In China, the government continues to be responsible for pervasive and severe violations of religious freedom and related human rights. Every religious community in China is subject to restrictions, discrimination, and state control. The most serious religious freedom abuses are experienced by Roman Catholics, house church and unregistered Protestants, and spiritual groups such as the Falun Gong, abuses involving imprisonment, torture, and other forms of ill treatment.

Since I exposed the details of the persecution that some of the Falun Gong students sent to our detention centre experienced, the officers involved were scared. Later, the authorities investigated this incident and held me responsible. I was not able to withstand the pressure and wrote a so-called "self-examination" statement, which contained words disrespectful of Falun Dafa. Now I solemnly declare null and void the entire content of that statement.

64-year Ms. Wang Lianrong lost her three children, who were all in their thirties, within three years. The following article depicts the persecution that she and her family have had to endure under the reign of the Chinese Communist Party since the persecution against Falun Gong began on July 20th 1999.

"The important distinction comes from the fact that these Falun Gong practitioners went there to appeal for freedom of belief. They bravely stepped forward to clarify the truth. This was something that had never happened in all of China's history. They did not shout slogans, but just stood or sat there peacefully. I asked myself, 'What kind of inner strength helped these people to step forward?' This fact alone drove me to get to know more about Falun Dafa.

"What's more, have you ever heard about this? During the June 4th incident, they used tanks to crush the students. It was really horrifying. The Chinese Communist Party has always persecuted its own people. All these years, they have done nothing but harm people and make their lives miserable. Yet the media still cover up for them, glorify them, and claim that everything is great and glorious. They always lie. The way I see it, they won't be able to keep it up for much longer."

Since the Chinese communist regime is in power, China's labour re-education system has become a tool for the party to persecute innocent people in each political movement. A New York Times reporter interviewed some Falun Gong practitioners who were imprisoned in China's labour re-education camps. The following is an excerpt of his report entitled, "Issue in China: Many in Jails Without Trial" published on May 9th, 2005.-Ed.]

They were allowed to hang banners that read, "The great cultivation law of Falun Dafa, free instruction" and hand out introductory materials free of charge. All of these activities, including practise by groups of several hundred people, did not need the authorities' approval or permission. This open environment continued until July of 1999 when the Chinese Communist regime (CCP) officially started persecuting Falun Gong.

The former Party Secretary of our township participated in the persecution of local Falun Dafa practitioners. Through the persistent efforts of local practitioners in the past few years, he gradually realised the error in his thinking. And after he finished reading the Nine Commentaries, he realised that he had been so deeply deceived by the evil spirit of Communism that he had made a terrible mistake in his actions against Falun Dafa and those who practise Falun Dafa. He voluntarily went to the Township Committee and openly renounced his membership from the vicious CCP.

Prior to when the CCP started the persecution in 1999, we were not required to apply for a permit for any public activities. Falun Gong practitioners had the freedom to practise and promote Falun Gong to the public. Several hundred practitioners had repeatedly practised Falun Gong exercises publicly in Singapore in the past without needing a permit.

At approximately 3:00 a.m. Central time on May 2nd, 2005, the FDKansas.net web site was shut down due to a CPU over utilization spike on the hosting provider's server. This triggered an automatic shutdown by the hosting provider. When I called the hosting provider, they looked at the server log files and discovered that there were over 180 simultaneous downloads of several videos exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in China. This is a very unusual traffic pattern for this site.

The Chinese regime has spared no expense in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in and out of China, and tracking the practitioners' conversations and their locations is a vital part of that persecution. To help practitioners avoid the damage caused by their actions, we would like to disclose some of the techniques that are used, so that we may negate them in the future.

On May 5th, 2005, in a historic ruling that has produced positive responses from around the world, the Hong Kong Supreme Court overturned the convictions they had filed against Falun Gong practitioners. The Hong Kong court shares the same common law with Singapore, and this action sets a good precedent for Singapore.

When I talked with a professor who works a lot with human rights law he understood very quickly how oppressive the Communist system in China can be. He told me he was once invited to give a scholarly talk in Beijing. When he arrived there the person in charge asked him what his speech would be about. He told them it would be about human rights, and the person in charge said that he wasn't allowed to discuss that topic.

