The Vancouver Province: Falun Gong pair issue plea to PM

Kai Liu and his wife Beichen Sun have a message for Jean Chretien and team Canada as they fly to China today.

"Tell them to leave us alone."

The couple, followers of Falun Gong, say they have been threatened, harassed and intimated by "Chinese Spies" who have tracked their movements in Vancouver and Calgary.

"They have got to our parents in China and they phoned us to tell us to stop Falun Gong. They have threatened our families," Kai Liu said from his home in Calgary yesterday.

He and his wife have been interrogated by Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, who are investigating whether Chinese diplomats have threatened and intimidated Canadian followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Falun Gong, also know as Falun Dafa, has attracted millions of followers in China and overseas during the past 10 with its combination of meditation, exercise and doctrine [...].

China outlawed the group as a public menace and a threat to Communist rule in 1999. Falun Gong claims that a hundred followers have died at the hands of authorities and thousands have been imprisoned.

There are several thousand Falun Gong followers in Canada. About 100 meet of for mediation exercises regularly at Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver.

Scores of them plan a demonstration at Vancouver International Airport today as Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and a B.C. delegation joins Chretien's Team Canada trip.

Chinese consular officials in Ottawa and Vancouver did not return calls yesterday.

"Our life is a nightmare because of what we believe in," said Kai Liu, whose family in China has told him to stop phoning them.

"They are afraid to lose their jobs and properties if they have contact with me. In China if one member of the family practices Falun Gong the entire family faces persecution."

Kai Liu has told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that he was in negotiations with a Vancouver company to open a trade firm in Calgary last October when he noticed some strange goings-on.

"A man contacted my friend in Vancouver and told him his business in China will suffer if he worked with me," said Kai Liu. "He had all details and private information and told my friend that my telephone was also tapped."

"The man said I was on two red-head documents (China's blacklist) and had photos of me and my wife. My friend was too scared and I lost the job.

"We did not tell anyone about the business. How could they know?"

Kai Liu said his wife, a University of Calgary employee, had a call from her father recently. "He is a government official and he told her to divorce me or her family would disown us."

"Chretien must tell China to stop breaking up our families."

Ying Lee, a spokesperson for the Falun Gong in Vancouver, said she has seen men at their public functions photographing members.

"They hide behind trees and bushes and when we approach them they just go away," she said.

[...]