A Speech at A Forum During the UN Human Rights Commission's Annual Meeting

April 15, 2004

Thank you all for coming. This is the third time I have spoken in this forum. I see there is a bigger audience every year, and I see the speaker list gets longer with more victims. The Chinese government claims that now is the best period of China's human rights and I am wondering why we are seeing more and more victims?

The speakers before me have spoken amply for the victims of the Chinese government's extensive and severe human rights violations; for a change, I want to speak on some issues regarding the perpetrators, the accomplices, the pawns used by the Chinese government to abuse others. I do not endorse their actions, but I do have sympathy for their humanity.

Before I go on, I want to show a short segment of a documentary film.

The whole film is 19 minutes long, but I am sure you will understand the point from the first 5 minutes.

The staging of the self-immolation in Tiananmen Square is a prime example of one fundamental tool of the Chinese regime's policy which is, the incitement of hatred. I often want to ask those who torture Falun Gong practitioners, and I have written to ordinary Chinese who hate Falun Gong. I want to ask them, Has any Falun Gong practitioner harmed you personally? Do you even know the victims? What made you hate them so much? Most of the time I don't get an answer, but occasionally I was told that they were misinformed.

Deceived by the hate propaganda, encouraged by promises of impunity, and enticed by financial rewards, policemen carry on their torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners completely devoid of humanity. Some openly claimed, "We are reincarnated little devils from hell, and we'll beat you into hell as well."

There is no question that they are criminals, but I wonder, what if they were brought up in a different country? I was educated in China to the college level. Besides learning numbers, scientific codes and equations that have no human sentiment, everything else I was taught in my school were steeped with hatred. Only after I came to the free world, I learned from independent sources that the hatred teachings were based on lies and fabrications. I realized this kind of education in effect only produces robotic mentalities with hatred. These indoctrinated people are very easy to use by the totalitarian regime. But what good will that be for humanity?

Now I also want to speak of a third unwitting victim of the Chinese government's aggression against humanity. It is an open secret that many in this institution are afraid of China. China's tactic is actually very unsophisticated: "if you criticize my human rights record, I will not do business with you." This creates a fear, a fear of being left out from some financial gain, a fear that has silenced many.

Now, this fear is nowhere near the terror the Chinese people live under. However, in its essence, this is the other fundamental tool of the Chinese regime's policy. With this tool, the Chinese government has achieved a feat no oppressors had ever accomplished before -- extracting acquiescence in the world towards its repeated human rights abuses. Maybe that is what the Chinese government is speaking about when it claimes it has the best time of human rights, the best time for it to abuse.

The third victim of the Chinese government's abuse, therefore, is international standards, universal principles, and the entire international community. This institution is a prime example. It was this institution, led by its first high commissioner, which spearheaded the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Chinese government, from 1989, is the most responsible for the low regard of this institution now.

Hatred and terror, those are the only two real tools of the Chinese totalitarian dictatorship. As a Chinese, someone grew up in that system, I cannot think of more.

Two days ago, in a forum Dr. Charles Graves of Interfaith International raised a question, "Why does the Chinese government suppress all religions and beliefs?" I answered, "More than beliefs and religions, the Chinese government suppresses anything that allows people to develop courage and love."

Looking at the speakers here, the victims here, the real NGOs here, they speak of courage and love. I dare to say that all positive, kind and good movements teachings lift people up with courage and love, and all that is evil controls people with hatred and fear, just the opposite. How is possible that the evil does not persecute human goodness?

Take Falun Gong as an example. Falun Gong is apolitical, it only teaches people to practice the principle of "Truth-Benevolence-Forbearance." A genuine internal cultivation following the principle will inevitably lead to personal integrity, courage, and universal love. This book, which documents the Chinese government's violence against women and children Falun Gong practitioners, is a product of courage and love of Falun Gong practitioners, who risked their lives to inform the world what is really going on in China. Someone said to me that we have taken a confrontational approach. I disagree completely. Our approach is completely peaceful. Ours is an approach of courage and love.

In conclusion, I say that the Chinese people's quest of freedom, including the quest of freedom of belief and religion, is a quest of courage and love, and at the same time resists hatred and fear. Their quest is not just for themselves, not even just for all Chinese, but for all humanity.

I don't know how many voting members are here. I hope more people can pass the message to them. Tomorrow, an important vote will happen in this institution. With my heart-felt sincerity, I call upon the world, vote with your conscience, vote for your own humanity.

Thank you for your understanding