Issued by Clearwisdom Net

The news that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities had disfigured and killed Gao Rongrong has shocked the world. On the evening of June 21, 2005, Falun Gong practitioners in Melbourne, Australia gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate to hold a candlelight vigil in honor of Gao Rongrong, to strongly condemn the CCP's brutality and atrocities, and to demand punishment for Gao Rongrong's murderers, Tang Yubao and Jiang Zhaohua.

Protesting the CCP's murder of Gao Rongrong in front of the Chinese Consulate in Melbourne

Ms. Gao Rongrong, an accountant at the Luxun Fine Arts College in Shenyang City, was abducted from her home by local police on June 22, 2003, and taken to Longshan Forced Labor Camp. On June 16, 2005, Gao died in the emergency room of China Medical University Hospital of complications stemming from torture and abuse in custody following nearly two years of incarceration, brainwashing, and torture for her beliefs. During the illegal incarceration and forced labor, she lost hearing in one ear, her face was disfigured from seven hours of electric baton shock torture, her bodily organs were atrophying, and she was left as only skin and bones. Her life was in grave danger. After she was successfully rescued by Falun Gong practitioners in October, 2004, and her disfigured face was publicized to expose the brutal persecution, the Public Security Department labeled Ms. Gao's escape the "Number 26 Case." At this point, 610 Office system head Luo Gan personally took charge of the continued persecution plan. Instructed by Luo Gan, the Liaoning Province CCP Political Judiciary Committee, the Procuratorate, the Department of Justice, and the Police Department collectively concealed information about Ms. Gao Rongrong's case. Those practitioners thought to have been involved in Ms. Gao's rescue were rounded up and cruelly tortured. One person in the judiciary system said, "Luo Gan gave the order. He said that this matter (Ms. Gao's cruel torture case being exposed) had too much international impact, and that it must handled carefully now (indicating that further persecution would be carried out secretly)." Ever since then, the Shenyang City Police Department, State Security Division has been using all their resources in tapping into phone lines, and monitoring, detecting, and following local Falun Dafa practitioners. Gao Rongrong was unfortunately rearrested in March 2005, and detained until she died as a result of further persecution.

Gao Rongrong was the 54^th Falun Gong practitioner in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province to die as a result of the persecution. Her killing reveals the CCP's bloodthirsty nature. The CCP will not even allow such a fragile woman, who had been severely disfigured, and almost paralyzed, to live, because she believed in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

A woman at the vigil expressed that three former officers of the CCP who recently defected to Australia all witnessed or experienced the CCP's brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Now they no longer want to continue being accomplices of the CCP, as it went against their consciences. They exposed the brutality and despicable nature of the persecution. Australia is a pure, simple and kind nation, and this woman believes that after learning about the truth, more and more kind and righteous people will step forward. Their voices calling for an end to the persecution will terrify the evil, and will accelerate the collapse of the CCP, which persecutes good people. Kind Chinese people need righteous support from the world's people.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wang said that the persecution of Falun Gong is the most brutal and evil in history. The methods they use are insidious and vicious, but they have gone all out to conceal them from the public, so people are unable to learn about the truth and therefore unable to support Dafa practitioners. The crimes thus continue like this. One of Mr. Wang's friends lives near Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, but he never realized that such inhuman and tragic incidents take place there every day. To stop the persecution, we should first expose the evil. The evil is fearful of its persecution being exposed, because what that they do is extremely wicked and shameful.

A spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association in Melbourne said that Australia has been able to see more and more clearly the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. On June 20, the Australian Senate passed a motion initiated by the Democratic Party calling for the Australian government to investigate the CCP's spy network, and to protect Falun Gong practitioners from harassment and intimidation by the CCP in Australia. The motion was initiated by Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, representing the Democratic Party, and backed up by the largest opposition party - the Labor Party.

