Montreal Gazette: Believer held in China

The last time anyone saw or heard from Ying Zhu was when she said goodbye to a friend at a Hong Kong train station.

That was May 10.

This week, the worst fears of her friends were confirmed by information obtained by a Hong Kong human-rights group: the 35-year-old Montreal woman and Falun Gong practitioner was arrested in China on her way to visit her husband and parents.

"On May 24, sources confirmed that Ying was arrested by the 610 Office of Guangdong province," Jennifer Nadeau, a friend and fellow Falun Gong practitioner, said yesterday in Montreal. "Her whereabouts are unknown and she was apparently arrested in China because she practices Falun Gong."

The 610 Offices were set up by the Chinese government as part of its crackdown on the meditation, exercise and spiritual movement, which has involved everything from tapping phones to imprisonment in labour camps and torture.

Friends of Zhu, a Concordia computer-science student who is a permanent resident of Canada, are calling on the federal government to put pressure on China to free her.

"We just heard that the ministry of foreign affairs got this information yesterday and they are working on this," said Yumin Yang, a local Falun Gong member. "They have contacted the Canadian embassy in China."

Canadian Alliance MP Scott Reid, who has taken up the cases of other persecuted Falun Gong followers, is poised to begin a letter-writing and awareness-raising campaign.

"We're still gathering information. We don't yet fully know all the facts," said Reid's legislative assistant Yaroslav Baran. "But it's kind of deja vu. This isn't a good thing and we've got to do something."

Zhu is the latest Canadian resident to be caught in China's dragnet to rid the country of the movement.

Her disappearance is likely to spark a high-profile campaign to push for her release, much like that of former Montreal sculptor KunLun Zhang.

He was freed from a Chinese labour camp in January on the eve of Prime Minister Jean Chretien's trade trip. His wife was released from house arrest and also deported back to Canada.

But some haven't been so lucky.

ShenLi Lin, the husband of Montreal resident JinYu Li, has been in prison since December 1999. She has not heard from him for more than a year although Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley has been pressing China for information.

Some local Chinese-Canadian Falun Gong followers have been denied visitor's visas, had their Chinese passports cancelled or been turned away at China's border. They believe their activities are being monitored by China and that many of their groups are being infiltrated. Many are now beginning to question whether they are safe returning to their homeland to visit family.

"There has been evidence of a blacklist (of overseas Chinese Falun Gong practitioners)," Yang said.

The missing woman's travel companion - and the last person to be in touch with her - was herself turned away from China as she attempted to travel from Hong Kong to Beijing.

"I was told by a customs officer that he received a notice from his superior that I was not allowed to enter China," said Zhili Li, now safely back in Montreal. "I asked them why and they said if I enter I have the possibility to overthrow the government."

Friends were first tipped off to Zhu's disappearance when she failed to E-mail them as promised. After several days with no word, they called her parents in the city of Guangzhou and discovered she had not arrived.

They immediately contacted rights organizations in Hong Kong. After two weeks of waiting, they received confirmation of her arrest.

"I am really worried about her safety," Li said. "I know how the Chinese regime treats Falun Gong people."