February 17, 2002

Despite bruises they say were inflicted by Chinese police, four members of a local Falun Gong group returning from Beijing on Saturday said they would welcome another chance to protest in Tiananmen Square.

Brothers Jared and Court Pearman, Cheng-Yuan "Corey" Lee and Chris Jasurek returned to Orlando on Saturday, two days after Chinese police broke up a demonstration by dozens of Falun Gong followers from throughout the world.

Their protest and China's response -- arrests, detentions then expulsions -- came on the eve of President Bush's trip to Asia, which began Saturday and is scheduled to reach China on Thursday.

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Jasurek, 40, of Orlando said the demonstration was planned before Bush's trip was announced, adding it was a "happy coincidence" that the events nearly coincided. Like the others, he said he would go back to demonstrate anytime.

"We were doing something very right and very noble. This is not a Chinese issue. This is a human-rights issue," he said. "I would go back immediately."

Chinese authorities issued a statement Friday insisting they had treated the protesters well. "They were reprimanded and admonished according to law but were treated humanely," the New China News Agency reported.

But the four Orlando followers, who practice with a University of Central Florida Falun Gong group, called the statement a lie.

Court Pearman, 24, said Chinese police swarmed the protesters as soon as they gathered in Tiananmen Square on Thursday. Four or five police tackled and roughed up each protester, they said, then carried them off.

Cheng-Yuan, who speaks a native dialect, was split off from the rest of the local group, driven away in a van. He was taken to Hong Kong and freed the next day. As a Taiwanese citizen -- making him a Chinese citizen under China's laws -- the UCF education doctoral student was at risk of imprisonment, his friends feared. But he said he was not worried.

"At that time, I didn't think of what they would do to me. I was thinking that what I was doing is right," Cheng-Yuan said.

Most of the protesters were driven to their hotels to gather their belongings, and then to a facility that the Chinese authorities said was a secure hotel. Jared Pearman, 21, a UCF junior, said the protesters still think it was a police detention center.

During the 20 hours they were there, no one explained what was going to happen or none of the detainees were allowed to make phone calls, the Pearmans said. Fearing for their safety and hoping to get word of the detainees' status to the outside world, the Pearman brothers each attempted an escape, only to be recaptured and beaten, they said.

Later, Chinese authorities offered food, drink and reassurances, but the detainees called it all a show.

"When someone beats you and kicks you and then gives you a bowl of noodles and water, I just didn't feel very grateful," he said. "And neither did the other practitioners."

The four got heroes' welcomes Saturday at Orlando International Airport, where about 20 Falun Gong followers greeted them with flowers, banners, music and speeches.

"Their presence," said Laura Spahn of Orlando, "was a voice for those who have no voice."