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The Truth Behind China’s Most Terrible Persecution
The peaceful Chinese spiritual discipline Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, has been severely oppressed in its homeland for over 15 years.
Adherents of Falun Gong practice meditative exercises and live according to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. With its health benefits and moral teachings, Falun Gong is practiced by tens of millions of people and is welcome in countries around the world.
The Chinese Communist Party, however, is another story. The Party is carrying out the worst persecution in Chinese history, in which it has harassed, imprisoned, tortured, and killed thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have not committed crimes nor undergone a trial.
According to human rights website Minghui.org, there are four main reasons for the persecution. One is that the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance are the opposite of the Party’s ideology of deceit, violence, and struggle.
An estimated 1 in 12 people in China were practicing Falun Gong in 1999 when the persecution began. The Party did not appreciate the idea of so many people trying to be honest and kind instead of following the Party’s doctrines.
Another reason is that communism typically maintains power by choosing a new group of people to persecute every so often. This maintains a climate of fear in the country and keeps citizens under control.
The other two reasons, according to Minghui.org, are that then-Party leader Jiang Zemin was jealous of Falun Gong’s enormous popularity, and that he was afraid its popularity might be a threat to his power.
The persecution and the reasons behind it are not flattering to the Party, so Party officials have tried to justify the persecution by spreading deceitful propaganda against Falun Gong.
For example, they hired actors to pose as Falun Gong practitioners and staged a public “self-immolation” that was widely reported in the news throughout China. To this day, some Chinese still believe Falun Gong practitioners actually set themselves on fire.
In fact, the teachings of Falun Gong prohibit violence and suicide. The news video was quickly found to be a hoax and thoroughly debunked in an award-winning documentary called “False Fire.”
For more than 15 years, Falun Gong practitioners have responded to the persecution by peacefully raising awareness of it in China and worldwide. Governments and people around the world now support and acclaim Falun Gong and demand an end to the persecution.
Sources: http://en.minghui.org/cc/3/
http://www.falsefire.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGN4yTtXe1I
