Pitt News(PA): Pitt researcher Xu fights to free wife
By KATIE LEONARD
Senior Staff Writer March 12, 2003 XIAOMEI JIA Pitt researcher Cailu Xu is on a mission to free his wife, who is currently in a Chinese labor
camp for practicing Falun Gong. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a combination of yoga-like exercises and meditation.
Many practitioners believe Falun Gong has helped improve their health and mental clarity. The
ancient practice gained worldwide appeal in 1992, when Li Hongzhi began holding public meetings to
teach it. Falun Gong practitioners try to emphasize a life of truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance. While imprisoned, Falun Gong practitioners have been raped, shocked, injected with drugs, forced
to have abortions and stretched and tied to the four corners of metal beds. Xu and his wife, Xiaomei Jia, began practicing Falun Gong in 1996 after she was diagnosed with an
allergy and asthma in 1992, which could not be treated medically, Xu said. Within two years of doing
Falun Gong, her symptoms were gone, he added. According to A Witness to History, a publication by Falun Gong practitioners, when the number of
practitioners exceeded the membership of the Chinese Communist Party in 1999, Chinese President
Jiang Zemin outlawed Falun Gong. Xu said Zemin feared the large number of Falun Gong practitioners because the people did not
elect him. In 1999, the communist government in China began physically attacking people who practiced Falun
Gong and Falun Gong itself [...]. According to Emma Jin, a software engineer who spoke at Carnegie Mellon University Monday night,
the Chinese government began detaining practitioners that year. She added that in July 1999, "Some Falun Gong practitioners were taken from their homes at
night and some were never heard from again." In November 2001, Jia was taken into custody because she distributed information about Falun Gong
and was put into the Beijing female labor camp. Xu said he and their son had not seen her since
October 2001, when she left home to avoid being arrested. Xu was not notified that his wife had been put into a labor camp until December 2001, he said.
The letter he received did not tell him when she would be released. Xu has written to her, but her sisters told him she has not received anything. He has recently heard that she could get out as early as this May, but is not sure she will be
released, he said. Their son is now living with family members in China. Jia was arrested several times before being sent to the labor camp. Two of her sisters had also
been held in the labor camp and were released after being "re-educated," Xu said. He added
that they have seen his wife. He has talked to some members of Congress about his wife's situation and plans on talking to a
few others as well as writing to members of the U.S. State Department including Secretary of State
Colin Powell and President George Bush. At the CMU meeting, Pittsburgh Councilman William Peduto said, city councils across the country
and the U.S. Congress have passed resolutions condemning the [Jiang's regime] for torturing Falun
Gong participants. Xu said he did not think that his wife's life would be in more jeopardy because he is working
[...] to get her released. Rather it may help her because the [Jiang's regime] is getting negative
publicity. "[The Chinese government] always makes up lies, and they don't want others - especially from
the outside to know the truth," he said. Jia and Xu have had their phone lines cut, cell phones tapped and their electricity cut off since
1999. According to a statement from [Master Li] from July 1999, "To date, the Chinese government
has used any method available to terrorize and pressure people to renounce their faith. They have
pitted society and family members against each other through threats and heavy fines, and thousands
have lost their jobs and their homes." Xu said, the government encouraged intellectuals to publish [fabricated] articles against Falun
Gong, telling people that it was actually bad for their health and that practitioners were idiots.
These articles and television programming against Falun Gong became accepted as the truth since the
[Jiang's Regime] controls the media, he added. According to Amnesty International, Chinese officials have denied all wrongdoings; however, they
have not provided information showing that they have thoroughly investigated the allegations made. [...] Official numbers indicate that between July 1999 and now, 600 deaths have been confirmed at labor
camps, Xu said. However, there have been estimates that up to 7,000 people may have actually died. Xu said he could not return to China. "I can be arrested at any time [there], so I decided
to stay here," he said. http://www.pittnews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/03/12/3e6ed35421d43
Wife of Cailu Xu
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