Candlelight Vigil Ahead of Beijing Olympics

NEW YORK—Over 200 Falun Gong practitioners and supporters gathered outside the Chinese Consulate yesterday for a candlelight vigil for the thousands of Falun Gong practitioners arrested in China since December of last year.

According to the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC), 8,037 Falun Gong adherents from 29 provinces have been jailed, some for up to 2.5 years. The mass arrests are part of the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to silent dissidents and those who the Community Party thinks might disrupt the “harmonious Olympics.”

Among the thousands jailed in China are the parents of New Yorker Shuangying Zhang.

“When they [the police] forced into my parents house, my mother asked them: ‘Why do you confiscate my property? What reason do you have?’”, said Zhang during the vigil. “They said, ‘Because you practice Falun Gong. There are no reasons, this reason is enough.’ So I think today’s police are so evil, we cultivate Falun Gong’s principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. How can that be a threat to the society?!” said Zhang.

Zhang added that after the Chinese Communist Party started to persecute Falun Gong she was worried for her parents’ safety.

Falun Gong practitioner Jane Dai, whose husband was tortured to death by Chinese police for his belief in Falun Gong, attended the vigil with her 8-year-old daughter Fadu.

Holding a picture of all three family members, Dai told of her mourning process after her husband’s death.

“When I found out that my husband was killed, my hair turned white overnight,” said Dai. “When I look at my daughter, she reminds me of my husband. Through her, I can see my husband. I completely broke down; I locked myself at home and I didn’t want to see anyone else.”

Dai added that the Chinese Embassy refused to give her a visa to go back to China to collect the ashes of her husband.

About a week from the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, the vigil comes as a reminder that the Olympics hasn’t improved human rights, as Beijing promised, but rather has worsened them, especially for Falun Gong practitioners.

“A large percentage of people have already been sent to labor camps. The dozens currently filling Beijing’s detention centers are at grave risk of wrongful sentencing and torture,” said FDIC spokesperson Erping Zhang.

“It is now imperative that the international community leverage real pressure and stop these deplorable actions. The legacy of the 2008 Olympics must not be thousands of Chinese citizens languishing in labor camps.”