Open Letter from Australian Falun Dafa Practitioner, a Scientist from China, Liu Jinghang to Singapore's Premier, Li Xianlong

Dear Honourable Premier Li Xianlong,

Greetings!

I was very shocked when I heard that the police in Singapore arrested two Falun Dafa practitioners on charges of unlawful assembly and distributing informational materials about the brutal persecution in China without a license. I understand that the practitioners have been brought to trial and face large fines and even up to a year in jail if they are convicted. As a Falun Dafa practitioner from China who has suffered greatly in the persecution, I am particularly concerned about this miscarriage of justice.

I'm 63 years old and living in Sydney, Australia. Since I had been persecuted by Jiang Zemin's regime for practising Falun Dafa, I received asylum from the Australian Government.

Most of my career since I graduated from college has been spent doing scientific research in the Chinese Academy of Science. I am a research scientist at the same level as an associate professor. I have won the Second Award of Science and Technology for the Chinese Academy of Science three times. I am a professional and a citizen who abides by the law.

I developed arthritis, heart disease, and other illnesses over the course of my life. Long-term treatment didn't work for me. In 1993, I was fortunate enough to learn Falun Dafa, and so started to believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance." Soon, all my illnesses were gone. I received great physical and mental benefits from practising Falun Dafa. My family, friends and co-workers all saw the changes in my personality as well. These positive changes in me convinced my husband, daughter and two of my sisters to practise Falun Dafa as well. In China, Falun Dafa was spread through word of mouth in heart to heart conversations and the number of Falun Dafa practitioners exceeded seventy million. It could be seen that Falun Dafa was very welcome by the majority of the people.

Just because he felt there were too many Falun Dafa practitioners, Jiang Zemin started to persecute Falun Dafa. He was afraid of losing control. He used the propaganda machine as a tool to control the country, commanding the police and legal system to follow the policy to eradicate Falun Dafa. I didn't do anything illegal but because I would not give up practising Falun Dafa, but I was arrested and detained six times and my home was ransacked three times.

On February 2nd, 2000, I went to visit another Falun Dafa practitioner at his home, and was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. I was forced to share a bed with a murderer. I also suffered many cruel tortures like "Sleeping on a Dead Person's Bed"¹ and violent force-feeding. I was deprived of sleep and forced to do long hours of hard labour. As an older woman in my 60s, I had to live under the tight military administration, and it was even harder to bear the endless forced brainwashing that included watching videos slandering Falun Dafa and constantly being pressured to give up my belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance." During this time, my blood pressure rose again and my heart could not function normally. I felt dizzy and my eyesight was blurred. Three of my teeth have fallen out, all my hair turned white, and both my mind and body reached the breaking point. When I got out of prison, I could not even remember who my neighbours and co-workers were. My work unit stopped my retirement pension and so my only source of income was cut off. This painful experience was unbearable.

My husband is Li Baoqing. He is a research scientist at the same level as a professor in the Chinese Academy of Science, and he is also an adviser of Ph.D. students. He has won the Special Contribution Award of China. Just for practising Falun Dafa, he was detained 4 times even though he was 67 years old. He was also kept in a brainwashing class to be persecuted. One of my younger sisters was also detained four times for not giving up the practise of Falun Dafa. During her detention she suffered the torture know as "Tying the Ropes"² and was almost permanently disabled. My other younger sister was detained and interrogated. The police extorted 5,000 yuan from her. The persecution that my family suffered is typical of the experience of millions of Falun Dafa practitioners in China. For those who refuse to give up practising Falun Dafa, none can escape persecution. In China, hundreds of thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners have been sent to forced labour camps, over 6,000 sentenced to jail time, several thousand sent to mental hospitals, over 1,100 were tortured to death while in police custody or under guard, and countless more were abducted, detained and sent to brainwashing centres. Could any upright government treat its people like this?

This attempt to eradicate Falun Gong has lasted for over 5 years. Because of the strict blockade of the media by Jiang's faction, the people and the governments in other countries of the world do not know much about the persecution. The mainstream media doesn't report on it very often and this makes the Jiang group act even more irrationally. So many Chinese Falun Dafa practitioners are still suffering from torture every minute; many are on the brink of death. How could the Falun Dafa practitioners outside of China not care? We do care.

We're cultivating "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance," and we're peaceful and rational in any situation. We use the money saved from our daily expenses to make truth-clarifying Cd's and materials to distribute, with the hope of letting the governments and the people of all countries in the world know what is happening in China, and help us end the persecution. If the conspiracy to exterminate the Jews by the Nazis in Germany could have been exposed earlier, and all the governments in the world stepped forward to oppose it, then how much suffering and loss of life could have been avoided?

Now Falun Dafa has spread to over 60 countries and Jiang Zemin has been sued in multiple countries and will eventually be sent to the court of history. The upright conduct of Falun Dafa practitioners should also be supported by your government, as it will benefit your people.

We truly hope you can pay attention to this incident and seek an appropriate way to help resolve it despite your busy schedule. Your kind help will be sincerely appreciated.

Best regards.

Sincerely,

Liu Jinghang, an Australia Falun Dafa practitioner

(This letter has been sent to the Singapore Premier on October 12, 2004.)

November 15, 2004

Notes:

(1) "Dead Person's Bed" - The limbs of the practitioners are stretched out and tied to the four corners of an ice-cold metal bed. The practitioners cannot move at all nor are they allowed to get up to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom. This treatment could last anywhere from several hours up to more than two weeks. This type of torture causes severe mental and physical damage.

(2) "Tying the Ropes" - The guards tie up the practitioner with a thin rope, circle the rope around the neck, and tie the hands behind the back. Then the guards use all the force they can muster to tighten the rope. The rope becomes tighter and tighter around the body of the practitioner, and makes it more and more difficult for the person to breathe. The pain is so intense that the practitioner sometimes loses bladder control. There are instances when the rope was tightened enough to break a practitioner's arm.