A letter to CCTV from a Falun Gong practitioner in mainland China

(CCTV is the abbreviation of China Central Television Station)

Dear CCTV editors:

I am a Falun Gong practitioner from X City of X Province. After watching the CCTV report about the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, I am compelled to pick up my pen and report some of the inhumane, brutal persecution experienced by Falun Gong practitioners in China.

In my province, the government makes use of all kinds of cruel and terrible ways to crack down on and persecute Falun Gong. They do not allow us to tell the truth. They use a variety of brutal punishments such as: forcing us to write pledges to give up Falun Gong; getting other prisoners to beat Falun Gong practitioners; beating us with fists, electric batons, and iron bars, hanging us up by the arms, handcuffing us from the back, for hours, and depriving us of sleep for days on end. Our families are also threatened and forced to pay fines. We have lost our normal living conditions, schooling, and jobs, and have to face frequent threats, frightening physical torture, long-term detentions and other inhumane treatment. We do not have human rights here.

After I watched the broadcast on your station about the Chinese government's denying persecution of any Falun Gong practitioners by arresting huge numbers of them, coercing them to sign declarations, beating them, depriving them of their jobs, or threatening them, I felt very ashamed of being a Chinese citizen. The government of such a big country claims to be "just" but it is in appearance only. They carry out all kinds of abhorrent behaviors behind the scenes and furthermore, cheat all of the kind-hearted people around the world with big lies at the UN Human Rights Commission. This is really a tragedy of modern civilization!

We Falun Gong practitioners will never go against the government, nor will we get involved in politics. We only hope that justice will be served and we will get our freedom of belief back. We only want to be good people according to the principle of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance"! We appeal to all human rights organizations in the world and the journalists who follow the objective and just news-reporting principle to come to China, carry out an objective investigation, and bring some sunshine of justice to this dark corner. We believe that one day in the future the truth will be revealed to the world. We look forward to that day.

April, 2000

(Translated on May 5, 2000)