Le Courier, Geneva: Falun Gong--35 Westerners Defy Beijing

(Clearwisdom.net)

Four Swiss took part in a demonstration on Tiananmen Square to draw attention to the tens of thousands of victims of Chinese repression. They were promptly taken into custody.

It is 2 p.m. on Tuesday on Tiananmen Square. Four young men from Zurich, Richard, Sylvain, Victor and Daniel, their hearts beating hard, slip in among the numerous casual strollers -- as tourists. They join some thirty other Westerners. Suddenly, the group sits down in lotus position, while some of them hastily unfold a yellow banner on which they have painted the words "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." These three words, the basic principles of Falun Gong, mean arrest, torture or death for any Chinese who openly follow this qigong practice, which has now spread to 40 countries, but is prohibited in its country of origin.

"Within 30 seconds the police arrived," says the German journalist, Kai Streitmatter, who witnessed the scene. "They beat the demonstrators and threw them on the ground, but they were less brutal than they usually are with Chinese practitioners. They were pushed into five or six police vans." A Canadian managed to escape and ran round the square yelling in Chinese, "Listen, outside China the whole world knows Falun Gong is good!" He was overpowered, beaten up and taken into custody. The whole thing lasted barely five minutes. Four foreign journalists were also arrested, but after their equipment was confiscated, they were released. This is the first time that foreigners have demonstrated in China on behalf of Falun Gong. They included eight other nationalities: German, Swedish, French, American, Canadian, Israeli, British, Australian and Spanish. Victor Fernandez, aged 28, a salesman in a Zurich dietetics shop, is from Spain. His three Swiss companions are Silvan Fedier, aged 28, a social assistant working with the disabled, Richard Kleinert, aged 31, a security guard, and Daniel Ulrich, aged 28, an employee in the management of his father's restaurant. According to the Swiss Mission in Beijing, joint action to resolve the situation is being initiated with the embassies of the other countries concerned. On Tuesday evening, the Federal authorities were waiting to hear if the demonstrators, who were being held near the airport according to Chinese radio, would be expelled or kept in custody. "In that case, the embassy will request visiting rights," said a Foreign Affairs spokesperson.

What made these Westerners drop their jobs and their families to go and confront the Chinese police, whose reputation freezes the blood of the Chinese? The four from Zurich explained their action on a diskette they sent to friends. More than two years of attempts by numerous Governments and humanitarian organizations have had no effect on China. The massive persecution of Falun Gong has even worsened since the attacks of 11 September monopolized international attention: 311 proven deaths (probably 1,000), 50,000 persons held in gulags, 1,000 in mental institutions, thousands of rapes and sadistic torture ... in all, 70 million practitioners risk being denounced, being fined, losing their jobs, their homes, their family life or their freedom.

"In contrast to the slanderous Chinese propaganda, we have experienced something very good, something very righteous in our practice of Falun Gong," says their written testimony. "Truthfulness, compassion and tolerance are values our world of violence and terror sorely needs (...). They bring peace and harmony. It is with this peace in their hearts that the Chinese practitioners face up to State repression." They do not return blows or insults; they exemplify absolute non-violence in the eyes of the demonstrators, whose request is that China should end all persecution and release all detainees.

"At a time when the world is mobilizing against terrorism, we want to demonstrate clearly our determination to resist the State terrorism China practises on its own citizens. (...) We have come here to Beijing to appeal on behalf of the tens of thousands of innocent persons tortured by their Government," says another Western demonstrator in a verbal statement which can be found on the faluninfo.net site. The protesters say that China has nothing to fear from this method which has not given rise to any complaints in the dozens of countries where it is practised, including Taiwan. They define themselves as "good people" from all walks of life: company director, student, mother, doctor, employee, nuclear engineer ...

So what is the reason for the repression wielded against workers, peasants, intellectuals, artists, elderly persons or housewives? The Chinese XX Party has apparently taken fright at the numbers of persons practising the method, introduced in 1992 by Qigong ("energy exercises") Master Li Hongzhi and adopted by tens of millions of Chinese in a period of less than seven years. To begin with, Falun Gong was given encouragement and attracted official distinction for its positive effects on "the health of the masses." But although its founder, now an exile in the United States, has enjoined his disciples not to become involved in politics, some of the Chinese leadership felt threatened. It seems that the hardliners around President Jiang Zemin, and Luo Gan, the architects of the repression, have been using Falun Gong since July 1999 as a scapegoat to channel social discontent and weld the Party together again. It has been labelled a "heretical and dangerous [slanderous word from Jiang's regime omitted]" which spreads superstition and fosters the rejection of medical treatment and promotes suicide. In order to refute these accusations, thousands of practitioners began going to Beijing on a daily basis to "appeal" -- a normal practice for citizens who consider their rights have been infringed. And despite all the risks, they continue to go.

