Free Shuying Li

The petition

Shuying Li is a 64-year old retired high school teacher in Beijing. She had been teaching physics at school for over 30 years. On December 15, 2006, at 8pm, three local policemen broke into her apartment in Beijing to search for Falun Gong literature and arrested her immediately. They did not tell her family where they detained her until a month later, her husband received a one-page "decision" from the Labor Education Management Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Government, sentencing her to 2.5 years labor camp. Now she is jailed in Beijing Women's Labor Camp in Daxing District.

Each morning, Shuying Li is awakened at 5 am, only given 3 minutes to wash, and forced to work for 16 hours. She has been forced to take high blood pressure medication although she never has any problem with her blood pressure. She was forced to sign a statement to declare that she is remorseful for practicing Falun Gong and guarantees not to practice Falun Gong again. If she refused to sign, she would be deprived of food and sleep.

We believe that Shuying Li's arrest is part of Beijing governments cleansing the city for the 2008 Olympic Games. Chinese security has issued a blacklist of 43 types of people in 11 categories to be barred from attending Olympic Games (http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/684864718.html).

The persecution of Falun Gong and other religious groups is not only a violation to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also to Chinas own constitution, as the Constitution of Peoples Republic of China states: The freedom of religious belief: Citizens enjoy the freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion. (http://www.china.org.cn/english/Political/26143.htm).

Therefore, I urge international community, especially the United States elected officials to take action: contact Chinese authorities and request an immediate release of Falun Gong practitioner Shuying Li.