Statement By the "Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners in China" Concerning the Detention of US Citizen Charles Li

Since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, the Jiang regime has ignored and violated international law and China's own constitution. Jiang has used all available means and the privileges of his position to deceive the people of China and the international community to directly and indirectly pursue his crimes against humanity.

As of today, millions of Falun Gong practitioners' lives have been disrupted by this persecution, and untold thousands have been forced from their homes and families. Hundreds of thousands have been detained and tortured, with more than 100,000 being sent to labour camps without trial. Thousands more have been thrown into mental institutions and abused with dangerous drugs, and at least 569 practitioners are verified to have been killed, although it is believed that the actual number is much higher.

Recently, the Chinese government, totally disregarding international law and the opinion of the international community, detained two overseas Falun Gong practitioners who were visiting China. United States citizen Charles Li was detained upon his arrival at Guangzhou airport and Australian citizen Nancy Chen was detained in Chengdu. Both were detained on January 22, 2003.

In October 2002, Jiang Zemin was charged in the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois for committing the crimes of torture and genocide against Falun Gong practitioners.

The Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners in China has been founded to investigate all acts of persecution and propaganda against Falun Gong. We are collecting concrete evidence, and we hereby serve notice to those guilty of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners that they will be brought to justice for their crimes against humanity. We are watching these cases very closely.

We urgently call on the world's governments, international organizations and people of goodwill to join us in demanding that the Chinese government end its persecution of Falun Gong. Please help US citizen Charles Li return safely home and help millions of Chinese Falun Gong practitioners regain their right to practice their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.