Illawarra Mercury (Australia): Desperate Plea To Save Sister

By William Verity

October 3, 2003 Friday
Pg. 20

Dr. Zhang Youlai tells his story to anybody who will listen. It is all he can do to save his sister from death by self-imposed starvation.

The scenario has become well-known: members of a Chinese family caught in the crackdown on Falun Gong or Falun Dafa ordered in 1999.

Practitioners of the spiritual movement - [...] who live outside China have set up a sophisticated Internet-based awareness campaign to harness international support.

There is nothing unusual about Dr Youlai's story.

The engineering graduate from the University of Wollongong has a sister, Yaping Zhang, who was arrested in northeast China in 2001 for photocopying material about Falun Gong, which she practises.

She was later sentenced to seven years in jail, but has thus far served none of that sentence, despite spending some time in detention centres.

The cost of freedom is high. She was released to the care of her elderly parents after three separate hunger strikes that have left her bedridden, weak and often barely conscious.

"When I speak to her on the phone, she can just say my name," Dr Youlai said. His fear now is that police may come at any time, collect his sister and take her to begin her prison term.

His only weapons are to tell his story and write letters.

He has written to the Chinese Embassy, Prime Minister John Howard, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Cunningham MP Michael Organ, and has phoned the labour camp where his sister was staying.

His most successful letter was to the United Nations last year, which intervened to help secure the early release of Yaping's son, who was also imprisoned for Falun Gong activities.

[...]

Dr Zhang is one of half a dozen people who can often be seen practising their meditation at North Beach, Wollongong as the sun rises.

He says the movement simply teaches meditation, truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance.

"If the whole world can know the truth and can criticise the government, we hope that it can feel the pressure," he said.

LOAD-DATE: October 3, 2003

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