EVENT NOTICE: The Falun Gong Factor – Persecution and Activism in Present Day China

WASHINGTON DC—On Monday, April 26, the Falun Dafa Information Center will release its 2010 Annual Report followed by a panel of scholars, human rights experts and victims discussing the findings and what Falun Gong’s experience of persecution and activism can provide towards better understanding China’s present and future.

When: Monday, April 26 2010; 1:30pm -2:30pm
Where: Capitol Building, Rm. HC6, Washington DC
Contact: Caylan Ford, caylanf@faluninfo.net – (202) 510 1845 

Eleven years ago, Falun Gong appeared on the world stage as 10,000 practitioners gathered peacefully in Beijing to request an end to escalating harassment. Three months later, the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to “eradicate” the spiritual practice, bringing forth what members of the U.S. Congress termed in 2009 “one of the most unjust and cruel persecutions of our time.”

Today, Falun Gong remains one of the least understood, yet most severely persecuted groups in China. Millions continue to face the threat of detention, torture, and death because of their religious identity. Meanwhile, practitioners inside and outside China have used Internet technology to create a potent grassroots movement aimed at nonviolently countering the persecution against them.

Speakers will include:
•    Nina Shea (moderator), Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Director of Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute
•    Levi Browde, Executive Director, Falun Dafa Information Center, presenting an overview of the Annual Report’s findings.
•    Ethan Gutmann, Adjunct Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, expert on U.S. corporations’ involvement in Internet censorship in China, and author of a forthcoming book on Falun Gong
•    David Matas, Senior Legal Counsel, B’nai Brith Canada, co-author of Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
•    Dr. Shiyu Zhou, deputy director of Global Internet Freedom
•    Jin Pang, Washington DC resident, daughter and niece of two Falun Gong practitioners illegally imprisoned in China in 2009

Note to editors: To request an embargoed copy of the Falun Dafa Information Center’s 2010 Annual Report’s Executive Summary, please contact caylanf@faluninfo.net.