[Minghui Net] The People's Court in Fengtai District, Beijing just sentenced Han Xue and a large number of other Dafa disciples to 3-10 years in prison. The major charge was that they had held a press conference for foreign reporters and expressed opinions criticizing China. In actuality the so-called press conference did not exist at all. At the time of the alleged press conference they were having dinner together. However, the majority of them did not know that a friend of one of them was an AP reporter. They were very surprised at learning from Clearwisdom.net that the story of their dinner was in American newspapers. Before the arrest, Han Xue recalled, "If we had known that a reporter was present, our conversation would not have been very natural and that news report would not be that objective." Can it be called a press conference just for having one reporter present? Moreover, the parties concerned did not even know that fact. To put it frankly, having dinner and talking in a restaurant in Beijing became a major criminal charge against those Chinese citizens just because they were Dafa disciples. How unjust this is! The Chinese Dafa disciples not only do not have the freedom to express their opinions in Chinese newspapers, but also it becomes a crime to accidentally appear in foreign newspapers! Furthermore, these sentences are even heavier than those wrongfully waged against Beijing disciples after they held a genuine press conference in Beijing in 1999. So it is clear that the Chinese government and judicial organs do not have any legal basis at all when they sentence Falun Gong disciples. Instead, the sentence is totally up to the whim of those in power. Moreover, those many people involved were sentenced in a single day. You can imagine how unjust the judicial process is!
As to the news report, the length is short and the language is plain. The two examples given in the article are completely real. In addition, the description of these two disciples' experiences is far less than what they have actually experienced. However, this is only a little bit of the experience out of so many disciples in China. This article does not even mention the persecution that Dafa disciples receive in jail. In fact, the female disciple mentioned in that article had already been captured 8 times, and one time a policeman struck her waist. Moreover, as she was escorted home, she was only allowed to eat leftovers with handcuffs still on and only after local policemen and the policemen who accompanied her had finished dinner. When a local policeman saw her eating only one course, he asked her whether it was her favorite. She said, "No. It's a pity that you wasted so much. I'll finish this one so that you can take the rest with you." This policeman was deeply moved by the Dafa disciple's spirit of being thrifty even under severe situations.
When he knew that this disciple has learnt the Fa for only two years, he said admirably, "You are so good just within two years. Your Teacher must be great!" At present, such a great Fa is being slandered and so many good people are being persecuted in China. That reporter would be really shocked if he knew that his objective and plain report was used as evidence to convict people to sentences as heavy as 18 years.
The wicked people who are persecuting Falun Gong in China do not even dare to let the world know that little bit of truth. Take a step back and ask, is there anything wrong with having a peaceful press conference and with expressing opinions criticizing Jiang Zemin's persecution of Falun Gong? Isn't the freedom of speech protected by the Chinese Constitution?
A Practitioner in China
March 5, 2001
The news report can be found at http://www.clearwisdom.net/eng/2000/Oct/27/NMR102700_3.html
