January 10, 2003
Falun Gong [practitioners] yesterday launched an international appeal for the release of three
Hongkongers held on the mainland.
Cheung Yu-chong, 58 and Suen Chung-man, 46, were detained in Shenzhen in May. Chu O-ming, 45, was
jailed in Tianjin after being arrested in 2000. Mr Suen's wife Wong Am said her husband, who owns an
electronics business, had gone missing after travelling to Shenzhen. She was informed by the State
Security Bureau three days later that he had been arrested for possessing materials relating to
Falun Gong, outlawed on the mainland since July 1999.
It was later revealed that Mr Suen was arrested as he crossed the Lowu border on May 17. The
following day, officers searched his Shenzhen home, where more than 1,400 VCDs about Falun Gong were
found and seized.
Mr Suen, who stood trial in November, is still being detained as he awaits a verdict.
In an open letter to Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa yesterday, Ms Wong appealed for help.
"Our family is very worried. In the last 20 years, he has not only been a good husband, but
also a good father, a good son and a good man. We have a happy family and he takes care of his
business well," she wrote.
"But everything has changed now. Our business has been seriously affected. I'm suffering from
heart disease and my daughter is still at school. We are on the brink of bankruptcy. We don't want
to become a burden to society."
Mr Cheung's sister Miu-ching said they lost contact with the security guard after he crossed the
Lowu border on May 8. His mainland wife, Luo Chunling, was informed six days later that her husband
had been arrested at the border for carrying Falun Gong flyers and VCDs.
Ms Cheung, who is also a Falun Gong [practitioner], said while she was very worried about her
brother, she would not stop practicing Falun Gong.
"It's our freedom to follow our belief," she said.
In the third case, businessman Mr Chu was arrested in Beijing in September 2000 for submitting a
complaint against President Jiang Zemin's suppression of Falun Gong. He is now serving his five-year
sentence in a Tianjin prison.
Spokesman for the local Falun Gong group, Kan Hung-cheung, said they were launching a worldwide
campaign, which involved the US-based group Human Rights International raising the trio's plight in
Beijing next month.
He said they would also make a submission to the Human Rights Commission during its conference in
Geneva in March and request that Amnesty International in Britain list the trio as prisoners of
conscience.
"We see a tightening of control on the mainland. We're worried that Hong Kong will face the
same problem when we legislate on the anti-subversion law," he said.
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