Bella [UK]: Beaten and jailed---just for exercising

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The biggest Women's Magazine in U.K "Bella" reported the following article as cover story

"Beaten and jailed---just for exercising"

Dundee University student Zhengfang Mo would love to go home to China after her course. But setting a foot abroad could have disastrous consequences-----

The article highlighted "What is Falun Gong":

Falun Gong combines slow, gentle exercises for the body with meditation to purify the mind. It has parallels with Tai Chi, in that the exercises are often performed by large groups in public spaces.

Since the Chinese government banned Falun Gong in 1999, followers claim an estimated 10,000 practitioners have been sent to labour camps and 150 have been sentenced to jail terms of up to 18 years---a claim the government denies.

For more info on Falun Gong visit www.faluninfo.net

Content:

Each morning, I walk to my local park in Dundee, find a quiet spot and begin my exercises. With gentle, slow movements, I stretch and tone my muscles.

As I move, I feel myself growing calmer, my thoughts become more focused.

Passers-by often stop and stare. Some ask me why I do it. I'm only too happy to explain--- I know how lucky I am.

In my native country, China, I risk being imprisoned---or worse---for exercising.

The form of exercise I practise is called Falun Gong. It's a fitness regime which focuses on helping you improve your life through meditation. It was in March 1998 when I first learned about it from my mother. Living at home with her in Chengdu, central China, I watched her practising the exercises, day in day out, before she taught me the set moves.

I soon realised they were having a dramatic effect on me. But it wasn't just my body which was being exercised---I was developing inner strength and courage I'd never experienced before.

Daily practice was making me healthier. Gone were the colds and miner illnesses I had before, and I thrived on less sleep.

Soon my husband, Yi You, and his mother were hooked on it too.

In March 1999, I left my family and friends and moved to Swansea, South Wales, to join Yi You, who was studying at the university. We were very happy there. Then, the following summer, the Chinese government began its crackdown.

They hate people meeting in large groups and saw Falun Gong as a threat, as it didn't advocate principles directly related to their Communist ideology.

Its popularity terrified them so, on 22 July 1999, they banned every sort of Falun Gong activity, They arrested hundreds of leading practitioners, and detained tens of thousands of others.

The British media hardly reported a thing so, hungry for information, I logged on to the internet. As my eyes scanned the words, my breath caught in my throat. Falun Gong practitioners were being rounded up and arrested. Some were tortured with cattle prods. Yi and I immediately feared for our mothers.

As the weeks passed, a clearer picture of what the ban meant began to form. Now that Falun Gong was outlawed, if people were discovered to be practising in secret, all rights to work, education and housing were lost.

Back in Wales, I struggled to come to terms with what was happening. Deep in my heart, I clung to the principles of truth and strength that Falun Gong instills in anyone who embraces it. Why were good people being punished like this?

One night, after speaking to his family, Yi put the phone down with tears in his eyes. "Dad hit Mum because she's still practising Falun Gong," he told me. "He thinks it'll bring trouble for the family."

I knew my mother was getting similar pressure from my father and brother.

As more internet reports about police brutality and mass jailings flooded in, I felt completely bewildered and helpless.

By now, I was expecting our child. But, deep down, I knew I had to stand up for what I believed in. How could I sit back in my cosy house in Wales and ignore what was happening at home?

So when practitioners in Wales decided to attend a conference in Hong Kong---which would call for the persecution to cease---we immediately signed up for the trip.

After the conference ended, I still felt I needed to do more to help. Yi felt as strongly as I did. But when I told him my plan, he was shocked.

"Are you sure you want to take this risk?" he asked. "You have to keep yourself---and our baby---safe."

Instead of going straight back to Britain, I wanted to make a more personal protest by flying to Beijing in China.

In the end, Yi agreed to come with me. By this time I was eight months pregnant.

Once there, we checked into a hotel with two friends. We decided to make a yellow banner to unfurl in Tiananmen Square, as part of a peaceful protest.

But just as we'd started painting on the letters, there was a banging on the door.

"Open up," a voice shouted. "Now!" We opened the door and eight policemen burst into the room and stood over us. One stepped forward. "Are you practitioners of Falun Gong?" he barked. " Yes," I replied.

"In that case, I'm arresting all of you," he said as they herded us together.

We stood and watched as they turned our room upside down, emptying drawers, searching under the bed. Finally, we were marched to the hotel's conference room where we were confined for 12 hours.

To hide our fear, we sought solace in our exercises. When the guards realised what we were doing, they beat us. "I'm pregnant," I screamed. "Leave me alone!"

But they didn't care. The punches rained down on my head and shoulders and their feet kicked at my body. Luckily, none of the blows landed near my stomach.

Eventually we were moved to a detention centre in the government offices, where we were imprisoned. Sometimes the guards would pull one of us out for hours of interrogation.

"Will you renounce the principles of Falun Gong?" they asked.

"No," I replied.

"Give us the names and addresses of other practitioners"

"No," I said. " I won't."

And that's how it continued, round and round in circles, question after question.

Our cell had no bed, but there was a table which I slept on at night. The others slept on chairs. Three times a day we were given a small bowl of rice and vegetables.

We soon realised that everyone in the centre was involved, in some way, with Falun Gong and, for some reason, we were being treated a bit better than the rest---probably because of our links with the West. Other prisoners were chained to pillars and whipped with leather belts.

"Please don't let the baby come early," I prayed. Finally, on the seventh day, we were led out of the cell, told we were being deported back to Britain and driven to the airport by armed guards.

As they escorted us on to the plane, one issued an ultimatum: "If you continue to practice Falun Gong," he said, "you'll never be allowed back into China."

But, as the plane soared into the air, all I could think of was getting away, escaping that terrible cell.

A month later, back in Swansea, I gave birth to my daughter, Minghui You.

Under Chinese law, parents must have a page inserted into their passport for their children. So, when Minghui was six months old, I took my passport to the Chinese Embassy.

After a long wait, I was asked to write a statement renouncing Falun Gong.

"I won't do that," I told them.

"Then we'll have to confiscate your passport," they said, snatching it from me.

"Why?" I asked, stunned.

"We must send your passport back to the Chinese Public Security Ministry. It's up to them whether you get it back."

When they did eventually return it, there was a big red stamp across the page inserted for Minghui---it says 'cancelled'.

It means that she can never leave this country, never visit her family in China. It also restricts myself and Yi. How can we travel without our baby?

We have no idea what the future holds for us, but our names are blacklisted in China, so we can never go back there.

Now we live in Dundee, where I'm studying for a computing degree. My course ends in September and, after that, I'm praying we'll be allowed to stay in Britain---after all, how can we leave without Minghui? We've applied for political asylum, but we haven't heard anything yet.

You might wonder why I don't stop practising Falun Gong---after all, there are other ways to exercise. But to me it's more than that. It's something I believe in, it's changed my life and I should have the freedom to choose what form of exercise I do.

We're not harming anyone---so why should we be made to suffer?

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