Impact of the "Rescue Our Family Members" Campaign on Mainland China

Clarifying the truth to many countries and regions around the globe, Dafa practitioners outside of China have been appealing to world governments and people to rescue practitioners under persecution in Mainland China. This has greatly encouraged practitioners and the general population in Mainland China. It has also sent a stern warning to the police and their accomplices that have undertaken the task of persecuting Dafa practitioners.

On July 22, 2001, a police officer came to the forced labour camp where I was being illegally held to announce that my sentence was to be extended for another half year. The vice police chief in the labour camp took advantage of this to blackmail me, saying that as soon as I would write a letter of repentance, that I could leave the labour camp. Without such a letter, he said, I would never be released. At about this time, my wife Jinyu learnt of the news of my illegally extended sentence, so she spread the news and right away a rescue campaign began where she was living, in Canada. Dafa practitioners did everything to explain the true situation to the general public to win support for my release. Mr. Irwin Cotler, Member of Parliament, personally met with the Chinese Ambassador to demand my release. At a news conference on Parliament Hill, Mr. Scott Reid, Member of Parliament, Mr. Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Canada, and internationally renowned human rights lawyer Mr. Cotler openly criticised the Chinese government for persecuting Falun Gong. They called on the Foreign Affairs Department of Canada to ask the Chinese government to release me, Falun Dafa practitioner Shenli Lin. In addition, both Mr. Reid and Mr. Cotler joined Jinyu in her hunger strike in front of the Chinese Embassy. There were three signature-collection campaigns organised across Canada by Amnesty International. All these activities shocked all levels of the Chinese government, shocked the police and the cruel authorities in charge at forced labour camps.

The police were afraid that I might not be able to endure the extended sentence, so they asked me to no longer participate in forced labour. They went out of their way to find three people to "accompany" me and asked them to teach me to play poker. They told me, "This is the decision of the police department. It has nothing to do with us. We are part of the justice system and only take charge of the inmates. We would rather have people like you leave here. What benefit could there be to us by having you here? You also affect other people." The police officer phoned my home using his cell phone, as my family was supposed to come and pick me up, so I told them not to come. Another time, the police brought watermelon for us. In the days after that, the situation just kept getting better. I found that the police were very careful with me. No matter what they did, they became very gentle. There was a policeman in charge of recreation. He told me, "Whenever you feel like it, you can go to my place." The head of the inmates did not dare to be mean to me either. When he blamed other Falun Gong practitioners for things that he himself had done wrong, I pointed out that it was his fault, yet he did not dare to reprimand me.

In the afternoon of January 23, 2002, I was released. Customarily they would search my luggage, but the vice police chief avoided doing this because he did not want to offend me. He found some excuse and had another policeman do the check. This policeman smiled at me and talked to me while checking my stuff. He was extremely careful when he did the check. He did not even ruffle my clothes. Ordinarily, they would make a complete mess when they performed such a check.

As soon as I arrived in Canada, the Xinhua News Agency published an article entitled "Humanitarian Compassion." In this article it said that the labour camp authorities "gave me more blankets in the winter when it was cold." This indeed did happen, as a matter of fact. During my last winter in the labour camp, at the height of the campaigns by Dafa practitioners in Canada, members of society, Amnesty International, the media, parliamentarians and the Canadian government. At that time, I had two blankets under me and two above me when I went to sleep. That was almost impossible in the past. I remember the first winter in the labour camp. It was really freezing cold during that period of time. The labour camp is located in the north; even the police said that it often became very windy. I was often woken up by the chilly sound made by the electricity lines in the wind in the middle of the night. Many people, including all three inmates that lived with me, put on more clothes and more blankets, but I had nothing except a thin sheet and blanket on my bed. My hands and feet were cold all the time. Later on the criminal inmate sleeping beside me felt bad for me, so he offered to share his blanket with me, and only then was I able to manage through that winter. The environment at that time was both severe and evil. They treated people like cattle. Even the criminals could yell at you whenever they felt like it. To me, the drastically different treatment that I got later on in the same labour camp was closely related to the rescue efforts of practitioners overseas.

