The Truth Behind the CCP's Charge of "Interfering with the Collection of Donations for the Earthquake Victims"

On May 20, CCTV aired news prepared by its New-York-based reporters that Falun Gong interfered with events sponsored by New York overseas Chinese to collect donations for the earthquake victims in Sichuan province. This triggered a subsequent series of defamatory reports by the CCP-controlled media.

Most people, upon reading that, would be curious about specific actions Falun Gong had taken to cause trouble for the donation events - Did they snatch away the donation boxes? Did they hold pickets to prevent people from making donations? They would find that these types of things do not appear in the CCP reports, however. What do they mean by "interference", then? If you watch the CCTV footage, there were no shots of any civic organizations donating money; all we saw was some people gathered to shout and yell at Falun Gong practitioners.

The CCP also charged that Falun Gong had not made one cent of donation. They were just playing a game of semantics. As a loosely-held organization for cultivation, Falun Gong has no collective physical possessions. It did not call on the practitioners to make donations for the earthquake victims, as that is a personal choice for each practitioner. In reality, a lot of practitioners have donated as individuals - is there really a need for Falun Gong to donate as an organization? A more interesting question might be: would the CCP accept it publicly if Falun Gong donated as an organization?

Falun Gong practitioners have demonstrated great compassion when natural disasters occurred in Mainland China. People living there might still have fresh memory of the big flood in 1998. At that time, Falun Gong was not yet persecuted in China. CCTV showed names of donors from various parts of the country on a rolling basis; it was common to see the whole screen was taken up by such "names": "A Falun Gong practitioner from so and so city"; "A Falun Gong practitioner from so and so county". None of those practitioners wanted to let others know of their names while they were doing the good deed.

Most outrageously, the CCP in their fabricated reports changed a banner that Falun Gong practitioners displayed in their activities from "Heaven will eliminate the CCP" to "Heaven will eliminate China" - how wicked that was! As we know, the CCP is never the same as China. China is a 5000-year-old civilization, while the CCP was nothing but a malevolent entity that has murdered millions of Chinese people. It is certain that the CCP's persecution against the cultivation groups and their practitioners will lead to its elimination by heaven. On the other hand, changing "Heaven will eliminate the CCP" to "Heaven will eliminate China" only reveals the true, evil intent of the CCP to bring calamity to the Chinese people.

The CCP also accused Falun Gong practitioners of "taking pleasure in others' suffering". Let's take a look at what really happened that day on the scene, and find out who were really celebrating while others were suffering. From the video that documents the incident, Falun Gong practitioners had two minutes silence for the earthquake victims at the beginning of the event; all of the speakers had a solemn expression; and some slogans were especially made to convey this message. If we rewind the CCTV tape for the news of May 20th, however, it is clear that some people were really ecstatic during that incident, but they were not Falun Gong practitioners; they were those who were sent by the CCP to besiege Falun Gong practitioners.

Another piece of "evidence" that the CCTV news used in charging Falun Gong with "taking pleasure in others' suffering" is how there were people who "beat gongs and drums" at the gathering for helping people withdraw from the CCP. Let me clarify one thing first. There was no gong-beating, but only drum-beating at the meeting for withdrawing from the CCP, and this is a standard, common practice at similar gatherings. Speaking from the perspective of Chinese culture, people "beat gongs and drums" at funerals, because their function is to subdue the evil and eliminate the chaos. Obviously, there really is nothing wrong with it; it's about the intent of the people doing it.

From the TV images CCTV used to slander Falun Gong, many of those who had been allegedly "interfered with in their donations" were smiling or even guffawing, their sentiment running high through the whole incident. When some of them assaulted Falun Gong practitioners, others broke into laughter. Judging by their excited faces, it is hard to see how they had any compassion for the earthquake victims.

The slanderous report by the CCP also claims that the behavior of Falun Gong practitioners induced the wrath of the public. It gives one a feeling that actions were taken by passers-by voluntarily. While we cannot rule out the possibility that some pedestrians were there because they were misled by news that "Falun Gong is interfering with donations", all evidence indicates that the majority of those "indignant people" had been organized by the CCP.

Mr. Peng Keyu, the Chinese Consul General in New York, was so carried away with the "success" that when he was asked afterwards about tips for fighting Falun Gong in Flushing with "such great effect", he smugly admitted that it was he who had been personally orchestrating the activities against the Falun Gong in Flushing.

Mr. Peng said, "They were there to protest, to oppose the CCP! I was there on the spot the day before yesterday... and the day before that, too. Things like this, we have to be very careful when proceeding! Otherwise, they would say it is the Consulate that is instigating everything behind the scenes. We have our own people right there doing this, and they would report to me afterwards. We know each other well you know. But I can only encourage them in secret.... I cannot do this while the Falun Gong is nearby. Every time I would drive my car to a spot that is far away, a place where they won't see me. You have to be careful about things like this. If you are not, they would say you're doing this, doing that... They could get the evidence they need, which is of course no good. So, I have to be very careful. Then, our people came to me, telling me 'we have driven them away.' I would shake hands with them, say thank you and several encouraging words..."

When Peng Keyu was boasting about himself, he didn't mention a word about the earthquake. He did say he was there because Falun Gong was there to oppose the CCP, which was the real reason he instigated this siege against the Falun Gong. What does this tell us, then? It means the earthquake was an excuse - it means when the CCP mouthpiece media reported that Falun Gong was blocking donations, its only purpose was to frame and then persecute Falun Gong. This is because the earthquake was the most powerful tool in stirring up people's emotions at the moment. The audio recording of Mr. Peng's above conversation was widely disseminated by overseas media and websites after being exposed. A copy of its MP3 file is downloadable at the website of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (link: http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/).

Few people could have imagined that when the entire nation was beset with perils, officials at the CCP's consulate was busy instigating misinformed people to assault Falun Gong practitioners. We cannot help but ask, do they care or have any sympathy towards those victims of the earthquake at all?

In fact, the CCP had been bracing itself up for renewed attacks against Falun Gong ahead of the earthquake. On May 13, the next day after the earthquake, the CCP published a long-prepared article that slanders Falun Gong. On May 18, when the entire population of China was struggling amidst the trauma of the earthquake, the China News Agency threw out a story that shifts the blame of a murder on Falun Gong. Actually, as far back as on April 19, when the Olympics torch relay reached San Francisco, the CCP had told the local Chinese residents that the Falun Gong would join forces with Tibetan separatists to oppose the Olympics. Since there was no presence of Falun Gong on that day, many Chinese residents were surprised.

The questions remain: Why is the CCP so in fear of Falun Gong? And what was it trying to achieve when it plotted so many schemes against Falun Gong? This is all because Falun Gong is brave enough to expose its persecution, to transmit the Nine Commentaries, and to promote withdrawal from the CCP. These activities essentially reveal the calamities the CCP has brought to the Chinese people, so the CCP is very scared of Falun Gong, which is a thorn in its side. This is also the reason why the CCP has tried every means to persecute Falun Gong in China, and to slander viciously Falun Gong out of the country. Hopefully, the Chinese people, both living in and outside of China, will not be misled and moved by such lies of the CCP.