For the Chinese people, the Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in the year, and many mainland Chinese take this opportunity to send greetings to Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi. The greetings express gratitude to Mr. Li for introducing Falun Gong to the public.

As of the first day of the New Year, over 2,000 greetings from numerous cities and towns and from various groups of people have been published on Minghui.org.

The majority of these greetings are from mainland Chinese Falun Gong practitioners, and they express a firm commitment to the principles and the practice of Falun Gong in spite of the ongoing persecution, which was launched by Jiang Zemin in July 1999 and has now continued for nearly 11 years.

Even practitioners working in various departments in the Chinese military and within the government have sent greetings, and they express a determination to continue to raise public awareness of the persecution.

One elderly couple from an air force unit in Beijing wrote: “We only learned to use a computer in 2005, but we quickly mastered the necessary skills to breakthrough the Internet blockade and print brochures. Now we are one of the tens of thousands of Falun Dafa materials centers.”

Some of the greetings are from new practitioners. A female practitioner wrote that she and her son had only begun to cultivate a few months ago, “but we believe in this Great Law, and we believe in you, Master, and we are happy from the bottom of our hearts that we have found this best thing in the world.”

“Although I am a new practitioner,” another wrote, “I have learned so much from the Falun Dafa lectures. My physical condition improves day by day, and I will continue on the path of cultivation.”

It was not only Falun Gong practitioners who sent greetings. Non-practitioners also wrote to Mr. Li, expressing their thankfulness for Falun Gong practitioners who have risked their lives to expose the propaganda fabricated by the Chinese communist regime and for their efforts to uphold the values of traditional Chinese culture.

One gentleman who said he works in the educational system in central China praised the Falun Gong practitioners for bringing hope to China even while they face persecution. He said that the spread of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and the “Quit the Chinese Communist Party” campaign “have made everyday Chinese people aware of the real nature of the regime.”

This gentleman also praised the software, invented by Falun Gong practitioners, which allows Chinese people to overcome the Internet blockade. He wrote, “This is truly wonderful because it brings hope and truth to all people living under tyranny.”

Mr. Chen Xi, a mainland activist for democracy, also sent greetings to Mr. Li Hongzhi via New Tang Dynasty TV. “Mr Li Hongzhi lifts people from lives centered on cheap materialism up to a healthy and spiritual realm,” Chen said, adding that the things Falun Gong practitioners are doing are for all of the Chinese people and even for all of mankind.

Another couple who actively promote democracy in China, Mr. Liao Shuanyuan and Mrs. Wu Yuqin, wrote: “We want to pay tribute to Mr. Li Hongzhi. We are eye witnesses to the indomitable spirit of his disciples under the communist regime’s brutal persecution in China.”

A Non-political Cultivation Practice

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient cultivation practice for mind and body and is based on the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The practice is apolitical in nature and includes five gentle physical exercises as well as a belief in improving and upgrading one’s moral character. Today, Falun Gong is practiced freely in more than 70 countries around the world.

However, in China, Falun Dafa has been persecuted since 1999, when the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Jiang Zemin, became aware of an estimate that there were more Falun Dafa adherents (70–100 million) than there were members of the Communist Party. He ordered the elimination of the practice.

The 610 office, an illegal organization set up by Jiang Zemin, orchestrates the persecution of Falun Dafa adherents within China. This office has absolute power over every level of administration within the CCP and it’s political and judiciary systems.

The persecution involves proven gross human rights violations against practitioners, including arbitrary detention, torture, deprivation of liberty, rape, extortion, theft, murder, and the live harvesting of human organs.

As the Chinese Constitution currently guarantees freedom of belief, speech, and association, the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners, and of any other religious group within China, is fundamentally illegal. Furthermore, China is also a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed internationally against the leaders of the persecution.

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