Washington Times Report: Falun Gong Practitioners Call on President Bush to Press Hu Jintao to End Persecution

(Clearwisdom.net) According to a report from the Washington Times on November 10, 2005, President Bush plans to raise religious persecution in China with Chinese officials during a visit to Beijing next week.

"We strongly support religious freedom," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters November 9. "And when there are countries that are not allowing for religious freedom within their borders, we are going to point that out."

The president said this week that he will raise religious freedom as an issue when he meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

 "I will continue to remind President Hu about, for example, my personal faith and the belief that people should be allowed to worship freely," he told a round table of Asian journalists on November 8. "And a vibrant, whole society is one that recognizes that certain freedoms are inherent and need to be part of a complete society."

"Today's presidential meeting sends a signal that the U.S. government really cares about not only Tibet, but also religious freedom in all of China," said professor Larry Liu of American University. "It's a very strong message."

The report states, Mr. Liu is calling on Mr. Bush to press Mr. Hu to end religious persecution when the two leaders meet next week. Mr. Liu is a practitioner of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, whose members have been killed or imprisoned in China.

"We want to send a message to President Bush to raise the issue of persecution against Falun Gong to Mr. Hu Jintao," Mr. Liu said.

To that end, a group of Falun Gong practitioners planned a press conference near the White House today to demand exit visas for 17 Chinese children whose parents were killed or imprisoned for practicing the meditative religion. They will also call for the release of eight Falun Gong practitioners who were sentenced to particularly long prison terms.

The report states that religious freedom in China has come under increasing assault in recent years.

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