(Clearwisdom.net) According to a March 19, 2003 English report from the Xinhua News Agency [a state media run by the Chinese government], U.S. permanent resident and Falun Gong practitioner Teng Chunyan was released one month early because she "behaved well" in jail.
In May 2000, Teng Chunyan traveled for a visit to China. She was illegally arrested by agents from the Chinese government because she had collected information on healthy, sane Dafa practitioners who were forced against their will into mental institutions. She passed this information on to colleagues outside China. She was convicted of "divulging state secrets" and was given a three-year prison sentence.
Seeing her change from when she first went to China to collect information on the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, to her later claiming that "life in prison is pleasant and enjoyable," we can only guess what kind of brainwashing Tung Chunyan was forced to undergo. No person possessing control of all of their faculties would consider life in prison "pleasant and enjoyable."
Due to the Party's severe news blockade and its rejection of all foreign media requests to have unmoderated interviews, the outside world had no way to learn Ms. Teng's true experiences and tribulations during the almost three years she spent in prison. However, we can discern a small portion of it from reports by the Party and the media abroad. The Associated Press published an article entitled "Change of Heart or Brainwashing? In a Chinese jail, a New Yorker renounces Falun Gong."
Ms. Teng Chunyan is 40 years old. Prior to her arrest she worked as an acupuncturist. She was a faculty member at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York and had opened a private clinic that she had operated for five years. Her friends in New York said that she was kind, peaceful and was willing to help others. Her students and patients in New York highly praised her. In early 1998, Teng Chunyan began practicing Falun Gong.
According to China's state-run People's Daily, Teng Chunyan went to China for a visit in May 2000. While there, she collected evidence on the Jiang regime's persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, particularly about sending them to mental institutions, and she passed the evidence to foreign media. She was arrested in Shenzhen City for "spying on state secrets and providing them to foreigners." In December 2000, she was convicted of "divulging national secrets" and illegally sentenced to three years in prison. She was detained in the No. 7 Labor Camp in Beijing.
Strangely, according to an April 18, 2002 report in People [a state news net run by the Chinese government], during a press conference held in a room within 20 meters from the U.N. Human Rights Committee in Geneva, with both Chinese and foreign journalists attending, Teng Yuben, father of Teng Chunyan claimed he and his wife visited Teng Chunyan in the U.S. in September 2000, saying "I saw she was absentminded and depressed, and she was thin." In September 2000, Teng Chunyan was spending her "happy life" in a labor camp in China. How can her father have seen her in the U.S.? They were clearly lying.
"Happy life" in prison
On November 20, 2001, after 19 months of detention, abuse and mental control, Chinese government authorities publicized a T.V. program on Teng's so-called "happy life in prison," about how Teng Chunyan accepted "reform."
Answering a request from the Associated Press, Teng Chunyan met with a western media representative for the first time after her arrest in May 2000, and an AP report was published from Beijing on January 6, 2002.
According to the AP report, this "reform" was conducted in an area with high walls, wrapped with electric wires. The place was full of monitors and the "reform" was conducted under constant watch from armed security officers. Falun Gong representatives quoted eyewitness accounts from people who were detained with Teng Chunyan to prove she was abused. An announcement by Falun Gong Information Center in New York states, "She (Teng Chunyan) was interrogated more than 50 times, each one lasting several hours. She was forced to stand for lengthy periods of time and half-squat for several days. She was even fined 30,000 Yuan [about 4,000 US dollars] as a "service fee" for her detention.
The report also said, "Using the pseudonym Hannah Li while visiting China, Teng wore her hair long and was elegantly dressed and made up. Her hair was cut to collar length and looked gelled. She had rouged cheeks, wore lipstick, had thinly plucked eyebrows and looked plumper, even a little puffy, around the face. The New York chic that made Hannah Li stand out in Beijing was gone."
The questions for the interview had to be submitted in advance to the prison officials. The prison guards, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Public Security Bureau monitored the interview. Given such strict control, it's difficult to judge how much freedom Teng had in speaking the truth.
The U.S. Consulate in Beijing said U.S. Diplomats had not been allowed to visit Teng.
Commentary by Teng's New York Friends
According to an AP report on January 6, 2002, Teng's friends suspect the 38-year-old Teng Chunyan suffered abuse and was forced to give up Falun Gong. Janet Xiong, a New York government employee used to practice Falun Gong with Teng. Before early 1999, Teng joined the two-hour group exercise beginning at 5:30 a.m almost daily. She started to introduce Falun Gong to her patients. Xiong said, "I can't understand how a person can change so completely. I think she must have been brainwashed."
