Ms. Li Weixun Arrives in Baltimore With Help from the UNHCR and the U.S. Government

By a Falun Gong practitioner in the USA

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Weixun from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province obtained United Nations refugee status in Thailand. With assistance and support from the Friends of Falun Gong Organization in the U.S., the U.S. State Department, U.S. Congress and some NGOs, she received approval from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to stay in the U.S., and she safely arrived at the Baltimore International Airport at midnight on September 21, 2005.

Falun Gong practitioner Li Weixun arrives in the U.S.

Li Weixun was savagely tortured by the CCP police in early January 2002 for persevering in her practice of Falun Gong. She could not move her arms or legs, and she could not talk or eat. When she was on the brink of death, the perpetrators reluctantly approved medical parole through the Shenyang City 610 Office, and they sent her to the No. 1 Hospital Affiliated with China Medical University for emergency treatment, only after strong repeated requests from her family and friends. During her stay at the hospital, four police officers watched her around the clock. She successfully escaped the monitoring and left China, and she obtained UN refugee status in Thailand. After she went through some procedures and waited for a while, the UNHCR and the Friends of Falun Gong organization sought and obtained support from the U.S. government on her behalf, and Li Weixun received permission to live in the U.S.

According to Li Weixun, she and her husband both worked for the CCP Committee of a large factory in Shenyang City. To defame her and attack her cultivation practice, the CCP Committee slandered Falun Gong through a loudspeaker that resonated throughout the factory, which hurt her and her family. The police constantly harassed her and frightened her mother-in-law, who became nervous whenever someone knocked on the door. During her illegal detention, she was tortured to the brink of death. The police were afraid to take responsibility for this, so they agreed to release her on medical parole. Later she went home on an outpatient basis. The police stayed at her home next to her room and they asked to break open the room through the dividing wall so they could watch her at all times. Her family members, who do not practice Falun Gong, could not take it anymore and said to the police, "We know you are doing this to keep your job, otherwise we would have kicked you out and you would have to sleep in the street." Her family, friends and other Falun Gong practitioners risked their lives and helped her escape from home to go to another country. The people who helped her were severely persecuted; some of her family members who are not Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to eight years in prison and are currently being incarcerated.

Li Weixun's hometown of Shenyang City is under the jurisdiction of Bo Xilai, the governor of Liaoning Province. Li Weixun was one of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against Bo Xilai during his visit there, because his actions have resulted in the severe persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in that region.

On the morning of September 23, 2005, some Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S. accompanied Li Weixun to attend training and service programs for refugees provided by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Li Weixun thanked the people for their help and support. Ms. Sala thanked Falun Gong practitioners for their help with Li Weixun's release. The officials informed the trainees that the U.S. government accepted some international refugees who do not have family members or friends in the U.S., and Li Weixun is one of them.

In the afternoon, Li Weixun visited the U.S. State Department and expressed her sincere gratitude for the help that the U.S. government has extended to her and other Falun Gong practitioners. She also told three veteran officials the State Department about the unreasonable persecution she suffered in China for practicing Falun Gong.

Regarding the new CCP leader's speech that included the phrase "building a harmonious society" that was recently given at a United Nations meeting, Li Weixun told the U.S. officials that she personally witnessed Falun Gong practitioners being tortured and disabled. She saw many Falun Gong practitioners who were forced to leave home under the severe persecution to avoid harassment; yet they could not rent a room from any hotel and the police constantly pursued them. Oftentimes dozens of practitioners slept on the floor in a small room. The CCP tried to physically destroy Falun Gong practitioners, but the practitioners resolutely refused to give up their belief despite tremendous risk to their lives. The slogan "building a harmonious society" is a lie in China. Not only are Falun Gong practitioners persecuted, but people of various beliefs as well as political dissidents were also arrested and persecuted. The CCP leader was only trying to deceive and brainwash the world's people by spreading the propaganda of "building a harmonious society" to the international society.

The State Department officials thanked Li Weixun for her visit and said they would continue to pay attention to the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP, and they will bring up the topic during future meetings with Chinese officials, and they will urge the Chinese government to respect Falun Gong practitioners and other Chinese people's freedom of belief and freedom of speech.

Ms. Li Weixun is another Falun Gong practitioner who does not have any family relations in the U.S., but was still accepted by the U.S. government in the past six years during the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP and Jiang Zemin's regime. In 2001, several Falun Gong practitioners studying in Singapore did exercises in a park and clarified the truth about the persecution. Due to political pressure and financial incentives from the CCP government, the Singapore government arrested and detained them. After Falun Gong practitioners from other parts of the world clarified the truth to the Singapore government, it released the practitioners but demanded that they leave Singapore. They faced persecution if they returned to China. The UNHCR and the U.S. Government extended a helping hand and got them to the U.S. in a very short time.

It was people who loved freedom of belief that created the tradition of the U.S.' emphasis on democracy, freedom, and human rights--the country's founding principles. As the government upholds and maintains justice and order in the world under the banner of justice and morality, America has prospered and flourished.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/9/25/111198.html

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