[Clearwisdom.Net] Radio Free Asia (RFA) February 1, 2001, Hong Kong -- Zhang Erping, a Falun Gong Spokesman in New York, received a death threat phone call on Wednesday at 3:00 pm US Eastern Time. The New York police filed the case and started an investigation.

According to a report on Thursday from the China Human Rights and Democracy Information Center in Hong Kong, during the threatening phone call, a male person said to Zhang Erping in Chinese, "I will kill you." Zhang recorded the phone message and reported this to local police. According to the information center, as a Falun Gong Spokesman, Zhang Erping has been reprimanded by the Chinese Government many times. Media reports said that the China National Security Bureau had contacted the Chinese Mafia in the US seeking to hire them at high prices to assassinate Li Hongzhi and his major assistants. Another report from the information center showed that every anti-Falun Gong office throughout China had received an order from the Central Politics and Law Council on January 30, 2000. As an abstract of a teleconference, this order emphasized furthering persecution of Falun Gong by acting more aggressively and sooner. The China Human Rights and Democracy Information Center in Hong Kong criticized this order.

[Editorial: As a Falun Gong Spokesman in New York, Zhang Erping only objectively stated Falun Gong Practitioners' opinions over the Self-Immolation Incident in Tiananmen Square, as well as expressed concerns over the accuracy of this report from the Xinhua News Agency. He also called for an independent third-party investigation. As a propaganda tool of Jiang Zemin, the Xinhua News Agency has fabricated many bloody stories and shifted the responsibility onto Falun Gong. Right now, as a lawful organization overseas, Falun Gong simply expressed their concerns. What makes Jiang's Government so insane as to kill people who simply have opinions inconsistent with its ideology? From this, we can well imagine that Jiang Zemin must have spent countless time and money on the so-called Self-Immolation Incident.]