Choking back tears, Jian Tang described Saturday how she was tortured in China. Her ankles in steel shackles, her nose pinched, she gagged when a prison guard poured salt water down her throat.
A director at the detention center kicked my chest and gave the order to fill me with salt and water when I refused to eat, Tang testified Saturday before some 300 followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a religious practice akin to meditation that has been banned in [party name omitted] China.
The protesters listening to her story demanded an end to what they say is abuse by the Chinese government. They rallied at the Dirksen Federal Building Plaza downtown, marched along Michigan Avenue and staged a sitdown at the Chinese Consulate in an effort to garner support for mem-bers allegedly murdered and maimed in their home-land, China.
Those who disobey government orders to stop practicing Falun Gong have been subjected to cruelty since the ban went into effect in 1999, followers said. Falun Gong members here say they believe more than 200 faithful in China have been killed and tens of thousands more, such as Tang, imprisoned at labor camps and detention centers. Hundreds more have been put into psychiatric facilities, according to the U.S. State Department and international human rights organizations.
[]
Falun Gong describes itself as a spiritual movement that focuses on healthy living through exercise and truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance advocated by founder Li Hongzhi.
Dragged from a friends home in Guang-Zhou, Tang, who was released at the urging of members of Congress, said she spent 15 days in a filthy cell with many rats that sometimes jumped on our bodies. They served us rotten rice and vegetables.
Warren H. Tai, an executive vice president at the International Bank of Chicagos branch in Chinatown, participated in Saturdays protests. Tai blames the Chinese governments response on fear.
They get scared when they cannot control your mind, he said.
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
