Monitoring News of the Persecution of Falun Gong
FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
- U.S. RESIDENT & WIFE OF AMERICAN CITIZEN PUT ON TRIAL IN THE PRC
- JAPANESE PRACTITIONER HONORED WITH CULTURAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD
- BEIJING PRACTITIONERS FIND WAYS TO DEFY GOVT STRANGLEHOLD ON MEDIA
JAILED U.S. FALUN GONG WOMAN FORBIDDEN FROM SPEAKING TO HER FAMILY
BEIJING, Nov 24, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A US resident and Falun Gong
practitioner jailed for trying to document the government's abuse against the
group has not been allowed to see or call her family since she was arrested in
May, the group's New York office said Friday. Gail Rachlin, spokeswoman for the
group, said Teng Chunyan's husband, an American citizen, had travelled to China
hoping to see her, but has been denied access Rachlin said she did not
believe the 37-year-old acupuncturist from New York would be tortured like other
arrested members of the banned Falun Gong group, but police may be trying to
force her to reveal information about Chinese Falun Gong practitioners she has
contacted. Teng was tried in a one-day secret trial Thursday on charges of
"prying into state intelligence for overseas organisations" at the
Beijing Intermediate People's Court. She is accused of arranging an interview
between foreign reporters and Falun Gong members who had been incarcerated in a
mental hospital. Fifty practitioners from a rural district in Beijing were
locked up in the hospital for more than a month to prevent them from going to
Tiananmen Square to protest the ban against the group. Teng is also accused of
collaborating with Falun Gong members to take pictures of practitioners detained
in the hospital and passing the photos on to foreign media. A verdict is
expected to be announced in a week and Teng faces a minimum of 10 years in jail
if convicted.
Teng, who is married to a US citizen, is the first overseas member of the Falun
Gong to be tried in China and only the second US green card holder, the center
said. The green card, or immigration card, entitles her to live in the United
States, but she is not a citizen, which means she would not be able to enjoy
consular protection in China. Frank Lu, director of the Hong Kong-based
Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, said Teng was held for more
than a month before she was formally charged, which violates Chinese criminal
law. She was arrested on May 13 and her family was not informed of the arrest
until October, the center said. She was not formally charged until July 27. A
Falun Gong practitioner for about two years, Teng gave up her acupuncture
practice on Fifth Avenue in New York to travel to China, in hopes of collecting
evidence of the government's maltreatment of Falun Gong members. "Her main
objective was to expose the truth to the world about the atrocities,"
Rachlin said. South China Morning Post (November 23, 2000): The US Embassy in
Beijing was not officially informed about the forthcoming trial of a Falun Gong
follower who holds a US green card, an embassy spokesman said. Frank Nebille
said yesterday the embassy had heard of the case of Teng Chunyan, a Chinese-born
Falun Gong follower who holds a green card, but admitted it "still had not
received any confirmation of that from Beijing."
JAPANESE FALUN GONG PRACTITIONER HONORED WITH AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Falun Dafa Information Center: It was announced on November 15, 2000 that Mr.
Tsuruzono Masaaki, the main contact person for Falun Gong in Japan, had won the
prestigious Social Culture Contribution Award conferred by the Japanese
Art Promotion Association. This was to be the only such award to be granted in
the year 2000 in Japan. The Japanese Art Promotion Association is an
organization that was established by members of the Japanese royal family and
celebrities to develop Japanese traditional culture and to foster international
cultural exchange and world peace. On November 20, the Association held a 30th
anniversary celebration party at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Five hundred
people from 26 countries attended this celebration, including Japanese royal
family members, government officials, and celebrities. Mr. Masaaki was also
invited, and he took the opportunity to introduce the principles of Falun Dafa
to the other guests.
This award is significant because the PRC government has been trying to draw
comparisons between Falun Gong and the Japanese Aum Shinri Kyo sect as a
way to justify its claims that Falun Gong is a cult. Indeed, it is reported that
the Chinese government even sent officials to Japan not long ago, ostensibly to
learn how to handle an evil cult. The Japanese reportedly responded:
"Youve misunderstood. The Aum religion itself is legal in Japan.
The legal action taken against them was due to the fact that some of its members
engaged in illegal activities. We only dealt with the individuals who violated
the law rather than the religion itself. Falun Gong and the Aum religion
are not the same, and Falun Gong is not an evil cult."
PRACTITIONERS IN CHINA FINDING CREATIVE WAYS TO GIVE VOICE TO THE TRUTH
South China Morning Post
, November 24, 2000: Falun Gong activists have started distributing newsletters containing personal attacks on President Jiang Zemin to households around Beijing. It is probably the first time in a decade an underground organisation has dared to print and circulate anti-government propaganda in the capital, a crime which can carry the death penalty. Calling itself Periodical Number One and dated October 21, the one-page bulletin was distributed on Tuesday to all households in at least one large residential complex in Beijing. An editorial asked readers to consider what they knew about the Falun Gong, and then urged them not to believe government propaganda. It gave details of the persecution suffered by the movement's followers, as well as listing the names of some of those who had died in prison. It accused state media of distorting the truth about what had happened to those who died in detention, and promised to provide further updates in the future. "We will help you to know the truth about Falun Gong," it said.Falun Dafa Information Center, Nov. 17 [Report from an eyewitness in a Beijing detention center]: "This is a broadcast from Falun Dafa Around The World Radio Station. This is from the Falun Dafa Around The World Radio Station. About 6pm on Oct. 31, the voice of Falun Dafa resounded through the sky above the Beijing Western Detention Center. When the Falun Gong practitioners in the detention center heard the radio, they were all excited and stood up. Most practitioners were moved to tears. The Disclosure of ten criminal counts committed by Jiang Zemin could be heard within a range of several miles. The sound of the radio continued for about 10 minutes. Reliable sources later said that the speaker had been set up right at the residential building of the Public Security Bureau. A remote control was attached to the speaker. Many practitioners said they heard this Voice from the Universe earlier at the Golden Water Bridge in Tiananmen Square, at the Beijing Industrial and Commercial University, and elsewhere."
TWO MORE PRACTITIONERS DEAD IN CUSTODY
AP, Nov. 21 -- Two more members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group have died in Chinese police custody a human rights group said Tuesday. Li Wenrui, a 37-year-old government trade official from the northeastern city of Harbin, died Nov. 9, three days after his arrest in Beijing for protesting the government crackdown on Falun Gong, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. Police said Li killed himself by jumping out a window, but relatives said they suspected he was beaten to death, the Hong Kong-based center said. Yang Guijin, 40 [female], was arrested for distributing pamphlets and died Oct. 15 at a detention center in eastern Shandong province after a weeklong hunger strike to protest beatings by guards, the center said. [Editors note: fellow inmates report that she died after she was severely beaten and then handcuffed to a chair without food and water for four days and four nights].
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Erping Zhang 917-679-6944, Feng Yuan 917-912-3301, or Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
