Land Marching Band plays at Batu Caves Square

Divine Land Marching Band Performs in Malaysia for the First Time (Photos)
By a practitioner in Malaysia
(from Clearwisdom.net)

On May 19, 2007, the Divine Land Marching Band from Taiwan performed at several scenic sites, including Batu Caves, the "Eye on Malaysia" Ferris Wheel, and the Petronas Twin Towers, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, surprising and touching the local public. Dressed in blue and white, they marched in perfect unison. The band played music "Falun Dafa is Good", "Fa Rectifies the Cosmos" and "Drums and Trumpets Shake the Ten Directions", bringing tears to the eyes of some onlookers. Many took photos of the precious moment.

The Divine Land Marching Band plays. Woman is moved to tears
The Divine Land Marching Band made its Malaysia debut at the new attraction, "Eye on Malaysia" Ferris Wheel.
Norhaslinda (left) and Mohamad Arif (right) praise the The Divine Land Marching Band

Fortunate to see such a good band
Ms. Nasreen, a tourist from India, said during an interview that it was her first time to see such a good band playing in front of the Petronas Twin Towers, though she came many times. She said, "Very good! I enjoyed the performance. It is surprising to see such a good performance here."

Mr. Yang, "The band played very well. The performance shows everyone that Falun Dafa is accepted around the world, including Malaysia."
The play moved people and increased their understanding of the grace of Falun Dafa. Mr. Yang works in an electronics store. He told the reporter, "The band plays very well. The performance shows everyone that Falun Dafa is accepted around the world, including Malaysia."
Public: One more time

The last stop for the Divine Land Marching Band was in front of the Petronas Twin Towers and Fountain Park. Once the band arrived, the performers were welcomed by residents and tourists on the spot. The public gave warm applause at the beginning and end. Some shouted, "Encore! Encore!"

The band was scheduled to perform in Malacca, an ancient city, the following day.

my turn^^~this is falun dafa day yesterday in taiwan

2007-05-14T02:12:00.000-07:00

to celebrate the world falun dafa day the taiwan pratictioners gather in taipei to arrange chinese words .

the parade pass through the taiwan captial

I also attended the march band ,can you see me ?ha..I just kidding..ccc

the parade pass through the taiwan captial.(around TAIPEI Main station )
a

the parade in taipei street

people interest about falun gong ,and the practitioner was teaching them.

people looked the falun dafa pictures

people want to understand the falun dafa

the some practitioners after the activties(not me ...)

a litte girl (falun dafa practitioners cover all kind of age)

World Falun Dafa Day, May 13

2007-05-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

Selected letters from governers in the U.S. honoring the World Falun Dafa Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Falun Dafa around the world:

Washington, DC, U.S.A.

Paris, France

Erbach, Germany

Melbourne, Australia

Turkey

India (students learning Falun Gong)

Taiwan

"Tiananmen, Please Tell Me"

2007-05-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

Tiananmen Square, can you tell me:
How many followers came here for the cause?
Clouds in the sky: you could see the clearest,
In the face of evil they kept kind.
The kindhearted shed tears on their behalf,
Righteous voices pled for them:
Alas!
So that you may hear the facts--
It's for you, for you
That they bore the torment
...
Precious Chinese people--
it's for you, for you
that they forfeit their return.
Alas!
Falun Dafa is good, Falun Dafa is good
that their voices do resound!

How to Practice

2007-05-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

Falun Dafa (aka Falun Gong) practice is not complicated. The five gentle exercises, one of which is a meditation, are easy to learn, enjoyable, and at the same time both relaxing and energizing. Here is a 3 minute video demo of the exercises: YouTube

