Australian Citizen Zhang Cuiying's Letter to the Readers of Chinese Newspapers

[Editor's note ] Zhang Cuiying was jailed for 8 months in Beijing when she went back to China to appeal for Falun Gong. Related reports:

Australian Citizen Back in Sydney after Eight Months Detained in China

My Suffering in a Chinese Jail

A Letter from an Australian Practitioner in Jail to Her Husband

Practitioners in Australia Hold a Press Conference Urging China to Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong

The Express (Australia): Jailed for Faith -- Beaten, shackled in Chinese prison

Dear Readers,

The Chinese press in Sydney recently published an article about me based on information provided by the local Chinese consulate. The article was uncomplimentary and intended to reprimand me, Zhang Cuiying. I will follow the teachings of our Master- Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, to clarify the truth here. The purpose is to enable the readers to have the chance to distinguish good from bad and righteousness from evil.

Many reporters asked me why did I risk my life to go to China again and again? This question stirred up my mixed and complicated feelings. Three years ago, I suffered from serious arthritis, causing unbearable pain in almost all of my joints. I was not able to walk a long distance, and it was hard to even eat and sleep. I was living a life in a state where I would rather die than live. Falun Dafa saved me and offered me a second life.

Our Teacher has taught us to begin with being a good person. Be considerate of others all the time. When facing problems, we examine ourselves first. We cultivate to become a person with high moral standards. For a human being, what is better than having physical and mental health? I can never repay what Master has given me. However, such an excellent Dafa (law and universal principle) and such an excellent Master have encountered such tremendous defamation. It's a great injustice in history, a really great injustice in history!

In tears, I could not help thinking about going to China to speak the truth when I heard of the lies slandering our Master in China. It was as if the lies eclipsed the sky and covered the earth. Countless Falun Dafa practitioners appealing for justice for Falun Dafa had been arrested, beaten, detained or held in labor camps without trial.

The last time I wanted to go to China, the consulate would not issue me a visa. This was because I had been expelled from China on a past visit for peacefully practicing and appealing for Falun Gong. With the increasing tide of injustice against Falun Gong, I felt compelled to do whatever was necessary to get to Tiananmen Square. I went to face the oppressors head-on, appealing for justice and telling them the truth about Falun Gong.

For my peaceful appeal, I was arrested in Tiananmen and detained by Chinese police for 8 months. What crime did I commit? I protested by holding a hunger strike for 50 days. I was forced to sleep on the cement floor, beaten, and shackled. These are the undeniable facts.

Representatives from the Australian Consulate in Guangzhou visited me in the jail on ten different occasions. They had continuously endeavored for the improvement of my living conditions in jail. Each visit they made was thoroughly documented. How could it be possible that, as alleged by the Chinese press in Sydney, I had made this up? How could the Chinese Consulate, an overseas agency representing a country of over one billion people, ignore the facts and irresponsibly mix up right and wrong? Are they only able to mechanically tell lies? Are they unable to tell the truth?

Among those over 100 disciplinary guards that I had come in contact with, one or two really still had compassion in their hearts. They sympathized with me and showed compassion to Falun Gong. They didn't treat me as a prisoner, but as a practitioner. For this, I wrote them a grateful letter of thanks and to console my parents. I did so to express my gratitude for the righteousness and conscience that they showed. It does not change the facts that there are no human rights, no humanity, and no law on Chinese soil.

For over one year, this prolonged inhumane suppression invoked from the aspiration of believing Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance has caused over 80 lives being persecuted to death; countless being detained and sent to labor camps; female practitioners being stripped of their clothes and thrown into male prison cells; and the use of over 40 different implements of torture to brutally and inhumanely harass the Falun Gong practitioners. Heaven and earth are witness to these indisputable facts.

Dear readers: If you have no feeling and think it doesn't concern you when you see the evil behavior of Jiang Zemin and his accomplices; If you don't feel disgusted when you have heard of his tremendous crimes; then has your compassion faded? Today you have the chance to see the manifestation of selflessness by Falun Dafa practitioners. Please comprehend more deeply the truth of Falun Dafa. You are lucky enough to exist in the period that Falun Dafa is spreading. Don't miss this extremely rare opportunity.

Zhang Cuiying

5 December 2000