Wednesday, June 19, 2002

By Suzanne Zionts

For the Courier Post

Cherry Hill

Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance.

These are the principles of Falun Gong that two South Jersey residents say they were practicing when they tried last week to enter Iceland to protest a visit by China's president.

Angela Lee, 53, of Cherry Hill, and Willem Zuur, 17, of Pine Hill, were among more than 60 practitioners of Falun Gong who traveled to Iceland to protest President Jiang's visit. China outlawed the movement in 1999.

Based on the ancient Chinese form of Qigong, Falun Gong is a system of exercise that claims to transform the mind and body through meditation and mild physical activity.

"I became interested in Falun Gong because I have always wanted to help people," Lee said. "I apply the principles of Falun Gong to my daily life to avoid conflict and cultivate the mind and body.

"I brought peacefulness with me when I entered Iceland, yet I was held by the police at the airport for over six hours," said Lee, who has practiced Falun Gong for four years. "I was then sent to a school for the night and detained because of my beliefs."

Zuur, who has practiced Falun Gong for seven months, said he was not detained because he is white. Zuur said anyone with an Asian face was asked to step to the side for police questioning.

"It was a horrible thing that the government of Iceland was under severe pressure from China to stop the protests," he said. "The Icelandic government did not understand that our protests were about meditating and inviting people to join our exercises."

Zuur and fellow [practitioners] were allowed to protest as the bans were lifted because the protests were only in designated areas with full cooperation with law enforcement.

Shiyu Zhou, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said Falun Gong began in 1992 and has a rapidly growing [numbers], despite the lack of a free press in China.

"Most people are still in the dark when it comes to proper information about Falun Gong," Zhou said. "The Chinese government controls the press and began a campaign against the group in July of '99 [...].

[...]

"Since the start of Falun Gong in 1992, it has grown bigger in [numbers] than the Communist party. We have 70 to 100 million [practitioners] world wide while the Communist party has only 60 million members in China," said Zhou.

"The Chinese government has a saying, 'If a lie is told 100 times, it becomes [assumed as] the truth,'" Zhou said. "This is how the government built propaganda against Falun Gong."

http://www.southjerseynews.com/issues/june/m061902n.htm

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