The teachings of Falun Dafa are included in the book Zhuan Falun. Falun Dafa was introduced to public in China in 1992 by Teacher Li Hongzhi. During the next couple of years, Teacher Li was traveling around the country and giving public lectures teaching Falun Gong (it was a typical way for many other qigong masters in China to teach their qigong practices). The book "Zhuan Falun" was published in December 1994. It has nine chapters based on Teacher Li's nine-day public lectures. Many people who had no chance to attend Teacher Li's lectures learned the principles of Falun Dafa from the book or recording of the lectures. Key contents of the book include discussion of: the origins of qigong and the long-forgotten meaning of cultivation; the roots of illness, and their fundamental removal; karma: its origin, effects, and transformation into virtue; Falun Gong's relation to qigong, Buddhism, Taoism, and other cultivation methods; the meaning and function of supernormal abilities; the question of eating meat and the issue of attachments; genuine, integrated cultivation of mind and body; the concepts of Enlightenment and Consummation. The book can be found online and it has been translated into more than 30 languages. The official website is at falundafa.org

The principle of Falun Dafa is Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance.

Like a Stone

2007-05-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

This painting is highlighting the abuse and torture that those Falun Gong practitioners been detained in China have to go through on a daily basis. With this torture method, sharp bamboo sticks are jammed underneath the fingernails. In this depiction, even though the pain is excruciating, the practitioner has no choice but to painfully endure the process

Like a Stone, WANG ZhipingPastel on Paper - 39 in x 27.5 in - 2004

With this torture method, sharp bamboo sticks are jammed underneath the fingernails. This method has been used on Falun Gong practitioners. In this depiction, even though the pain is excruciating, the practitioner endures.

In Harmony

2007-05-02T02:16:00.001-07:00

In Harmony, CHEN XiaopingOil on Canvas - 47 in x 69 in - 2004'

This painting depicts a young woman doing the fifth exercise of Falun Gong, "Way of Strengthening Divine Powers." The clear water and blue sky reflect her tranquility and give a feeling of her union with heaven while she meditates. The four "Cherubs" play amidst an energy field.

(Continued) Yaning's Mother

2007-04-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Almost seven years ago, on February 4, 2000, my mother was kidnapped on the way to Tiananmen Square. Two days after that, February 6, 2000, the policemen searched my parents apartment, confiscated all the Falun Gong books and a computer. A couple of months later, they barged into our apartment again to take pictures. A Chinese official newspaper, Legal Daily even reported my parent’s apartment as a “black den of evil cult”.

On October 12, 2000, my mother and eight other Falun Gong practitioners were put on trial under the same charge: for “having disturbed the law from being implemented” and “colluded with foreign anti-China forces”. The only evidence they had for charging my mother was that she participated a Falun Gong cultivation experience sharing meeting with practitioners from Australia.

As a family member, my father attended the trail on October 12, 2000. It’s not an open trial. Each defendant could only have one family member to audit and the courthouse was strictly guarded. Even the bus stops nearby where re-routed on that day. My father couldn’t talk to her on court and he had no rights to lodge an appeal or engage a lawyer for her because the court does not allow it.

Between February 4, 2000 and October 12, 2000, we did not know her whereabouts. Later we learned that she had been detained in Beijing Public Security Bureau Branch Seven where they keep prisoners on death roll. Then she was transferred to Beijing Xicheng District Detention Center. After the trial, she was imprisoned in Beijing Tuanhe Juvenile Prison until she was released on February 1, 2003.

In Tuanhe Juvenile Prison, she and a lot of other Falun Gong practitioners were separated to different platoons with each platoon composed of 100 criminal prisoners. The policemen even encouraged prisoners to harass her while for example waiting in line to get meal. And the policemen would ask the prisoners to give my mother false articles of Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong, in order to brainwash her.

Even after she was released in 2003, the policemen of Shuangyushu substation are still watching my parents closely. They tapped into our telephone and they would pay a visit to my parents every couple of months. My letters and packages sent to my parents were often times opened and damaged.

My mother’s recent arrest is not an isolated case. I've heard quite a few Falun Gong practitioners were arrested because the 2008 Olympics Games is approaching -- the Chinese communist party has a tradition to start mass arrests before big events.

