Finland: Telling the Finnish People about the CCP's Abuse of Human Rights on International Human Rights Day

On the 10th of December 2005, International Human Rights Day, volunteers for the Epoch Times newspaper in Finland held activities next to Helsinki Train Station to support six million withdrawals from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and to expose the evil CCP’s criminal history of trampling human rights with torture.

That day happened to be the coldest day this winter in Helsinki, which was also one of the busiest shopping days before Christmas. The street was packed with shoppers in a hurry. But people slowed in front of banners of “The Nine Commentaries led to six million people quitting the CCP.” Sympathetic and inquisitive looks on their faces, people wanted to know more from the truth exhibits exposing the crimes the CCP committed against the Chinese people and photos of Falun Gong practitioner Gao Rongrong’s disfigured face from electric shocks. Many immediately took material or asked questions.

A gentleman asked, “Isn’t the economic condition very good in China right now? I have come into contact with some Chinese students here. What they said was different than what you are saying here. I don’t believe what’s in these exhibits. Even if the CCP had made some mistakes, they would improve.”, A practitioner Ms. Chen, explained to him, “There is no press freedom in China. The Chinese have been deprived of the basic rights of knowing the truth. What you have seen or heard are what the CCP wanted you to see or hear. For example, the barbaric persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, which Jiang Zemin started in 1999, has lasted for six years. So far two thousand seven hundred and ninety-two Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death. In 1989 the CCP massacred unarmed students on Tiananmen Square. On the 6th of December, they again opened fire on rights-defending farmers in Shanwei, Guangdong. The lies fabricated by the CCP’s media were almost exactly the same as sixteen years before. If you read the Epoch Times’ Nine Commentaries on the CCP, you would understand what the CCP really is and whether it will ever improve.”

The gentleman asked again, “Do you practise Falun Gong? Have you been persecuted or arrested?” Ms. Chen replied, “Yes, I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I was persecuted, though not detained. But my husband was innocently locked up for twenty days….” The gentleman listened intently. Shortly afterwards, he returned with a warm cup of tea and urged Ms. Chen, “Drink it up, it will warm you up.”

A Korean woman asked a practitioner what they were doing. The practitioner told her, “Since the Epoch Times published the editorial; the Nine Commentaries on the CCP, about a year ago, six million people have quit the CCP. We are here to support such a magnificent feat.” “How can a book have such a big impact?” “This book thoroughly exposed the evil nature of the CCP.” Upon hearing this, the lady also signed to support.

An elderly Finnish lady also had the same question, “What are you doing here?” When she learned it was for spreading the Nine Commentaries and supporting those who quit the CCP, she said, “As a matter of fact Finnish people know all about this. The key is our government and officials should come out with their positions on this.”

In talking with a practitioner after taking the Nine Commentaries, a Chinese person said, “I know, the CCP is a party of hooligans. It also recruits hooligans as party members, which was the case in my hometown Fujian.”

Many people signed that day. As soon as the signature board was laid out on the table, a few Finnish people could not wait to sign. A few times during the event, people had to queue up to sign. Recently Finnish TV aired several programmes on the CCP’s shooting of Shanwei villagers, Falun Gong practitioner Gao Rongrong’s disfigurement and being tortured to death and the CCP’s former Head of Justice Department in Shenyang Province, who had since defected in Canada, Han Guansheng’s exposure of the inside story of the evil CCP. As a result, Finnish people raised high levels of concern towards the human rights conditions in China while knowing more about the truth of the persecution Falun Gong practitioners have been suffering. In the practitioners view, this was also owing to the rise of the Epoch Times and the New Tang Dynasty TV, which provided media in various countries with truthful and real time information from mainland China.