Spain’s State Radio Station Interviews a Falun Gong Practitioner in their Peak-Time Show

On the 8th of January, Spanish Falun Gong practitioners organised a live anti-torture exhibition in the Sun Gate Square in Madrid, exposing the ongoing brutal persecution against Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese communist regime. The Spanish State Radio Station and other media interviewed practitioners in the square and reported the event. On the 10th of January, the State Radio Station, in its evening peak-time show, invited a Falun Gong practitioner to the station to introduce the spread of Falun Gong around the world and the ongoing brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China to its nationwide listeners.

Near the end of the interview, the famous presenter Andres Aberasturi said to the Falun Gong practitioner, “Thank you very much for letting us have a close look at Falun Gong. We also learned about the horrific persecution occurring in China. As you demonstrated in your anti-torture exhibition in Sun Gate Square, this persecution was pointless right from the beginning. I think all our friends who are listening to this programme will surely remember the name of this cultivation way: Falun Gong.”

After the programme was broadcast, many listeners called the State Radio Station to ask for more information about Falun Gong and expressed their warm concern and support. Some people also wanted to get books about the teachings of Falun Gong and to learn the exercises.

The following is a transcript of the interview recording:

Spanish State Radio Station Interviews Falun Gong Practitioner

Reporter (female): In today’s programme, we invited a Falun Gong practitioner. Falun Dafa is something you’ve all heard of.

Reporter (male): Yes. I heard of it, but don’t know exactly what it is. I only heard that it is being persecuted in China. It is really unimaginable.

Reporter (Female): We have to pay attention to the fact that countless practitioners in China are being persecuted. There were almost one hundred million people in China practising Falun Gong and there are also Falun Gong practitioners in Spain. Today we invited Carlos Iglesias. Good evening, Carlos.

Carlos: Good evening!

Reporter (Female): Carlos, you are a lawyer and also a Falun Gong practitioner. Can we call Falun Gong a teaching?

Carlos: We can say that. It is a very ancient teaching from China.

Reporter (Female): Is the meaning of Falun Gong the Great Law Wheel?

Carlos: It is a bit difficult to translate it exactly. In Chinese it is called Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong.

Reporter (Female): Were there almost one hundred million people practising it in China?

Carlos: Yes, there were. Falun Gong was introduced to the general public in China in 1992. It is a very ancient cultivation way. Between 1992 and 1999, that is before the persecution started, Falun Dafa was supported by the Chinese Government and received many awards and acclamations. According to an investigation by the Chinese Government, the number of people practising Falun Gong was about one hundred million.

Reporter (Female): Yes, Carlos. Could you tell us what beautiful things are contained in Falun Gong which attracted one hundred million people to practise it? For example how did you get to know Falun Gong?

Carlos: Two years ago, I attended the National Health Expo in Madrid: this Expo was about health and natural products. In one stand somebody introduced Falun Gong to me: exercises, meditation. Great! It looked like Tai Chi or Yoga. I had some problems with my spine. Thus I started practising Falun Gong. It was absolutely free. After practising fifteen to twenty days, my back problems and problems in other places disappeared completely. It is not only my testimony. Many people in the West and around the world have similar experiences.

Reporter (Male): So many people are practising it. Is it a religion or a belief?

Carlos: Falun Dafa is not a religion. There are no characteristics of religion such as temples, churches or registrations and so on. Nothing.

Reporter (Male): No registration. There are also no forms.

Carlos: Because in Falun Dafa everyone is entirely free to make their own choices.

Reporter (Female): There are no forms like societies or clubs.

Reporter (Male): Why is it persecuted in China?

Carlos: Before 1999, Falun Gong was widely supported in China and received many awards and acclamations. For example, in the Oriental Heath Expo in Beijing, Falun Gong received the highest award. The reason for the persecution was because there were a great number of people practising it. In China, it was very popular then. Purely by word of mouth and heart-to-heart, people practising Falun Gong told other people their achievements in cultivation and experiences in keeping fit and healing illness. Falun Gong spread rapidly around the country. More and more people joined the practice until it reached one hundred million people in the whole of China. There were people practising it in every park. I have some pictures here and you can have a look. At that time, every morning people first went to the parks to practise Falun Gong exercises and then went to work.

Reporter (Female): Carlos, Falun Dafa is not just banned in China, it is also being brutally persecuted. I have a report here by Amnesty International. Many Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured.

Carlos: Yes. These terrible things are happening in China right now. This is because under the dictatorship, the Chinese Communist Party could not tolerate that the number of practitioners exceeded the sixty million membership of the Chinese Communist Party. The former head of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin is the initiator of this persecution campaign against Falun Gong. He was frightened that there were so many people coming to the parks to practise Falun Gong every day of their own free will and he was afraid that people were freely doing their own things without his control. Thus he illegally initiated the persecution campaign, bypassing the Chinese Government. This was totally illegal because the Chinese Constitution states that people have freedom of belief and thought. Not only did he ban Falun Gong, he also established a special organisation called the “6-10 Office” with specific responsibility for eradicating Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners.

Reporter (Female): Many people were arrested. Yes?

Carlos: We have an investigative report: about 100,000 people have been illegally arrested and subjected to torture. In recent reports, over 1000 practitioners were tortured to death; they were tortured to death with many horrific torture methods. These things are all really happening.

