“Berlingske Tidende” (Danish newspaper): Letter to the Editor – Four Years of Persecution

On 20th July 1999, the most intensive and comprehensive mobilisation in the history of China was initiated, namely the persecution of Falun Gong. It is fair to assume, that hundreds of billions of Yuan [Chinese currency] has been consumed in the worldwide persecution, which concerns business investors and the future construction of the country.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Falun Gong was very popular with the Chinese government. In 1996 the book “Zhuan Falun”, written by Falun Gong´s founder Li Hongzhi, became the best selling book in China. In the same year, the dictator Jiang Zemin ordered his regime to issue a circular letter banning the distribution of all kinds of Falun Gong material. In 1997, the security police launched a countrywide investigation to find proof of Falun Gong practitioners breaking the law. After much investigation, police stations all over the country reported that no proof had been found.

In 1998, a group of retired members of the National People’s Congress launched a thorough investigation of Falun Gong and concluded the follows: Falun Gong only brings advantages and does no harm to the Nation or the People. In the same year, the National Sports Committee and a group of experts conducted an investigation that concluded: “We feel that both the Falun Gong exercises and their effects are pretty good. Their impact on social stability and their improvement to the spiritual culture are quite evident - this ought to be fully commended.”

But the despotic Jiang Zemin grew more and more jealous and bent on banning Falun Gong, which resulted in the formation of the notorious “610” organization, a Gestapo-like organisation with total power over all levels of the party and all political and judicial bodies, in June 1999. On the 19th July, after a high level meeting, Jiang Zemin declared that Falun Gong was officially banned, which led to mass arrests on the following day. Practitioners, on their own initiative, went to the People’s Appeal Office or to Tiananmen square, where they were arrested, roughly treated or simply thrown into prison.

There is documented evidence on the untimely death of at least 760 Falun Gong practitioners caused by the regime’s brutal persecution. Sources inside the Chinese government, however, say that it is over 7000. In total, over forty types of state-sanctioned torture methods, including mass rape and other sexual violations of female practitioners, are only part of the harsh realities that Chinese Falun Gong practitioners are facing. News sources are quoting Jiang Zemin for saying: “Utilise all means to eradicate Falun Gong.”

Many people, in more than sixty countries, are enjoying the health benefits of Falun Gong exercises and cultivation. All literature may be downloaded from the internet free of charge, and instruction is free of charge. Everything is run on a voluntary basis, and donations are never accepted. The principles are Truth, Benevolence and Tolerance, something people of all countries are in need of. In China, good citizens are tortured for this, while western practitioners are watching the situation and quietly clarifying the truth.