Editor's notes: Frank Dodd (Tony) Smith, Jr. participated in Falun Gong in the 1990s, but later he realized that Li Hongzhi was seriously misrepresenting himself. Here he made an apology for his earlier criticism. He had posted an article before to explore Falun Gong and Li Hongzhi. (See http://english.kaiwind.com/Words/200711/t69315.htm)
Here I would like to apologize for, and retract, my earlier criticism of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao.
Back in the 1990s, I was at Georgia Tech studying physics. Through students there, I got involved with the Falun Gong (Falun Dafa) of Li Hongzhi. At first it seemed to me that Falun Gong was good and that the Chinese Government agreed, but later in the 1990s conflicts began to appear. I was slow to realize what was really happening, and it was 2003 when I realized that Li Hongzhi was seriously misrepresenting himself (for example, saying that he had "... gathered the lives of all of the cosmos's sentient beings and various elements into his body ..." and that he would "... offer you salvation and turn you into Gods. ... Since the beginning of time, not a single God had dared to do this, and such a thing had never occurred. ..."). Now I realize that actions taken by the Chinese Government have been necessary to avoid serious disruption of Harmonious Order, hence this apology and retraction of my earlier criticism. - Frank Dodd (Tony) Smith, Jr. - 13 April 2009.
The trigger causing Jiang Zemin in July 1999 to ban Falun Dafa was the USA/NATO attack on Serbia in March 1999 coupled with the May 1999 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and the subsequent expansion of USA/NATO influence through Ukraine and the Caucasus into Central Asia, threatening China and potentially using Falun Dafa as a vehicle for covert internal splittist activity.
(Valdostamuseum.org, April 13, 2009)
Original text from: http://www.valdostamuseum.org/hamsmith/LIhome.html
