Hunger Strike for Justice

The following remarks were made by a group of about ten Falun Gong practitioners who have decided to go on hunger strike outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. They began their hunger strike on August 17, 2001.

We come here because we love life. The principle of “Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance” has helped us to understand the reason we should cherish all lives. We come here because we have an understanding of life, and because we know that “being unselfish and selfless, putting others ahead of ourselves” represents a higher value in life.

We come here because the persecution against Falun Gong in China has gone beyond the limits of our forbearance. Even after numerous Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful appeals and clarifying the truth with good will, from vigils to petitions and from marches to protests, the Jiang Zemin regime has only intensified the persecution. Good will has been twisted around. Conscience has been trampled down.

We come here because we do not have any other choice. Countless people have been fooled by the Jiang Zemin regime and treat this most severe injustice with indifference, silently standing by and watching this brutal bloody persecution. So we are here today to launch a hunger strike for justice in front of Chinese Embassy in Washington DC.

Since July 1999, Jiang Zemin’s regime has been conducting a relentless persecution using the tactics practiced during the Cultural Revolution against the peaceful Falun Gong practitioners who believe in “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance.”

So far, according to the incomplete statistics, about 263 Falun Gong practitioners are known to have died under this persecution. Over 500 have been illegally sentenced, over 1,000 have been forced into mental hospitals, over 20,000 have been sent to labor camps without any legal procedure, over 100,000 have been arrested and jailed. Countless Falun Gong practitioners have suffered brutal beatings and physical abuse by the police. Their families have been broken. Millions of family members, relatives, friends, and colleagues have also been affected.

And the persecution keeps intensifying.

At this moment, on the other side of the earth – in the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang, China, in order to protest their continued imprisonment, 130 Falun Gong practitioners whose jail terms have expired are on hunger strike. This hunger strike has lasted for more than 10 days. Their lives are in danger.

In order to send out an urgent call to rescue the 130 Falun Gong practitioners on hunger strike in Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang, China, in order to support those Falun Gong practitioners in China who continue to peacefully to appeal under the brutal persecution, in order to help more kind-hearted people know about the crimes and the tragedy occurring in China, and in order to awaken those indifferent hearts that ignore the torture that others are suffering, we come here to hunger strike.

Between the righteous and the evil, between the kind and the cruel, everyone is facing a choice. Please speak out. Please extend your help. For the goodness of this human world, for the future of all of us, we genuinely call for all kind-hearted people around the world to step forward to support justice and kindness! We strongly ask that the Jiang Zemin regime stop this persecution, unconditionally release all detained Falun Gong practitioners, and restore the reputation of Falun Gong! Give back the freedom of all kind-hearted people who pursue “Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance!”