(Clearwisdom.net) On March 26, Chinese Falun Dafa practitioner Chen Teng was rescued to the United States. He landed at JFK Airport at 11:50 a.m. and was greeted by members of Friends of Falun Gong and fellow practitioners. A United Nations refugee, Chen was accepted by the U.S. government and plans to live in New York. At the airport, Chen thanked the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the U.S. government, Friends of Falun Gong and all the kind-hearted people who helped him.

Chen, 20, is from Weifang City, Shandong Province. He started to practice Falun Dafa when he was 7 years old together with his mother. Since the Chinese Communist regime started to persecute the practice, his mother Sun Xiaomei has been arrested six times, and his grandmother Zhou Chunmei and aunt Sun Xiaobo died in 1999 as a result of the persecution. Chen was detained twice when he was 11 and expelled from school when he was 12. The year after, he had to leave his home to avoid persecution. In the past six years, he has led a largely homeless life, sleeping outside and sustaining himself with whatever food he could find.

Chen said, "My mother was arrested six times. I was expelled from school when I was just twelve, and I have never been able to go back. I have not seen my mother in five years."

Chen Teng and Alan Adler, President of Friends of Falun Gong

Mr. Alan Adler, President of the nonprofit organization Friends of Falun Gong, greeted Chen at the airport. He thanked the U.S. government for accepting Chen so that he could be free of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution and enjoy freedom. "Because of the persecution, Chen was separated from his mother in his childhood and suffered from the pain of losing relatives. He was lucky to be able to flee China, and was granted UN refugee status in Thailand. In China, however, there are hundreds of thousands practitioners who are still being persecuted. I hope that the international community will help end the persecution," said Mr. Adler.

According to Chen, at least 97 practitioners have died during the persecution in his hometown of Weifang. Artist Zhou Ning, who once looked after Chen, was sentenced to prison for five years. Weifang Falun Dafa coordinator Li Tianmin was incarcerated for four years and then sentenced to another nine years. At about the same time, Li's wife was sent to a labor camp for three years. In 2008, 162 practitioners in Weifang were arrested and sentenced to prison.

Chen said, "All of my suffering is a just a drop in the ocean. Hundreds of thousands of children of Falun Dafa practitioners were deprived of their childhoods and families. We couldn't attend school and we lost family members... I hope that the persecution will soon end and we can reunite with our parents."