Delaware County Daily Times (Pennsylvania): Delco residents protest repression

April 26, 2001

SWARTHMORE --It has been about two years since the Chinese government banned Falun Gong, a popular spiritual practice that features slow exercises and meditation, and promotes "truthfulness, compassion and tolerance." Chinese authorities reportedly imprisoned 50,000 practitioners, some of them Americans. They've reportedly killed at least 193 adherents, most in the past five months and 15 during the first four weeks of the current United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

On a recent Tuesday night, a group of Falun Gong practitioners, including some from Delaware County, held a "Candlelight Vigil to Stop the Killing in China'' at the Liberty Bell Pavilion in Philadelphia. The vigil, a tribute to Falun Gong adherents -- and others persecuted by the Chinese government -- was among dozens held in New York, Chicago, Paris, Hong Kong, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and other cities around the world.

The U.N. Commission was scheduled to vote on whether to debate China's human rights violations. For the second year in a row, the Chinese delegation issued a motion for "no action'' and no vote was taken.

Falun Gong, founded in Eastern China in 1992, has more than 100 million adherents worldwide. Hundreds of groups thrive in the U.S.

The Chinese government -- in the spotlight since the recent spy plane incident -- has gotten some heat from the U.S. for its abuses. In 1999, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed a joint resolution condemning Chinese oppression and President Clinton publicly denounced the crackdown.

In February 2000, the U.S. State Department's Human Rights Report was "highly critical'' of the Chinese government.

At the advent of the Bush administration, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed human rights with Chinese Ambassador Li Zhaoxing, vowing to openly discuss human rights -- particularly tolerance and respect for Falun Gong.

In July 1999 -- just months before a 50th birthday celebration for the People's Republic of China in Bejiing's Tiananmen Square -- President Jiang Zemin banned Falun Gong and called for founder Li Hongzhi to be pulled from exile in the U.S. and arrested.

A few adherents snuck into Tiananmen Square just before the birthday gala. But, unlike the pro-Democracy protesters of 1989, they were non-political and only wanted to be left alone.

Shiyu Zhou, an assistant professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania, said the Chinese government once endorsed Falun Gong because many of its officials practiced it and because the positive health effects saved the government money on prescription drugs, and other health care programs.

The trouble began, Zhou said, when Li Hongzhi resisted the government's efforts to "institutionalize'' Falun Gong, profit from it and use it as a tool for spreading propaganda.

In a recent interview, Matt Kutolowski, director of Swarthmore's writing program, noted that Americorps, the federal government's domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps, recently had Falun Gong workshops for its medical staff.

Kutolowski's wife Emily said just a few weeks of practicing Falun Gong eliminated her chronic back pain and let her resume playing sports.

"A lot of it was stress,'' she stated. "In general, though, my health has improved. The dentist even told me my gums looked better.''

Media resident Terri Morse, who leads a Falun Gong group at Swarthmore College, said the practice helped her defeat Lyme Disease, which attacks the joints, nervous system and other parts of the body.

"If there was going to be any change, it was going to be on a much deeper level,'' Morse said. "I started to live by the principles of Falun Gong, truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. I had always intellectualized, but I learned how to incorporate them into my everyday life and relationships.''

Though Falun Gong is said to help people overcome addictions to alcohol, tobacco and other substances, doctors don't actively promote or prescribe it, said Jingduan Yang, a resident in psychiatry at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. But he recommends it to some patients.

The health effects are a"side benefit," Yang said.