I Cannot Keep Silent Any More!

I Cannot Keep Silent Any More!

By a Chinese resident in Europe

I live close to the Chinese embassy. Each time when I took my child out and passed the embassy, I would always see a few of Falun Gong practitioners quietly practising or handing out materials opposite the road. They have been doing this for over two years regardless of the weather. I have been living a busy life abroad and could hardly take a break, how could I be in the mood for meditation? At first, I thought that the Falun Gong practitioners were just silly. However, later on I felt more and more sympathetic for them. I even admired their courage and perseverance. Throughout Chinese history, whenever the people were wronged, they would either give in and keep quiet, or initiate a rebellion. However, Falun Gong neither gives in nor rebels. They simply sit in meditation in front of the Chinese embassy every day. They spend their own money producing materials and they have even gone to Tiananmen Square to display banners and shout out their honest words. I really did not understand what kind of power has been supporting them.

Today there were many more Falun Gong practitioners across the street. From a distance I could see a big banner being displayed. I could not help walking closer to read it. The banner said, “20 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death in the past 22 days.” What? A death per day? I could not believe my eyes. Although China is a developing country and has not developed a complete democratic system, how could the authorities take people’s lives at will? After all it is now the 21st century and there are legislations both for the state and for prisons. Even a death penalty should be carried out legally and how could one take lives at will? What crime has Falun Gong committed? All they want is to legally practise exercises, isn’t it so? The Constitution of China states clearly that people have the freedom of belief, doesn’t it? Why should everybody believe in Communism? The XX Party has turned the country into a chaotic situation, and they would not look into corruption but arrest bare-handed innocent citizens. Haven’t they all gone insane? I felt really lucky for myself as I have escaped from that hell-like place.

Just like before, apart from my complaints towards the XX Party, I did not link Falun Gong to myself. I was going to take my son to walk on but my seven-year- old boy would not move from in front of the photographs of the dead. He asked me what happened to these people. I told him that they were dead. He then asked “How?”. I told him that they gave out truth materials and were arrested by the police and later were tortured to death in the detention centre. “Mum, how could people get killed for speaking the truth? Only the children who lie would be eaten by the giant wolf. Mum, is that dead person (in the photo) my grandma?” My son’s words really chilled me. My mother does not practise Falun Gong and I knew that the person was not her. But the kind looking old woman in the photo really reminded me of my own mother and I felt so sad in my heart. My son continued to ask, “Mum, there is even a child! Is he dead as well? He looks even younger than me!” I followed his finger and saw a young mother smiling holding a baby in her arms. The caption below the photo read, “Wang Lixuan, Female, 27 years old. Her son, Meng Hao, 8 months old. Both were arrested after their 8th appeal in Beijing. On 7th November 2000, the mother and the son were both tortured to death in Tuanhe Labour Centre in Beijing. According to the coroner’s exam, Wang Lixuan’s neck and knucklebones were broken. Her skull was sunken. There was a needle stuck into her torso. There were two deep bruises on her son’s ankles. There were two black and blue spots on his head and there was blood in his nose. It was deduced that the bruises were possibly caused when the thugs handcuffed little Meng Hao’s ankles and hung him upside down. ”My heart was shivering. I subconsciously grabbed my son’s hand, as if I was afraid that someone was going to seize him from me. My son did not stop asking questions, “Mum, don’t you think that [dead] person looks like my uncle?”

Looking at my son’s crystal-clear eyes, I felt as if I had an electrical shock. God, in China there is no sense of law! Today it is the Falun Gong practitioners that are suffering from persecution. What if tomorrow the same thing happens to my family and friends? Deeply in my heart I bear a grudge towards my parents and their peers who told lies during the Cultural Revolution in order to assure their safety. They (my parents’ generation) thought they had protected themselves at that time. But in doing so they put their descendents into disasters. I surely do not wish to be blamed by my son and my nephews in the future. Isn’t my silence (to the evil acts of the Chinese government) today an encouragement for the evil to spread? What is happening in China today cannot be done by a rational government, and it is completely an act of exacting personal hatred. All the stories such as “Tiananmen Square Self-immolation” are faked and fabricated to frame the Falun Gong practitioners. Every day there is a life taken by the government. How difficult is it to raise a child to manhood! How could they just take lives for granted? And we are talking about 345 lives!

The persecution has been escalating all the time and has become more and more bloody. Thus I am able to see its true nature: The purpose is to push China backward in terms of democracy, human nature and moral values! What crime can one find in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance? In fact, what is guilty is the persecution aimed at the human conscience and morals. I could not ignore the tragedies happening in my motherland and I wanted to shout: “For the sake of our own children, please step forward to safeguard human nature and to safeguard the righteous (justice)!"

I firmly walked towards the Falun Gong practitioners and signed my Chinese name on the petition letter. I will also write to my families in China to tell them that we should not keep silent any more. Let us save our conscience and save our children!

Translated from http://www.yuanmingeurope.net/articles/4468.html