Tuesday, March 12, 2002

Fellow intellectuals in China,

We are students and professors from 60 universities in the US and we are also Falun Gong practitioners. According to news being disseminated unceasingly from China, the world has witnessed a series of major tragedies happening in a row. Countless Falun Gong practitioners face emergency, life or death situations. With regard to this, we are making this strong appeal to you.

In China, millions of ordinary citizens, some of whom might include your relatives, friends and classmates are being mercilessly deprived of their basic human rights, just because of the pursuit of their faith and wonderful vision, or simply because they wanted to attain a healthy body. If Falun Gong practitioners persist in upholding their beliefs, they are expelled from Party membership, fired from their jobs, expelled from school, and fined. In addition, their homes are ransacked. Many are thrown into prisons, shocked with electric batons, put through inhumane punishment and cruelly tormented. Among these people are gray-haired, elderly professors, retired Hong Wei soldiers (participants in the Cultural Revolution), and students and teachers of institutes of higher education. Even pregnant women and young children are not spared. This insane persecution has also swept through the intellectual world. Nearly every day nationwide, students, teachers, and executives are being arrested, detained and sentenced.

Zhao Xing, a female lecturer from Beijing Industrial University was arrested because of practicing (Falun Gong) exercises in a local park on June 19 2000. She was severely beaten up, resulting in her spine being crushed and bones being broken. After enduring tremendous agony for half a year, she died. She was only 32 years old.

Yuan Jiang, a top student from the computer science department in Qinghua University was once, after graduation, the assistant General Manager of a telecommunication technical engineering company under Lan Province's state Telecom. On August 30, 2001 he was arrested near Gansu Dunhuang. For two months, the Gansu state police carried out cruel punishment and flogging. Although he miraculously escaped, because he had been on a hunger strike for a long period of time in addition to sustaining serious injuries, he died on the Nov 9, at the age of merely 29.

Zhao Ming, a computer science post graduate student at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, was once a student of Qinghua University and the Head of the Department of the computer Internet Centre of the Ziguan conglomerate at Qinghua University. In 1999, he went back to China to appeal and was persecuted, flogged and detained in Beijing's Daxing district Tuanhe labour camp. As he refused to be brainwashed, his detention sentence was illegally extended for another ten months.

Shanghai Huadong University lecturer Li Bai Fan, because of his persistence in cultivation after July 1999, was detained at Jiangsu Dafeng Farm for two years. In late April 2001, due to his refusal to be reformed by the evil forces, he was pushed from a high rise building in Qingpu by the police, resulting in his death. The authorities claimed that he had committed suicide.

Huazhong Demo Technical University Computer Science Master degree student Li Changjun, was illegally detained by Wuhan police on May 16 2001. He underwent inhuman torture and persecution and went on a hunger strike in protest. After more than 40 days of torment and torture, he died on June 27. His relatives saw his remains. Skinny as a skeleton, his cheeks were bruised, his neck was blue-black, his fists were clenched, his mouth was deformed, and his back seemed to have been scalded. The sight was too terrible for one to see.

There are many more such cases of people, because of their faith, being persecuted to death or being badly injured as illustrated above.

What serious sins have these people committed, resulting in them having to suffer such bloody persecution? Why should the masses, who have a steadfast faith in "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance," suffer such cruel torment and killing?

One after another, these talented students, honest and benevolent good people have been tortured to death. Our grief is beyond the expression of words.

Falun Gong started spreading in China in 1992, attracting tens of millions of people in China within seven years. After 1999 it even spread to 50 countries worldwide. The books on Falun Gong have been translated into over 30 languages. Shouldn't we give some serious deep thought to such a phenomena?

Currently in China, social problems appear one after another. Public security is declining, disasters are taking place and people are not leading good lives. Instead of putting effort into combating political corruption, making the economy prosperous and stabilizing people's livelihoods, Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan and their gang are using up the country's resources to harm ordinary citizens who are practitioners. Jiang Zemin even secretly passed down the order to "Beat practitioners to death. If they are beaten to death it will be considered as suicide" (This is what the police told practitioners in various labor camps)

Taking an overview of China's past 50 years of history, in which instance was the target to be gotten rid of not condemned as a public enemy at the time? Were there not instances when persecuted people were freed of blame later on? Thousands of years later, history will judge for itself the rights and wrongs.

