China Using Olympic Bid to Intensify Persecution of Falun Gong
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PRESS RELEASE (Falun InfoCenter, www.faluninfo.net)
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NEW YORK, 7/11/01 (Falun InfoCenter) - The Chinese government is now
spreading rumors throughout China that Falun Gong is working against
Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympics. This rumor is completely without
grounds, and is clearly engineered to breed hatred towards Falun Gong.
Informants from among China's police have confirmed with the Falun Dafa
Information Center that China's officials have orchestrated this
rumormongering. This has been accomplished, we are told, through the
circulation of documents around the country.
Inciting hatred and discrimination against the millions who practice Falun
Gong is destructive in itself. But a worse potential exists in this new
tactic. The rumors follow in the wake of new so-called "laws" (see FDI's
6/13/01 release) that classify Falun Gong as "subversive" and allow for
harsher punishment of practitioners, including, even, execution. It would
seem, then, that the rumors are also an attempt to justify cruel laws and
measures.
Falun Gong is a traditional spiritual practice of mind and body, and remains
without position on any political or economic issue in any country.
Beijing's Olympic bid is no exception.
Falun Gong Spokesperson Erping Zhang remarked: "Falun Gong has not, does
not, and will not oppose the Chinese government or its Olympic bid. What we
are against is the ruthless, illegal persecution of millions of peace-loving
citizens who practice Falun Gong."
The Jiang Zemin regime has poured billions of dollars into misinformation in
a prolonged, two-year propaganda assault on Falun Gong and an unwitting
public. Unfounded rumors about Falun Gong undermining the country's Olympic
bid are but another new wrinkle in this campaign.
Regardless of which city is granted the 2008 Olympics, Falun Gong
practitioners will continue to reveal the truth about the brutal suppression
of Falun Gong in China. Over two hundred and fifty have been murdered in
this campaign; and the lives of many others are now in danger as they
languish in labor camps, mental hospitals, and prisons across China. Every
day they must withstand violent attempts to break their wills and brainwash
them into renouncing their faith.
We continue to call on the world to speak out against the brutal persecution
of Falun Gong in China, and ask for help in ending this tragedy.