NEW YORK—On his flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles on Aug. 8, Mr. Yuan Sheng had trouble sleeping—understandably. The seasoned pilot and family man had a day's worth of supplies in his suitcase if he stayed in the United States, and he had the Chinese police waiting for him if he returned home.
"I thought if I went back to China, the best situation would be that I couldn't go home, I would be detained and my family couldn't see me," said Yuan through a translator on Wednesday. Remember, this was the best situation.
Immediately, before leaving Shanghai Pudong Airport, Yuan had been caught speaking about the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, a publication the Chinese Communist regime has banned ownership and distribution of, viewing it as sensitive material. Yuan said he knows people who have been sentenced anywhere from four to fifteen years in prison for circulating the commentaries.
"The worst situation is that I totally disappear and my family couldn't get any information about me. So I thought if I stayed in the United States, the situation would be better, at least my family would know I was okay," he explained. Yuan is currently applying for asylum in the United States.
Mr. Yuan said he knew of such instances where people disappeared. When six-party talks were held with the United States, China and North Korea last year in Shanghai, the regime rounded up local adherents of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group.
"When they were arrested they completely lose contact. Nobody knows where they are. It reminded me of the news about Falun Gong practitioners having their organs harvested," said Yuan. A recent investigation by two prominent Canadian human rights activists has concluded the Chinese Communist regime has harvested and sold organs from living and unwilling Falun Gong adherents.
Mr. Yuan himself practices Falun Gong, and had initially given up the practice when the government banned it in 1999.
According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, nearly 3,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed to have been tortured to death in China, and the actual number of death cases is believed to be far greater than the number than can be confirmed. In addition, according to the center, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained.
"Since the persecution started in 1999 I was also forced to attend some brainwashing classes, so I knew the persecution was very severe. Many people and not only themselves but also their families and kids were also being persecuted," said Yuan, who has a 12-year-old daughter and wife back in Shanghai.
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