One after another, young intellectuals have lost their lives just because they spoke the truth out of their hearts or just because they persisted in their belief. There was no violence nor were they vengeful. Fellow countrymen, many of us have tasted the hardship of the "right wing of thought" and been looked down upon as intellectuals. We have deeply felt what it is like to be persecuted. We have deeply realized how hard it is to stand up to the "mighty political power". We deeply understand how much one has to sacrifice to steadfastly uphold the truth in adversity. Let's pay our respects to Falun Gong practitioners who have endured great suffering and have lost their lives. They are using their youth and lives to appeal to our nation. The encouraging thing is that many fellow countrymen in intellectual circles are awakening. We know that some people have been quietly protecting Falun Gong practitioners near them right from the beginning, trying very hard to prevent them from being persecuted. We know that there are also people who are making use of all sorts of situations to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Your act of kindness will bring about blessings in the future.

Knowledge has no national boundaries and neither does conscience. Mainland and overseas intellectuals, let's show some concern for the plight of Falun Gong practitioners. Every voice has its strength. The collective voices of righteousness will form a strong power in eliminating the evil and promoting kindness.

We firmly believe that if every kind person knows the truth, this persecution will come to an end by itself.

"As the sinking ship tilts to the side, thousands of sails go past. Beyond the sick tree is a forest of evergreen." Let's straighten up, steadfastly uphold the truth, and steadfastly uphold justice, so as to be worthy of being the 'backbone' of China.

Falun Gong practitioners in Arizona State University
Falun Club at California Institute of Technology
Falun Gong practitioners at Colorado state university
Falun Dafa Club at Columbia University
Falun Gong Club at Cornell University
Falun Gong Practitioners at Duke University
Falun Dafa Association at Emory University
Falun Gong Practitioners at Florida State University
Falun Gong Club at George Washington University
Falun Gong Practitioners at Georgetown University
Falun Dafa Association at Georgia Institute of Technology
Falun Gong Practitioners at Harvard University
Falun Dafa Student Group at Indiana University
Falun Dafa Association at Iowa State University
Falun Dafa Club at Johns Hopkins University
Falun Gong Practitioners at Kansas State University
Falun Gong Practitioners at Kent State University
Falun Gong Practitioners at Lehigh University
Falun Dafa Club at MIT
Falun Dafa Association at North Carolina State University
Falun Gong Practitioners at New Jersey Medical School
Falun Gong Practitioners at Northwestern University
Falun Gong Club at Northwestern Health Sciences University
Falun Dafa Practice Group at Ohio State University
Falun Dafa/Falun Gong at Penn State University
Falun Gong Practitioners at Purdue University
Falun Gong practitioners at South Dakota State University
Friends of Falun Gong at Stanford University
Falun Gong Practitioners at Swarthmore College
Falun Gong Club at Temple University
Falun Gong Practitioners at The Catholic University of America
Falun Gong Practitioners at Thomas Jefferson University
Qi Gong Club at University of Alabama at Birmingham
Falun Gong Club at University of Arizona
Falun Dafa at University of California Berkeley
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of California Davis
Falun Gong Club at University of California, Los Angeles
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Central Florida
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Chicago
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Cincinnati
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Colorado at Boulder
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Delaware
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Florida
Falun Dafa at University of Houston
Falun Dafa Practice Group at University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
Falun Club at University of Maryland, College Park
Falun Gong Practice Group at University of Michigan
Falun Gong Club at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Falun Gong Club at University of Pennsylvania
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Pittsburgh
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Rochester
Falun Club at University of Southern California
Falun Dafa Students Association at University of Texas at Austin
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Texas Health Science Center
Falun Gong Club at University of Utah
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Virginia
Falun Dafa Study Group at University of Wisconsin, Madison
Falun Gong Practitioners at Washington University in St. Louis
Falun Gong Practitioners at University of Washington

(From http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/3538.html)