Dai Zhizhen Tells Her Story in the Finnish Newspaper Metro

“Metro”, one of the most widely read newspapers in Helsinki, featured a full-page article about Australian Falun Gong practitioner Dai Zhizhen and how the cruel persecution of Falun Gong affected the life of her family. Metro is a free newspaper that reaches approximately 200,000 people everyday. That day many people learned the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong after reading Dai Zhizhen’s touching personal experience.

Here are some excerpts from the full article:

“A woman who lost her husband hopes that her story will help others”

Tuesday 4th February 2003
Pasi Andersson/STT(Finnish News Agency)

“I hope that my husbands death helps to prevent other deaths. I hope that it helps thousands of people in China who are in the same position that I am”, says Dai Zhizhen with a quiet voice.

Dai’s husband was also a [practitioner] of Falun Gong, and according to Dai he died because of torture in the hands of the police in 2001. Since then Dai has been around the world telling her story, which she hopes will bring relief to those who are suffering from the severe actions of repression against Falun Gong.

“In China there are thousands of people who are in the same position that I am. They cannot speak (because of the fear of revenge), but I will speak”, says Dai who was born in China and is a citizen of Australia.

The body of Dai’s husband, Chen Chengyong, was found in summer 2001 in an abandoned cottage in the city of Guangzhou in Southern China.

“There is no doubt, that he died because of the authorities’ treatment [of him]. When he was picked up from our home, he was still weak from previous torture, and he was just lying in bed.”

Dai and Chen met in the year 1997 and got married soon after. In that time Falun Gong was not banned in China and there were lots of practitioners. Approximately 100 million practised Falun Gong and among them there were high-level members of the communist party, authorities and commissioned officers.

The attitude toward Falun Gong changed in 1999 when the authorities banned all activities of the group. Chen travelled to Beijing to protest against the actions of suppression.

“He was arrested and sent to Guangzhou prison. Police beat him up and also told the criminals to beat him.”

Chen was released, but the pressure from the authorities didn’t stop. He lost his job and was forced to attend a brainwashing-class and he left his home to protect his family.

In December 2000 he travelled again to Beijing to appeal. Chen got arrested and he was tortured in a detention centre near Beijing.

“He was beaten and given electric shocks. He was in such a bad condition, that authorities were afraid that he would die and they let him free. After four days they took him again from our home, and after that I didn’t hear from him again.”

According to Falun Gong, over 500 hundred practitioners have experienced a similar fate to Chen. American Human Rights Watch says that followers of Falun Gong have been sent to mental hospitals for “re-education.”

“There is more evidence that the authorities are allowing the use of violence against Falun Gong practitioners in order eradicate the movement. Also the information about torture and deaths in the custody of authorities has increased,” says the 2002 report of Amnesty International.

According to Dai, Falun Gong is not a threat to the government of China. She says that the persecution against Falun Gong is due to the President Jiang Zemin’s jealously of the popularity of Falun Gong.

“We just want to have a right to practise freely. When we get that right, I will go back to China. I love that country and we don’t have anything against the government or the people.”