September 7, 2001

A Chinese woman studying at Dundee University will travel across Britain to petition 52 town chiefs next week in a desperate bid to return to her homeland with her baby girl.

Zhengfang and her husband will be unable to return with their daughter when her student visa expires next month because she is a practitioner of the banned spiritual practice of Falun Gong.

Along with her 20-month-old daughter Minghui, she will on Monday start an 1840-mile journey from Dundee to 52 cities and towns across Britain to raise public awareness of her plight.

They will be joined by two other Falun Gong practitioners, Robert and PhD student Yuan, for the car journey, which will end in Edinburgh on October 4.

Zhengfang's husband who is studying at Swansea wants to go home with his wife. Their daughter Minghui was born in Wales last year.

The couple encountered extreme difficulties with the Chinese embassy in London when they tried to register the child for Chinese nationality.

The couple were told they would not be allowed to register her for Chinese nationality and she would not be allowed into China unless they renounced Falun Gong--which they are unwilling to do.

The baby's parents would have to leave her behind when their student visas expire at the end of October, but without a legitimate nationality, Minghui could neither leave the country nor return to China.

Zhengfang claims the couple are already on the Chinese government's "hit-list" to be arrested and imprisoned and hope the petition will also see the total ban on Falun Gong lifted.

She wants to take the petition to the United Nations.

"I hope it will allow my daughter to become a citizen and also end the brutalities so many children and their parents have been subjected to in China and other countries," she said.