[Minghui Net]
Respectfully,
My name is Gao Xiazhengsheng. [Note: Chinese phonetic spelling of the Japanese name..] I am a 57 year-old Japanese man. My wife, Gao Xiayouzi, [her Chinese name is Zhou Yingjie] is 49 years old, and Chinese.
My daughter, Gao Shanshan, 19 years old, is still in China. I planned to let her continue her college education in Japan after she graduated from high school. However, she has been arrested twice by the Chinese Government because she practices Falun Gong. We have lost all contact with her since January 23, 2001, when she was detained for the second time. It has now been four months since we have heard from her.
My daughter is an excellent student, and has a kind heart. She was unhappy before, due to her skin disease and stomach problem. We had spent a lot of money but still couldn't cure her diseases. Since she began practicing Falun Gong, however, her diseases have disappeared, and without spending a penny. She has now become a healthy and happy child. That is why she has a very deep gratitude toward Falun Gong and to her teacher, Mr. Li Hongzhi. In July 1999, when the government started persecuting Falun Gong in China, she had very courageously gone, as a 17 year-old girl, to Beijing, to appeal and to clarify the truth of Falun Gong's benefit to the people and to the country. But she was arrested and confined in the school dormitory for a month. During that period of detention, she was brainwashed every day and was forced to give up practicing Falun Gong. Because of that arrest, after graduating from the No. 1 High School of Qiqihar City, in Heilongjiang Province, in July 2000, she was deprived of the right to attend college and receive a higher education. When we contacted the local police station to request the procedures necessary for her to come to Japan, the government deprived her of the right to go abroad, and to have a family reunion. On January 23, of this year, she was again arrested, and ever since then, has been detained in the No. 2 Prison of Qiqihar City.
The Chinese prison system is very dismal and the concept of human rights is foreign to it. I heard that more than 200 Falun Gong practitioners have died from torture and beating. [Note: The cases that have not been reported may be several times more than this number.] I really can't imagine what kind of life my daughter, a 19 year-old child, is having in the dismal Chinese prison, nor what kind of inhumane treatment she may be receiving.
Four months have passed, and we haven't heard a single word from her. Her mom and I are very concerned about her situation now. My health condition was already bad. The addition of each sleepless night, due to worrying, has caused my health condition to worsen. Every day, her mom and I look forward to hearing from her, and to her returning to Japan to live with us, enjoying the happy and beautiful life that a 19 year-old girl should have.
Hereby, I am sincerely calling for the Japanese Government and international human rights organizations to please pay close attention to my daughter's destiny and to help by doing whatever they can to facilitate her release from the Chinese prison, thus allowing her to return to us as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Gao Xiazhengsheng
Telephone: 048-093-6368
