中共迫害法轮功25年千万儿童伤痕累累（English）

宋闱闱：是什麽让孩子神色如此忧伤？英文大纪元的720头版头条配图。隔天，中文大纪元也发表了译文《中共迫害法轮功25年，千万儿童伤痕累累》。

有一天，梅梅（Meimei，化名）上学迟到了。“怎么会这样呢？”她心想。妈妈总是在早上叫她起床。她看到了爸爸，他也迟到了。显然，妈妈也没有叫醒爸爸。那她去哪儿了呢？

这时，电话铃响了。

这位16岁的女孩接起了电话。电话那头的男人自我介绍说他是当地公安局派出所的所长。“你妈妈因为在公园里炼法轮功被捕了。让你爸爸明天带5000块钱来派出所，否则后果自负。”

梅梅的爸爸本身就是一名政府惩教人员，他开始打电话给他的熟人，拚命寻找在派出所有关系的人。

当天下午，又有一个电话打来，通知他们她妈妈被转运到了上一级的公安局。

“我感到非常非常害怕。”梅梅说道。她知道最近又有一名法轮功学员在那个公安局被殴打致死。

“我们必须救妈妈。”她恳求她的爸爸，她爸爸是一名在当地颇有能量的中共党员。

她爸爸向一位富裕的叔叔求助，这位叔叔立即开始到处金钱开路，四处打听，直到找到合适的人为止。

大约四天后，叔叔设法安排了一次探监。但只有梅梅被允许进去。

当时正值中国新年前后。公安局拘留所又冷又黑。她被带进一个房间，在那里她见到了一位同样修炼法轮功的亲戚。他试图回避目光，但是梅梅可以看到他脸上有一个清晰的手印。

两个警察坐在角落里，戴着墨镜，下着象棋，使这沉闷的场面显得更加阴森。然后，她的妈妈被带了进来。梅梅几乎连一句话都说不出来。在剩下的15分钟里，她一直在哭。

叔叔又一次给公安局的各个高层领导送去了现金。

“这不是真正的贿赂，只是送钱而已。”梅梅说道。

大约两周后，她的妈妈终于被释放了。

“谁把你打成这样的？”梅梅看到母亲身上满是黑色瘀伤，大声喊道。她很生气。她想抗争。虽然她知道，自己只是一个孩子。

母亲阻止了她。“他们也是受害者”，她说，“因为他们不知道自己做错了。”

梅梅感到震惊了。她知道法轮功的修炼原则是“真、善、忍”，她读过法轮功的书，做过法轮功的五套功法。这是她第一次真正理解法轮功的内在意义。

1998 年，广东省广州市，法轮功学员在广场上集体炼功。(Minghui, Falun Dafa Information Center)

1998年10月，广东省梅州市，法轮功学员参加集体炼功。(Minghui, Falun Dafa Information Center)

20世纪90年代，正在集体打坐的法轮功小弟子们。(Minghui, Falun Dafa Information Center)

“我想在那一刻，我突然明白了什么是善。”她说道。

自25年前中共发动对法轮功的残酷迫害以来，数百万在中国长大的儿童担心自己和家人的生命安全，梅梅（这不是她的真名）就是其中之一。

和其他十几位接受《大纪元时报》采访的人一样，她要求隐去自己的真实姓名，以保护仍然生活在中共治下的亲属。

“天地颠倒”

法轮功，又称为“法轮大法”，是一种讲究柔和动作和道德准则的修炼方法，其师徒传承可追溯到古代，类似于大量其它佛教或道教修炼方法，从20世纪70年代开始，法轮功以“气功”的名义进入更广泛的公众视野。

在文革后期的反传统大清洗中，气功为中国人提供了一条与自己的文化保持联系的宝贵途径。

法轮功是在1992年，由其创始人李洪志先生在全国各地举办了一系列讲班授课之后，才被介绍给公众的。由于公众对气功已经有了一定的了解，法轮功更深入地探讨了精神层面的问题：法轮功教导人们，健康和修炼进步的关键在于按照“真、善、忍”的原则修炼自己的品行。

这种修行方法主要通过口口相传迅速传播开来。根据20世纪90年代末的政府调查，7000万至1亿人修炼了法轮功，大多数人表示身心健康得到了改善。通常情况下，父母会带领他们的孩子一起炼习，并遵循法轮功的原则。

几乎所有接受《大纪元时报》采访的法轮功小弟子，年龄从5岁到15岁不等，都认为自己是法轮功修炼者，而且是虔诚的修炼者。

1999年7月20日，中国各地的国家媒体纷纷谴责法轮功并予以取缔。前一天晚上，中国各地的法轮功辅导站站长被非法逮捕，事实上他们只是带着音响在户外炼功点播放炼功音乐的志愿者而已。

对于许多人，尤其是年轻的大法弟子来说，这个消息完全是个晴天霹雳。

“我们只是觉得很奇怪。”当时只有11岁的莉维亚（Livia，化名）说道。

1998年11月10日，广州《羊城晚报》的截图，介绍了什么是法轮功。1999年之前，中国媒体对法轮功的报导是正面的。(Falun Dafa Information Center)

1999年7月22日，中共央媒《人民日报》的截图，报导了中共禁止其党员修炼法轮功。自1999年开始迫害以来，中共一直将法轮功描述为邪教。(Falun Dafa Information Center)

1999年以前，莉维亚和父母经常和当地人一起外出修炼法轮功。

她说：“许多政府官员都认识我们，对我们相当友好。”

然而突然间，全国的新闻媒体把法轮功描绘成彻头彻尾的邪恶团体。

“我和父母简直不敢相信。”她说。

当时年仅8岁的艾米（Amy，化名）回忆说，国家控制的媒体对法轮功的报导几乎在一夜之间从正面转为负面。

这一切让人感到十分震惊。

当时13岁的小于（Yu，化名）说道：“就好像天地都颠倒了。”前一天还是真的，现在却变成了假的。突然之间，荒谬的说法被当作不容置疑的事实。

当时，法轮功修炼者普遍认为一定是搞错了，这种情况会很快得到纠正。

“这一定是个误会。”当时18岁的菲比（Phoebe，化名）回忆道，“我们必须让他们知道（被捕的法轮功学员）是好人。我们必须做点什么。”

