Victim:
Yu Changxin, male, 74, his wife Jiang Ming, in her 70’s, resident of Beijing, China
Yu Changxin is a general of the Air Force, and also a professor at the Chinese Air Force Institute of Command (equivalent to the U.S. Air Force Academy). Prof. Yu was a leading air force pilot during the 1970’s, and he was among the first generation of test pilots in China. Because his contribution to the development of the Chinese Air Force, he was awarded "Hero's Medal" by the Chinese government. Later, he became noted for establishing theories and methods of fighter plane testing, which resulted in a dramatic reduction in air safety mishaps within the Chinese Air Force. On the academic side, he was instrumental in authoring many of the textbooks used by the Institute.
Location of Detention and Torture:
Chinese Air Force Institute of Command, Beijing, China
Perpetrators:
1. Director Shi, Vice Director Zhang and Political Committee Chairman Chen.
Post Code: 100176 Address: Xiaohongmen, Box 7805, Beijing
Telephone: 011-86-10-87695046
2. Administrators and deputies of the Chinese Air Force Institute of Command, Beijing
3. Administrators and deputies of the Detention Center, Chinese Air Force Institute of Command, Beijing
A Brief Report of the Incident:
Prof. Yu has practiced Falun Gong since 1992. On July 1, 1999, even before nationwide persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese government, Prof. Yu was arrested and secretly interrogated by a special Air Force military tribunal comprised of 20 people. Because of Prof. Yu's prestige, his outstanding service to the air force, and his high authority and influence within the Chinese military, the tribunal used various appalling methods to coerce the 74-years-old Prof. Yu to turn against Falun Gong, so as to set up a high profile example of "transformation of Falun Gong practitioners. At one point, the tribunal deprived Prof. Yu sleep for consecutive days, causing him extreme mental and physical agonies.
Prof. Yu refused to give up his faith in Falun Gong, despite the torture. At one point, Mr. Yu stated to the tribunal: “As a respected and honored professor, I have taught many of the current leaders and have edited textbooks for the Air Force Officer School. Since I am so much more experienced than any of you, let me ask you, how could I be so easily misled by something? Am I unable to determine right from wrong? My personal experience tells me that practicing Falun Gong is not wrong."
On January 6, 2000, after more than half years of the secret tribunal, the 74-years-old professor was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Professor Yu’s case has been singled out by various international institutions, human right organizations, governments, including the EU, as the example of religion intolerance by the Chinese government (please see the attached news reports).
While Prof. Yu is in detention, his wife Jiang Ming, also a Falun Gong practitioner, has come under persecution by the authority. The officials from the Institute ransacked his home twice. Ms. Jiang was eventually evicted from her home by the authority after January 6, 2000.
Related News Reports:
1. AFP: Chinese Air Force General Sentenced to 17 Years for Falun Gong Role
(13 January 2001)
HONG KONG, Jan 14 (AFP) - A Chinese air force general has been sentenced to 17 years in prison by a military tribunal for his role in the banned Falun Gong spiritual group, a Hong Kong-based rights organization said Friday.
Yu Changxin's sentence is one of the heaviest since the Communist Party outlawed the traditional Chinese mystical group last summer and follows an 18-year sentence meted out by a Beijing civil court last month to Falun Gong leader Li Chang.
Yu, 74, an instructor at the China Air Force Command Institute, was tried secretly by a Beijing military tribunal on January 6, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
"Yu Changxin is an important military official with high authority who has performed outstanding service to the air force. Many retired military leaders expressed dissatisfaction to (Chinese President) Jiang Zemin sentencing this 74-year old to 17 years," the center said.
According to Yu's family, the general has appealed his sentence, it said.
Yu, who has followed the Falun Gong group since 1992, was secretly detained on July 1 last year for his alleged role in organizing an April 25 protest by some 10,000 Falun Gong followers around the Communist Party's Zhongnanhai headquarters in central Beijing.
He was convicted of "using a sect to destroy the implementation of the law," and "illegal management," while his family said he denied his involvement in organizing the April 25 demonstration, the center said.
He also allegedly helped Falun Gong spiritual leader Li Hongzhi, presently exiled in the United States, to "illegally" print and publish Falun Gong material, while organizing the meteoric expansion of the group, the family said.
