'Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that advocates meditation, exercise and moral teachings based on the principles of openness, compassion and tolerance.
In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched an intense nationwide campaign of persecution to eradicate Falun Gong. Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in forced labour camps, brainwashing centres and prisons, where torture and abuse are common. Thousands have died.
The petitioners are in part asking us to publicly call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China.'