成千上万的人前往当地政府办公室或前往北京提出上诉，或者只是在天安门广场上告诉人们“法轮大法好”。

而中共恶党的反应是大规模逮捕、拘留和酷刑。

一些法轮功修炼着回忆说，起初，警察似乎对如何处理感到困惑。那些去北京的人被逮捕，他们的个人信息被删除，然后在几天内被释放。

这种情况很快发生了变化。

地方当局显然是迫于高层压力，开始把到北京上访视为严重违法行为，可判处数月甚至数年的强制劳改。

拘留所里面关于各种酷刑的描述很快就一传十、十传百地传开了：持续数小时的殴打、用多根电棍电击，直到房间里弥漫着受害者肉体烧焦的气味、长达数天的审讯和剥夺睡眠、强奸、用浓盐水从鼻子强行灌食、打断关节、将竹签插入指甲缝、注射不明化学物质，以及其它数十种方法，为了使受审人员认罪，无所不用其极。

几位受访者说，中共对法轮功迫害开始后，修炼者几乎立即开始印刷和散发传单。起初，传单通常侧重于当地修炼者被错误逮捕的案例。后来，他们制作了更广泛的传单和小册子来揭穿中共的宣传，并开始将它们投递到人们的信箱，通常是在夜深人静的时候。

如果携带这些材料被抓，可能会被关进监狱或劳教所长达数年。

公开支持自己信仰的法轮功学员被中共警方拘留。(Falun Dafa Information Center)

她说，莉维亚的父母至少10次被送往劳教所和各种拘留所。

有一年，她的父母和祖父母同时被拘留。其他亲戚担心自己也会成为目标，不愿卷入其中，因此她一直孤身一人，靠学校的午餐和其它能得到的食物维持生计。

“那段时间对我来说非常艰难。”她说道。

然而对她来说，食物和其它基本必需品并不是真正的问题。

她说：“主要的问题是心理和精神上的，因为我想念我的爸妈，担心他们。”

国家宣传机器

在迫害的头几个月，反对法轮功的信息无处不在，充斥着所有的电视频道、广播电台和报纸杂志等。

对于熟悉法轮功的人来说，这些宣传听起来很荒谬。法轮功被指控会导致谋杀、自杀甚至恐怖主义——所有这些都与法轮功的教义背道而驰，因为法轮功的教义明确禁止杀生。

然而，大量的宣传无所不在，许多人被动地接受了其中的一些说法。

早期最常见的抹黑之一是法轮功学员剖腹以“寻找法轮”。多位法轮功学员指出，没有任何证据表明发生过这样的事情，这完全是中共政权的无端捏造，而许多中国人却毫不怀疑地信以为真，为虎作伥。

揭批法轮功成了一项强制性的全国性活动。人们被要求在反对法轮功请愿书上签名，踩踏法轮功创始人的照片，在进入政府机关前谴责法轮功。反法轮功的宣传成为中国中小学教科书、学校考试和学生必修的“政治教育”课程的一部分。

艾米说，对于那些相信这些宣传的人来说，法轮功学员比罪犯还坏。

对于许多人而言，这让他们回想起文化大革命时期的全民狂热，当时人们甚至连买个日用品都要背诵毛泽东语录。

只是这一次，人们已经习惯了实用主义的愤世嫉俗。

莉维亚说，许多相信中共宣传的人仍然认为法轮功修炼者愚昧顽固，因为他们无视中共政权的诽谤，坚持自己的信仰。

中国法轮功学员被送往的强制劳教所。(Falun Dafa Information Center)

在“610办公室”开办的洗脑中心，法轮功学员被迫观看中共宣传片。(Falun Dafa Information Center)

2018年1月6日，黑龙江省佳木斯市，一张澄清法轮功真相的海报在公众面前展示。(Falun Dafa Information Center)

2007年12月11日，北京，一张揭穿中共对法轮功宣传的光盘放在居民家门口。(Falun Dafa Information Center)

“（人们认为）我全家都很愚蠢。他们认为放弃法轮功很容易。你为什么非要这样坚持呢？”

她说，信仰对他们毫无意义。

艾米记得，在一次政治教育课上，她曾试图大声疾呼。她说：“法轮功不是那样的。”当时老师正在按照中共的腔调大肆宣传。老师立即制止了她。“你有什么证据？”下课后，老师在走廊上对着艾米大喊道。

打击报复马上就接踵而至。第二天，艾米遭到了全班同学的回避，其他孩子骂她的难听话语她不想再重复。

她的几个朋友坚持和艾米在一起，但后来告诉她，老师嘱咐他们不要再和她说话，以免“影响”他们的学业和前程。听到他们愿意违抗老师的命令和她做朋友，她感到很欣慰。不过，她还是不希望他们惹上麻烦。她建议他们只在私下里表达友谊。随着时间的推移，他们越拉越远，直到她孤身一人。

她的父亲并不炼习法轮功，坚持让她继续上学，于是她只好面对不断的冷嘲热讽和诋毁继续上学。

她说：“每天都像在受折磨。”

集体犯罪感

中共迫害法轮功开始时，本（Ben，化名）17岁。

“我无法理解。”他说，“我不知道发生了什么。”

亲朋好友络绎不绝地来到他家，试图劝说他和父亲停止修炼，或者至少保守秘密。回忆起文化大革命，他们担心，如果一个人被贴上与党为敌的标签，整个家庭都会成为众矢之的。

“你不能再炼这个了，因为你的堂兄弟们，他们几年后就要上高中和大学了，他们会受到迫害的。”叔叔们告诉他。

多名法轮功学员都提到，中共利用集体犯罪或连坐，即一个人的所谓政治过失会给其家人、朋友、同事，甚至其工作场所或学校带来惩罚，这是一种心理折磨的来源。

抵制政府要求放弃信仰的命令是一回事，然而抵制真正关心自己的亲友慷慨激昂的恳求又是另一回事。

2000年，本的父亲前往北京向政府呼吁请愿，结果被捕。在接下来的十年中，本总共只见过他几个月。他的父亲被释放后，又再次被捕并被送往拘留所或劳教所。

2024年4月21日，纽约市皇后区法拉盛（Flushing）社区，行人看着法轮功摊位前的展板。(Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)

本不得不放弃上大学。高中毕业后，为了养活自己，他到一家餐馆当服务员，后来又到麦当劳（McDonald’s）和汉堡王（Burger King）等多家快餐店打工。

没有人敢帮助他。就连他的经理也多次受到警察的骚扰。

“我受到了来自老板、家人、同学和朋友的压力。”他说，“因此，我开始出现心理健康问题。我有很长一段时间不再与人交谈。”

他患有抑郁症、强烈的恐惧感和绝望感。

2009年，本的父亲在劳教所服刑两年后获释，他鼓励本坚持信仰，本的精神状态逐渐好转。他参加了一个职业发展项目，并学会了电脑编程。

很明显，他的父亲曾遭受过酷刑，但当他向父亲询问时，父亲却不愿对此多说。

“我问了他几次。他说：‘不，我不想说。这太可怕了。我不想回忆那些往事。’”

