Falun Gong practitioners from Shijiazhuang City in Hebei Province, Mr and Mrs Huang Wei, were recently released thanks to justice activists’ appeals and rescue efforts around the world. To appeal for Huang Wei, Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng wrote an open letter to the National People’s Congress, which was published at the end of last year. It stood up boldly for Falun Gong and shook the high levels of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Mainland China Rights Defenders Net published an appeal for the world to support lawyer Gao.
On August 24th, Minghui.Org published news of Mr and Mrs Huang Wei’s release and represented the local Falun Gong practitioners in extending deepest gratitude and expressing sincere thanks to justice activists everywhere who aided them. Because of practising Falun Gong, Mr and Mrs Huang Wei encountered continuous persecution from the authorities since 1999. In June 2004, Huang Wei was sentenced to three years of labour reeducation, but was recently released due to international pressure and rescue efforts.
On December 31st, 2004, lawyer Gao Zhisheng submitted a written statement for the Huang case to the National People’s Congress and published the Open Letter to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Chairman Wu Bangguo. Afterwards, many human rights associations and the China Rights Defenders declared their support for lawyer Gao. At the same time, this further exposed the CCP’s 6-10 Office’s practice of using the judicial system to cover their persecution of Falun Gong students and evoked worldwide discussion.
Over six years ago, the CCP began its persecution of Falun Gong. Through Falun Gong practitioners’ continuous efforts to clarify the truth to the people and international society, Falun Gong not only has won widespread support in morality and justice, but also in recent years was able to sue the CCP’s 6-10 Office personnel on an international level and make substantive progress. People in Mainland China, including Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng and Shanghai lawyer Guo Guoting and others withstood tremendous pressure to publicly stand up and defend many Falun Gong students.
The truth of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong is being increasingly understood and condemned by the international society. Following China Rights Defenders Net, Epoch Times also established a forum to “sign to declare support for lawyer Gao Zhisheng for publicly submitting a statement supporting Falun Gong human rights”. There are currently 790 articles declaring support for lawyer Gao.
