At noon on February 10, Houston Falun Gong practitioners and staff members of the Epoch Times rallied in front of the Chinese Consulate to condemn the assault on Dr. Yuan Li, an Atlanta practitioner and the Chief Techie of the Epoch Times, by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thugs.  

At noon on February 8, practitioner Yuan Li was in his Atlanta home alone when he was brutally assaulted by CCP thugs. They wrapped Mr. Li up in a blanket, attempting to suffocate him. They used duct tape to cover his mouth, eyes, and ears, and an extension cord to tie up his arms and legs, then beat him severely about the head and face. Half of an hour later, they left with Mr. Li's two laptop computers and some documents. After his neighbor called 911, Mr. Li was sent to the hospital and the wounds on his face required 15 stitches. The assault is now believed to be yet another case of CCP intelligence operatives trying to suppress overseas practitioners using gangster measures.

During the rally, representatives of the practitioners and staff members of the Epoch Times gave speeches. They strongly condemned the CCP's violence and called on the public and government to apprehend the criminals behind the assault. Meanwhile, they also called on the international community to jointly resist the CCP's infiltration overseas and stop the terrorist activities of the regime.

A practitioner said: "This assault is a threat to practitioners' personal safety and clearly shows that CCP is desperate as it approaches its doom. However, such activities can only speed up its destruction. We will continue to widely expose the CCP's crimes to the public.

Reporters for the Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty TV and the World Daily reported on the rally. In addition, the mainstream media has paid a lot of attention to the assault of Dr. Li. On February 9, many media outlets, including the Radio Free Asia, AP, World Daily, Channel 2, Fox 5, Gwinnett News TV and the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported the assault. On February 8, the Office of Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss also contacted Dr. Li to express concern. 

Upon hearing the shocking news that Falun Gong practitioner Dr. Yuan Li, the Chief Techie of the Epoch Times, was violently assaulted by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operatives, on the morning of February 10, southern California practitioners and several other Chinese groups rallied in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles to strongly condemn the CCP's violence and criminal activities and to call on the U.S. government to thoroughly investigate the case and bring the criminals to justice.

Reportedly, at noon on February 8, CCP agents forced their way into Dr. Yuan Li's home, pistol whipped him and caused severe cuts and bruises to his face. They overturned his file cabinets, stole two laptop computers and potentially other important documents, but no valuables.   

The CCP's Violence on U.S. Soil is Shocking 

During the rally, Dr. Yingnian Wu, a UCLA associate professor and representative of the local Falun Gong group, expressed his outrage over the assault. Dr. Wu said that Dr. Li, a very smart and yet humble man, was his friend. Dr. Li studied at Tsinghua University in China and came to the United States to pursue his Ph.D at Princeton University. His advisor was a Nobel Prize Laureate, and Dr. Li had more than 10 patents.  

Dr. Wu said that since the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong 1999, Dr. Li had done a lot in order to stop the persecution and offered technical support to the Epoch Times. The violent assault on Dr. Li on U.S. soil in broad daylight is not tolerable. 

Ms. Xu, a representative of the Epoch Times' Los Angeles branch, said that the CCP cannot be distinguished from a gangster organization and its terrorist tactics constitute a severe threat to human life, peace, morality and conscience.

"It routinely tramples on mainstream values and violates human dignity. All people with a sense of justice, media and governments should pay close attention to how the CCP regime suppresses people of conscience in China, bullies media outside of China and innocent individuals, and reveals its evil nature." Ms. Xu stated. 

Desperate Struggle Before Its Doom 

Fan Wu, the chief editor of China Affairs magazine, said that the fact that the CCP would attack outspoken, unarmed citizens with weapons tells the world that the regime has become totally irrational.  

Yinquan Liu, the secretary of the Chinese Social Democracy Party, said that the U.S. is a powerful democratic nation. The fact that the CCP used such violence on U.S. soil reveals that the regime is desperate.

Tanya from Jerusalem looked serious and determined as she held a banner in front of the European Council in Strasbourg, France, calling on people to support the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China.

