Happy Father's Day Dad!

We love you!!

Happy Birthday Zhiwen Wang! Freemydad.org in Spanish Released!

Dear Zhiwen,

Birthday celebrations often include gifts of food, cake, and other material items. Yet in their most fundamental principle, they are celebrations of the person himself. We celebrate the years a person has been on this planet and the contributions they have made to us as individuals and as a society. Today we celebrate you.

Though the current period of time is difficult and the untold suffering you've endured is hard to imagine, we believe that when the persecution against Falun Gong is ended and all falsifications and slander have been nullified, you will be seen in an entirely different light. The inevitable fall of the information blockade and tyranny will usher in a new era of truth, whereby your example of determination and faith will shine.

To assist with spreading your story far and wide, we are proud to announce the unveiling of freemydad.org/Spanish! We have already gotten lots of support from those in Spanish-speaking countries and we hope to reach even more with this new vehicle. Thank you all! Liberen a Zhiwen Wang!

Birthday parties are often concluded with thanks being given by the person whom we celebrate. But in absence of a physical connection or gifts, we reflect on the gift your example has given us and we humbly thank you for your endurance, compassion, and goodness in standing up for the truth.

May this year speed you towards freedom. We eagerly await your arrival!

We also want to thank all of our readers, petition signers, and people who have helped us pass on the story of Zhiwen. You have our deepest gratitude.


All the very best,
The Rescue Team

Eleven Years of Imprisonment, Persecution, and Peaceful Activism

Today marks the 11th year of persecution by the Chinese communist regime and the 11th year of Zhiwen Wang's imprisonment.

The Rescue Team would like to humbly thank everyone who has signed the petition, spread the word, and supported Zhiwen Wang and the practitioners of Falun Gong over the years. Your actions are truly encouraging and we are hopeful they will continue to snowball until everyone in the world knows of this atrocity.

The Falun Dafa Information Center published a press release today we would like to share with you here:

Press Statement from the Falun Dafa Information Center

20 Jul 2010

NEW YORK – Eleven years ago this week, the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong—a peaceful and popular spiritual practice embraced by tens of millions of Chinese citizens. But the practitioners of Falun Gong are not the only victims, and the lives destroyed and lost are not the only costs.

Following the Communist Party’s decision to suppress Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Falun Gong books were burned in mass public displays, the state-run media turned out a deluge of propaganda to vilify the practice. Falun Gong practitioners were stripped of their rights to free expression, religious practice, and legal protections. Schools expelled students for practicing Falun Gong, and workplaces turned in employees to be imprisoned and tortured.

Falun Gong practitioners today represent the largest group of prisoners of conscience in the world, with hundreds of thousands extra-judicially imprisoned at any given time. Tens of thousands have been tortured in custody as prison guards attempt to force them to recant their beliefs. They are shocked with electric batons, burned, hung from ceilings, and beaten. They are denied adequate nutrition, and force-fed with hot peppers and human excrement. Women are raped, and even children and the elderly are not sparred imprisonment and abuse. Mounting evidence suggests many—thousands or even tens of thousands—have been killed for the extraction and sale of their vital organs. In 2009, over 109 reports were verified of practitioners killed as a result of abuse in custody.

Even outside of China’s borders, Falun Gong adherents are not free from the threat of surveillance, intimidation, defamation and even violence at the hands of Communist Party agents.

The Killing of Conscience

The Communist Party’s campaign of suppression is not merely about the physical security of Falun Gong adherents. Rather, it represents a threat to something far more fundamental and lasting: the rights of individuals to seek to better themselves, and the collective values and integrity of an entire nation.

When the suppression in 1999 started, Falun Gong practitioners had never expressed any political ambitions. They were not subversive. They did not advocate for political transformation, and instead sought only the transformation of their own hearts. But even though they were not political dissidents, they were spiritual dissidents. In a nation where violence had been glorified, they chose to believe in compassion and patience. In a system pervaded by deception and corruption, they practiced truth. And in a China whose new mantra was that ‘to be rich is glorious,’ they sought meaning not in the pursuit of money, but through meditation, self-reflection, and the practice of altruism.