不过他还是提到了殴打，以及“老虎凳”——被迫在一个小凳子上坐上好几天，这会让人疼痛难忍，臀部也会大面积受伤。

2012年，本和他的父亲逃离中共治下，来到了美国。

揭露真相

2001年，小于住在一所高中的宿舍里，10个女生挤在一间摆满上下铺的房间里。她把一些法轮功资料藏在床垫下，没想到透过床板被下铺的同学看到了。

“于，你能把它拿开吗？我每次抬头都能看到。这让我很不舒服。”下铺的女孩说，她是一个从小玩到大的朋友。

其他几位室友也听到了这句话。小于想解释一下。“不要相信政府说的话。”她说。她开始谈起她母亲的朋友，她母亲的朋友多次到北京上诉，结果被逮捕，最终被判入狱12年。说着说着，她的眼泪开始顺着脸颊滚落下来。

这些室友的反应完全是冷漠。其中一个室友甚至开始大笑起来。“你哭什么？又不是你的家人。”那个女孩说道。

小于再也没有试着和同学们谈论迫害。她也很少笑。

四年后，在医学院里，小于抓住了另一个机会：英语课上，一位美国老师布置了以 “英雄”为主题的演讲作业。

轮到小于时，她站了起来，开始讲述她被囚禁的亲人。

一名法轮功学员在北京抗议中共迫害法轮功时被警察拘留。(Falun Dafa Information Center)

“我说她是我心中的英雄，因为她为正义的信仰挺身而出。”小于说道。

全班鸦雀无声。老师也没有说话。最后，班上的共青团代表站了起来，滔滔不绝地宣传了一番。

下课后，小于感到很不安。她认为自己做得对，但不确定会发生什么。她曾希望身边的朋友会支持她，但现在他们甚至不愿意搭理她。

在回宿舍的路上，她感到受伤和孤独。当她打开门时，房间里只有一个女孩——宿舍的学生代表。考虑到她经常在别人想睡觉的时候熬夜，行为粗鲁、娇生惯养、不体贴人，小于平时并不太喜欢和她在一起。

出乎她意料的是，这个女孩开始大喊：“小于，如果你因为这件事被抓起来，我就去救你！”

小于的心融化了。她发现自己在微笑。

她说：“在中国只要提起法轮功，人们的真性情一览无余。”

“三退”运动

迫害刚开始时，许多法轮功修炼者抱着希望，认为如果他们能更好地解释自己，中共就会改变立场。年复一年，他们相信迫害即将结束，小于说道。

2004年11月，随着《大纪元时报》发表系列社论《九评共产党》，情况发生了重大转变。社论对中共的历史、暴行和手段进行了详细而冷静的分析，使人们对中共的改变不再抱有任何希望。

正如社论所记录的那样，将社会中的一部分人视为必须铲除的敌人一直是中共掌握权力的核心策略。

“我从根本上被震撼了。”莉维亚谈到她第一次读《九评》时说道。她终于明白了为什么中共要迫害无辜的人，而这些人无论从哪个角度看都不构成威胁。

从那时起，法轮功学员普遍认为，只有中共灭亡，迫害才会结束。

“在此之前，我们试图说服中国领导人接受法轮功。我们试图用我们的慈悲、善良来转变他们的思想，不断上访、写信、澄清真相。”萨姆（Sam，化名）说道。

2024年4月21日，纽约市皇后区法拉盛（Flushing）社区，法轮功学员集会呼吁结束对其信仰的迫害。(Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

“在《九评》之后，我意识到我们不能再走这条路了。……他们没有希望改变，（也没有希望）停止迫害。”

《九评》引发了大规模“三退”运动，即人们退出中国共产党、共青团和少先队。虽然中共只有约1亿名党员，然而几乎每个中国人都曾在某个时期加入过中共的某个分支机构。

“三退”并不是正式注销党员身份，而是在内部声明与党及其罪行划清界限。

法轮功修炼者一直在中国境内推动这个运动，收集人们的声明并将其提交给 “全球退出中共服务中心”（the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP）。这是一个总部位于纽约的非营利性组织，旨在推动全球“三退”运动并进行统计，目前统计数字已超过4.3亿。

许多法轮功修炼者注意到，传播《九评》明显改变了人们对法轮功的态度。

艾米说，即使是此前对中共的宣传深信不疑的人，在读完这组社论后也大吃一惊。

“即使是那些被中共洗脑的顽固分子，他们也无法反驳。”

接受《大纪元时报》采访的人表示，《九评》让那些长期以来一直被灌输“没有中国共产党就没有中国”的人豁然开朗。

“在中国，人们真的很难区分中国共产党和中国人民。”迈克（Mike，化名）说道。迫害开始时，他只有8岁。

他们说，《九评》给了人们足够的震撼，让他们瞬间清醒，帮助他们认识到中共和中国并不是一回事。

为人体器官而杀人

2006年，《大纪元时报》报导了中共杀害法轮功学员，摘取他们的器官用于利润丰厚的器官移植行业的新闻。这些指控最初来自几位举报人，证据很快滚雪球般地增加。

2000年后，中国本来微不足道的器官移植系统突然爆发。器官供应量如此惊人，以至于许多医院都开设了新的器官移植病房，甚至全国各地都开始出现专门从事器官移植的新医院。

一些医院公开吹嘘每年完成数百例移植手术，而几年前仅有几例。然而，中国几乎没有器官捐献系统。即使中共承认使用死刑犯作为器官来源，这也是不可能的。没有任何迹象表明，中国突然判处死刑的人数成倍增加。

最值得注意的是，医院宣传的等待时间只有一到两周——器官在等待病人，而不是病人等待器官。

随后进行的几项独立调查得出结论，中国器官移植系统得以运行的唯一途径是，只要需要器官，就会有人被按需杀害，尤其是考虑到器官一旦离开人体，其保质期短得令人难以置信。

卧底调查人员打电话给医院，假装是需要器官移植的病人，特别询问“法轮功”学员的器官，得到的答复是确实可以提供。

几个受访者说，这个消息既可怕又令人作呕。

“我好几天都吃不下饭。”本说，“我无法相信这种事情已经发生了好几年。”

对于当时离家在寄宿学校上学的梅梅来说，这一直是她焦虑不安的根源。

她说：“我非常害怕和担心我的妈妈，尤其是每次她不接电话的时候。”