A 60-year-old friend of Teng's, Irina Lehat of Brooklyn said, "I feel that she was brainwashed. She loved Falun Gong whole-heartedly. She absolutely would not willingly say anything bad about Falun Gong."
Teng introduced Falun Gong to a former cancer patient, Zhanna Stretiyevsky, to alleviate her pain. Stretiyevsky said, "Undoubtedly, Doctor Teng and Falun Gong saved my life." The patient is still practicing Falun Gong at the practice site Teng used to go to. "Seeing she was tortured to such extent, I was heartbroken."
Teng Chunyan's Fellow Detainee Exposes What's Behind the Scenes in Prison
In an article titled "Qinghua University Lecturer Chu Tong Recalls Her One-and-a-Half Years of Life in Prison; Her View on the So-Called 'Transformation' of Teng Chunyan," [English version not available] which was published on Minghui Net on November 28, 2001, Chu Tong, a lecturer from Qinghua University who was detained in the same labor camp with Teng Chuyan said, "The prison tortures people with all kinds of means, such as isolation, implication [of other detainees], deprivation of sleep, deprivation of basic daily necessities, brainwashing, threats and deception. Such mental and psychological torment and pressure are worse than physical torture, and the ultimate goal of such cruel means is to destroy people's will."
"Ms. Teng had a career she loved, a family and friends back in the U.S.A, yet she is locked up in prison so far away from home. Even if it were true that she was living a comfortable life, the fact itself that she could not see her family and friends for a year and a half and that she could not hear any news from the outside was unbearably painful. Yet, Ms. Teng still had to pretend to be happy and claim in front of the media how happy she was. Anyone with a sound mind could imagine how agonized she must have felt. The enforcers from the Jiang regime deprived her of freedom, of family, her career, her belief and even the right to think as a normal person, simply because she did something out of a sense of justice and righteousness to help the kind people in China who were persecuted. From the word "happy, " it would not be too difficult for anyone to imagine the qualms and the miserable situation she suffered from her statement that she felt "very happy" in prison. I can deeply understand her current situation and the painful remorse she will face one day in the future. Hereby, I strongly appeal to the kind-hearted people to hurry up and rescue Ms. Teng Chunyan."
Overseas Rescue Effort
People from various countries have made continuing efforts to rescue Ms. Teng Chunyan. For example, in December 2000, Amnesty International appealed for immediate release of Ms. Teng Chunyan, claiming that she is a "prisoner of conscience."
On October 12, 2001, U.S. Falun Gong representatives presented more than 100,000 signatures from the American people to President Bush through the mail office at the White House, in the hopes that President Bush would, while meeting with the Chinese leaders, urge the Jiang Zemin regime to stop the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and to immediately release U.S permanent resident Ms. Teng Chunyan so that she could be reunited with her family.
At the beginning of December 2001, Amnesty International of Austria received more than 10,000 signatures in support of their appeal for the release of Teng Chunyan.
On December 28, 2001, senators in New York sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State, asking him to investigate the case of Teng Chunyan being sentenced in China. The director of China Affairs of the State Council sent a reply letter to the New York senators on February 4, 2002.
An assistant to the U.S. director of national security affairs said in his reply letter dated January 22, 2002, "We have on various occasions expressed to the Chinese officials our concern over the case of Doctor Teng Chunyan, and we feel deeply disturbed by recent reports in the U.S. newspapers about the 're-education' the Chinese government is imposing on Doctor Teng in prison." " We have repeatedly made it clear to the Chinese government that the violent persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is not justified."
U.S. senator Paul Wellstone wrote a letter to President Bush on February 15, 2002, in which he asked the president to "urge the Chinese government to immediately release her unconditionally" and on the same day, 94 U.S. Representatives wrote to President Bush in a joint letter, appealing to him to request the Chinese government to release innocent Falun Gong practitioners detained for no reason, including Dr. Teng Chunyan.
People do not know what exactly happened to Teng Chunyan during the 34 months of imprisonment. But one thing we know for sure--she was deprived of personal freedom, freedom of speech and expression, and she is a victim who has suffered both physically and mentally. We hope that Teng Chunyan will be able to return to the U.S. and be reunited with her family soon.
March 19, 2003
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Category: Perspectives
