United Kingdom: Belfast Telegraph reports on the City’s “Persecution Meets Principle” Exhibition

British newspaper The Belfast Telegraph published an article entitled “Show to focus on torture in China” on March 4th 2005. Marie Foy reported that Falun Gong practitioners held anti-torture exhibitions in fifteen cities in the UK to expose the brutal torture that the regime in China has conducted against them because they refuse to abandon their belief.

The report also said an open-air exhibition would be held in Belfast’s Corn Market for two days to highlight the torture and persecution happening in China. According to the report, this exhibition, entitled “Persecution Meets Principle”, is organised by Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong is a traditional spiritual cultivation. It combines gentle movements with tranquil exercises and practitioners can achieve great improvement in their mind and body. The report quoted Falun Gong practitioners’ remarks that Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party, considered Falun Gong’s popularity in China as a threat to his political power. As a result, he banned Falun Gong in 1999 and gave orders for a systematic, relentless persecution.

According to the account of a practitioner, there have been more than 1,450 Falun Gong practitioners persecuted to death so far. Photos, props and actors were used in the exhibition to demonstrate how Jiang’s group attempted to “convert” Falun Gong practitioners through various forms of torture, including force feeding, burning the skin with cigarettes, electric shocks and months of prolonged imprisonment in a small cage.

The report mentioned that the exhibition had been held in fifteen cities and would continue throughout the entire country. It quoted a statement made by Christina Jingha, one of the organisers of the exhibition: “We believe the persecution against Falun Gong is a persecution against conscience. It is a persecution against the very basic principles that are crucial to human beings.”

In the exhibition, visitors were invited to sign on a petition letter urging the Chinese government to stop the persecution. The letter will be sent to United Nations Human Rights Commission.