Statement from "The Committee to Globally Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners" Regarding the Successful Rescue of Falun Gong Practitioners Xiong Wei and Zhou Xuefei

Falun Gong practitioner Ms Xiong Wei, who used to study in Germany, has been successfully rescued from China and arrived in Germany on the 29th of September. Earlier this September, Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Xuefei , the wife of a visiting academic in the US, arrived in USA after three years of inhuman harassment in a labour camp in China, as a result of many efforts made to rescue her.

These are the two most recent successful cases of rescuing Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China, which were initiated by Falun Gong practitioners outside China and people working for human rights. Xiong Wei and Zhou Xuefei regaining freedom can be seen as an indication of the effectiveness of the voice of justice and forces outside China for rescuing persecuted people. Here "The Committee to Globally Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners" would like to express their gratitude to every western government, human rights organisation, foreign Falun Gong practitioner, as well as all people with a sense of justice for making efforts to support and rescue Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China.

The Committee would also like to appeal to every western government, human rights organisation, media organisation and kind-hearted person to pay attention to the living conditions and basic human rights of Mr Li Xiangchun and Mr Zhang Mengye, who are still illegally detained, and the situation of the students and teachers persecuted for practising Falun Gong from universities, colleges and elementary schools.

Ms Xiong Wei studied at Berlin Technical University in Germany between 1993 and 1999, during which time she started practising Falun Gong. She went back to Beijing in 1999 and was employed by a German company’s Beijing branch. Just before the Chinese New Year in 2002, Xiong Wei was arrested by the police for distributing Falun Gong leaflets in Beijing, and put into a Beijing Women’s Forced Labour Camp for “Labour Re-education” for two years.

Ms Zhou Xuefei is an advertising designer who was illegally arrested by police in China in November 2000 and sentenced to three years “Labour Re-education” for distributing Falun Gong leaflets. She was detained in the women’s labour camp of Guangdong Sanshui city. In there, she was subjected to forced hard labour and inhuman harassment.

Since July 1999, when Jiang Zemin initiated the clampdown and persecution against Falun Gong, under Jiang’s genocide policy of “Ruin their reputations, financially bankrupt them and physically destroy them”, numerous Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally detained, sentenced and put into labour camps and metal hospitals, and even persecuted to death. Many senior intellectuals, students and teachers from universities, colleges and elementary schools are included. Examples of students and teachers persecuted to death include seventeen-year-old Chen Ying from Shuren Middle School in Heilongjiang, Jiamsu city, and young female teacher Zhao Xin from Beijing Industrial and Commercial University. According to the Hong Kong Human Rights Information Centre, Qinghua University alone has at least 300 professors, teachers, as well as PHD, postgraduate and undergraduate students illegally detained, dismissed from their work and study, or directly sent to labour camps; at least eighteen people have been sentenced for no reason.

There are also a lot of overseas students illegally arrested and put into “Labour Re-education” for speaking for justice for Falun Gong or refusing to give up practising Falun Gong whilst visiting their family in China. For example, Zhao Ming, a graduate from the computer school of Qinghua University, and Liu Feng, who both studied in Ireland, were released and came back to Ireland as a result of the long term rescue campaign outside of China. However, US citizen Charles Lee is still illegally detained in Nanjing prison at the moment.

According to news on The Epoch Times website on the 30th of September, Hu Jintao’s Qinghua university colleague Zhang Mengye is being harassed by Guangzhou 610 Office without mercy for refusing to give up Falun Gong. Recently, the Editor of The Epoch Times received a letter from Zhang. The letter was forwarded to Hu Jintao at the end of last year by his Qinghua colleague at the request of Zhang, and also a written statement accusing Guangzhou 610 Office of all kinds of torture he was subjected to conducted by the Huangpu Legal Institutions School, which included brutal beatings, deprivation of sleep and forced feeding of human urine. These letters were written by Zhang even though this was a danger to his life, and they passed through many hands before they reached the editor. It is said that the Guangzhou Falun Gong practitioner who passed on the letters was also arrested for forwarding them.

The Committee appeals to all the forces of justice from every level to continue their efforts in rescuing more Falun Gong practitioners who are still being persecuted, and bring an end to this unprecedented human rights disaster as soon as possible.

The Rescuing Intellectuals branch of the Committee to Globally Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners