FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 13, 2002 [ http://www.faluninfo.net/
]
This time, however, it was personal.
In the spring of 1998, Mr. Wang Chan spent two months in
Toronto as part of a delegation from the main branch of the China People's Bank
in Beijing. During his stay, he made many friends at the local Falun Gong
practice groups, among them Tia Zhang, a teacher at the National Ballet School
of Canada.
"He was always happy," says 61-year-old Ms. Zhang
of her friend Mr. Wang. "He was very kind and always thinking of
others," she said.
On the afternoon of August 21, Mr. Wang was arrested at the
Liangshan County bus station in Shandong Province. During his detention,
reliable sources in China report that he was tortured, punched, kicked,
handcuffed, shackled and beaten with a stick.
Sometime over the next eight days, Mr. Wang died in the
Jining City Detention Center of Shandong Province, tortured to death for his
belief in Falun Gong.
July 20, 1999, Jiang's Ban Separates Canadian from Her
Friends
Almost a year after Mr. Wang's visit to Canada, Ms. Zhang was
in Beijing and met Mr. Wang and his wife on July 19th, 1999. "We were so
happy to see each other," she recalls. "We were like old
friends."
The next day, however, PRC head Jiang Zemin officially
launched the persecution against Falun Gong. Ms. Zhang went to the Beijing
Appeals Office to appeal. Mr. Wang and his wife appealed at Tiananmen Square.
Because she was a Canadian citizen, Ms. Zhang was immediately deported. For Mr.
Wang and his wife, however, it was the beginning of a very difficult three
years.
Soon after his appeal in Tiananmen Square, Mr. Wang wrote a
letter to the government calling for an end to the persecution. After that, the
pressure on him increased. "He called me one day and said that police had
surrounded his building and he had to flee. He could not go home anymore,"
said Ms. Zhang. "After that he called me from telephone booths. He'd say 'I
cannot tell you where I am but I am not at home.'"
An April 9, 2001 email message from Mr. Wang still rests in
the inbox of Jason Xiao, an engineer in Toronto who made friends with Mr. Wang
during his stay in Canada. "My wife was taken away to a brainwashing class
and since she was released they are keeping her under house arrest," it
reads. "[When I met her,] she seemed to not be herself."
"We have to go out and tell people what is
happening."
Mr. Wang became a primary target of police because he managed
to access information from overseas Falun Gong websites despite an intense
government firewall. He would print materials from these websites exposing the
Jiang regime's persecution against Falun Gong and information about Falun Gong
overseas, and then distribute this information.
He was arrested and detained on five separate occasions.
After losing his job and being forced to leave his home, Mr.
Wang traveled and made efforts to expose the persecution even further. Ms. Zhang
recalls, "He said 'prison is no place for practitioners [of Falun Gong]
...we have to go out and tell people what is happening.'"
On more than one occasion, Mr. Wang set up loud speakers at
forced labour camps where Falun Gong practitioners were being held, and
broadcast facts of the persecution as well as Falun Gong's teachings of
truthfulness, compassion, forbearance to encourage practitioners suffering in
the labour camps.
Sources in China reveal that police had issued a 100,000 yuan
reward for Mr. Wang's arrest.
Friends in Toronto lost all contact with Mr. Wang in 2001.
Mother Taken by Authorities After Son Killed by Police
On August 21, Mr. Wang, along with two other Falun Gong
practitioners, was arrested by Hongtao Guo, a 38-year-old officer of the Public
Security Bureau of the central district of Jining City, Shandong province,
sources in China say. According to these sources, Officer Guo was also the
primary person responsible for Mr. Wang's torture and death.
Officer Guo's name had already appeared on web sites overseas
that monitor the crimes committed in the persecution of Falun Gong (http://www.fawanghuihui.org/)
because of his previous participation in the persecution of other Falun Gong
practitioners.
After Mr. Wang's identity was uncovered by the police, his
60-year-old mother who lives in Jining was also abducted by police. The status
of Mr. Wang's mother, wife and the two practitioners with whom he was arrested
are currently unknown.
A tearful Ms. Zhang recalls of her friend, "He was
always striving to be more kind and tolerant ...it's terribly sad that so many
Chinese police and officials are pressured to persecute people that are just
trying to improve themselves."
# # #
Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a practice of
meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of
"Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." It is a practice that was taught
in private for thousands of years before being made public in 1992 by Mr. Li
Hongzhi. Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture, but it is distinct
and separate from other practices such as the religions of Buddhism and Taoism.
Since its introduction in 1992, it quickly spread by word of mouth throughout
China, and is now practiced in over 50 countries.
With government estimates of as many as 100 million
practicing Falun Gong, China's President Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful
practice in July 1999, fearful of anything touching the hearts and minds of more
citizens than the Communist Party. Unable to crush the spirit of millions who
had experienced improved health and positive life changes from Falun Gong,
Jiang's regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion
against the practice while quietly imprisoning, torturing and even murdering
those who practice it.
The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details of 476
deaths since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. Government
officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll is well over
1,600. Over 100,000 have been detained, with more than 20,000 being sentenced to
forced labor camps without trial.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA
INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Levi Browde 914-720-0963. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com,
Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/
TORONTO, September 13, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information
Centre) - As they had done many times before over the last three years, Toronto
residents who practice or support Falun Gong gathered outside Toronto's Chinese
consulate to hold a candlelight vigil in memory of those who have died from
torture and abuse in China.
Falun Gong practitioners and supporters gather for a candlelight vigil outside the Chinese consulate to honor their friend, Mr. Chan, recently tortured to death by authorities in China.