PRESS STATEMENT, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 4/29/2002 [ http://www.faluninfo.net/ ]

NEW YORK, April 29th, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information Center) -- During Chinese Vice President Hu's stay in the US, we hope to continue to do what we have done for the past three years -- let all Chinese leaders who visit overseas know that the violent persecution of millions of innocent people who practice and/or support Falun Gong in China is brutal, reprehensible and unjust. And it must end immediately. We have no intention of protesting the presence of anyone who is not directly involved in the persecution unleashed by Jiang Zemin, but we feel we have a responsibility to let the Chinese people know the facts so that they may see for themselves just how destructive this persecution against Falun Gong has been, destroying countless families and lives, and damaging China as a nation.

The persecution of Falun Gong in China, in fact, has become so far-reaching that, in a sense, it has even affected the PRC Vice President himself on a personal level -- classmates of his at the prestigious Tsinghua University have also not been spared (please see enclosed news release). Zhang Mengye was in the same class as Vice President Hu when they studied together at the university commonly known as "China's MIT." After Falun Gong was banned in China in July 1999, Mr. Zhang was detained in a forced labor camp for a full two years because he chose not to give up his spiritual path. His choice was not a trivial one -- another Tsinghua alumnus, Yuan Jiang of Gansu Province, lost his life just last November in police custody while being tortured for practicing Falun Gong.

Like all people in the past who have met violent repression and hate with compassion and non-violence, what is unfolding is a struggle for freedom of the human spirit and not just the rights of a particular ethnic or spiritual group. When we allow such freedoms in one corner of the world to be destroyed by violence and greed, the dignity of our true human nature suffers, and we all become a little more cynical, a little more distrustful, a little more dejected. It is clear, therefore, that Falun Dafa is not just a China issue, but one that concerns us all. This too, we hope to make known to Vice President Hu and all Chinese leaders traveling overseas.

Thus, we who are free to practice Falun Gong in more than 50 nations around the world, on behalf of the tens of millions of people in China, would like to call upon Vice President Hu, all Chinese government officials, and the international community to peacefully and immediately put an end to the reign of terror unleashed by Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin against compassionate, nonviolent people. It is a disgrace to China. It is a disgrace to the world community. It is a disgrace to the virtue of the human spirit.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-706-7026, Adam Montanaro 917-405-4507, or Feng Yuan 646-523-5676. Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/