By Natalie Coleman
When Chen Chengyong went to deliver a letter to the Beijing government last year, he had no idea that such a simple action would result in his murder.
The letter’s demands were simple – please allow our family to continue practicing Falun Gong.
Mr Chengyong wrote the letter after being detained in Guangzhou province in January 2000 for appealing for Falun Gong.
He was taken away by police for three weeks and subjected to ‘brainwashing’ videos in an attempt by the government to put an end to his belief in Falun Gong.
It was shortly after this Mr Chengyong’s widow Jane Zhizhen Dai lost contact with her husband.
She learned of his death through a Falun Gong website.
“My sister-in-law went and identified his body,” she said.
“He had decomposed so much that the exact time of death is still unknown.”
Falun Gong, know in Australia as Falun Dafa, is a system of exercises and teachings said to deeply transform the mind and body.
Its motto is simple – truth, compassion and tolerance. It is similar to tai-chi and is a vital part of many people’s lives in Asia.
It was a practice that enjoyed the encouragement and endorsement by the Beijing government from its introduction in China in 1993.
However, in 1999 it became patently obvious that Falun Gong had more followers that the communist party.
Beijing did and about-face and Falun Gong was proclaimed illegal and Chinese police were ordered to kill citizens who were found to be practicing the exercise.
The order came from the top – from President Jiang Zemin.
Now Ms Dai and her two-year-old daughter Fadu Chen, who hold an Australian passport, are living in Australia trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.
Helping is Ruby Wong, a Wollstonecraft resident and Falun Dafa practitioner.
Ms Wong said that the persecution of Falun Dafa followers was not limited to China.
“Even here we suffer from all kinds of harassment,” Ms Wong said.
“I strongly believe my phone is tapped, I received many phone calls that are hang-ups and I know practitioners who have had their homes broken into.”
Ms Dai said she does not know what to tell her daughter when she is old enough to ask about her father.
“What do I say. How can I make her understand how pointless her father’s death was?” she said.
“So many families in China have been torn apart because of the crackdown.
“This is real act of terror that leaders of the government have inflicted on their own people.
“The people only choose to practice truth, compassion and tolerance.”
Posting date: 2/Sep/2002
Original article date: 30/Aug/2002
Category: Media Reports
