Philadelphia Doctor Writes to Wen Jiabao, Asking for the Protection of Detained Sister's Freedom of Belief

(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Yang Jingduan, who now lives in New Jersey, is a resident medical doctor at the Psychiatry and Human Behavior department of the Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia. On December 8, 2003 when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was visiting North America, he wrote to him asking for the protection of his elder sister's freedom of belief.

Yang Jingduan found out over the phone from his family in Hefei City, China, that his elder sister Yang Jingfang, a Falun Gong practitioner, was secretly abducted by police who set up a trap to arrest her around October 30, 2002.

Doctor Yang's family said that Yang Jingfang was attending her uncle's funeral in her hometown in Chao County, Anhui Province. Around October 30, she received a phone-call from someone wanting to place an order with her, in accordance with her profession, so she went back to Hefei to meet the person who placed the order. After that, Yang Jingfang never returned. Then the police from Hefei City went to Yang Jingfang and her mother's homes to search, and the family realized that Yang Jingfang had been arrested. However the police refused to reveal Yang Jingfang's whereabouts.

Following is the letter Dr. Yang Jingduan wrote to Wen Jiabao:

My elder sister Yang Jingfang, who is 57 years old this year, is the eldest among eight sisters and brothers. She was born on the way when our parents were fighting on many fronts in the north and south [during the Japanese invasion in World War II]. The tough environment and difficult family financial situation made her a bold and vigorous woman. In 1993, she started practicing Falun Gong. Since then, the family said that her temper became milder and more tolerant towards others. She also became very healthy. In her former workplace, the Jianghuai Instrument and Meter Plant of Hefei City, Anhui Province, where she had worked for over thirty years, there were many people who practiced Falun Gong.

By October 1998, I had already immigrated to the United States. I had some chances to gain perceptual and rational knowledge of Falun Gong, and I greatly benefited from it. I gave up smoking and drinking and I became more peaceful with a more harmonious family life. Actually, in my opinion, Falun Gong practitioners are trying hard to, in any environment or circumstance, follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance in living their lives. They try to recognize and get rid of notions and mentalities that result in bad behavior and negative thinking. Practicing the five sets of Falun Gong exercises can stimulate the circulation of the blood and cause the muscles and joints to relax, and reduce fatigue.

In July 1999, Jiang Zemin's regime banned Falun Gong and started the persecution. My sister believed that this policy was unjust. She went to the appeals offices at the provincial and municipal levels to voice her objections. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in December 2000. By the time she arrived in Beijing, the police had heard that she came to appeal for Falun Gong, so they detained her and escorted her back to Hefei. After they detained her for over half a year, she was sentenced to one year of imprisonment. After she was released, she was fired from her job and was deprived of all her salary and benefits. Wu Yunrui, who was an Associate Director of the Anhui Provincial Tourism Bureau and also a deputy to the National People's Congress, also went with her to appeal for Falun Gong and was sentenced to four years of imprisonment.

In October 2002, when my elder sister was attending my uncle's funeral at our hometown in Anhui Province, she was wrongfully arrested by the Hefei "610 Office" [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems] and was detained secretly at the Hefei Hongxing Hotel. For 34 days, the police had her shackled onto a chair to extort a confession. After being detained for over half a year, Yang Jingfang was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. Her so-called crime is distributing several VCDs about Falun Gong being persecuted.

Even if my elder sister distributed VCDs that were outlawed, the fundamental issue is that her freedom of belief has been trampled. First, when she went to appeal, and second, when Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted and she exposed the persecution. What Yang Jingfang has been doing is protected by the basic rights that are given to every single Chinese citizen by the Chinese Constitution.

Constitutional Rights apply to every Chinese citizen. They are present to protect every Chinese citizen's rights. They should not be changed based on any individual's or any group's likes and dislikes.

My elder sister Yang Jingfang is just an ordinary Chinese woman, a wife, a mother and a daughter. Our father braved untold dangers, facing hails of bullets in the war with Japan in order to build a just, democratic and free China. However, his own daughter now has to be jailed for her beliefs in this new China's jail.

Dr. Yang Jingduan points out in his letter that he hopes that his elder sister Yang Jingfang will be freed as soon as possible, "If there is someone who cannot allow her the freedom to practice in China, please allow her to leave China and let her go somewhere where she can have the freedom to practice her beliefs." He also hopes that Wen Jiabao will earnestly understand the importance of Falun Gong practitioners' constitutional rights and the truth about their human rights being violated in China.

The address of the current location where Yang Jingfang is being jailed: Suxian District, Anhui Province (Xiguan Dajie, Suzhou City), the Third Female Jail of Anhui Province. postal code: 234000

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/12/11/62267.html

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