Sunday October 20th

It is 6:40 in the morning and I'm sitting with a threat to the People's Republic of China, named Michael in a makeshift lean-to nestled up against the mansions of Shaughnessy.

Frank, another big threat to the Chinese state, is here too.

To one side of the lean-to there is a hand-painted sign that reads "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance."

Falun Gong consists of five simple exercises and some meditation. It's supposed to help you get tuned into the universe.

Michael and Frank have been helping to man this rageddy out-post, this threat to China, 24 hours a day for the past two months. They're protesting the Chinese government's repression of Falun Gong.

Frank has spent five entire nights here. Frank says that Falun Gong is not an organization, not a religion, there are no donations, they have no office.

What they do have, Frank says gently, is this "most beautiful" philosophy of truth compassion and forbearance.

Michael, a student has been here every night since October 1. He says he won't stop his protest until the persecution of Falun Gong's followers in China stops.

When it's cold at night, he gets cold. When it rains, sometimes he gets wet. But, he says, "Compared to how the practitioners are brutally treated in China, this is nothing."

Just behind and above us, they are building a new Chinese consulate. It'll be done in a year.

Knowing that Michael and Frank are out here, with all this truth and compassion and tolerance, I'm sure they are reinforcing the walls.

The idea of a government becoming threatened by a practice exercise regime and declaring war on it would work great as a chapter of Gulliver's Travel, or as a blackly absurd Terry Southern novel or a lost Kubrick movie from his Dr. Strangelove period.

It would work great as satire.

As a reality it's horrendous.

Falun Gong means Great Way of Law Wheel and was introduced by an office worker named Li Hongzhi at a health expo in Beijing in 1992. It won an award there and so did Li.

Li spent the next two years teaching Falun Gong to 20,000 people at symposiums throughout China. It took off like gang-busters.

By 1998, the exercise and meditation practice had according to a Chinese government survey, more than 70 million followers.

Parks filled with people doing their five simple exercises and meditation.

But somewhere along the line, Falun Gong went from being praised and given awards by the Chinese government to being branded an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted].

Exactly why President Jiang Zemin outlawed Falun Gong in 1999 remains a mystery.

Maybe it was because there were now more practitioners of the exercises [...] than members of the Chinese [party's name omitted] Party.

Maybe Jiang is persecuting the followers of Falun Gong for the same reason Mao persecuted intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution - to consolidate his power and keep rivals off balance. Or maybe Jiang is just a jazzercise person.

But now, if anyone holds up a sign that says: "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance" in Tiananmen Square, they are tackled and hustled off to jail.

There is another ongoing protest further down Granville. In front of where the Chinese consulate is holed up while their new headquarters are being built. This protest is of the business-hours variety. It's been going since March.

It's noon now and there are six people on the sidewalk here. Some are doing Falun Gong exercises, others handing out literature.

"What struck me was the purity of it." Sophia says of Falun Gong. "It is apolitical. They didn't ask for money. They didn't even ask my name."

Sophia was in Geneva in April with 500 other Falun Gong practitioners asking the UN Human Rights commission to censure China for its repression of Falun Gong.

Since ' 99 Jiang's government has sent thousands to prisons and labor camps and mental hospitals for practicing Falun Gong. In July, Amnesty International reported that more than two hundred practitioners of Falun Gong had died while in government custody. Faluninfo.net says that number now exceeds 300.

In Geneva, China was able to duck any censure.

The 500 Falun Gong practitioners there ended up sitting on a hillside holding candles in silent vigil.

Evening now, back at the protest lean-to. Twenty five people are line up along the side-walk facing the street. Most are middle-aged women. They are holding umbrellas and candles..

[...]

But I've decided to go down tonight and spend some time sitting at the makeshift lean-to in front of where they're building the new Chinese consulate.

I might get cold and I might get a little wet.

But Michael's right. Compared with what's happening in China, that's nothing.