"I know exactly how the friends and relatives of the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners are feeling," explained Tanya, who was participating in the recent Falun Gong demonstrations to support the resolution in the European Council condemning the crimes of communist regimes.

Tanya joined the demonstration in support of the Council of Europe resolution

Tanya joined a group of Falun Gong practitioners who arrived from all over Europe to raise awareness about the crimes of the Chinese communist regime against Falun Gong in China.

"My grandparents perished in the Holocaust because they were persecuted for being Jews," she said. "I grew up in Russia and spent the first forty years of my life there. I was a teacher and had to teach Communist theory, which was required of everyone."

"At the time, I didn't understand how cruel and inhumane Communism really is and I caused many children to join the Communist youth league. Only forty years later, when I immigrated to Israel and read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in The Epoch Times, did I understand how cruel Communism really is. This is why I came all the way to France. They are a danger to all countries and to humankind."

Tanya has been practicing Falun Gong for six years. In Israel, she was a physics teacher until she was diagnosed with cancer. As her cancer reached the terminal stages and her doctor had given up all hope for her, one of the nurses gave her the book Zhuan Falun.

"The nurse helped me to understand the book and the teachings. I read all of the writings of Teacher Li (the founder of Falun Gong) one after another. I couldn't stop reading."

Within one week, Tanya started to feel better. In the beginning, she had trouble doing the exercises since she had just had surgery, but she persisted in practicing. Tanya said proudly that on May 13 2003, World Falun Dafa Day, she was able to go to the practice site in Jerusalem's City Park for the first time.

Tanya enthusiastically said: "The Falun Gong group in Israel is really wonderful. They stick together like a single body. There are many practitioners and we take active measures against the persecution of our fellow practitioners in China."

"Currently, we stage exhibits in many cities to promote Truth-Compassion-Forbearance and participate in Falun Gong parades, distributing many flyers to promote the exhibit. This has proven to be very effective."

However, Tanya traveled to Strasbourg alone. It is her personal desire to speak up against communism and the Chinese communist regime's persecution against Falun Gong at this event.

"The persecution affects not only the Falun Gong practitioners in China. Their relatives and friends also suffer enormously and many people are affected. I know very well how it feels when innocent people in your environment are being imprisoned just because the authorities don't like them. In my environment back in Russia, it happened quite often.

Falun Gong practitioners exposed the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by re-enacting some of the forms of torture that the CCP use against practitioners in Chinese forced labour camps

"The people in China suffer so much. The communist regime sends them to labor camps and tortures and kills them just because of their convictions. Back in Russia, twenty million people died under communism. In China, eighty million have lost their lives already to allow the Party to survive. I am here because I think that it just has to stop."

The Falun Gong activities in front of the European Council building were very successful. Many of the delegates, visitors and journalists coming from the building talked with Falun Gong practitioners and showed their support for practitioners being persecuted by the communist regime in China.

Many of them had already signed the petition supporting the resolution and encouraged the practitioners to continue the activities. Others also mentioned that they had conducted extensive talks with representatives of Falun Gong practitioners in the European Parliament and that they had received the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

Some had read the Nine Commentaries and some were still reading them. One of the delegates said: "This is really explosive material."

http://clearharmony.net/articles/200602/31368.html

Our Falun Gong exercise practice site is right in the heart of Salzburg. Apart from a young Chinese lady, all the other people who regularly attend the site are local Austrians. Salzburg is the birthplace of the famous musician and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Every year, many tourists, including Chinese tourists, visit the city for its history in music and for the quaint and charming architecture in the historical part of the town.

To help all these tourists know about Falun Gong and the persecution happening in China, the practitioners hand out leaflets and other materials at tourist spots around the city. Many people who visit the historical part of Salzburg are often surprised to see a huge Falun Gong display board.