Despoja said at a rally, "As a government, when an incident of human rights abuse occurs, we should bring it up so as to ensure that they stop their act of human rights abuse. We cannot place trade interests above human rights and people's dignity... I initiated today's motion representing the Democratic Party, the purpose is to see clearly the situation of the CCP's human rights abuses, especially its violation of Falun Gong practitioners' human rights."

Mr. Fan, from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), said that the CCP has never stopped its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners during the past six years. As of today, 2591 Falun Gong practitioners are verified through civil channels to have died resulting from the persecution. Even more torture death cases have been covered up by the CCP authorities. The mission of the WOIPFG is to expose the inhuman crimes to the public, let the perpetrators be put on trial in the court of conscience and law, and restore and uphold justice in society. At the same time, to safeguard justice and conscience, and cherish human beings' precious lives, we call upon all kind people to join together to stop the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

On June 20, 2005, Falun Gong practitioners rallied in front of Chinese embassy in Ottawa to strongly condemn the CCP for murdering Gao Rongrong and to demand the murders to be brought to justice. In May 2004, Ms. Gao' face was disfigured by continuous electric shocks for her belief in Falun Gong and dedication to clarifying the truth of Falun Gong to everyday people. Gao was tortured to death on June 16 2005 by the 610 office.

Ottawa practitioners rally in front of Chinese embassy to condemn the murder of Gao Rongrong

According to a report on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, in May 2004, Longshan Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City used electric batons to shock Falun Gong practitioner Gao Rongrong's face for more than 6 hours, resulting in severe disfigurement of her face. After photos of the abuse were publicized, Gao's case has received a lot of attention in the international community. Her case was also the first case study in the "2004 United Nations Human Rights Report on China's Persecution of Falun Gong." After the exposure, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) not only did not repent or stop, but instead became angry and carried on a more hidden and despicable persecution. On March 6 2005, CCP abducted and then detained Ms. Gao Rongrong again. Gao died on June 16 due to failure of internal organs. Before her death, news related to Gao had been tightly blocked.

One practitioner said: "The recent murder of Gao Rongrong and several other practitioners showed that although the persecution is being carried out more secretly than before, it is not any less cruel. Gao is the 2576^th practitioner murdered by the CCP and she is also the 54^th practitioner murdered in Shenyang city.

The three diplomats and security officers who have escaped to Australia confirmed that the persecution against Falun Gong is far more brutal than people's imagination. Chen Yonglin, who was a political affair consul at Sydney Consulate until his recent defection, said: "The materials regarding practitioners tortured to death are classified as state secret, materials of this regard are typically kept in secret as the CCP routinely charges murdered practitioners of committing suicide." At the same time, the three officials consistently pointed out that CCP has been extending the persecution to oversea. For example, Hao Fengjun, former Tianjin "610 office" official, revealed that CCP has deployed over 1000 spies in Canada to monitor Falun Gong. This spy claim has raised great concern from the Canada government and media.

Another practitioner confirmed that Canadian practitioners have been constantly harassed and monitored by spies. She also took the opportunity to call upon officials of Chinese embassy and consulates not to assist the CCP in the persecution. She said: "'610 Office' murders civilians in China and monitors and harasses overseas practitioners and many others. The crimes of the '610 Office' have been recently revealed to the public again and again. This tells us that CCP's antihuman crime against people's belief is approaching its doomed end. We hope more and more diplomatic officials who have been forced by the CCP to participate in the persecution will choose to denounce the persecution as Chen Yonglin did. It is time for good consciences to awaken, and you should choose to stand by justice so that you will have a good future.

Falun Gong practitioners in Montreal, Canada, held a press conference on June 21, 2005, to expose the monitoring and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Canada by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies. The practitioners also condemned the recent murder of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Gao Rongrong in China. Ms. Gao, from Liaoning Province, was recently killed, after months ago, her face was disfigured by brutal electric shock torture. The practitioners also called on Canadian people from all walks of life to take measures to stop the persecution.

