July 25, 2001

VALLETTA, Malta (AP)--Chinese President Jiang Zemin left Malta on Wednesday after a three-day visit - but not before a Chinese-American woman pressed him to stop the crackdown on the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Wang Wenyi managed to speak face-to-face with Jiang when the Chinese leader made an unscheduled tour of the old city of Mdina on Wednesday. Wang said she introduced herself and urged Jiang "to stop the killing of Falun Gong practitioners in China."

Security officials whisked Wang away, but Jiang called her back and spoke to her in Chinese, witnesses said. "He was very agitated and told me that Falun Gong practitioners were killing themselves," Wang said later.

Falun Gong attracted millions of followers in the 1990s with a blend of slow-motion exercises and ideas [...]. Followers say practice promotes health, moral living and even supernatural powers.

Thousands of followers are in jails and labor camps in China and tens of thousands have been arrested and pressured to renounce the group in a government crackdown. Falun Gong says many followers have been tortured and that 250 have been killed.

Wang said she leads a study group on the movement in San Diego, Calif.

Posting date: 7/27/2001
Original article date: 7/25/2001
Category: News & Media Reports

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version

_____Related Articles_____ The Ultimate Power of the "610 Office": Pulling the Strings of Operations against Falun Gong [7/27/2001] 120-hour Sit-in in Front of the Chinese Embassy by a British Practitioner Calling for the Chinese Government to Stop the Brutal Crimes of Jiang Zemin's Regime [7/26/2001] Times of Malta: Falun Gong Staged Protest  [7/25/2001] Reuters: MALTA: Chinese President arrives in Malta amid Protests [Excerpt]  [7/24/2001] Cartoon: “Human Rights Scoundrel” Jiang Zemin [7/23/2001] Media Advisory: Falun Gong to Go to Malta to Demand that Jiang Zemin stop the persecution [7/20/2001] Dafa Saved a Life -- Jiang Zemin's Allies Took it Away [7/17/2001] Photo Report: Practitioners in France Hold Press Conference to Expose Jiang Zemin's Persecution of Falun Gong [7/16/2001] Norwegian Practitioners Call for the Chinese Government to Stop the Criminal Acts of Jiang Zemin and His Cohorts [7/14/2001] Photo Report: New Zealand Practitioners Parade in Downtown Auckland – Call for a Stop to the Brutal Persecution by Jiang Zemin's Regime on Falun Gong [7/13/2001]