(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa Information Center reported on October 18 (New Jersey) that, as the APEC is held in Shanghai, eight congressmen from New Jersey wrote a letter to President Bush, urging him to press Jiang Zemin for the closing of the "610 Office" and release of Teng Chunyan and Chen Gang, currently detained in China. The news revealed that Congressman Robert Andrews sponsored the letter and seven other congressmen cosponsored it. The congressmen wrote "we urge you [President Bush] to press for the release of Dr. Chunyan Teng and Mr. Gang Chen, currently being detained in China because of their involvement with the Falun Gong movement. We also ask that you call for the closing of the 610 Office, an immoral entity created specifically to persecute Falun Gong practitioners." They also pointed out, "A moral, peaceful, and economically strong China can contribute to world peace and stability. Conversely, a morally corrupt China which allows the practices of the 610 Office serves neither U.S. interests nor world peace. Therefore, as the world rallies behind us and vows to make no distinction between the terrorists who attacked America and those who harbor them, we ought to take the steps necessary to eliminate China's state-sanctioned terrorism against its own citizens. If Dr. Teng or Mr. Chen are not immediately released and the 610 Office is not closed and related criminals brought to justice, we fear there will be many more cases like theirs in the years to come."

The "610 Office," is named for the date it was established June 10, 1999. It is "an agency specially created to persecute Falun Gong." It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems. The congressmen further pointed out that, for more than two years, this office has mobilized the Chinese military, police, media, various government branches, state and privately owned enterprises nationwide to resort to the most evil measures imaginable to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. It has succeeded in criminalizing the beliefs of innocent people, using torture and brainwashing techniques in an attempt to bend people's will. The damage done by the "610 Office" is profound. Executing its orders directly caused the deaths of many Chinese citizens. Recently, it issued a secret order that applies life imprisonment to those Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to be brainwashed.

Dr. Teng Chunyan, 38, was a former New Jersey resident and permanent resident of the United States. She is currently imprisoned for exposing the government's mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese state mental institutions. On November 23, 2000, she was sentenced to a three-year prison term in a secret trial in Beijing for "prying into and illegally providing state information to foreigners."áAnother practitioner, the brother of a U.S. citizen living in New Jersey, Chen Gang, has been illegally detained in Beijing for more than a year for his persistent belief in Falun Gong principles. The congressmen fear he might soon be sentenced to a life sentence in a labor camp following to the latest order by the "610 Office" due to his refusal to denounce his beliefs in the principles of Falun Gong.

At the same time, another letter sponsored by Congressmen Ben Gilman and Tom Lantos and cosponsored by another sixty congressmen was submitted to the President. The letter also urged President Bush to press Jiang Zemin for the release of Teng Chunyan during the APEC conference. One of the core issues of this meeting was how to attack terrorism.