United States: Falun Gong Practitioners Protest CCP's Escalation of Persecution in San Francisco Prior to Olympics

While the 2008 Olympic Games will start in just two weeks, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is still aggressively persecuting Falun Gong practitioners under the excuse of "Olympics Security." On the afternoon of July 26th, Falun Gong practitioners and civil right activists held a rally outside the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco to protest the Communist regime's intensifying the persecution of innocent Chinese citizens and to urge the public to help end the nine-year persecution of Falun Gong.

Rally outside the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco calls for an end to persecution	Sherry Zhang cried as she recounted the CCP's atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners

At the rally, San Francisco Falun Gong spokeswoman Sherry Zhang said that in the past nine years the CCP has exhausted all evil measures against the peaceful practitioners of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

"In the past years, more than 3,000 Falun Gong practitioners have died due to the brutal persecution and tens of thousands of practitioners' families have been broken apart," Ms. Zhang stated.

At the rally, Dr. Wei Zou recounted the case of practitioner Zhou Yu: "Zhou Yu was a folk singer in Beijing. In January 2008, after a performance, Yu and his wife Na Xue were driving home. However, they were stopped at Yanzhuang, in the Tongzhou District of Beijing by police officers who claimed to be running an 'Olympics Security Check.' When police officers found that Yu and Xu were Falun Gong practitioners, they arrested the couple and sent them to the Tongzhou District Detention Centre. On February 8th, Chinese New Year's Eve, Yu died from torture. Yu was only 42. He died just because he is a Falun Gong practitioner. The persecution must be ended now."

Michael from Denmark received a copy of Falun Gong Today. Pointing the front-page article about the death of musician Zhou Yu, he said that he had read about the persecution and yet he had never read a story in such a great detail. "Any form of persecution is not right. I wish you luck," Michael said.

Local resident Mr. Brown said that he had seen many Falun Gong activities and he knew that practitioners follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

"Though Falun Gong practitioners are very peaceful, the Chinese Communist government is a totalitarian regime and it fears the practice because of its vast popularity in China," Brown said.

On the same day as the rally, San Francisco practitioners set up a photo display and distributed truth-clarifying materials at Washington Square, close to Chinatown, and at Union Square downtown.