August 24, 2002
To the Editor:
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice based on the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Having been made public in China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, who was nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, the practice quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China and is now practiced in more than 50 countries.
The adherents of Falun Gong, who refer to themselves as "practitioners," pursue their beliefs through a combination of exercise, meditation and scholarship. Concerned that the peaceful practice was making significant inroads upon the hearts and minds of the people however, Communist China's President Jiang Zemin outlawed Falun Gong in July 1999. [...]
Since then, as documented by the U.S. Department of State in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights, and even more extensively in its annual report on International Religious Persecution, as well as by similar monitoring reports issued by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, China has systematically attempted to eradicate the practice and those who follow it by re-education through forced labor, torture, psychiatric incarceration - reminiscent of the discredited practices of the former Soviet Union - and even murder.
As true in brutal totalitarian governments the world over, women in particular have been the target of gross sexual violations, including the reprehensible practice of placing naked female practitioners in jail cells crammed with men imprisoned for real crimes. Sensitive to how their actions may be viewed overseas, Chinese officials attempt to hide their infamous actions by falsely labeling deaths as from suicide or natural causes then speedily cremating the bodies preventing autopsies by the relatives of the victims.
Even U.S. citizens have been subjected to unwarranted detention, imprisonment and torture in China or have found themselves on the Falun Gong list, which Jiang Zemin's regime uses to coerce foreign airlines to bar access to international flights.
On July 24, a milestone was reached in the campaign to end the reign of terror against practitioners both domestically and in China when the U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 188 by a vote of 420-0. The resolution, which describes the peaceful nature of Falun Gong and the atrocities committed against practitioners, requests China to "cease its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and their harassment of citizens of the U.S. who practice it."
There comes a time when we must stand up to tyranny, expose it and root it out. We should be proud of our local Congressman James Walsh, who voted in favor of the resolution and was a gracious host to several practitioners who visited his office in Washington.
Stewart L. Weisman
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