As Falun Gong grew in China—with an estimated over 70 million people practicing by 1999—its popularity attracted the ire of top Communist Party leaders, who viewed its moral philosophy as ideological competition. This dynamic was described in an editorial from official Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency, which ran on July 27th, 1999, declaring: “the ‘truth, kindness and tolerance’ principle preached by [Falun Gong] has nothing in common with the socialist ethical and cultural progress we are striving to achieve.”

The persecution aims not to kill Falun Gong practitioners; deaths in custody are generally a by-product. The true objective is forced religious conversion. Individuals who aspire to lead moral lives, who aspire to altruism and kindness, are imprisoned, vilified, and tortured for the purpose of turning them into people without spiritual belief. After they are “reformed” through coercion and abuse, they are then forced to partake in the “transformation” of other Falun Gong practitioners. In a sense, the goal of persecution is to turn law-abiding people who aspire to kindness into people who inform on and torture their friends.

A Nation Victimized

Falun Gong practitioners are not the only victims of persecution in China. The suppression of Falun Gong has been directed by the Communist Party and its security forces, but it has been executed with the help and acquiescence of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens.

Police officers who entered their profession in order to protect the people have been forced to imprison elderly women for meditating in parks. Labor camp guards are threatened with the loss of jobs if they don’t partake in the torture and abuse of Falun Gong detainees, and reporters and editors are forced to print hate speech against the practice. School teachers are required to ensure that none of their students believe in Falun Gong, and employers are made to turn in productive employees to be sent to labor camps. Ordinary citizens are offered monetary rewards for informing on their neighbors who practice Falun Gong, and judges are not allowed to rule in favor of justice when Falun Gong adherents are brought before them.

And if nothing else, Chinese citizens have been told by their country’s leaders to hate Falun Gong, to feel contempt for its teachings of truth, compassion, and tolerance, and to stay silent when faced with injustice.

These are the other victims of the suppression of Falun Gong. True, they are not behind bars, nor denied educations and jobs because of their beliefs. But they have been denied something even more important than physical freedoms—a clean conscience. They have been robbed of their integrity, blinded from truth. And it is for these people for whom Falun Gong adherents in China continue to risk their lives.

Since the suppression of Falun Gong began eleven years ago, the response by Falun Gong practitioners has been a path of non-violent efforts to educate their compatriots of the truth. They have countered a barrage of official propaganda with underground printing houses, where they create informational materials about the real nature of their spiritual beliefs. They have launched a satellite television station to broadcast uncensored news to China, and developed circumvention software to break through Internet censorship, enabling millions of Chinese citizens to freely access information. They have nurtured performing and visual arts groups to bring a message of peace, compassion, truth and hope to the Chinese people.

Today, there is reason for optimism. As time has worn on, a growing number of Chinese people are refusing to be complicit in the persecution against Falun Gong. By the hundreds of thousands, they write letters to Falun Gong websites expressing their support and solidarity with persecuted adherents. Dozens of human rights lawyers are now actively seeking to defend Falun Gong adherents, even though they know doing so will result in their disbarment and possibly torture.

More and more Chinese people are refusing to be cowed by threats of violence, because they know that a life lived without freedom of conscience is not a life worth living. They realize that the right to seek truth and to pursue self-actualization is what makes us human. It is what makes a person strong, it is what gives meaning and value to life. It is what enables a nation or a culture, to flourish, and it is these things that, one day, can truly enable the nation of China to reach its full potential, a China that the world would like to see.

Original article: http://faluninfo.net/article/1067/?cid=84



Thanks for reading,
The Rescue Team

Dad, Thinking of You.

My Dear Dad:

I read something about your righteous action over the "self-immolation" in year of 2001. The article says that the prison guard transferred you to "change" you right after the staged-event. They were trying to change you but you still didn't yield. Such a brave father with a steadfast faith. I am applauding and inspired.

