(Clearwisdom.net) Chinese police detained Falun Gong practitioner Yuan Sheng, a veteran airline pilot at China Eastern Airlines based in Shanghai, on August 8, 2006 at Shanghai's Pudong Airport prior to his flight to the United States. It was because he told one of the security personnel about the persecution of Falun Gong. At the insistence of the flight crew, Yuan Sheng piloted the plane and arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at noon on August 8. At present, Yuan Sheng is considering seeking political asylum in the United States.

Yuan Sheng said Wednesday that he sought asylum in the United States because he is a Falun Gong practitioner, and would be arrested and punished should he return to China.

Yuan Sheng said that prior to taking off in Shanghai, he talked about the persecution he and other Falun Gong practitioners have suffered to a security staff member at Shanghai Airport. Yuan Sheng said that the officer reported him to the police, and the police tried to arrest him.

But Eastern Airlines insisted that if Yuan Sheng could not take off with the flight, the flight would be greatly delayed. Therefore, the police agreed to wait until Yuan Sheng returns to Shanghai to investigate him.

According to an Epoch Times report on the same day, Yuan Sheng expressed that he has been practicing Falun Gong for eight years, and he takes it as his responsibility to expose the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong to help people learn about the CCP's evil nature. But, he also knew that should he return to China, he would suffer severe persecution. He had previously been thrown into one of the CCP's centers for forcibly brainwashing Falun Gong practitioners.

He said that some people in China have been sentenced to four years in prison simply because they were found in possession of copies of The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. As of today, nearly 3,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed to have been killed by the persecution in China, and that is only a small fraction of the persecution. Countless Falun Gong practitioners have been detained, tortured and physically and mentally abused. Some have had their organs extracted while they are still alive, and their murdered bodies were cremated to destroy the evidence.