Reporter (Male): Is the purpose of their using torture to force practitioners to confess some information, to torture them or to try to make practitioners frightened?

Carlos: The purpose is to force practitioners to write a letter of repentance giving up their belief. From the moment the Chinese Communist regime started openly defaming Falun Gong, Falun Gong was banned. The policy directive issued by Jiang Zemin was to “defame Falun Gong practitioners’ reputation, bankrupt them financially and destroy them physically.”

Reporter (Female): Eradicate over 100 million people?

Reporter (Male): This is really horrific. But I think it means to eradicate their belief.

Carlos: Yes. Many practitioners were forced to sign a letter of repentance giving up their belief. They were also forced to expose Falun Gong practitioners among their family members and friends who were then arrested and tortured. Amnesty International, not only Amnesty International, many national and international human rights organisations, the European Parliament, the US House of Representatives and many other western politicians all expressed their objection to this brutal persecution. Falun Gong practitioners have filed lawsuits in over twenty countries against Ex-president of China Jiang Zemin for his crime of genocide. The most proper word we can use to describe his crime is “genocide”.

Reporter (Female): Carlos. Now there are still people going to parks in China to practise…?

Carlos: When people learned a cultivation way that greatly benefits them physically and spiritually, it is very hard for them to stop practising and to give up their belief. I believe that people will always put their belief in the highest place. Although it is rare to see many people practise in Chinese parks nowadays, many practitioners firmly hold their belief and didn’t give up. They bring banners with them to hold peaceful appeals. They tell people Falun Dafa is good and please don’t hurt Falun Gong practitioners. But they are immediately illegally arrested. In China if you carry such a banner in public or personally deliver a letter to national leaders with messages “stop the persecution”, “don’t persecute innocent people” or “don’t persecute children and women”, you will be illegally arrested.

Reporter (Female): Falun Gong didn’t do anything like what has been described by the Chinese government?

Carlos: In China, politics is defamatory, as they have defamed Falun Gong. Jiang Zemin, the Chinese regime and its overseas Embassies are still continuing their defamatory attack on Falun Gong. They use the word “cult” to describe Falun Gong. But the only thing we do every Sunday at 11:00am is to practise and teach Falun Gong exercises in Retiro Park in Madrid. Everything is up to you. You can freely stay to practise or leave. It is the same in Barcelona or other cities.

Reporter (Female): How many people are practising Falun Gong in Spain?

Carlos: It’s difficult to know, as we don’t have any form of registration.

Reporter (Male): No name list or number? There is no formality whatsoever?

Carlos: Everything is done with people’s total freedom. Everyone can go to Retiro Park to learn the practice, and then practise it at home. We can say that there are about 2000 to 2500 people who have learned Falun Gong.

Reporter (Female): Then we can also go to Retiro Park to learn Falun Gong.

Carlos: Certainly. There is always a group there. When people come to learn the exercises, there will be practitioners to teach them the movements. There are all kinds of people in the group: elderly people over seventy years old, Children…One thing is worth mentioning. People in over sixty countries, not just in Spain, practise this cultivation method. If you have time, please do go to Retiro Park to have a look at these practitioners.

Reporter (Male): What are the differences between Falun Gong and other practices such as Tai Chi?

Carlos: We have five sets of exercises. Four of them are standing exercises. The movements are gentle and coordinated and thus are suitable for people of all ages. The fifth exercise is meditation. All together it takes about an hour and a quarter. You can arrange the exercises according to your own time. You can practise one set in the morning and another in the evening. If you have time, you can do all the exercises in one go.

Reporter (Female): Carlos, what we have talked about is all about the physical benefits. Are there any other ideological requirements?

Carlos: Yes. This will touch on the Oriental culture, philosophy and ideology. It is very different from ours. In the west we are all searching for the surface physical benefit: I practised a method and wanted to see if it could cure all my illnesses. In the Oriental culture, from very ancient times, people were searching to improve their inner selves. Falun Dafa is such a method. It contains a very important component, very important. This is “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.”

Reporter (Female): This is a very good component isn’t it?

Carlos: It is. This is inner peace. “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance” cannot be separated from the physical changes. In the ancient Chinese history, the Emperor asked a wise man, “What is the secret to longevity?” The wise man replied, “A clear and clean mind, few desires and attachments.” Falun Dafa teaches people to cultivate a pure and benevolent heart. When encountering conflicts, a good person should always look inwards. Nowadays people always blame other people first. In the Oriental culture, achieving inner peace and harmony is very important. These are what we need in the modern society.

Reporter (Female): Carlos, thank you very much for letting us have a close look at Falun Dafa. We also learned about the horrific persecution occurring in China. As you demonstrated in your anti-torture exhibition in the Sun Gate Square, this persecution is pointless right from the beginning. I think all our friends who are listening to this programme will surely remember the name of this cultivation way: Falun Gong.”

Carlos: Thank you for giving me this opportunity to expose the persecution and human rights problems in China and to let people know about Falun Gong. I honestly thank you for all you kind help.

Reporter (Female): Carlos, we wish you a pleasant evening!

Carlos: Have a nice evening!