United States: Washington DC - Chinese Practitioners Living Abroad Share a Pleasant Evening Together With Taiwanese Practitioners

A few days before July 20, many Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners travelled a great distance to come to Washington DC to join the July 20th appeal activities and rally for the trial against Jiang Zemin.

Since the persecution began four years ago, each July 20th some Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners have come to attend the annual Washington DC rally to support fellow practitioners in China and to call on people from all walks of life to help stop the Jiang regime's brutal persecution. On the evening of July 21, many overseas Chinese practitioners and Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners got together at the Kaihe Restaurant and shared a warm, memorable evening. During the evening party, the Falun Gong practitioners also gave beautiful music and dance performances.

Mr. Tsai Ming-tsian, deputy representative of Taipei's Liaison Office in the U.S., giving a speech.	Practitioners singing, "Coming for you".

Audience

Two deputy representatives from the Taipei Liaison Office in the U.S. and leaders of different overseas Chinese associations came to attend the party. Mr. Tsai said that seeing Falun Gong friends was like seeing his own brothers or sisters. He said that since he took the post in Washington DC a year ago, he often passed by the Chinese Embassy, almost two or three times every week. No matter what time of day it was, he would see some people either reading books or practising the exercises in the small park in front of the Chinese Embassy. After asking others, he found out that those people were Falun Gong practitioners. He said that the reason why the Jiang regime was afraid of Falun Gong the most was because Falun Gong was a model and symbol of freedom and peace in China, and there was a strong sense of unity. He hoped that our efforts would influence society to help the Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Professor Chang Jinhua, director of the Media Institute in Taipei University is in her fifties. She was in charge of coordinating the group of Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners visiting Washington DC. She first asked others to guess her age. She said that she had been practising Falun Gong for four years. She not only felt good both physically and mentally, but she also looked a lot younger. She said the reason why more than 1,200 Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners made the long trip to Washington DC was not for sightseeing or taking a vacation, but to attend activities opposing persecution and torture, and to call on people to support justice.

Deputy representative of the Taipei Liaison Office in the U.S. Mr. Lee Chen-Tsiong said with a broad smile, "Professor Chang Jinhua, who looks like a young girl, just gave me a one-hour lesson, from which I obtained some understandings. Apart from promoting freedom and human rights, what people care about the most is their health. Although there are different practises, Falun Gong is a cultivation practise that is based on a set of beliefs. It is very profound. It is most practical and needful for people to have good health through practise. At the same time, it can also reduce the burden of medical treatments in the country."

Mr. Hong Chi-Hong, secretary of the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association, said, "It usually takes the Chinese Communist Party only a few days to destroy a group of people if they want to persecute them. Jiang announced that he would eradicate Falun Gong in three months, but four years have passed. Falun Gong has not been eliminated, but instead, it becomes stronger and stronger. What is true cannot be framed to be false, and what is false cannot be made true.

There was a merchant from Mushan. Three years ago, he went to Mainland China to do business. He saw that CCTV was conducting brainwashing of common people day and night, and he felt that it was unbelievable. Such a big country was using so much energy to suppress such a good practise. He felt very curious about it. When he went back to Taiwan, he wanted to find out the real story about Falun Gong. So he came to my house and attended the 9-day lecture seminar. On the 7th day, he suddenly found that the insomnia that he had suffered from for 17 years and was unable to get rid of through both Chinese and western medicine, disappeared. He was able to sleep soundly in the following two or three days. In addition, during the entire lecture, Master Li taught people to be good people, which was totally different from what the Chinese Communist Party said.

The Party's propaganda is completely based on lies and deception. Just like the SARS issue, China blocked the truth from the rest of the world. We went to Singapore and talked with two reporters. They tried to get visas to China but because they are reporters, they were not able to get visas. Why? Because what the Jiang regime fears the most is to have the facts exposed and spread. The regime got some people to do some bad deeds and then claimed that they practised Falun Gong. With one look, we could tell that they were not Falun Gong practitioners, because what they said is not the language of cultivators. Today, Ambassador Cheng Jianren said that the most serious mistake that Jiang has made is to suppress Falun Gong. In fact, Falun Gong will not seize his power, because practitioners just cultivate themselves and would not have any interest in any form of politics. Falun Gong would not fight against them. Our Teacher taught us to be compassionate. No matter how bad it is, we still want it to become good. However, when people gradually awaken to the truth, it will be obvious that the Jiang regime fabricated lies, deceived people, defame others and spread slander."

Dr. Wu Heyi, director of Overseas Chinese Democracy and Peace Alliance, said, "We are fortunate to have the chance to get together here. In the past six or seven months, at the U.S. Supreme Court, we protested against the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong. In the cold of March, we attended activities held at the Lincoln Memorial to oppose Hong Kong's proposed legislation of Article 23. The U.S. Congress passed a resolution nearly unanimously against the enactment of Hong Kong's Article 23. 99.8% of Congress oppose the legislation of Article 23. Three days later, 500,000 people took to the streets in Hong Kong to oppose the enactment of Article 23, showing the people's will. Three or four months ago, we held a sit-in in front of the U.S. Department of State, requesting the Chinese government to release Charles Li. I represented our Alliance to deliver a speech requesting the release of Mr. Li. We also joined the march near the White House, requesting the lawsuit filed in Chicago against Jiang Zemin to be accepted. Today, Falun Gong practitioners are suffering from the persecution, and we feel that we are experiencing the same. All of you making the trip all the way from Taiwan has moved me deeply."

A concert was held in the evening. Performances included vocal solos, chorus, fan dances, piano and ancient Chinese instrumental performances. Young western Falun Gong practitioners who had gone to Beijing's Tiananmen Square to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong sang a song in chorus entitled, "Coming for you".