Hongwei's husband

2007-04-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

I'm posting the following letter from a fellow Falun Dafa practitioner, Hongwei, who's a friend of mine in L.A..
-------------------------------

My name is Hongwei Lou. I have been living in LA since I graduated from University of Cambridge in England. I have been trying to seek help by all means I could think of to rescue my husband – Dongwei Bu (David Bu) since he was illegally arrested as a Falun Gong practitioner in Beijing on May 19, 2006. I cried a lot till I had no tears. I am so desperate but have to be strong-willed because I still have a two-year-old daughter and elderly parents who need my help, though I cannot be their side at present.

David is a staff member of a U.S. organization -- the Asian Foundation, headquartered in San Francisco. He was a project manager of Asia Foundation's Beijing Office and responsible for providing legal aid to immigrant workers in China. It is ironic that such a person was illegally arrested without any legal aid.

My husband is currently imprisoned in a "Re-education through Labor" camp in China called Beijing Tuanhe Labor Camp only because he kept some Falun Gong books at home. He was arrested by seven Chinese policemen while he was staying at home. Later he was sentenced to 2.5 years re-education through labor (RTL) without even a trial or access to any lawyer. The whole process is totally illegal.

I have been enduring so many sleepless nights. My parents told me that our daughter has been missing her father badly for months. She always asked them one question again and again, " Where is mama? Where is
daddy?" My parents don't know how to reply but to tell her, "mama is in America." and avoid her question about her daddy. My daughter has to face such a tough life though she is only two years old.

Luckily more and more kind-hearted people are helping me and I feel much better now. Amnesty International has classified David as a prisoner of conscience and issued an urgent action worldwide to rescue him. For your reference.

Amnesty International: Urgent Action

We all know that prisoners who are noticed frequently receive better treatment than those who are rarely if ever asked about. Please find the photos of my husband attached.

Thank you for your concern about this issue.

Sincerely yours,

Hongwei Lou

Yaning's Mother

2007-04-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

My name is Yaning Liu. Like Jane, I grew up in Beijing China. I am the only child of my parents who still live in Beijing. We used be a happy family of three.

In 1998, I came to the United States and studied at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. After graduated from the university, I moved to Phoenix, Fresno, and now live in Los Angeles, California.

My mother, Shuying Li, is a 63-year old retired physics teacher of Beijing Zhongguancun High School. She had been a teacher for 30 years. She was honored as an “excellent teacher” by her school. She began to practice Falun Dafa in 1995 after learned it from a colleague.

December 15, 2006, 8pm, three policemen from Shuangyushu police substation of Haidian District in Beijing barged into my parents’ apartment in Haidian District of Beijing. They said they had the order from above. They searched the apartment, once they found some Falun Gong books and CDs, they immediately arrested my mother. They even threatened to arrest my father who they knew doesn’t practice Falun Gong. They also asked if I, the daughter, am practicing Falun Gong in America. My father followed to the police substation but they told him that she had been sent to Haidian District Detention Center in Qinghe, Beijing. My father ask them on what ground they arrested my mother, they said somebody reported that she’s still practicing Falun Gong and no one could practice Falun Gong in China, not even at home, that’s “disturbing the law from being implemented”.

On December 20th, 2006, my father went to Shuangyushu Police Station again. The policemen said the search order is signed by the Chief of Haidian Sub-Bureau of the Public Security in Beijing and the matter is beyond their substation’s control. He has to talk to the Haidian Sub-Bureau.

Around January 29, 2007, the Labor Education Management Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Government sent my father a notice. It said they intended to send my mother to a labor camp for two and a half years.

The notice advised us that within 60 days of receiving the decision, we could request the Beijing Municipal People's Government to do an administrative review. However, when my father went to the Beijing government to submit the request, the staff told him that he needed to get a power of attorney from my mother. Since they wouldn't even let my father contact my mother, how could he obtain the power of attorney?

to be continued...

My friend Wenny

2007-04-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

I met Wenny during the last year of my high school in Beijing. She was a gentle and quiet girl, and very gifted in drawing and Chinese calligraphy. Later we went to colleges in different cities. I still have a big pile of letters from her during our college years. In our letters, we often recommended good books we discovered to each other and shared stories about new friends we made. During winter and summer vacations, we spent countless afternoons together and listened to music - both of us were lovers of western classical music. Sometimes we went to parks with a group of (girl)friends.

