Home News Tribune: Falun Gong followers march to draw attention to plight

7/08/01 Ying Chen's family in China hasn't seen or heard from her brother, Gang Chen, since last June, when he was forced into a labor camp during one of the Chinese government's crackdowns on followers of Falun Gong.

The Marlton resident recounted how Chinese officials reportedly entered Gang Chen's Beijing home and confiscated any Falun Gong-related material, including books and videotapes, wiretapped his telephone, and deprived him of sleep for more than 10 days as punishment for his refusal to sign a statement renouncing his belief in the practice. Her mother, who lived with Gang Chen, was also taken into custody but was released 30 days later. Gang Chen, though, remains missing.

Ying Chen's story, along with testimonials by other followers, is aimed at drawing attention to the plight of Falun Gong practitioners in China, where the government has outlawed the practice.

In an effort to highlight the situation in China, Falun Gong practitioners are marching to Washington, D.C., where a rally is scheduled July 19. Some of those involved in the march stopped in Metuchen and Edison yesterday.

Falun Gong is a form of traditional Chinese qigong (pronounced chee-gung), which means "energy exercise," that is similar in form to Tai-chi. The exercises are believed to draw energy to the body that is used to maintain health.

Followers of Falun Gong claim their practices have no religious or political pretenses, though the Chinese government has denounced its members as [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]. Thousands in China have been arrested, some beaten, and there have been reports of followers of the practice being killed.

Sayreville Mayor Kennedy O'Brien and Edison Councilman William Stephens joined the group during yesterday's event when they stopped on the steps of Borough Hall.

Stephens said he will ask the Edison mayor and council at its next scheduled meeting to consider a resolution to end the community's relationship with its sister city -- Shijiazhuang -- until officials there start "treating people in a humane way."

Added O'Brien, "We live in a wonderful country where people come from distant lands and can speak what's on their mind and what's on their heart.

"We deplore the government of China who seeks to destroy and eradicate you from the face of the earth."

Patrick Au of Edison, who has been a Falun Gong follower for 3 1/2 years, decried what is happening in his homeland.

"It's an emergency that we have to make people aware of the persecution of the Falun Gong in China," he said. "I just wish that more people knew about it."

As the marchers prepared to travel along Route 27 from Metuchen to Edison's municipal building, where another press conference was scheduled, Denis Baudis held a blue-and-yellow banner as a symbol of the group's call to end the persecution of fellow Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Their New Jersey visit is part of a 250-mile journey that will take the walkers through Philadelphia and Baltimore before ending with a mass march from the Washington Monument to the Capitol, where a large rally in support of Falun Gong is scheduled. "This is a human-rights issue," said Baudis, a New York City resident who started with other marchers on July 3 in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan. He plans to march to Washington. "There's been an unprecedented escalation in violence, and there is absolutely no reason to treat people inhumanely when this is a very gentle practice." Nineteen-year-old Erin Elliot of Franklin Lakes has been practicing Falun Gong for five months. During that time, she said, she has stopped smoking and has overcome depression.

"I've benefited greatly from the experience and want to give something back by walking to raise public awareness," she said.