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San Francisco, California: Practitioners Call on U.S. to Bar Entry to Huang Huahua (Photos)

October 15, 2005 |  

(Clearwisdom.net) Huang Huahua, the governor of Guangdong Province, is due to arrive in San Francisco on October 14 for a business visit. Considering Huang's significant involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong, U.S. practitioners have called upon the State Department and Homeland Security not to allow Huang to enter the U.S.

Duan Li, a representative of the Western U.S. Falun Dafa Association, said that during Huang's tenure at Guangdong, he has actively participated in the persecution and made it one of the worst provinces in terms of persecuting Falun Gong. For example, San Francisco practitioner Zhang Xiaoyan's sister has been brutally persecuted for her belief in Falun Gong. In addition, Zhou Xuefei, who was fortunately rescued to the U.S. last year, was unlawfully sentenced to forced labor camp and subjected to torture.


Zhou Xuefei reunited with her husband at Atlanta Airport after years of suffering in a forced labor camp in China

Ms. Duan said that 4-year-old Kaixin lost her mother when she was only one. Her mother Luo Zhixiang was a practitioner in Guangzhou City and was persecuted to death for her belief in Falun Dafa. She was pregnant when she died. In order to dodge responsibility, the Chinese Communist regime falsely claimed that Luo had committed suicide.


Kaixin and her paternal grandmother paid last respects to her mother

Kissing her mother's photo, little Kaixin said that she missed her

Fortunately, little Kaixin was rescued to Thailand

Ms. Duan pointed out that such cases are all too common. According to the International Religious Freedom Act, "any aliens who, while serving as a foreign government official, were responsible for or directly carried out, at any time during the preceding 24-month period, particular severe violations of religious freedom... are inadmissible" for entry into the United States. We thus call upon the U.S. government deny entry to Huang Huahua. The appeal letter was delivered to the State Department and Homeland Security on October 12. Practitioners will hold a press conference on October 14 to expose Huang's severe crimes against practitioners in China.

Following is content of the original petition letter:

Dear Secretary Rice and Secretary Chertoff:

We are writing to request that the United States Government exclude Chinese government official Huang Huahua from the United States pursuant to Immigration and Nationality Act as amended ¡ì 212(a)(2)(G), 8 U.S.C.A. ¡ì 1182(a)(2)(G) which provides that foreign government officials who have engaged in particularly severe violations of religious freedom as defined in Section 3 of the International Religious Freedom Act are inadmissible. See 8 U.S.C.A. ¡ì 1182; 22 U.S.C.A. ¡ì 6431.

We have learned from media reports that Huang Huahua, Governor of Guangdong Province will visit San Francisco on a business trip starting from October 14. Huang Huahua has engaged in particularly severe violations of religious freedom and therefore is inadmissible.

Since former President of China Jiang Zemin began the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners on July 20 1999, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally arrested, detained and/or abused by Chinese police. Between 200,000 and 1 million have been illegally sent to forced labor camps without trials. Human rights workers have documented over 38,000 specific cases of torture or severe abuse. More than 1,000 healthy individuals have been incarcerated in mental hospitals and tortured there, an act condemned by World Psychiatric Association. More than 500 have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years. At least 2629 deaths through police abuse and torture have been confirmed, with government sources inside China indicating that the actual number could be has high as 7,000 or more.

This campaign of terror has been particularly intense in Guangdong Province under Huang's leadership, which has one of the largest number of cases of persecution and death of Falun Gong practitioners.

From 1992 to 2002 Huang Huahua was a standing member and later Deputy Secretary of Guangdong Provincial Committee of Communist Party, Secretary of Guangzhou City Committee of Communist Party and Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province. He assumed governorship of Guangdong province in 2003.

While in office, Huang Huahua has played a major role in seeking to suppress Falun Gong in his jurisdiction through an ongoing and systematic campaign through incitement of violence and a policy of arbitrary arrests, detentions, assaults, torture and extrajudicial execution.

For example as recent as January 23, 2005, in his Governor's Report at the third plenary meeting of the Tenth People's Congress of Guangdong Province, Huang Huahua specifically called on the public to "firmly attack and ban Falun Gong and other evil organizations in order to maintain the stabilization of country and politics." He frequently engaged in similar incitement of criminal conducts and violence against Falun Gong such as in the second plenary meeting of the Ten People's Congress of Guangdong Province in February 2004.

In his position as Governor, Huang Huahua exercises executive authority over police and security forces operating in Guangdong Province, including authority to set policy, control management of security affairs, and to appoint, remove, and to discipline police and detention center security personnel. Under his mandate to eradicate Falun Gong, Guangdong Province police and other security forces have engaged in severe abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in the forced labor camp and other facilities used to detain, brainwash, and torture Falun Gong practitioners.

As of October 2, 2005 it has been confirmed that ninety-seven (97) Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death in Guangdong, as reported by nongovernmental sources. Forty-two (42) of those deaths occurred after Huang Huahua became Governor of Guangdong Province.

To illustrate further, under Huang Huahua's leadership as Secretary of Guangzhou City Committee of Communist Party from 1999 to 2000, forty (42) Falun Gong practitioners died from torture; three (3) Falun Gong practitioners were crippled as a result of torture; another (3) Falun Gong practitioners were driven insane from torture; and sixty-six (66) practitioners were subjected to extreme torture. Mr. Duan Maoxuan, who recently re-resettled in Canada, recounted what happened to him:

I was arrested on Dec. 13, 2000, together with three other practitioners. Right there in the police station we were heavily beaten from 11 pm until 6 am the next morning. I was hit repeatedly with an electric baton. I was also kicked repeatedly, and my head was grabbed and bashed hard against the corner of the wall. When I passed out from the beating, they poured cold water on me to wake me up. It was the month of December.

Among the methods most typically used by police and security forces in Guangdong Province to terrorize practitioners and, in many instances, to extract information, confessions, and disavowals of belief in Falun Gong practices and principles are:

State Department Reports have recognized the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners on account of their religion and beliefs since 1999. Both the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for China and the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for China have cited the persecution of Falun Gong every year since the persecution began on July 20, 1999.

International and human rights organizations have recognized the persecution of Falun Gong as being on account of religion and beliefs. China's faith-based human rights violations have been extensively documented in numerous reports by the United Nations and other international human rights organizations. Reports have been issued by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Questions of Torture, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, and many others.

To admit Huang Huahua into the United States would be a setback to the hundreds of millions of Chinese people who look to this country as a strong supporter of human rights. As long as the United States Government continues to admit the entry of torturers into the United States in violation of U.S. law, Chinese Communist regime will continue to act with impunity in violating fundamental human rights.

We request the United States Government exclude Huang Huahua from the United States under Immigration and Nationality Act as amended ¡ì 212(a)(2)(G). The United States will not serve as a safe haven for individuals involved in human rights violations including torture and suppression of religious freedom.

We respectfully request a meeting with your office to present the evidence against Huang Huahua in greater details. Please contact me at 408-921-7830. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Lisa Wendl
US West Falun Dafa Association

cc:
John P. Clark
Acting Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Department of Homeland Security