Latest News from china - 04/15/2000

[Beijing] About the Tiananmen Peaceful Appeal on April 13

1. On the evening of April 13 of 2000, police started to go to the homes of people in some areas of Beijing and interrogated them whether they had PCs and printers, whether they could connect to the Internet, whether they read through the Internet the materials prohibited by the communist regime, whether they print out such materials and distribute them etc. People felt indignant about that.

2. On April 13, many practitioners in Beijing decided to appeal on Tiananmen Square. The police got the information at 5am and ordered all work units in Beijing to monitor those determined practitioners. Although many practitioners had been "invited" to the police station or monitored by their work units beforehand, many other practitioners including those from the Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing University, and Tsinghua University still successfully got to the Tiananmen Square. Banners of Falun Dafa were constantly unfurled on the Tiananmen Square. A Ph.D. student was forced into a police car a few second later after he unfurled a banner of Falun Dafa. The police ransacked his dorm on that night. He was responsible for a major research project.

3. Up to now, practitioners who unfurled banners on the Tiananmen Square yesterday have not been freed yet. They might have all been detained.

[Beijing] CCTV Presented Obviously False Facts in Order to Cheat the Public

After the regime failed to block the information about the Conference of United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the government spokesman appeared on the state-controlled CCTV news on April 13 attempting to refute the statements and evidences presented by Falun Gong practitioners in the UN human rights conference. The CCTV presented obviously false facts such as "98% of Falun Gong practitioners have given up Falun Gong" and "none of the Falun Gong practitioners have been detained" etc. in order to cover up the regime's brutal persecutions against Falun Gong practitioners.

[Beijing] Ms. Guo Jin-xia Suffered Tortures During 40 Days of Hunger Strike

About 100 practitioners from Mi-yun City have been detained for refusing to renounce their beliefs since March of 2000. They have experienced all kinds of tribulations. Most of them have been freed now. Some of them are still in custody.

Ms. Guo Jin-xia got detained for going to Beijing to appeal. She started hunger strike in protest of the illegal detention imposed on her. During the hunger strike, she suffered all kind of tortures. She was force-fed brutally once a week. Currently, she has been sent to a labor camp for one year of forced-labor "education".

Mr. Liu Xue-cheng got arrested at home for suspect involvements in "some activities". The police are collecting evidences against him in order to sentence him.

Ms. Zhang Shu-qing got arrested when she petitioned at the State's Appealing Office. She was given one month of criminal detention.

[Guang-dong Province] A Lawyer, Mr. Lin Jin, Was Given Two Years of Forced-labor "Education"

Mr. Lin Jin, 29 years old, was a lawyer. In October of 1999, he got arrested when he went to the Police Department of Beijing to report the fact that some governmental departments violated the constitution. He got detained for one week after he was escorted back from Beijing. Later, he was suspended from his post. On the Eve of Chinese New Year, he and some practitioners from Zhen-jiang City did a group practice of Falun Gong in order to support the fellow practitioners in jail. There were about 50 of them. After Lin Jin got detained for one month, he was sentenced to two years of forced-labor "education" in Shan-shui Labor Camp as "an important member".

[Wuhan] Employees of A Company Publishing Falun Gong Books Sentenced and Heavily Fined

Recently, some employees of the Shen-shen Corporation have been sentenced and imposed stiff fines.

Zhou Jia-rong, an employee of Shen-shen Corporation, was sentenced to two years in prison and imposed a fine of 10,000 Yuan.

Chen Jin, an employee of Shen-shen Corporation, was sentenced to one year and imposed a fine of 5,000 Yuan.

Shi Lei, an employee and a Falun Gong practitioner, was sentenced to one year in prison and was imposed a fine of 5,000 Yuan.

Note: the president of the Shen-shen Corporation, Mr. Wang Han-sheng and his wife, Xu Xiang-lan, had been charged with "organizing and using heretic organization" and sentenced to 8 and 6 years in prison respectively on January 6 of 2000 for selling books of Falun Dafa. Ms. Xu Xiang-lan was a former contact person of the assistance center of Falun Gong in Wuhan City.