I Became a Dafa Practitioner When the Persecution Started

After the persecution started on July 20, 1999, all the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) media, including newspapers, radios, and television stations, plus the CCP offices, schools, factories, and stores throughout the nation, all of a sudden stopped doing business as usual, focusing their attention instead on efforts designed to smear Falun Gong and its practitioners. I had never experienced anything like it in all my ten years working in a CCP government job.

Why was the CCP so afraid of and anxious to persecute Falun Gong? Judging from my past experiences and intuition, anything capable of making the CCP act so hysterically--and to persecute this group of people, in particular--was most irregular and noteworthy! This gave me the idea at that time that there might be something to understanding this Falun Gong practice.

Coincidently, a long-time friend of mine, a public security bureau man, invited me over to his home, so I went as I had done before. We started chitchatting after sitting down. Given the unusual situation at that time, we didn't skip over the issue of Falun Gong. He asked me without beating around the bush, "What do you think about Falun Gong?" I said, "Since I haven't read any Falun Gong books, I'm not able to say anything about it."

Honestly, at that time, I didn't have any knowledge of Falun Gong, except that I used to see, on my way to work, some people in nice area doing the slow and peaceful Falun Gong exercises to music. Sometimes on Sundays, I happened to see at a huge playground or stadium large group exercise demonstrations promoting Falun Gong and attracting lots of bystanders. At one time, I even spotted some news reporters doing interviews with some Falun Gong practitioners and on-site reporting about how Falun Gong improves health. That was all I knew then about Falun Gong.

Looking at me for a second, he walked into his bedroom. After a little while, he came out with a heavy paper bag in his hand and set it down in front of me, "This is for you." I asked, "What goodies are inside?" He said, "There are some Falun Gong books (they're deluxe, hardback editions) and some exercise tapes--all ransacked ones taken the other day. I had an opportunity to save some sets. Here is a whole set for you to look at. They were going to be burned. Wouldn't you say that it would have been a pity to destroy all these good books? The CCP party members sure are so lawless, defying both the human and divine!"

Knowing that Falun Gong books were in the bag, I was glad and surprised, because they were exactly what I wanted to read. With curiosity, I opened up the bag that contained several books, ranging from Zhuan Falun to the The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa, and several others as well. I said, "Now I really want to find out what is said in the books to see what Falun Gong is really all about. We cannot completely trust what the CCP said on television." My friend said, "I agree with you--where there's comparison, there's distinction. Since you and I have been working for the government for many years, we all understand how the CCP creates lies to mislead public opinion, using dirty tricks to carry out a large scale persecution. That is why we don't want to listen to their wild wheeling and dealing, and we certainly wouldn't want to betray our good nature for the CCP'S absurd persecution."

For a period of time after obtaining Dafa books, I focused my study on them. Gradually I became a Falun Gong practitioner and have a much better understanding of the CCP'S gigantic lies to deceive the world's people. And I am also more aware of my duty to confront the persecution. Several hundred million practitioners have proved that Falun Dafa is a righteous way for returning to our true selves!