这种令人毛骨悚然的做法似乎在辽宁省东北部地区尤为普遍，该地区在21世纪初由薄熙来领导，而薄熙来是中共反法轮功运动的狂热实施者。

“这对我来说是个很大的打击。”菲比回忆道。迫害开始时，菲比刚刚在辽宁省第二大城市大连读完高中。

她的父亲是一名律师，母亲是一名地方检察官，这让她过上了舒适的生活，与普通中国人的苦难隔绝开来。

菲比（Phoebe，化名）和她的母亲从1995年开始修炼法轮功。中共开始迫害法轮功时，她正在上高中。(Petr Svab/The Epoch Times)

“对我来说，政府的形象以前一直是非常高大正面的。”她说道。

自1995年起，菲比就和母亲一起炼习法轮功，当中共开始打击法轮功时，她认为这一定是个糟糕的玩笑。

“我根本不知道政府会对人做这种事。”她说道。

“你甚至不能思考你想思考的东西？你甚至不能相信什么是好的？那是我第一次清楚地看到中共是多么邪恶。”

她的母亲具有显赫地位和工作经历，因此起初没有人敢对她怎么样，直到她决定写一封为法轮功辩护的信，寄给她能想到的中国所有司法和执法官员。

1999年12月，菲比的母亲带着她一起前往北京上诉请愿。在天安门广场的安检站，警察发现了这封信和她们身上的法轮功书籍。她们当场被捕，并被拘留了几天。

之后，她的母亲被监视居住，并被迫提前退休。警察不时地洗劫他们的家，她的母亲一次又一次地被拘留，最终被判处在臭名昭著的沈阳马三家劳教所服刑三年。一年后，她因接受眼部手术而获释，菲比认为这是劳教所不敢过于严厉地虐待一名前检察官。

当他们得知2006年发生的杀害法轮功学员以获取器官的新闻时，他们感到非常不安，因为他们意识到自己所在的省份可能受到了严重的牵连。

辽宁省沈阳市的马三家女子劳教所，这是一个因折磨法轮功女学员而臭名昭著的劳教所。（Minghui.org）

“这真的让我感到难受。”菲比说，“我下定决心，如果有机会出国，一定要揭露罪恶。”

然而，几年前她的护照申请被拒。她显然被列入了黑名单。

尽管如此，她还是重新提出了申请，她认为这是上天给她的幸运，因为在换用新的护照签发系统后，政府关于她的档案被破坏了。

由于系统中她的所有个人信息都是错误的，她被要求从当地派出所获得一份批准书。令人吃惊的是，她所在的地区被重新分配到了另一个派出所，那里没有人认识她。她拿到了批准信，随后又拿到了护照，得以在2006年辗转来到美国。

自2008年以来，菲比一直在《大纪元时报》报社工作，目前负责数字营销。她说，加入一家愿意报导中共侵犯人权行为的媒体，是她为揭露法轮功受迫害做出贡献的途径。

家庭破碎

对芙洛拉（Flora，化名）来说，自2000年出生以来，受迫害就一直是她生活的一部分。当时，她的父亲因1999年在北京为法轮功呼吁请愿而被关进劳教所。在她两岁时，父亲被释放。

从她记事起，她就听说有人因为修炼法轮功而被捕。上学时，爷爷奶奶劝她不要提及自己的信仰。她的母亲总是使用可拆卸电池的旧手机，每次回家都这样做，以减少监视。他们的公寓还有一个隐藏的门铃，只有信任的人才会知道。

她说：“我感觉自己生来就住在监狱里。”她总是很小心注意自己在说什么，对谁说。

2007年，她的父母在2008年北京奥运会前的大清洗运动中被捕。

她记得，当时她正在做作业，母亲正在做晚饭，有人敲响了前门。她母亲打开门，大约10个人冲了进来。她认出了警察和一名大学官员，她母亲曾在这所大学任教，直到1999年因在北京上诉请愿而被大学开除断送了职业生涯。

她说，警察甚至没有手铐，而是用皮带绑住了她母亲的双手。他们洗劫了他们的家，录像并没收了他们能找到的任何法轮功材料。他们还偷走了现金和家里的电视机。与此同时，一名女警官试图分散芙洛拉的注意力，询问她的家庭作业，仿佛这个惊恐的女孩无法清楚地看到发生了什么。

法轮功修炼者芙洛拉（Flora，化名），在她童年时代，她的父母在中国多次被捕。(Daksha Devnani/The Epoch Times)

“我没有哭，因为我受到了惊吓。但我记得我的腿抖得很厉害。”她回忆道。

警察把她送上了一辆车，把她送到了同城的外婆家。

在车上，她问妈妈为什么会被捕。

“他们好像不知道该说什么。”她回忆道。

然后一个人回答称：“你母亲被捕是因为她修炼法轮功。”

“这不应该是你们逮捕人的原因。”她记得自己是这么回答的。

其余的人都沉默不语。

她后来得知，她的父亲已经在他经营的小店被捕。他被关了19个月。她的母亲在四个月后获释。

然后，2012 年的一天，芙洛拉在午休时间从学校回家，发现父母又不见了。她的姨妈在那里，试图向她撒谎，告诉她发生了什么事。但这毫无意义。她马上就知道了。

她后来才知道，父母都在家时，警察来了。他们在母亲开门时抓住了她。但父亲设法锁上了副门。然后，他从四楼的窗户爬了出去，穿过一台空调机，来到隔壁的窗户。幸运的是，窗户是开着的。他爬了进去。

幸运的是，邻居没有报警。过了一会儿，他溜了出去，不见了踪影。他再也没有回家。2014年，他逃离中共统治，来到国外。

高中毕业后不久，芙洛拉赴美留学。大学毕业后，她加入了《大纪元时报》的姊妹媒体新唐人（NTD）电视台。

她说，正是遭受迫害的经历促使她从事媒体工作。

“我一直都想成为一名记者，为弱势人群发声。”

全民监控

随着反中共宣传的不断努力，许多法轮功修炼者注意到公众的态度逐渐发生了转变。无知和敌意正在慢慢消散，取而代之的是同情和理解，尽管漠不关心的态度仍很普遍。

莉维亚记得，在高中时，她曾设法向几个同学解释法轮功的真相。一天，当政治课老师提起法轮功的宣传时，同学们开始踊跃发言。她很快加入其中，与全班分享了自己的理解。

“老师很震惊。”她说，“她就说，这个话题禁止在课堂上谈论。”

她说，老师辩称“因为我们是被中共统治的，所以当我们反对中共时，就是我们的错。”