Thanks, daddy.

http://zhenxiang.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/法轮功学员证实王治文没有因自焚伪案而转变/

Good night,

Your daughter,

Dandan

Brutal Torture of a 60-year-old Father in China

Recently we became aware of a new round of intense torture inflicted upon Zhiwen Wang. According to inside sources reported via minghui.ca, guards were arranged in shifts to watch Zhiwen, forcing prolonged deprivation of sleep, slapping his face when his eyes closed, day-long sitting on a stool, and even using toothpicks under all ten of his fingernails. It is so inhuman to think of it is unbearable. Urgent action is needed.

Today, September 14th, Zhiwen turned sixty. He has been imprisoned for an entire decade and has not been able to see his only daughter even longer. Zhiwen is now a senior citizen, but this torment and pain inflicted upon him has only grown more intense.

We implore everyone to reach out to their local officials and request action to be taken to bring Zhiwen to safety. Please sign and pass around our online petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-my-dad-zhiwen-wang

Your support is truly needed and cherished.


Thank you,
The Rescue Team

Daughter's Father - for your 60th Birthday!

My Legendary Dad:

Since you were 50 years old till today you have turned 60

Ten years have passed not being free

You have suffered so much

Passing through storms and cold

Gray hair grew, wrinkles deepened, teeth knocked out

Yet your heart of gold never changes

Your actions taught me the most important thing in the whole world:

Be truthful to my beliefs and hold firm

Reaching out to thousands

My promise to you to rescue you, spreading your story far and wide

Like father like daughter

Your little princess grows as well

Stronger than ever

You inspire me and I stand by you!

Prouder than ever,

Love,

dandan

A Decade of Courage

Ten years ago this day, Zhiwen Wang was forcefully taken from his home--the persecution against Falun Gong had just begun and Zhiwen was on the top of the list.

Many people may recall seeing Zhiwen on CNN all those years ago. He and three other Falun Gong practitioners stood in quiet resolve at a show trial. The outcome of these illegal proceedings had been decided before they had even entered the room. In retrospect, it appears that the outcome had been decided before the persecution even started -- the then-leader of the communist party wanted to eradicate Falun Gong and expected by imprisoning "key" people it would send a loud message to the Chinese people about the practice. The broadcast was also intended to mislead the world about Falun Gong and have the mainstream fall in line behind the party.

Yet as time has shown, the party was wrong. An old saying of Chinese wisdom goes: "Only when the year turns cold do we see the pines and the cypresses shed their leaves last." Falun Gong practitioners have endured 10 long years of agonizing persecution and the practice continues to flourish. Millions of families like Zhiwen and Danielle have been ripped apart, yet the love and faith they share still triumphs over the wicked intentions of suppression.

What has happened as the pines and cypresses endure, the Chinese communist party has been destroying itself. The financial and human resources it has wasted in persecuting millions of innocent people are undermining it's own stability. As the party wages war on the very Chinese people within its own borders, it further estranges more of the general population.

In fact, there are many people within China that know very clearly that Falun Gong practitioners are good people and do indeed abide by Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. They know that the 75-year-old grandma down the street who was sentenced to prison is not a criminal. They know that the 49-year-old engineer that would help the elderly carry gas tanks and groceries certainly is not mastermind seeking to "undermine social stability" or "leak state secrets". More and more Chinese people are coming to see this entire persecution as a farce and when the curtain is finally drawn back and the damage toll is tallied, there will be no punishment severe enough for the communist party's crimes against humanity.

The communist party has sought to destroy practitioners and eliminate Falun Gong, but what it has done is given a starker contrast between what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, and who is innocent and who is guilty.

Zhiwen Wang, your innocence is an absolute truth and one day soon it shall be verified. A decade of your life has been robbed for you and those precious moments can never be returned. Neither can those same ten years for the millions of practitioners and their families be repaid.

It is our hope that Zhiwen Wang will immediately be released from prison unconditionally and that those who are persecuting their fellow Chinese people will wake up and change their ways for their own sake, for the sake of their country, and for the sake of the future.

Zhiwen Wang, please keep your righteous faith close to your heart as we continue on the path towards your freedom.


Sincerely,
The Rescue Team