United States: Government Officials Asked to Help Secure the Release of Dafa Practitioner Charles Li

Dear U.S. Government Official,

On January 22, 2003, my friend and fellow American citizen Charles Li was illegally seized in Guangzhou Airport upon arriving in China for a visit. He has since been illegally locked up in the Yangzhou Detention Centre in Jiangsu Province.

I met Charles four years ago when I was a student at Tufts University in Massachusetts. He, along with local residents and students, offered a free Falun Gong group exercise each week for everyone on campus. My first and lasting impression of Charles was that he was hardworking and soft-spoken. He held a medical doctorate and even began his own business, but he humbly put himself among the students, talking and joking lightly about everything with us, and there was no separation based on age or status. Charles moved to California when I was a senior in college. My senior year was typical for a student; it was about finding the balance between my studies and a part-time job, while looking for a job for the coming year, etc. At some point that year, a girlfriend of mine told me something that Charles had said before he moved but which was new to my ears. He told her that he knew it was a tough year for me but he thought it was great that I persevered and hoped I would keep it up. Those words deeply moved me. It was only one simple sentence that he spoke, and probably one that had never been meant to reach my ears. But behind each word was Charles' compassion and sincerity, and his words truly encouraged me to keep doing my best that year.

When I found out last week that Charles had been illegally taken away and locked up in a detention Centre in China, it was so difficult to believe. Charles is the first Falun Gong practitioner that I personally know who has been unjustly persecuted in China solely for supporting the principles of Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance, and the practise of Falun Gong. For almost four years, the Chinese regime has, at will, ordered the seizure, slander, and torture of tens of thousands of innocent, good people who just want to be better, more kind-hearted people. This ludicrous but all-too-real persecution has ruined so many lives, so many reputations, so many families, and so many hopes. When will it end? When will we realise that there is no rationality behind this brutal campaign of terror? When will we realise that Falun Gong practitioners indeed are good people who have been unjustly slandered and targeted? Now, it has reached the point where an American has been locked up just because he practises Falun Gong. We do not need any more proof than this to know that it is already high time that we take a clear stand to immediately stop the persecution of all those who practise Falun Gong in China.

Please do everything in your power to immediately rescue Charles and bring him home to safety in the United States. Thank you.

Sincerely,

A Dafa Practitioner