July 11, 2001
Colorado legislators must pressure China to stop persecuting the belief system called Falun Gong, practitioners said Tuesday outside the state Capitol. Flanked by more than a dozen followers practicing the distinctive exercises, leaders recited a litany of human rights abuses, including executions and imprisonments, that have gone on since the Chinese government banned the practice.
The event was part of a cross-country protest scheduled to converge on Washington, D.C., on July 19.
Falun Gong is a spiritual system of meditative practices believed to promote healing and well-being. Millions have become adherents in China since founder Li Hong Zhi introduced it in 1992. Two years ago the Chinese government banned the practice.
Colorado is home to more than 30 practitioners, according to spokeswoman Vivian Lam.
China's [party' name omitted] government cracked down on Falun Gong because it considers any popular movement a threat to its power, said Jonathan Du, who joined the Falun Gong protest from his home in Sacramento, Calif.
"I think the Chinese government is afraid to see any group unite together, no matter what their reason, good or bad," said Du, a Chinese native who has been in the United States since 1992. He estimates there are millions of adherents in China.
Du, a 34-year-old software engineer, rides in the protest van making its way across the heartland toward the nation's capital. At the same time, Falun Gong supporters are biking or hiking from elsewhere in the country.
Raised an atheist in southern China, Du said he discovered Falun Gong last year. He said the system's main purpose is to promote the virtues of truth, compassion and forbearance. Adherents meditate on the virtues as they follow the movements and exercises. Du said that soon after beginning the exercises his depression and kidney ailments lifted.
As for China's charge that adherents are not being executed but are committing suicide: "That is impossible," Du said. "We consider killing life to be a sin."
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