On the other hand, the CCP is very interested in brainwashing genuine practitioners in order to use them to defame Falun Gong. Teng Chunyan, a US resident, after being detained and brainwashed for three years in a Chinese prison, stated on a TV show that she really did not want to leave the prison, because the CCP officers were so "nice" and the prison was like "a paradise."

When I played the role of monitoring the practitioners, I was deeply moved by the practitioners' courage. I was constantly thinking about the same questions over and over again: Why are they so firm, even under such inconceivable torture? How can they hold their temper with so much tolerance under such indignity? No misbehaviour was observed. They continued obeying "not striking back when beaten, not swearing back when sworn at." They truly have morality, conscience, dignity, and noble actions, and they are good people.

The CCP strictly monitors the media and blocks any media that supports democracy and freedom. NTDTV has been transmitting uncensored programs around the clock to people in Mainland China and other parts of Asia via Eutelsat's W5 satellite. NTDTV opened a historic window of freedom in the sky above China.

Sixteen years ago, after the June 4th Tiananmen Square Massacre, Singapore Prime minister Lee Kuan Yew praised Deng Xiaoping after the killing of students and civilians in Beijing. Today, Singapore turns out to be the only country on earth, besides China, which detains Falun Dafa practitioners. It can be seen from these two incidents that the Singapore government is the ally of the ruthless CCP regime, a public enemy of the Chinese people, and it is against the battle of democracy and human rights in China.

Before the persecution by the Chinese Communist Party took place in 1999, Falun Gong was also welcomed in Singapore. But after 1999, the Singapore Government closely followed the Chinese Communist Parties (CCP’s) footsteps, creating hundreds of difficulties for Falun Gong. The reason is simple: if one falls, the other is in danger; fellow sufferers commiserate with each other. In 2004, Li Guangyao praised the Tiananmen Massacre on 4th June 1989 launched by Deng Xiaoping, saying that if he were at Deng’s position, he would also have killed 200,000 students.

The media in Singapore has frequently echoed the CCP's slander of Falun Gong while seldom, if ever, allowing the publication of articles defending Falun Gong. It appears that the persecution of Falun Gong was exported to Singapore from the very beginning. The witness police provided for this case is a local woman who, influenced by the media's slandering propaganda, mistakenly believed that Falun Gong is illegal in Singapore. So, when she saw Falun Gong being practised openly in public, she reported the practitioners to the police based on her "social responsibility."

It is very difficult for people who have never lived in Singapore to imagine and understand the nature of its dictatorship and autocracy. On the surface, it looks like Singapore has a democratic system and that people are granted the right to choose and vote. However, in actuality, it is a country with complete dictatorship and autocracy.

The unusual attitude of the Tianjin City government and the ruthlessness of the police made it clear that they were acting under pressure from the central government. Nevertheless, the practitioners believed that it is not wrong to be a good person according to Truth-Compassion-Forbearance; they had witnessed firsthand that Falun Dafa is good. With trust in the government and the hope of abolishing the apparent misunderstandings, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners voluntarily went to Beijing and petitioned at the State Council's Appeals Office near Zhongnanhai on April 25th, 1999.

Next we showed him a VCD that exposed many evil aspects of the persecution. After the video ended, his first statement was, "How can the CCP be so bad now? It looks like the persecution is really unjustifiable. The government should not treat you people this way." This was a huge change from his former attitude, but when we continued and talked about how the CCP has brought disaster to the world's people, he reverted to his former opinions. He said, "The CCP is very cruel and harsh. We should not go against something stronger than we are."

For more than half a century, the CCP has held political power over the Chinese people, and it is so corrupt that when people on the street argue, they say to one another, "You are as bad as the CCP." In the people's minds, the CCP is a synonym for being corrupt and evil.

The persecutors have pushed themselves to the point of no return with deception and violence. The CCP brought its experience with criticism, fighting, deception, and propaganda from the past several decades into full play in the persecution of Falun Gong. Jiang's regime has lost people's hearts worldwide. Who would trust and support a party that accuses people for what they didn't do? It's time for people to see clearly the evil nature of the CCP.

