(Clearwisdom.net)

United States Department of State

Washington, D.C. 20520

May 9, 2003

Dear Mr. Langevin:

Thank you for your letter of April 14 discussing your concerns about the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China and the cases of Mr. Zhang Ruifeng and Ms. Xu Yanxiang.

We have raised our concerns over China's treatment of the Falun Gong repeatedly with Chinese authorities both in Washington and in Beijing. At the December 2002 session of the U.S.-China Human Rights dialogue held in Beijing, and at the previous session held in Washington in October 2001, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Lorne Craner raised the cases of several individuals detained for Falun Gong activities, and called for the release of those detained for the peaceful expression of their spiritual or religious views. Assistant Secretary Craner specifically raised the case of Mr. Zhang at the December meeting. However, we were not aware of the details of Ms. Xu's case at that time and have instructed our embassy to raise the case with Chinese officials.

The U.S. Government has made clear on numerous occasions our strong opposition to the detention of individuals solely for peaceful association and assembly. We have documented our concerns in our annual country reports on human rights practices and on international religious freedom, which can be found on the State department website: www.state.gov

The steps the Chinese government has taken to restrict freedom of thought, conscious and belief are disturbing. These rights are protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

We will continue to raise these issues with the Chinese government through diplomatic cannels, in addition to making our position clear in public statements.

We hope this information is useful to you. If we may be of further assistance in this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

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Michael C. Polt

Acting Assistant Secretary

Legislative Affairs

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Category: Voices of Support Worldwide