(Minghui.org) “Falun Gong followers find asylum, freedom to practice beliefs in Boise,” was the headline of an August 5 article published in the Idaho Statesman. The article covered the ongoing persecution in China, including the state-sanctioned killing of prisoners of conscience for their organs, as well as the current surge of Falun Gong practitioners filing lawsuits against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin.
Ms. Wang Zhuhong, a Boise resident since 2009, shared her story with the Boise-based newspaper. She is a retired professor from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Ms. Wang was arrested in June 2008 for the alleged “crime” of providing Falun Gong pamphlets to another practitioner. She was locked up for five months at the notorious Xinjin Brainwashing Center (see more at A Minghui Whitepaper - Brainwashing: China's Hidden Industry) in Chengdu two weeks after her arrest. There, she was forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong for hours.
In her own words submitted to Minghui.org in 2013, Ms. Wang described her experience of being given poisonous drugs twice:
“The first time I was given poisonous drugs was in mid-October 2008. One night I suddenly felt short of breath. I couldn't sleep so I sat up with my back against the wall. All night, I had trouble breathing and I hardly slept. The next morning the monitoring personnel scolded me. She said that she didn't sleep well because I was up all night. She told me to be considerate and to put myself in her shoes. The symptoms from being poisoned gradually went away.
“The second time was December 2008. I had just returned home after being released from the brainwashing center. There was tightness around my chest and I felt dizzy. I suddenly felt uncomfortable in the chest area and I couldn't stand still. I also could not eat much. If I ate very slowly, I could eat some rice porridge that was very very watered down; otherwise, I would choke. I lost more than 30 pounds in a very short period of time.
Ms. Wang has filed a criminal complaint against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin who launched the persecution that caused her so much suffering. In her filing with the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ms. Wang charges Jiang with violating citizens' freedom of religion and speech, among other crimes.
Over two dozen media outlets in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and Israel, including Agence France-Presse and the Australian Associated Press, have reported on the current legal efforts in China that aim to bring Jiang Zemin to justice.