Press conference site

Spokesperson Francis said that Chen Yonglin, a political consul at the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney, has defected and exposed the facts of the persecution of Falun Gong outside of China. Thao Fengjun, a former officer in the Tianjin 610 Office, has also defected and has revealed that the CCP has infiltrated Canada and other countries with a large number of spies to monitor Falun Gong practitioners, infringing upon other countries' sovereignty. Mr. Hao stressed that the CCP's brutal persecution of Falun Gong was his fundamental reason for deciding to escape the CCP. Another former high-ranking official, who also defected in Australia, witnessed the murder of Falun Gong practitioners.

In a separate incident, CCP hatchet men, including deputy division head of the No. 2 Division of Longshan Forced Labor Camp Tang Yubao and team head Jiang Zhaohua, tortured Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Gao Rongrong with electric batons, which disfigured her face. On June 16, 2005, the labor camp authorities deliberately murdered Ms. Gao Rongrong. This is yet another crime of the CCP, in addition to making use of spy networks to persecute practitioners.

Spokesperson Francis emphasized that the large network of spies exposed in Canada is only the tip of the iceberg of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. It is seeking to stop overseas Falun Gong practitioners from clarifying the truth and calling for an end to the persecution. In order to bring these acts of spying against Falun Gong practitioners to a halt, the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong in China must be stopped.

Six practitioners shared their personal experiences to expose the CCP spies' despicable acts of surveillance, harassment and intimidation that have frightened the Chinese community in Canada.

Senior engineer Mr. Fan Ziyu, entrusted by an American company to work in Tianjin, was abducted by National Security special agents in 2002. Mr. Fan said, "The special agents talked about the personal situations of practitioners in Montreal, giving details I didn't even know about. They also had obtained all the articles written for the 2000 Montreal Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference. Besides me, only female spy He Bing had read all those articles. He Bing was sued in 2001 for slandering Falun Gong in a weekly newspaper in Montreal and now has escaped back to China." The National Security special agents also wanted to "make friends with him" and "keep in touch" to obtain information about Falun Gong practitioners, but Mr. Fan refused them on the spot.

Ms. Zhu Ying returned to China in 2001 to visit her parents and was abducted and detained for 33 days. The National Security special agents claimed that they knew everything about every practitioner in Montreal. Later, her relatives were monitored and intimidated and dared not associate with her.

Mr. Zhu Xueye returned to China to visit his parents at the end of 1999. He was immediately arrested as soon as he entered Customs. The customs officers even told him clearly that they already knew all about his whole journey.

Other than being denied entry when returning to China, Ms. Li Zhili's life in Canada was restricted. The "Lotus Art Troupe" she belongs to participated in the celebration activities in the community and was warmly received. But when the CCP's spy intervened, the sponsors usually succumbed to the pressure and cancelled their performance. Li Zhili said, "Once, a person in charge of the community told me, 'If I allow you to perform, I will no longer be the deputy chairperson.'"

Ms. Yang Hui told how she and six other practitioners were harassed with numerous phone calls in February. The calls were one-minute recorded messages slandering Falun Gong. Accountant Mr. Guan Weidong received a phone call even more "directly." "At midnight one day, a strange man called my home and said, 'Don't practice Falun Gong any more, otherwise, your life is in danger.'"

Reporters from the French newspaper Montreal, the French Edition of The Epoch Times and Chinese NTD-TV attended the press conference.

At noon on June 21, practitioners rallied at the city hall plaza in San Diego to commemorate Gao Rongrong who was murdered 5 days ago and to strongly demand punishment of murders of Ms. Gao.

During the rally, a representative stated that the death case of Gao revealed a typical mode of CCP's persecution against practitioners: Appalling human rights violation, planned cover of crimes, no one related held accountable. Practitioners, however, demand a thorough investigation of Gao's case and punishment of the murderers. Practitioners also call upon governments of different nations around the world, all organizations and individuals to condemn the atrocity of CCP and help end this disaster of humanity.

A representative of practitioners demanded a thorough investigation of Gao's case and punishment of the murderers.