2019年7月18日，美国国会山西侧草坪，法轮功学员在纪念中共迫害法轮功20周年集会上集体炼功。(Mark Zou/The Epoch Times)

早年间，试图向陌生人谈论法轮功会面临被警察抓捕的巨大风险。

迫害开始时，米娅（Mia，化名）只有六岁，她记得当父亲向他们遇到的人，比如出租车司机，提起法轮功时，她感到非常害怕。

“我当时心里非常害怕，不敢听。”她说，“我很害怕他们的反应。”

一些受访者说，如今，似乎几乎没有人会费心去举报法轮功修炼者了。

迈克说，尤其是在经历了新冠（COVID-19，中共病毒）全球疫情严酷的封锁之后，许多中国人对中共的本质有了更加清醒的认识。

他的一位同学向他求助说：“当年你让我们退出中共时，我们都觉得你疯了。但现在，新冠疫情发生后，死了很多人，他们把我们关在家里，我知道你当初在说什么了。”

然而，虽然在某个方面可能有所放松，然而在其它方面，环境却变得更加严酷了。

在过去的四分之一世纪里，在中共治下，无处不在的电子监控手段变得越来越复杂。变焦摄像镜头和不厌其烦的面部识别算法取代了被洗脑的邻居的窥视。

法轮功学员已经习惯于把手机当作间谍，把街头摄像头当作警察。迈克说，与法轮功有关的活动从来没有通过电子方式讨论过。

他和其他人描述了隐藏和伪装他们活动的各种方法。《大纪元时报》决定不透露这些方法，因为有些方法可能至今仍在使用。

然而许多法轮功学员语气肯定地说，这种生活方式会造成心理伤害。即使来到美国后，他们仍然与根深蒂固的恐惧作斗争，当有人突然敲门或看到警车驶来时，他们就会心跳加速。

“我没有被捕过，也没有被关进劳教所、监狱或牢房。”萨姆说，“然而中共迫害确实伤害了每个人，尤其是年幼的儿童和青少年。”

China’s Children Scarred by CCP’s 25-Year Persecution of Falun Gong

Meimei was late for school. “How come?” she thought. Her mother always woke her up in the morning. She caught sight of her father. He was late, too. Apparently, her mother hadn’t woken him up either. So where was she?

Then the phone rang.

The 16-year-old girl picked it up. The man on the other end of the line introduced himself as a supervisor at the local police station. “Your mother was arrested for doing Falun Gong exercises in a park. Ask your father to bring 5,000 yuan to the police station tomorrow, or you can figure out the consequences yourself,” she recalls him saying.

Her father, himself a corrections officer, started to call his contacts, desperately trying to find somebody who knew somebody at the police station.

That afternoon, another call came, informing them that her mother was transferred to a police station one level above.

“I was very, very scared,” Meimei said. She knew another Falun Gong practitioner who had recently been beaten to death at that police station.

“We have to save mom,” she implored her father, who was a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in good standing.

Her father solicited help from a well-to-do uncle, who promptly started to spread envelopes of cash around and ask questions until he found the right person.

After about four days, the uncle managed to arrange a prison visit. But only Meimei was allowed in.

It was around the Chinese New Year. The police station was cold and dark. She was ushered into a room where she saw a family friend who also practiced Falun Gong. He tried to shy away, but she could see a footprint on his face.

Completing the dreary scene, two policemen sat in a corner, wearing sunglasses and playing chess. Then her mother was led in. Meimei hardly managed to get a sentence out. She spent the rest of the 15 minutes crying.

Once again, the uncle sent cash to various higher-ups in the police department. Finally, after about two weeks, her mother was released.

“Who did this to you?” Meimei shouted as she saw her mother’s body covered in black bruises. She was angry. She wanted to fight. Even if there was no way to do so.

Her mother stopped her. “They are victims, too,” she said, “because they don’t know that what they’re doing is wrong.”

Meimei was shocked. She knew Falun Gong’s tenets—truthfulness, compassion, forbearance—as she had read the practice’s teachings and done the meditative exercises. But this was the first time she really understood them.

“I think at that moment, I realized what compassion is,” she said.

Meimei, which is not her real name, is one of millions of children who grew up in China fearing for their lives and for those of their families after the CCP launched its brutal persecution of Falun Gong 25 years ago.

Like the dozen others who spoke to The Epoch Times, she asked for her real name to be withheld to protect relatives who still live in China.

‘Upside Down’

Falun Gong, a practice of slow-moving exercises and moral principles, was passed down from master to disciple in a lineage stretching back to antiquity, similar to the plethora of other Buddhist or Taoist practices that, starting in the 1970s, made their way into broader public under the “qigong” moniker.

Qigong practices, which were touted primarily for their physical health benefits, keeping their spiritual underpinnings low key, offered a precious avenue for the Chinese to stay in touch with their culture during the anti-tradition purges of the late Cultural Revolution.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, was introduced to the public much later, in 1992, when its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi, held a series of seminars across the country. With the public already somewhat familiar with qigong, Falun Gong delved deeper into the spiritual aspect; it taught that the key to good health and progress in the practice was in cultivating one’s character in accordance with the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

The practice rapidly spread, primarily by word of mouth. Based on government surveys in the late 1990s, 70 million to 100 million had taken up Falun Gong, and most reported improved physical and mental well-being. Commonly, parents would lead their children to do the exercises and follow the principles as well.

Nearly all who spoke to The Epoch Times had first considered themselves Falun Gong practitioners, and dedicated ones, at the age of 5 to 15.

On July 20, 1999, state media across China denounced Falun Gong, announcing that it had been banned by the CCP. The night before, all over China, Falun Gong assistants—volunteers who brought stereos to play exercise music at outdoor practice sites—were arrested.

To many, especially young practitioners, the news was a complete shock.

“We just felt so strange,” said Livia, who was 11 at the time.

(Left) A screenshot of a Chinese newspaper from Nov. 10, 1998, describing what Falun Gong is. Chinese media reported on Falun Gong in a positive light before 1999. (Right) A screenshot of a Chinese newspaper from July 22, 1999, reporting on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forbidding its members from practicing Falun Gong. Since the persecution started in 1999, the CCP has portrayed Falun Gong as evil. (Falun Dafa Information Center)

She and her parents regularly went out to practice the Falun Gong exercises with others in the area.

“Many government officials knew us and were quite friendly toward us,” she said.

But all of a sudden, the news was portraying Falun Gong as outright evil.

“My parents and I just couldn’t believe that,” she said.

The media’s tone toward Falun Gong switched from positive to negative virtually overnight, recalled Amy, who was 8 at the time.

It was jarring.

