By
Ayse Guner
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Chinese students light candles to honor people that have been killed for practicing the spiritual exercise Falun Gong
Yaning Liu's mother is in prison in China, and she has not seen her for three years. And when her passport expires in one year, Liu might have to leave the United States to return to China.
But when she returns to China, Liu said, she might also be arrested for practicing what more than 70 million people worldwide practice - Falun Gong.
Falun Gong - an ancient, yoga-like Chinese exercise involving slow body movements - was banned in 1999 by the Republic of China because the government considers it an activity that is against the Communist regime.
The Chinese government rejects freedom of expression, assembly and conscience, and "groundlessly felt threatened by the growing number of Chinese who regularly do the ancient exercises," according to a Falun Gong fact sheet compiled by the Falun Dafa information center.
Liu, who finished her electrical engineering degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., came to Tucson for a memorial yesterday that was held on the UA Mall. About 10 UA students and faculty members attended the candlelight vigil to honor the 188 Chinese citizens who have been killed for practicing Falun Gong.
Since the crackdown started, the Chinese government has detained 5,000 citizens, sent 10,000 to labor camps and sentenced hundreds to prison with sentences of up to 18 years.
"People around the world are suffering, so how can we close our eyes and pretend as if everything's fine," said Angie Battershell, a plant biology junior, who attended the meeting to represent the human rights group Amnesty International.
Yan Liu, a UA plant sciences researcher, organized the event and admitted the turnout for the vigil was low. Because Chinese people fear being spied on, they are intimidated to attend these kind of activities, he added.
After the preliminary speeches, students demonstrated Falun Gong while the twilight dimmed the sky and candles illuminated their faces. Although the exercise belongs to the ancient Yoga school, it is not religious, Yaning Liu said.
"The Chinese government understands what the exercise is, but they are too afraid to lose their power," she said, adding that although Prime Minister Li Peng is against the crackdown, President Jiang Zemin strongly supports it.
The worst thing though, Yan Liu said, is that the Chinese government has spies who follow Falun Gong practitioners in the United States. He has friends who have received death threats because they practice, he added.
Yan Liu said he has family members in China who still practice the activity, including his 34-year-old brother Wei and 28-year-old sister Ying Liu. Every letter he sends home has been read, and every phone conversation has being listened to by the government, he said.
Yan Liu said he believes in expression of freedom, as well as in Falun Gong's benefits to one's spiritual and physical well being, he said. As a result, he has been very active in organizing events such as last night's vigil - even if it means being named on the government's activists list.
Yan Liu said the U.S. Chinese embassy is aware of him, and the FBI called him in December to offer help if he was in trouble with the Chinese government. Yet, he said, he has not received life-threatening attacks.
However, Yan Liu's passport will expire next year, and he may not receive a new passport because the Chinese government would not renew the passports that belong to the most active people, he explained.
But he does not fear going to prison, he said.
"There is a Chinese saying," he said. "If people know the truth, they can die.
"For me, the only thing I worry about is my family."
As UA students try to combat the Chinese government's actions, the U.S. government is sponsoring a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland to find a resolution.
Rebekah Castro, a veterinary science freshman who was passing by the Mall yesterday, stopped for a moment to see the fliers posted by the organizers. She said she has heard of the Chinese government killing people for religious matters, but did not know what the actual reasons were.
But now, she said, she better understands the situation and says if more awareness is raised, there could be more of a possibility to lift the ban.
"The best thing we can do is to put more pressure on the government," she said. "We are already in trouble with China, why not stand up for it?"
"We let Tibet go and saw what happened," Castro said. "This is probably just going to go the same way."
