Tampa Bay Editorial: Tormenting the Falun Gong

You might see them exercising together in the park. They are old and young, man and women, quietly doing their Falun Gong stretches and meditation

Among them in the Central Florida area could be lawyer David Lee of St. Petersburg or Elly Xu, owner of a small business in Orlando. They may appear at peace, but they are deeply troubled by a bloody campaign to eradicate the Falun Gong faith in mainland China.

A blend of exercise and mysticism, the practice promotes truth, compassion and tolerance as a path toward personal improvement.

Practitioners say it is compatible with all religions, has no politics and doesn't even collect dues.

Mounting Persecution In China

Still, China considers it a dangerous [slanderous term omitted] and has declared war against it after discovering Falun Gong had more followers than the XX [party name omitted] Party

The communists' paranoia has even crossed the Pacific. Local Falun Gong members say China has tapped their telephones here in Florida, sent spies to their homes and emailed viruses to their computers.

But beyond these few alarming incidents of harassment, the community of about 20,000 followers of Falun Gong in this area enjoys the same religious freedom that applies to Americans. Their main concern is for what is happening to their fellow practitioners in China.

More than 250 Falun Gong followers have died in police custody and some 50,000 are believed to be held in work camps, prisons and mental hospitals. The Chinese government says that the number held is much smaller and that "if they can correct their attitude, they can go home."

What the Communists require is a signed pledge renouncing the practice of Falun Gong. What unsettles the one party state is that so many refuse to renounce the faith, even though their jailers starve them, break their bones and drive nails through their toes.

"After a year and a half of difficulties in suppressing the movement, the government for the first time this year sanctioned the systematic use of violence against the group," The Washington Post reports.

The violence includes tortures comparable with the darkest moments in history's heartless dungeons. More than a few don't survive the techniques of persecution that include unspeakable sexual abuse and electric shock.

"'The killing of Falun Gong members is not government policy," said a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy, who added that Americans must respect the right of the Chinese people to eliminate an evil influence in their midst. [editor's highlights]

What the Chinese government says it doesn't like about this practice is that followers embrace beliefs contrary to science, including super abilities to heal themselves without medicine.

What the Chinese really fear, say Lee and Xu, is that so many Chinese have found something more important to them than Communist ideology.

A government is well-defined by what it cannot abide. For the Communist Chinese, it is the quest for tolerance, compassion and truth.