“It was like heaven and earth were turned upside down,” said Yu, who was 13 at the time. What was true just the day before was now supposedly false, and preposterous claims were now presented as unquestionable fact.

There was a widespread feeling among Falun Gong practitioners that there must have been some mistake, and that the situation would be promptly rectified.

“There must be a misunderstanding,“ Phoebe, who was 18 at the time, recalled. ”We had to let them know [the arrested Falun Gong practitioners] are good people. We had to do something.”

Thousands went to local government offices or traveled to Beijing to file appeals or simply tell people on Tiananmen Square that “Falun Dafa is good.”

The Party responded with mass arrests, detention, and torture.

At first, the police appeared confused about what to do, some interviewees said. Those practitioners who went to Beijing were arrested, had their personal information taken down, and then were released within a few days.

That quickly changed.

Local authorities, apparently under pressure from the top, started treating appeals in Beijing as a serious offense punishable by months or even years of detention in a forced labor camp.

Accounts of torture soon followed: beatings that lasted hours, electric shocks with multiple cattle prods until the smell of the victim’s burning flesh filled the room, days-long interrogations and sleep deprivation, force-feeding through the nose with concentrated salt water, the breaking of joints and thrusting of bamboo sticks under fingernails, injections of unknown chemicals, rape, and dozens of other methods honed to inflict maximum pain.

Almost immediately after the launch of the persecution, practitioners started to print and hand out flyers, several interviewees said. At first, the flyers usually focused on local cases of practitioners being wrongfully arrested. Later, they produced more generalized leaflets and brochures debunking the CCP’s propaganda and started delivering them to people’s mailboxes, usually in the dead of night.

Getting caught with such materials could land one in prison or a labor camp for years.

Livia’s parents were sent to labor camps and various detention facilities at least 10 times, she said.

One year, when Livia was in middle school, both her parents and her grandparents were detained at the same time. Other relatives didn’t want to get involved, fearing they would be targeted too, so she remained alone, surviving on school lunches and whatever else she could get.

“It was a very hard time for me,” she said.

But securing food and other basic necessities wasn’t the real problem for her.

“The main problem was mental and spiritual, because I missed my parents and worried about them,” she said.

Propaganda Machine

In the first months of the persecution, anti-Falun Gong messaging became ubiquitous, saturating all TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers.

For anyone familiar with Falun Gong, the propaganda sounded absurd. The practice was accused of leading to murder, suicide, and even terrorism—all antithetical to its teachings, which expressly prohibit killing.

The sheer volume of propaganda, however, ensured that many people accepted at least some of the claims.

One of the most common early smears was that Falun Gong practitioners were cutting open their stomachs to “find Falun.” There’s zero evidence that any such thing ever happened—it appears to be a complete fabrication by the regime—yet many Chinese unquestioningly accepted it as true, multiple interviewees noted.

Denouncing Falun Gong became a mandatory national exercise. People were required to sign anti-Falun Gong petitions, stomp on photos of Falun Gong’s founder, and denounce the practice before entering government offices. Anti-Falun Gong propaganda became part of elementary school textbooks, school exams, and mandatory “political education” classes for schoolchildren in China.

For those who believed the propaganda, Falun Gong practitioners were worse than criminals, Amy said.

For many, it harkened back to the fanaticism of the Cultural Revolution, when people had to recite Mao Zedong quotes even to buy groceries.

Only this time, people were already conditioned into pragmatic cynicism. Many of those who didn’t believe the propaganda nonetheless considered Falun Gong practitioners foolish and irrational for sticking to their faith in defiance of the regime’s slander, Livia said.

“[People thought] my whole family was so stupid. They thought it was just so easy, because you could just give up Falun Gong. Why do you have to insist on that?”

Faith held no meaning for them, she said.

Amy remembered a political education class during which she tried to speak up. “Falun Gong isn’t like that,” she said as the teacher was unloading a barrage of propaganda. The teacher shut her down immediately. “What’s your evidence?” she shouted at Amy in the hallway after class.

The payback came swiftly. The next day, Amy was treated to a whole-class shunning in which the other children called her names she didn’t want to repeat.

A few of her friends stuck by her, but later told her that teachers instructed them to stop talking to her lest their education be “affected.” She was heartened to hear that they were willing to defy the teachers’ orders and remain friends with her. Still, she didn’t want them to get into trouble. She suggested they should only show their friendship in private. Over time, they got pulled ever further apart, until she was alone.

Her father, who didn’t practice Falun Gong, insisted she stay in school, and so she kept going, facing constant snubbing and denigration.

“Every day was like torture,” she said.

Collective Guilt

Ben was 17 when the persecution began.

“I couldn’t understand,” he said. “I didn’t know what had happened.”

Friends and family streamed to his home, trying to persuade him and his father to stop practicing or at least keep it a secret. Remembering the Cultural Revolution, they feared that if one person was labeled an enemy of the Party, the whole family would be targeted.

“You cannot practice this anymore because your cousins, they go to high school and college in a few years. They will be persecuted,” he was told by his uncles.

The CCP’s use of collective guilt, or guilt by association—in which one’s supposed political transgressions bring punishment to one’s family, friends, colleagues, and even workplace or school—has been mentioned by multiple practitioners as a source of psychological torture.

It’s one thing to resist orders from the government to renounce one’s faith, but it’s quite another to resist impassioned pleas from genuinely concerned relatives and friends.

In 2000, Ben’s father went to Beijing to appeal to the regime and was arrested. Over the next decade, Ben saw him for a total of only a few months. His father would be released only to be arrested again and sent to another detention center or labor camp.

Ben had to give up on college. To support himself after high school, he went to work as a waiter in a restaurant and later in various fast-food outlets such as McDonald’s and Burger King.

Nobody would dare help him. Even his manager at work was repeatedly harassed by police.

“I had pressure from my boss, from my family, from my classmates and friends,“ he said. ”So I started having mental health problems. I stopped talking to people, for a very long period of time.”

He suffered from depression, intense feelings of fear, and hopelessness.

When his father was released in 2009 after a two-year stint in a labor camp, he encouraged Ben in his faith, and gradually Ben’s mental state improved. He joined a career development program and learned to code.

It was clear that his father had been tortured, but when he asked him about it, he didn’t want to talk.

“I asked him a few times. He said, ‘No, I don’t want to say. It’s too terrible. I don’t want to recall those memories,’” he said.

He did mention beatings, though, as well as the “tiger bench”—being forced to sit on a tiny stool for days, which causes excruciating pain and extensive injuries to one’s buttocks.

In 2012, Ben and his father were able to escape to the United States.

