A Letter to President Bill Clinton

August 24, 2000

President Bill Clinton

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Subject: An Urgent Appeal on Behalf of Falun Gong

Dear President Clinton:

My name is XX. I am a Ph.D. student of Physics in the University of XX, and also a Falun Gong practitioner. I would like to bring to your attention, the escalating persecution of Falun Gong in China.

As you may already know, Falun Gong is a peaceful Qigong practice intended to improve the body, mind and spirit. I have been practicing Falun Gong since November 1997, here in X City. At that time, my eyes were causing me too much pain to be able to study. I first went to the world-famous X City Medical Center for help; there the doctor said that my condition was not quite severe enough for laser treatment. In the mean time, there was nothing he could do, so he told me to just go home and come back to see him when my condition worsened. I then turned to the traditional Chinese healing methods looking for help. After a short period of practicing Falun Gong, the pain in my eyes completely disappeared. In addition, I have not only gained a healthier body, but also become more at peace in my heart and compassionate to others.

Unfortunately, the growing popularity of Falun Gong has made the Chinese government uneasy. They started a campaign last July to suppress and even ban Falun Gong in China. Many practitioners went to Beijing to exercise their constitutional rights as Chinese citizens and to appeal to the Chinese government on behalf of Falun Gong. My mother, who is in her 60's, was one of them. She was taken into police custody and then thrown into the City Mental Hospital. The hospital staff initially refused to admit her, but they backed-down under pressure from the government. The doctors openly admitted that she was sent to the mental hospital not because of any mental illness, but because of Falun Gong.

When I heard about what had happened to my mother, I was shocked. When I told this story to other people, they thought I was making it up. I went back to China early this year to visit my mother in the hospital. She told me that she was forced to take injections and drugs everyday, which made her feel sick and weak. I made a request to the hospital to release her. The doctors refused and said, "Since the police sent her here, we have to give her medication. Otherwise, if she continues to practice Falun Gong in the future, we will be held accountable."

My mother is just one example of tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have been detained in labor camps, mental hospitals, detention centers and prisons. They are suffering under extremely cruel and inhumane conditions. For example, Mr. Su Gang, a 32-year-old computer engineer, was forcefully admitted into a psychiatric hospital where he was injected with unknown drugs. He died a few days later. Ms. Zhao Xin, a 31-year-old university lecturer in Beijing, was so brutally beaten by police that several of her vertebrae were fractured, causing her to become totally paralyzed. Two practitioners, Ms. Gong Baohua and Ms. An Xiukun, were suffocated to death when the police tried to force-feed the two women, who were conducting a hunger strike to protest their illegal detainment. More than a year has passed since the Chinese government initiated its persecution on Falun Gong practitioners. The alarming fact is that there are no signs of the persecution slowing down. Every day there are more and more reports of Falun Gong practitioners dying or becoming seriously injured as a result of government persecution.

At this critical juncture, I would like to ask you to address Falun Gong issues at the upcoming World Summit at the United Nations with President Jiang, and urge the Chinese government to end its cruel and inhumane crackdown on Falun Gong. The actions of the Chinese government go against the fundamental human rights enumerated by the Chinese constitution and the international norms of freedom of belief and expression.

I would greatly appreciate your humanitarian support, and thank you for your time and attention to answer my urgent appeal.

Yours respectfully and sincerely,

XX