Ordinary Chinese stand up to protect Falun Gong practitioners
Since July 1999, the Chinese communist regime has made the spiritual practice of Falun Gong its No. 1 enemy and has relentlessly persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and anyone who supports them.
For the last 13 years, Falun Gong practitioners have become the largest group of Chinese people subjected to arbitrary detention, brainwashing, torture, and organ harvesting.
According to the Falun Dafa Information Center (Faluninfo.net), the deaths of 3,571 practitioners due to torture and abuse have been verified. The true number of such deaths is believed to be in the tens of thousands.
A new book, State Organs: Organ Transplant Abuse in China, edited by David Matas and Dr. Torsten Trey, documents the atrocity of forced, live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.
David Matas has previously estimated that in the years 2000–2008, 62,000 practitioners were victims of organ harvesting. He believes that in each year since 2008, approximately 8,500 practitioners have been subjected to organ harvesting.
When the persecution began, 100 million people were estimated to be practicing Falun Gong in China. The persecution has affected not only the 100 million practitioners, but also their families, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Yet, very few people have dared to voice their objections to this brutal policy.
Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese lawyer known to defend the civil rights of the oppressed, wrote three open letters to Chinese leaders asking for an end to the unconstitutional campaign against Falun Gong. In response, the Chinese regime has kept him jailed more often than not since 2005 and has subjected him to repeated episodes of torture.
However, the situation is changing.
Three Hundred Thumbprints
Wang Xiaodong is a well-respected schoolteacher who lived in Zhouguantun Village, Botou City, Hebei Province. On Feb. 25, approximately 40 officers from the Botou Police Station ransacked Wang’s home and took him into custody. The police confiscated his money, computer, and other electronic equipment.
The police claimed that he had committed a crime by producing and distributing compact discs containing information about the practice of Falun Gong and the Chinese regime’s campaign of persecution. The arrest left Wang’s aged mother and young daughter on their own. His sister was forced to run away to avoid possible arrest.
Angered by Wang’s treatment, over 300 villagers, each representing a family, signed a petition calling for Wang’s immediate release. The villagers used their real names and affixed their thumbprints with red wax—a traditional means of signing an important document.
A copy of this petition has been widely circulated on the Internet and has shocked some of the regime’s top leaders.
Fifteen Thousand Signatures
Meanwhile, in northeastern China, at least 15,000 people signed a petition expressing their support for a young woman’s demand that Chinese authorities investigate the death of her father, a Falun Gong practitioner who is highly regarded in his community.
Mr. Qin Yueming died in custody on Feb. 26, 2011, at Jiamusi Prison, in Heilongjiang Province. His family noticed dark bruises covering his entire body, and when they turned his body over, blood flowed out of his mouth and nose.
After failing to get authorities to investigate her father’s death, Qin’s 23-year-old daughter Ronqian collected over 15,000 signatures on her petition letter within two weeks. The petition, dated May 31, in addition to calling for an investigation into Qin’s death, asks for the release of her mother and sister. They are each serving sentences of one and a half years forced labor due to their practice of Falun Gong.
Her father was arrested in 1999, released in 2002, and then arrested again in 2002 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Rongqian was only 13 years old when her father was arrested the second time. She resisted the police who took him away, so they arrested this young girl and interrogated her for one month.
Since her mother was arrested too, Rongqian survived on her own and worked so that she could provide for herself and her younger sister.
Rongqian expected to see her father return home this year.
“As a girl, I do not have money, nor do I have power,” Qin Rongqian wrote in her petition. “But I believe in justice and the Chinese people’s moral values. How can those who have power jail and murder ordinary people at will?”
Human Wall
On the morning of June 9, in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, over 10 officers from the Kaiping District police bureau entered the home of 58-year-old Li Zhen and his wife Wang Xiulan, both Falun Gong practitioners.
The police seized Li and then began to ransack the home without producing a search warrant. Over 100 neighbors came to the defense of Li. The neighbors formed a human wall to prevent police from taking Li away and loudly asked why the police would want to arrest such a good person.
Residents told the officers that Li, who has lived in the Wenxingjiayuan community for decades, has often helped those in need.
They recounted an incident that had occurred in the summer of 2010. Someone had fallen into the river and was in danger of drowning while bystanders watched and did nothing. Li happened along and immediately jumped into the water and pulled the victim to shore.
The standoff between the residents and the police lasted close to two hours, according to the Falun Gong website Minghui. After the police eventually succeeded in taking Li away, residents drafted a joint appeal letter, and more than 70 people immediately signed their names and stamped their thumbprints to it.
Awakening
The ongoing political drama in China involving the former Party heavyweight Bo Xilai, the domestic security czar Zhou Yongkang, and their allies has changed how the Chinese people look at the officials involved in persecuting Falun Gong. The people now see those officials as criminals.
The Chinese people have lost their patience and trust in the regime and have learned that by protecting the rights of Falun Gong practitioners, they are protecting their own rights.
Over the last 13 years, Falun Gong practitioners have tirelessly and fearlessly exposed the crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese communist regime and have told the Chinese people the facts about the spiritual practice the regime has demonized.
The Chinese people are now awakening and choosing to stand on the side of Falun Gong practitioners.
A well-placed source told The Epoch Times that incoming leaders like the presumptive next head of the CCP, Xi Jinping, and the next premier, Li Keqiang, were shocked by the petitions with 300 thumbprints. The source said that these leaders have no interest in continuing the crimes committed by the bloody faction led by Jiang Zemin and Zhou Yongkang.
Michael Young, a Chinese-American writer based in Washington, D.C., writes on China and the Sino-U.S. relationship.
From - http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/opinion/chinese-people-begin-resisting-persecution-262088.html
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