The Shorthorn (University of Texas): U. Texas-Arlington couple protests Chinese government with journey

By Caren M. Penland, The Shorthorn

(Clearwisdom.net) Xueyuan Wu doesn't know if her mother is alive or dead.

She has embarked on a journey across America to protest the detention of her mother, who was arrested for the third time by Chinese officials in February 2002. Lingweng Zeng was 67 years old at the time of the arrest.

Attempts to reach Zeng by letters and phone have been unsuccessful, Wu said, and she hasn't heard any news on her mother's condition for more than five months.

Wu, a 2001 alumnus, said she and her husband, Bei Gou, who will be an assistant physics professor here in the fall, both 35, left on the 2,000 mile journey to elicit aid from the public and the government for the release of her mother. They left Albany, N.Y., on June 29 and traveled through Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, Lexington, Ky., St. Louis, Knoxville, Tenn., Nashville, Tenn., Memphis, Tenn., Little Rock, Ark., and Oklahoma City. Their final destination is Dallas, where they will both be starting new academic careers.

Wu said her mother was sent to a forced labor camp in Changchun, China, simply for her belief and practice of Falun Dafa -- a cultivation practice based on "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." [...]

During a phone call from Little Rock, Ark., she explained that she believed the trip would ensure support from the U.S. government, which would hopefully demand the release of her mother and others.

"For seven years, I haven't seen my mother. Before she was arrested, we spoke on the phone, but now I can't even call her," she said. "They torture people in labor camps; they beat them. We are very worried about her."

Wu said Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, was introduced to China in 1992. The practice spread quickly, and by 1999, a survey announced that there were more than 100 million practitioners. Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, upon realizing that practitioners outnumbered Communist Party members, felt threatened by Falun Dafa and banned it on July 20, 1999, she said. He persecuted practitioners and threw them into forced labor camps. Wu said her mother was one of the first people to be arrested because she was a well-known practitioner and a physics professor at the largest university in China, Ji Lin University.

Gou said he and Wu have spent their time speaking with senators, mayors, congressmen and the media. They have stayed at fellow Falun Dafa practitioners' homes and have shared meals with them along the way. On Friday, they will end their journey in Dallas, he said, to hold a peaceful rally at noon in front of the JFK Memorial. Their purpose, above even releasing his mother-in-law, is to educate the public and combat the Chinese government's cover-up attempts with truth, as the practice demands, he said.

[...]

Kuo-Pin Yeh, a computer science graduate student, once saw the couple in Philadelphia at a conference. He said he looks forward to meeting them to help further their cause. He said he has met several practitioners who had been detained in China, and that it was horrible to hear their tales.

Yeh said his health suffered before he began practicing Falun Dafa. He went to both Chinese and Western hospitals, he said, but nothing helped. Even though summers are humid and hot, he would wear a jacket because he was cold. He was constantly nervous, racked with anxiety, and said that only the exercise of Falun Dafa can calm him down.

Now he can take off his jacket, he said.

"Last December, I went with others to President Bush's ranch in Waco to get support for Chinese people," he said. "Many of us were there to show the public what is happening in China. What Wu and Gou are doing is the same -- as important and as necessary."

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