A group of Bay Area residents gathered at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco on Nov. 3 and called for the release of their family members who have become political prisoners.
They said the family members were abducted during a major recent political event and are being held as prisoners of conscience in Chinese jails.
Newark resident Huang Changyu told NTD, a sister media of The Epoch Times, that he hasn’t heard from his father in nearly a month.
“They came at around 7 p.m. on October 11 to abduct my father away from his home,” Huang said.
According to his aunt, police in Beijing abducted his 66-year-old father, named Huang Yongchang, for practicing the Chinese meditation discipline Falun Gong. They locked him in the Chaoyang District Detention Center.
The arrest came amidst the 20th National Congress for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has persecuted Falun Gong for over 20 years.
Sweeping political persecution often precedes large political events in the communist country.
“My father was distributing some messages in the social media. [Eventually] it was noticed by the police, and I don’t know the real reason. Right now, we are still trying to see why [the police] just come to my home. That’s our guess,” Huang said.
Huang hasn’t given up hope of getting back in touch with his father, although family members are restricted from visiting him in prison.
His father, like many Falun Gong practitioners, perseveres in the face of persecution, as the practice has brought him many health benefits.
His father has been healthy for the 20 years since he began to practice Falun Gong, and he hasn’t needed to take any medicine during that time. In addition, his vision improved, and he didn’t need glasses.
Huang said his father also became a better person. Before his father practiced Falun Gong, he would beat Huang for making mistakes, in the hope that Huang would behave better.
“But after he practiced, he stopped doing that. When I make mistakes, he will just blame himself for not teaching me well,” Huang said.
Falun Gong consists of five sets of meditation exercises, as well as teachings that guide people to follow the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
But in 1999, the CCP unofficially banned the practice in China and began to persecute it. The CCP has conducted similar persecutions against other spiritual groups, such as house Christians and Uyghurs.
When the CCP captures a Falun Gong adherent, it may illegally detain or torture the person or even kill the person by having his or her organs surgically harvested for black market sale.
“My appeal is to hope the U.S. government can help reach out to the Chinese government, President Xi, and the local police station to tell them to release my father, who is innocent, who is just doing good for the society,” Huang said.
Liu Zhitong, an Alameda resident, is calling for the release of her 56-year-old mother, Kong Qingping. Police abducted her on Oct. 22 and sent her to the Yaojia Detention Center in the northeastern Manchurian city of Dalian.
Her mother is also a Falun Gong practitioner, and similarly, family members are not allowed to see her.
“I’m worried because I know the Chinese government brutally persecutes Falun Gong practitioners,” Liu said. “So I’m worried she’s now facing the same predicament.”
Her mother has practiced Falun Gong since 2004.
“Before she practiced Falun Gong, she had many health problems. Her body was bad. And because she was unwell, she was easily irritated. But after she practiced Falun Gong, she became healthy,” Liu said. “In addition, her condition became very good. The family became harmonious.”
Friends and relatives voiced grave concern for the safety of the two imprisoned parents. They worry that the prisoners may be subjected to a show trial, a common formality that prisoners of conscience suffer in China.
Liu, Huang, and others called urgently for an international appeal to release their family members immediately.
