(Clearwisdom.net) A lady answered when I telephoned a provincial court in China from Taiwan, but she hung up as soon as I mentioned Falun Gong, saying, "It's an evil religion." I called again and she warned, "Don't make trouble or I'll call the police!"
I felt sorry that she had been so badly misled by the propaganda, so I called back again, but with a similar result. When I called back the fourth time, I said right at the beginning, "I'm calling you with good intentions. Can you please listen to me for a few minutes?" She told me that a person in her locality had died because he practiced Falun Gong and had refused to take medicine when he was sick. Because of this, she thought Falun Gong was an evil religion. I calmly reassured her, "Falun Gong is a practice that emphasizes the cultivation of one's character. If a person practices Falun Gong, but does not improve their character, and they continue to do bad deeds without changing their bad habits, they will not recover from their illnesses. Ordinary people who do not practice Falun Gong should take medicine when they become sick. A Falun Gong practitioner, however, emphasizes improving his character and thus becomes healthy." She listened to me quietly, and at the end said that Falun Gong sounded good.
A presiding judge once received one of my phone calls. When he realized that I was talking about Falun Gong, he said, "You are not good."
I replied, "We Falun Gong practitioners are all good people. In China, practitioners have been savagely tortured and tyrannized, but they never hit back when attacked or talk back when insulted. Jiang has been sued in international courts for ordering the suppression of Falun Gong and the merciless persecution, torture and deaths of Falun Gong practitioners."
"Did you witness the torture yourself?" he asked.
I replied, "Some practitioners have since escaped from the persecution and demonstrated to us the tortures that they personally endured. For example, they were brutally beaten, burned with fire, deprived of sleep for a long time and had cold water poured over them in winter weather."
"Really? Why haven't I read about it in the newspaper?" he asked.
I said, "There are probably many things about which you haven't heard. Did you know that five-hundred thousand Hong Kong citizens demonstrated to oppose the Article 23 legislation? (1)" We had a very delightful talk later. He came to understand the truth and thanked me. He said that after Falun Gong was eventually officially vindicated , he would like to learn to practice it. He told me to hold the line and he would bring the head of the court to the phone so that I could clarify the truth to him as well.
The chief came to the phone but initially resisted my words, saying, "You Falun Gong practitioners are illegal."
I said, "We neither oppose the government, nor involve ourselves in any politics. We just want to be good people who are truthful, compassionate and tolerant. How did we break the law?"
He said, "Falun Gong committed self-immolation (2) and did other bad things. You oppose our government."
I said, "If you ever have the opportunity to go abroad, you will see that Falun Gong is a very peaceful practice that has spread all over the world. It is now practiced by many people overseas, and it has won more than a thousand awards and proclamations. If Falun Gong were not good, how could it have been so welcomed all over the world?" He later admitted that because the presiding judge had been the one to recommend he listen to a Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioner, it had already been a significant factor in changing his initially negative impression of Falun Gong.
Another local court chief brought up the issues of the self-immolation incident, the Zhongnanhai event (3) and allegations of insanity, those being the most prevalent lies fabricated to defame and slander Falun Gong. He also doubted that I had not been hired to make the phone call. I said, "I am a good person who cultivates Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. I work at a legitimate job and I'm calling you on my free time to clarify the truth to you. It should probably be obvious, but do I sound like an insane person? Those things you mentioned are all lies fabricated to suppress Falun Gong. Among the people who practice Falun Gong abroad, such things as self-immolation or insanity have never happened." As our talk progressed, it seemed to go more smoothly, and by the end he said that he too wanted to learn Falun Gong after it was eventually officially redressed.
When I called another local court, many people were all vying to listen to me when it was learned that I was calling from Taiwan to clarify truth about Falun Gong. They put my call on speakerphone so that everyone could hear me, and proceeded to engage me in a lively discussion. They asked me questions one by one, about the Tiananmen Self-immolation, insanity, refusing medical treatment (4) and so forth, each of which I readily answered. It felt as though the Chinese people were longing for the truth about Falun Gong. If we just can maintain a heart with more truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, we can each save at least one more soul.
Notes:
- Article 23 legislation: a controversial law that would grant the Hong Kong government broad powers for monitoring, arresting and imprisoning those deemed a threat by the Chinese Government.
- Staged "Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square," one of the biggest lies fabricated by the Chinese government to defame Falun Gong. Please refer to http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/special_column/self-immolation.html
- "4.25" Zhongnanhai event: On April 25, 1999, over ten thousand Falun Dafa practitioners peacefully appealed in Beijing requesting the government to release fellow practitioners who had been illegally arrested in Tianjin City, near Beijing. Premier Zhu Rongji met with the practitioners and resolved the issue satisfactorily. However, Jiang later used this as one of the excuses to suppress Falun Gong. Please refer to: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/5/4/47711.html
- Medical treatment issue: The Chinese Government falsely claims that Falun Gong does not allow practitioners to receive medical treatment. Although the claim is a lie, the Jiang regime's dissemination of disinformation on this issue is cause for much misunderstanding of Falun Gong among the Chinese people.
