Columbia Daily Tribune article about Missouri practitioner Sue Jiang

[Editor's Note: The report says, "Estimates suggest that 100,000 people worldwide practice Falun Dafa." The number should be 100 million.]

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- She held the banner in Tiananmen Square.

The police beat at her hands -- bruising them -- and took it away.

Then they took her away.

``As a Chinese citizen, I feel I have a right to tell the government the truth,'' said recent University of Missouri graduate Sue Jiang. ``I went to Tiananmen Square to appeal.''

Jiang, who has lived in Columbia for the past five years with her husband Cuirong Ren and their 7-year-old daughter, last month went to China to visit her family and further research Falun Dafa, a meditative exercise she has been practicing for more than two years. The Chinese government banned the practice -- also known as Falun Gong -- last year as an ``evil'' cult. Reports of the arrests and torture of practitioners have been widespread since.

Jiang, 30, who came back to Columbia Wednesday, said she was not hurt during her detention. She describes her stay at the detention center as 24 days, during which she was given three meals daily, allowed to use the restroom twice daily and never permitted to bathe.

The official word from the Chinese government, as passed down through the Chinese ambassador in Washington, is that Jiang was detained for 15 days.

``At the beginning, the police in the detention center, they swear at me and they yell at me. But as a practitioner, no matter how bad they treat me, I do not treat them the same,'' she said sitting at her home on the University of Missouri campus. She said the verbal abuse eased up eventually.

Jiang went to China knowing she might be arrested. She said the combination of not seeing her family in five years and her desire to find Chinese Falun Dafa practitioners and to learn of their experiences inspired her trip.

A report compiled by practitioners suggests that 35,000 have been detained, with 5,000 of those being sent to labor camps. The report also claims that 100 have been put into mental institutions and severely abused.

``I really feel grateful for the practitioners in China; they are using their lives to show the government the truth,'' Jiang said.

Li Hongzhi founded Falun Dafa and began teaching it in 1992. Estimates suggest that 100,000 people worldwide practice Falun Dafa. About 20 are in Columbia.

``The police told my parents that they put me in jail for at least three years,'' Jiang said. ``My parents were so afraid.''

She signed a document that said she would not practice Falun Dafa in China and that she would not disrupt public order again. ``I did that totally for my parents,'' she said.

She loathed that she was forced to lie.

Cuirong sought U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof's help in trying to release his wife.

The Columbia Republican worked to meet with the Chinese ambassador and reached a Hong Kong businessman who he believed was working on humanitarian efforts in China. Jiang said she believes Hulshof's help weighed heavily in her release.

``This was really a unique situation,'' Hulshof said. He said although Jiang is not a citizen, she lives in his district, and he wanted to help. Chinese ``citizens on the mainland don't enjoy the blessings of freedom and liberty that we do,'' he said.

Jiang said she hopes the Chinese government will lift the ban and end the persecution of practitioners. She said she feels compelled to continue trying to get her point across. ``Maybe I will go back at any time if I am ready for such serious treatment,'' she said.

Hulshof said he would like to speak with Jiang personally and ``maybe encourage her -- in other positive ways -- to make a difference.''

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