November 29, 2002 Friday Final Edition

OTTAWA -- A Chinese woman who says she was tortured and beaten for practising Falun Gong thanked Canada on Thursday for rescuing her from certain deportation back to China and more brutal treatment at the hands of Chinese officials attempting to suppress the movement.

Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan issued a special visa earlier this month allowing Yuzhi Wang entry to Canada from the United Arab Emirates, where she had been arrested by local police after leaving China to avoid further persecution.

"My life was saved by Canada's help," Wang, 46, told reporters through an interpreter. The Chinese government has denied claims by Falun Gong practitioners of detention and torture at the hands of state police, but the government openly suppresses practice of Falun Gong [...].

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The movement claims a membership of 70 million in China and 30 million elsewhere in the world [Editor's note, Falun Gong has no membership. The Chinese government conducted a study estimating 70 - 100 million people practicing Falun Gong in China in late 1998] and says thousands of practitioners in China have been imprisoned or sent to labour camps, with several hundred being killed.

Wang, who was a wealthy businesswoman importing office equipment to China and has a son in Vancouver, said she began practising Falun Gong in 1998 and has been detained three times for her beliefs.

She said the first time she was jailed, in January 2000 in Beijing, guards ordered other inmates to beat her because she refused to sign a pledge promising not to return to Beijing to organize support for Falun Gong.

Wang said she was next jailed in July 2000 for photocopying Falun Gong flyers. Police officers beat her and tried to force her to reveal the identities of people who were to receive the flyers, Wang said.

Her last detention was in July 2001, Wang said. Police arrested her while she was withdrawing money from a bank, then froze her bank accounts, which contained $200,000 US. Wang said police confiscated $50,000 from her savings.

Eventually, she was transferred to the Wanjia forced labour camp, where other Falun Gong practitioners were being held. Wang said guards used torture -- including sleep deprivation, whippings, beatings, electric shocks, shackles and forcing women to remain in cells with violent male criminals -- while attempting to force the prisoners to abandon Falun Gong [...]

Wang said she was released from the camp when it appeared she might die.

When her health returned, she went to the United Arab Emirates to avoid further persecution and visit relatives.