Wenny loved drawing and chose architecture as her major. After finishing her degree, she worked as an architectural designer at a commercial design institute in Beijing. Wenny got married to a college sweetheart of hers and they later had a lovely daughter. She and her husband both practiced Falun Gong (so did the family of her older sister). Both Wenny and her husband are extremely nice people - I'm sure you would agree with me if you had met with them. (Photo at right: Wenny before the persecution)

In 2002, I heard that Wenny had "disappeared" as a result of Chinese communist government's persecution of Falun Gong. I could not find out what happened to her until late 2004, when -- for safety reason I will refer this person as Ms.A -- Ms.A (in China) contacted me and told me that she heard from Wenny! Wenny was able to make a phone call to Ms.A. Fearing the phone line was bugged (it's not uncommon in China that phone calls are listened, private letters are opened, e-mails are inspected, etc.), Wenny did not say much and did not mention her location. During the past two and half years, Wenny tried to call Ms.A every few months. Once she called on my birthday and asked Ms.A to pass a "happy birthday" message to me... Last time she called was in January. She said she was "doing fine". But with the warnings like "don't record my phone number", "don't call this number back", "I may hang up anytime",..., you know she's far away from "doing fine".

Starting in 2000, like tens of thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners in mainland China, Wenny was forced multiple times to "brainwash classes" and "transforming centers". And she was taken to detention center and beaten by police. They tried to force her to give up Falun Gong practice by threatening and torture. Eventually Wenny had to escape and became homeless.

I do not know where she is now and how she survives. Her husband and her daughter have not seen her for all these years.

Last summer I read a report about her sister's family. It happened in last July. Police broke to her sister's home and arrested her sister's husband, because they did not give up practicing Falun Gong. Her sister, who was at work at that time, was informed by a neighbor that her husband was taken by police and they were waiting at their home to arrest her. She immediately left work and did not return to home. Either she was abducted by police or became homeless as Wenny, I do not know.

(Continued) Jane's Story

2007-04-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, a friend of mine in L.A., who is a Falun Dafa practitioner, was invited by a local TV station to talk about Falun Gong related issues. The host asked him how many Falun Dafa practitioners are there in Southern California. She was quite surprised to hear my friend answered he doesn't know since Falun Gong has no registration or roster.

That's right. Falun Gong has no fee, no membership, and no registration. It started like that in China before the persecution, and it's the same way now in more than 60 countries in the world (including China). So whether one is a Falun Dafa practitioner or not, no one would give you that title and there is no any form of ceremony. As long as you think you are a practitioner, you can call yourself one.

I did not consider myself as a real Falun Dafa practitioner until fall of 2003.

Two years after my previous visit to Beijing when my friend introduced Falun Gong to me, I went there again in the summer of 1996. My sister, who by then had been practicing Falun Gong for two years, had a new book waiting for me. It was "Zhuan Falun", the main text of Falun Dafa. I remember I read it overnight and simply loved it. When I really like something, I have this habit of repeating the experience, such as reading a good book or watching a good movie. So I brought the book with me when I returned to the U.S., and I read it many more times during the next few years. It's just like my friend Wenny told me, you discover new meaning when you read the book again. "It's a book from Heaven," she told me. I did not really understand what she meant at that time. But I knew it is THE best book I have ever read.

Every time when I visited Beijing, Wenny was one of my must-see friends. The last time I saw her in person was 2000. During my two week vacation in Beijing in the summer of 2002, I could not get hold of her. Later on an old classmate of us told me she heard that Wenny had "disappeared" due to her Falun Gong practice. Up to that point, I was not fully aware of the severity of the persecution on Falun Gong in China. Needless to say, I started to pay attention to the issue after I returned to the U.S.. I started to read reports about the persecution on internet. (I will talk more about Wenny's story later.)

