Taiwan: People Respond Enthusiastically to a Petition Condemning the Shooting in South Africa

Many people who saw the photo of Australian Falun Gong practitioner David Liang's bloody feet seriously injured by gunshots called out, "Jiang's group is so disgusting!" [refering to Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin]. In order to inform the public about an international terrorist act - the Jiang group's extending the persecution of Falun Gong overseas by hiring gunmen to shoot Falun Gong practitioners in South Africa - practitioners in Taiwan held a petition drive to seek help from people from all walks of life. So far, several hundred thousand people have signed the support petition.

Support from Legislators

On July the 11th 2004, Falun Gong practitioners held a cloth for signatures on Ren'ai Road in Taipei to inform the public that when Jiang group members Zeng Qinghong and Bo Xilai visited South Africa at the end of June, Falun Gong practitioners who travelled there to appeal were attacked by gunmen on the evening of June the 28th. At least five shots hit their car and driver David Liang's feet were shot, with one foot sustaining a serious fracture. Falun Gong practitioners hoped people would work together to stop such terrorist acts. It happened that two legislators, Qiu Yi and Chen Wenxi, passed by; they learned the truth and signed their names to express their voices of justice.

People in Ximenting Show a Positive Response

Ximenting is a centre containing cinemas and shops in Taipei, and also a place for people living in Taipei to go shopping and take a rest. There usually are crowds of people, and young people especially love this place. When we set up display boards, the scene of an Australian Falun Gong practitioner whose feet were seriously injured by gunshots immediately drew people's attention. Everything seemed to stop suddenly. People began talking to each other and slowly walked up to the table where a cloth for collecting signatures was placed.

We explained to people the entire process of the incident. A young lady who looked like a student said angrily, "Why do they (Jiang's group) always do bad deeds?" A young couple said, "Evildoing like this should not be allowed to continue." Another young man said to his friend, "Another form of persecution of Falun Gong. It's simply for the benefit of health, why is Jiang so afraid of it?" A group of American teenagers who had come to Taiwan to attend a summer camp said that they had never heard about Falun Gong, but shooting people is certainly wrong.

Streams of people came to take a look at the display and sign their names to express their condemnation of this evildoing. In less than two hours, two lengths of cloth were full of names.

Support From People in South Taiwan

Falun Gong practitioners explained to an older man in his 70s that on June the 10th 1999, Jiang overrode the Chinese Constitution and regular legal procedures, and directly ordered the central government to set up an organisation exclusively responsible for persecuting Falun Gong - The Office for Dealing with the Falun Gong Issue. Because it was established on June the 10th, it was called the "6-10 Office". The "6-10 Office" has systematically persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China by making policies such as "defame their reputation, bankrupt them financially, destroy them physically," and "the death of Falun Gong practitioners from beating is nothing and shall be counted as suicide; the body shall be directly cremated without investigating the person's identification."

Over the past five years, more than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners are verified to have died as a result of persecution. The older man listened to all this and said that he could not write but wanted to sign his name, so practitioners held his hand to help him write down his name. He said, "To stop such persecution, the more people participate, the more powerful it would be."

A woman from Hunan Province returned after signing her name and asked if she could sign on behalf of her family members. She told us, "Last month, I went back to Hunan. There is also persecution of Falun Gong there. People in my township all said Jiang Zemin is bad, and Falun Gong is wronged." She said she understood all about Falun Gong.

More and More People With Kind Hearts

From this signature collection activity conducted across Taiwan in a short period of time regarding the shooting incident in South Africa, we can see that more and more people have learned the facts of the persecution. Different from previous years' signature collections, people showed their sympathy for Falun Gong practitioners and unanimously condemned the brutal persecution.

With the awakening of the people, when all voices of justice condemn and stop these terrorist acts, the persecution will definitely come to an end.