True Character Revealed

In 2001, Yu lived in a high school dormitory—10 girls squeezed into one room filled with bunk beds. She hid some Falun Gong materials under her mattress, not realizing that they would be visible through the bed planks to her bunkmate below.

“Yu, could you remove it? Every time I look up, I see it. It makes me very uncomfortable,” the girl below, a childhood friend, told her.

Several other roommates overheard the comment. Yu wanted to explain. “Don’t believe what the government says,” she said. She started to talk about her mother’s friend, who repeatedly went to appeal in Beijing and was arrested and eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison. As she spoke, tears started to roll down her cheeks.

She was met with utter apathy. One of the roommates even started to laugh. “Why are you crying? It’s not your family,” the girl said.

Yu never tried to talk to her classmates about the persecution again. She would also seldom smile.

Four years later, in medical school, Yu grabbed another opportunity—an English class teacher, an American, gave the topic of “hero” as a speaking assignment.

When Yu’s turn came, she stood up and started to talk about her imprisoned family friend.

“I said she was a hero in my heart because she stood up for her righteous faith,” Yu said.

The class went silent. The teacher didn’t say anything. Eventually, the class Communist Youth League representative stood up and rattled off some propaganda.

After the class, Yu felt uneasy. She thought she did the right thing but wasn’t sure what would happen. She was hopeful her close friends would support her, but now they wouldn’t even talk to her.

On her way back to the dorm, she felt hurt and lonely. When she opened the door, only one girl was in the room—the dorm’s student representative. Yu didn’t very much enjoy her company, considering her rude, spoiled, and inconsiderate, as she often stayed up late when others wanted to sleep.

To her surprise, this girl started to shout, “Yu, if you get arrested because of this, I’ll go rescue you!”

Yu’s heart melted. She found herself smiling.

“Bringing up Falun Gong in China really reveals people’s true character,” she said.

The ‘Three Withdrawals’

When the persecution first began, many practitioners held out hope that perhaps if they explained themselves better, the Party would change its stance. Year after year, they believed that the persecution was about to end, Yu said.

In November 2004, a major shift came with the publication of the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” a series of editorials published by The Epoch Times. Its detailed and sobering analysis of the CCP’s history, atrocities, and methods dashed any remaining hope that the Party would change.

As the editorials document, labeling a segment of society as an enemy marked for eradication has been a core tactic used by the Party to hold onto power.

“I was fundamentally shocked,” Livia said of the first time she read the “Nine Commentaries.” Finally, it made sense to her why the CCP was persecuting innocent people who, by any reasonable account, were of no threat.

From that point on, the general sentiment among Falun Gong practitioners was that the persecution would only come to an end with the end of the CCP.

“Before that, we tried to convince the leaders of China to accept Falun Gong. We tried to use our compassion, kindness, try to transform their thoughts, petition and write letters, clarify the truth,” Sam said.

“After the ‘Nine Commentaries,’ I realized we were not going [to succeed via] that route anymore. … There’s no hope that they will change, [that] they will stop the persecution.”

The “Nine Commentaries” sparked a movement called San Tui, or the Three Withdrawals, which refers to quitting the CCP, the Communist Youth League, and the Communist Young Pioneers. While the Party only has about 100 million members, almost every Chinese person at some point has joined one of its affiliates.

Rather than formally canceling such a membership, San Tui means making a statement to internally separate oneself from the Party and its crimes.

Falun Gong practitioners have been promoting the movement in China, collecting such statements from people and submitting them to the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, a nonprofit set up to promote the movement and keep a tally, which currently stands at more than 430 million.

Many practitioners noticed that spreading the “Nine Commentaries” changed attitudes toward Falun Gong.

Even people thoroughly convinced by the CCP’s propaganda were flabbergasted after reading the editorial series, Amy said.

“Even those very stubborn people brainwashed by the CCP, they couldn’t argue back,” she said.

The “Nine Commentaries” provided clarity for people who had long been taught that there would be no China without the CCP, said those who spoke to The Epoch Times.

“In China, people really had a hard time differentiating between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people,” said Mike, who was 8 when the persecution started.

The editorial series shook people enough to give them a moment of clarity, interviewees said, helping them to realize that the CCP and China were not the same thing.

Killing for Organs

In 2006, The Epoch Times broke the story on the CCP’s killing of Falun Gong practitioners to harvest their organs for use in the lucrative transplant industry. The allegations first came from several whistleblowers, and the evidence quickly snowballed.

After 2000, China’s minuscule organ transplant system suddenly exploded. The supply of organs was so staggering that many hospitals were opening new transplant wards, and even whole hospitals dedicated to transplants began springing up around the country.

Some hospitals were openly boasting of completing hundreds of transplants a year compared to just a handful a few years prior. Yet the country had virtually no organ donation system. Even with China’s admitted use of death-row prisoners as an organ source, those numbers wouldn’t have been possible. There was no indication that China was suddenly sentencing to death exponentially more people.

Most notably, hospitals were advertising wait times of just one or two weeks—organs were waiting for patients, not the other way around.

Several subsequent independent investigations concluded that the only way the Chinese transplant system could work, especially considering the incredibly short shelf life of an organ once it’s no longer in the body, was if people were being killed on demand whenever an organ was needed.

Undercover investigators called hospitals, pretending to be patients in need of an organ transplant and asking specifically for organs from “Falun Gong.” They were met with reassurances that those were indeed available.

The news was both frightening and sickening, several interviewees said.

“I couldn’t eat food for several days,” Ben said. “I could not believe such a thing had been happening for years.”

For Meimei, who was away from home at a boarding school at the time, it was a constant source of anxiety.

“I was very scared and worried about my mom, especially every time she didn’t answer her phone,” she said.

The gruesome practice appeared to be particularly widespread in the northeast of Liaoning Province, which was led in the early 2000s by Bo Xilai, a fervorous perpetrator of the CCP’s anti-Falun Gong campaign.

“It was a big shock for me,” recalled Phoebe, who was just finishing high school in Dalian, the second-largest city in Liaoning Province, when the persecution began.

Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a local prosecutor, providing her a comfortable life insulated from the suffering of ordinary Chinese by fluff propaganda.

“For me, the government was always pictured as really nice,” she said.

When the CCP turned on Falun Gong, which Phoebe had practiced with her mother since 1995, she thought it must have been a bad joke.

“I had no concept that the government could do this to people,” she said.

“You can’t even think what you want to think? You can’t even believe in what is good? … That was the first time I clearly saw how evil the Party was.”

Due to her mother’s prominent position and work record, nobody dared to go after her at first—until she decided to write a letter defending Falun Gong and sent it to every judicial and law enforcement official in China she could think of.