On April 25th, 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners went to the Appeals Office of the State Council, which was located in Beijing's Zhongnanhai Compound, to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong. It was the most peaceful and rational group appeal held by Chinese people since the CCP came to power. However, it was used as an excuse for the CCP to thoroughly repress and persecute Falun Gong right afterwards. To date, 1933 Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have been tortured to death during the persecution.

Some people may think, "Why should I care whether it is true or false?" In fact, it has a lot to do with each one of us. For example, there was a report by the media about "Sudan Red 1," a substance that might cause cancer. The Chinese media only started to report and investigate it after the substance was discovered in Europe and widely covered by the foreign media. The truth is that a cancer causing substance such as "Sudan Red 1" had been clearly outlawed in China more than 10 years earlier. But who knows? Did the Ministry of Health ever intervene? Did anyone ever investigate it? Did the media ever cover it?

Whenever I happen to come across some people, I seize the opportunity to clarify the facts about Falun Dafa and the persecution. It is really miraculous. Whenever I want to meet somebody, I run into him or her the next day. I know this is Master's great compassion towards disciples and sentient beings, so I make it a point to clarify the facts on all occasions, such as classmates' gatherings, weddings, visiting relatives or friends and shopping, not leaving out anyone with whom I have a predestined relationship.

The question in her mind was “Is the freedom of assembly really allowed in China?” and “Is it possible that it was merely a trap set up by the Chinese communist regime?” On the other hand, her hope was also very definite upon seeing the people on the TV screen: These people were very peaceful, indicating that they had rationality. Trying to reflect their opinions to the government illustrated their intention to participate in decision-making for their own future.

Over the six years of persecution, we do not know how many practitioners were actually subjected to imposed penance against their will. Nonetheless, looking at the two-hundred-thousand-plus solemn declarations, and the recent drastic increase in the average daily number of people making declarations, we wonder how many kind-hearted people were tormented by this brutal persecution.

In discussions about atheism and theism, the atheists often tend to believe that they are more realistic, and thus they feel their perspective is more justified. After all, theistic views cannot be concretely seen or touched. Atheism and theism seem to be incompatible, like fire and water. However, there are some interesting phenomena when we investigate atheism and theism from a broader or world outlook.

Some Falun Gong practitioners went to clarify the facts of Falun Gong to the magazine publisher. Thus the Tientsin incident happened in which the police beat and detained the practitioners for no reason. When being informed of the news, I felt obliged to appeal at the Appeals Office of the State Council in the hope of telling the authorities the facts, asking for an immediate release of the detained practitioners, and requesting normal and interruption-free circumstances to practise cultivation. Our appeal involved no appeal for political power.

The background of the "April 25" event is that some official branches of government had interfered with the Falun Gong practitioners' legal cultivation environment. Falun Gong books were forbidden to be published, and the news media defamed Falun Gong. The police had already started to arrest and beat Falun Gong practitioners. In China, how should these victims react to injustice? What normal people do is clarify the truth to higher government branches, hoping the problem can be solved rationally.

When Falun Gong practitioners sued the ringleader of this persecution in order to stop it, someone blamed them of being "involved in politics." For example, if a government official murdered your family member and you tried to disclose the crimes of that official or file a lawsuit against him, would you be "involved in politics?" When did "politics" become an excuse for persecution and murder? Is politics that terrible? Doesn't Chinese law provide citizens the privilege of participating in politics? How could exercising one's rights be committing a crime?

After talking to many Chinese people in the U.K, many say that the CCP has improved the economy and people’s standard of living and so the CCP is therefore good. However, what they don’t consider is that although improving the economy is a good thing, when it is at the expense of people’s lives, where human rights are flagrantly abused, it is like covering a rotten apple with sugar to make it taste better – and in no time the rotten part spreads and can not be sweetened.

Later, he passed on the Nine Commentaries to many other fellow teachers to read. He was also the Branch Party Secretary and recently turned in his letter of resignation to the school authority so he could resign from his Branch Party Secretary position. People did not understand why he had to do this, so he explained, "Since I have already learnt and understood the nature of the CCP to be completely evil, I should quit so that I will not be implicated because of the evil CCP."

In the fabricated lies and slanders used in persecuting Falun Gong, the CCP focused on demonising Falun Gong's belief in gods. They have suppressed upright religions and ways' beliefs in gods. The CCP propaganda talked extensively about the adverse effect of ignorant and backward "superstition," as well as "witches and sorcerers," which have no relationship with Falun Gong. This is absolutely not the real underlying connotation of "belief in gods."