A provocation?

In Geneva, the Swiss Falun Gong Association hastily improvised a press conference, also attended by the Geneva national counsellor, the ecologist Patrice Mugny. He said that he was impressed by the courage of the young demonstrators. Was it a provocation? "There's nothing pejorative about provocation in this case, when it is a question of asserting the right to spiritual expression -- this is a legitimate right both in Switzerland and in China."

The Association has made it clear, however, that it had no part in the preparations for the action taken, nor had it even been informed. "Falun Gong is not an organization, there are no chiefs and no hierarchy for planning operations. Each individual acts according to his conscience in the light of his understanding of the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. In this particular case they must just have agreed informally," explained Geneva practitioners Marianne Grangier and Lee Kyeja. The Association also informed various international human rights organizations in order to support its efforts to have all the practitioners arrested in Beijing released.

Will this matter lead to a crisis between Bern and Beijing? A delegation from Switzerland, led by Ambassador Peter Maurer, will be going to China in January; as regards human rights, China is Switzerland's priority country. "The incident should not compromise the dialogue Switzerland has initiated with Beijing in this area; it was a private action not involving Switzerland. Naturally, we have to look after our nationals if they are being held prisoner," comments Simon Ammann, of the Foreign Affairs Human Rights Office.

A movement not easily categorized

Lao Tzu said: "When a wise man hears of the Way (Tao), he will practise it diligently. An average person practises it from time to time. An ordinary person breaks into loud laughter. If he did not laugh, the Way would no longer be the Way." This is something the founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi, likes to quote. Can the very virulent controversy surrounding his teaching be proving him right? It is true that Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, disconcerts some specialists. It is presented as a fundamentally Buddhist and Taoist method, but without any religious form. It was transmitted secretly from master to disciple for thousands of years, but was made accessible to the public at large and adapted to the entire world by Li Hongzhi, aged 50, the son of two doctors from the Changchun region, who asserts that, from the age of 4 onwards, he received the teaching of more than 20 Masters.

The method is concerned with physical, mental and spiritual well-being. It comprises five exercises for unblocking the meridians, purifying the body and increasing concentration. They can be practised at home on one's own or in a group, as one pleases. A practitioner also "cultivates" his moral qualities in the various tests of daily life, as a means of paying back the karma accumulated as a result of misconduct in past lives. These principles are simply explained in the books Falun Gong (published by Favre) and Zhuan Falun (published by Trédaniel). The method gradually transforms the individual and spontaneously strips away his bad habits (alcohol, smoking, drugs, violence, selfishness, fear ... ). The practice sets in motion the Falun (Wheel of the Law) in the lower abdomen, a sort of inner energy field that puts the body back to rights. The goal is not the elimination of disease (according to the practitioners, that does not work if one thinks about it too much), but the raising of awareness in order to attain illumination and "return to one's origins" (rediscover one's true self), guided by three principles: Zhen (truthfulness, authenticity), Shan (compassion, benevolence) and Ren (forbearance, tolerance, endurance). Even without necessarily any reference to spectacular "cures," all practitioners say they definitely have better relations with themselves, their families and their working environment.

In France, Falun Gong is not considered to be a cult, as Alain Vivien, Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Anti-Cult Mission (MILS) has recently confirmed. "The movement has never committed an offence or been the subject of a complaint," he adds. In Switzerland, the specialist Jena-Fran ois Mayer takes the same attitude, and considers that the word "cult" has an ostracizing effect. Li Hongzhi's theories, however, can sometimes be mysterious. In Geneva, Dr. Qi Baoping, a Chinese practitioner, explains that in cultural terms these principles may be difficult for people in the West to understand, "but how can you judge if you have not read and tried the practice? The fundamental message is one of peace and compassion and no pressure is put on practitioners -- they are not monitored, asked for donations or put under any obligation." Indeed, the several hundred Swiss practitioners do not even know how many of them there actually are!