PRESS STATEMENT

There is systematic, state-sponsored torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners today in China. It's escalating as the government gets ever more desperate to squash these peaceful millions who refuse to stop publicly saying "Falun Gong is good!" In the past two years, at least 252 men, women, and children have died due to their beliefs, and tens of thousands more are in prisons, labor camps, and mental hospitals, enduring bone-chilling mistreatment.

The New York Times in April 1999 reported the Chinese government's own survey showing the number of practitioners to be between 70 and 90 million people that is more than the number of Communist party members, a huge number of people directly affected, a huge number having their freedoms taken away.

As usual, numbers fail to convey the full extent of this human tragedy. Two of the more than 250 killed from mistreatment were Mrs. Wang Lixuan, 27, and her 7-month-old son Hao Meng, from Shandong Province. They were taken into custody on Oct 22, 2000 for appealing the ban on Falun Gong. Two weeks later, both were dead from torture by police. Medical examination revealed that Ms. Wang's neck had been broken and her skull crushed. Her baby's ankles were bruised deeply, his head dented, and his nose full of blood. The examiner determined that he had been shackled and hung upside down.

The untold story in China is this movement of peaceful resistance, of civil disobedience, which is unprecedented in modern Chinese history. No one knows how many thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have continued to go to Tiananmen Square to hold up a banner or begin the serene exercises, only to be tackled by police and dragged away to a grim fate.

The governments of the U.S., Canada, the European Union, and other nations have formally and strongly criticized China's systematic abuses of rights of Falun Gong practitioners. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and other human rights organizations have documented the mistreatment and severe violations.

The U.S. State Department said this in its July 5 press release: "The June 20 deaths of over a dozen Falun Gong practitioners in Wanjia Labor Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China is particularly troublesome....the reports of violence and torture against these Falun Gong practitioners at the hand of Chinese authorities are chilling.... these people should never have been incarcerated in such camps in the first place."

This incident of mass death, really mass murder, took place in Harbin -- a sister city of Minneapolis. Standing here today in Minneapolis, our sympathies are with the families of the victims. We call for a full investigation into this horrible incident in our sister city. We urge Minnesotans to contact the Minneapolis mayor and city council, as well as Congress, to request that such government-sanctioned violence immediately cease.

We thank our government officials for the support they have shown in the past. Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles-Belton and St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman both proclaimed May 7-13 this year to be "Falun Dafa Week" in their respective cities. U.S. Senators Paul Wellstone and Mark Dayton co-sponsored a resolution this year condemning China for human rights abuses, prominently including Falun Gong.

All people of the world are increasingly connected. This vicious campaign of persecution touches our lives here in Minnesota in many ways. As we will hear shortly, the mother of University of Minnesota student Cheng Wan was sentenced to hard labor for three years due to her refusal to renounce Falun Gong. The family was threatened that they would never see her again if she persisted in her belief, and they are concerned for her life.

Beyond Minnesota, Falun Gong has a local impact for people of all races and classes in the more than 40 countries where it is practiced. Indeed, it has local impact wherever the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance are valued, because these three words are the core of what Falun Gong is all about.

We call on all kind-hearted people, all people of conscience, to step forward and take a position on the persecution of Falun Gong in China. This is urgent, and important. Lives are at stake. The death toll continues to rise. Reports have just come in that 10 male Falun Gong practitioners were beaten to death in Changlinzi labor camp, which is in the same province as Harbin, our sister city.

Next week, many of us will attend an international rally in which thousands will peacefully assemble at the Capitol in Washington, DC. Some of us will drive all the way to DC, carrying the same message as others who are walking to DC from Boston, or bicycling from Florida. That message is the name of a new worldwide campaign: "SOS! Urgent: Rescue the Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted in China." We hope everyone can take part in this campaign.