Toronto Star: China sends Canadian to labour camp

Ottawa - Chinese prison authorities transferred Kunlun Zhang, a Canadian citizen arrested for practising Falun Gong, to a forced labour camp where his daughter fears he may be tortured to death.

"My father's life is in danger there because it is custom to torture," said LingDi Zhang, a University of Ottawa student in an interview yesterday. She added she is beginning to despair Canada can do anything to save her father.

"I think the Canadian government is too afraid of China."

LingDi Zhang said she learned her father, an arts professor, was moved from a detention centre to ShanDong No. 1 labour camp in ShanDong province sometime over the past few weeks because he refused to sign a pledge to renounce Falun Gong ?a discipline involving a series of meditation exercises that has been condemned by the Chinese government as a security threat.

An attempt last week by Canada's ambassador in Beijing to secure Zhang's release on compassionate and humanitarian grounds failed, said foreign affairs department spokes-person Reynald Doiron.

"It doesn't mean we have given up," said Doiron. "We do consider Professor Zhang as a Canadian citizen. But China being what it is, it takes time and it takes patience to convince them of the validity of our message, and we'll keep repeating it."

Doiron said Ambassador Howard Balloch did not know of Zhang's transfer to the forced labour camp at the time he met with China's vice-minister of foreign affairs on Dec. 27.

At the meeting, the Chinese reminded Canada that Zhang had travelled to China on his Chinese passport, and was not considered a Canadian citizen. China does not recognize dual citizenship.

Doiron said Zhang's case may be raised during next month's Team Canada trade mission to China. Zhang, formerly of Montreal, and his wife Shu-mei were first arrested in Jinan, China, in July for practising the meditation exercises in a public park.

He was arrested again in October after going on a protest hunger strike while out of jail, and released, LingDi said, because Chinese officials were worried he might die in jail from the continuing hunger strike. His arrest in November and subsequent three-year sentence were punishment for his hunger strike, his daughter said.

According to Amnesty International, it was the first time a foreign-based Falun Gong practitioner was sentenced rather than deported.

LingDi's mother is currently under house arrest in China, and she fears for her safety as well.

Zhang's daughter's fears for his safety may be well-founded, says Amnesty International.

"Her concern is justified and clearly substantiated by the evidence we have of people dying in custody under unusual circumstances," said Amnesty spokesperson John Tackaberry.

Amnesty International says 77 Falun Gong followers are reported to have died in prison or shortly after release since the crackdown began in July, 1999.

Many appeared to have died as a result of torture or force-feeding while they were on a hunger strike. Others are reported to have jumped or fallen to their deaths. Of the deaths, 17 took place in ShanDong province.

Tackaberry said the transfer of Zhang is typical of China's tendency to step up attacks "at times when they expect they can get away with it, when the world's attention is focused on other events."

The Canadian government has been weak in its denunciation of China's treatment of Falun Gong followers and of other non-Christian church followers, said Tackaberry.

"It doesn't matter that he's a Canadian citizen or not, this is unacceptable in terms of human rights behaviour for anyone."

"The Canadian government has raised the issue but so far the Canadians haven't been as effective as we think they could be if they stood up and spoke forcefully."