New Jersey's Local Government and Media Response to a Letter Attacking Falun Gong Written by the Chinese Consul-General in New York

By a New Jersey Practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) In the beginning of October 2001, the Township Council of Parsippany in New Jersey State unanimously passed a resolution condemning the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong, and mailed a copy of the resolution to Zhang Hongxi, the Chinese Consul-General in New York. In response, the Consul-General wrote a letter to the Township Council of Parsippany. In the letter, Zhang Hongxi once again fabricated stories against Falun Gong, personally attacked the founder of Falun Gong, and shamelessly praised the Chinese government's ruthless persecution against Falun Gong as being "extremely tolerant" and "merciful."

Then, what was the response of the officials in Parsippany City to the letter? In less than one month after the Township Council of Parsippany received the letter, the Parsippany City Mayor, Mimi Letts established the date of December 5, 2001 to be "Falun Dafa Day," which once again praised Falun Gong founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. This was the second time Mayor Letts had honored Falun Gong and Mr. Li Hongzhi since December 2000.

In addition, the Parsippany City Library held the city's first Falun Gong seminar on December 5. Thomas Russo, a vice chairman of the council, made a special trip to the seminar to give the opening speech. He reiterated the township council's support of Falun Gong, and once again condemned the Chinese (Jiang Zemin) Government's persecution of Falun Gong. He said that the Township Council of Parsippany is strongly against any kind of human rights violations. Township councilwoman, Ms. Agostini, also attended the seminar and gave a speech praising Falun Gong. Afterwards, she and other city residents learned the complete five sets of exercises with great interest. After the seminar was over, Ms. Agostini talked closely with each of the attending Falun Gong practitioners and expressed her gratitude to the practitioners for coming to the library to teach the exercises for free. She also told the practitioners that she would introduce Falun Gong to more people.

In order to let more people in the community know and benefit from Falun Gong, New Jersey practitioners have held many Falun Gong introductory seminars. However, it is still rare for a mayor to give such an exclusive honor to this activity by praising Falun Gong and Mr. Li Hongzhi plus to have the attendance of two township council members. Isn't this the best response to the letter from Consul-General Zhang?

Since Falun Gong was introduced to the New York and New Jersey area in 1996, and especially since the start of the persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin's regime, more and more people understand or have practiced Falun Gong. The practice sites have spread all over cities and towns. Many American people have gained an understanding of Falun Gong and a lot of them including many government officials, have even personally experienced the exercises or had contact with Falun Gong practitioners. The characteristics of American people's honesty, respecting the freedom of belief and the love of independent thinking enable them to quickly understand and support Falun Gong. Take New Jersey State for example; from the end of 2000 to the end of 2001, Falun Gong practitioners have received nearly 200 kinds of proclamations, resolutions and letters from every level of government. These recognitions show the government's warm and complete support and strongly condemn the persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin's regime.

An American newspaper reporter was very surprised after reading Consul-General Zhang's letter. He said to some local Falun Gong practitioners, "I was shocked after reading his letter, this letter is so bad. How could someone be considered bad just because they [the consular-general] think he or she is bad?"

As a consular-general of the People's Republic of China, when the innocent Falun Gong practitioners are being illegally persecuted by Jiang Zemin's vicious group, he not only does not uphold justice and protect the basic rights of those overseas Chinese who practice Falun Gong, but closely follows Jiang Zemin's regime and slanders Falun Gong overseas. He travels everywhere and stirs up the hatred of the Chinese who have not learned the truth of Falun Gong, and interferes with the righteous actions of the American government's condemnations of the persecution of Falun Gong. He really deceives the majority of the overseas Chinese into misunderstanding and becoming dismayed and makes the American government feel shocked and angry at his actions.

A recent activity of associate consular-general Zhao Weimin, attacking Falun Gong in New Jersey has resulted in widespread anger among American Chinese in the science and technology fields. Today, when the truth has been widely spread, especially overseas, all slanderous lies about Falun Gong have lost their ground, and all activities that follow Jiang Zemin's vicious gang are doomed to fail.

Once again we advise Chinese officials staying overseas: For yourselves and your families' future, please immediately stop following Jiang Zemin's criminal regime, because what they are persecuting is Falun Dafa which is saving the universe and its beings. Their crimes will certainly send them into endless destruction. Do not trade a little immediate personal benefit by being an accomplice of the persecution only to be buried in the evil's tomb.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.cc/mh/articles/2002/1/1/22349.html

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