Issued by Clearwisdom Net

"What a cold day! Your courage is truly admirable," a policeman told practitioners. He had just gotten out of his warm vehicle, and the piercing wind already made him shiver.

On November 23, 2005, the Governor of Bavaria was holding a banquet for visiting Shandong Province Governor, Han Yuqun, in the Palace in Munich. Outside the palace, practitioners rallied to condemn the severe persecution of their Chinese fellows by the Shandong government. In a world of ice and snow, practitioners practiced the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts. When Han and his delegation arrived, the practitioners called aloud: "Falun Dafa is good! Stop the persecution of Falun Gong!"

Despite the cold weather, practitioners rallied to condemn the persecution in China

Since the persecution started in July 1999, at least 281 practitioners have been persecuted to death in Shandong Province, ranking it 5^th among all the provinces of the communist state for their brutality in the persecution.

The first death case reported by the Minghui/Clearwisdom website was Zhao Jinhua of Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province. Ms. Zhao, 42, was illegally arrested by Zhangxing Township Police Station on September 27, 1999. Ten days later, Zhao Jinhua died at the police station. Her death raised a sensation around the world, and the CCP's (Chinese Communist Party) atrocity was widely condemned by all nations that support justice and by kindhearted people worldwide.

In addition, the first death that was reported in depth by foreign media was from Shandong Province as well. Ms. Chen Zixiu, 59, was a practitioner from Weifang City, Shandong Province. After being unlawfully detained for 5 days, on February 21 2000, Ms. Chen was beaten to death by officials. Ian Johnson, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for his series of articles on the persecution of Falun Gong. The first article he wrote was on Chen Zixiu's death.

The persecution has lasted more than 6 years. While the governorship of Shandong Province has been transferred from Wu Guanzheng (promoted to the Central Government in acknowledgment of his harsh persecution of Falun Gong) to Han Yuqun, the persecution has never stopped.

In this month alone, reports on the persecution of practitioners in Shandong are too many to count. For example, Wang Shuhua of Zhaoyuan, Ma Wenlong and Yu Chuanqi of Yangguo County, Liang Chunyan of Weifang, Li Qingmei, Liu Guifang, Cui Fenglan and Zhou Huajun of Chiping County have been unlawfully arrested, and Yao Guizhen, Bai Jiazhen, Yu Zhenghong and Han Yusheng have been persecuted to death.

During the very first day of Han Yunqun's visit to Germany, the Minghui/Clearwisdom website reported another persecution case in Shandong: In the beginning of November, the 610 Office of Huantai County arrested Chi Yongzhi who is in his 60s and sent him to Zibo City Brainwashing Center.

The purpose of the practitioners' rally at the palace was to tell Shandong officials to immediately stop the persecution. Otherwise, they will be held accountable for all the crimes they have committed. Though Han's delegation left the palace from the back door after the banquet, they still ran into some practitioners who were waiting there. From several meters away, the practitioners shouted loudly: "Falun Dafa is Good! "Stop the persecution of Falun Gong! "Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice!" Many of the officials were shocked by the courage of the practitioners.

On November 23, Danish practitioners gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy to read the "Falun Dafa Association Announcement" in both Chinese and English.

The announcement was published on October 9, 2005. Danish practitioners faxed the announcement to all divisions of the Embassy about one month ago. To let more Embassy staff know about this important information and thus give them further opportunity to make their conscious choice, practitioners came to the Embassy to confer this important message by reading it aloud.

The announcement stated: "Ever since the publication of The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, Chinese people have more clearly recognized the nature of the CCP and the evil nature of the persecution. More than 4.8 million have withdrawn from the CCP and its related organizations. Heaven's destruction of the CCP is a historical inevitability. Gods must punish those criminals who have sinned against Falun Dafa. Those who refuse to do the right thing and instead continue to follow Jiang's scoundrel regime's persecution policies will be severely punished as perpetrators of unforgivable crimes."

When accepting an interview, practitioner Ms. Wu said: "The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has persecuted Falun Gong for more than six years. With practitioners' tireless truth-clarifying efforts, many kind-hearted people have awakened to the truth and have thus chosen to not follow the CCP. However, there are still some CCP officials, including staff members of the Embassy, who are still participating in the persecution. Last August, we sued Jia Chunwang, one of the chief perpetrators, for torture. It serves as a warning to all other people involved in the persecution. We will resort to legal measures against all those who choose to follow the CCP in the persecution."

