(Minghui.org) Twenty-four years ago on June 25, 1999, with an Intel 486 computer and telephone wire, several volunteers in North America launched the Minghui website. With a few to a dozen daily new articles, Minghui.org connected Falun Dafa practitioners in and outside of China, as well as those who cared about the human rights situation of the practitioners.

This anniversary is a perfect opportunity to look into the past and identify areas to do better. The difficult moments from the past are what’s most precious and should be cherished. It’s a reminder for all to cultivate with the hearts we had when we first started cultivation.

Recalling the creation of Minghui.org, a Falun Dafa practitioner described it as the moment when lightning had split open dark clouds at the dawn of a storm.

Less than a month after Minghui.org was established, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ordered the all-round persecution campaign of Falun Dafa. On one hand, the CCP mobilised all state apparatus to deploy the unprecedented, cruelest mental and physical torture against the practitioners inside China. On the other hand, they censor the news about the persecution to the maximum level possible, while spreading demonizing propaganda to smear the practice at full speed worldwide.

 

Overcoming Censorship and Delivering the Truth

When the whole world was filled with lies and propaganda against Falun Dafa, Minghui.org was the only place that delivered the truth with tenacity and courage.

A practitioner in the U.S. recalled, “As soon as Minghui.org went live, we received at least 500 emails a day, not including fax and phone calls. It was a reminder to us about the importance of the website, and that so many people need such a communication channel.”

Another practitioner involved in the website said, “Since July 19, 1999 (New York time), the regime started the mass arrests of practitioners across the country in China. The arrests continued for the next three days. At the same time, the email services were shut down, with the excuse of corrective changes. All of a sudden, all information exchange channels were blocked, including sending and receiving. It tells me how far the CCP went in covering up the campaign and how important it was to them to maintain the campaign by preventing people from knowing the true situation.”

Another practitioner in China said, “Through Minghui.org, cultivation sharing articles were printed and passed around among practitioners in China. The articles contained other practitioners’ understandings on the Fa, their stories of righteous thoughts and righteous actions, strong faith in Master and the Fa, and the compassionate deeds undertaken to save sentient beings. All of these encouraged us to face the persecution head-on, display the wisdom and dignity we obtained through Dafa cultivation, and clarify the truth to people in a dignified, fearless, and selfless manner.”

One practitioner with a Ph.D. told a Minghui reporter: “I had read Zhuan Falun on the Internet as early as 1996, but because there weren’t any practitioners in my area, I didn’t truly cultivate until the beginning of 1999. When the regime first published so many articles defaming Mr. Li Hongzhi, I was very confused. However, after I read articles on the Minghui website that explained the facts about Falun Dafa, all of my concerns disappeared.”

Since the day Minghui.org was published, Falun Dafa practitioners, especially those inside China, have worked hard to distribute articles from the site far and wide. This involves work from practitioners in China in establishing materials printing centres (at practitioners’ private homes), collecting information, sending messages, and writing articles. After Minghui editors receive their work, they edit and publish selected articles, which are then re-distributed back to practitioners in China, in the format of newspapers and journals.

In the process, countless practitioners in China, while facing life-threatening dangers and extremely scarce material resources, learned how to operate computers and printers, despite their education level or age. It is they who maintained and expanded Minghui.org’s information distribution channels, especially in providing timely access to fellow practitioners of new articles by Master Li Hongzhi (founder of Falun Dafa).

 

After 24 years in the making, Minghui.org has grown into a multi-media website group, including articles, journals, videos, podcasts, and many language sites.

Of all the journals published by Minghui.org, the Minghui Weekly was the very first. It was created for practitioners who don’t have access to computers or Internet, and its content includes experience sharing articles, news from China, and community events in overseas countries. As of June 23, 2023, Minghui Weekly has published 1,128 issues.

The Minghui Weekly Newspaper, on the other hand, was created for the general public in China in the spring of 2005 and provides a window into the world of Falun Dafa practitioners. As the newspaper’s editorial team became more proficient, they also published local issues in various regions with customised content. In April 2007, the newspaper also launched its publication outside of China.

To provide multimedia content to readers, Minghui Radio was established in November 2005, followed by the Minghui Video site. The website has produced original content such as “Minghui Ten Directions” and “Minghui Video News,” as well as served as a repository of programs and documentaries produced by other practitioners.

Everything published by Minghui.org is printed and distributed by practitioners in China for free, with the goal of helping more people understand the facts about Falun Dafa and benefit from the practice.

 

First-hand Persecution Facts for Western Governments

In addition to the Chinese site, Minghui.org has also established more than 20 foreign language sites over the years. All of these provide first-hand accounts of Falun Dafa and the persecution for various governments, media, human rights organisations, and the general public.

The CECC released its 2020 Annual Human Rights Report on January 14, 2021, which cited a report by Minghui about the continued persecution of Falun Dafa. The CECC report recommended that members of the U.S. Congress and government officials should emphasise to their Chinese counterparts that Falun Dafa practitioners have the right to freely practice their faith in China. The commission also recommends that members of Congress and administration officials call for the release of all Chinese citizens arrested for their beliefs and that U.S. authorities use existing laws to hold CCP officials accountable for restricting freedom of religious belief.

