Washington Times Op-ed: An empty seat, a broken heart
Posted by admin in In the media on July 22nd, 2010
Reunion denied by China’s ongoing religious persecution
By Mei Xuan
Have you ever waited at an airport for a loved one you have not seen in a long time? Surely you remember the giddy expectation, scanning arriving passengers for that familiar face. But what if your loved one never arrived?
My husband never turned up. On Feb. 18, I waited for him at Newark International Airport with flowers. It had been over three years since I last saw him before fleeing China. Jiang Feng was to arrive on a Continental Airlines flight from Shanghai, but after the last passengers left he was still nowhere to be seen. My calls to China confirmed my greatest fears: He checked in, but never boarded the flight. Chinese secret police abducted him.
We married 12 years ago in Anhui province. I was a musician and he worked as a piano tuner. But before our first anniversary we were kidnapped from our workplaces and jailed. That was July 20, 1999, the first round of arrests of Falun Gong practitioners like us.
Our worlds collapsed as the campaign rolled in with a force equal to that of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Suddenly, we were enemies of the state, cut off from our family and friends. We were arrested for practicing meditation and following our discipline – principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Falun Gong was becoming too popular for the Communist Party’s liking and our crime was having an independent belief system.
As I was a prominent musician, my director pulled strings to get me out, but my husband was jailed for three years. In 2002, literally days before his release, I was standing on a sidewalk when plainclothes police suddenly shoved me into a taxi and drove me to a detention center. They imprisoned me for four years. I was tied to a chair for 75 days without being allowed to sleep or use the restroom. My fingers and feet swelled three times their size. I was electrocuted, beaten and repeatedly knocked unconscious. I watched my friends, one after another, take their last breaths. Somehow, I survived and, after being released in 2006, fled to the United States.
My husband and I planned to reunite here. After I was generously granted political asylum, he also received the status of “derivative asylee,” obtained a U.S. visa, packed his bags and checked in at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
He would have been with me in Washington this week, as thousands of Falun Gong practitioners from around the world mark yet another anniversary of persecution in China. Instead, he is in an Anhui province labor camp in which prisoners toil in a coal mine. In addition to torture, my husband now faces the dangers of being trapped, suffocated or crushed underground in China’s most fatality-prone work.
Many people think the persecution of Falun Gong is mostly a thing of the past, a blotch on China’s slow but steady progress. Quite the contrary. In the months before the Olympics, over 8,000 practitioners were arrested, often from their homes for no apparent reason other than their faith. Many were sent to labor camps for periods far exceeding the length of the Olympic Games. Last year saw an upsurge in sham trials with hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced to prison for up to 18 years, often simply for downloading an article or distributing leaflets exposing persecution.
My husband and I were wed 12 years ago but, separated by persecution, we have shared married life for only a few months. I am extremely worried about his safety as I know what he faces every minute.
As you notice the Falun Gong activities this week, please remember that these victims of oppression are real people. They are our husbands and parents and children. They need your international voices of support. We have seen how, when the world looks away, we face the darkest pitilessness of the Chinese Communist Party. Your direct, public statements of support have a great restraining effect.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/21/an-empty-seat-a-broken-heart/
Shen Yun Briefs Capitol Hill Audience on Interference
Posted by admin in In the media on July 4th, 2010
Chinese regime implicated in ongoing attempts to stop show
大纪元: 神韵举办方在美国会曝光中共骚扰 FBI立案
【大纪元7月2日讯】（大纪元记者亦平美国华盛顿DC报导）2010年6月30日下午，美国华府神韵演出主办机构在美国国会众议院朗沃斯办公大楼 （Longworth Building）举办研讨会，揭露中共在世界各地破坏神韵演出的种种卑劣手段。美国多个城市的剧院方或演出主办单位已将中共干扰破坏神韵演出的证据上报 美国联邦调查局（FBI），FBI立案并展开调查。
中共在北美给剧院发匿名信 FBI展开调查
神韵巡回艺术团主持人林理善说，中共使馆发送信件给政府官员、剧院、以及媒体，向他们施压，企图阻止神韵演出，但大多都未能得逞。在美国阿肯色州小石城，剧院经理收到中共驻休斯顿领事馆的抹黑神韵的信件，剧院方将该信上报FBI，这是美国剧院受到骚扰后的常见反应。 Read the rest of this entry »
Shen Yun erhu player’s husband “sentenced” to 18 months of forced labor
On May 11, the Chairwoman of European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights Ms Heidi Hautala wrote to the PRC Ambassador to the European Union to inquire about Jiang Feng. Jiang, the husband of Shen Yun’s erhu virtuoso Mei Xuan, had disappeared in Shanghai while trying to board a flight to reunite with his wife.
