LOS ANGELES — Fearing persecution should he return to China, a veteran Chinese airline pilot who practices Falun Gong sought asylum at noon on Wednesday in Los Angeles. At a brief press conference held at Los Angeles International airport, the pilot explained what happened.
Mr. Yuan Sheng, a veteran pilot of 18 years at China Eastern Airlines based in Shanghai, was scheduled to help pilot flight MU583 from Shanghai's Pudong Airport to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
According to Yuan, he was not the chief pilot for the flight to Los Angeles. He was supposed to be the chief pilot on the flight back to Shanghai. Therefore, he had some free time after he helped check the plane. One of the ground crew at the airport spoke in the accent of Yuan's native Shandong province.
Because they were from the same province, Yuan decided to talk to him about The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party , a book-length editorial series that gives an uncensored history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Yuan encouraged him to withdraw from the CCP.
Yuan did not expect what followed. At around 2 p.m. this man brought four policemen over and stopped Yuan from boarding the plane. While Yuan was trying to reason with these policemen, more policemen showed up. The commanding officer confiscated his identification, wrote down his personal information, and tried to take him back to the police station.
However, 313 passengers had boarded the flight, the plane was scheduled to take off, and the airline was unable to find a replacement pilot. The flight's crew and the airline's ground personnel surrounded the policemen. They reasoned with the police and demanded the police release him. The police finally gave in and allowed Yuan to board the plane. However, they told him, "We will get back to you when you return!"
A Painful Decision
The plane arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at noon on Tuesday. Because Yuan was afraid that he would suffer from persecution if he should return to China, he decided to leave the crew and seek political asylum in the U.S., which he did at noon on Wednesday.
Yuan said that during the flight his co-workers tried to comfort him and told him not to worry. But he could not calm down and had trouble thinking. Yuan has been practicing Falun Gong for eight years. He has also been telling those he knows in China about the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong and about the CCP's history of tyranny and brutality.
Yuan said he feels an obligation to help his fellow Chinese understand how much evil the CCP has done. This is why he approached the ground crew member and told him about The Nine Commentaries .
Yuan explained at the press conference that some people in China have been sentenced to four years in prison simply because they were found in possession of copies of The Nine Commentaries . According to Yuan, should he return to China, the Chinese police would surely arrest him as soon as he got off the plane.
Because of his activities as a Falun Gong practitioner in China, Yuan had previously been thrown into one of the CCP's centers set up to forcibly brainwash Falun Gong practitioners. He said he knew that should he return to China he would suffer mistreatment that goes beyond what can be imagined.
Yuan has good reason to fear persecution. According to the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC), nearly 3,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed to have been tortured to death in China, and the actual number of death cases is believed to be far greater than the number that can be confirmed. In addition, according to FDIC, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained by the CCP.
On March 9 The Epoch Times broke the story of how there has been large-scale harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Yuan explained that he made a painful decision to give up everything he owns in China and stay in the United States. From now on, this 39-year-old husband and father must live in a foreign land without his wife and 12-year-old daughter.
Yuan said, "I called home this morning. My wife was shocked by the sudden catastrophe. She couldn't stop crying. We all knew the phone was tapped, so we couldn't afford to say much."
Yuan also mentioned his parents in Shangdong province. "I don't even know how to tell my parents," Yuan said.
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