World Daily: Golden Mountain Forum Salutes Falun Gong Practitioners

[Minghui Net] Where there is oppression there is resistance. It has been like this since ancient times. As the Chinese Communist Party's brutal suppression of Falun Gong has become increasingly intense and comprehensive, even escalating to the point of bloody persecution, Falun Gong practitioners' unyielding resistance has also stiffened and become more resolute. Meanwhile, Falun Gong has grown steadily around the entire world. The voices of support and sympathy for Falun Gong, both from ordinary citizens and from powerful democratic governments, have increased both in number and in volume. Particularly worth mentioning is that when five people set fire to themselves at Tiananmen Square on the Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve, newly elected United States President Bush severely condemned the Chinese Communist Party's suppression of Falun Gong. Without properly investigating or verifying the facts, the Chinese Communist Party quickly unified their statements, so that all voices speaking for the government both at home and abroad would brand these people as Falun Gong practitioners. The party line was that the five people set themselves on fire as a result of being "abetted by their teacher and confused by Falun Gong's supposed belief in 'consummation and ascension.'" Several days later, the number of people involved was unexpectedly raised to seven. Falun Gong spokesmen firmly denied that any true practitioners would have been involved in such an event, and accused the government of hatching a conspiracy designed to launch an even greater persecution of its members. In fact, the Chinese government has been notorious for doing such things for a long time. China's recent history is replete with untold thousands of phony and unjust cases, much like this one, that were used to advance the government's brutal agenda in various "political campaigns". These five people were definitely not true Falun Gong practitioners, but even if they had been, the Chinese Communist Party would still be to blame, not Falun Gong. This exceptional "self-immolation" incident occurred only because the Chinese Communist Party has consistently carried out criminal policies of brutally persecuting dissidents. In this world, there are evil cults that spread fallacies to deceive people and induce their followers to commit group suicide or self-immolation. Such things do exist. However, there is absolutely nothing like these teachings in Falun Gong. We certainly cannot exclude the possibility that the increasingly brutal and illegal suppression of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party so grievously affected a few members that they sacrificed their own or even their family members' lives to protest to the Chinese Communist Party in a most dramatic fashion. In like manner, on the eve of the murderous July 4^th, 1989 incident in Tiananmen Square, several students demonstrated their great desperation by starving themselves to death. Recently, two anti-nuclear advocates in Taiwan tried to immolate themselves to express their strong objection to the construction of a nuclear power plant. It is possible that a few individuals commit desperate acts out of their own free will. Then, how can the group be accused of aiding and abetting these activities? If the Chinese Communist Party plans to use this incident as an excuse to further extend its persecution of Falun Gong to Hong Kong or Macao, this will be an even greater crime. As an atheist, I have never been involved with any religion, yet I respect all religious beliefs. I salute Falun Gong practitioners in order to express my support of justice. However, the justice of Falun Gong lies in the fact that its members deal with this extremely brutal and bloody suppression with non-violent resistance. Their resistance is so righteous, peaceful, rational and calm, that it compares favorably with the "passive resistance" promoted years ago by Gandhi in India. Therefore, I should further respect them! Meanwhile, this resistance will continue and become even more intense because that person, who is most incapable, yet is being called "the last important Communist Party dictator in the world" said, " I, with a weight of 90 kg, will not be influenced, no matter what intense storm Falun Gong causes." What he means is that he will never realize his error of brutally suppressing Falun Gong and its practitioners, even until death. Therefore, I'll further salute Falun Gong practitioners! After all, I believe that evil cannot overcome righteousness.