Important Please Read....Help Rescue Zhiwen

The Red Sweater A Young Woman in the U.S. Tells the Story of a Father She May Never See Again (Genevieve Galluccio 8/1/2002 21:32)
When Xiaodan Wang last saw her red sweater she was watching TV, watching as her father was sentenced to 16 years in prison. It was Xiaodan’s first glimpse of Zhiwun Wang in over six months, but there was no mistaking her sweater even for a moment. The bright color peeked out from underneath a police jacket. Her father appeared on screen a tattered man. His once-black hair was gray and matted, and his face looked tired and bruised. The thin summer pants he wore were barely enough protection against the cold December weather—but his spirit was clearly intact. Xiaodan saw it. The red sweater stood out like a secret message between parent and child saying to her, "Don’t worry, daughter. They haven’t broken me.”
Xiaodan’s quiet, gentle demeanor and soft-spoken tone are the first things that stand out against the tragedy she has experienced. A civil engineering student at the University of Austin in Texas, Xiaodan could easily pass for a typical foreign student. "Four years and four months,” she answers quickly when asked how long she’s been living in the United States. "And you can just call me Danielle.”
Xiaodan Wang participates in a rally in Washington DC, marking three years since the persecution campaign against Falun Gong in China began. It was also the three-year mark since Chinese police took her father away.
There is a lot of history in Danielle’s eyes, far too much for someone so young. Though only 22, she is solid and focused as she tells the story she shares with her father. Their remarkable journey began during her childhood in Beijing, China. It was there that her father raised her after her parents divorced and her mother moved to the US. It was in Beijing that she first learned of the meditation practice called Falun Gong.
Zhiwun, a rural engineer, lived a quiet life, and with the help of relatives raised his young daughter. After he and his daughter began the practice of Falun Gong their entire family’s life took a turn for the better. Soon, even Zhiwun’s father saw the positive changes in the lives of his family members and took up the practice. Miraculously, the elder man’s gray hair turned black again, and his chronic health problems cleared up. Every morning he devotedly practiced the five gentle exercises of Falun Gong with his only son and young granddaughter.
The Wang family was not alone in their discovery of something extraordinary. So many people were learning Falun Gong by 1995 that the environment in China was noticeably more harmonious. Practitioners of Falun Gong’s principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance were everywhere helping others and spreading compassion. By 1997, a government survey found that there were 70-100 million people practicing. During that time, Zhiwun became a volunteer contact person for the Beijing Falun Dafa Association. He dedicated his life to helping other Falun Gong practitioners, sometimes working 24 hours and skipping lunch and dinner. Whenever someone was having difficulty and needed a helping hand, Zhiwun was there. He lived to help others, and young Danielle grew up with her father’s selflessness as the standard
Danielle left Beijing in 1998 to live in America. Sadly, it was the last time she saw her father. Practicing Falun Gong became a crime in China literally overnight, and he was one of many active practitioners throughout the country targeted for immediate arrest. In the early morning hours of July 20th, 1999 Zhiwun was kidnapped from his bed by police and taken away.
From America, Danielle says she found it very difficult to imagine why her government would fear too many kind-hearted people. Remembering that time, she appears sad and thoughtful. "The country I grew up in was so bright, but Jiang Zemin showed his dark side." She still struggles to understand why her gentle and selfless father was taken away like a criminal.
Day after day the entire family tried everything they could think of to track down Zhiwun, but to no avail. There had been no word on his location or condition. Finally, one day about three months after his disappearance, Danielle and her mother received a certificate of arrest from the Chinese police. At least they knew he was alive. They continued to wait and wonder over the next three months. The only comfort to Danielle’s sadness was the knowledge that her father would be able to endure the situation. She knew that he would never renounce his beliefs, nor retaliate against any police brutality.
Then on December 27, 1999, an international CNN newscast aired the show trial of the four Beijing Falun Dafa Association volunteers. The men were obviously beaten and bruised as they stood in judgment for practicing truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. An aunt of Danielle’s who was at the trial tried to approach Zhiwun to comb his matted hair, but was pushed away by the police. Danielle spotted the familiar red sweater that his family had grabbed from the house for him at the time of his unlawful arrest months earlier. It seemed to peek out bravely at her.
Zhiwun was served with a sentence of 16 years and sent to Tianjin, a notorious labor camp in Northeast China. Later he was moved to Tianhue Camp where he remains today. The little news that filters out of China to Danielle and her family has been vague and disconnected. Letters are not allowed through on either side. They hear that he has been forced to sit on a small bench for seven straight days without food, water, or sleep. They hear that he has been continually tortured to renounce his belief in Falun Gong, but steadfastly refuses to succumb. One day a phone call from China reached Danielle’s mother and it was Zhiwun. The entire conversation was about their daughter. That was the last word received, almost two years ago.
Since her father’s sentencing in 1999, Danielle has worked tirelessly to appeal for help from the US government and kind-hearted people of the world. She has written letter after letter to the President and met with her congressional representatives. She has organized a human rights walk from Houston to Washington DC. She held two press conferences and held two hunger strikes on campus to bring attention to the persecution of her father and countless other Falun Gong practitioners just like him. Danielle has organized a Falun Gong Association at her school, offering fellow students the chance to learn about the practice and help bring an end to the persecution.
Every day she practices the exercises of Falun Gong outdoors, alone or with other students, rain or shine. The tragedies of the past never stop her from being the positive, selfless person her father raised. She cannot return to China but continues to fight for those who have no voice there. She continues to live her life as a Falun Gong practitioner, following truth, compassion and tolerance in everything. And she lives in hope that the next news of her father will be of his release.(Genevieve Galluccio 8/1/2002 21:32)