overseas media on Falun Gong

People's Daily Says Falun Gong Practitioners Should Be United (08/24/2001)

Chinese major newspaper, People's Daily, carries an editorial tomorrow on the struggle against the Falun Gong cult, in which it points out that former Falun Gong practitioners need to be united.

The fight against Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong has had remarkable successes, it says, and most Falun Gong practitioners have seen the truth about Falun Gong cult and broken with it. Party members, officials and working people have been educated, the country has maintained stability, society has more interest in science and technology, and the reforms and opening up are progressing, it says.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party's decision to ban Falun Gong was in the fundamental interest of the entire nation and was timely and necessary, it says, and the major task facing Party and government departments now is to continue educating Falun Gong practitioners who practiced Falun Gong simply to benefit their health and who knew nothing about Li's political ambitions.

When presented with the facts, the majority of them got a clear idea about Li and his cult and repented and have done well in exposing Li and his organization, it says, and those who have broken with Falun Gong should be helped zealously and no prejudice should be shown them. With reasoning and patient work, they will eventually break away from the fetters of Falun Gong and wake up, it says, but it is necessary to distinguish between ordinary practitioners and Falun Gong core members and organizers who harbored political ambitions and intended to make trouble.

People need to act strictly within the scope of the law and those who have broken the law need to be punished, it says. The campaign against Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong is a serious political struggle of the Party against evil forces that work against science, humanity, society, and the state, and a successful fight will increase the political consciousness of party members and officials and party coherence and combativeness and encourage the nation to overcome all difficulties on the road ahead.

Under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the party leadership with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core, China's reform and opening up and modernization drive will forge ahead with even greater vitality, it concludes.