Latest News from China - 01/18/2000

Practitioner from Gui-zhou Province, Song Bang-fu, Was Given Three Years of Forced Labor "Education" for Appealing in Beijing

Song Bang-fu has been determined about Falun Dafa. After July 22, he exchanged experience with practitioners from other places in Gui-zhou Province and encouraged them to continue to practice Falun Dafa and protect Falun Dafa. October 28, he went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested on the Tiananmen Square. After he was sent back to Gui-yang, he was given three years of forced labor "education" without trial.

News from Si-chuan Province

It was reported by "Dazhou Daily" that the police department of Dazhou City, Si-chuan province detained three practitioners, Chen, Ding and Li. Chen and Li were arrested on the Tiananmen Square. Ding was arrested in the Fang-shan County of Beijing. They were charged with "damaging the implementation of state's law", although all they had done was to exercise their constitutional rights.

The newspaper also reported that since October 30th, police in Dazhou City had implemented a large-scale persecution against Falun Gong practitioner. They had confiscated 1,300 copies of Falun Gong books, 253 video/audio tapes, 95 pieces of VCD, 21 Falun badges, and 129copies of Falun Emblem.

News from Ireland: Practitioner from Ireland Is still Being Detained by Chinese Communist Regime

During the last Christmas, some practitioners from Ireland went back to China to appeal and got arrested. He is still in custody.

Practitioner Liu Feng went to appeal alone and got arrested. Now Liu Feng is under home arrest.

Zhao Ming was arrested on January 5th when he appealed in Beijing. He is also under home arrest. The police have not returned his passport. The police are demanding him to write a pledge that he will not express any dissent against the government's crackdown on Falun Gong.

Yang Fang was arrested together with several British practitioners. Later, she was escorted back to her hometown and she is still in police custody. Those British practitioners have already been deported to the United Kingdom.

Qing-hua University Is Imposing Greater Pressure on Falun Gong Practitioners

It was said that since July, the vice premier Li Nan-qing has been directly involved in dealing with Falun Gong practitioners in Tsing-hua University. Under the pressure from the central authorities, the university has to severely punish those students and faculty members who continue to practice Falun Gong. Most of them are excellent students.

Since November, many students and several young faculty members were ordered to withdraw from the school for two months and were brought back to home by their parents. The university would dismiss them if they do not write the pledge that they would not practice Falun Gong. Many students are bearing the pressures from both the university and the family. Most of them are still staying at home except Li Yi-xiang who had been "transformed" and the other two who had written the pledge. It was said that the university has already transferred other practitioners' files (the Chinese communist regime maintains a file for each Chinese citizen) to their local police departments. Three students will be dismissed.

Jiang-su Practitioners Urge the Government to Stop Violating The Human Rights of Falun Gong Practitioners

Zhu Su-fang, female, 53, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Yan-cheng City of Jiang-su Province. On the New Year's Day, she held up a banner reading "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance" on the Tiananmen Square and then was taken to the Yan-cheng City Liaison Office in Beijing by the police. Later she was sent back to the local Da-feng City police department for detention.

She started hunger strike on January 3rd when her Falun Dafa books were confiscated. She was released on 2pm of January 16. Her books were also returned to her.

The local police department has intensified its persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners. Gao Yu-lan was arrested at 5am of December31st when she was practicing Falun Gong at home. The police dragged her hair, slapped her face and kicked her. Moreover, the police pushed her head under the water to punish her. It has lasted like this for 16days. She has suffered all kinds of inhumane mistreatments.

These two practitioners protect Falun Dafa with their lives and passed all kinds of tests. Local practitioners were deeply moved by their courage.

Practitioners from Yan-cheng City appeal to all kind-hearted people to help solve this crisis. They also urge the Chinese government to stop violating the internationally recognized human rights of Falun Gong practitioners.

Greeting New Millennium by Practicing Falun Gong on the Tiananmen Square

A practitioner had been detained twice for appealing to the Chinese authorities. Because the Chinese communist authorities (who claim shamelessly that they are "serving" the people) refused to listen to his opinions, he practiced the fifth set of Falun Gong exercises (sitting meditation) on the Tiananmen Square at the 0:00am of the New Year to prove that Falun Gong is righteous.

When the bell of the New Year rang, many practitioners from Japan, Hong Kong and Korea etc. started to practice Falun Gong on the Tiananmen Square. The police started to beat them once noticing them, and dragged them onto the police vans while beating and kicking them. Some journalists were also pushed into the police vans for taking photos and their cameras were confiscated.

In the Qian-men police station, the police registered and body-searched every practitioner. Some practitioners refused to tell the police their names in order to avoid being sent back to their hometowns. Therefore, they were beaten up in the room called "Falun Section". A woman in her30s was detained there for 72 hours and suffered such inhumane tortures that she was not recognizable. There was extravasated blood in her eyes and on her head. Another woman in her 50s was beaten up by a police officer using a wood club. This woman still patiently told the officer to read "Zhuan Falun" (the main text of Falun Dafa). Later a woman was sent in because of practicing the Falun Standing Exercise on the Square. The police burned her hands using cigarette.

Some practitioners have been released and prepared to go to Beijing again to appeal to the Chinese authorities.

We appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Organizations to investigate the Chinese government's inhumane mistreatments against Falun Gong practitioners. The victims would like to testify.