(Clearwisdom.net) An Australian Falun Gong practitioner and her six-year-old daughter arrived in Sydney at 8:15a.m. on February 3, 2003 via Hong Kong by Singapore flight after being released from one week's detention in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China. Her husband Lu Zhenlei and several Falun Gong practitioners welcomed them at the airport.
At 11:00 p.m., Nancy Chen gave a speech at a press conference outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney. She first expressed her heartfelt thanks to the Australian government, especially the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Embassy in Beijing, Western and Chinese media, the "Nancy Chen Urgent Rescue Team" and many other international parties and kind-hearted and just people for their joint efforts to secure her release.
After that, she told of her ordeal on her recent trip to China visiting her parents. Two days later after she arrived at home, she left Yibin County and set off to Chengdu City. On the afternoon of January 21, she arrived in Chengdu. Eight security officers from "610 Office" of the National Security Bureau in Chengdu City followed her in two jeeps and one motorcycle. She spent that night walking the streets endlessly in terror. Until 5a.m. on January 22, she managed to break away from them by taking a taxi and went to the US consulate in Chengdu for assistance. The Consular officials told her that they could help her book a flight to Hong Kong. As soon as two US Consular officials left after accompanying her to book the flight, a dozen security officers arrested Nancy Chen, the reason was that she is a Falun Gong practitioner. She was held in two hotels under 24-hour surveillance. They confiscated her passport, electronic notebook and cell phone, and locked her up from the outside connection and communication.
They treated her as if she were a "spy," and interrogated her for eight consecutive days. They asked her a lot of questions, such as, who sent her back to China? What was she doing in Chengdu and whom she was meeting. What are overseas Falun Gong practitioners doing daily, what her relationship was with the New York-based "Falun Dafa information center." They also asked her about names of overseas Falun Gong practitioners and Falun Dafa Association members as well as Falun Gong practitioners in Sichuan Province. Nancy Chen told them about the international community's constant condemnation of Jiang regime's over the past three years' escalating suppression of Falun Gong. She said there is no such ridiculous thing as "the western opposing force uses Falun Gong" to oppose the Chinese government. Falun Gong practitioners do not get involved in politics. If Falun Gong practitioners had not had been illegally detained, sentenced, sent to forced labor camps and even tortured to death, they would not have needed to clarify the truth to the public.
"610 Office" personnel of the National Security Bureau attempted to get her to renounce her belief in Dafa. They took her to the terrible Nanmusi Female Forced Labor Camp in Zizhong City, Sichuan Province where over 500 female Falun Gong practitioners are illegally detained. Most of them are over 50-year-old women. In a very short period of time, what Nancy could see was that those steadfast Falun Gong practitioners who persisted in their belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and refuse to write guarantee letters to give up practicing Falun Gong were forced to stand still for a long periods of time or were locked up in dark small rooms to suffer torture. Nancy said, the forced labor camps in China are as hideous and horrendous.
Due to the intervention of the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Australian Embassy in China and the international pressure, at 3p.m. on January 30, Chinese authorities had to release Nancy Chen who was told that she and her daughter would leave China in a limited time and would not be allowed to return China for three years.
During the interrogation, Nancy Chen often heard the police officers talk about things like, what news is posted on Minghui Net [Chinese version of Clearwisdom Net], being published on Minghui Net again and all people in the world know, etc. These security officers visit Minghui Net daily and are very sensitive to the exposure of their evildoings on the Minghui Net.
Nancy's husband, a mechanical engineering PhD and Falun Gong practitioner Lu Zhenlei said, Nancy was kidnapped by the National Security Bureau personnel, the whole family was extremely worried when they suddenly lost track of her and did not know how she would be treated. The Chinese Spring Festival is approaching, if Nancy had not be released, it can't be imagined how dreadful and anxious the whole family would have become. It even harder to imagine how her parents would bear the news of such an unexpected attack.
Falun Dafa Australia spokesperson Tony Dai said, the same day when Nancy Chen was arrested, on January 22, an American citizen of Chinese descent, Falun Gong practitioner Charles Li was taken by the authorities toYang Zhou City, thousands miles away from the Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou City shortly after he landed. The US Consular officers in China were told that if Charles Li was charged, the highest sentence could mean up to 15 years. Charles Li denied the charges, and he said that the Chinese police arrested him because he is a Falun Gong practitioner. We are very worried about Charles Li's situation, and we will continue showing our deepest concern over his matter. We will cooperate with the "International Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong" to try our best to rescue Charles Li. We also appeal to the international community and the media, people with a sense of justice to show your concerns over the case of Charles Li. The Jiang regime must immediately stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, and release Charles Li soon.
The media including SBS TV, The Australian came to conduct interviews. SBS Radio had a ten-minute live interview through the phone with Nancy Chen.
Category: April 25 Events
