US Citizen Appeals for Help After Chinese Police Detain Her Mother for Her Faith

A Maryland accountant is appealing to Americans to help free her mother and two other Falun Gong practitioners detained in China, as she fears she may never see her loved one amid the communist regime’s brutal repression of the faith group.Alisa Zhou, a U.S. citizen, addressed her plea to her federal lawmakers—Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)—respectively.Her mother, Wang Youmei, was taken into custody by police in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on April 15, along with 16 others. All of them are practitioners of a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline called Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa.The mass arrest came amid the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing campaign to eradicate the spiritual practice through arbitrary detention, severe torture, slave labor, sexual abuse, and even live organ harvesting. U.S. authorities have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for assisting the regime in carrying out the human rights abuses against the faith community.Zhou said that her mother was initially given a 15-day administrative detention. But on May 1—originally the day of her release—the family was unable to bring her home and instead received the news that her case had been upgraded to a criminal one, with no further explanation provided.Since then, the family has been denied visits to her.Two other practitioners, Tong Shuying and Wu Guihong, who were arrested on the same day as Zhou’s mother, were also put under criminal detention, and the three were transferred to Wuhan No. 1 Detention Center on April 30, according to Minghui, a website set up outside of China to document the spiritual practice of Falun Gong and its persecution by the CCP.“I am very worried about their safety,” Zhou wrote in the letter, adding that she knows Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death in China for their faith.Last year, Minghui verified 124 deaths of practitioners as a result of the persecution. The real number is likely to be much higher, given the difficulty of getting such information out of China.At least 70 million Chinese had taken up Falun Gong by 1999, according to a state survey at the time, with many citing the practice’s health benefits and moral philosophy centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Finding Falun Gong’s popularity unacceptable, the leader of the regime at the time, Jiang Zemin, demanded that the practice be wiped out.Wang Youmei in an undated photo. Courtesy of Alisa ZhouFrom an early age, Zhou has witnessed her family being torn apart multiple times by the CCP for practicing Falun Gong. Before the April 15 arrest, her mother had been arrested and detained by the Chinese authorities at least four times for refusing to renounce her faith. The first arrest occurred when Zhou was in primary school.“As a kid, I was terrified and always looking out for police car around our neighborhood,” Zhou recounted in the letter. “We lived in a state of anxiety.”Tong ShuyingTong Shuzhen, whose younger sister, Tong Shuying, was arrested on the same day as Zhuo’s mother, and who came to the United States in 2016 after suffering persecution by the CCP, is also appealing for help from her Congressional representatives.“I respectfully ask for your urgent assistance in helping rescue her and bringing international attention to her case,” Tong, now living in New York, wrote in a letter addressed to Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), and Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).She is appealing to lawmakers to call on the Chinese authorities to disclose the current condition of persecuted practitioners in China, including her sister, Tong Shuying, and ensure their safety.“Our family is extremely worried that she may face further persecution, abuse in custody, or an unjust criminal sentence simply because of her belief,” Tong wrote in the letter.The April 15 arrest marked the fifth time her sister was arrested by the CCP. In the past, even after being released, she said her sister had continued to face frequent harassment and constant surveillance. The younger Tong initially ran an apparel store, but repeated detentions since 1999 made it impossible to keep it open, ultimately forcing her to close her business.“My sister has not harmed anyone,” Tong Shuzhen wrote. “She is being targeted only because she peacefully practices Falun Gong and upholds her faith.”Their appeals came a week before U.S. President Donald Trump and CCP leader Xi Jinping are set to convene a summit in Beijing.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is likely to accompany the president on the China visit, told reporters earlier this week that the regime’s human rights violations remain a major concern for Washington and that the issue will be on the trip’s agenda.“I think we’ve proven in some cases it’s most effective to raise them in the appropriate setting. But we always raise those issues,” he said.Sarah Lu and Eva Fu contributed to this report.