UK: Chinese Consulate Fails to Thwart Dafa Activities in Edinburgh's One World Festival

On Tuesday 17th June, Scottish Dafa practitioners held a workshop as part of the "Edinburgh One World Festival". Spirituality, Peace and Justice in cultures around the world were the main themes of the festival. Falun Gong practitioners were approached and invited to participate by the event organisers. This occurred after Edinburgh's Chinese Consulate had written to the event organiser before the festival, complaining that Falun Gong had participated in the last festival, slandering the practice and asking that Falun Gong be omitted from the programme. The organiser had ignored the complaint and told us "we can invite who we like!" Practitioners are happy that the organisers could clearly distinguish right from wrong and did not allow Jiang to further spread his persecution into Scotland's society.

The Falun Dafa workshop was well-attended and included the Event Organiser and two non-practitioner Chinese students. A Western practitioner introduced the evening by linking the themes of the Festival to the practice of Falun Gong and the human rights abuses of practitioners in China.

The first part of the program consisted of a practitioner introducing Falun Gong, speaking of the fundamental principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance and the benefits for mind, body and spirit that she has personally experienced. The audience were then shown a video entitled, "The Real Story", portraying the contrasts between both the tranquil, peaceful exercises and the brutality of the persecution.

There was then a question and answer session focusing on the persecution and more in-depth information was given regarding the insidious propaganda in and outside China. Practitioners mentioned that the former leader of the Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, is being sued in US courts for genocide. Members of the audience were very interested and sympathetic to the plight of practitioners in China; many signed a petition calling for the release of UK practitioners' illegally detained friends and relatives from labour camps and prisons in China.

The second part of the programme consisted of the audience being taught some of the peaceful Falun Gong exercises and practising them along with the practitioners. One of the Chinese non-practitioners noted that when a Chinese lady practitioner was doing the exercises it appeared as if a lotus flower was opening, and she found it very beautiful.