A representative of Friends of Falun Gong San Diego chapter, also addressed the rally. She said that the "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" philosophy of Falun Gong is completely in contrast to the "Combat" philosophy of the CCP and this was the reason of the persecution. She pointed out that while this most cruel and violent persecution in the history of mankind is still ongoing, most western mainstream media outlets have remained silent. Commercial interests keep these companies, and even governments silent. Meanwhile, the CCP is using the money invested by foreign companies to persecute Falun Gong. Unfortunately, these companies are actually accomplices of the CCP in this human rights atrocity.

She called upon all governments and companies not to trade human rights and human dignity for money and not to forget their moral responsibilities. She called on people from all circles to help practitioners reinstate their rights of belief.

Practitioners displayed some photo posters which exposed the truth of the persecution and distributed related materials. Upon learning about the truth, civilians in succession condemned the persecution and expressed their support for Falun gong practitioners. q4q

On June 18, 2005, Falun Gong practitioners in Vancouver held a press conference at the downtown campus of Simon Fraser University to expose the Chinese Communist Party's spy activities in Vancouver. The practitioners used their own experiences and those of their family members and friends as evidence. Practitioners revealed how the CCP collected information about individual practitioners and group activities, and used this information to threaten them and their family members in China. Practitioners called upon the Canadian government to make a thorough investigation and to uphold Canadian citizens' basic human rights and personal security.

A Western practitioner presided over the conference. Four practitioners delivered speeches. Canadian attorney Clive Ansley and attorney Guo Guoting from Shanghai, China also attended the press conference. Major Chinese and Western media outlets in Vancouver also attended.

A practitioner leading the press conference

A practitioner giving a speech

The press conference

Falun Gong practitioner Huang Shangjun said at the conference that on June 12, 2002, she and another practitioner changed flights in Oslo on their way to Iceland. "When we were about to board, Iceland diplomats in Norway used the excuse that Jiang Zemin was visiting Northern Europe and in order to ensure his safety, practitioners of Falun Gong were banned from entering Iceland. They therefore barred us from boarding the flight. As a consequence, we had to stay in Norway for two days. According to media reports from Iceland, it was the Chinese Communist regime that provided the Icelandic government with a blacklist that included our names."

Falun Gong practitioner Zheng Jun said, "In February 2001, my mother passed away. I tried to apply for a visa to go to China to attend my mother's funeral. My application was rejected. Later, I went to Hong Kong where I was followed. When I applied for a visa to the Mainland from Hong Kong, my request was turned down again. In March 2003, my son Trent, also a Falun Gong practitioner, went back China to visit our family members there. As soon as he stepped off the shuttle bus of the airport, he was arrested by five agents from the National Security Bureau. He was locked up in a small room for several hours. The agents told Trent that they recognized him as soon as he entered customs. They also talked about detailed information about other four practitioners in Vancouver. During the two weeks that Trent was in China, he was followed. He did not dare to receive phone calls. He sent emails to me and told me, 'They know everything about us.'"

Another Falun Gong practitioner, Susannah, said in her speech that the Chinese authorities are aware of everything about her. They even know more about her than do her family members with whom she had shared apartments. Shortly before, one of her roommates, also a Falun Gong practitioner, went back to China and was detained by the Chinese police. The questions asked by the police included issues that she had never disclosed to her family members or her roommates. The police kept harassing her family members. Although her mother is 80 years old and her sister is very ill, she is unable to return China to visit them. The police even told her family members, "Don't think that she is in Canada and that no one could touch her. Isn't Charles Li an American citizen? We have imprisoned him regardless."

Susannah said that she is a Canadian citizen, but she still has to live under the shadow of the Chinese Communist government and has been constantly threatened. She hoped that the Canadian government will ensure her safety and the safety of other practitioners.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Ying has a Ph.D. On February 29, 2000, Canada International Development Company sent her to China. She said, as soon as she arrived in China, she was followed. At midnight on March 1, two National Security agents went to her hotel room and abducted her. They covered her eyes and pushed her into a vehicle. They took her to their office, where she was interrogated for eight hours. They demanded that she write a confession statement and threatened her that they would detain her as a criminal. They said that even though Li Ying held a Canadian passport, they could still send her to jail. Later, the agents told the Chinese counterpart of the Canada International Development Company that they should not allow Li Ying to continue with the project. Li Ying said, "The Chinese authorities can recognize me so quickly, which indicates that my status and whereabouts in Canada have been monitored."