The announcement goes on to say, "The CCP regime is against heaven's will, and is about to collapse. It is now having difficulty sustaining the persecution. Heaven's final judgment of these evil criminals is imminent. However, one of the purposes of the sacred FA of Falun Gong is to save people, including people in all social statuses. Even for those who have committed wrongdoings, there is still an opportunity for them to abandon the evil path and choose to be good. For all those who have committed crimes against Falun Gong but want now to correct their mistakes, they can submit, under safe circumstances, a guarantee statement or regret letter to Minghui (Clearwisdom.net) or to any regional Falun Dafa Association to be archived. We will not investigate the various crimes of those who are determined to correct their mistakes. However we will continue to monitor their actions."

On November 24, a grand Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in downtown Houston, Texas. This is the 56^th annual parade in the fourth largest city in the U.S. According to the organizing committee, the parade has been improving every year, and it was estimated that more than 100,000 people came out to watch the parade while more than 400,000 watched it on television at home.

Falun Dafa "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance" banner

Falun Gong exercise demonstration

Minghui Chinese school students

The parade started at 9 a.m. promptly, led by a dozen women on horseback and the Mayor's limousine. Among many other parade entries, there were school students' skating groups, H-E-B's float, MacDonald's big shoe, firefighters, and cleaning trucks. This is the third time for Dafa practitioners to participate in the parade, and their placement was promoted to the first ten units in the parade lineup, from almost the end of the procession as it was in previous years.

The 100-practitioner strong Falun Gong group consisted of several parts: a Falun Dafa "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance" banner, a Falun Gong exercise demonstrating troupe, a Tang Dynasty attire troupe, a waist drum and Tang drum troupe, Minghui Chinese School students and another "Falun Dafa" banner.

Traditional dance performance

Waist drum performance

Joyful spectators

Along the parade route, practitioners repeatedly received warm applause from the spectators. Some also imitated the poses and movements of the practitioners who were demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises. There were also people who enjoyed the traditional Chinese attire and dance. Meanwhile, the drumbeats playing along with the song, "Falun Dafa is Good," were very refreshing. A lot of people tried to capture the precious scene with their cameras and camcorders.

The crew of a TV station which was broadcasting the parade live had the microphone of their video camera track the "Falun Dafa is Good" song until it reached the end of the cable. Following behind the practitioners' group, another reporter carried her video camera to record the group. The excited reporter asked, "Which group is this?" A practitioner then wrote in her notebook: "Falun Dafa." She was very happy and said: "Thank you, thank you!"

There were also some spectators who greeted the practitioners by saying, "Ni Hao" ["Hello" in Chinese]. More spectators, however, expressed their joy and appreciation with warm applause.

From the 11th to the 13th of November 2005, the annual Biella Health Fair opened again. Italian Falun Gong practitioners participated in this fair for the third time, wishing to take this opportunity to allow more people to know about Falun Gong.

A lot of people came to the fair. Practitioners introduced to them the facts of the persecution of practitioners in China, demonstrated the exercises and distributed hand-made paper lotus flowers. The slow elegant exercise demonstration and the banners of "Truthfulness, Benevolence and Forbearance" which hung behind the exhibition stand attracted a lot of people's attention; they all stopped to look in surprise.

People come to learn Falun Gong

Many people stopped to learn more about Falun Gong

A lot of people stopped to talk to practitioners at the Falun Gong booth. They signed their names on the petition calling for the termination of the persecution. The nearby vendors were also very friendly and came to find out about the situation one after another, and signed the petition. Some even spent the time in learning how to fold the paper lotus flowers.

One gentleman, after reading the exhibition boards attentively, talked with the practitioners for a long time. He expressed his hope to help to do something to end the persecution. Practitioners talked about the courage of the practitioners in China for the past six years and the efforts by overseas practitioners in clarifying the truth. They also told him about the courageous deeds done by practitioners in China in order to help the Chinese people understand the truth of the evil persecution by the Chinese Communist Party. This gentleman was moved to tears.

The organizer offered practitioners two opportunities to demonstrate the exercises and to teach them to interested persons. The practitioners' demonstrations attracted a lot of people. A young man watched for a few minutes and then sighed, "It is truly beautiful!" Many visitors took the initiative to learn the exercises.

After having learned the exercises, some people walked up to the booth to express thanks, saying, "We really feel very good!" They also enquired about information on local practise sites.