Taiwanese Citizen Strongly Urges the Liaoyuan City Police Department to Immediately Release his Wife, Practitioner Ms. Xiang Lijie

Taiwanese citizen Mr. Yang Jingyi, husband of Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Xiang Lijie of Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province, is strongly urging the Liaoyuan City Police Department in Jilin Province to immediately and unconditionally allow his wife to return to Taiwan to reunite with her family. Ms. Xiang and Mr. Yang have been married for 10 years. Ms. Xiang, was sentenced to three years of forced labour without any legal grounds on February 5, 2001. She was then sent to Changchun City's Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp, where the police tried to force Ms. Xiang to give up her belief in Falun Dafa.

Ms. Xiang and Mr. Yang have been married for 10 years. Ms. Xiang, a Falun Gong practitioner, was sentenced by Liaoyuan City authorities to three years of forced labour without any legal grounds on February 5, 2001. She was then sent to Changchun City's Heizuizi Forced Labour Camp, where the police tried to force Ms. Xiang to give up her belief in Falun Dafa. After Ms. Xiang went on a hunger strike to protest her persecution, the police ordered about eight people to conduct brutal force-feedings of Ms. Xiang. They used hard tubes as big as three fingers in diameter to brutally force-feed her a very thin corn paste mixed in salt water.

Earlier at a local detention centre, Ms. Xiang had been diagnosed with severe heart disease, insufficient blood flow in her cardiac muscles, and gastrectasia, but the officials of the detention centre still sent her to the forced labour camp in Changchun City. Xiang Lijie was detained for a year and a half, after which time she was diagnosed with third degree gastroptosis and coronary heart disease in a hospital. She was unable to eat for days, became emaciated, and she could not take care of herself. The camp feared that her life was in danger and placed her on medical bail. Now Ms. Xiang has no income and has lost the ability to work. Moreover, because she has no money for medical care, her health remains in a very poor condition, and so her husband has requested, through the Taiwan Legislative Committee and the Straight Coordination Committee, that local authorities let Ms. Xiang return to him in Taiwan.

The local police department and the National Security Section again tried to compel Ms. Xiang to give up practising Falun Gong, telling her that she would not be allowed back to Taiwan unless she renounced her belief. Ms. Xiang debated with them reasonably, arguing that such conduct was illegal, but the local authorities still refused to free her. Ms. Xiang then issued a statement to the Liaoyuan City Police Department National Security Section stating that if she were not allowed back to Taiwan, she would go on another hunger strike to protest. This hunger strike began on August 1, 2004, and it will not end until Ms. Xiang is permitted to return to Taiwan.

Mr. Yang Jinyi's address: Zhongliao Village, Area No. 7-71, Tainan County, Taiwan

Liaoyuan City Police Department National Security Section, Jilin Province, officer Li Bin's phone number: 86-13604378575 (mobile)

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/5/81079.html