Dr. Li Ying said, "From February 6 to 8, 2005, from early morning to 3 p.m., I received harassing phone calls on every hour. The contents were all fabricated propaganda defaming Falun Gong. The Chinese spies do not only monitor individual Falun Gong practitioners in Canada, they also infiltrated into the overseas Chinese media. Some Chinese media directly broadcast the false news made by Chinese communist regime's mouthpiece, CCTV, to slander Falun Gong and instigate hatred toward Falun Gong among Chinese people in Canada."

Why would the Chinese communist regime spend so much of common people's hard-earn money to send more than 1,000 spies and informers to deal with a group of unarmed, law-abiding, peaceful and rational Falun Gong practitioners? Dr. Li Ying said, "The nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is false, vicious, and violent, which are absolutely irreconcilable with the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance that Falun Gong teaches. Therefore, the CCP carries out such genocidal suppression against Falun Gong. Orders issued by the central government to local governments are saying, 'Ruin Falun Gong practitioners' reputation, bankrupt them financially, and physically eliminate them.' Up to the present, more than 2,570 practitioners have been confirmed to have died from the persecution. We believe the real death toll is much higher than this.

"The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is completely based on lies. The reason that so many spies have been sent to Canada and other countries is to conceal the truth of the genocidal persecution and to deceive Canada and the international society. Because they knew that once the whole world learns about the truth, they would not be able to maintain their illegal suppression, and the communist regime would collapse."

At the end of the press conference, practitioners called upon the Canadian government to lodge a thorough investigation into the CCP's espionage network and its various methods of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. They also called on Canadian officials at all levels not to bow to the CCP; instead, they should take positive measures to uphold their citizens' most basic rights. Practitioners appealed to the Canadian media to uphold justice, and encouraged them to learn about the truth and to report the truth. Practitioners also called upon officials of the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver and all who are still serving the CCP's espionage network to clearly realize the current situation, forsake evilness for goodness, and break off with the CCP. In doing so, they will regain their conscience, just as Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun have done.

At 7pm on June 20, 2005, Chinese Ambassador Lu Shumin in Canada visited Montreal, and the Chinese community held a banquet for him at Hongbaoshi Restaurant. Falun Gong practitioners went to appeal, strongly protesting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) murder of Falun Gong practitioner Gao Rongrong, demanding an immediate end to the persecution of Falun Gong and punishment for the murderers.

Gao Rongrong, after suffering severe and prolonged torture and disfigurement, was murdered on June 16, 2005, becoming the 2585^th Falun Gong practitioner who died as a result of the persecution.

Falun Gong practitioners displayed photos of horribly disfigured face of Gao Rongrong who was brutally tortured for persisting in her belief, and held several banners, reading "Blatantly murdering Gao Rongrong, it's intolerable," "The CCP disfigured her face first and then killed her," "The CCP has caused death of 2576 Falun Gong practitioners," "Immediately stop the persecution of Falun Gong," "Severely punishing murderers," "Don't assist the CCP to do evil, choose a bright future," "Chen Yonglin set a precedent, people afterward should catch up." Many community members who came to attend the banquet watched, and some hid behind the glass window of the restaurant to watch.

