Sister of New Yorker Abducted, Facing Torture in China

NEW YORK – A young mother has gone missing in China, and her two sisters who live in New York and Washington DC respectively are doing everything they can to rescue her. The woman was abducted by Chinese authorities because she practices Falun Gong, and her sisters fear she’s being subjected to torture.

Six police officers abducted Ms. Ma Chunling (???) from her Dalian home on August 29 after she was reported for talking about Falun Gong in public. Officers confiscated Falun Gong books and fliers, two computers, a printer and three cell phones from her home. It is believed that Ms. Ma is currently being held at the Yaojia Detention Center.

“We have many friends who died from beatings in detention centers. We don’t want this to happen to our sister,” said Ma Chunmei, who was beaten regularly at a labor camp from 2000 to 2004, and now lives in Washington, DC.

Ma Chunling was arrested at least twice previously, both times for appealing to the Chinese regime to overturn the ban on Falun Gong. In July 1999, the award-winning insurance worker appealed to the government with her husband, who does not practice Falun Gong. Dalian police arrested Ma and after two months transferred her to the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp for one year. Authorities also detained her husband for two months, extorted 7,000 yuan and had him fired from his job.

“As Mayor of Dalian for several years, the disgraced former Politburo member Bo Xilai vigorously carried out the persecution campaign against Falun Gong, largely in an attempt to advance his position within the communist party,” said Levi Browde, director of the Falun Dafa Information Center. “The rampant lawlessness and caprice with which police forces acted under his watch – as in the case of Ma Chunling and her husband – is a legacy that sadly remains to this day.”

“On September 5, my older sister was severely beaten and injured by police. They beat her because her family members exposed her abduction on the Internet,” said Ma Chunxia, a resident of New York.

Both of Ma Chunling’s sisters fled China through Thailand and entered the United States in 2010 after being granted asylum.

“Our parents traveled a long way to see Chunling, but the police refused their request. Even Chunling’s husband could not see her, though they interrogated him for four hours,” continued Ma Chunxia.  “We hope people with a sense of justice will unite to stop this evil, and restore justice and conscience to our world.”

The Falun Dafa Information Center calls on authorities in Dalian City to release Ma Chunling. The Center also urges Western government officials and human rights groups to voice their concern for her well-being and call for her immediate and unconditional release.