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I took part in the besieging of Qilu Evening News office building

2010-05-06 Source:Kaiwind Author:By: Wang Guangtian

I'm Wang Guangtian, 66 years old, and the former deputy principal of a high school in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong Province. I was once obsessed with Falun Gong and used to serve at the city's Tianqiao District Assistance Center. I want to tell you my personal stories about practitioners' besieging the office building of Qilu Evening News so that you'll have a clear picture about the nature of Falun Gong.

I started to practice Falun Gong in 1996 in order to build up health and to fight against illness. After a period of practicing, I felt much better. I didn't know at that time that the physical improvement was a natural result of regular exercises; instead, I attributed it to Falun Gong. Thanks to my post as the deputy principal of a high school, I was appointed as the assistant of Tianqiao District Assistance Center and had regular connections with the general assistance center based in Jinan.

On April 1, 1998, Qilu Evening News published an article entitled "Take a Look at the Real Face of Falun Gong", revealing the facts that some practitioners missed the best treatment time and even died because of refusing injection and medicine and that their families had been worried very much about them. After that, the newspaper published another two articles on April 7 and 8 respectively, "To Have a Clear-Cut Stand in Publicizing Science" and "Realizing Mind Control before Emptying Your Wallet: How Does Falun Gong Master Make His Fortune". At the end of the second article, the author cited the accusation that a practitioner made against the "master": "Li Hongzhi is so black-hearted that he wants both the money and the worship; he's like a monster swallowing people without spitting out the bones."

These articles enraged the local leaders at Jinan General Assistance Center and some practitioners. In order to answer back the accusation, the Center ordered us to put down our thoughts on practicing and promised to send out articles to the "Falun Dafa Research Society" in Beijing. So I organized the practitioners in our district to compose a booklet entitled Our Experience of Practicing.

On May 7, I took part in the meeting held at Jinan General Assistance Center for all district center leaders and Zhang Shouqiang told us the comments made by the "Falun Dafa Research Society" on Our Experience of Practicing. They said our articles were weak and not strong enough. We also discussed how to demand for a satisfactory explanation and, after hours of discussion, finally reached a consensus on "fighting openly against any individuals and units opposing Falun Gong". At that time, I had a few tasks at work and few chores at home; as a result, I became an activist during the "campaign" against Qilu Evening News. During that period of time, I organized several meetings at practicing sites condemning Qilu Evening News and had gone to four gatherings outside the press office building. Without a powerful leadership, these gatherings caused little influence with dozens of participants at the most and only a dozen one time.

At eight o'clock early on the morning of May 31, I attended the meeting organized by Zhang Shouqiang at a kindergarten located at North Village of Gongren Xincun of Tianqiao District in Jinan. The participants were the leaders of general and district centers and the kindergarten was a regular gathering place for local Falun Gong practitioners. At the meeting, Zhang Shouqiang told us that Wang Zhiwen from the "Falun Dafa Research Society" ordered over the phone on early morning of May 29 that all the practitioners in the areas around Jinan should gather at CPC provincial committee and local press on May 30. Since Li Hongzhi made it clear in his books that he had approved in various ways all the things that the "Research Society" had done. At that time, I believed that the decision made by the Research Society was the instruction given by the master. So I discussed with the participants and we decided on besieging the office building of Qilu Evening News and agreed on the specific activity plan at the meeting to organize as many practitioners as possible. Our mission was to force Qilu Evening News to apologize for publishing articles against Falun Gong and the purpose was to forbid anyone and any organization from opposing Falun Gong.

On the afternoon of May 31, I held a meeting at the practicing site and urged the practitioners to participate in the activity. I taught them to tell others that they took part in the campaign on a "voluntary and willing" basis. At half past six on the morning of June 1, I arrived at Qilu Evening News and saw more practitioners come after a while. At eight o'clock, over 1,000 practitioners gathered "voluntarily and out of their own will" to the east and west of the main entrance of Qilu Evening News, demanding for "an apology". Those not participating in the activity were criticized by other fellow practitioners as "having no awareness of rectifying Fa". During the besieging, Cheng Huiping, the assistant from Lixia District and ten representatives went to the meeting room of the newspaper's advertisement division negotiating with the press leaders. At the news that the press leaders agreed to publish an apology on June 2, the practitioners left the site at ten o'clock and the process lasted two hours.

On June 2, Qilu Evening News published a short notice "to all the readers". It said "as for the issues about qigong, we should have stuck to the principles of no coverage and no discussion; we apologize to the readers for publishing the articles about the issue due to carelessness and negligence". But the local leaders of Falun Gong in Jinan were not satisfied with it. I also held that the notice was ambiguous in meaning and there was no word about apologizing to Dafa. On the afternoon of June 2, I got an order to organize another "sit-in" outside the office building of Qilu Evening News on June 3 so as to bring more pressure on the press.

Early on the morning of June 3, I arrived at Qilu Evening News and saw many practitioners gathering to the east and west of the main entrance. Cheng Huiping and the representatives once again went into the office building to negotiate with the press management at the meeting room on the fifth floor. The negotiation lasted for eight hours and, at seeing them going out and waving at us, we left the site. During this period of time, there were so many of us sitting outside the press building that a large crowd stopped to look at us. As a result, the traffic jammed and we affected the normal social order.

After the incident, Li Hongzhi praised those participating in the besieging in his scripture and criticized those doing nothing. He said that "these events show clearly the nature of some people; they haven't got rid of the thoughts and ideas held by ordinary people" and that "at the critical moment when I ask you to break from ordinary people, you won't follow me and every chance is offered once and nevermore".


(Kaiwind.com, November 27, 2009)

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