Xinhua News Agency published a commentary Tuesday, urging Falun Gong followers to wake up, so as to save the lives of themselves and their close relatives, and for the sake of the whole of society.

The Falun Gong followers are urged to avoid becoming sacrificial victims, break with the cult, and return to the love of life.

The commentary, titled "It's Time to Realize Your Errors and Mend Your Ways", points out that numerous fanatical Falun Gong followers have lost their lives and turned into burned corpses in "Hell" because of Li Hongzhi, the cult leader who has given evil instructions advocating so-called "Completion" and "Going to Heaven."

The fiery suicides and attempted suicides by Falun Gong followers in Tian'anmen Square, in central Beijing, last month has rung an alarm bell for the whole of society, especially for the people still enmeshed in the fallacies of Falun Gong, while a number of practitioners were so shocked that they have renounced the cult and made a clean break with it, according to the commentary.

Upon learning of the self-immolation incident in Tian'anmen Square, Li Linfei, a woman who had been deeply involved with the cult and once attempted to commit suicide for the so-called "completion", said that the ghastly facts enabled her to see clearly the evil nature of Falun Gong.

Wu Ping, a local opera artist from Shandong Province, in east China, said that the only way out for those who practice Falun Gong is to die. The woman's family was almost destroyed by the cult.

Having come to know that death is the only end for practitioners of Falun Gong, over 60 female Falun Gong followers from Sanshui City, in southern China's Guangdong Province, pledged not to end up sacrificing their lives for the cult, according to the commentary.

The commentary expresses the belief that under the current campaign to expose and criticize Falun Gong, the majority of Falun Gong followers are able to recognize the evil nature of the cult and the severe harm it does, and to wake up and realize their errors and mend their ways.

It says that the year-long campaign has helped more than 98 percent of the followers reject the fallacies of Falun Gong and throw off the spiritual control exercised by Li Hongzhi.

The base of the cult is being destroyed day by day, as more and more its followers have come to realize their errors and mended their ways, it says.

While Falun Gong is losing its domestic market, the value of Li Hongzhi that could be used by the anti-China forces in the West is also diminishing, the commentary stresses.

The commentary points out that the majority of Falun Gong practitioners, including some of those who are still ensnared by the cult, are kind and good-natured people who have been deceived by Li Hongzhi.

Xie Yufeng, a former Falun Gong practitioner who was detained many times for joining illegal protests and held several hunger strikes for a total of 129 days, recalled that, like many others, he began to practice Falun Gong in order to heal illness and engage in physical training.

But the more he practiced Falun Gong, the end of which is said to be "Completion", according to the cult leader, Xie found that his brain was "stuffed nothing but Li Hongzhi". At that time, Xie did nothing but worshipped the cult leader and followed his evil instructions.

The facts show that the majority of these followers were unaware of the real purpose of the cult leader and unclear about the background and plots of the anti-China forces in the West who are supporting and using Falun Gong, according to the commentary.

The majority of Falun Gong followers are victims as well as "our compatriots and brothers and sisters," the commentary says.

The targets of the government's anti-cult drive are the organization of Falun Gong and its backbone elements, the handful of wire-pullers, plotters and organizers with political motives who want to make trouble, as well as stubborn Falun Gong elements who are continuing their illegal activities in the country, according to the commentary.

It urges maximum efforts to isolate and firmly crack down on these die-hard elements according to the law, so as to eliminate the cult and to avoid future troubles.

It calls on everyone to adhere to the policy of "Unity, Education and Salvation" for the majority of Falun Gong followers, saying that this is the important guarantee for the triumph of the anti-cult campaign.

Maximum efforts should be made to educate and save these practitioners and enable more of them to break with Falun Gong and free them from the spiritual control of the cult, it says.

The commentary urges extra efforts to bring Falun Gong practitioners out of the ridiculous world fabricated by Li Hongzhi and guide them to take notice of the developments in the domestic and international situations, the future of the Party and the nation, and the great cause of the country's reform, opening up and socialist modernization drive.

The commentary praises the Masanjia Education House, in Shenyang City, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, for its efforts in educating Falun Gong practitioners.

The Zhongyuan Oilfield, a hotbed of Falun Gong, is also praised by the commentary for its successful transformation of local followers of the cult. While using political education to transform the practitioners, the leaders of the oilfield mobilized the relatives of the practitioners to influence them.

It is the duty of the whole society to unite, educate and rescue the majority of Falun Gong practitioners, the commentary stresses. Former members of the cult who have woken up must not be looked down upon by their work units, the society or their families, it adds.

They should be given assistance in life, employment and study, according to the commentary. Students who were expelled from school for practicing Falun Gong should be allowed to return to school, it says.

An environment of advocating science and opposing superstition should be created in China to eliminate the social base and soil of Falun Gong, it says.

(Xinhuanet 02/20/2001)