á

December 12, BEIJING (Reuters) -- A Chinese court has sentenced a U.S.-based member of the banned Falun Gong to three years in jail for leaking secrets to foreigners, a senior U.S. diplomat Tuesday quoted the woman's father as saying. Teng Chunyan, 37, had been documenting the detention in a Beijing mental hospital of members of the spiritual movement, according to a Hong Kong-based human rights group. Her jailing by a Beijing court would be an irritant to China-U.S. ties just as the two countries are preparing to reopen a human rights dialogue frozen since last year. U.S. officials have protested repeatedly to Chinese authorities over the case of Teng, who has permanent residency rights in the United States through a "green card." "We will be getting back to the Chinese on this," the diplomat, who asked not to be further identified, told reporters. China is getting tougher on overseas Chinese who get in the way of a harsh crackdown on the movement. It has previously expelled Falun Gong "green card" members, but this was the first time it has put one on trial. A Canadian member was sentenced to three years in a labor camp recently, the first overseas adherent to be jailed in China. Teng, whose husband is a U.S. national, faced up to 10 years in jail on charges of "releasing national security information to foreigners." She was arrested in March. The U.S. diplomat said Washington had hoped for "a benign outcome to the trial, and if not that then a speedy return of Teng to the United States." Members of her family were not allowed to attend the trial. Court officials declined comment...The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy described Teng as an acupuncturist who taught at the New York Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It said she emailed pictures out of China as part of her investigation into reports that Beijing authorities had committed 50 Falun Gong members to a mental institute in January. .... December 14, BEIJING, China (AP) -- China confirmed Thursday that a U.S. resident who helped publicize Beijing's crackdown on the Falun Gong sect has been sentenced to three years in jail for spying. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue suggested there was little chance of early release or deportation to the United States for Teng Chunyan...

á

December 13 (Newsday) -- the mother of a Queens acupuncturist [Dr. Teng Chunyan] yesterday urged the U.S. government to help obtain the release of her daughter, who was recently sentenced to 3 years in a Chinese prison on spying charges for helping publicize China's crackdown on the banned Falun Gong spiritual group. "When I heard the news that my daughter had been sentenced by the Chinese government to 3 years in jail, I could not help but feel a deep sorrow and pain in my heart," said the mother of Teng Chunyan, 37, of Flushing. The mother, who would only identify herself as Mrs. Qiu for fear of retribution from the Chinese government on her husband and another daughter still in China, joined five dozen Falun Gong practitioners across the street from the Chinese consulate in Manhattan yesterday morning to bring attention to Teng's imprisonment. "I want the U.S. government to contact high Chinese officials to have them hear my plea." [said Qiu] [Full text of statement available on http://www.faluninfo.net]

á

December 13, BEIJING (AP) -- Braving heavy police security, hundreds of friends and family attended the funeral Wednesday of a member of the banned Chinese Falun Gong meditation sect who died, allegedly of police abuse. Mourners, undeterred by the political sensitivity surrounding the outlawed sect, boarded five buses for the funeral from the Beijing university where Zhao Xin taught before her death Monday following neck injuries allegedly sustained in police custody. Other mourners joined the gathering at the Babaoshan cemetery in western Beijing, where her body arrived in a van bedecked with traditional Buddhist saffron-yellow pennants -- a color often favored for Falun Gong banners and uniforms. However, no [Falun Gong] emblems or symbols were visible during the brief funeral ceremony. As many as three dozen uniformed and plainclothes police kept watch inside and outside the cemetery but did not turn mourners away. Foreign reporters, however, were ordered away and trailed by officers, apparently to deter mourners from granting interviews. Zhao, 32, a Falun Gong practitioner for two years, had taken part in numerous protests and been repeatedly arrested after the government outlawed the group as a social menace in July 1999, according to U.S.-based Falun Gong practitioners. Zhao, an assistant professor at the business college of Beijing's Industry and Commerce University, was last arrested six months ago with 20 other Falun Gong practitioners as they practiced the group's slow motion exercises in a Beijing park, the U.S.-based adherents said in a statement. In detention, she refused to give police her name or other personal information and began a hunger strike, the statement said. Three days after her arrest, on June 22, detention center guards sent Zhao to a hospital with three fractured neck vertebrae, minor head injuries and breathing problems, the statement said. After an operation and three months of hospital treatment, she went home because her family could no longer afford the medical fees. She died Monday.

á

Dec. 11 (Hong Kong Imail) ABOUT 300 Falun Gong followers in Macau have been prohibited from staging a demonstration during President Jiang Zemin's visit later this month for handover anniversary celebrations. The group had applied to the Macau Municipal Council on November 27 for permission to hold a protest on December20, the first anniversary of the handover, Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa convenor Kan Hung-cheung said. But the council rejected the request, saying the proposed demonstration routes, which would end at the Central Government Liaison Office, would pass through areas that would either be closed for the festivities or occupied by other organisations. A Macau Falun Gong member, who would only identify himself as Mr Lam, said the group would submit another application to the council today, proposing three new demonstration routes. One of them would end at the Central Government Liaison Office, where the practitioners hoped to hand in a petition to Mr Jiang. ``Macau is a region ruled by law,'' Mr Lam said. ``Since Falun Gong is not outlawed in Macau, the council should approve our application.'' Beijing branded the Falun Gong an outlawed sect in July last year after more than 15,000 members demonstrated in the capital. While practitioners in Macau could still exercise openly, Mr Lam said, they were being closely scrutinised by the police. In Hong Kong, 18 legislators yesterday demanded that the Central Government protect the rights of local and mainland Falun Gong practitioners . ``We cannot agree with the persecution of mainland Falun Gong members by the Central Government,'' a declaration signed by the lawmakers said. ``We therefore urge the Central Government to respect the rights and freedoms of Falun Gong practitioners, and allow them to conduct their activities freely.'' The declaration was read out at an International Human Rights Day rally, at which about 100 Falun Gong followers remembered 95 of their colleagues whom they claim were tortured to death on the mainland. The gathering highlighted the plight of Chu O-ming, a permanent Hong Kong resident. He was arrested in Beijing nine days after he filed a lawsuit with the Supreme People's Procuratorate against President Jiang for his legal liabilities in persecuting the practitioners.

á

á