The Epoch Times
Feb 02, 2005
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NEW YORK - Amidst a fluster of tears and a foreign accent, Yeong-Ching Foo's voice remains clear and confident.
"Two years have passed but our mission is not accomplished. We will not give up," she says, talking about her fiancé Charles (Xiangchun) Lee, an American citizen who, as of January 22, has served two years out of a three-year sentence in a Chinese jail.
Foo says that Lee shouldn't be in jail a second longer. She has collected well over 100,000 signatures calling for Lee's release, obtained letters of support from numerous members of the U.S. Congress and talked to people all over the world who have been outraged by Lee's detention.
Lee, 40, was arrested and beaten minutes after his flight landed in southern China on January 22, 2003. The Chinese government put him through a one-day trial, and sentenced him to three years in Nanjing Prison, 170 miles west of Shanghai.
He was charged with planning to sabotage broadcast equipment. Lee's fiancée says that his purpose in going to China was to broadcast evidence of the campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, which has been going on since 1999. According to human rights organizations, tens of thousands of people who practice Falun Gong are being detained and tortured in China.
Late last month, the prison received a call saying that Lee's mother was ill and he was allowed to go see her last week. He arrived to find out that his mother, who had suffered from Leukemia, had passed away 30 minutes earlier, not knowing what will become of her son's future. Lee was taken back to the prison shortly afterwards.
Lee's father, Zengfu, said his son is in jail because he practices Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a nonviolent spiritual discipline that was subjected to persecution after it rose in popularity in China in the 1990s and was banned by the Chinese Communist Party in 1999. Lee's father does not practice Falun Gong, nor does the rest of his family.
Zengfu said he hasn't been able to turn to the lawyers or government officials in China. All the courts are controlled by the CCP, which reportedly issued a notification to China's lawyers, instructing them that they cannot defend Falun Gong practitioners.
Before her death, Lee's mother told his fiancée, "The only hope for Xiangchun is you and the U.S. government."
Since being detained, Lee has been forced to make Christmas lights and shoes for export to foreign countries. He has been physically and verbally abused and been subjected to daily anti-Falun Gong propaganda meant to force him to renounce his belief in the practice. Because the prison forced him to sit in painful positions for long hours every day, Lee became short of breath and developed a fast heartbeat.
"The reports are extremely disturbing, as are associated reports detailing the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by Chinese authorities," Congressman Tom Lantos and Anna Eshoo wrote to China's Ambassador to the United States, Yang Jiechi.
In their January 27 letter, Lantos and Eshoo, a Holocaust survivor and Lee's representative, respectively, called for Lee's immediate release on medical parole.
"We urge you to do everything possible to ensure Dr. Lee's safety and secure his immediate release."
Shannon Kelly, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State said that on January 13 a U.S. consular official visited Lee. "Lee said he still needs a lot of time to recover his health."
Lee, who became a U.S. citizen in 2002, resided in Menlo Park, California. He is a medical doctor and a member of Amnesty International Group 466. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and conducted research at Massachusetts General Hospital.
MGH president Peter Slavin wrote a letter to Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asking for action on Lee's behalf.
On January 29 "Friends of Charles Lee" held a rally in San Francisco's Union Square calling for his release.
"I have met many people who have been held in the labor camps in China and been freed," said Brad Carson, a graduate student attending the rally. "Their last few months in the prison were when the torture was the worst."
Dr. Sherry Zhang, the founder of "Friends of Charles Lee," said: "We really appreciate the support of our elected representatives in Congress. We hope that people will work with us to have Charles regain his freedom."
Source: http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-2-2/26208.html
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
