NEW YORK, 7/11/01 (Falun InfoCenter) - The Chinese government is now spreading rumors throughout China that Falun Gong is working against Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympics. This rumor is completely without grounds, and is clearly engineered to breed hatred towards Falun Gong.

Informants from among China's police have confirmed with the Falun Dafa Information Center that China's officials have orchestrated this rumormongering. This has been accomplished, we are told, through the circulation of documents around the country.

Inciting hatred and discrimination against the millions who practice Falun Gong is destructive in itself. But a worse potential exists in this new tactic. The rumors follow in the wake of new so-called "laws" (see FDI's 6/13/01 release) that classify Falun Gong as "subversive" and allow for harsher punishment of practitioners, including, even, execution. It would seem, then, that the rumors are also an attempt to justify cruel laws and measures.

Falun Gong is a traditional spiritual practice of mind and body, and remains without position on any political or economic issue in any country. Beijing's Olympic bid is no exception.

Falun Gong Spokesperson Erping Zhang remarked: "Falun Gong has not, does not, and will not oppose the Chinese government or its Olympic bid. What we are against is the ruthless, illegal persecution of millions of peace-loving citizens who practice Falun Gong."

The Jiang Zemin regime has poured billions of dollars into misinformation in a prolonged, two-year propaganda assault on Falun Gong and an unwitting public. Unfounded rumors about Falun Gong undermining the country's Olympic bid are but another new wrinkle in this campaign.

Regardless of which city is granted the 2008 Olympics, Falun Gong practitioners will continue to reveal the truth about the brutal suppression of Falun Gong in China. Over two hundred and fifty have been murdered in this campaign; and the lives of many others are now in danger as they languish in labor camps, mental hospitals, and prisons across China. Every day they must withstand violent attempts to break their wills and brainwash them into renouncing their faith.

We continue to call on the world to speak out against the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China, and ask for help in ending this tragedy.