(Clearwisdom.net) Youran Zhao, a Beijing girl, was kidnapped in Boston by the chaperon of her student tour group on February 11. Zhao's aunt, Ms. Xiufen Zhang, a resident of New Jersey, called the public for help to locate her niece. After Ms. Zhang reported to the police, the study group's bus was greeted by the Boston police on the morning of February 11, but Youran was nowhere to be found. The police interrogated the group and learned that she had been taken away earlier. Youran Zhao is a Falun Gong practitioner, and Falun Gong has been persecuted in Mainland China for seven years.
Mrs. Zhang called for help. US police and immigration bureau found out that the kidnapper had taken Youran Zhao to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and planned to take her back to China. The immigration bureau officers stopped them and rescued Youran Zhao. She is now with her aunt, Ms. Zhang.
According to Ms. Zhang, her niece went to a branch of Beijing No.12 Middle School. Youran and her entire family practice Falun Gong. She was selected to be part of a school tour for a winter camp in Los Angeles on January 30 this year. Prior to her departure from Beijing, she contacted her uncle and aunt in New Jersey over the phone and email, expressing her desire to meet them in the US.
"But the Chinese Communist regime's Public Security Bureau (PSB) has been surreptitiously listening to our conversations and reading our emails. Before Youran's departure for the U.S., the PSB threatened her family, claiming it would arrest them and send them to China's gulag system or fire their jobs in the Chinese government if she were to meet with us in the US," said Ms. Zhang.
Ms. Zhang added, "We have not seen this child for seven years. We long for this opportunity to see her."
On Saturday, February 10, Ms. Zhang followed the tour schedule given by her niece and went to the campus of West Point Academy. There she waited for Youran's arrival.
Once she met with her niece, Ms. Zhang learned that Youran's cellphone had been confiscated by the leaders of the tour group and they warned her again not to contact her aunt. Youran's parents had authorized Ms. Zhang to serve as her legal guardian and assume custody of her in the US. Youran had also told her aunt that she wished to flee the study group, where she was subjected to threats, and that she wished to leave with her aunt. However, the delegation violated her wishes and took her away from Ms. Zhang. Mrs. Zhang fears that Youran would face persecution if she were to be removed to China.
After Ms. Zhang reported to the police, the study group's bus was greeted by the Boston police on the morning of February 11, but Youran was nowhere to be found. The police interrogated the group and learned that she had been removed by two people from the group earlier.
According to Ms. Zhang, she is unable to make contact with Youran's family over the phone or by email, and she fears that the PSB has taken control of the family's phone line and email.
Falun Gong spokesman Mr. Erping Zhang said that they had reported to the police in order to protect the child and that they hoped the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would assist the police in locating the child. He had called for the public's help to locate the child as well.
According to information from international human rights organizations, the Chinese Communist Party has not spared Falun Gong practitioners' children from its persecution since the Party's banning of Falun Gong in 1999. Ms. Chen Ying, a Falun Gong practitioner and high school student in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, died at the age of 17 in 1999 as a result of the persecution
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