July 23, 2002
[Editor's note: For the sake of accuracy, we must point out that the persecution of Falun Gong does not reflect the will of the Chinese people as a whole, or even the will of the entire Chinese government, as many high ranking officials are opposed to the persecution. Jiang Zemin and a few of his political henchmen are totally responsible for this attempt to eliminate a group of people based on their spiritual beliefs.]
Thank you very much. It is a pleasure to be here today and to welcome you to the nation's capitol.
I find it fascinating to look out on this group and to try to see it the way others see it. I find it difficult to see you as fearfully as [some] others see you. I find it difficult to understand how governments as powerful as the government of China can be so afraid of you, so concerned about your movement, so concerned about your beliefs. How can this be, we ask ourselves. A relatively small group of people in a huge nation, run by a dictatorship, an all-powerful dictatorship. How could it be that they quake in their bones when they look out at you?
The answer, of course, is relatively simple. They look out at you and they see expressions of individual freedom, a longing for the ability to express yourselves religiously, spiritually, in ways you determine to be appropriate, and just, and right. But this is a threat to any regime that demands total and complete control. It is a threat to them, and we must recognize today with whom we are dealing. It is not probably a government that is going to succumb to the pleas of individuals. It is probably not going to succumb to the actions of groups even within its own boundary. It will not succumb to the protests of individuals outside in Beijing. It will only react to the threats, to the demands of other nations, powerful nations. And the United States of America, because it represents everything that we believe in, and that we talked about here today in terms of individual freedoms and human liberty, and because we stand on a moral high ground, it is our responsibility, it is this nation's responsibility to confront the Chinese government with the transgressions they are committing against the Falun Gong.
And it stands to us to demand from them that they end this activity, immediately. The President of United States has been articulate, and I know heartfelt when he talks about the concerns that he shares with the people around the world who are seeking greater individual liberty and freedom. I hope that he will soon speak out against the 610 Office, created by Jiang Zemin, created as an extra-constitutional government agency with the sole purpose of carrying out terror against the Falun Gong followers. Someone needs to speak out on that on a national level. Someone has to tell the world what is happening there. And we cannot gloss it over simply because China is a powerful country, when we are fearful of the kind of repercussions there would be.
No, if we intend to maintain a moral high ground, if this country actually hopes to be the light and inspirations of peoples all over the world, then it cannot ignore what is happening in China. It cannot just focus on Iraq, and Korea, and the Axis of Evil. Included in that Axis of Evil has to be, cannot possibly ignore, Beijing. The Chinese government needs to be held accountable, just the same way we try to hold nations accountable throughout the world, for their actions against their own people.
Wherever one person's individual rights are being abused, everyone's rights are threatened. So I want to encourage you: continue to devote time, resources, to the accomplishment of a laudable goal. That is, simply asking for the ability to freely express yourselves in a spiritual way, without threatening anyone else, without threatening anyone else's ideas or designs or feelings of spirituality, just your own desire to express yourself. This is something that stems from the very soul of every single human being on the planet. It is not unique to the Falun Gong. Everyone looks for this and desires it. I feel the same way. I express my spiritual leanings, the things that prompt me. I look to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And I will be ready to lay down my life in defense of my ability to do so, here, on the ground of the Capitol of United States and in that body, the Capitol of United States. So what I have as a freedom, you should have as a freedom. It threatens no one, except those who fear...truth.