(Clearwisdom.net) Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California and seven other House members wrote a joint letter to the Mayor of Beijing, the Director of the Labor Education Bureau in Beijing, and the Director of the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp to express their concern over the arrest and sentencing of Falun Gong practitioner and staff member of the Beijing Office of the US Asia Foundation Mr. Bu Dongwei. They requested the release of Mr. Bu.



Eight members of Congress write to the Mayor of Beijing to request the release of
Mr. Bu Dongwei.

Thirty-nine-year-old Bu Dongwei is a staff member of the Beijing Office of the US Asia Foundation based in San Francisco. On May 19, 2006, the Haidian Public Security Branch Bureau arrested Mr. Bu Dongwei. Three months later, Mr. Bu's family received a "Statement of Reeducation through Labor" from the Beijing Public Security Bureau. The statement claims that Bu Dongwei had hidden Falun Gong "propaganda material" and was consequently sentenced to two and a half years of forced labor.

Eight House members, including Dan Burton, Gary Miller, and Zoe Lofgren, jointly sent three letters last week to the Mayor of Beijing, the Director of the Labor Education Bureau in Beijing, and the Director of the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp to express their concern over the imprisonment of Bu Dongwei. They called the forced labor sentence an act of persecution based on religious beliefs and a violation of the Human Rights Convention and Chinese laws. It was also a notable example of abusing administrative laws for forced labor. Five of the eight representatives are from California; four are women.

The city of Pomona in southern California passed a resolution to call for Beijing to respect human rights, release Bu Dongwei, and stop the persecution of Falun Gong.

Mr. Bu had been sent to a one-year forced labor term in the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp in 2000. Amnesty International listed Mr. Bu as a prisoner of conscience and called for an international rescue effort.

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