(Clearwisdom.net) On April 8, 2007, the Chinese Cultural Freedom Movement Committee held its "2007 Special Spiritual Faith Award" ceremony at the Aotea Center in Auckland, New Zealand. The committee issued the "Special Spiritual Faith Award" to Falun Gong. This is the first award presented by Chinese civilians and intellectuals to Falun Gong cultivators.

During the award ceremony, Federation for a Democratic China President Mr. Fei Liangyong said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claimed it would eradicate Falun Gong within three months, but nearly eight years have passed, and Falun Gong has become popular throughout the world. He said that Falun Gong belongs to not only China, but also to the world and that China needs "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance."

Mr. Fei also said that the movement to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations launched by Falun Gong has put the CCP into a severe crisis. They are losing their power over the Chinese people, especially since more than 20 million people have quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. He said that this is urging the Chinese people to increasingly awaken, overcome their fear and completely break away from the CCP.

A reporter interviewed Mr. Fei Liangyong prior to May 13, World Falun Dafa Day.

Reporter: The Chinese Cultural Freedom Movement has awarded the 2007 Special Spiritual Faith Award to Falun Gong. Could you explain why the committee made that decision?

Mr. Fei: Falun Gong has done a lot over the past eight years to resist the persecution against them. Moreover, they have successfully done this difficult task under extremely brutal and harsh conditions. This really deserves praise. Therefore we, the Cultural Freedom Movement Coordination Committee, decided to issue the award to Falun Gong. It is not only to praise Falun Gong, but it shows the democratic movement's and Chinese cultural freedom movement's support for Falun Gong.

Reporter: For a long period of time you've voiced your concern about the persecution to Falun Gong by the CCP. You've also publicly shown your support for Falun Gong practitioners resisting the persecution. When did you first hear about Falun Gong and when did you begin to voice your concern?

Mr. Fei: In the 90s, a friend was telling me about how the moral standard was going downhill, and that new moral standards must be brought to light. I said at the time that in China they are promoting truthfulness, kindness and beauty. I told him that this was just another political movement. My friend said that it was no longer called truthfulness, kindness and beauty, but rather "truthfulness, compassion and forbearance", and it was a form of Qigong, called Falun Gong, which was having a huge impact inside China. That was the first time that I heard about Falun Gong and Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. However, back then I was doing research at the University of Munich, and I had no time to look into it more.

In 1999, I noticed that Falun Gong was holding many activities in China, especially on April 20. They appealed in Zhongnanhai, and this drew my attention [Editor's note: Mr. Fei is referring to the "April 25" Appeal, held near the Zhongnanhai government compound]. In July I again heard the news that the CCP began to madly suppress Falun Gong. I then found lots of information about Falun Gong on the Internet and read and studied it. I felt that this was a very heavy-handed persecution, and I believed Falun Gong to be a very good Qigong practice. Although I didn't know much about Falun Gong's beliefs, nor did I know many Falun Gong practitioners, I felt that Falun Gong's concepts were very good - they promote the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. My intuition was that the CCP was seeing Falun Gong as a major foe.

Subsequently, we saw that the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong was very fierce in the beginning, and then it was one round of suppression after another. The CCP had planned the persecution of Falun Gong, and was very rigorous in carrying out its plans. First, the CCP thought that Falun Gong was developing very fast, and the number of Falun Gong practitioners quickly passed the number of CCP party members. Falun Gong's rapid development worried the CCP deeply. From another point of view, Falun Gong practitioners believe in the existence of the divine, but the CCP is atheist, so the two belief systems could not coexist. CCP had realized that whoever believed in Falun Gong would not believe in Communism. Thirdly, the CCP thought that it had established a very strict discipline. In fact many of its basic units had already been paralyzed, because all that its corrupt officials think about was to gain more money and no one would ever think about Communism anymore. But, Falun Gong talked about cultivating one's body and mind, and Falun Gong practitioners were doing the exercises together and sharing experiences with each other daily. Also, Falun Gong practitioners are all very kind; they cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, so they have a very high moral standard. Thus the CCP really feared Falun Gong. Based on the above points, the CCP was sure to persecute Falun Gong due to its very nature.

Reporter: After that, did you get in touch with Falun Gong practitioners yourself? Have you seen anything different about the practitioners?

