Chinese Prisoner Starving Herself in Protest, Mother Petitions for Release

In the past 11 years, Ms. Chen Yinghua has been illegally imprisoned three times in China for her belief in Falun Gong.

In 2003 and 2013, Chen was detained for practicing the hugely popular, yet cruelly persecuted, Chinese meditation practice. Each of those times, she went on a hunger strike and was eventually released, according to the Minghui website.

This time Chen has refused to eat for over a month since she was arrested on March 12.  Her mother, Huang Jinling, recently held a press conference in Canada outside the Chinese Consulate in Calgary to call on the international community to help save her daughter’s life, Minghui reported.

In the press conference, held on April 5, Huang said her daughter is in critical condition.  Guards have tortured and force-fed Chen and tried to prevent her lawyer from defending her, but her lawyer met with her on April 2 and then told her family how she is, according to Minghui.

Two Canadian Members of Parliament have heeded Huang’s desperate plea by demanding that Chinese authorities release her daughter.

“We want to see immediate action in this case,” MP James Lunney said in a statement.

“Yinghua Chen’s life is in imminent danger,” MP Joan Crockatt said in the statement. “Chen’s father, a Calgarian and a Canadian citizen, was turned away from seeing her yesterday at the No. 2 Shijiazhuang Detention Centre and he is desperately concerned over her safety, as am I.”

Falun Gong is based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.  Its adherents have been peacefully resisting the persecution for 14 years by raising global awareness, continuing to practice despite the Chinese regime’s brutality, and in some cases protesting their imprisonment with hunger strikes.

“Ms. Chen is a Falun Gong practitioner and poses no threat to the Chinese government,” the statement reported. “Canada continues to express grave concerns about human rights abuses in China, including the imprisonment of political prisoners such as Falun Gong practitioners.”

Sources: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2014/4/17/232.html

http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2014/4/8/92.html

http://www.joancrockatt.ca/?p=3329