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"President Bush must bring up the Falun Gong in his public meetings with President Hu Jintao and China's leaders, and call for, in unambiguous terms, an end to the suppression. General remarks about 'human rights' send the wrong message. It is imperative China's leadership hear in strong terms that what they are doing to Falun Gong is unacceptable and needs to stop," said Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang on Friday.
In the past five years the persecution of Falun Gong and other faith groups in China has continued and, in many cases, even worsened. During Bush's time in office the number of documented Falun Gong deaths from torture and abuse in custody has risen from 640 to 2780. Documented cases of torture have grown from a few hundred to over 44,000. Hundreds of thousands--possibly millions--of Falun Gong languish in China's gulags as prisoners of conscience. Adherents are stripped of their legal rights, and laws have been rewritten to justify their mistreatment. The Chinese regime's attempt to "smash" and "eradicate" Falun Gong and any of the 70 million plus who continue to practice it has been labeled by leading human rights attorneys a program of "genocide."
The U.S. Department of State said in its Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, released last week, that the Chinese government has made renewed calls to "expand and deepen its battle" against the Falun Gong and similar groups, and that "credible reports of torture and deaths in custody" continue.
Falun Gong reportedly was not included in Bush's previous discussions with Hu, nor with China's former ruler Jiang Zemin, who visited Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch in 2001.
In a recent TV interview Bush said of China's Hu that, "he's made some very positive statements, and interesting statements about different aspects of freedom."
"We don't doubt that Hu is willing to make 'interesting' or even 'positive' statements about freedom. What matters is whether he will act on those. Right now tens of millions who practice Falun Gong are being denied their rights to belief, assembly, speech, the press, and even legal representation. This, the facts, is what we hope Bush will deal with on his trip," Zhang commented. "And the facts aren't so rosy."
Indicators suggest that a growing rift exists at the upper echelon of China's leadership surrounding the treatment of Falun Gong, pitting former leader Jiang Zemin, who launched the suppression, against the newer Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao administration. Several analysts have offered that Jiang is pressuring Hu to carry out Jiang's Falun Gong policy, even as disapproval mounts.
"Bush is in position to do a great deal of good on this trip," said Zhang. "Hu needs to hear Falun Gong named, explicitly, by world leaders like Bush. He needs to be reminded to do what is right, however difficult, and act in China's best interest."
"Millions of Falun Gong in China are bearing the weight of tremendous suppression to uphold freedom, a value the President has spoken much about. With but a few words Bush can give millions cause for hope."
Last Thursday, 21 members of the United States Congress wrote to the President, asking that he express Congress' "grave concern regarding the lack of progress in China to protect human rights." The members asked Bush to call upon Hu to "Stop the use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" and "End the persecution of Falun Gong in China and abroad, and release Falun Gong practitioners from detention."
The U.S. Congress has passed several resolutions calling for an end of this persecution and has asked President Bush on various occasions to speak out on the issue.
# # #
PRESS
RELEASE - Nov. 13, 2005
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA
INFORMATION CENTER
Contacts: Gail Rachlin (+1 917-757-9780), Levi Browde (+1 646-415-0998), Erping
Zhang (+1 646-533-6147), or Christina Chai (+1 917-386-5068).
Fax: 646-792-3916 Email: 
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Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/
