Non-Practitioner: Three Years of Falun Gong's Resistance to Brutality

On July 20, 1999, the dictator Jiang Zemin ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. For the past three years, the most powerful, atrocious tyrannical power in the world has used all means imaginable to carry out an extremely base and cruel persecution against a group of people from all walks of life, including women, the aged, and many who had been previously weak and sick but who had regained their health from practicing Falun Gong. However, what is almost incredible to ordinary people is that Falun Gong practitioners did not collapse and could not be suppressed. Instead, they followed each other's footsteps and perseveringly continued in their protest, standing lofty and firm. As a result, they are marvelled at by the whole world. The Falun Gong practitioners surprisingly played the role of resisting the most tyrannical political power in the world, which is undoubtedly very rare in history.

In China, the Party has instilled people with atheism for a long period of time. This kind of atheism is superficial, presumptuous, self-enclosed and aggressive, and it has influenced many people. As a result, many people will sneer at any belief that involves supernatural phenomena, and call all such phenomena superstition and foolish. However, when we see hundreds of thousands of ordinary people showing extraordinary courage in front of a great power because of their faith in Falun Dafa, can we not admit that there is a true and not delusional spiritual power involved? There must be something that is deeply rooted in human nature here, something that cannot be easily overlooked or simply negated with superficial conceit. As for those people who, out of their own complete spiritual emptiness, rudely mock Falun Gong practitioners' brave opposition, they only demonstrate their own cowardice and moral nihilism. If a coward does not feel ashamed of his own cowardice, then he will find it difficult approve of others' valour.

The key point is not what kind of attitude we have toward beliefs such as Falun Gong, but that we must honour freedom of belief and freedom of speech. Those who keep silent in the face of the Party's illegal and brutal trampling of Falun Gong practitioners' basic human rights and who laugh at the practitioners for their so-called superstition and foolishness are no more than shameful accomplices of the cruel dictator.

The Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong often reminds people of the persecution of Christianity by the ancient Roman emperors. However, here I must point out a major difference between the two. The persecution of Christianity ordered by the emperors in ancient Roman Empire was not merely based on motives to protect their own power, but also out of their own faith. They truly believed that only their faith was correct and that Christianity was harmful and sinful. The Roman people's persecution of Christianity was a case of one religion persecuting another religion, whereas the Party's persecution of Falun Gong is purely aimed at upholding its own power. It's a non-believer persecuting a believer. Therefore, this persecution is especially base and especially unforgivable.

For the past three years, Falun Gong has suffered from the Jiang regime's extremely brutal persecution. More than 100,000 practitioners have been illegally detained, and over 10,000 practitioners have been illegally sentenced to jail, forced labour camp, or forcibly sent into mental institutions. At least 400 practitioners have been tortured to death, and thousands of families have been broken up and their property ransacked. Even faced with such brutal persecution, Falun Gong practitioners have always insisted on non-violent resistance. The Party can make up outrageous lies such as "Falun Gong practitioners kill their family members," but it cannot provide even a single case in which a practitioner violated or violently harmed any police officer or government official. There is not a single case in which a practitioner physically harmed a police officer or an official even for justified self-defence. (However, we should take note that the Party might conveniently "discover" this kind of case later.) This is very rare even with respect to other instances of non-violent resistance in human history. Falun Gong practitioners' persistence in non-violence has built a model for non-violent resistance, not only for China, but also the whole world.

People of insight have all realized that in present day China, one of the most serious problems is the decline of morality. Faith has disappeared and idealism has collapsed, while nihilism and cynicism are overflowing. In this situation, the positive effect of religion is especially critical. As a new religion [Editor's Note: Falun Gong is not a religion], Falun Gong's appearance, its development and tenacious life force under such immense pressure have already demonstrated the significance of its existence. We can expect Falun Gong to develop on an enormous scale in China in the future and to become a vital spiritual force in the future Chinese society, playing a powerfully positive role in rebuilding morality.