Macon Telegraph, GA: Mock torture G-8 protest highlights Chinese persecution

BRUNSWICK - Gang Chen's journey to the G-8 summit began four years ago when Chinese police dragged him out of his bed and threw him in a forced labor camp.

His crime was practicing Falun Gong, a rapidly growing discipline that combines yoga-style exercise with a spiritual element. For reasons Falun Gong practitioners have trouble understanding, the Chinese government finds the practice threatening.

Chen, 33, was among a group of about 40 people who held what may have been the most effective demonstration of the G-8 summit. They stood at Overlook Park in Brunswick staging mock torture that they say is used on Falun Gong practitioners in an effort to get them to renounce their faith. They also demonstrated Thursday in Savannah.

Chen explained the many torture methods he endured for 18 months before he finally relented and renounced.

He and others endure the torture rather than immediately renounce because the tenants of Falun Gong are truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. It's the truthfulness aspect, he said, that keep them from relenting.

He caved only when he believed he was near death, but after all he had endured, he still thought he had betrayed his faith.

"After that I felt so guilty and helpless and painful in the heart," he said. "They sought to take away our conscience."

After he was released, he took a job with a U.S. company and was allowed to come to the United States. He has never returned to China.

The protesters want the government to put pressure on China to end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They believe that as a huge buyer of Chinese goods, the United States has the leverage to do it.

When people buy products made in China, the protesters say, they could be buying the products of a forced labor camp.

Yeong-Ching Foo said her fianc¨¦e, a naturalized U.S. citizen, traveled to China in an effort to expose persecution. Chinese police arrested him as soon as he stepped off the plane and put him in a forced labor camp, where he remains today.

"What the Chinese government is trying to force you to do is give up the very basic principles of a human being," she said.

Though they admitted that leaders at the summit, isolated on Sea Island, were unlikely to hear their message, they saw the summit as an opportunity to spread awareness. Apparently many people were willing to listen. They had a steady stream of curious people stop by to view the exhibits and inquire about the cause, organizers said.

The demonstration included a man dressed in a Chinese police uniform holding a baton over a man who was tied to a chair, with drops of simulated blood covering his white shirt.

Chen showed how he was forced to crouch for hours at a time, and then showed what finally broke him: being forced to bend over with his head tied with a short rope to his ankles. He also said he was forced to go without sleep for days at a time, and sometimes he was force-fed.

The group alleges that 975 Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have been tortured and killed, but they believe the actual number is much higher.

"People are being tortured to death only because they believe in truthfulness, compassion and tolerance," said Bin Zou, 34, who came from Los Angeles to participate.

Source: http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/states/georgia/counties/houston_peach/8899383.htm