Whenever we practice the Falun Gong exercises, there are always tourists passing by. We hand out leaflets in Chinese, English, French and German. We also noticed that the Chinese tourists would often take photos of us. In order to show them our respect for the practice, we started to display the following sentences in Chinese:

"The Pride of Chinese People" and "The Whole World Says Falun Gong is great!"

This was prompted by an incident which happened in September. Local practitioners were holding an activity to introduce Falun Gong to the public. I noticed there were two Chinese men watching our exercise demonstration, so I went and gave them some flyers. They accepted the flyers after some hesitation. Because they could speak English, I told them that as a Western person, I feel very fortunate be able to practice Falun Gong and this miraculous practice had brought many benefits to my life.

I told them that I didn't come into Falun Gong for health reasons because I had always been very healthy. I said that after I finished reading Zhuan Falun for the first time, I understood that being a good person is so important to our world, particularly in the West where the morality of society is declining at a rapid speed. I realized the important thing in life is not to enjoy it through selfish means but to consider others and do good things for people.

I told them that I hoped the teaching of Falun Gong will not only be spread widely in the East, but also in the West, so that many people can benefit from it. For the future of mankind, it is important that people live according to Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance - the principles of Falun Gong. I also told them that my family and friends had all noticed that I had become more peaceful, friendly and kind since I took up the practice. I gave the book to all my friends and some had already started the practice. I told them that they should really feel proud because Falun Gong originated in China. After listening to me, they smiled and said to me: "Please never give up practicing Falun Gong!" I replied: "I'm sure I won't."

So this was how the two sentences came about. "The Pride of Chinese People" and "The Whole World Says Falun Gong is great!" We made stickers of the two sentences and put them on our clothes. We also put the messages on banners which we hang at our practice site.

We were delighted to find that the banners had attracted much attention from the Chinese tourists. They either read the messages out loud or took photos of them. As Westerners, our Chinese isn't good and we're also quite busy; by putting the stickers on our T-shirts or raincoats, we are also able to pass the good news to the Chinese people.

http://clearharmony.net/articles/200602/31369.html

On February 4, 2006, the annual Chinese New Year celebration was held in Seattle's Chinatown. Falun Gong practitioners were invited for the third year to participate and perform onstage as one of twelve groups of performers.

Practitionersbooth eye-catching

Practitioners brought delicate hand-made paper lotuses to distribute to the visitors at the celebration. Many people came to ask for truth-clarification materials and the lotus flowers. A Western gentleman who had never heard of Falun Gong before came over to learn the facts. A practitioner told him all about Falun Gong and how the practitioners in China are being persecuted. The man said that he was going to visit China for six months and wanted to know more about the persecution. He accepted a lot of truth clarification literature, including the United Nations Human Rights Report. He thanked the practitioner when he left.

One woman who knew about Falun Gong came by to ask for updated information. The practitioners distributed informational flyers in the hall and other places around the New Year celebration. They noticed that many people, both Chinese and Western, were pleased to accept the truth-clarification literature.

Practitionersperformance won acclaim

The stage performance was the focus of the celebration. The performers included children, youth, and adults from China, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, India and Hawaii. The practitioners stage a new program every year. A professional photographer who took photos of the practitionersprocession in a parade in north Washington State was moved by the practitionersperformance, and after much effort, she located a practitioner and came to the New Year's celebration to take photos of the performance.

The first dance was "Little Lion at Heaven's Gate," which won warm applause. The dance described the little lion's process of learning to roll and stand up. When the lion was able to stand on two feet, a banner worded, "Falun Dafa is great" came out of his mouth.

Five practitioners conducted a Falun Gong exercise demonstration onstage. Before the demonstration, a 77-year-old Chinese practitioner narrated his experience of practicing Falun Gong, describing how he obtained good health after recovered from a 20-year illness. A 22-year-old western practitioner and a 12-year-old Chinese high-school student also shared their experience of benefiting from the practice.

Several women practitioners performed the dances, "Flower Deity" and "Lotus," both of which caught the attention of the audience. A local spectator said, "Wonderful!" After the performance, the performers scattered lotus flowers to the audience and brought the celebration to a climax.