Dear people of America, the government of America, U.S. Congress, and the President of the United States:

The situation is critical. We must urgently call upon you at this time. The repressive regime of Chinese president Jiang Zemin in China has already persecuted Falun Gong for two years now. Tens of thousands of good, peaceful Falun Gong practitioners have been forced to endure the tremendous pain of brutal torture, incarceration, and murder simply because they wish to keep their faith.

From the occasional pieces of information that have slipped through the dark curtain of China's information blockade, the world has seen how a whole series of tragedies have occurred in recent months. Countless goodhearted and innocent lives are in the gravest mortal danger! Below are just a few of the most recent incidents:

• July: ten Chinese citizens were tortured to death because of their faith while in detention in Heilongjiang province.
• July 4: a man in Jilin province who was diligent in his practice of Falun Dafa endured tremendous torture and abuse in police custody and passed away.
• June 28: a 31 year-old schoolteacher was tortured to death in Sichuan province because she was determined to practice Falun Dafa.
• June 20: in Hubei province, four Chinese citizens who were Falun Gong practitioners were beaten and killed. One of them, after being beaten to the point of death, was dragged to the local town square by the frenzied police and burned alive. The police then announced to the crowd that this was "self-immolation!" Two of the other Dafa practitioners were tied to the back of a motorcycle and cruelly dragged down the road at high speed.
• June 12: Zhang Shenfan, a disabled man who relied on a cane to walk, was beaten to death by police because of his faith.
• June 6: two women from Shandong province were violently beaten to death.
• June: in the tragedy of the Wanjia Labor Reeducation Camp in Heilongjiang province, it has been confirmed that 15 women were tortured to death in the labor camp because they held firm to their faith in Falun Gong and many more are receiving emergency treatment. The authorities lied, claiming it was suicide.
• June: a woman who was a Falun Gong practitioner was violently beaten on a Beijing street and raped. Her whole body was covered in bruises and wounds. The onlookers were outraged but dared not say anything.
• At the end of May: in Taiyuan city in Shanxi province, a 70 year-old woman was persecuted to death for practicing Falun Gong. Before she died, she endured solitary confinement for extended periods of time. She was beaten until her face was swollen and bruised, deprived of sleep and forced to march until daylight, set upon by dogs, and tortured in other ways.
• In May, after her son was tortured to death, a mother was also tortured and killed because of her faith in Falun Gong. Her husband and another son are still being held in prison.

... ... and many, many more lives are in grave danger! Even greater persecution has already begun.

The cruel persecution in China only makes us cherish even more the freedom of speech and freedom of belief enjoyed by the people of this nation. It only makes us hold in higher esteem the integrity and dignity of those in the history of humankind who won these freedoms with their blood and their lives. This is why we are urgently appealing to you:

• Please reach out a helping hand to urgently rescue the Falun Gong practitioners who are in mortal danger in China!

• Please reach out a helping hand to help ensure that those children who practice Falun Gong and have lost their parents can go to a place where they can be safe. Help them regain their right to a proper education.

• Please reach out a helping hand to help place the Chinese citizens who have been disabled from torture, just because they tried to gain their freedom to practice, into reliable hospitals so that they can receive the emergency treatment and care that they need!

• Please reach out a helping hand to demand that the elderly women, pregnant mothers, and young women all be released and be allowed to return home so that they may be reunited with their anguished and suffering families.

• Please reach out a helping hand to write letters demanding that Jiang Zemin's criminal gang immediately release all of the Falun Dafa practitioners in China who are defending the dignity of humanity.

• Please reach out a helping hand to help U.S. permanent resident Dr. Teng Chunyan to return to the land of freedom that is America!

• Please reach out a helping hand to help the families of those who have been tortured to death because of their courageous and determined fight for freedom so that these innocent people will not be unfairly incriminated under a system of "guilt by association."

• Please reach out a helping hand to break through Jiang Zemin's information blockade and relay the true facts about the situation into China!

• Please reach out a helping hand to ask for the support of the international community so that they may urgently and independently investigate the truth behind the Falun Gong issue and prosecute the evil!

• Please reach out a helping hand and help the Chinese people to break free of the criminal oppression of Jiang Zemin's tyranny so that the people may choose a healthy way of life and enjoy fundamental human rights and the freedom of belief!

Anything and everything that you are willing to do -- be it writing a letter to the Chinese government, making a phone call to the Chinese embassy, signing a petition to express sympathy for and willingness to rescue the Falun Gong practitioners in China, asking your representative to take concrete measures to help the Chinese people to stop the torture and killing, organizing a speech or a forum in libraries, schools, and other associations so as to allow more of your friends, family, and associates to know the truth of Falun Gong, urgently calling upon the international community to stop China from recklessly torturing and killing their own citizens -- using any way that you can think of will greatly help the people who urgently need to be rescued!

Your help will change the tragic fate of countless people. Your kindness will stop Jiang Zemin's violence and brutality. Your stepping forward is not only for the people of China but also to protect the principles of human decency and goodness that our very existence relies upon, and it is the way to true and lasting peace.

For Truth, for a reasonable and healthy society in the future, for the sake of goodhearted people like yourself everywhere, for those who are still bearing endless hardships for the dignity and decency of humanity, and for all those who embody great compassion and great forbearance, please reach out a helping hand!