Ottawa Citizen: Falun Gong follower seeks refugee status

Saturday December 9, 2000, Ottawa Citizen

A Chinese student attending Memorial University in Newfoudland is seeking refugee status in Canada after his mother was killed and his father was imprisoned in China for practising the banned meditation exercises of Falun Gong.

Chris Xu, 23, who also practises Falun Gong, says the Chinese government's ongoing crackdown against the spiritual movement combined with the loss of his parents' financial support would make it dangerous and impoverishing to return to China.

"I fear going back," says Mr. Xu, who is working on his MBA, "My father's situation is still unknown, I have to make a refugee claim and I want to let people know what is happening in China to practitioners of Falun Gong."

Mr. Xu says his mother Shi Bei, 49, was starved to death in September after being incarcerated in a mental hospital for refusing to renounce her belief in the spiritual principles of Falun Gong.

He says Mrs. Bei had become a promoter of the practice in Fuyang City in 1996, when Falun Gong was still permitted and growing wildly in popularity. But in May 1998, she was arrested and questioned by police as the Chinese government began moving toward outlawing the practice.

He says his father was also arrested and sent to Laodongyue Jail.

Beijing formally banned Falun Gong in July 1999 and in May of this year -- "although there was nothing wrong with her," says her son -- Mrs. Bei was placed in a psychiatric hospital in Hangzhou City.

"I went to the hospital to visit her," says Mr. Xu, recalling a trip to Hangzhou City in June. "I could not believe what I saw. The 'ward' should really be called a jail cell. There was only a 'bed' made of pieces of wood and covered with straw. There ware not even the basic necessities for living and sanitation."

'I had the ominous feeling that it might be the last time I saw my Mom.'

Chris Xu

Mr. Xu says his mother was injected with large doses of sedatives and that her health was deteriorating because of the poor conditions in the hospital. "When I left the hospital, I had the ominous feeling that it might be the last time I saw my Mom."

On Sept. 10, Mrs. Bei died at the hospital. Her son says hse was "starved to death by the police. They did not allow her any food for a whole week."

Countries around the world, including Canada, have criticized Beijing for human rights violations which Falun Gong officials say have led to more than 70 deaths, the illegal detention of 25,000 people in labour camps and the incarceration of more than 1000 others in prisons or mental hospitals around the country. Estimates of the number of Falun Gong practitioners in China run as high as 100 million.

Two more practitioners were reported yesterday to have died in police custody, bringing to at least 74 the death toll in the 17 month crackdown, according to a Hong Kong -- based human rights group.

Wan Huachen, a 32 year-old chemical factory worker, died Nov. 18 in a hospital from injuries he got jumping out of a fourth-story window at a police station in the northeastern city of Huludao, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Zhao Jing, 19, was arrested Nov. 23 on a train in the northern province of Hebei while travelling to Beijing with other Falun Gong followers, the centre said. Three days later, police notified her family she was dead. Police said she died after falling in an escape attempt, but her companions said they heard her cries as police beat her.

With files from the Associated Press

'My Mom was starved to death'

Refugee claimant Chris Xu, an MBA student in Newfondland, says his mother Shi Bei is one of scores of Falun Gong practitioners in China who have paid with their life for defying Beijing's ban on the meditaion exercese.

On Sept. 10, my Mom was killed in the Seventh Hospital of Hangzhou City (a psychiatric hospital), only because she was a Falun Gong practitioner.

I had just arrived in Canada when I learned of this tragedy. I was overwhelmed by great sorrow.

My Mom's name was Shi Bei. She was born in Lanxi of Zhejiang Province in 1951. My father's name is Xu Xianghu, and he was born in Xuzhou of Jiangsu Province in 1949.

My mother was a worker in Fuyang City of Zhejiang Province. Before she practised Falun Gong, she suffered from a serious protrusion of the lumbar as well as from heart disease.

Every winter, she had to go to the department of orthopedics of the First People's Hospital two or three times for massage therapy.

This long term ill health often left her in depression. In Sept. 1995, she began to practice Falun Gong, and her physical and mental condition started improving.

In the past, she often needed the support of the wall while walking, but after practising Falun Gong, she could do housework all by herself, and she could help carry the gas tank together with me from the ground floor up to our home.

Under her influence, my father and I also took up the cultivation practice.

In August 1996, mom became the contact person of the practice site of Falun Gong in Fuyang city. She took it as her responsibility to introduce Falun Gong to people in Fuyang as well as the villages and towns nearby.

On six separate occasions, she used her own money to rent auditoriums and classrooms for holding introductory sessions on Falun Gong. Her efforts made more and more people able to learn and study Falun Gong.

In March 1998, one practitioner confessed to Mom that he was really a secret agent from the State Security Bureau, and he was responsible for collecting information on the local Falun Gong 'organization.' His experience of interacting with fellow practitioners over the preceding few months had convinced him that Falun Gong would not inflict any harm to the state or society.

Instead, it is a good practice that can make people healthy, enhance their wisdom, and upgrade the moral standards of society in general.

In mid-May of 1998m several plainclothes policemen took Mom away from our home and did not release her until midnight.

I asked Mom afterwards why they did that. Mom said the police demanded that she submit a list of all the local Falun Gong practitioners.

In July 1999, President Jiang Zemin and his followers in the Chinese government denounced Falun Gong as an "illegal organization." After that , Mom and Dad were forced to report to local police station about their "thoughts" every month.

They took this as a good opportunity to let the policemen gain a better understanding of Falun Gong. After a period of time, even the policemen said to Mom: "Why don't you just say something bad about Falun Gong against your conscience, so that we can report to our supervisors?"

But Mom had been determined about her faith, and never agreed to recant.

In May 2000, the police department of Fuyang City forcefully "committed" Mom to the Seventh Hospital of Hangzhou City. This hospital is a psychiatric hospital for mental patients, although there was nothing wrong with her.

In mid-June, I went to the hospital to visit her. I could not believe what I saw. The "ward" should really be called a jail cell. There was only a "bed" made of pieces of wood and covered with straw. There were not even basic necessities for living and sanitation.

But Mom was still very optimitic and talkative, introducing Falun Gong to people she met.

The staff members of the hospital, under the pressure of the police, give Mom forced injections of sedatives using a large syringe.

When I left the hospital, I had the ominous feeling that it might be the last time I saw my Mom.

My Dad was also detained. I dared not to go home. I could only live at the office of my school. I had hoped that my parents would be released, but my Dad was later sent to Laodongyue Jail.

In the end, my Mom was starved to death by the police. They did not allow her any food for a whole week, in order to prevent her from speaking on behalf of her faith.

I have lost my Mom. I don't know the condition of my Dad who is currently detained in Laodongyue Jail of Hangzhou City. This family tragedy made it very difficult for me to continue my studies in Canada.

But I cannot go back to China. Otherwise, my entire family might perish under this ongoing persecution.

I will learn from Mom to be determined in my faith.

No matter where I am, I will uphold my belief in Falun Gong.

As told to Randy Boswell