I also read the lecture notes from the Falun Dafa official site. It was not an one-day decision, and it took me a few more months to decide now it's the time for me. It did not happen very dramatically. Just one day in October 2003, I called a practice site which is located in my university and made an appointment on learning Falun Gong exercises. A Ph.D. student who was studying at the same university taught me all five sets of exercises at the following Saturday group practice. I consider that from that time, I "officially" became a Falun Dafa practitioner.

I was still the same person, yet I was changed - I know the true meaning of my life.

First post from Jane

2007-04-08T00:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Sharon. Hello John. Nice to meet both of you here! Allow me to introduce myself first - I'm Jane. I live at another part of the globe - Los Angeles, U.S.A.. I was born and grew up in Beijing, China. After finishing my college degree I came to the U.S. for further study. Now I work as a scientist in an university.

My road to Falun Dafa seems less dramatic than John's, and it took much longer. It was in 1994 when I went from the U.S. back to Beijing for my summer vacation, Wenny, my best friend in China since high school, came to my parents' home. At that time my sister, who was an editor at a publisher in Beijing, just started to practice a type of qigong. So we talked about the qigong topic and Wenny, who had had experiences with several types of qigong in the past, said she has found the best qigong. Yes you guessed it right - what Wenny told my sister and I was - Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa).

Qigong, generally speaking, is a type of ancient Chinese practices using a series of gentle focused exercises and meditation. Qigong was extremely popular in China starting at late 70's, especially in 80's to mid-90's. There are many different styles and schools of qigong (for example, Tai Chi is one of them) and usually people practice them for improving their physical and mental health.

Before I heard of Falun Gong, I had been to a few qigong lectures and had read some books on different qigong. I did not practice any, though. Wenny lent us "Falun Gong", an introduction book to the practice and I read it. I felt Wenny is definitely right. This is the best qigong, and if one day I start to practice qigong - and I knew I will - this must be the one.

My sister wanted to start the practice right away. So we went to a local public park next morning (Wenny told us one can learn Falun Gong at any park, and it's free of charge). The park was full of different groups of people doing morning exercises with different types of music. We walked around and automatically stopped in front of a large group of people who were doing very graceful yet simple movements (later I learned it was Falun Gong's forth exercise), with very peaceful music. We asked one person which qigong it is and he said it's Falun Gong. Mistakenly thought qigong's main purpose is to improve health, and since I felt perfectly healthy myself, I did not practice Falun Gong at that time.

My sister did. From that day, she went every morning to the local park and practiced the five gentle exercises before going to work. And this routine lasted until 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (the CCP) tried to carckdown Falun Gong (the brutal persecution has been going on for more than seven years - until today).

The spreading of Falun Gong in China was basically by word of mouth. My sister's story is quite typical: three months after she started to practice Falun Gong, one day, a colleague of hers asked her what happened to her. The colleague said my sister looked so good and her face was almost shiny. Until that time, my sister did not even realize her appearance had changed since she practiced Falun Gong! This story soon spread among her colleagues. By 1999 when the CCP started the persecution, there were more than 60 people practicing Falun Gong in her working place, which had about a total of 140 employees.

In 1999, the estimate number of Falun Gong practitioners in China was 70 - 100 million.

Here are some documentary photos:

Fifth (sitting) Exercise. a typical Sunday morning practice site in Beijing
before the crackdown - 2000 people

practitioners doing Exercise One during group practice in Shengyang City,
May 1998
Last year when I visited Beijing, I went to that same local park. There was no one doing any type of qigong anymore (I heard that if someone goes to public park to do qigong, as soon as they rise their arms they may get arrested - even someone who do other types of qigong, security guards may think they are doing Falun Gong.)......

... ... OK it has passed midnight here. I think I will stop for now and will talk about myself next time - how and when I actually became a Falun Dafa practitioner. Seeya.

Start from the beginning...

2007-04-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

I wasn’t sure how start this blog going so I guess the best way would be to introduce myself and explain how I came to be a Falun Gong practitioner.

