Minghui website recently reported that Mr. Hu Guoping, a Chinese scholar at a University in Japan has been jailed for more than 8 months, and that he, along with other 8 young and middle-aged academics, has been unlawfully tried by the court of Xicheng District of Beijing, and were awaiting their final sentencing.

At ten in the morning, October 18, 2000, nearly 30 practitioners in Japan went to the Chinese Embassy in Japan holding banners which read: "Release the Kind Falun Dafa Practitioners," and "Falun Dafa, Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance." They delivered the written request for the prompt release of Mr. Hu Guoping and all practitioners. The iron gate to the embassy was closed as usual and no one from the Embassy came out to accept the written request. Two representatives for the practitioners, after consulting with the Japanese guards, read the request aloud in the direction of the Embassy, then left it in a paper box outside the Embassy gate. They asked the guard to deliver it on their behalf to the Embassy staff. Passersby were perplexed at the coldness of the Embassy towards the legitimate request from its own people.