PRESS STATEMENT
December 13, 2000
In an apparent snub to the international community, China chose the UN 'Human Rights Day' to announce the sentencing of U.S. resident and Falun Dafa practitioner, Dr. Teng Chunyan, age 37, to three years in prison.
Dr. Teng was convicted on charges of so-called "spying for foreign intelligence organizations" on November 23rd this year. In a closed-door trial that neither her husband, an American citizen, nor the U.S. Embassy were notified of, her prison sentence was announced by the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court. Sources from inside the court say that the orders actually came from 'above,' referring to the central leadership.
Dr. Teng immigrated to the United States from China eight years ago and is the first US green card holder, or permanent resident, to be sentenced in China for her support of Falun Dafa. It is widely believed that the PRC is using this case to deter overseas Falun Dafa practitioners from entering China. Dr. Teng traveled back to China in March, and in October, Beijing authorities notified her family in Mainland China that she had been arrested on charges of espionage.
According to the Hong Kong based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy:
"What is alarming is that now information on the crackdown on Falun Gong is being considered 'state intelligence' and that gathering such information and transmitting it overseas constitutes the crime of 'prying into state intelligence for foreign organizations'."
The irony of the matter is that while the Chinese authorities continue to deny that they've been mistreating Falun Dafa practitioners, they haven't, on the other hand, been doing a very good job of covering up their criminal actions. Almost every day for the past 17 months, tourists can witness police beating elderly men and women in Tiananmen Square in broad daylight.
In a recent turn of events, the Chinese Government has commandeered the use of mental hospitals during this reign of terror as a way to not only discredit people as 'insane,' but also to keep them incarcerated indefinitely without due process. Doctors in psychiatric hospitals have been ordered to administer injections to completely healthy practitioners using nerve damaging and anti-psychotic drugs, in blatant disregard of their medical ethics. Such practices were used years ago in Stalinist Russia. What does the resurgence of this abuse say about China's so-called 'progress' over the past few decades?
Imagine that your son has been taken away by force and when he is finally released home, he can no longer walk, talk, feed, or bathe himself, and stares blankly at the wall, no longer recognizing his loved ones. This is precisely what happened to Su Gang, a young software engineer, who died shortly after he returned home. His parents and family are expected to keep quiet and pretend that nothing happened, under governmental pressure, or else they, too, could lose their livelihood, freedom, or even their lives. Tens of thousands of families have been devastated by the PRC's policy of suppression, but there's no one to turn to for redress because the government itself is both the perpetrator and the law. This is what life is like under the current crackdown.
Was Dr. Teng wrong for trying to expose these atrocities? Absolutely not! It's because of the courageous actions of people like Dr. Teng Chunyan, who are willing to risk their personal hardship for the sake of others, that we outside of China are learning the truth. Speaking the truth and shining a light upon unspeakable wrong can never be a crime! The real crimes committed are what the Chinese government, under the personal direction of PRC President Jiang Zemin, is doing to its own citizens, with no accountability for its actions.
One disturbing trend that has developed is the total disregard the perpetrators have for women. A large percentage of the practitioners who have stepped forward to appeal to the government are women, both young and old. The authorities think nothing of mercilessly beating unarmed women, kicking, torturing, and administering electric shocks using cattle prods. There have been documented accounts of numerous cases of women in prisons being subjected to all forms of humiliation and sexual abuse. We are seriously concerned by the lack of independent monitoring of the conditions that incarcerated practitioners face in Chinese prisons.
The international community is now beginning to recognize the tremendous scope and violence of this brutal crackdown against Falun Dafa practitioners. As Rabbi David Saperstein, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated: "...when thousands and thousands of people have been arrested, people have been imprisoned for long periods of time, ...when others have been tortured and abused in prison, when people have died in prison, it's impossible for countries to say they are deeply committed to human rights and remain silent."
International pressure does have an impact - we are quite sure that without the continued pressure from overseas supporters, observers predicted that Dr. Teng's sentence would have been closer to ten years. We hope with the help of supporters worldwide, Dr. Teng and all the tens of thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners currently being held in Chinese detention centers, prisons, and the notorious 'laogai,' or labor camps, will be released.
We urge all of you who are concerned for Dr. Teng and the practitioners being incarcerated in China to keep up the pressure on the Chinese Government. Contact your local government officials and keep writing about these atrocities until the scrutiny of the entire world makes it impossible for these crimes to take root and flourish.
Falun Dafa Practitioners thank you for your continued support.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER - Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-501-8080, Feng Yuan 917-912-3301, Song Yun 917-863-5125, or Noah Parker 917-548-8272.
Website: http://www.faluninfo.net, Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com.
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