Houston, Texas: Practitioners Call on the Chinese Government to Release Charles Li (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) Minghui reporter Lin Xinyuan reports from Houston: At noon on March 15, 2004, Falun Gong practitioners in Houston, Texas peacefully appealed in front of the Chinese Consulate calling on the Chinese government to immediately release illegally detained Falun Gong practitioner and American citizen Charles Li, and exposing the criminal facts that the Chinese forced labor camps force detained Falun Gong practitioners to make slave labor products.

Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appeal in front of the Chinese Consulate in Houston	A practitioner gives a speech, calling for the concern over the persecution of Falun Gong in China

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang said in her speech, "We are shocked to learn that Charles Li was forced to do slave labor. Today, we gather here in the hope that more people can pay attention to the brutal persecution imposed upon an American citizen and all Falun Gong practitioners. We appeal to the governments, organizations and individuals around the world that support justice and kindness to be together with us to condemn and stop the criminal acts of Jiang's group that trample upon the fundamental international norms, and people's freedom of belief, to secure Charles Li's early return to America, and to help hundreds of thousands of illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners in prisons and labor camps to regain the freedom to practice the exercises and the right to live a free life..."

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wang introduced that Charles Li has been detained for a year since the Chinese government illegally arrested and detained him last January. He suffered inhumane persecution in prison, including beatings, force-feeding, forcing to attend brainwashing sessions that attempted to force him to renounce Falun Gong. A while ago, he was forced by the Nanjing City Prison to do a slave labor.

According to Charles Li's fiancée Ms. Yeong-Ching Foo, who is currently living in California, as early as December 2003, Charles Li was forced to do such slave labor. He was forced to work three days a week, and eight hours a day. He was once forced to make calendars, and later make shoes. Charles Li had told a US consular official in Shanghai that the glue used in shoe production smelled terrible, seemed poisonous, and made him feel sick. The Chinese authorities do not allow Charles Li to call Yeong-Ching Foo directly, so Ms. Foo has to keep regular contact with the US consular officials in Shanghai.

In the tide that business circles home and abroad pursue to use low-price work force to reduce costs of products, Chinese labor camps increase more production through forced labor. By mid February 2004, 896 Falun Gong practitioners had died as a result of persecution for their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. Hundreds of thousands more Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally detained and forced to do forced labor, including packing chopsticks, making toys for export and wigs for Rebecca Hair Products Joint Stock Company in Xuchang City, Henan Province. Related evidence indicate that many of the products made with forced labor are exported to European, American and Asian markets and sold at very low prices.

On November 7, 2003, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong published an investigative report on Falun Gong practitioners' labor being exploited in Chinese labor camps. The report reveals evidence and facts that some labor camps in China force detained Falun Gong practitioners to do slave labor. The report includes the case of 57-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Wan Guifu, who was held at No. 1 Detention Center in Lanzhou City. The police forced him to work 20 hours a day with other inmates, using their teeth to crack and remove the shells of big watermelon seeds. Because of his age, Wan Guifu could not fulfill his work quota. With silent approval from Lu Jun, the head of Division Four, the inmates from Cell Nine often beat him brutally, which led to his death.

The report also pointed out that slave labor is not only a violation of the detainee's basic human rights, it also brings the persecutors tremendous profit and therefore incites the guards and police officers to further abuse the detainees. Due to their abnormally low prices, the dumping of slave labor products on the international market also has a great impact on the stability of world labor and financial markets.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/3/16/70122.html

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