Denmark: Orphan of a Falun Gong Couple Exposed the Persecution at Copenhagen Anti-torture Exhibition

On the 2nd of October, Danish and Swedish Falun Gong practitioners held an anti-torture exhibition for the second time outside Copenhagen City Hall. Prior to the exhibition, Danish practitioners held a press conference outlining the tragic story of Liu Xiaotian, who spent eighteen months on the run from persecution by Jiang and his regime and whose parents were killed because they practised Falun Gong. Practitioners called on the Danish people, to urgently rescue the orphans of the murdered Chinese Falun Gong practitioners and to help stop the persecution in China.

The Danish Falun Gong Association outlined Liu Xiaotian’s ordeal to the people: Three years ago, Xiaotian’s parents were illegally arrested because they practise Falun Gong in China. At that time, Xiaotian was not yet sixteen. Their home was ransacked, their furniture destroyed and all their valuables were stolen. Xiaotian’s life was destroyed overnight. Extremely frightened, he ran to his uncle’s house for refuge. Half a year later, Xiaotian’s uncle was threatened by the police and he had no choice but to hide Xiaotian in a storehouse in the city of Shenzhen for thirteen months.

Knowing there was no future for him in China, Xiaotian’s uncle borrowed an astronomical amount of money from a Chinese farmer in order to smuggle Xiaotian overseas. Xiaotian arrived in Denmark in July, 2003. After thirteen months spent in solitude, frightened and depressed, the mental trauma had transformed Xiaotian from a bright student to a mentally damaged teenager. He was unable to express himself properly and his mind was confused. Fortunately, with the kind help of the Danish people, Xiaotian was able to find refuge in Denmark. With the help of local Falun Gong practitioners and after practising Falun Gong for a year, Xiaotian quickly recovered.

However, it was not until two months ago, on the 28th of July, that Xiaotian learned of his parents’ death from his uncle. Now nearly nineteen years old, he told people how he had lost everything overnight and back in China there was no one who dared to take care of him. He was on the run for one and a half years, and had fled across China to escape from the police. He was fortunate to be able to escape from China, but there are hundreds of thousands of children like him, whose parents are persecuted for their belief in Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. They still live in pain and suffering. They have lost their happy childhood because of the persecution against Falun Gong.

Xiaotian sincerely thanked the Danish Government and people who, at his most desolate moment, provided him with food and shelter. He said it did not matter where he ended up in the future, but his most important wish was for the genocide against Falun Gong to end and that the hundreds of thousands of children involved should not suffer the same pain he has been through.

Xiaotian’s story touched many passers-by. The brutality of the torture methods demonstrated in the exhibition shocked the kind-hearted Danish people. There was always a big crowd looking at the anti-torture exhibition during the few hours it was displayed. People carefully read the words on the display boards, wanting to know eagerly the real reason and the true situation of this tragic persecution now happening in China. An elderly lady pointed sorrowfully at the practitioner who was re-enacting the torture method of “forcing bamboo sticks under the fingernails” and said, “I’ve seen these sorts of things in World War Two, but I cannot believe this is happening today.”

Thousands of flyers were soon distributed. People lined up to sign a petition calling on the Danish Government to help the orphan Liu Xiaotian. A three or four year old boy also signed the petition with much effort and help from his mother. Many people talked to practitioners for lengthy periods of time. Only after they had satisfied the questions in their minds did they leave.