July 21, 2005

Arlington, Massachusetts

On July 20, my family and friends will drive to Washington D.C. to appeal for the Chinese Communist Party to stop its severe persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

It has been six years since former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin began a campaign of brutal persecution against Falun Gong, a popular spiritual group known for doing slow tranquil exercises. Very few people know why he really did it. Was Falun Gong too popular? Did he need an enemy to take the attention off his own failings and rally the communist party behind him?    We do know for certain that the suppression began because of the large number of people who practice it and because of their refusal to abandon their belief in truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Is Falun Gong the only group tortured? Of course, in the Chinese Communist regime, it is not. Christians, Buddhists and Muslims are also routinely harassed and imprisoned for their beliefs.

As we Americans celebrated independence earlier this month, Catholic bishop Jia Zhiguo was arrested for the sixth time in the last 18 months in China; and last Friday my best friend told me that his parents were arrested by police in northern China.

Maybe you want to ask "Did it really happen in China ?" The answer is " Yes, and it is still going on."

A couple of months ago, a defected Chinese officer confirmed that he witnessed some Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death in prison. Yonglin Chen, a defected Chinese diplomat told the media that a lot of Chinese spies were deployed by CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to collect information about Falun Gong practitioners. Therefore, it is not surprising that I was told that my name is on the blacklist when I tried to renew my passport in Chinese consulate two years ago.

For the time being, millions of people are still held in slave labor facilities, making products that often end up on American shelves. Torture is commonplace and thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death. Thus, infants and children are left orphaned or deprived of parental love because their parents have been detained or tortured to death.   

So I am asking that you take time out of your busy schedule and sign a petition on the Friends of Falun Gong Web site http://www.fofg.org, or help those orphans by sponsoring the coming orphan rescue benefit concert at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University on Sept. 18: http://www.rescueflgchil dren. org.

Thank you for being with me in your hearts on the July 20 anniversary.

Joy Zhou