June 1, 2010: Falun Gong News Bulletin

Events from Inside China:

Amnesty International: Annual Report cites “intensified” persecution of Falun Gong in 2009
FDIC: Rape, Beatings and Betrayal Typify “Transformation” of Former Top Student
FDIC: High School Student Harassed, Threatened after Internet Posting about Falun Gong
FDIC: Amnesty International Issues Urgent Action for Missing Shanghai Falun Gong Practitioner
Radio Free Asia: Lawyer who took Falun Gong cases barred from going abroad
New Tang Dynasty Television: Chinese activists express admiration for Falun Gong’s resilience amidst suppression

News on Events Outside China:

The Epoch Times: South Korea: Two Chinese Men Convicted in Falun Gong Assault

Amnesty International: Annual Report cites “intensified” persecution of Falun Gong in 2009
“The severe and systematic 10-year campaign against Falun Gong continued…Former RTL prisoners reported that Falun Gong constituted one of the largest groups of prisoners…The government campaign against Falun Gong intensified, with sweeping detentions, unfair trials leading to long sentences, enforced disappearances and deaths in detention following torture and ill-treatment.

Chen Zhenping, a Falun Gong practitioner, was sentenced to eight years in prison during a secret trial in August 2008. She was charged with ‘using a heretical organization to subvert the law.’ Before, during, and after her trial, Chen Zhenping ws denied access to her lawyer. In September, prison guards told her family that she had been transferred to another location, but refused to say where. Chen Zhenping’s lawyers have been unable to obtain any additional information concerning her whereabouts.”

To read more: http://thereport.amnesty.org/sites/default/files/AIR2010_AZ_EN.pdf#page=51

FDIC: Rape, Beatings and Betrayal Typify “Transformation” of Former Top Student
May 28: The life of a top student at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University has been ravaged by a decade of rape, torture and betrayals. According to reports recently received by the Falun Dafa Information Center, the once vibrant and brilliant young woman from Shandong Province, Ms. Liu Zhimei (???), now lives in a hut, regularly wets her bed, and crouches into the corner of her room with clenched fists whenever someone approaches her. Neighbors have seen her running from her home naked and screaming. […]

In 1997, Liu was admitted to Tsinghua University with the highest entrance test scores in all of Shandong Province. Upon arriving on campus, she took up Falun Gong, which was practiced by over 1,000 students and faculty at Tsinghua at the time. After the campaign to “eradicate” Falun Gong was launched in July 1999, Liu was expelled from school because of her practice. Police detained her on several occasions over the next three years. […]

Liu does not remember her name. She has a large welt around her belly-button and excessive bruising about her buttocks and upper legs. Her breasts sag almost to her waistline though she is not yet 30 years old and she has an extreme deformity in one of her fingers.

To read more and view photos of Liu, see: /article/1053/?cid=84

FDIC: High School Student Harassed, Threatened after Internet Posting about Falun Gong
May 26: A 16-year-old who used his real name when writing online about health benefits received from practicing Falun Gong is being harassed and at risk of detention, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned.

According to sources inside China, the family of high school student Qu Jianguo (???) from Hebei Province has been under tight surveillance and is at risk of detention and abuse after the boy wrote online about his personal experience of recovering from bone cancer through practicing Falun Gong.

“I strictly conducted myself according to [Falun] Dafa’s principles, and my illness improved day by day,” wrote Jianguo in his online article. “I gradually became free of pain in my legs. I dared not believe that Dafa could be so powerful. I was a dying person, but I miraculously recovered. Dafa saved my life.”

To read more and view a photo of Qu, see: /article/1052/?cid=84

FDIC: Amnesty International Issues Urgent Action for Missing Shanghai Falun Gong Practitioner
May 13: As the World Expo in Shanghai entered its second week, Amnesty International issued an urgent action on May 10 calling for the release of a Falun Gong practitioner abducted from Shanghai’s International Airport in February whose precise whereabouts remain unknown.

“Falun Gong practitioner Jiang Feng went missing in Shanghai on 18 February and is believed to be detained by the Chinese authorities,” reads Amnesty International’s announcement. “He is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.”

The Falun Dafa Information Center urges foreign media to investigate Mr. Jiang’s whereabouts and encourages individuals to write letters to the Chinese officials noted in the urgent action.

To read more: /article/1051/?cid=84
For the original Amnesty International Urgent Action: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/021/2010/en/df9220a8-a89f-4d86-93a8-28ed2f15e915/asa170212010en.html

Radio Free Asia: Lawyer who took Falun Gong cases barred from going abroad
May 17: “A recently disbarred rights lawyer says he has been banned by Chinese border police from leaving the country. Attorney Tang Jitian said in an interview Monday that he had been stopped by security officers in the southern China city of Shenzhen as he prepared to cross the border into neighboring Hong Kong on Sunday before continuing his trip overseas.

[…] Tang Jitian and another rights lawyer, Liu Wei, were disbarred by legal authorities in Beijing last month for “procedural infractions.” The decisions resulted from a complaint by a court in Luzhou, in southwestern Sichuan province, where Tang and Liu defended Falun Gong practitioner Yang Ming in his appeal of a trial in April of last year. The action was widely criticized as China’s latest move against human rights lawyers.

‘It is only because we defended a Falun Gong practitioner that our names will be on the blacklist,’ [said Liu Wei].”

New Tang Dynasty Television: Chinese activists express admiration for Falun Gong’s resilience amidst suppression
May 13: “In China, a country where basic civil liberties are often taken away by the ruling regime, Falun Gong practitioners have persisted in exposing the persecution against them. And this has earned the respect of many Chinese who don’t practice Falun Gong.

[Zhen Ning, Guizhou Democracy Activist]: ‘I think the emergence of Falun Gong, in certain levels, has been a moral awakening to the Chinese society and the Chinese public. It’s a very significant phenomenon, and should be highly recognized.’
[Ms. Mei, Sichuan Human Rights Advocate]: “Falun Gong practitioners persist in their belief of the truth, and do not fear that their lives are in danger. Their spirit of wanting to spread truth, compassion and tolerance and to defy tyranny is truly worthy of admiration. The Chinese public should learn from Falun Gong.'”

To view the full clip, see: http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_na/2010-05-13/707651160688.html

The Epoch Times: South Korea: Two Chinese Men Convicted in Falun Gong Assault
May 21: “Two Chinese men were sentenced to prison by a court in South Korea for attacking Falun Gong practitioners during an anti-communist rally in Seoul last year. They may be facing deportation to China.

On May 18, the Suwon District Court in South Korea sentenced Wanji Choi, a Chinese national, and Chunsik Choi, an immigrant from China, to eight months imprisonment with two years suspension, and four months imprisonment with two years suspension, respectively.”