According to a Clearwisdom report, Falun Gong practitioner Gao Rongrong was abducted by lawless officials in July 2003, and taken to Longshan Forced Labor Camp. On the afternoon of May 7, 2004 at 3:00 p.m., Ms. Gao Rongrong was called to the office by camp Ward Leader Tang Yubao (male) and Jiang Zhaohua (male). These men shocked her for about seven hours with electric batons. Ms. Gao's face was severely deformed. Local practitioners risked their lives to publicize the photos of her horribly disfigured face from electric baton shock torture to the outside world, causing great attention from the international community. On October 5, 2004, several Falun Gong practitioners successfully rescued Gao Rongrong. Later, the CCP took fierce vengeance against Gao Rongrong and practitioners who revealed the truth to the outside world. On March 8-9, 2005, Gao Rongrong was unfortunately rearrested, and on June 16, 2005, she died from complications stemming from torture and abuse while in custody.

The CCP clearly knew that the Gao Rongrong's case has "too big an international influence," but it actually re-abducted her until tortured her to death, which speaks volumes about the CCP's evil nature and its desperate attempt before ending. Thereby, it conversely arouses the attention from the international community and people from all walks of life.

An Afghanistan man passed by Falun Gong practitioners' appealing site, and told people in a loud voice that his 36 family members were killed by the Communist Party in 1979. He was the only survivor of the family, and he lost his home. He kept saying, "The Communist Party is sinister gang," "the Communist Party is amok," and "Down with the Communism." When he learned the truth about Falun Gong, he took his initiative to help hold banners. He said to Falun Gong practitioners, "I want to stand with you, let those people (Chinese embassy staff) come down, I'll talk with them, why do they kill people?" He remained during the four hours of our appealing and was reluctant to leave us.

The banquet was postponed for over an hour, the ambassador's car had already arrived, but stopped for a long time several hundred meters away from the restaurant, trying to find a detour to enter to avoid Falun Gong practitioners' appeal group. Finally, they had no other way but to enter the restaurant in front of the practitoners. Several Chinese men forcibly stopped reporters to take photos.

A Chinese man stops reporters from taking photos

According to incomplete statistics, over the past six years since July 20, 1999, as of today, 2603 Falun Gong practitioners are verified through civil channels to have died as a result of the persecution. The torture death cases are distributed in over 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. But the actual death toll far exceeds this number. At least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally sentenced to prison, more than 100,000 practitioners have been sent to forced labor camps, thousands of practitioners have been forced into mental hospitals to be tortured with drugs damaging the central-nervous system. A large number of Falun Gong practitioners have been abducted to brainwashing centers located in different places to suffer mental torment, and many more practitioners have been subjected to beating, physical punishment and economic extortion by so-called "law enforcement personnel."

The "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" International Art Exhibition was held from May 2nd to May 5th 2005, in a library in Basel that is situated in a park. There are large glass windows on both sides of the room, allowing passersby to see the paintings from the outside. Every jogger and pedestrian making their way through the park had to pass this location. It was the perfect place for the exhibition.

On the opening day we had beautiful weather. Therefore, many people came to enjoy the park, which in turn increased the amount of visitors to the exhibition. That day, there was a constant crowd in the exhibition room.

Many classes of school kids, who came to the park to exercise, had a look round the exhibition. On their way to and from school, many other students came to view the pictures. We noticed that some of the children stopped by several times. We were very happy to be able to show them the pictures. Most of them took Falun Gong leaflets home to give to their families. We also offered them handmade paper lotus flowers.

It was difficult for many of the little ones to understand that Falun Gong is being persecuted. But this did not prevent the paintings from leaving a deep impression on the children. We also had an art teacher with her class looking at the pictures. She was very impressed and glad to find an interesting topic to discuss in class.

A mother and her two children visited the exhibition. The younger one, a girl, was about two years old. She was very inquisitive and asked a barrage of questions as they wandered from picture to picture.

Another lady was on the way to the library early one morning when she decided to stop by and have a look at the exhibition. She stayed for a long time and was very interested to hear about Falun Gong. Before leaving, she put the main book of Falun Gong, Zhuan Falun, into her backpack and went home to read.

We also had many visitors who just happened to be passing by and didn't know that an exhibition was being held until they found it. There are still many people who have not heard about Falun Gong. This was a great opportunity to show the pictures to lots of people and expose the persecution of Falun Gong in China. They all were quite impressed with the standard of the artwork.