In December 1999, she traveled with Phoebe to Beijing to appeal. At a security checkpoint on Tiananmen Square, police found the letter and a Falun Gong book on them. They were arrested on the spot and detained for several days.

After that, her mother was put under surveillance and forced into early retirement. Police periodically ransacked their home and detained her mother again and again, before she was eventually sentenced to three years in the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp. She was released after one year to undergo eye surgery—a lucky break Phoebe credited to the camp’s hesitancy to abuse a former prosecutor too harshly.

When the family learned the news about the killings of practitioners for their organs in 2006, they were disturbed to realize their province appeared to be heavily implicated.

“This really made me sick,” Phoebe said. “I was determined to expose the evil if I got a chance to come overseas.”

However, her passport application had been denied a few years earlier. She had apparently been blacklisted.

Nevertheless, she reapplied and, in a stroke of fortune that she credited to the divine, the government’s file on her had been corrupted after a switch to a new system of issuing passports.

Because all her personal information in the system was wrong, she was asked to get an approval letter from her local police station. Stunningly, her locality was reassigned to a different police station where nobody knew her. She was issued the letter and subsequently her passport, allowing her to come to the United States in 2006.

Since 2008, Phoebe has worked at The Epoch Times, currently in digital marketing. Joining a media outlet willing to report on human rights abuses in China has been her way to contribute to exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, she said.

Parents Gone

For Flora, who was born in 2000, the persecution was an ever-present part of life. At the time of her birth, her father was already in a labor camp for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing in 1999. He was released when she was 2.

Since as far back as she could remember, she had heard about people being arrested for practicing Falun Gong. When she went to school, her grandparents exhorted her not to mention her faith. Her mother always used old cell phones with removable batteries, to minimize surveillance. Their apartment had a second, hidden doorbell only revealed to trusted people.

“I felt like I was born into a prison,” she said. She had to always watch what she said and to whom.

In 2007, both her parents were arrested during the purges ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

She was doing her homework while her mother was cooking dinner, she remembered, when somebody banged on the front door. Her mother opened the door and about 10 people rushed in. She recognized them as police as well as an official from the university where her mother lectured until her career was cut off because of her appeal in Beijing in 1999.

The police didn’t even have handcuffs, instead tying her mother’s hands with a belt, she said. They ransacked their home, videotaping and confiscating any Falun Gong materials they could find. They also stole cash and the family’s TV. Meanwhile, a female officer was trying to distract Flora, asking her about her homework as if the frightened girl couldn’t plainly see what was happening.

Flora, a Falun Gong practitioner, whose parents were arrested multiple times throughout her childhood in China. (Daksha Devnani/The Epoch Times)

“I didn’t cry, because I was in shock. But I remember my legs were shaking so much,” she said.

The police loaded her in a car to drop her off at her grandmother’s place in the same city.

During the ride, she asked why her mother had been arrested.

“It was like they didn’t know what to say,” she said.

Then one person answered: “Your mother was arrested because she practices Falun Gong.”

“That shouldn’t be why you arrest people,” she remembered answering.

The rest of the ride was silent.

Her father, she later learned, had already been arrested at the small shop he ran. He was locked up for 19 months. Her mother was released after four months.

Then, one day in 2012, Flora came home from school during her lunch break to find her parents gone again. Her aunt was there, trying to lie to her about what happened. But it was pointless. She knew right away.

The police had come when both her parents were at home, she later learned. They nabbed her mother as she answered the door. But her father managed to lock a secondary door. He then climbed out the fourth-floor window and across an air conditioning unit to the window next door. By a stroke of good fortune, it was open. He climbed in.

Luckily, the neighbor didn’t report him. After some time, he slipped out and disappeared. He never came back home again. In 2014, he fled overseas.

Shortly after finishing high school, Flora came to the United States to study. After college, she joined NTD Television, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

It was her experience with the persecution that motivated her to get into media work, she said.

“I always always wanted to be a reporter, to just give vulnerable people a voice.”

Surveillance State

With the incessant efforts to counter the state’s propaganda, many practitioners have noticed a gradual shift in public attitude. Ignorance and hostility have begun to slowly dissipate, replaced by sympathy, though indifference remains common.

Livia once managed to explain the facts about Falun Gong to several classmates at her high school. When their politics teacher brought up Falun Gong propaganda one day, the classmates started to speak up. She quickly joined in, sharing her understanding with the whole class.

“The teacher was shocked,” she said. “And she just said that this topic is forbidden to talk about in the classroom.”

She said the teacher argued that “because we were ruled by the CCP, when we are against the CCP, it is our fault.”

Falun Gong practitioners perform the exercises at a rally commemorating the 20th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong in China, on the west lawn of Capitol Hill on July 18, 2019. (Mark Zou/The Epoch Times)

In the early years, trying to talk about Falun Gong to a stranger posed a major risk of getting reported to the police.

Mia, who was 6 when the persecution started, remembered the terror she felt when her father brought up Falun Gong with somebody they’d met, such as a taxi driver.

“I just had this great fear in my heart, and I didn’t dare to listen,” she said. “I was afraid of their response.”

Today, it seems that hardly anybody would bother reporting a Falun Gong practitioner, some interviewees said.

Recently, after experiencing the draconian COVID-19 lockdowns, many Chinese have woken up to the nature of the CCP, Mike said.

One of his classmates reached out to him, saying: “Back in the day when you were telling us to quit the Chinese Communist Party, we were all thinking you were crazy. But now, after COVID happened, a lot of people died, they locked us at home, I know what you were talking about.”

However, while the environment may have relaxed in one way, it has stiffened in others.

Crude means of electronic surveillance have grown increasingly sophisticated over the past quarter-century. The prying eyes of brainwashed neighbors have been replaced by zooming camera lenses and untiring facial recognition algorithms.

Falun Gong practitioners have grown accustomed to seeing cell phones as spies and street cameras as cops. These days, Falun Gong-related activities are never discussed electronically, Mike said.

He and others described various ways used to hide and disguise their activities. The Epoch Times decided against revealing them, as some may still be in use today.

Many affirmed, though, that such a lifestyle takes a psychological toll. Even after coming to the United States, they struggle with deep-seated fear, their hearts racing when somebody unexpectedly knocks on their door or when they see a police car approaching.

“I wasn’t arrested or put in a labor camp or prison or jail,” Sam said, “but the persecution really harms everyone, especially young children and teenagers.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated at what age interviewees spoke to The Epoch Times and what entity banned Falun Gong in China.