Speech at a Press Conference by the Spokesman of The Friends of Zhao Ming

July 20, 2001

THE FRIENDS OF ZHAO MING

Graduate Students Union Office, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Campaigning for the release of Trinity College student Zhao Ming from a Chinese Labour Camp

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Hello, my name is Jim Dowling and I am the spokesperson for the "Friends of Zhao Ming." "The Friends of Zhao Ming"[or FOZM] is a group involved in lobbying both Irish and Chinese Governments to obtain the official release of Zhao Ming by the Chinese government as well as his return to Ireland to continue his studies at Trinity College Dublin.

The FOZM group was set up in March ༼ as an umbrella group to help co-ordinate the great work publicizing Ming's case by the Trinity G.S.U. and others. Our membership currently consists of Trinity Graduate Student's Union (G.S.U.) officers, Trinity College Computer Science students and lecturers, Falun Gong practioners, Amnesty members, members of D.U. Meditation Society and students at second level schools.

The case of Zhao Ming is both shocking and scandalous.

Zhao Ming graduated from the Computer Science Department in Tsinghua University in 1993 and afterwards worked for Tsinghua Unisplendour Group as a network engineer, department manager and project leader for many years. In March, 1999, he was admitted to the Computer Science Department at the Trinity College in Dublin to pursue his Masters degree. In addition to studying in the Networks and Telecommunications Research Group (NTSG) and tutoring undergraduates, with the help of the D.U. Meditation Society he arranged for Falun Gong practice in Trinity.

I, personally, came to know Zhao Ming through the department and our shared interest in meditative practices. His enthusiasm for and belief in Falun Gong was both fascinating and encouraging. Ming started to practice Falun Gong in 1994 and had attended Mr. Li Hongzhi's lectures in Dalian, Liaoning Province. Before he practiced Falun Dafa, his health was so poor that, at times, he could not even work. Shortly after practicing Falun Dafa, he became completely healthy and full of energy. As a person who had greatly benefited from Falun Dafa, he spent his spare time actively promoting Falun Dafa and assisted other practitioners in Tsinghua University before he went to Ireland.

Ming was an idealist, in the noblest sense of the term. In January 2000, when he went home for the holidays during Christmas break, he was captured afteráfiling an appeal against the government policy on Falun Gong and placed under house arrest.á Indications are that he was arrested because of his spiritual beliefs and that the Chinese government then pressured him to write a confession agreeing not to appeal about human rights violations in Chinaáagain.á According to an article in the Irish Times, it appears that Ming broke house arrest to attend a rally in Tiananmen Square, evaded capture by the Chinese police, and went into hiding somewhere in China.á His whereabouts were unknown through the summer. We have since learned that Ming had been detained without trial by the Chinese government in Tuanhe Farm Labour Camp near Beijingásince May 2000.

In the spring of 2001, Zhao Ming was transferred from Beijing Tuanhe Labour Camp to Beijing Xi'an Labour Camp, where he was forced to go through brainwashing sessions. On 25th April, Ming was moved to the 4th Brigade. Under command of the Commander Li of the Brigade, they tormented Zhao Ming physically and mentally by means of verbal abuse, slapping, sleep deprivation etc. For more than ten days, however, they still failed to force him to give up his belief. Then Ming was imprisoned and forced to stand still without the slightest movement for as long as 18 hours a day. After three days of such ill-treatments, Ming's body became swollen all over. Later on Ming was ordered to clear rubbish bins, he had to carry out the task by himself that was usually done by four or five people, and when he went back to the cell after work, he was forced to stand absolutely still for long periods of time. During that period, Ming was only fed with plain corn bread, salted vegetables and plain water.

On 12th May, Ming's one-year illegal labour camp term was completed, but it was extended for another 10 months just because Ming would not renounce Falun Gong. A few days later, he was taken away by the police. Since then nobody knows his whereabouts.

Everyone who has met Ming remembers him as an honest and righteous person. He said to one of his fellow practitioners, "I am worthy of every day I have lived." He left people with deep impressions during his period at the Xin'an Labour camp. We appeal to the Irish public and Irish Government to press the Chinese government to release Zhao Ming and other Falun Gong practitioners in China, and to stop the crimes against humanity by Jiang Zemin's regime.

We believe that our goal of obtaining Ming's release is very much an attainable goal. Recently, on January 20^th 2001, a precedent has been set where a Canadian-Chinese follower of the banned Falun Gong movement was released from a labour camp in China after he had been repeatedly tortured and feared he would die. Sculpture professor Zhang Kunlun was unexpectedly freed less than two months into a three-year sentence and, more importantly, less than a month before a major Canadian trade mission was due to tour China. His release helped ease political tensions between Ottawa and Beijing over China's human rights record. Ottawa had repeatedly urged Beijing to release Zhang, who was rearrested in Shandong in October after entering the country on his Chinese passport.

We are hopeful that the Irish Government will adopt a similar stance toward the case of Zhao Ming before the upcoming visit of the Chinese Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, to Ireland in September. It is only through concerted public and diplomatic pressure that we can secure the release of Ming and his return to Ireland to continue his studies.

Jim Dowling

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Notes on Friends of Zhao Ming:

FOZM have met with Dublin's Lord Mayor Maurice Ahern on April 24th to discuss the case of Zhao Ming. We have been given assurances that he will be highlighting the case of Zhao Ming to the Chinese Authorities during his upcoming visit to Beijing to discuss the proposed twinning of Dublin and Beijing. FOZM and Trinity's G.S.U. organized a letter writing campaign on 10/4/01 at Trinity College Dublin and collected over 2000 signed letters from students petitioning the Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen T.D., the Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, the Premier of the People's Republic of China Zhu Rongji Zongli and the head of Tuanhe Labour Camp where Ming is currently being held. On Friday 27^th April, FOZM, in conjunction with Amnesty Trinity and Trinity Student's Union, organized a "March for Ming" to the Dept. of Foreign Affairs at St. Stephen's Green. Over one hundred and twenty students participated in the march from Trinity College to Iveagh House where six hundred letters and two 5'x5' signed petitions were delivered to the Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

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URL: http://www.fozm.org

email: [e-mail]