Saturday, 25 January 2003 (Sydney Falun Dafa Information Centre) – Nancy Chen, 34, a resident of Canterbury, is confirmed to have been kidnapped by the Chinese National Security Bureau in Chengdu city, Sichuan province, China, on 22 January 2003.
Nancy and her six year-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 6:00am on 22 January, when her mother received a call from Nancy, saying: “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.” The line was cut off immediately.
It is now known from the family in China that Nancy was taken away by the Chinese National Security Bureau. Nancy’s family in China was later contacted and threatened with trouble should Nancy’s husband make this incident public in Australia or on the Internet.
There is a familiarity to this incident as the State-sponsored persecution of Falun Dafa in China worsens. Under this persecution Falun Dafa practitioners are frequently tortured, sometimes killed, and their family members, friends and work colleagues are commonly threatened and placed under pressure.
Nancy’s husband, Mr Herbert Lu, 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.
The Australian Government has said it is making efforts to bring Nancy Chen and her daughter back to Australia but has still not received a response from the Chinese authorities.
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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 50 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 538 115
Web site: www.falunau.org , www.faluninfo.net
Email: news@falunau.org