In her letter, Ms. Hautala wrote: “it is widely believed that Mr Jiang Feng was abducted by security agents and is being interrogated and abused in custody.”
In reply, the PRC Ambassador to the EU, Song Zhe, confirmed that Jiang had been jailed. An excerpt from his letter reads:
The rest of Song Zhe’s letter goes on about Chinese rule of law and there being “no basis to the so-called claim that Jiang is ’subject to abuse’.” Jiang had previously been imprisoned for three years and Mei Xuan for four. Both had been tortured regularly throughout their imprisonment.
This was the first word of Jiang’s whereabouts in nearly three months since his February 18 disappearance. PRC authorities did not even notify his family and Mei Xuan had to find out where her husband is through the European Parliament.
Through the assistance of kindhearted people, Mei Xuan has since learned that Jiang Feng is being held in the Number 3 Brigade of the Anhui Xuancheng Forced Labor Camp. In this camp prisoners work in a coal mine as de facto slaves. Now, in addition to torture, brainwashing classes, and exhaustion, Jiang Feng faces the dangers of China’s most fatal profession.
Letter from EU VP to the Moldovan government
Posted by admin in Letters and support on June 8th, 2010
Canada’s Hon. David Kilgour writes to Moldova’s Parliament
Posted by admin in Letters and support on June 6th, 2010
Moldovan media coverage of Shen Yun show cancellation (collection)
Posted by admin in In the media on May 30th, 2010
Reports in Romanian and Russian
JURNAL TV morning talk show part 1 part 2 part 3 - interviews with hosting organization representative, Shen Yun performers, the minister of culture, and the theater director.
Radio Europa Libera (audio): The minister of Culture says it’s not his responsibility, while another official says it’s the responsibility of the Minister of Culture, yet a third official he was in Italy at the time…
Radio Europa Libera II (audio)
Ziarului de Gardă: Azi protest SHEN YUN în faţa Guvernului
PRO-TV: Membrii Falun Dafa au protestat astazi in fata Guvernului (video)
Infotag Report on Moldova press conference
Posted by admin in In the media on May 29th, 2010
FALUN DAFA [ASSOCIATION] ASKS FOR EXPLANATIONS REGARDING ILLEGAL ACTIONS AGAINST THE COMPANY SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS
From left to right: Kuki Szabolcs, Tatiana Chiriac, Man-yan Ng
(This is a partial translation – the original report in Romanian follows)
Falun Dafa Association in Chisinau asks for explanations from the Moldovan Government regarding the illegal actions taken regarding the company Shen Yun Performing Arts from New York.
The president of the Association, Tatiana Chiriac, mentioned on Thursday, during a press conference at INFOTAG agency, that the performers arrived in Chisinau for presenting a show of Chinese classical dance, on 25 and 26 of May, at the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet.
According to her, Falun Dafa Association signed a rent contract for 25 and 26 of May.
Here is a translated transcript of the press conference speeches: Read the rest of this entry »
Who locked us out of Moldova’s theater?
We left Istanbul early in the morning on May 23. We reached the Bulgarian border around lunch and got through customs three hours later. From there up and down the roller-coaster, ill-maintained Balkan Mountain roads and to the Romanian border. Two and a half hours later we headed to Bucharest on roads that immediately made us miss Bulgaria. An over-night stop, a flat tire, and many potholes later we arrived at the Moldovan border and, after the routine three-hour delay, approached our hotel in the capital of Chisinau at 3am.
