Prestigious Lawyer: "Who Has Ever Defeated Human Nature?"

It has been six years since the Chinese government started to publicly persecute Falun Gong. The Shijiazhuang City local government has illegally detained Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Hao Qiuyan for over half a year now. This is the truth. The local government has also illegally detained her husband, Mr. Huang Wei, who is also a Falun Gong practitioner. This is the second time the government detained him since 1999. During the past six years, Huang Wei has been detained for more than five years. It is also true that we don't see signs of anything changing.

This young couple both have college degrees. People who know them all speak very highly of them. When they met with me on separate occasions, they both showed calmness, self-possession, generosity, and faith in life, which made a long-lasting impression on me. From their conversation, it is obvious that they do not hold any hatred against society. When I talked to Huang Wei, his deep love for his family was so touching that I burst into tears. He told me that whenever he heard young kids playing on the other side of the tall wall where he was imprisoned, he would close his eyes and imagine being together with his wife and child. When he mentioned his parents and parents-in-law, he cried. He said he was sad because he couldn't devote his love to the parents, and because his and Hao Qiuyan's income was the only guarantee for a normal life for both families. Both their parents are old and weak, and have little income. He said that he would never understand what the government could gain by detaining them. He said: "Detaining us for a long period of time is a huge disaster for us and our families. As for the government, they can't gain any benefit at all. Not to mention that this detention violates the constitution and the basic principles of the law." He told me that both their parents had to suffer extreme hardships after he and his wife had been detained for no reason. The worst of all was that their parents were not in good physical condition and yet they had to take care of their young child!

To date in China, hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens who practice Falun Gong have been detained and sentenced to long jail terms.

This February, in order to find out the truth, I went to some areas in Shandong Province and investigated the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong and the harming of these citizens. The reality is suffocating. The shocking reality is far beyond any human disaster, is offensive to God, and has no purpose. Once you get involved, you will genuinely feel and see the continuation of such a disaster. Shortly before we arrived at Yantai City, which looked beautiful from the outside, dozens of innocent Falun Gong practitioners from that area had been arrested and sentenced the authorities. The only reason for the arrests was that someone had published a list of names on the Internet of the local officers who had ruthlessly persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. The local authorities were extremely scared and felt they were facing a serious enemy. They used the excuse of "endangering the nation's security" in order to abduct practitioners on a large scale and for a long time. A group of innocent practitioners whom the authorities had determined as "refusing to accept the brainwashing" were again put into prison.

For Chinese citizens, especially for Chinese citizens who practice Falun Gong, their physical freedom and their lives are actually at a horrifying risk, to the extent that one cannot imagine. Whenever the authorities felt "unsafe," or some officers let their imagination run wild, practitioners would be faced with disaster. The history of the current Chinese government shows that whenever the authorities or one of the leaders feels insecure, they would regularly choose to abduct a group of "hostile forces" in order to "crush the instability in its budding stage," and thereby got rid of their fear. Whenever the authorities feel fear, they will arrest people. In China, the authorities experience lots of fear. As a result, most of the time, with the exception of a few days throughout the entire year, they constantly arrest people in an abusive manner.

What makes one feel really sorry but helpless is that they arrest Falun Gong practitioners without any reason. Hao Qiuyan was seeking help from a lawyer because her husband was unjustly thrown into jail. Then the Shijiazhuang city government detained her as well and charged her with the crime of "not accepting the brainwashing yet being very active [in Falun Gong]." Several local Falun Gong practitioners were detained or interrogated because they accepted my interview. Some of them were even beaten and tortured. Some of their homes were ransacked just a few hours after I had interviewed them. This pained me and forced me to stop my investigation of the truth.

This so-called "people's government" has chosen to do the vicious deed of barbarously and violently suppressing those who wish to have their own belief. These are not isolated occurrences, but are part of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners throughout the entire country, which started six years ago. They have murdered and detained such a large number of people on such a large scale and with such brutality that it is the highest on record ever in history. Six years have passed and there is no sign that the authorities in different regions will show a shred of kindness to the Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. and Mrs. Huang Wei are still detained. At the same time, twelve Falun Gong practitioners in Yantai City, and six in Chongqing have been illegally abducted and detained as well. This is the latest evidence indicating that the local authorities refuse to stop their bad deeds against humanity.

