In 1999, the government of China made the practice of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice combining meditation and qigong exercises, illegal in the country. The result was wide-scale arrests of practitioners of the practice, one that continues to this day. One of those arrested was Huixia Chen, whose daughter Hongyan Lu is fighting to get her released from custody, and was in Yorkton as part of a trip to Ottawa to put pressure on China to release her mother.
Lu says nine practitioners of Falun Gong were arrested along with her mother, though seven have been released. She claims that witnesses saw her mother being tortured in a metal chair and not allowed to move for 20 days.
“We are also worried that she is going to become a victim of forced live organ harvesting.”
In her speech at the event, Lu said she had not seen her mother in 11 years because she fears for her own life if she is to return to China, as she is also a Falun Gong practitioner. This is also the second time her mother has been arrested, Lu says, the first time she secured a release through her father bribing police, though continued harassment later lead to a divorce.
Jay Brauneisen, Lu’s husband, says that they refer to the arrests in this case as abductions because they do not believe the practitioners of Falun Gong are committing any form of crime.
“People ask me why Falun Gong is such a threat, why does this continue. Falun Gong is not a threat to the [Communist Party of China], but its ideology cannot be controlled by the party, therefore from the regime’s perspective it should be wiped out,” Lu said.
Lu’s goal is to get pressure on China to get her mother released. She says that this has happened before, as international pressure and scrutiny can sometimes lead to releases of prisoners.
“I hope with enough awareness we can keep my mother alive. I hope we can get her released as soon as possible. I don’t know how much torture she can live through, and that’s what we’re really worried about.”
The Yorkton stop was part of a journey to Ottawa, where Lu and Brauneisen hope to meet with MPs to discuss her mother’s case. They believe that with pressure from Canadians on the Chinese government, they will be able to avoid further harm coming to her mother. She says that Canadian pressure is important in this case because there is nobody in China itself who can push for Chen’s release. Beyond her mother, they hope that external pressure can also lead to the end of persecuting those who practice Falun Gong.