I am now 32, living in London and run my own business in the creative marketing sector. I was raised in the Scottish highlands and left home when I was 17 for a short stint in India before coming to London to study graphics. I lived in London for 7 years and towards the end of that period I was in a long-term relationship with an English girl. In December 1998 I was invited to a holy Native American ceremony in the US with my father. This ceremony marked significantly the closing of a period in both my fathers and my life. During this ceremony I was to have my first genuine spiritual experience and afterwards my father would find the answer to a vital question he had asked during the ceremony - both of these experiences would lead us to Falun Gong.

Immediately after the ceremony I knew that my relationship was over, never had my intuition been so strong and within in a week I was proven correct. It was not a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy; the relationship came to an end somewhat abruptly and painfully. I was so hurt; in order to take my mind off things I left the UK to go snowboarding in New Zealand. I liked the place so much I decided to stay. During my time there I drowned my sorrows in alcohol and developed a terrible habit that nearly destroyed me as I tried to obliterate the memories of my break-up.

About a year and a half later I returned to the UK for what was supposed to be a short visit. Almost immediately on my return I was struck by how much Dad had changed. He had put on a healthy amount of weight (he lost a lot when my mum died), he was no longer smoking or drinking and seemed to have a sense of calm in him that had never existed before. It was impossible not to notice the change and I asked him what was the cause of this. He casually mentioned that he was practicing qi-gong and didn’t make much more of it than that. About a week later he said he was off to Scotland for a couple of weeks and he left a copy of Zhuan Falun (the main text) behind.

I picked it up and couldn’t put it down. It was everything I had been looking for my whole life. At this point I should explain that as a family we have all been searching for a form of spirituality for as long as I can remember. It seemed as though until this point everyone had found his or her own way apart from myself. I had tried Christianity in my early teens, Buddhism in my late teens and I narrowly escaped the clutches of Scientology in my early twenties. None of them had struck a chord; they seemed lacking, irrelevant and empty. But this book Zhuan Falun just blew a lot of my previous notions and conceptions out of the water; in other ways it confirmed a lot of what I already believed. I found it challenging but only in the most positive sense.

When my father arrived back from Scotland I asked him to show me the exercises. After 2 weeks of that he mentioned the persecution in China. I was horrified at what was happening and wanted to do something as soon as possible. A week later we were outside the Chinese Embassy 24/7 for 10 days straight. This garnered little media attention, so we decided that more needed to be done. So we went there to do the exercises every weekday at 7:45am before going to work. 7 years on and the protest outside the Chinese Embassy still goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

So what was supposed to be a short 6-week visit to the UK turned into 9 months and it had completely changed me as a person. I will say at this point that until I became a Falun Gong practitioner I had suffered from one form of drug addiction or another. I was a highly aggressive and deeply selfish person who found it hard to interact in a socially acceptable manner. I was regularly depressed, suffering from nightmares and hallucinations and had tried to commit suicide 3 times. I find it hard to describe how easy I found it to leave all of this behind without treating the whole thing frivolously. I gave up drinking nearly overnight – I was disappointed at the lack of drama involved, it was really no big deal I just decided I wasn’t going to drink anymore and that was that, done!

What is Falun Gong or Falun Dafa?

2007-04-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

FALUN GONG MEETS CHIANG KAI-SHEK
Thousands of Falun gong practitioners gather in the area in front of the chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hal( 2005.12.; in taipei) The group has in recent years fallen afoul of the Chinese government over its perceived challenge to Beijing’s authority, but its activities in Taiwan are unrestricted.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline for mind and body. The practice involves slow, gentle movements and meditation. It is easy to learn, enjoyable to practice, and free of charge. Its principles are based on Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance. The practice began in China in 1992 and quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China and then beyond. Falun Gong is practiced by over 100 million people in 60 countries. The main works of Falun Gong are available in over 30 languages.

Falun Gong is practiced by people of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds. People who practice regularly find it brings them better health, reduced stress, increased level of energy, inner peace, and deepened morals.