July 20, 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of the massive persecution against Falun Gong. On this sad anniversary, Congressional-Executive Commission on China, chaired by Senator Rubio and Rep. Jim McGovern, issued a Statement that calls for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong.
The Statement specifically mentions my mom’s name and urges the immediate and unconditional release of my mom and other imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners.
It has been twenty years now since the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong, which is a traditional spiritual practice guided by the universal value of “truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance”.
The suppression campaign is characterized by pervasive misinformation and propaganda to vilify the practice; mass extralegal imprisonment of practitioners in labor camps, black jails, and prisons; and officially state-sanctioned torture, violence, and killings. My mom is just one of tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China.
Three years ago, my mom got arrested for disseminating materials about the truth behind the Chinese regime’s persecution. She was later sentenced to six years in prison.
This was the second time that my mom was imprisoned. She was sentenced to three years in 2006. If the persecution were not stopped, she would have to spend almost ten years in prison, for doing nothing wrong.
In the prison, she works long hours to sew beads onto women’s dresses. She got up around 6:40 am, headed to the workshop and started to work at 7:30 am. She was required to sew at least 100 grams of beads every day, which is nearly an impossible quota. They got back to the jail after 6:30 pm and were ordered to watch the CCTV news, which is the Chinese Communist Party’s main domestic propaganda outlet. At 10 pm, she went to bed in a small cell where 12 people stays in one room. Next morning, she got up at the same time and repeat the previous day.
If she was allowed to take days off, they usually forced her to attend the “transformational learning” sessions, which is full of brainwash information.
In such tedious, gloomy days, my mom stays hopeful and upbeat. In her recent letter, she told me she had learned two English expressions: “very good” and “thank you”, although the prison guards didn’t like her to learn English and even refused to let her use the dictionary. She told me their workshop was moved to an older building, but she really appreciated the view of green grass and mountains from the window. She said in the letter cheerfully: “now I don’t have to face a plain wall all day long.”
We still hold the faith that justice and truth will prevail. I just hope the justice can come as early as possible to save more people’s life.
Please continue to share and support this petition. If you would like to further help, you can write to my mom at the address below to show your concerns for her situation:
No. 442, North Jiaochang Road
Wuhua District, City of Kunming
Yunnan Province, China
Zip Code: 650102
Or you can write to your Congressman or Senator and ask them to pay attention to this matter.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.