Close to 3,000 Falun Gong Practitioners arrived in Flushing, New York with activities to expose the persecution of Falun Gong in China, urge people to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and expose the CCP-fueled violence in Flushing on the afternoon of June 14.
Around 2 pm, next to a restaurant's sale stand, a young college student in a red plain short-sleeve shirt held a stack of the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times. She was smiling the entire afternoon and said "thank you" to everyone who accepted the newspapers. As one gentleman kindly invited her for a drink of water at the restaurant, she smiled and replied that she didn't need to.
When people asked her questions, she kindly answered them, and when those who declined the paper made sarcastic remarks, she smiled at them all the same.
Eighteen-year-old Wang Ai-Li has been living in the U.S. for three years and is now a student at the University of Los Angeles. Immediately after completing her final exams, she flew to New York with her mother. Over the course of the last month, Ai-Li has traveled to Flushing twice, both times with plane tickets she purchased herself with her money she saved from working.
ET: How do you feel toward those who say negative things?
Ai-Li: I feel that they are very ignorant. They think that I am young and therefore do not understand much, but that is not true; I was in mainland China myself and have experienced the persecution. I think that they are extremely ignorant to speak like this, when they are the ones who don't understand.
ET: What kind of persecution did you experience in China?
Ai-Li : When I was 14 years old and in my third year in junior high school, I sent my classmates greeting cards with a [Falun Gong] CD in it for New Years. One classmate's parent reported me and I was called to the school on New Year's morning. I was held at school for a whole day, and many teachers came and began to point and curse at me.
I was then taken into a small room with locked windows and locked inside without food. When I was finally released at 11 pm, I learned that they had called my parents, notified the police department, and planned to have me expelled. That year, they "checked up" on me every once in a while, and even installed a security camera so that my entire family was under surveillance.
ET: When did you start practicing Falun Gong?
Ai-Li: I have practiced for 11 years, ever since I was very young. I grew up in my grandmother's house, whose entire family are [Falun Gong] practitioners. After practicing Falun Gong, my grandmother's diabetes got better, and my grandfather no longer had prostate disease. My mother's gallstones even disappeared and have not appeared since.
Since I have started practicing Falun Gong, my behavior has become different from that of my classmates. In the U.S., some students take drugs and in China, some students fight or swear, but I don't do any of these things. A student's responsibility is to study, so my scores have always been at the top. Before the persecution, we young Falun Gong practitioners could study the Fa and do the exercises together freely, but now the situation in China is terrible.
ET: What is your opinion of those who do not believe that the persecution is going on in China today?
Ai-Li: They act this way because they haven't seen the truth. If one day they decide they would like to read the newspaper, they can come and learn the truth themselves. I hope that more and more people will begin to realize what it is actually like in China, understand the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, and how the CCP violates human rights.
ET: How long will you be staying in New York?
Ai-Li: I am planning to stay for the entire two-month summer break, and will stay for longer if the situation here does not improve.
ET: Why do you choose to spend your vacation here?
Ai-Li: I actually work as well as attend school. I work in the morning and attend classes at night. However, when I heard of the violence directed toward our [Falun Gong] practitioners in Flushing, I felt bad. In mainland China, I experienced persecution; the Residents' Committee has continuously been causing trouble for my family and I felt very depressed in my heart. After coming to America, I was very happy to be able to speak and act freely. I didn't know that there are still people here who, apart from not understanding [Falun Gong], also physically assault our practitioners. We haven't done anything wrong. This is the reason why I decided to come here with my mother.
I hope that everyone will come to understand the truth and see what Falun Gong truly is, as well as the truth about the so-called "self immolation" at Tiananmen Square and what the CCP is, and can stand up for what is right by denouncing the CCP and supporting Falun Gong.
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