Friends of Falun Gong Statement

Good morning everyone, and welcome to today's press conference. Thank you for coming. My name is Alan Adler, and I'm the Executive Director of Friends of Falun Gong, a newly-formed non-profit organization of independent individuals that advocate for human rights. Friends of Falun Gong is sponsoring and hosting today's conference.

Today is the last day of Falun Gong practitioners' 271 hour sit-in. We come here to join the Bay Area Falun Gong practitioners, representatives from Congressmen and Senator's offices, human rights activists, and the public, to pay tribute to the 271 practitioners who have perished as a direct result of China's state sanctioned persecution; and to call for the immediate release of Dr. Chunyan Teng. Dr. Teng is a respected American doctor and professor of traditional Chinese medicine who was arrested in May, 2000. She is also a 38-year-old permanent resident of the U.S., who is now being held captive in a Beijing jail, where she reportedly suffers from torture and severe maltreatment.

The arrest of Dr. Chunyan Teng never should have happened. Appalled by the persecution of Falun Gong in China, Dr. Teng courageously decided to travel to China to do something about the injustice. Just as her students and colleagues have said about her, "Where there is pain, Dr. Teng tries to ease that suffering." That is what she went to China to do. And in early 2000 she traveled there. In China, she would go to great lengths and put herself at great risk to document how China's authorities were illegally detaining and abusing healthy Falun Gong practitioners in mental hospitals and elsewhere. Later, she exited China and passed to Western journalists some of the information and evidence that she had gathered.

On May 11, 2000, she returned to China again to continue her mission. Upon entering China, Dr. Teng was arrested. She allegedly provided state secrets to foreigners, that is, she dared to expose the Chinese communist regime's human rights abuses to the world. On November 23, 2000, Dr. Teng was put through a secret, mock trial that barred all family members from attending, and promptly sentenced to three years in prison. The charge was "prying into and illegally providing state information to foreigners." In a sick twist of fate, Dr. Teng is now subjected to the very same abuses she sought to end.

We are thus compelled, as Americans and as persons who love and cherish human rights, to call for action and support.

Dr. Teng is only one of thousands of innocent persons that practice Falun Gong who are being illegally arrested and tortured in China. In the Bay Area alone, more than 20 US residents and citizens were detained in China when they returned on personal visits. Today, a Bay Area Falun Gong practitioner is joining us to call for the urgent rescue of her sister who is being tortured at China's notorious Masanjia Women's Labor Camp--a camp known for its relentless brutality.

We invite all people of goodwill to join Friends of Falun Gong in our effort in rescuing Dr. Chunyan Teng and other Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in China.

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