Yu was a leading air force pilot during the 1970s, but became noted for establishing theories and methods, which resulted in a dramatic reduction in air safety mishaps, the center said. The Falun Gong group, established by Li Hongzhi in 1992, practices morning breathing and meditation exercises and has advocated high moral values and spiritual purity as the key to good health.
The amazing growth of the group, which boasts up to tens of millions of members in China, has often been attributed to a lack of morality in Chinese society during 20 years of economic reforms and rampant corruption among party and government officials.
2. Irish and Swedish MEPs Raise Questions to the EU Council, 14 February 2001.
WRITTEN QUESTION P-0491/01, By John Cushnahan (PPE-DE) To the Council (14.02.2001).
Irish and Swedish MEPs Raise Questions to the EU Council
WRITTEN QUESTION P-0491/01
By John Cushnahan (PPE-DE)
To the Council
(14.02.2001)
Subject: Falun Gong
Has the Council registered its strong disapproval to the Chinese authorities regarding their treatment of Falun Gong practitioners? If so, what response has it received?
WRITTEN QUESTION P-0444/01
BY Cecilia Malmstrong (ELDR)
To the Council
(14.02.2001)
Subject: Human Rights in China
Since the invasion of Tibet in 1949, the communist regime has been guilty of extensive violations of human rights. More than a million people have been executed in the effort to stifle dissent and occupy Tibet. In recent years, the violations have intensified and the situation in Tibet is now reminiscent of the period during the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s.
As the repression in Tibet takes place, the Chinese regime has also escalated its persecution of the practitioners of Falun gong. The government looks uneasily on a movement, which in the space of a few years has grown bigger than the XX Party, though it has no political ambitions. Innocent people are thrown into jail, others are persecuted and many have been killed in the Chinese Government's raids on the Falun Gong.
The EU's relations with China have for a number of years been based on 'critical dialogue'. Nevertheless, China continues to commit violations of the most basic human rights. No opposition is allowed and anyone trying to point out alternatives to the communist dictatorship is severely punished. There are no signs of any improvement in democracy or freedom of expression. The EU and its Member States maintain contact with China at several levels. Unfortunately, however, human rights issues have not been given a position of prominence in the talks taking take place. In previous years, in the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, the EU Member States have elected not to support a resolution against repression in China.
In the light of developments in China, does the Council consider that the EU should review its policy of 'critical dialogue' with that country and thereby the initiative this year for a resolution condemning China's violation of Human Rights in the UN Commission on Human Rights?
P-0444/01 and P-0481/01
Joint Reply
(10 July 2001)
The restrictions on freedom of religion and belief in China are a recurrent item on the agenda of the EU-China human rights dialogs. The issue was identified by the Council, in its conclusions of 22 and 23 January 2001, as one of the specific areas in which the EU considers that the dialog process should secure success.
The EU has on several occasions expressed its deep concern to the Chinese authorities regarding the measures taken against followers of religious and spiritual movements, including Falun Gong practitioners. This matter was also discussed at the last round of the human rights dialogue, which took place on 22 and 23 February in Stockholm. In fact, on 2 February, the regime in Beijing carried out a change in procedure in preparation for the upcoming round of the EU-China human rights dialogue. The EU side gave the Chinese authorities a list of individual cases requesting that clemency measures be taken, and in that context orally mentioned the names of Falun Gong followers Li Xiaobing, Li Xiaomei and Yu Changxin.
There is little information on the fate of Falun Gong practitioners. The Hong Kong-based information center for Human Rights and Democracy counted 98 such deaths nation-wide between July 1999 and mid-January 2001. It should be noted that 46 have occurred since October 2000, suggesting an increase in the incidence of mistreatment of followers in recent months. According to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, around 450 have been sentenced by courts, several hundred have been committed to psychiatric institutions, and as many as 10,000 are currently serving "re-education" labor sentences.
The EU's position is that it does not want to engage in a discussion on the nature of the movement, but that about the lack of respect for fundamental freedoms in China, including the freedom of expression, religion and association, and about the ongoing violations of human rights, in particular of Falun Gong followers. In the same conclusions, the Council agreed on the approach to be adopted with regard to the United States' decision to table a draft resolution on human rights in China at the 57th session of the United Nations Commission on Human rights.
(Note: John Cushnahan is an MEP from Ireland; Cecilia Malmstrong is an MEP from Sweden)
3. Reply from EU Council's General Secretariat Regarding China's Human Rights Situation and the Persecution of Falun Gong, Brussels, 26 March 2001
WRITTEN QUESTION P-0444/01 by Cecilia Malmström (ELDR) to the Council.
