First of all, it should be noted that whether or not someone wants to practice Falun Gong is a matter of free will. Practitioners feel free to make their own judgments based on their own understanding without being pressured by other practitioners.

By the same token, we hope that people around the world will also be free to judge Falun Gong for what it is without this kind of blatant pressure from the Chinese authorities. We believe that truth and goodness cannot remain hidden forever.

In response to the false accusations and fabricated stories in the video made by the Chinese communist government, a few factual clarifications are provided as follows:

As Falun Gong practitioners, we do not know of any instance in which Mr. Li Hongzhi has forbidden anyone from taking medication. What Master did was simply to explain the kind of relationship between cultivation practice and taking medication. In fact, he stated time and again in his books and during his lectures that if one felt ill, one should go to the hospital. Of course, we practitioners all know in our own experience that through practicing the exercises of Falun Gong and improving our moral character, we are able to become physically and spiritually very healthy. This is also the reason why it is said

that with 100 million people practicing Falun Gong in China, the Chinese central and local governments, as well as business establishments, have saved a tremendous amount of money on health care. Falun Gong can only benefit human society.

Some people have spread a rumor that Mr. Li misled people by changing his date of birth from July 7, 1952 to May 13, 1951 so that he could claim to be a reincarnation of Buddha Sakyamuni. Anyone who has any knowledge of the bureaucratic system of the Chinese government can see it clearly that this claim is a fabrication. During the Cultural

Revolution the whole country was in the midst of disorder. Many records were lost or misplaced. It was quite common to have someone’s date of birth and other personal data recorded incorrectly in one’s residence file in the workplace or in local police stations. Mr. Li’s case was just one of many.

Mr. Li later had the error corrected. It is usually a long and troublesome process to change any information in one’s residence records because the police need to search through personal records and sometimes they interview the applicant’s family members. In other words, Mr. Li could not correct his date of birth without proof and the approval of the government record office. Mr. Li has never claimed to be a reincarnation of Buddha Sakyamuni as he was accused of doing in the video tape made by the Chinese authorities. In any case, many people in the world were born on that day; maybe even some criminals, so there is nothing unusual about May 13 of 1951 except that it was indeed Mr. Li’s date of birth.

Anyone who has read Mr. Li Hongzhi’s Zhuan Falun or has listened to his lectures knows very well that these kinds of incidents would not occur if a person were a true practitioner of Falun Gong. Mr. Li has clearly stated that one will create a lot of bad karma by taking a human life, and that includes taking one’s own life. As Falun Gong practitioners, we are all working towards becoming better and more moral beings. How can one take one’s own life or other lives and still claim oneself to be a Falun Gong practitioner? It is absolutely not possible.

As for the case whereby someone claimed himself to be a "Buddha" and killed his own parents, and the case whereby someone used scissors to cut open his abdomen looking for a Falun (Law Wheel), these are obvious signs of mental disorder. As for mentally ill people or critically ill patients, Mr. Li has clearly stressed on many occasions that they are not supposed to practice Falun Gong. Mentally ill patients often try to practice Falun Gong while practicing other different kinds of qigong practices, in the hopes that their mental

illness will be cure. When the day comes that their condition recurs, some people would blame Falun Gong for causing their illness. This is an unjustified accusation.

Another fabrication in the video is that Mr. Li has advocated a theory of the end of the world and that he believes that such a thing does exist. The fact is that Mr. Li has never discussed it in this manner either in his books or on any occasion. What we know is that Mr. Li said on numerous occasions that the theory of the end of the world does not exist, but the Chinese communist authorities took out the word "not" and made it "does exist". It is hard to imagine that the Chinese communist government can fabricate these kinds of stories to deceive the public and attack Mr. Li.

The video claims that Falun Gong is not properly registered and is therefore an illegal organization. Mr. Li registered Falun Gong with the Chinese Qigong Association, a government agency, back in 1992 when he first started teaching in China. Falun Gong was appraised by that government agency and was considered one of best Qigong systems. Mr. Li was asked to stay in Beijing by the Association and Falun Gong was

placed under its direct administration. It was during that time that the Association set up the current "structure" of assistants and practice sites in different regions. All the lectures by Mr. Li were sponsored by the government Qigong Association in Beijing or by those

local associations elsewhere.

After three years, Mr. Li decided to leave the Association because he felt it was time, and also because he felt that the Association's primary goal was to make money instead of doing research studies on qigong. Mr. Li stopped teaching seminars after withdrawing from the Association. So there was no more Falun Gong organization to speak of. But Falun Gong continued to spread as more and more people began to learn it , not directly from Mr. Li personally as before, but through the volunteer help from veteran practitioners. As for the legitimate existence of Falun Gong, a few years ago some veteran practitioners tried to register with several government agencies including the Civil Affairs Administration, and the United Front Ministry, but received no reply from them.

The Chinese communist regime has claimed that Mr. Li is using the practice of Falun Gong to make a fortune. While it is true that fees were charged for the seminars he held in China years ago, they were charged not by Mr. Li, but by the China Qigong Association, a

government agency and sponsor of all of Mr. Li's lectures. Moreover, 60% of those fees went to the Association while the remaining 40% went to Falun Gong.. Out of this 40%, expenses had to be covered including the costs of printing materials and renting lecture halls. In the end, not much was really left. So the claims that Mr. Li purchased cars and

other luxuries for his family using the money that he earned are patently false. In reality, he did not earn much money from the seminars because most of it had to go to the Association and to covering costs.

Mr. Li rarely has contact with practitioners. If he really wanted to earn money from this cultivation practice, he would be charging huge sums of money for conferences and classes in the same way that most qigong masters charge fees these days. He could also charge more for his books, as he earns his modest living from the royalties. It should

be noted, too, that he does not receive royalties from the books sold in China as the Chinese authorities banned the books years ago. He could also simply charge each practitioner one dollar and would easily become a multi-millionaire. The fact that he has done none of these things shows that he is not interested in making money. In reality,

the teaching of Falun Gong is free to the public.

We sincerely hope that the Chinese communist regime will reconsider its position on Falun Gong, a Qigong system that has brought tremendous benefit to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If the government were to find something that we have done inappropriately and were to let us know in an open and honest manner, we would be

willing to adjust our actions, but using fabrications and false accusations is neither constructive nor helpful.