(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Xiang Lijie, married to a Taiwanese resident for more than a decade, has been illegally detained, held in a labor camp and was brutally tortured by the Chinese Communist regime for practicing Falun Gong.

In the past six years the Communist regime has refused to let Xiang Lijie return to Taiwan because she refuses to give up her belief. The Communist Party fears that the international community will learn more about its atrocities against Falun Gong. National Security Bureau agents and police officials illegally arrested Ms. Xiang. She was detained, force-fed, and subjected to brainwashing. Xiang Lijie's husband is anxiously waiting for her. Her father-in-law didn't get to see her before he passed away.

We call on people inside and outside China, including legal experts and human rights activists, to join together to help rescue the unlawfully-detained Xiang Lijie.

Brief summary of Xiang Lijie's life and the persecution she has been subjected to:

Xiang Lijie is 45 years old. She was born in Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province. She got married in Mainland China to Yang Jinyi, a resident of Tainan County, Taiwan in August 1994. They were very happy together.

After the Communist Party began persecuting Falun Gong, Xiang Lijie persisted in her belief and went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong while she lived in Mainland China. She was twice sentenced to forced labor and has never been able to return to Taiwan.

After Xiang Lijie was released from the labor camp in 2001, she received permission from the Taiwanese government to live in Taiwan. She started going through the procedures necessary to move to Taiwan. She had applied to the Communist regime for permission to move to Taiwan, and met with obstruction from the local government. The Jilin Province Public Security Department refused to issue the necessary documents to her because she refused to give up Falun Gong.

After Xiang Lijie was released on medical parole from the labor camp for the second time in 2003, she was extremely weak and could not take care of herself due to the tortures she suffered at the labor camp. Her husband appealed for her through the Legislative Yuan and the Taiwanese Strait Exchange Foundation, who spoke on her behalf and appealed for the Communist regime to grant permission for her to relocate to Taiwan. The local police and the National Security Division again refused, without giving any explanation.

Xiang Lijie exposed the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong on April 23, 2006. She was again arrested and her personal property worth about 10,000 yuan was confiscated.

Xiang Lijie is now being held at the Liaoyuan City Detention Center. The Communist regime is attempting to try her in court. Xiang Lijie held hunger strikes several times at the detention center to protest the persecution. The guards locked her onto a metal chair, and to a "Stretching Bed" (1). They forbade her family to visit her.

More than ten other Falun Gong practitioners including Zhao Yan are also held at Liaoyuan City Detention Center.

No lawyers in China dare to represent Falun Gong practitioners in court, so we call for legal experts and people of justice inside and outside China to extend a helping hand. Please, provide legal representation and assistance for Xiang Lijie and other Falun Gong practitioners. Please, take quick action to help stop the Liaoyuan City regime's persecution against Falun Gong practitioners!

(1) "Stretching Bed" -- The guards fix the steadfast practitioners' limbs on a specially made bed on which there are 4 rings. Practitioners' hands and feet are fixed in the rings. Then the police apply force to the rings, so that the practitioner's body will be pulled up away from the bed as their limbs are stretched. If more force is exerted, one will pass out in a few seconds. If one is left in this position for more than ten minutes, all his/her muscle and bones in the limbs will be dislocated and the person will be disabled permanently. Moreover, the guards forbid others to take care of the disabled practitioners. After the practitioner is pulled up off the bed and the limbs are stretched, the police strike the joints with small rubber mallets until the joints become bruised and extremely sore.