World Journal: Bay Area Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested and Brutally Beaten in Mainland China

(World Journal US West Version on February 16th, 2002)

(Liu Kaiping reports from San Francisco) Five Bay Area Falun Gong practitioners returned to San Francisco from Beijing on the afternoon of the 15th. Chun Lee, of Chinese descent, said that she had been beaten up violently by the Beijing police.

More than 40 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested by the police on Tiananmen Square in Beijing on the 14th. Most of the practitioners are westerners, 5 of them are from the Bay Area. Among them, Chun Lee is of Chinese descendent, Huy Lu is a Vietnamese American, and Steve Ispas, Eugen Carai, and David Kute are Caucasians.

Chun Lee, who immigrated to the US from Guangdong province at the age of 2, works for a high tech company. She said in the interview that the only purpose of her trip to Beijing was to say " Falun Dafa is Good;" however, she was beaten brutally by the police in Beijing.

Chun said that she was walking in a tunnel towards Tiananmen Square with some fellow Falun Gong practitioners when they were suddenly surrounded by countless police. She was pushed to the ground, punched and kicked in her back, her face and her nose. "The police slapped me and threw me to the ground while some other police standing by failed to stop the assault. My face was injured, I couldn't move my jaw, and my nose was bleeding."

Chun said when she arrived at the police station, the police grabbed her by her hair and pushed her out of the van.

She pointed out that just before she was deported, the police in Beijing beat her again. "By then they had already taken my passport and knew I was an American citizen, but they still beat me. I can't imagine how the Chinese police treat the Chinese citizens. I think it must be much worse. I hope the Chinese government will stop the persecution of Falun Gong soon."

Chun Lee said that the Beijing police took her MP3 player away. Another Bay Area practitioner, David Kute, said that his wallet and walkman were also taken away. His wallet had his California Driver License, credit cards, etc.

"Falun Dafa Information Center" issued a press release that the acts of western Falun Gong practitioners on Tiananmen Square were "peaceful and rational." The fact that the police arrested and beat the practitioners at Tiananmen Square not only violates "the freedom of speech" under the Constitution of People's Republic of China, but also "ruins China's reputation of civilization and causes all the Chinese people to lose face."

February 15th is Chun Lee's birthday. Due to the time difference, it was the 15^th when she was in Beijing; and it is still the 15^th when she returned to the Bay Area. She said the police in Beijing told her as long as she admitted her mistakes, they would buy her a birthday cake, and then they continued to beat her.