Because of the persistent efforts of practitioners outside China, more people, including the government, realised the truth, so they also started to call for the end of the persecution and the release of Dafa practitioners. That made the rescue efforts much more powerful and with much more influence. This is the most effective means of support and encouragement to practitioners in China. Many Dafa practitioners could learn of worldwide Dafa activities through various channels, including TV, radio, the Internet as well as the slanderous propaganda by the Chinese government. Of course the Jiang regime always tries to slander Dafa, but what we see is completely opposite of what they want us to believe in. I saw images on the CCTV Focus program slandering Dafa parades in North America, a group practise outside the Olympic Stadium in Australia, as well as the protest in Geneva, etc. All these really motivated us and we were greatly inspired by these events. We saw through all these activities the enormous strength of our Dafa in the world. To a practitioner whose sources of information were completely blocked, being able to see the spreading of Dafa in the world was truly amazing. Whether it is the understanding of Dafa or the severe environment or to practitioners that had been misled, we all knew what to do. Many practitioners that were cheated and stopped practising Dafa came back to practise Dafa and started to clarify truth to people through our efforts and the efforts of overseas practitioners. So those things were really galvanising. I know that Dafa activities outside of China have a great impact on practitioners in China, especially the success of our rescue efforts. It can do even more than you imagine. It shows people that truth and justice are invincible. So as a result, we were always very inspired by such reports. Practitioners and even people that do not yet practise Dafa were greatly encouraged by such news. In fact, even the evil government sensed this. So for a long time after these they no longer showed such news slandering Falun Gong. This has as a matter of fact curbed the evil people.

During my last days in the labour camp, there were more Dafa practitioners arrested and confined in the same cell with me, one of them told me: "You are really famous, even Jiang Zemin knows about you." He gave me the thumbs up as he was saying this. I saw that he was really happy about this, as if that it was him that was being rescued! He felt that he was a part of the rescue effort. When he saw that I did not believe in it, he added that the world outside was trying to rescue me. My tears came out when I heard this. I felt as if bathed in the bliss of Buddha light, a feeling of peacefulness came to me. I was not alone. Actually it does not matter whether I get rescued or not. The collective efforts of Dafa practitioners made me feel indomitable. Some misled or cheated practitioners were worried that I wouldn't be able to leave China even if I was released. Even the practitioner that told me about the rescue efforts was a bit worried, but before I left China, I sent the news of my going to Canada to the labour camp. My brother is still in the labour camp, so they for sure will be greatly encouraged by this, and they will see the hope in the future through this event.

One of the female practitioners was illegally incarcerated in a detention centre and subsequently placed under 24 hour surveillance after her release. In the face of incessant police harassment, she was very depressed. Upon hearing the news of my release due to the rescue campaigns oversees, she was greatly encouraged. She saw the extraordinary power of Dafa and was very moved by the persistent rescue efforts of oversees practitioners. She said to me over the phone: "The police are very cruel to me, I feel a great danger here. But do not worry about this..."

Just before January 23, 2002, in order to be able to go to the labour camp to pick me up, my sister phoned the police that sentenced me to forced labour and said: "Shenli Lin will be out of the labour camp, are you going to pick him up?" He said: "I am not going, Shenli Lin has nothing to do with me now." My sister said: "Shenli Lin was supposed to come back on July 23, it was just because you increased his sentence a half a year more that he could not come back. How could that have nothing to do with you?" The police had nothing to say for a long time. My sister continued saying that if he would not go then she would. The police said: "Sure, sure, you go, you go." I heard this story from my sister after I got home. I felt really strange, because this police officer was very evil, he dared to beat me in front of other police, he dared to torture me to get a conviction, in order to trace the source of the appeal letter to collect signatures, he beat me all the way from the police station to the detention centre. In other words, he is a licensed scoundrel. He talks as if he is afraid of nothing in the world. How come he became so timid and so afraid? I found out the answer after coming to Canada. It was because during the process of the rescue, many practitioners phoned the police station to talk to him. The purpose was to make him release me immediately. In the beginning he dared to answer the phone and talk. Later on he became afraid and did not dare to answer the phone. Finally he asked others to answer the phone for him. When others answered for him they said that he went on vacation and nobody knew when he would be back. Why would it be so? It was because he committed wrongdoings, when faced with the righteous voices from all over the world, he could not handle that, since he was afraid of so many people knowing the truth, each of the phone calls from our practitioners was like shooting swords. A ruthless police officer that has always been persecuting Dafa practitioners, when faced with the mighty force of righteousness, became rather humbled and disciplined. This just didn't happen earlier. It can be seen from here that the entire process of clarifying the truth and rescuing family members is a process of validating Dafa, the evil police changed so much in such a short period of time.

The rescue efforts have been gradually coordinated into a global effort resulting in more and more Dafa practitioners being rescued from China. It has produced more and more impact on the two opposite sides in China. Of particular importance is the fact that the Canadian government has successfully rescued a Dafa practitioner from a third country. It has established a paragon for all democratic countries in the world to protect the virtuous and maintain justice.

(Submission to 2002 Eastern U.S. Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)