WRITTEN QUESTION P-0444/01
by Cecilia Malmström (ELDR) to the Council
Subject: Human rights in China
[...]
As the repression in Tibet takes place, the Chinese regime has also escalated its persecution of the practitioners of Falun Gong. The government looks uneasily on a movement, which in the space of a few years has grown bigger than the communist party, though it has no political ambitions. Innocent people are thrown into jail, others are persecuted and many have been killed in the Chinese Government's raids on the Falun Gong.
The EU's relations with China have for a number of years been based on 'critical dialogue'. Nevertheless, China continues to commit violations of the most basic human rights. No opposition is allowed and anyone trying to point out alternatives to the communist dictatorship is severely punished. There are no signs of any improvement in democracy or freedom of expression. The EU and its Member States maintain contact with China at several levels. Unfortunately, however, human rights issues have not been given a position of prominence in the talks which take place. In previous years, in the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, the EU Member States have elected not to support a resolution against repression in China. In the light of developments in China, does the Council consider that the EU should review its policy of 'critical dialogue' with that country and thereby take the initiative this year for a resolution condemning China's violations of human rights in the UN Commission on Human Rights?
WRITTEN QUESTION P-0481/01
by John Cushnahan (PPE-DE) to the Council
Subject: Falun Gong
Has the Council registered its strong disapproval to the Chinese authorities regarding their treatment of Falun Gong practitioners? If so, what response has it received?
JOINT REPLY
to Written Questions P-0444/01 by Cecilia MALMSTRÖM and P-0481/01 by John CUSHNAHAN
The restrictions on freedom of religion and belief in China are a recurrent item on the agenda of the EU - China human rights dialogue. The issue has been identified by the Council in its conclusions of 22/23 January 2001 as one of the specific areas in which the EU considers that the dialogue process should secure progress. The EU has most recently expressed its deep concern to the Chinese authorities regarding the measures taken against followers of religious and spiritual movements, including Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese side took note of the EU's concerns and agreed to further discuss this matter at the upcoming round of the human rights dialogue which will take place on 22 and 23 February in Stockholm. In Fact, on 2 February the Troika in Beijing carried out a demarche in preparation of the upcoming round of the EU - China Human Rights dialogue. The EU side handed out a list of individual cases requesting that clemency measures be taken, and mentioned in that context orally the names of Falun Gong followers Li Xiaobing, Li Xiaomei and Yu Changxin.
Information on the fate of Falun Gong detainees is deficient. The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy had counted 98 such deaths nation-wide between July 1999 and mid-January 2001. It should be noted that 46 have occurred since October 2000, suggesting an increase in the incidence of mistreatment of followers in the past several months. According to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, around 450 have been sentenced by courts, several hundred have been committed to psychiatric institutions, and as many as 10 000 are currently serving re-education through labor sentences.
The EU's position is that it does not want to engage in a discussion on the nature of the movement, but that restrictions of freedom of religion and belief and freedom of assembly should be lifted and that the human rights of all, including followers of Falun Gong, should be respected.
4. Central News Agency, Hong Kong: High Ranking Military Officer Receives Seventeen Year Sentence; Wife Driven from Her Home (March 14th, 2001)
According to the Hong Kong based Chinese Human Rights and Democracy News Center, Yu Changxin, a former high-ranking military officer of the PLA (People's Liberation Army), was sentenced to seventeen years in prison by a military court for practicing Falun Gong. Shortly afterward, his wife Jiang Ming was driven out of their house at the Commanders' College of the Air Force. According to the News Center, many Air Force officers were not happy about this.
News Center indicated that Yu Changxin, who is 75 years old and holds the rank of Commander, was a professor at the highest military school, the Commanders' College of the Air Force. A Division Commander of the Air Force in the 1970s, he was later transferred to the Commanders' College in order to train high-ranking officers.
Yu Changxin started practicing Falun Gong in 1992. On January 6th, 2000 he was sentenced to 17 years in prison by the Military Court of the Air Force for the crime of "Damaging the Enforcement of Law using an 'XX.'" [Slanderous words respectfully omitted.]
Yu's 70-year-old wife, Jiang Ming, had been living in a house allotted by the Commanders' College of the Air Force, but soon after her husband was sentenced to prison, she was no longer allowed to live there. At present she is staying with relatives in Beijing.
|
