• CHINA CALLS UP SCORN WITH FALUN GONG HATE
  
• FOUNDER OF FALUN GONG FORMALLY WITHDRAWS FROM COMMUNIST YOUTH LEAGUE
  
• FALUN GONG JOINS CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADES WORLDWIDE, CCP PRESSURE FINDS LESS OF AN AUDIENCE
  
• 21 TRAGIC DEATHS REPORTED IN 11 DAYS
  
• TUESDAY NYC PRESS CONFERENCE: CCP PHONE HATE CAMPAIGN

"CHINA CALLS UP SCORN WITH FALUN GONG HATE"
The West Australian reported this past week "You have to wonder about China's leaders. In the past couple of years, they've spent millions of dollars and a great deal of energy trying to play down their human rights abuses and persuade the rest of the world that China is a suitable country to host the world's greatest sporting event, the Olympic Games. Now they've apparently launched a crude global telephone hate campaign aimed at harassing members of the enigmatic spiritual movement, Falun Gong, with which they have an irrational obsession. It's a sinister act that will reinforce some of our worst fears about the world's biggest nation. In the past few days, dozens of people throughout Australia and thousands more in other parts of the world have been getting recorded messages on their home and mobile phones demonizing the practice of Falun Gong and claiming that the Chinese Government is defending human rights by saving people from the movement. The messages, in both Chinese and English, centre on reports linking Falun Gong with an alleged self-immolation incident in 2001. Australian Falun Gong practitioners have called on the Federal Government to investigate the source of the calls and take steps to block them. ... the Beijing regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practice while imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practice it. ..."

FOUNDER OF FALUN GONG FORMALLY WITHDRAWS FROM COMMUNIST YOUTH LEAGUE
On February 14th, Falun Gong's founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi, issued a statement announcing his formal withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Youth League. The gesture is the most recent and dramatic instantiation of a trend that started in December 2004 and has seen some 30,300 individuals publicly renounce their membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or CCP-related organizations. Many of the renunciations have been made online at www.9ping.com. Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Erping Zhang commented: "Although it was Jiang Zemin who initiated the persecution, claiming that 'the Communist Party must defeat Falun Gong,' the CCP for over five years has been the instrument through which the campaign is carried out. The CCP has reached into every corner of Chinese society and made Falun Gong out to be an 'enemy of the state.' It has translated into yet another bloody chapter in the CCP's notorious history. They have ruined millions of families. It's easy now to tell who the real 'evil cult' is. No wonder thousands are now rushing to break with it."

FALUN GONG JOINS CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADES WORLDWIDE, CCP PRESSURE FINDS LESS OF AN AUDIENCE
Students of Falun Gong around the world again this year joined in dozens of parades celebrating the New Year, many wearing traditional Chinese dress and performing as drum troupes. But unlike in previous years, Communist Chinese officials had little to say about it this season. Or at least, little that people felt compelled to listen to. In Sydney, Australia, for example, Falun Gong was allowed into one such parade for the first time since 1999. That was the year China's launched its suppression of the group. In Flushing, New York, meanwhile, Falun Gong's large presence brought to the parade dragon and lion dances, exercise demonstrations, a waist drum troupe, and graceful "celestial maiden" dancers complete in dazzling Tang Dynasty-style garments. Organizers had been pressured in previous years not to include Falun Gong. And happily, in the end, Falun Gong was rightfully a part of San Francisco's large parade. The San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce had at first managed to bar the group (on dubious grounds) from participating. In the end Falun Gong was let in, though on the stipulation that it followed the parade's tail. "We were a little sad," Falun Gong spokeswoman Sherry Zhang told The San Francisco Chronicle. "I hope this will end the discrimination of Falun Gong in San Francisco."

21 TRAGIC DEATHS REPORTED IN 11 DAYS
Over the 11 days from Feb. 11 - 22, the deaths of 21 Chinese Falun Gong practitioners as a result of persecution in custody were confirmed. Cases of death as a result of torture and other forms of persecution are being reported at an increasing rate. In just the first few weeks of 2005 already 114 cases have been documented. In all of 2004, 386 deaths were confirmed; at the time that was the highest annual total to date. All told, the deaths of 1,379 innocent people as a result of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong have been verified since July 1999.

TUESDAY NYC PRESS CONFERENCE: CCP PHONE HATE CAMPAIGN
Starting Feb 6, 2005, scores of homes, businesses and individuals in the New York City area were bombarded by phone calls with recorded messages unmistakably from the CCP's regime. The calls, which contained Chinese nationalist messages and propaganda demonizing Falun Gong, utilized a recent controversial article by the Associated Press so as to give credibility to the CCP's ruthless persecution. A press conference will be held Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 5:00pm to disclose details of the phone campaign and the role of the AP article. New York Press Club, Penthouse Conference Center, 33rd Floor 330 West 42nd Street.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
Contacts: Gail Rachlin (+1 917-757-9780), Levi Browde (+1 914-720-0963), Erping Zhang (+1 646-533-6147), or Christina Chai (+1 917-386-5068).
Fax: 646-792-3916 Email: , Website: http://faluninfo.net/