Mr. Fei: In 2000, our Federation for a Democratic China (FDC) held a conference in Bonn, Germany. Before the conference, I suggested that the persecution of Falun Gong was a big historical event, but we didn't know much about it, so it would be a good idea to let them talk about it themselves, talk about how and why the CCP would persecute them, and talk about what they really wanted. We wanted more democracy movement members to know about Falun Gong. Later, two Falun Gong practitioners came to the conference, and they talked about the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong. They hoped that everyone would sign a petition against the persecution. I immediately signed it.

After that, I've been in contact with more and more Falun Gong practitioners. I found out that many Falun Gong practitioners are very knowledgeable. Many of them have a Ph.D. or Master's degree. If we talk about science, they know much more than I do, but they all believe in Falun Gong. Since Falun Gong is able to attract those people and they display good principles, high moral standards and very good minds, it suggests that Falun Gong is a very good belief. So I began to read more and more Falun Gong books, including Mr. Li Hongzhi's Zhuan Falun, and his speeches in different places.

All the Falun Gong practitioners that I've been in contact with have been very kind. They persistently talk about the facts about Falun Gong despite the brutal persecution by the CCP. Later they focused on Jiang Zemin, who was the chief criminal in persecuting Falun Gong, and they did not touch other high CCP officials or the CCP system. They did not oppose the CCP's system, but just insisted on clarifying the facts about Falun Gong. However, the CCP would not admit its mistake, but instead intensified the degree of persecution.

At the end of 2004, Falun Gong practitioners published a series of articles known as the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. This series of articles was very good. It exposed the evil deeds that the CCP had done, and it became a great resource for people in China and the world to have a better understanding of the CCP. Falun Gong has always been bringing the truth to light, and the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party is along those same lines, because all it talks about are historical and contemporary facts. The CCP cannot do anything in front of the hard facts, so all it could do is to persecute Falun Gong more harshly.

Given this situation, the Falun Gong practitioners started a campaign to ask people to quit the CCP. The CCP has always been denouncing Falun Gong by saying that Falun Gong practitioners got political. Strictly speaking, for one who is already involved in politics, it appeared that they were participating in politics and had to be interested in fighting for political power. That is called "getting political." But, in fact, Falun Gong asking people to quit the CCP is to ask them to quit from politics. If you must call it getting political, then there is nothing bad about getting political, either. Moreover, getting political is not just the CCP's own rights, after all. Why can't Falun Gong participate in politics? Every citizen has the right to play in politics. However, the politics the CCP plays is very dirty, evil, and tyrannical. Falun Gong's "politics" can save people and save the world, and it strives for human rights.

The charges made by the CCP against Falun Gong are absurd. Can the CCP say that anything mentioned in the Nine Commentaries are not facts? Does the CCP dare to speak out? It doesn't, so all it can do is to suppress the Nine Commentaries. Whoever spreads the Nine Commentaries is arrested and detained. This is a reflection of the CCP's fear of the Nine Commentaries.

Reporter: Your attitude toward Falun Gong has always been very clear. You have also done quite some work regarding this issue. Could you talk about you opinion on how the principles of Falun Gong will affect the future of China?

Mr. Fei: I think that after more than 50 years of control by the CCP, China has suffered damage in many areas. For instance, cultural relics and historical sites have been destroyed, religions and cultures have been destroyed, the living environment has been destroyed, and human relations have been destroyed. But, the worst is that the Chinese traditional cultural morality has been destroyed. Restoring the moral standards will be ten thousand times harder than constructing a building or rebuilding forests. That is because moral standards are built upon social conditions, cultural conditions, and other aspects. A moral standard tells people how one should act as a person and what kind of morality one should have. But in the current situation under the CCP's control, the moral standard within China is deteriorating daily. Many people will not help anyone who is in danger. Especially after the industrialization of the hospitals and schools, it has led people in these areas become totally self-serving, and there is no morality at all.

So I think the principle of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance and Falun Gong's teachings will be very important in reconstructing the moral standards of Chinese society. After the CCP's autocracy comes to an end, people will be able to freely choose different religions and beliefs. But I think Falun Gong's development in China will be very big. It will have a big impact on China, more than any traditional religions or other religions outside of China. Because at that time, CCP's atheism will be gone. With the foundation of Buddhist culture in China, people's natural kindness and their hope to restore morality, and desire for Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance will be very strong. As for myself, I hope that Falun Gong can continually grow in China, so it can carry forward the Buddha Fa, as well as Chinese traditional culture. I believe that in restoring Chinese traditional culture and morality, Falun Gong will have a great historical impact.