(http://youtu.be/43AJfElqxiw)
It was an idea hatched by three men in a prison cell. Their tools: a pair of wire cutters, a DVD player, and their faith. Their purpose: to tell the people of Changchun the truth.
Like the rest of China, the people of Changchun lived behind a wall. An invisible barrier, run by the state, that determines what information gets in, and what gets out.
Then on March 5, 2002, something unexpected appeared on televisions across the city.
[Zhang Zhongyu, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
"When I entered the store, I suddenly noticed the store owner and three customers were surrounding the TV, looking very excited…The TV was broadcasting programs that showed the truth about Falun Gong."
By 2002, the Falun Gong meditation practice had been banned by the Chinese regime for three years. People in Changchun went from practicing in Victory Park to protesting in Tiananmen Square.
A key part of the regime’s campaign against Falun Gong was what the Wall Street Journal called a “communist-style propaganda war.”
A major blow in that war was the self-immolation incident on Tiananmen Square. Five people set themselves on fire. State-run media claimed that they were Falun Gong practitioners. And they used it to turn public opinion against the practice.
But practitioners knew it was a fake. Falun Gong does not allow suicide. And Western media found other holes in the story.
But even after the story had been totally discredited in the West, people in China had no way to know that. Until…
[Ethan Gutmann, Writer, “Into Thin Airwaves”]:
"There was a suggestion or an idea, that if you could take television signals and you could hijack or intercept those television signals...then you could actually show people the truth."
Three men were behind the initial idea. Liang Zhenxing was the leader. Liu Haibo was the brains. Liu Chengjun, the brawn. Others joined them, including 26-year-old Lei Ming.
[Lei Ming, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
"We did this because the Chinese regime slanders Falun Gong and we had no way to speak for ourselves."
They climbed telephone poles around the city. Mapped the cable boxes up top. Figured out how to splice a DVD player into the wires.
Then, disaster struck. Four days before launch, Liang was taken by police. Without knowing if he’d talked, the others went ahead with the plan. And it worked.
[Ethan Gutmann, Writer, “Into Thin Airwaves”]:
"Prime time, all the stations flipped over and for fifty minutes they held."
The result was electrifying.
An estimated 1 million people in Changchun watched TV that night. They watched what really happened during the self-immolation in Tiananmen Square. They watched how Falun Gong was practiced, and welcomed, around the world.
[Ethan Gutmann, Writer, “Into Thin Airwaves”]:
"An amazing thing happened. People spilled into the streets to celebrate because they said, 'Oh my god, Falun Gong has been rehabilitated.'"
No one had ever taken over the airwaves before. Few people realized that it was Falun Gong, not the Communist Party that was broadcasting that night.
But Falun Gong hadn’t been reinstated.
[Ethan Gutmann, Writer, “Into Thin Airwaves”]:
"After the hijacking, the next day, they had literally a policeman stationed at every telephone pole in all of Changchun."
In the next three weeks, police would arrest 5000 Falun Gong practitioners in Changchun.
On the night of March 11, Zhang Zhongyu went to visit Liu Haibo. That was the night police forced their way into Liu’s house.
[Zhang Zhongyu, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
"We were very calm. We hadn't done anything wrong. We had nothing to be afraid of."
Police began to beat them. Zhang looked down and saw his own blood pooling on the floor. They dragged them to a detention center, where they began to shock them with electric batons.
During the night, Zhang heard a policeman make a phone call.
[Zhang Zhongyu, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
"He said, 'Is this the Changchun City Hospital? There's a Liu Haibo here with no heartbeat.'"
Liu Haibo was the first to die, but not the last. Eventually almost all of the main people behind the Changchun broadcast would die from torture. Lei Ming died in 2006. Liang, the leader, died in prison in 2010.
The Changchun broadcast inspired more than a dozen similar ones throughout China in the next few years.
It struck a blow to the Communist Party’s credibility. As word spread, fewer people believed their account of the self-immolation in Tiananmen.
[Ethan Gutmann, Writer, “Into Thin Airwaves”]:
"I think you could say it saved Falun Gong, to fight another day."
After being imprisoned ten times, Zhang escaped to Thailand. He’s now living in Canada. And speaking out against the persecution that he, his friend Liu, and so many others suffered for their faith.
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Why Jiang Zemin and CCP Persecute Falun Gong?
http://thetruthaboutfalungong.blogspot.com/p/on-collusion-of-jiang-zemin-and-chinese.html
[VIDEO] Why Jiang Zemin and CCP Persecute Falun Gong?
http://thetruthaboutfalungong.blogspot.com/p/video-why-jiang-zemin-ccp-persecute.html
Falun Dafa is Good!
