LOS ANGELES—"The Chinese communist regime has not fulfilled its promise of improving human rights at all. On the contrary, it has launched another intensive wave of persecution in the name of preparing for the Olympics," said Ying Nian Wu, a professor of Statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles and a member of the Western U.S. Falun Dafa Association, during a speech.
As the 2008 Beijing Olympics grow ever nearer, the world's call for human rights is coming to center stage. Gathered with a shared purpose to shine light into the dark corners of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) various human rights atrocities, human rights advocates held a press conference and rally on the South Lawn of the Los Angeles City Hall on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Further describing some of the CCP's well-hidden crimes, Professor Wu said, "On July 10, 1999, the Chinese communist regime specifically created an agency called the '610 office' to persecute Falun Gong. This so called '610 office' is actually a very large system. It exists at every level of the government and in every province and every city. It is very similar to the Nazi's Gestapo system. It can order the local police to arbitrarily arrest and torture Falun Gong practitioners, and it can order the courts to sentence practitioners to arbitrary jail terms."
With an array of banners in hand and a hope to find peace for those suffering behind the CCP's façade of a progressive society, the lawn outside the City Hall was filled by the voices of various speakers. Although the event was predominantly regarding the persecution of those who practice Falun Gong in China, representatives from various other persecuted groups came to give speeches and show their support.
Speakers included Theresa Moreau, a freelance writer on the CCP's abuses against the followers of the underground Catholic Church in China, Yinquan Liu, Secretary General of the Chinese Social Democracy Party, Dr. David Gao, President of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, and Yaning Liu, requesting help to rescue her mother, Shuying Li, a Falun Gong practitioner imprisoned in China.
Yaning Liu is a Los Angeles resident who grew up in Beijing, China as an only child and came to the U.S. in 1998. Her mother, Li Shuying, is a 64-year old retired high school teacher. Liu says that her mother is a good wife and a good mother. "She's loved by her students and colleagues, and was awarded an excellent teacher's award from her school."
"My mother began to practice Falun Gong in 1995. She then introduced it to me and a lot of our friends and relatives because it brought happiness and hope to our lives. She helped set up a practice site in the neighborhood where nearly a hundred people would practice together every day," said Liu.
"However, since the Chinese Communist Party began to crackdown on Falun Gong in 1999, my mother has been arrested several times Dec. 15, 2006, three policemen broke into my parents' home, searching for Falun Gong literature, and arrested my mother again. A month later, she was sentenced to 2.5 years labor camp. Now she is jailed in Beijing Women's labor camp in Daxing district," said Liu.
"People who used to practice together in our neighborhood were arrested, sent to labor camps, or simply disappeared. In money-driven world of modern China under the Chinese Communist Party, there are still people like my mother who are willing to risk their lives to uphold the truth. Their courage give us hope and our support will help them survive the most difficult of times. Please help me rescue my mother by signing an online petition at helpsavemymom.googlepages.com ," Liu said.
Describing some known facts that have escaped the Chinese Communist regime's cover-up of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Professor Wu said, "The persecution has lasted for eight and a half years. According to incomplete statistics, more than 3,128 practitioners have been verified as being persecuted to death. Many of them were tortured to death. In addition, there are at least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners who have been illegally sentenced to prison that we know of. Over 100,000 practitioners have been thrown into forced labor camps. Thousands of practitioners have been forcefully sent to psychiatric hospitals to be tortured with forced injections. Large groups of practitioners have been kidnapped into local brainwashing classes, where they have been subjected to both physical and mental tortures. Many more practitioners have been severely beaten and had large sums of money extorted from them by so-called law-enforcement officials."
Professor Wu continued by saying, "The persecution of Falun Gong is a human rights disaster in China, and the persecution is also spreading to other groups in China, such as underground Christian and Catholic churches. We ask the public and the media to pay close attention to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and other innocent people in China. We urge the western governments to stand up against the Chinese Communist regime and condemn and stop the regime's crimes."
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