Media Release: Australian Falun Gong Practitioner Mysteriously Disappears in China

Friday, 24 January 2003 (Sydney Falun Dafa Information Centre) – “I have been kidnapped near the American Consulate, Chengdu. They searched and took all my files including passport. Please ring my husband and ask the Australian government to save me.” are the last words we have heard from Nancy Chen, 34, a resident of Canterbury, an Australian citizen, who has disappeared under suspicious circumstances in Chengdu city, Sichuan Province, China, on 22 January 2003. Nancy and her six years old daughter arrived in China on 17 January to visit her parents. On 20 January, after she went to visit some friends in Chengdu, her family didn’t hear from her again until around 6:00am on 22 January, when her mother received a call from Nancy telling her that she was kidnapped. The line was cut off immediately. Her family doesn’t know who kidnapped her or where she is.

Recent Photo of Nancy Chen

Catherine Lu, six years old, she is now in China with her grandmother.

Mr Herbert Lu, Nancy’s husband in Sydney contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday seeking urgent help to find out where his wife is. A spokesperson from DFAT said that the Chinese government would be contacted and according to UN law, the Chinese government must give a response within 72 hours.

Herbert said this is very much to do with Nancy being a Falun Gong practitioner. Falun Gong was banned in China in July 1999 by the Jiang regime but is widely accepted in over 55 countries throughout the world including Hong Kong.

Herbert is very concerned for his wife’s safety and he desperately wants his daughter, who is currently staying with her grandma, back in Australia to enter her first school day in February.

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Background: Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.” Since its introduction in 1992, it quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China, and is now practised in over 55 countries.

With government estimates of as many as 100 million practising Falun Gong, China’s President Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999. 557 practitioners have been verified as having been tortured to death.

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For more information, please contact:

Tony Dai: 0416 234 095
Thomas Dobson: 0414 538115

Web site: www.falunau.org , www.faluninfo.net
Email: news@falunau.org