Around the United Nations Human Rights Day on December 10, 2022, Falun Dafa practitioners in 38 countries submitted a new list of perpetrators to their respective governments, urging them to hold these individuals accountable for the persecution of Falun Dafa in China. The practitioners requested their governments bar the perpetrators and their families from entry as well as freeze their overseas assets.

The perpetrators’ list included details of the perpetrators’ crimes compiled from Minghui reports. U.S. Department of State officials said several years ago that the information provided by Falun Dafa practitioners in the past was credible and presented professionally, which could serve as a template for other organisations. The annual human rights reports and International Religious Freedom Reports published by the U.S. government during these years have directly cited from Minghui.org persecution statistics (such as death tolls, number of practitioners sentenced, and number of practitioners detained) along with individual case details.

Dr. Liu has been working with government officials at all levels for the past two decades to provide them with updates about the persecution. He said that the first-hand accounts collected by Minghui were very important and precious. “Every time we see select persecution cases, we will translate that into English and other languages, and then publish them through briefing, social media, and press release. We hope that the Western mainstream society can see that the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners is still happening.”

Dr. Liu added, “It was great and significant for Minghui correspondents to collect, verify, and organise these first-hand persecution accounts. Everything they do provides the world with a window into the severity of the human rights tragedy still going on in China.”

“Living in Western countries, it’s hard for us to imagine everything that practitioners in China have been going through. But it always has a deep impact on me while reading those persecution cases. I also understand that it was very dangerous for practitioners in China to collect this information. Some of them were arrested and sentenced because of it. Some were targeted for sending information to Minghui.org or downloading materials. I truly admire their courage,” he said.

 

“The Home of Falun Dafa Practitioners”

For practitioners who have journeyed through the past 24 years, many said that Minghui.org has played an indispensable role in their cultivation. They said reading Minghui.org is like returning home.

A practitioner in China wrote in 2020, “Minghui is Falun Dafa practitioners’ home in this world. The Minghui website carries Master’s new scriptures to give us guidance when we are confused about how to advance in cultivation. Minghui has accompanied practitioners through two decades of brutal persecution. It exposes the persecution of practitioners in China, as it occurs, and aids fellow practitioners, in China and overseas, to coordinate rescue efforts for practitioners who have been illegally arrested, harassed, detained, or tortured. During difficult times it has provided us with courage and strength. Minghui brings practitioners together as we follow Master during the Fa-rectification and help him save sentient beings, and it accompanies us through tribulations and major tests.”

Another practitioner in China shared, “Minghui.org is a Dafa website carefully protected by Master. It’s like a giant boat. With Master’s photo on the front page, it’s like Master sitting at the prow to guide us.”

The practitioner continued, “Minghui.org publishes all of Master’s new articles and guides us about how to be qualified and disciplined Dafa practitioners. It connects all practitioners around the world, transcending time and space. It creates the sharing platform for all of us to learn from each other and cultivate together. It provides us with the designs for informational materials, various tools, techniques, and software, as well as legal assistance (in counteracting the persecution). I’m deeply grateful for Minghui.org!”

 

The Role of Minghui in Saving People

Ms. Chen, 45, is a psychologist and a Christian. She managed to find a Falun Dafa practitioner outside of China and shared her story.

Ms. Chen said she received a Minghui Weekly Newspaper in balloons that landed in the yard of her home in China. Many other locals also received various information from Falun Dafa practitioners in balloons, and the police had a hard time finding out where the balloons came from.

Through Minghui Weekly Newspaper, she learned how to “scale the wall” to visit overseas websites, where she read more information about Falun Dafa. In her church, a pastor, who is also a member of the Chinese Communist Party, smeared Falun Dafa during a church service. She knew this was propaganda and tried to persuade the pastor to stop attacking Falun Dafa. The pastor refused to listen and continued to spread the hateful information. Not long after, his son died in a car accident. He was only 20 years old. Ms. Chen shared her understanding with other church members that this might be karmic retribution, and she also urged them not to believe the propaganda against Falun Dafa.

As a psychologist, Ms. Chen sometimes has patients who have trouble letting go of certain things, and she doesn’t always know how to help them. At one point she remembered seeing the words “saving people” in Minghui articles, so she began to share the articles with her patients, knowing that the purpose of these articles was to help people.

Not long after, a mother and her son came to her clinic. The son had been diagnosed with cancer and he was having an extremely strained relationship with the mother. Ms. Chen mailed several Minghui books to them, including Life and Hope Renewed and Stories about the Nine Precious Words. These stories touched them. Having benefited from the healing effects of Falun Dafa, the son soon regained his appetite and was recovering. His relationship with his mother also improved.

Ms. Chen said to the Falun Dafa practitioner, “I’m so grateful for articles from Minghui.org. They are truly saving people!”

 

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