Long Beach Falun Gong event to highlight meditation, torture survivors
Long Beach Press Telegram
By Phillip Zonkel, Long Beach Press Telegram
long beach >> Jana Li says she was persecuted and tortured in China for her spiritual beliefs.
Li practices Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, the ancient Chinese spiritual discipline in the Buddhist tradition.
The Rowland Heights resident will be one of 500 torture survivors expected to attend Sunday’s Stand for Freedom rally, which is part of the Falun Dafa Day, in downtown Long Beach at Marina Green Park, 386 E. Shoreline Drive.
Since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party has waged a persecution campaign that has included arbitrary arrests, forced labor and physical torture against people who practice Falun Gong, according to Amnesty International. Lin said she was arrested three times between 1999 and 2000. Her last arrest was in April 2000 after Li unfolded a banner supporting Falun Gong.
“I was sentenced to one year in a forced labor camp,” she said. “I was kept isolated in a small cell. I also was sleep deprived.
“We weren’t regarded as human beings, but we will never give up our beliefs,” Li said.
Sunday’s Falun Dafa Day also includes a group meditation that organizers predict will draw 2,000 people and a concert.
Falun Gong is a qigong discipline combining slow-moving exercises and meditation with a moral philosophy centered on the tenets of truth, compassion and tolerance. It was founded by Li Hongzhi, who introduced it to the public in 1992.
Following a period of meteoric growth in the 1990s, the Communist Party launched a campaign to “eradicate” Falun Gong in July 1999, according to Human Rights Watch.
An extra-constitutional body, the 6-10 Office, was created to squash Falun Gong. Followers endured systematic torture, illegal imprisonment, forced labor, organ harvesting and abusive psychiatric measures, all in an attempt to force them to disavow their beliefs in Falun Gong, according to various human rights groups.
Since 1999, hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in “re-education through labor” camps, prisons and other detention facilities for refusing to renounce the spiritual practice, according to various U.S. government reports.
Li said she left China in 2004 and arrived in the United States on a scholar visa and immediately applied for political asylum.
“My family knew I was leaving, but none of my closest friends,” Li said. “I didn’t want to risk being stopped at any time and arrested.
“If I continued to live in China, I would have been arrested again.”
Contact Phillip Zonkel at 562-714-2098.