Italian Christian Newsletter publishes the story of Falun Gong practitioner Dai Zhizhen

The Italian Christian Family Newsletter “Famiglia Cristiana” recently published the story of Falun Gong practitioner Dai Zhizhen. This newsletter has 900,000 readers and is published weekly.

A woman disclosed how the Chinese regime murdered her husband and persecuted a spiritual movement’s followers. In [China’s] “unified thinking” country, spiritual freedom is seen as a political threat and strangled by suppression.

“I am in tears for my husband and other practitioners” Dai Zhizhen said. At this time she had to control herself because she came here with her 2-year-old daughter. If an adult is in bad sentiment, it will also frighten the child. She has a story full of suffering which she can reveal to us fearlessly because she holds an Australian passport. She cannot go back to China anymore because she is on the blacklist that the Chinese government [uses to persecute practitioners outside of China]. Last year, her husband Chengyong was tortured to death and police abandoned his body by a roadside. He was a 32-year-old peaceful electrician. However, because he practises Falun Gong he became an “enemy”.

When in her 20’s, Dai emigrated to Australia and obtained a BA in Economics. She devotes herself to a management job in a hotel in Sydney. She saved some money and came to Italy with a clear goal: “I hope I can find support in free countries to stop the suppression in my motherland. I only have a little voice.”

She met Chengyong in Kwangchow, China when she went back to visit her mother and sisters. They married in 1997. “We together found the true meaning of life”. When their daughter was born, they named her Fadu, which means blessing her with a good destiny. “She is the testimony of our happiness, but we encountered misfortune.”

The misfortune’s name is persecution. Chengyong and Dai were persecuted because they are members of a mass movement which has hundreds of millions followers. Due to the large amount of practitioners, the Chinese government began to worry because they consistently ask for “unified thinking”. Since 1989, when tanks pulverised the students’ democratic dream in Tiananmen, people have never seen such harsh suppression. This movement is called Falun Gong, also named Falun Dafa. It is rooted in Chinese ancient traditions and has five sets of exercises. Practising the exercises is good for health and the principles of having a healthy mind are “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance”. According to what people know presently, this is a harmless movement...Since Apr. 25th, 1999, when more than 10 thousand people gathered in front of the central government’s office to appeal to free 43 arrested practitioners, everything has started. From then, Amnesty International claims 430 people have been tortured to death. Many have been cruelly tortured, sent to labour camps and seen their families suffer.

“The authorities worry that too many people may become a political threat. They don’t allow people to have freedom of belief. We are accused of spreading superstition and revolution. My husband went to Beijing alone and was arrested. I didn’t go with him because I was pregnant. I may have been hit by the police and lost my child. My husband was sent to a dungeon for 3 weeks. When he came back, he was in a terrible condition. They came to arrest him afterwards. Following this, we heard no news or messages from him for 6 months”.

Chengyong’s dead body was found abandoned on the roadside on July 26th, 2001. Dai got the news from a Falun Gong website. “My heart was broken. I told myself: “When it’s difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it’s impossible to do, you can do it [Quote from Lecture 9 of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong]”.” Dai’s facial expression is very firm and persistent. When little Fadu was sleeping on her shoulders, she was then able to burst into tears without frightening the child.