Marco Island Sun Times: Blacklisted Falun Gong speaker visits Rotary (Photo)

02/03/2005

Erping Zhang can't go home again.

	Photo by Carol Glassman Erping Zhang, spokesperson on behalf of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China, speaks to the Noontime Rotary.

Invited to the Noontime Rotary at the Olde Marco Inn Jan. 20, Zhang related a tale that many Rotary members later said they found "almost unbelievable."

Zhang is a Mason Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in New York. He has degrees in diplomacy, law and psychology and a masters in education.

In 1994, when he was a visiting student at Harvard, he returned to Beijing to visit friends and family. While there, he observed his colleagues in the foreign ministry practicing an exercise that was described to him as Falun Gong, a "gentle form of self-enhancement emphasizing principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance." Zhang found it appealing enough to attend two seminars on his return to New York.

In the early 1990s, according to Zhang, the Chinese government promoted Falun Gong for its moral precepts and health benefits. Large groups of citizens throughout the country were encouraged to practice the exercises and meditation, and its teachers were awarded honors. The exercises are similar to those of T'ai Chi and the general philosophy is to "refine the body and mind through exercise and meditation." Lectures were given outside the country as well, including to a United Nations group in Geneva, Switzerland.

While the Chinese government was counting the amount of money it might save in health care from its citizens involved in daily Falun Gong, they were also aware that from 70 to 100 million people, including many members of the Communist Party were participating.

Falun Gong transcended all boundaries, Zhang said, and spread quickly by word of mouth.

"Communist ideology is based on atheism," said Zhang. "They try to suppress any kind of traditional teaching and values. They considered Falun Gong a threat and began to prevent people from practicing it. At first, the population reacted with a peaceful appeal, but on July 20, 1997[Editor's Note: the actual date was in 1999], 100,000 practitioners were sent to labor camps and jails, and persecution began. Wherever Falun Gong practitioners met, they were arrested, beaten, taken to labor camps and reform centers and tortured."

Zhang showed a series of photos that had been smuggled out of China by foreign journalists. They told a gruesome tale of a university professor whose vocal chords were slit; eventually she died.

Rotary members asked why the practitioners of Falun Gong are being persecuted - are they plotting against the government? What else are they doing?

When Falun Gong was banned in China, no reasons were given, Zhang said, but obviously the number of practitioners exceeded the number of Communists.

"What other reasons are there?" Zhang asked.

Because of his knowledge, Zhang was recruited as a spokesperson on behalf of Falun Gong in America, and after testifying before the United States Congress, the United Nations, and other human liberties and rights associations, found he has been blacklisted and is no longer welcome in his mother country.

Between teaching assignments, he said, he travels in the United States to inform people about the situation and to encourage American companies not to import Chinese labor camp products that are made by Falun Gong prisoners.

Zhang was accompanied to Marco Island by Pia Maria Sandas, who explained the exercises and how they are aimed at physical health, energy, vitality and stress reduction. She led the Rotary members through the series of five excercises - four standing and one sitting to meditate - assuring everyone that there are no memberships or fees.

Falun Gong practitioners all over the world donate their time to teach others. Their instruction manual, music, and information are free to download from their Internet site at www.falundafa.org.

In cities with large Chinese communities, such as New York, Toronto and San Francisco, it is not uncommon to see silent protests in the main streets as Falun Gong practitioners and sympathizers hand out informational brochures. That's what happened to Rotary President Vince Magee on a business trip to New York recently.

"I was handed this flyer and I read it on the plane," he said. "I knew we had to help spread the word here."

McGee invited Zhang to come and speak to the Rotary Jan. 20.

One of the films at the Marco Island Film Festival was Sandstorm, a movie written and directed by Canadian Michael Mahonen.

It's not a film for the faint at heart. It shows, "the vicious persecution of 100 million people in China who are Falun Gong practitioners. It's a total cultivation practice that has spread by word of mouth, from village to village," said Mahonen, when he was on Marco Island, explaining that efforts by the Chinese government to suppress his movie have actually increased its popularity. He deliberately made his main character a policeman who is responsible for trying to "convert" Falun Gong practitioners, although he realizes they are innocent of wrongdoing.

Zhang and Sandas plan to return to Marco Island in the near future by request, to teach the exercises to interested parties.

Source: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13881953&BRD=2256&PAG=461&dept_id=455823&rfi=6