Undeterred Faith

After having demonstrated on Tiananmen Square for Falun Gong, two western practitioners from the Boston area, Riordon Galuccio and Maria Salzman, arrived in Logan Airport on the morning of February 16 and met a big welcoming crowd of 50 fellow practitioners and reporters from CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX.

When they were asked what they tried to achieve for the trip, Mr. Galuccio said, "Over the past two years several people in the ruling government incited the hatred of the Chinese people toward Falun Gong. Their lies were everywhere. They fabricated the self-immolation incident to deceive people. The people who are deceived by the slanderous propaganda do not know the truth and do not know about the brutal persecution. Chinese Falun Gong practitioners are suffering on a daily basis. We went to Tiananmen Square just to let the Chinese people know that Falun Dafa is good and is welcomed all over the world. In the meantime, we hope to help end the torture and killing of innocent people."

Mr. Galuccio shared his experiences on Tiananmen Square. On Thursday morning he came to the square, unfurled a yellow banner and shouted, "Falun Dafa Hao!" Several policemen rushed toward him, kicking and punching him. He was pushed into a police van and illegally detained for 30 hours without food or drink. "If you did not experience it firsthand, you can't imagine how horrible the environment is," Mr. Galuccio added.

Ms. Salzman's experience was slightly different. She visited Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Beijing. Everywhere she went, she distributed Falun Gong pamphlets and was welcomed by the local people. They were moved by the courage she showed by coming to China alone from the US to disclose Jiang regime's lies and tell people the principle of Falun Gong -- "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance." Many of people Ms. Salzman met have never heard of the relationship between Falun Gong and Zhen-Shan-Ren. They expressed a desire to read Master Li's Zhuan Falun if they got the opportunity. Her last stop was Beijing. She was arrested on February 14 on the way to Tiananmen Square. During the time she was detained, she refused all orders from police and pointed out sternly, "Zhen-Shan-Ren will not compromise with evil."

When asked whether they would go to China again, both of them expressed that if there is an opportunity they definitely will go and spread Zhen-Shan-Ren all over China so that all deceived Chinese people will know the truth.