Dear Ms. Byrne,

First of all, I would like to thank you for your call to enquire us about "Falun Gong" which gave me a chance to expose the true colours of "Falun Gong". As an old saying goes, heed only one side and you will be benighted. Moreover, kindhearted people are easier to be deceived. That's the reason why "Falun Gong", cult in China, spread their rumours to the Irish people.

In 1992, Li Hongzhi, a man from Changchun City in North China, plagiarized some movements from the Chinese Traditional Qigong combined some cults from Thai dances and created "Falun Gong". Subsequently, he proclaimed that "Falun Gong" was his innovation millions of years ago and he had imparted "Falun Gong" to people on several previous earths.

At the beginning, some Chinese people began practice "Falun Gong" just because they believe what "Falun Gong" preached that practice of "Falun Gong" would make human body stronger against diseases. But the fact tells that they are wrong.

Li Hongzhi said, "Why do human beings get ill? It is sin that makes them ill. If a practitioner feels physical discomfort, it is not disease but 'sin', which hospitals are not able to get rid of". He even said, "Wars, plague and all natural or man-made disasters are ways to get rid of human sin." Under this theory, the practitioners went to Li's so-called classes to "cure illness" through Li's "own energy and power" instead of going to see the doctor. In this way Li accumulated wealth by collecting "class" fees.

However, things went wrong when he used his ridiculous power to "cure illness". Many of his "patients" did not go for necessary medical treatment and died, which began to attract the attention of the whole society and the Chinese Government.

In order to get out of trouble, Li Hongzhi changed his "tactics" to continue his legerdemain. He began to drive his followers to learn his theory, namely Falun Dafa, which could treat them and help them escape mortality and the corruption of human flesh and ascend to what he described as "heaven". Li also emphasized that practitioners of "Falun Gong" must accept and fulfill all his theory; otherwise they can not achieve consummation and ascend to "heaven".

Thus, more and more practitioners who believe in his theory rejected medical treatment and died for the dream of consummation. Since "Falun Gong" was founded in 1992, more than 1,700 "Falun Gong" practitioners died. Among them, more than 1,400 died from their refusal to take medicine while over 300 committed suicide to "ascend to heaven" including those burned themselves in Tian'an Men Square. Countless families suffered. This is the reason why "Falun Gong" is regarded as a cult with essence of anti-humanity, anti-society and anti-science. More abhorrently, "Falun Gong" never dares to confess that those victims fulfilling the heretical fallacies are "Falun Gong" practitioners.

Some scientists and sociologists began to investigate and write criticism on "Falun Gong", which worried Li Hongzhi very much. He called on all his followers to besiege and threaten the scholars and relevant medium so as to stop the doubt and investigation on "Falun Gong". That caused serious chaos in society and broke the law of China. Finally, the Chinese Government announced "Falun Gong" cult and began to forbid it. After that, gang of "Falun Gong" followers continued to commit crimes such as constantly attacking and jamming China's SINO-Satellite which mostly serves the education and health projects.

Cults have become a scourge across the world today, such as the People's Temple in America and Aum Supreme Truth in Japan. Cracking down on cults is the duty of any responsible government. However, out of ulterior motives, some forces are making irresponsible remarks and unwarranted accusations over the Chinese government's handling of the "Falun Gong" issue, using double standards. To be frank, now "Falun Gong" is much more than a cult. It has become a political tool used against China by the forces who do not want a strong China in the world. As a law-ruled country China always takes the security of the people's life and property as the priority of the government and ensures that by law. The "Falun Gong" practitioners were punished not for their belief but for their illegal actions. The two Chinese students you concerned in our telephone conversation are such cases. Both of them were used to study English in adult schools in Ireland. They should finish their studies and live a happy life, but unfortunately they became additional victims of "Falun Gong" and committed illegal actions of disturbing the social peace under the instruction of the heretical fallacies. The rumors that attack the Chinese government persecuting the two students are short of basis, so that unauthentic. Most of the Chinese persons shout for "Falun Gong" in Ireland have ulterior motives, for example applying for asylum to stay in Ireland. Some of them even do not really know about "Falun Gong". You can understand this if you inquire of the 30,000 Chinese students in Ireland.

Each country has its own specific situation which should not be weighed by a simply uni-standard. I am not sure if you are aware of China's 1.3 billion populations which is a big burden for our social development. In case there is some instability, it will become a disaster for Asia as well as the world. So the Chinese Government always put stability as the priority which I should say is responsible for the world. Moreover I truly hope that people could use their heads to find the fact – how can China achieve the average annual economic growth of 9.4% for more than 25 years if without the people's support? I sincerely hope that kindhearted people would not be deceived. China is a large country and used to be very backward under the invasion and oppression of the imperialist and colonialist powers. Now Chinese people are applying themselves to the course of modernization. During this process we cannot avoid facing difficulties and insufficiencies. We welcome kind criticism from friends. But we also oppose to the vicious assault based on unauthentic information.

I don't know what comment will you make after you read my letter. But I do hope that what I said could clear the misunderstandings on China of some Irish friends and contribute as much as possible to our bilateral friendship.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

Wang Xuguang

Attaché

Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Ireland