(Clearwisdom.net)

An excerpt from the letter follows:

Dear Falun Gong Friends,

We were pleased to learn that you are going to hold an activity dubbed "Let's us stop the persecution of Falun Gong together" on July 23. We would like to express our appreciation to you for your hearty invitation.

Currently, we are holding an annual meeting in Rome, Italy. Our organization is a political entity that has long been dedicated to striving, in the form of non-violence, for freedom and globalization of democracy to ensure that civil and political rights are not infringed in the world. Thus, we are unable to participate in person in this important activity held in Washington. However, please rest assured that our party members will do their utmost until the persecution of Falun Gong stops.

Over the past three years, we have paid close attention to the Chinese Communist government's persecution of Falun Gong. We have contacted many Falun Gong practitioners and had dialogues with them. In addition, we have also taken a series of political actions domestically and internationally, such as exposing the persecution to the Italian Parliament, European Parliament and U.N. systems.

We appreciate your non-violent approaches in defiance of Chinese authorities' systematic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. We are convinced that, through non-violent endeavors, you will have more organizations and governments rendering help to you, and the scope of their actions will even be widened. Falun Gong's effort doesn't simply mean the issue of crossing borders geographically; you are striving for freedom, for political and civil rights as well as for the democracy in China.

Signatures of seven European Parliament Members (names omitted to avoid Chinese embassy's harassment)