2003-10-27

By Tsai Ting-I

The Taiwan Falun Dafa Institute plans to launch a cycling event tomorrow to urge Chinese authorities to release Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioner Lin Hsiao-kai right away, shortly after China confirmed Lin's detention.

According to the Institute's chairman Chang Ching-hsi, participants will cycle around Taiwan, but details of the event are yet to be finalized. To date, members of the organizations are applying for the event and legislators across party lines are expected to attend.

Lin, who entered China to visit friends on September 29, failed to make his return trip by October 8. He was finally allowed to make his phone call to his wife last Saturday, after a rescue was attempted last Tuesday. However, "free conversation" was not really allowed, said Lin's wife, Chen Shu-ya .

"I asked him his whereabouts right after I received the call, but he didn't even answer my question," Chen said.

Last Friday, the Shanghai City Taiwan Affairs' Office officially confirmed Lin's detainment by its national security bureau to the Shanghai-based Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce, which was requested to assist on Lin's searching by the Strait Exchange Foundation.

Yeh Huei-te chairmen of the STCC, who has been dealing with Chinese authorities concerning Lin's case, said that he was not optimistic about Lin's immediate release, explaining that nobody would be capable of intervening in Lin's case since it is currently going through China's legal system.

According to Yeh, Lin's intention was to cooperate with Shanghai's local practitioners to further promote FLG in China, and this along with carrying Falun Gong literature in his notebook were the reasons for his arrest.

The Strait Exchange Foundation, meanwhile, emphasized that assistance to Lin's family would not stop until he is released.

Lin's wife said that she would keep pushing the public and the government to pressure Chinese authorities to release her husband.

"Although he asked us not to worry about him, I could feel his eagerness to come back to Taiwan," Lin's wife Chen said.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/10/27/1067217404.htm