(Clearwisdom.net) On the afternoon of November 5, some Falun Gong practitioners in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area held a press conference in JFK plaza, located in downtown Dallas. They expressed their desire to help the Mary Kay Corporation learn about Falun Dafa and the facts about the persecution, so that the Mary Kay Corporation can protect the rights of its own employees. The Mary Kay Corporation's headquarters are in Dallas.

Because Mary Kay's Shenzhen branch in China was recently found to have requested its employees to sign a statement guaranteeing that they will neither practice nor advocate for Falun Gong, Mary Kay has attracted attention from the public.

Between September and October of 2003, Mary Kay drew attention from the "610 Office", an agency that was launched by Jiang Zemin to carry out persecution against Falun Gong. The reason was that Falun Gong practitioners clarified the truth to their coworkers during Mary Kay's Shenzhen branch head's inauguration. Mary Kay has more than 120,000 employees in China.

After illegally detaining three Falun Gong practitioners, the "610 office" pressured the company further and forced it to comply with the office. It threatened the company that otherwise the regular operation of Mary Kay in China would be affected.

Under pressure from the "610 office", the Mary Kay Corporation requested its current and new employees to sign an "Action Norm Statement" to clearly declare that they would not practice or advocate Falun Gong, otherwise they would lose their jobs. According to sources in China, some Mary Kay employees have already lost their jobs for refusing to sign such a statement. An individual who spoke in favor of Falun Gong during a recent Mary Kay meeting in China was detained by Chinese authorities. The individual's whereabouts remain unknown.

U.S. Falun Gong practitioners have contacted the company through several channels, hoping to clarify the truth and that the company would see the seriousness of their actions in taking away people's freedom of belief at the cost of their jobs. At the same time, practitioners understand that the Mary Kay Corporation is actually also a victim of this persecution launched and implemented by the Jiang regime.

In the press conference, one practitioner stated: "The persecution against Falun Gong in China has violated China's Constitution, and it has also violated the international norms... Jiang has been sued in several countries for his persecution against Falun Gong."

Western practitioner Tracy, a certified Mary Kay Corporation sale associate, came a long way to Dallas. Upon hearing about this incident, she started to contact the company and clarify truth to related personnel. She made the 5-6 hour trip to Dallas for this press conference from south Texas. She said that the Mary Kay Corporation provides women from all walks of life with a career opportunity through emphasizing group collaboration, education and morale. The company also encourages women to be enthusiastic, to be themselves, and to respect themselves. She appreciates all of these things.

Tracy then added that practicing Falun Gong has brought great changes to her life, changes that she could have never imagined. She said: "Before practicing Falun Gong, I had terrible allergies and had difficulty breathing. Beside this problem, I had other health problems and had gone to many clinics. I don't even know how many kinds of medication I had taken, but the situation didn't improve. Shortly after I started to practice Falun Gong, these symptoms disappeared. I use the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" to direct my life, and consequently my life and spirit have been enriched like they never have before."

Dr. Wu, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, shared her mother's story. Her mother Zeng Lingwen, a 68-year-old retired professor, has been severely persecuted because she refuses to give up her belief in Falun Gong. Ms. Zeng is being detained in a forced labor camp, and has been deprived of the right to see her family members. Dr. Wu pointed out that the suffering of women and children is very severe in the Jiang regime's persecution against Falun Gong. Many families have been torn apart, husbands losing their wives, children losing their mothers. She hopes that Mary Kay can reconsider its decision after learning about the urgency and necessity of exposing and opposing this persecution.

Falun Gong practitioners called upon the Mary Kay Corporation and other companies who are doing business with China to look at the facts of Falun Gong and refuse to comply with the "610 Office", and to work together to end this brutal persecution.

Posting date: 11/9/2003
Original article date: 11/9/2003
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2003/11/8/60235.html

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