Four hours later we headed to the theater to setup for the show that night. But at 8am, when we arrived at the backstage entrance with the truck ready to offload, we were stopped at the door. “You are not allowed in.” “ There is no show.”
We waited for the theater director, Valeri Sircanu, who had told us the show would take place in spite of the pressures, to arrive. Sircanu, a young woman dressed in a pinstripe business suit pulled up in her Audi, brushed past us and darted into the hallway, shooing away our approaches with a flip of her hand behind her back as she disappeared into the theater. A few moments later she came out, rushed into her Audi and screeched away. She never returned, but in her stead came security guards who locked the door.
Hosting organization representative Tatiana Chiriac trying to enter the theater according to Shen Yun 's contract to perform there on May 25 (photo courtesy of Annie Li)
The backstage entrance had probably never seen such action before. Tatiana Chiriac, head of our hosting organization, the Moldova Falun Dafa Association, and a former judge showed up. She asked for an explanation why her contract with the theater was reneged. None was given. ProTV, Publika TV, and other media started piling in. They interviewed Shen Yun performers, but were also blocked at the theater door.
ProTV interview Shen Yun dancer Jessica Quach behind the National Theater's backstage entrance (photo by Annie Li)
This scene carried on into the afternoon and then approached showtime. At 6:45pm, when dancers usually finish the pre-show warm-up and go change into their bright costumes, when the musicians usually change into their tuxedos and black skirts, when backstage usually vibrates with our sopranos’ voices – we stood silently on the front steps of the square Soviet-style theater looking out at the plaza in front of us in the heart of the capital.
Shen Yun performers on the theater's footsteps at showtime (photo by Annie Li)
Hundreds of audience members, elegantly dressed as you would for a night at the nation’s opera house started pouring in. A boy wearing a vest and little bowtie looked confused. A woman who took a 30-hour train from Moscow was holding back tears.
The hosting organization held a makeshift press conference, their volunteers, who also came from Romania, Ukraine, and Belarus, held banners with still-fresh paint that protested the Moldovan theater and government giving in to pressure from the Chinese embassy.
Hosting organization holds a makeshift press conference with Shen Yun performers in the background on the theater footsteps (photo by Annie Li)
As audience members began figuring out what was going on, they came up to our dancers with bouquets bought at a flower market several blocks away.
(photo by Annie Li)
(photo by Annie Li)
Some ticket-holders rounded the corner to the box office and asked for a refund. As you see in the photo, it was impolitely refused.
Ticket office (photo by Annie Li)
Almost an identical scene repeated the following day, with audience members taking the microphone to vent their frustration. This time, the ticket office was locked. A sign had been put up – the theater holds no responsibility for refunding tickets. If you want your money back, contact the hosting organization representative (the one who was the victim of breech of contract), Tatiana Chiriac; here’s her phone number.
From the information I’ve been able to gather so far from meeting with a Moldovan government representative and from media interviews, here’s what appears to have happened:
- The director of the National Theater, Valerie Sircanu, revealed that she had received daily visits from the Chinese embassy. She admitted this on several occasions, although later, on live television, she denied ever being contacted by the Chinese authorities.
- The Ministry of Culture sent a letter to the theater director recommending that they cancel the show. On the same live talk show with Jurnal TV, the minister himself denied any Chinese authorities involvement.
- A Foreign Ministry representative, who had served with the Moldovan embassy in Beijing, instructed the theater director that it was the ministry’s position that the show should be canceled.
- The Chinese embassy also visited the mayor’s office to ask them not to support Shen Yun.
Oh, did I mention that last July the PRC promised Moldova a $1 billion loan (Reuters article)? At the time of the show’s cancellation, the Moldovan government is still eagerly waiting the check to come in.
It appears that at our press event in front of the theater we also had a few friends of the Chinese Communist Party eager to make a good impression. Take a look at these two photos – the second taken an instant after they realized we were photographing them. The photo is a little blurry, but you get the idea.
(photo by Annie Li)
(photo by Annie Li)
See Moldova’ Jurnal TV report here.