Falun Gong [practitioners] held a news conference at City Hall Park yesterday as part of a campaign demanding freedom for Charles Li, a Chinese-American imprisoned in China.
[Practitioners] also rallied and collected signatures at Brooklyn Supreme Court
and at UN Plaza yesterday. The actions were part of a coast-to-coast campaign
that started in mid-August at Li's home in California and is scheduled to end
Sept. 16 in Washington.
Li was arrested Jan. 22 at the airport in Guangzhou, China, and charged with
sabotaging state-owned radio and television facilities. Chinese authorities said
Li carried cable TV interception tools.
Practitioners describe Falun Gong as an exercise and meditation system based on
ancient Chinese wisdom. [...]
"It was his purpose to break through the media blockade," Jian Feng
Zhou, a fellow Falun Gong [practitioner], said of Li. "The Chinese
government does not allow people to know that the Falun Gong practice is based
on compassion, truth and tolerance. They make propaganda to [defame Falun
Gong]."
Zhou, 33, who was a doctor in China and now lives in Elmhurst, Queens, also said
800 people had been killed by the Chinese authorities for practicing Falun Gong,
a Chinese spiritual discipline founded in 1992.
[...]
However, Falun Gong[practitioner] said Li was "rushed through a one-day
show trial" and was abused in prison.
"They would use various ways to break you," said Gang Chen, 31, a
former labor camp prisoner who came to the United States six weeks ago. He
recalled his 18 months in a forced-labor camp between 2000 and 2002 as "the
darkest moments" of his life. He was able to sleep very little, forced to
work 15 to 20 hours a day.
"Dr. Charles Li has sought to bring greater transparency and visibility to
a systemic persecution that is killing people every day," said Chen, who
now lives in Cherry Hill, N.J.
"A Chinese prison is the last place that this heroic American
belongs," he said.
Originally published on September 9, 2003
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/115887p-104526c.html