A Letter Clarifying Lies About Falun Gong and Asking for Support

Dear friends and family,

As many of you know, over the past year I have been involved with a meditation practice from China called Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa. This practice involves meditation and slow-moving exercises, and it is very good for physical health and stress relief. The practice also has a spiritual side, and teaches its practitioners to follow the principles of "truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance."

As some of you may have seen in the news over the past two weeks, there was an incident where five people attempted suicide on Tiananmen Square in China by self-immolation. The PRC and CCTV (Chinese media) reported that these five people were practitioners of Falun Gong, and that it was the practice that led them to attempt this act. However, suicide (as well as any other form of killing) is entirely against the teachings of Falun Gong. The act committed by these five people is indeed tragic, and indicates they were under a very desperate situation, but it was not in any way associated with Falun Gong, nor was it advocated or encouraged by the principles of Falun Gong.

It is important to note that, over the past year an a half, the Chinese [party name omitted] party has been carrying out a crackdown against Falun Gong practitioners. Tens of thousands of Chinese citizens have been rounded up and sentenced to labor camps for "reeducation" without trial, hundreds are illegally confined to mental hospitals where they are administered inappropriate and harmful drugs, thousands have been detained, tortured, and lost their jobs and families -- all for meditating peacefully in the park. To date, one hundred and sixty-three practitioners have died from police brutality and torture in prisons. Throughout this 18-month crackdown in which the Chinese leadership has disregarded its own Constitution, there has been not one single act of retaliation with violence by Falun Gong practitioners. Their appeals have been peaceful and legal, asking only for an open dialogue with the Chinese government and the right to practice Falun Gong.

The PRC and CCTV (Chinese media) are officially the mouthpiece of the Chinese [party name omitted] party, and the government controls all news. If you take your own footage of events on Tiananmen Square today, police will confiscate your film immediately. This is what happened to the CNN reporters who tried to film the alleged suicide attempt. The eye-witness accounts of the CNN reporters point out serious discrepancies in the Chinese government's report, which was issued a full week after the incident took place. The report shows a different number of people involved and includes video interviews with victims who are now somehow no longer able to speak. At no time has any of the report been corroborated by independent journalists. It is quite possible that the entire event was staged, and that all the evidence produced by the Chinese government was fabricated. The western media has reported this, as well as other flaws in the story, in recent days. (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23596-2001Feb3.html for one such article.)

The reason I'm writing to you is to clarify this story, as well as other statements made by the Chinese [party name omitted] regime against Falun Gong. In my personal experience, Falun Gong is a peaceful, beneficial practice at its core. It is based on self-improvement and tolerance, and allows each person to gain a deeper understanding of his or her own self through individual cultivation. Anyone can learn it, it is simple to get started, and there is never a charge for anything. Many, many people have benefited from Falun Gong -- including many I have personally met who have given up alcohol addictions, smoking, abusive relationships, selfish thinking, and depression.

The crackdown in China is a desperate tragedy, motivated by a few leaders in the central government. The only way we can help bring this to an end is to draw attention to what is going on and expose those responsible. You can help in this regard in a couple ways: Let your family and peers know what Falun Gong is and what it is not -- when you see a statement about Falun Gong, remind those around you that Falun Gong prohibits suicide and is a peaceful practice based on Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. You can show support through this online petition to help stop the crackdown --