(Minghui.org) After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, it slandered Falun Gong in state-controlled media to incite hatred against practitioners.
Over the last two decades, Falun Gong practitioners in China and abroad have persisted in clarifying the facts to the public, and more and more people have been touched by practitioners’ compassion and steadfast faith. People are awakening to the horrors that have unfolded during the persecution and are stepping forward to support Falun Gong. The following are some examples of people’s words and actions.
Falun Gong practitioners in northern England held activities in Liverpool on October 4, 2020, to raise awareness of the CCP’s persecution of their faith. Many people expressed their support.
A man who had already signed a petition calling for an end to the persecution wanted to sign it again. A practitioner from China who couldn't speak much English happened to be distributing flyers at the time. The man said, “I’ll help you!” For the next ten minutes, he explained what was happening in China to passersby. The people he talked to nodded and signed the petition.
Many other supporters have also volunteered to spread the word for Falun Gong. A family of four signed the petition. The wife knew a lot about the CCP’s crimes of forced organ harvesting and helped practitioners tell other people at the booth. An elderly couple signed the petition. They came back a while later and told a practitioner, “The Chinese Communist Party is too evil. It must be ended as soon as possible.”
Karoline Müller paused and spoke with practitioners at the Falun Dafa information booth on Hohenzollern Platz in Munich on August 21, 2020. “The principles of Falun Dafa are amazing and should be practiced by everyone,” she said. “I signed the petition to support human dignity.”
Marcel Wegener is a journalist, editor, and media host. He said that Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are “very important to the world right now.”
“Truthfulness and compassion are the foundation of mankind. Forbearance is what the Chinese government lacks. These principles are what differentiate us humans from animals.”
He was worried that Germany was very close to the state described in George Orwell's novel, 1984. “We can’t let it spread here from China. We can’t provide a platform for such activities. The world must stop these things from spreading by eradicating them,” he said.
Practitioners in New York held activities in front of the Chinese Consulate on September 18, 2020. Many tourists who were going to the ferry across the street were moved by what practitioners told them. Some were brought to tears and gave practitioners hugs. Some said they wanted to make a donation, and some learned the Falun Gong exercises on the spot.
A middle-aged man asked a practitioner named Ms. Huang why they didn’t stand directly outside the Chinese Consulate. Ms. Huang told him that the consulate officers did not allow them to, so the man went to talk to two police officers who were on duty nearby and explained the situation. He then called Ms. Huang over and said, “These police officers have agreed that from now on you can do it here at this street corner [a few steps from the consulate entrance] and pass out the information.”
Falun Dafa practitioners held large banners in front of the Chinese Consulate in Montreal on September 15, 2020, to raise awareness of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution. They also held a car tour. Ten cars with large banners on top of them drove through the streets near the consulate.
A practitioner named Ruth said she was touched by people's encouragement during the car tour. Several pedestrians gave them the thumbs up.
When the cars stopped in front of the consulate, a lady told Ruth, “What you are doing is right. They [the CCP] hurt my country.” The lady told Ruth she was originally from Spain and had lived in Montreal for 40 years.
She said the CCP had infiltrated Spain and promoted its so-called One Belt One Road initiative, an effort to infiltrate and control the world. Spain has since suffered greatly during the coronavirus pandemic. The lady encouraged Ruth, “Please continue your efforts.”
Falun Gong practitioners in Quebec City, Canada, held a rally on Place D’Youville on August 22, 2020, calling for an end to the CCP's 21-year-long persecution. They also called on the Canadian government to sanction CCP officials who have committed human rights crimes.
Many people stopped to read the information and sign the petition. Mercier, a father of three, encouraged practitioners to keep up their efforts to expose the CCP. He said that he believed the world was awakening to the current situation and that Falun Gong practitioners’ activities had broadened people’s views.
Véronique Ruel stopped and watched practitioners as they meditated. She said she was opposed to the persecution and hoped the rally would open the eyes of more Canadians. “Your fight is our fight,” she told practitioners. “The world stands with you.”
Mrs. Tse-Min Chin (also known as Tammy Kawamura), a former Taiwanese actress and the wife of the CEO of Tentsusaikan Group, a Japanese restaurant chain, recently told the Epoch Times, “The pandemic has awakened me to the evilness of the Chinese Communist Party. It has now harmed people all over the world, along with Falun Gong practitioners.
“I think we all owe Falun Gong an apology. In many places, such as Taipei 101, I have seen Falun Gong practitioners calling for everyone to understand the truth about the persecution [of Falun Gong]. But the facts of the persecution I heard were too far from our lives and beyond normal people’s comprehension. I couldn’t believe them to be true. So like many people, I felt indifferent and failed to condemn the CCP’s crimes. Today, we also fell victim to the CCP ourselves. It is a hard lesson. I want to apologize to Falun Gong practitioners for not giving them due sympathy and humanitarian support back then.”
Mrs. Chin saw the CCP’s harmful nature through the violent incidents in Hong Kong, and it made her understand Falun Gong more and admire practitioners’ courage and unyielding spirit. She hoped governments and media all over the world would awaken and find the courage to resist the CCP.
“I hope that in the future, our society, including China, will no longer be threatened by the CCP, and that people will live freely, in peace and without fear,” she said.
Many Hong Kong residents have approached Falun Gong practitioners to apologize for their prior misunderstandings after seeing the CCP’s violent crackdowns during the anti-extradition bill movement. Many of these people have since spread the Fox News report titled “Survivors and victims on shocking state-sanctioned organ harvesting in China” on their social media platforms.
Hong Kong resident Ms. Chen told the reporter, “The experience of fighting the extradition bill allowed the people in Hong Kong to see the nature of the CCP. Reflecting upon Falun Gong’s call to end the persecution in recent years, we finally realized that what Falun Gong practitioners have been telling us is completely true.”
As of July 18, 2020, 606 legislators from 30 countries had signed a joint statement condemning the “systematic and brutal” persecution of Falun Gong and calling on the CCP to stop the persecution immediately.
The joint statement was initiated by two senior Canadian MPs, Peter Kent and Judy Sgro, as well as Sweden MP Ann-Sofie Alm. It received unprecedented support from an international body of current and former officials from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Latvia, Norway, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan, Venezuela, Chile, Estonia, Hungary, the United States, and Indonesia.