He added that through the five years of persecution that he had witnessed, all of the arrested practitioners had been good people who observed public order, abided by the law and worked hard without complaint or desire for personal gain or fame. However, the authorities jailed these good people for persecution in labour camps, detention centres, psychiatric hospitals and brainwashing centres. So many corrupt officials, including the plant managers had divided and weakened society by making so many workers lose their jobs, only to face hunger and the lack of means to pay for medical care or their children's schooling.

If you have read the Chinese classic novel "Journey to the West," you no doubt loved the stories of how Sun Kong eliminated demons. Do you remember the story about the Wuji Kingdom? A demon killed the king of the Wuji Kingdom and disguised himself as the king. Sun Kong saw through his trick with his sharp eyes. However, the demon had deceived the people so much that even the prince wouldn't believe Sun Kong.

"I'd like to ask you the following question. If, upon death, I find that God does not exist whatsoever, that Jesus is not the son of God, and that what is said in the Bible is not true, what loss do I suffer if I believed in Jesus for my whole life?" The scholar who advocated atheism thought about her question for quite a while. The whole audience kept quiet. They agreed with the woman's reasoning. Even the atheist scholar was amazed by the pure and simple logic in the woman's question. He replied in a low voice, "I don't think you'll suffer any loss."

What Jiang is most afraid of is that the foreign governments and their righteous officials will stand up to oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. Therefore, Jiang has ordered the Chinese Embassies and Consulates to exhaust their efforts to promote slanderous propaganda and apply diplomatic and economic pressure to the different levels of foreign government officials.

I will never forget the evening of July 20th 1999. My heart sunk when I heard that the CCP's Jiang regime was conducting massive, nationwide arrests of volunteer Falun Gong contact people. Although I was in the U.S. at the time, I could almost feel the air thickening, as I had flashbacks of the time when I grew up under the CCP's rule of terror. Six years have passed. After witnessing the battle between the upright and the evil, when I again heard that the evil CCP is conducting the largest arrest and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners since July 20th 1999, I had totally different feelings.

On April the 8th, the Municipal Public Security Department in Benxi City, Liaoning Province took away Jiang Renzheng, a Falun Gong practitioner, who has just returned from Germany to China. On April 9th, they detained him in a labour camp in Benxi city and was immediately sentenced to three years forced labour education without any legal procedure. Even more ridiculous was the reason for his forced labour education: he was suspected of having an association with the Falun Gong organisation and accused of destabilising social order and violating the national order.

Persecution is always built on lies. In 64 AD, the Roman emperor Nero set in motion a large-scale persecution of Christians. Rome was set on fire and Christians were blamed for it. From 1938 to 1945, Hitler perpetrated genocide against the Jews, espousing a theory that they were an inferior human race. It sounds absurd today, but for many people at the time, it seemed to provide enough grounds for the persecution. Because many people believed the carefully fabricated lies, those who opposed the persecution were silenced by force.

I saw on TV that Liu Siyin was covered by a sheet and lying in bed when the reporter, wearing street clothes, went into the room. Immediately I thought to myself, "Why is Liu Siyin covered with a sheet? Why isn't the reporter wearing special clothes and a disinfected respirator? Why is this being broadcast all over China and to the rest of the world? If Liu Siyin had windpipe surgery, how can she talk just four days after the surgery? Her voice is clear when she sings. Isn't this all just acting?"

The following are remarks given by Sherrie Gossett on April 12th, 2005 at a forum at the NY Press Club. The topic was French satellite provider Eutelsat's decision to terminate independent Chinese language TV station NTDTV's broadcast into China, following lucrative business contracts with China. Also discussed was the broader pattern of information control by Beijing.

Their attempts to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners have failed. Also, despite their research on the criminal mind over the past 25 years, they have been unable to fundamentally change the criminals' ways of thinking. In contrast, after the criminals were exposed to Falun Gong practitioners for several years, they abandoned their criminal thoughts and began to follow the good examples of the practitioners. They began doing good deeds and indeed have become good people, learning to practise Falun Gong from the inner most part of their hearts.