NEW YORK—Like many other children of his generation, Yuan Sheng's first day of school consisted of learning to write the words "Long live the Communist Party" and "Long Live [Communist Party] Chairman Mao." From that day forward, the Chinese Communist regime—now blamed for 80 million unnatural deaths in its 50 years of ruling China—would haunt the seasoned Chinese pilot now seeking asylum in the United States.
Immediately before leaving Shanghai Pudong Airport earlier this month, Mr. Yuan, an airplane captain, had been caught speaking about the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, an Epoch Times publication the Chinese Communist regime has banned ownership and distribution of. With frustrated passengers waiting for his flight to take off, Yuan was allowed to leave by the authorities, who would be waiting for him when he returned. What they didn't expect is that he would not.
Looking back to his college years, Yuan said he steered clear of joining the Chinese Communist Party, unlike many of his classmates who saw it as an opportunity to gain social status.
"They wanted to have a smooth path to move up in career, I was very reluctant," said Yuan, who came from a poor farming family in northern China, through a translator.
At the age of 32, Mr. Yuan had risen to the distinguished rank of captain at China Eastern Airlines. At that time, he was forced to join the Chinese Communist Party by party leaders who approached him.
"At that age, among those with a similar job, it was very strange for me not to be a party member," Yuan said. "Otherwise they think you oppose the party."
Later, after flying into Paris, France in 2005, Yuan saw a Chinese-language Epoch Times newspaper in his hotel lobby. The paper contained the Nine Commentaries, a collection of essays on the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party, which sparked a movement of Chinese people quitting from the party, mostly through phone calls and the Internet.
"After I read the Nine Commentaries, immediately I went downstairs and made a phone call [to a Quit-the-Party Service Center] and quit. I felt very relieved," he said. Yuan went on to bring back copies of the commentaries to his friends and coworkers in China. He started telling people about the commentaries at every opportunity. One day he told the wrong person… and the rest is history.
While definitely concerned about his family, Mr. Yuan remains confident about his situation and doesn't seem visibly fazed. The way he sees it, the ones who should be worrying are those party leaders back in China.
"The Communist Party is going to collapse. Take the example of my work place: people with money, people without money, they all complain about the state of society. Some quit their jobs, some do hunger strikes, it's just very unstable," he said.
No Freedom of Religion
Stretching back to the 1989 slaughter of hundreds of peaceful student protestors in Tiananmen Square, dissatisfaction with the Communist Party is no new thing among Chinese people, who are denied many of the freedoms that people in Western countries enjoy everyday, including freedom of press, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion.
For Mr. Yuan, a quiet and serious man, the epitome of this lack of freedom came in 1999, when the Chinese Communist regime banned the Falun Gong spiritual practice.
Two years earlier he had begun to learn the slow motion exercises, meditation and moral teachings of the practice. Like many personal accounts on Falun Gong Web sites, he talked about the health problems he was experiencing before beginning the practice.
"Due to flying for a long time, and spending more than twenty days overseas per month, I was always jetlagged, I could not eat normally or sleep well, I felt tired even if I just walked a few steps on flat ground."
After starting to practice, he said, "Although I didn't practice much my health improved dramatically. With the principles of Falun Gong's teaching, spiritually, I felt elevated."
When the practice was banned, Yuan was forced to attend a brainwashing class, where he had to read communist propaganda about Falun Gong.
"My boss talked with me everyday, and told me if I refused to write the guarantee letter to give up Falun Gong, I would be not allowed to be a pilot," said Yuan, who has a wife and 12-year-old daughter who do not practice Falun Gong. "I was very sad; I had cried one day, and that was the only time I had cried since I grew up."
Mr. Yuan signed the letter, but said he continued to practice privately in his home.
Seeking Asylum
Mr. Yuan has applied to the U.S. government for asylum. While his application is being processed, Yuan said he plans on meeting with the U.S. government, and telling them his personal story and about what is happening in China.
According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, nearly 3,000 Falun Gong adherents have been confirmed to have been tortured to death in China, and the actual unconfirmed number of death cases is believed to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands of adherents have been held in forced labor camps, prisons and mental institutions. Most recently uncovered, through an investigation by two prominent Canadian human rights activists, is the harvesting and selling of organs from living and unwilling adherents.
"As long as there is a chance I will speak out because a lot of people don't know the truth about the persecution. The more people know the sooner it will be stopped. Everyday there are people who are persecuted," Mr. Yuan said.
As for his family back home, Yuan said he has talked to his family and boss on the phone, but they are being manipulated by Chinese authorities, who tapped their phone.
"When I call them, they try to convince me to go back, but as soon as I talk and say I can't go home anymore given the situation, then the telephone line immediately cuts off," he said.
Feeds