(Minghui.org) There were two rounds of unlawful mass arrests of Dafa practitioners in our region last year, and one of the mass arrest targeted many practitioners in an extensive area of our region.
Thanks to Master’s protection, a few fellow practitioners and I worked together and tracked down what had happened. We would like to share some of the problems we have become aware of during our investigation of the two mass arrests. As what we know is limited, some accounts in this sharing might be a bit lopsided. Please kindly point out anything improper.
According to the police, the rounding up of practitioners had been in the works for two years and a large number of police officers were dispatched. Many practitioners fell victim to the arrests, including our local coordinator, technical support practitioner, the practitioner who has been running our material production site, as well as other practitioners who played key roles in other Dafa projects in the local area.
While in detention, the local coordinator could no longer bear the pressure and told the police about himself and a number of other fellow practitioners, which led to the arrest of a few more practitioners, who are either still in detention, or have been sentenced to prison, or developed severe symptoms of sickness karma.
Master said,
“Even when an ordinary person goes through something he will draw a lesson from it, and give it some thought. So, all the more so should a cultivator try to figure out why the old forces exploited his gaps. You have got to figure out what your problem is. I won’t speak about these things further here at the Fa conference. The situation in China is complicated. There are all sorts of human mentalities and all sorts of conflicts, and they are changing in so many ways in that complicated setting. You really need to earnestly search within, and minimize the chances of the old forces taking advantage of your gaps.”(“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XII)
There are many reasons for what happened, and I would like to share three major problems.
1. The Security Issue of Smartphones and WeChat
Master has long talked about the security issue concerning cell phones. In 2018, Minghui Editorial Board also published a notice “What All Dafa Disciples Must Know” about communication security and urged us to uninstall WeChat and a few other apps. Fellow practitioners have also shared a lot about their bitter lessons from not paying attention to smartphone security issues. It’s surprising that even today there are still practitioners who pay very little attention to such issues.
The local coordinator, the technical support practitioner, and the practitioner running the material site in our area all communicated with one another on cell phones, even though they might not directly mention words like “Dafa” or “truth-clarification.” I wonder if they kept using cell phones for communication because they were careless or they thought the police wouldn’t be able to decipher the code words they were using in phone conversations.
The technical support practitioner and the material site practitioner paid little attention to cell phone security issues. Even after they were released, they still use cell phones to contact other practitioners who helped them despite the fact that others had warned them again and again.
There is another practitioner who is usually quite careful with the use of cell phone, but even so, he still occasionally revealed important messages on his cell phone and WeChat.
As most practitioners live in the city, and it is pretty far from one place to another even by car, some practitioners tend to communicate with one another on cell phones for convenience. However, such convenience might have also provided convenience for the evil.
Not paying attention to the safety and security issues with cell phones also involves many cultivation issues. I would like to remind fellow practitioners to pay more attention to such issues so that they won’t get into trouble again in this respect.
2. The Issue of Misusing Funds
A practitioner in our local area has family members overseas, and when he traveled abroad, he would naturally share with fellow practitioners there. However, he seemed to have forgotten that the persecution is still going on in China and kept communicating with our local coordinator for personal business while outside of China.
Once, he told the local coordinator that a project overseas had some financial difficulties and that a particular practitioner was having trouble making ends meet as a result. He asked if practitioners in our local area could offer some financial help.
Sure enough, a practitioner in our area readily agreed to help out and soon gathered a substantial amount of money and sent it overseas to the designated bank account. Later, the local coordinator felt a bit uneasy about it and paid back the local practitioner with his own money.
But how was the money spent and was it ever going to be paid back? The local coordinator kept wondering.
Before the rounds of mass arrests started last year, the practitioner who went overseas came back and told the fellow practitioner who sent the money earlier: If so and so asked about the money, just tell him that so and so overseas is running a real estate business.
I don’t mean to be suspicious about the fellow practitioner who visited his family overseas because I know little about what happened to the money. I only feel that if the money was indeed for a project to save people, then could it have been misused? He asked our local coordinator for financial help, but did not tell him where the money was used and if it would be paid back. Wouldn’t this interfere with the coordinator’s cultivation? Could this have created a loophole which was taken advantage by the evil?
