Today, on July 6th, Practitioners in Spain sent forth righteous thoughts in front of the Chinese Embassy and also passed out information to urgently inform the public about the rising number of practitioners being murdered in prison by the Chinese authorities. Before proceeding, they politely informed the Spanish State Department of their activity in front of the Chinese Embassy because of past interference by the Chinese consular officials when they went to the Canary Islands during Jiang Zemin's visit (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/4/26/6741.html). The Spanish officials were very positive and also informed us that we were allowed to conduct these activities without needing to obtain any permit. They requested that we keep them informed of our activities so they could insure our safety and monitor any interference by the Chinese authorities.
We arrived at the Chinese Embassy in the late afternoon and began to set up our mats and small hand-held signs. There were many people on the street enjoying the lower temperatures. We smiled and waved to some Chinese people going in to the embassy and they waved back, to our surprise. Shortly after we arrived, we proceeded to send forth righteous thoughts for the usual period of time. Just before we began, we noticed several people from inside the embassy watching us through the blinds covering the windows. After sending forth righteous thoughts, some of us practiced the standing exercises and a couple of practitioners handed out the SOS information to the cars and people passing by. At this time, two men came out of the embassy and stood a few feet away, trying to take close-up photos of us. We had already prepared a camera to take photos in this case. One Western practitioner went up to each man and gave him a packet of Chinese information containing several pieces of information about the persecution. Both men took the information and one asked for information in Spanish as well.
After sending forth righteous thoughts for the second time, we noticed that a group of about six Chinese officials had come out to stand on the corner to watch us. As was expected the Spanish police soon arrived on the opposite corner, watching us meditate. A couple of Chinese officials began talking to them very seriously and we could see, from our position in the island in the middle of the street in front of the embassy, that the police were looking very unconcerned and making hand motions like they were not going to do anything about us. Maybe it was out of frustration, but the Chinese officials, clearly unhappy about the lack of interest by the Spanish police, gave them a package of materials slandering Dafa. The Spanish police looked at it briefly and then threw it into the back of the police car like it was some leftover rubbish. Then the Chinese officials gave them our Spanish Dafa materials containing the SOS flyer explaining the persecution. The police seemed very interested and read this flyer very carefully. They did not throw it away.
A little while later, a couple of different people came again to attempt to take our picture. One was in a car, but after we took his license plate and snapped his picture, he drove away. We had some big color posters of the victims of the persecution such as Zhao Xin and Ren Pengwu as well as others. This time when the officials tried to take our pictures we held up the photos of the victims. This was a very righteous thought and immediately upon seeing these photos, the group of Chinese officials turned from us and ran into the embassy and stayed there.
At the end of our activity we went over to thank the police and give them some more materials. They expressed that they were merely there to ensure our safety and told us that our activities in front of the embassy were legal and we could continue to do them. We will continue to take advantage of all opportunities to clarify the truth and inform the public about the terrible crimes being committed against Dafa practitioners in China.