Falun Gong practitioners have suffered six years of inhuman torment from the government, and there is no indication that the authorities in different regions will discontinue this violence. Nevertheless, there have been some changes during this period of time. More and more people whom I know, including more and more experts, scholars, everyday Chinese people, and officials within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) system, have started to reflect on the injustice of the government's campaign to persecute Falun Gong. A brilliant change has occurred. A few years ago everybody was keeping quiet about the Falun Gong issue due to fear, but now people are questioning the unlawful persecution campaign against their compatriots who practice Falun Gong. It has become a widespread topic of discussion. More and more people have recognized the injustice, inhumanity and illegality of the government's brutal persecution. This rapid and extensive change contrasts dramatically with the government's lack of change, a situation that is quite thought provoking.

Guo Feixiong, a famous scholar in China, recently published an article entitled, "Trampling the Freedom of Religion Is Trampling the Heart of Human Civilization." The state of Chinese society and Chinese people's minds and thinking has undergone changes which are completely different from that of the "Cultural Revolution" period. This is a fact that one has to face. Meanwhile, the world should clearly recognize another serious fact, which is that the current authorities' control of the Chinese society still maintains the old abuses used during the "Cultural Revolution" period. Before the smell of the blood from our slaughtered pro-democry compatriots of the "6.4" event [Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4th, 1989] dispersed, the vicious power-seekers have again raised the butcher's knife with their bloody hands. If the bloodiness and cruelty of the "6.4" event was a terrifying and disastrous experience for China, the bloodiness and cruelty of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has for a large number of Chinese people been a non-ending fact of life. "The severe consequences of violence against Falun Gong practitioners is not any less than that of the 6.4 event," said famous scholar Teng Biaoru. To a large extent, this represents the view of the majority of scholars in China.

In the past six years, the Chinese people have witnessed an organized, systematic persecution movement. The 610 Office, a terrorist organization, carries out the policy of "defaming their reputation, bankrupting them financially and destroying them physically" to oppress a hundred million Falun Gong practitioners. They arrest, torture, detain, fine, fire and forcibly "transform" Falun Gong practitioners at will. They utilize the whole nation's propaganda machine to spread lies and slander, turning the persecution into the whole nation's movement, and create hatred and force all Chinese citizens to oppose Falun Gong. The 610 Office is a Gestapo-like organization with features similar to the "Cultural Revolution Leadership Group of the Party Central Committee" during China's Cultural Revolution. It spans from the Central Government to the local governments, having absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches, public security, labor camps, media, etc. It is the highest authority to systematically persecute Falun Gong and carry out their policy of state terrorism. The 610 Office gives directives to the local police, essentially giving them free rein to torture, sexually assault, and even murder men and women who practice Falun Gong. It also directs all local political and judicial departments to establish brainwashing centers to forcibly brainwash Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to renounce their belief. The appearance of the 610 Office has completely disrupted the already poor situation of China's legislative work.

At a time that marks the six years of suffering of our Falun Gong compatriots, it is necessary for us to speak out in various ways about the truth we have known. Speaking the truth is not blaming the government. At the same time, the government is to blame concerning this issue. The act of speaking out for the truth and calling for people to face the facts that have happened or are happening, is the basis from which a civilized society can rationally resolve different opinions. Our government claims that it is taking efforts to construct a harmonious society. If this disastrous and humiliating situation involving tens of millions of citizens who are Falun Gong practitioners does not completely end, this hope can only be a dream.

Fighting against people's freedom of belief is the stupidest thing to do, as it is a fight against human nature. Throughout human history, no power or force has ever defeated human nature, and neither will there be any force that could do so in the future. Six years ago, the persecutors of Falun Gong foolishly chose the vicious act to fight against human nature; however, human nature has never been defeated by any powerful forces. The fact is, the suppression of Falun Gong has already failed. Thus it is better to return to the path of humanity, face the truth and do something in line with human nature, than to hold on to a failed value system and persistently set oneself against human nature.

During this persecution that started six years ago and which is being maintained with much difficulty by the authorities, not only have the 100 million Falun Gong practitioners and their families been persecuted and devastated physically and mentally, all the people in China and even in the whole world have also suffered invisible harm from the lies and deceit carried out to justify this suppression. In the near future, the whole truth will be exposed. In the process of learning the truth, all the governments and people in the world will gradually realize the great losses they have suffered morally, spiritually and economically due to this persecution. We all have the responsibility to let the outside world know the truth as soon as possible.

Written on July 20th in Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province