TRENTON: State House Falun Gong Rally Cites Torture by China

TRENTON -- Since their Beijing apartment was ransacked and they were carted off to a Chinese labor camp 14 months ago, Ningfang and Rutang Chen said they have neither seen nor heard from their son.

They were imprisoned after the Chinese government began a crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners.

They were released from the labor camp after 30 days, but their son, Gang Chen, remains imprisoned.

Everything they have heard about him has come from government leaks, second-hand sources and released prisoners -- and most stories have their 29-year-old son being tied up, beaten and abused.

The family members, including Gang's sister, Marlton resident Ying Chen, choked back tears as they told their story to more than 60 Falun Gong supporters and practitioners at a rally on the steps of the State House yesterday.

Supporters of the movement say events such as the rally are important ways to raise international awareness. They also help put pressure on the Chinese government to tone down its hard-line stance toward those who follow the exercise and meditation regimen based on ancient Chinese techniques called Qigong, supporters say.

At the rally, local legislators honored the five New Jersey residents who participated in a 250-mile march from Manhattan to Washington last month to raise awareness for their cause.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton Borough, said Falun Gong practitioners are "worthy of tremendous admiration for their courage in the face of government persecution," which he called "cruel and outrageous."

Gusciora and representatives of Rep. Chris Smith, R-Washington Township, and Rep. Michael Ferguson, R-Warren, presented the marchers with proclamations and citations.

At 19, Franklin Lakes resident Erin Elliott was the youngest of the walkers. She said the walk was "the best thing (she) ever did, "calling the community's support particularly moving. "

She said she had practiced Falun Gong for less than six months when she left for the walk, but felt compelled to take the journey when she heard about a 19-year-old Chinese woman who was killed after trying to petition the Chinese government to allow her to practice Falun Gong.

The rally's organizers said more than 260 Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death in China and thousands more have been persecuted for their commitment to the meditation exercises.

The Chinese government has called the movement a threat to society, and banned it in July 1999 [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]. Practitioners of Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, claim the regimen of exercises and meditation helps them refine their bodies and minds. They strive to cultivate what they call three essential characteristics of the universe: Zhen (truthfulness), Shan (compassion) and Ren (forbearance).

Falun Gong practitioner Amy Lee told the crowd through a translator how she spent 60 days in a Chinese labor camp, where she was stripped, beaten and "mentally tortured." She said she was forced to divorce her husband and was not allowed to see her children. She came to the United States to avoid further imprisonment and torture.

The rally began with about 50 of the advocates marching through the city with posters and banners reading "S.O.S." and "Rescue Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China."