Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my strong distaste for the advertisement in the New York Times on September 6, 2000.

The advertisement was described as an open letter by "U.S. Falun Gong practitioners and friends of Falun Gong" to Chinese President Jiang Zemin who was then in New York to participate in the United Nations Millennium Summit.  

Lavish in sensational accusations and venomous innuendo, the letter attacks China's one-year-old ban of Falun Gong, an evil cult that was responsible for over 1600 deaths, 651 cases of mental disorder and thousands of shattered families in China. The bleak picture it portrays about a handful of zealots obscures the fact that 98% of the one time two-million followers have since broken away from the group. At the same the time, it offers a glimpse at the cult's frightening capacity of mind control which, as we have seen, turns not so few practitioners into willing cannon fodder for Li Hongzhi.  

American public deserves to know more about Falun Gong, and especially why China's overwhelming majority, including its 100 million strong religious communities, want nothing to do with it. A newspaper with a high stature as the New York Times could be in a good position to enlighten and educate, unless it should choose to succumb to pressure from ideologically driven forces of China bashers.  

         Sincerely,  
 
 

                                                                                                                            Zhang Yuanyuan
                                                                                                                             Press Counselor