(Clearwisdom.net) While most Americans are celebrating this holiday season, Falun Gong practitioners Charles Lee and Meiyu Zhao have to suffer in prisons in Mainland China. On December 24, Washington DC Falun Gong practitioners held a press conference in front of the Chinese embassy to U.S to rescue them.

At 2pm, Washington DC Falun Gong practitioners held a press conference in the park in front of Chinese Embassy to call for the immediate release of Falun Gong practitioners Charles Lee and Meiyu Zhao, who have been illegally detained by the Jiang regime. Practitioners read a letter to Charles Lee during the press conference, which read: "We are deeply touched by your courage and selflessness."

Charles Lee's fiancée Ms. Yeong-ching Foo said: "Charles had a good life in California. However, when he saw so many Chinese had been misled by the Jiang regime's slanderous propaganda against Falun Gong, he risked his life to go back to China to tell people the truth of Falun Gong. "

"Though we haven't talk with each other for 11 months and we have to spend this bitter Christmas separately, I am proud of him because he did this for others." She added.

Charles Lee

Charles Lee is a citizen of the U.S. and a resident of California. He was arrested by Chinese public security agents when he arrived at Guangzhou airport on January 22. The Jiang regime charged him with "intending" to use TV to broadcast Falun Gong truth-clarifying video and sentenced him to 3 years in prison on March 21. He was then detained in Nanjing prison, where he has been frequently beaten. In the last two months, he has been forced to attend brainwashing sessions.

Together with Christmas cards signed by practitioners, this letter to Charles Lee will be sent to Nanjing Jail. Practitioners also prepared a Christmas card for Meiyu Zhao. However, they don't know where to send it because even her family members don't know where she is being detained.

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Ms. Zhao, 27, is the sister of Montgomery (MD) county resident Lanxiang Zhao. In December 1999 and in January 2000, she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong twice. She was then illegally arrested twice by the Guangdong Province Huizhou City public security department. She was detained 15 days upon the first arrest, and bailed out after her family paid 10000 Yuan (~$1200). After she was arrested again in January, 2000, she was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor and then sent to Guangdong Province's Sanshui Women's Labor Camp.

Ms. Lanxiang Zhao said: "My sister wasn't released until May of 2002. She lost her job and became homeless. Her situation is very difficult." "When my sister was in Sanshui Women's Labor Camp, she went through all kinds of torture. In order to force her to give up her Falun Gong practice, the '610 office' confined her in a solitary compartment many times and forced her to work 12 hours a day.

This May, Ms. Meiyu Zhao was arrested again because she expressed a willingness to sue Jiang Zemin. She was recently sentenced 7 years in prison. In an open letter to her sister, Ms. Lanxiang Zhao wrote: "I want to send my sister a Christmas card. Sadly, I don't know where to send it. The police even refused to tell my family where my sister is being detained. Where others are celebrating Christmas, I can't even hear any news about my sister."

Dr. Ningping Liu is a faculty member of University of America, he said: "Charles Lee and Meiyu Zhao both did something others usually do not dare to do. Under the Chinese totalitarian regime, it requires great courage to speak the truth. Sometimes people have to pay a big price for telling truth. However, they did so. "

To date, more than 854 Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have died because of the persecution, more than 6000 practitioners have been illegally sentenced to prison, more than 100,000 have been illegally sent to labor camps, and a great number of Falun Gong practitioners had to leave their homes to avoid arrest, and thus can't unite with their family members. Many families have been torn apart by the Jiang regime for practicing Falun Gong.

Because of Falun Gong practitioners' tireless efforts in explaining the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution, more and more Americans have learned the truth of the Jiang regime's brutal persecution against Falun Gong. An American lady passing by raised up her arm with fingers forming a "V" to encourage practitioners; another passerby said that she had practiced yoga for many years and she could feel the righteous energy around Falun Gong practitioners. She said that she would pray for Chinese Falun Gong practitioners. She also took the initiative to sign the Christmas cards for Charles Lee and Meiyu Zhao.

Posting date: 12/27/2003
Original article date: 12/26/2003
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/12/25/63294.html