(1) Regarding commendations and “Falun Dafa Day.” According to several U.S. local officials who had announced a “Falun Dafa Day” and later revoked it, the main reason for praising the Falun Gong sect and establishing “Falun Dafa Day” was a lack of understanding of Falun Gong’s true nature, with some even confusing Falun Gong with China’s traditional Tai Chi. This shows that Falun Gong cloaks itself in traditional Chinese culture to deceive people and obtain various accolades.
●On 15 November 1999, the mayors of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Baltimore successively revoked or withdrew commendations and proclamations honoring Falun Gong, including the designation of “Li Hongzhi Day.”
●On 29 September 2000, Mayor Godwin of Newark, Delaware, United States, announced the revocation of the city’s decision to designate 9 September 2000 as “Falun Dafa Day” and expressed regret for any misunderstanding caused thereby.
(2) Regarding congratulatory messages. Falun Gong media outlets are saturated with numerous purported “congratulatory messages” for the “Shen Yun Show,” a significant proportion of which are fabricated. Such instances are numerous and too numerous to list.
●On 8 March 2011, The Epoch Times website published a report claiming that the “Shen Yun Arts Troupe” received a letter from the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy during its tour in France, in which the President expressed best wishes for the success of the performance. The site published a scanned French original of the letter. Two hours later, the news post was quietly removed, and the letter was in fact a rejection letter from the President.
●On 6 February 2008, The New York Times reported that a promotional pamphlet for Falun Gong and “Shen Yun Show” included praise from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but mayoral spokesperson John Gallagher clarified that Bloomberg had never seen the performance and had never praised it.
●On 20 July 2014, Falun Gong media claimed Falun Gong followers across New Zealand staged a march and rally in central Auckland and received warm wishes from Labour Party leader David Cunliffe. On 24 July, the Labour Party’s Office of News formally responded, confirming that the party did receive a request from Falun Gong to support its activities, but that the party, fully aware of Falun Gong’s nature, had explicitly refused to allow Falun Gong to use Cunliffe’s name or photograph. The party condemned Falun Gong for distorting facts and spreading rumors, and urged Falun Gong to withdraw its misleading reports and publicity materials.
Countless facts demonstrate that Falun Gong is an utterly anti-China cult that conducts large-scale anti-China disinformation abroad with the aim of damaging China’s relations with other countries and hindering people-to-people and peaceful international exchange. While Falun Gong has deceived some local governments and officials into awarding congratulations or proclaiming “Falun Dafa Day,” such actions run far contrary to the mainstream of relations between governments and peoples of the two countries. The cult’s true nature and anti-China agenda has long been clear, and it should not be justified on the grounds of simply not understanding Falun Gong’s background. We are pleased to see that an increasing number of Western governments and officials have made it clear that they will not publish congratulatory messages on Falun Gong media outlets such as The Epoch Times or New Tang Dynasty TV, and will not participate in or support Falun Gong’s so‑called “celebrations,” so as to prevent exploitation by the Falun Gong cult and avoid unnecessary damage to bilateral relations.
