Dear Mr Howard
I am a 37 year old Chinese lady. My only sister and my cousin’s family are Australian citizens. Through them, I have been closely connected with Australia.
As a Falun Dafa practitioner who has been going through many cruel persecution in China. I have been, and I shall forever be deeply grateful to the Australian government and Australian people for all you have done for Falun Dafa and Falun Dafa practitioners. Before 1999, Australia was only a vague image which was so far away. Now it has won my sincere respect and gratitude; it is always in my heart – as a nation of benevolence, justice, courage and freedom.
I come from a middle-class family. My father graduated from a famous university in Beijing, and worked in a large oil company before he retired. My mother was a brillian doctor. After graduation from the Beijing Second University of Foreign Language, I had been a tour guide, an interprter f Japanese and English language, a personal assistant to a managing director of a large joint-venture between China and Japan, and a college teacher. I did great in all my jobs. Before the brutal persecution, I had started the job of establishing a foreign language school. When I was just getting very successful, I was arrested and put in labour camps, because I went to Beijing Tiananmen Square to protest the persecution. I was in labour camps for 3 years from August 23, 2000, to August 23, 2003. My leg was handicapped by the brutal torture there.
When I limped out of the labour camp, I had already lost my home and my husband. My husband said he had enough and had been frightened by the police’s horrible bothering. He wouldn’t allow me to come home any more (we used to have a house in Guangzhou). He just wants a quick divorce.
On February 23, 2004, I was suddenly kidnapped by the police while I was walking on the street in Guangzhou, and was put in a brain washing camp. I went on hunger strike there and after 20 days, then I had been dying, I was released.
Thereafter, I live with my parents in a small city in Guangdong province. I could hardly contact anyone or get a job, because all the people I contact would be bothered by the police, and I could be arrested or kidnapped again any moment, as the police had already announced to me: As long as you are a Falun Gong practitioner, as long as you are in China, you would never be a free person.
I had always loved my motherland, had always wanted to dedicate my God-given talents to it, but now because I am a Falun Dafa practitioner, all my security of life, all my human rights had been deprived of, and all my talents went wasted. Since May this year, my father has been writing a lot of letters to the government offices and its directors, appealing that my human rights should not be deprived of. So far, we haven’t received any reply.
On May 17, 2004, a MC Distribution Pty Ltd headquartered in Sydney has sent me a letter of invitation, stating that it needs some staff members who have qualities and abilities like me to advance its business, and that it hopes I could go to Australia to work for it as soon as possible.
I am very much willing to accept the invitation, to have an opportunity to share my love and talents with a nation I respect so much, but I wonder if the Security Bureau of Guangdong province would give me passport, for I had previously been rejected twice when I applied to take a tour in Thailand in December 2003, and applied to visit my sister in February 2004. I was rejected because I am a Falun Dafa practitioner.
In this situation, I think the Australian government’s support and help would be very important. So I write to you, Mr Prime Minister. I hope and I fully trust that you would try your best to help.
No matter how it turns out, I shall always be thankful to you, to the Australian government, to the Australian people for all you have done for Falun Dafa, for justice, democracy and freedom.
Tang Yiwen
Original
Letter to Prime Minister Howard from Tang Yiwen
Posting date: 27/Oct/2004
Original article date: 26/Oct/2004
Category: Australian News
