The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has educated us to believe that it is ‘great, glorious
and correct’.
I never would have thought they would persecute my wife to death while she was 3 months pregnant,
just because she and the rest of our family practice Falun Gong.
Falun Gong is a peaceful mediation practice that came to popularity in the 1990’s.
At least 70 million Chinese people took it up.
The popularity of Falun Gong caught the attention of former dictator Jiang Zemin.
He launched a Maoist-style campaign of persecution against the practice, to consolidate his political
power.
Because I persevered with my faith in Falun Gong, I was subjected to two years of re-education
through labour and experienced physical and mental torture.
After I got out, I was told that the 610 office which is China’s gestapo was about to capture
me again.
Three or four months after being released from the labour camp, I was informed that
the 610 office, which is China’s gestapo, was about to capture me again.
I thought to myself: If we stay in China, we die in China.
If we leave China, we could also die trying.
I left China alone.
It was be safer for my daughter to stay with my mother.
I escaped to Thailand and gained protection and refugee status from the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok.
Three months later, with the help of Falun Gong practitioners and family members, my
daughter and I reunited in Thailand.
I started to expose CCP’s genocide of Falun Gong while there.
But China has many spies in Southeast Asia, and they started tracking me.
Later on, under pressure from the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, the Thai police arrested
us and put us in the immigration detention centre.
Upon discovering our dangerous situation, the New Zealand government immediately issued
us special visas and secured us a safe passage to migrate to New Zealand.
I feel that the majority of people in New Zealand have a strong sense of human rights
and justice.
This inspired me to speak out more about the persecution of Falun Gong to the general public
and the media.
Consequently, the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand began spying on us.
I could tell that my mobile phone was tapped.
They also sent someone to smash our windows and mailbox.
The message was very clear: if I continued to speak out, both my daughter and I would
be in danger.
My parents were also visited and warned by the police in China that they would be arrested
if I didn’t keep quiet.
I began to reflect.
What do I have inside of me that is feeding this monster?
Was it because I had a strong sense of fear?
The CCP has made us fearful, then they capitalize on this weakness, to hold us hostage and to
keep us as slaves.
It was at this moment that I decided to not be a slave anymore.
I believe each of us Chinese people, need to calmly and rationally evaluate ourselves
and our role in fostering the climate of corruption and violence that prevails in modern day China.
A climate which has allowed such tragedies like the persecution of Falun Gong to continue
unabated.