Dear Sir or Madam:

As reported by Reuters (Hong Kong, March 6, 2000, by citing the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China), police in Beijing detained four American Chinese and four Chinese with U.S. residency rights to prevent them from petitioning members of China's parliament on behalf of Falun Gong spiritual movement.

The four American Chinese are Loretta Sukmei Lam, Jein Shyue, Qian Zhizhen and her 12-year-old son David Sun. The four Chinese with U.S. residency rights are Fan Wenqing, Zeng Sheng, Wang Yili and Quo Wei. All of the detained adults were engineers from San Francisco.

We were especially saddened by the fact that such arbitrary illegal arresting occurred while U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson was visiting China and calling for promoting and protecting human rights. We were also deeply concerned with the safety of these practitioners, because only two week ago, the Chinese communist authorities tortured a Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Chen Zi-xiu (female, 59, from Weifang City, Shandong Province) to death in the so-called "Falun Gong Translation and Education Class", where many innocent practitioners were tortured by high voltage (1000 V) electrical shocks and ruthless beatings, only because they refused to give up their spiritual beliefs.

We therefore appeal to you to urge the Chinese government to release these innocent practitioners as soon as possible. We most appreciate your humanitarian help!

Best Wishes,