My Trip to Tiananmen Square

(Clearwisdom.net) I have been a Dafa practitioner for almost three years. I began cultivating while I was in China in March 1999. I was an English teacher in Jiangsu Province and one of my friends gave me the English version of Zhuan Falun. After I read the book, I asked my friend to teach me the exercises. Then I began the routine of waking at dawn three or four times a week and practicing in a park near my school with a group of about fifty people. We practiced openly without fear. After the peaceful appeal on April 25, 1999, I couldn't practice at the park due to pressure from my supervisor. I practiced on campus instead. I tried to clarify the truth to them, but at that time I did not know how much I should resist.

I left China July 10, 1999 and returned to my family in California. That was thirty-one months ago. I would now like to share my more recent experience in Tiananmen Square.

On February 10, two other Western practitioners from my area and I left for China. We arrived in Beijing on Monday evening. After we left our luggage at the hotel, we walked to Tiananmen Square. As we walked along the streets toward the square, I saw a small group of Chinese people taking pictures. I saw a man and woman holding hands and I saw cute Chinese children bundled up in winter clothing as they walked beside their parents. As I watched these people, I thought to myself, "How many of these kind-looking, mild-mannered people believe what the government tells them about Falun Gong? How many of these people know the truth about Falun Gong? How many of them remember how popular and accepted Falun Gong was before July 1999?"

On Tuesday, the three of us exercised and read Teacher's articles. On Wednesday, we exercised and visited the Summer Palace. Once we entered the gate, a Chinese woman approached us and offered to be our tour guide. We accepted her offer and, after 45 minutes, we asked her about Falun Gong. I told her that the people in Western countries condemn the persecution and they know Falun Gong is good. I reasoned that Falun Gong practitioners are good people who should not be persecuted.

On Thursday morning, we prepared to go to Tiananmen Square. I had previously made a banner with Chinese characters: Zhen Shan Ren (Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance). When we arrived at the square in a taxi, police were guarding all of the entrances. I did not understand why there were so many police at the square. Throughout the persecution, practitioners have never resorted to violence although they themselves have been violated. There has never been a need for so many police officers.

We were arbitrarily stopped and questioned three times by police while we were there. After a few minutes, we spread out and walked around. I met a young Chinese man and talked to him before I showed him my banner and said, "Falun Gong is good" in Chinese. Within seconds, a policeman grabbed my banner and pulled me to a police van. As I tried to say Falun Gong is good, he proceeded to choke and hit me. It felt so strange and unjust to see his anger and to experience his horrible treatment because I had said something as harmless as "Falun Gong is good."

I want to share with you some of the conversations I had with different police officers while I was illegally detained. I figured that I would clarify the truth to them.

On the bus ride to our detainment location near the airport, I sat next to a police officer that spoke English well. I said, "Zhen Shan Ren is good. Is that right?" She said, "Of course it is good. But why do you say you have forbearance when you go to Tiananmen Square?" I said that it is a Constitutional right to appeal to the government. Forbearance does not mean that you allow injustice to exist and run wild without consequence. I asked her, "If Falun Gong is accepted and practiced in fifty countries around the world, why is China the only country that persecutes it?" She was embarrassed and could not respond. Another question I wish I had asked her is, "In the fifty other countries where people practice Falun Gong, why don't we ever hear those horrible stories in which Falun Gong practitioners are crazy and violent? Why is it that those stories that defame Falun Gong only come from China?"

After the bus ride, I was taken to a room and interrogated by a policeman. He asked my name, where I was from, and questions about Falun Gong. I told him that the Chinese Constitution grants the freedom to appeal, to assemble, and to express oneself. He shamelessly responded, "We don't follow the Constitution."

He also stated that we disrupted social order by going to Tiananmen Square. Contrary to his statement, I can say with certainty that I did not disrupt the social order. I simply showed a banner that read Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, and I said, "Falun Gong is good." How could this disrupt anything? If everyone walked by me and read my banner, I think that would make everyone peaceful and relaxed. The truth is that the police caused social disorder when they accosted and beat me. Since the beginning of the persecution, this is how it has been. Many Chinese people I talk to try to justify the persecution by claiming that practitioners disrupt social order. I ask them, "Why was there no disruption of social order from 1992 until 1999?"

There are also Chinese people I talk to who tell me, "You just don't understand China. You need to understand China before you condemn the persecution." It is true that many Westerners do not understand Chinese culture, Chinese thought, and Chinese governmental policy. However, this does not mean we do not understand the difference between right and wrong.

A Western practitioner from New York who also went to Tiananmen Square said last week that a policeman took his cell phone and typed a message for him to read. It read, "I trust you. I know Falun Gong is good. I am sorry we have to do this."

I went to China to validate Falun Dafa, to let Chinese people know that non-Chinese westerners know that Falun Gong is good, and that we are aware of the persecution. I want them to ask themselves if they think they are doing a good thing by persecuting Falun Gong.

While I was detained, I realized that I was more restrained in such an evil environment. I failed to step out of humanness many times, and I realized that my understanding of compassion is superficial. I also realized that Mainland Chinese practitioners who can transcend the evil environment and not allow it to penetrate their righteous thoughts are great. They are really great!