December 5, 2005

Lin Wang's ignorance in his Dec. 2 column, "Falun Dafa and ignorance," is not his fault. He learned about Falun Gong in China. The Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels knew well that "if a lie is repeated 100 times, it becomes the truth." This is the environment from which Wang emerged, so how would he be able to recognize the truth in China?

The Chinese Communist Party's blocks its citizens from having freedom of information -- so even if you wanted to know the truth about Falun Dafa -- you could not buy the book as it is banned, nor could you visit the Web site because it is blocked. If you could get past the block, you run the chance of being arrested.

As an example of the way the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda works -- Lin Wang wrote about the supposed self-immolation of Falun Gong practitioners in Tiananmen Square as if it were fact. Most countries in the west know that it was fabricated by the Chinese Communist Party for its own purposes. The International Education Committee of the United Nations stated it believes that the event was orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party at a time when public sympathy was turning toward Falun Gong. The government-created propaganda was shown on all media outlets 24 hours a day for months.

A child even was killed in the process of making this video in order to incite even greater hatred toward Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese Communist Party drills lies into its citizens' heads about Falun Gong, many of which I will not repeat but were listed in Lin Wang's column. The Chinese Communist Party runs a billion-dollar propaganda machine and twists things for its own purposes -- for example, taking someone's exact words out of context and leaving out key words like "not," etc. Any person or thing the party does not like can be eliminated within three days owing to the Chinese Communist Party's control of the media, the government, the justice system and the military. Jiang Zemin vowed to completely eradicate Falun Gong from the face of China within three months. It has now been six years and the Chinese Communist Party, despite the most vicious of means, has not been able to take the ancient traditional values of Truthfulness-Benevolence-F orbearance from the hearts of the people.

The Chinese Communist Party [falsely portrays Falun Gong as a threat] because more people were practicing Falun Gong than belonged to the Communist Party. Practitioners have grasped a larger truth, are committed to nonviolence and are not controlled by fear. What would threaten a bloody totalitarian fascist state more than a large and growing group of fearless people? Much like the early Christians, thousands have been tortured to death because they refuse to go against their conscience even under the threats.

Now back to Wang's column. It speaks about Falun Gong's "sinful past," but should have been about the sinful past of the Chinese propaganda machine from which he is now free. Welcome to the United States, Lin Wang. To speed up the recovery of your mind and to help you become more assimilated to democracy, I suggest you read Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party -- the first uncensored history of the Chinese Communist Party.

I would like to close this letter with a quote from former U.S. Ambassador and current vice chairman of the Board of Freedom House Mark Palmer, who said: "Falun Gong is, in my judgment, the greatest single spiritual movement in Asia today. There is nothing that begins to compare with it in courage and importance."

Sophia Bronwen