3. Practitioners in China Should Know Some Common Knowledge in Law
In all those arrest cases, the police did not show any arrest or search warrants. The arrests were totally unlawful. However, during interrogations, a number of practitioners answered each question the police asked them. These practitioners normally showed quite strong righteous thoughts, but in the face of the police, how could they appear to be so helpless, to the point that the police were just stringing them along, and they all suffered severe persecution.
Fellow practitioners are very kindhearted and are pretty open towards one another. However, some seemed to behave the same way when being questioned by the police. Those who did not pay much attention to speech cultivation might find it very hard to deal with the police who pretended to be “very kind.”
Some police officers appeared to be very kind and acted as if they were very keen to listen to practitioners’ truth-clarification. In the end, practitioners realized what they had said casually were taken down as “oral confession” and “evidence” against them later on.
In Journey to the West, the demons could deceive the Tang Monk because he was a human being and could be easily misled by false appearances. The Monkey King could detect the demons because he was a divine being and was able to see one’s innate character through the false appearance.
We are Dafa cultivators, and even though we are still cultivating in the human world and are unable to detect demons, we should pay more attention to speech cultivation and are clear-headed about what could be said and what should be said. With such clearheadedness, at critical moment, Master will help us see through the evil tactics and we would not be strung along by the police.
Also, we need to know some common knowledge in law; otherwise it would be like in a battle field, when we are ready to fight, we find we have no ammunition, and this would put us in a very disadvantaged situation.
Even though the Chinese Communist Party never follows the law in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, when practitioners have some basic knowledge about the law, the evil would hold some reservation when persecuting practitioners. I would like to share some of my recent understanding in this respect.
If the police cannot push ahead, the procuratorate and the courts would not be able to indict the practitioners or sentence them. In dealing with the police, what we tell them is very critical.
According to the legal procedure, the police should provide a copy of the “Written Notice of Procedural Rights and Obligations of Criminal Suspects” before questioning any suspect. However, the police, taking advantage of the ignorance of the general public in law practice, they don’t normally show the notice to practitioners.
In such situations, practitioners should know the three key items in the notice. First of all, according to item 2 of the “Written Notice,” the party concerned has the right to appeal or complain. According to item 3, the party concerned has the right to ask for disqualification of the police on the grounds that they may affect the just handling of the case. If the request is rejected, one can ask for reconsideration.
All the tactics the police used in rounding up Falun Gong practitioners are illegal. Practitioners can ask for the disqualification of the police because they violated the law in arresting them in the first place and there is clearly a conflict of interest. If the request is denied, we can seek a reconsideration. We can always further clarify the truth in the process.
In Item 7, it says that investigators’ questions should be answered truthfully. However, the parties concerned have the right to refuse to answer any questions if they are irrelevant to the case.
Practitioners can ask the police what their case is about. Usually, the police would accuse practitioners of “using an evil cult to undermine law enforcement,” which has nothing to do with us whatsoever.
Accordingly, we can refuse to answer any questions from the police based on Item 7 in the “Written Notice of Procedural Rights and Obligations of Criminal Suspects.”
When practitioners refuse to answer any questions from the police, they would not be able to take any written statement, and when there is no written statement, it would be very hard to push the case further ahead. What is more important is that this can prevent the police from committing more crimes against Dafa.
I have read some very good sharings on Minghui.org about how well some fellow practitioners did in such situations. Their answer to every single question the police asked was: “It’s irrelevant to the case. No comment.”
One practitioner shared: “Every bit of resistance from us is offering salvation to them.”
My personal view is that it is necessary for practitioners in mainland China to have some basic legal knowledge. This is to fundamentally deny the old forces’ arrangements. We should also be aware of relevant laws to justify that practicing Falun Gong in China is completely legal and to expose the crimes committed by those who participated in the persecution, etc.
Of course, as Dafa cultivators, the most important are the righteous thoughts from the Fa. Let us always keep Master’s teachings in mind.
Master said,
“Why should you, a Dafa disciple, fear the evil ones when enduring persecution? The crux of the matter is that you have attachments. If not, do not endure passively, and face the evil people with righteous thoughts at all times. No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil’s demands, orders, or what it instigates. If everyone can do that, circumstances will change.” (“Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts Are Powerful,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)
Master also said,
“That’s why if every Dafa disciple could manage to do well, I will tell you, the persecution would not persist, and would have ended long ago.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XII)
Please kindly point out anything in my sharing that is not in accordance with the Fa.
Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Improving Oneself
