Lu Hongyan leading a rally in support of her mother in front of the Chinese embassy in Ottawa. Courtesy of The Epoch Times, photographer: Donna He.
Demonstrations in Canada support Chen Huixia, who has been sentenced under Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code for “using a xie jiao.”
Massimo Introvigne
In Canada, Falun Gong practitioners are demonstrating in front of Chinese embassies and consulates asking for the release of Chen Huixia, whose daughter, Lu Hongyan, is a Canadian citizen. They are supported by Amnesty International that has included the case of Chen Huixia among those for which urgent action is needed.
Chen joined Falun Gong in 1998. She was arrested in 2003 and kept under surveillance after she was released, together with her whole family. She was arrested again on June 3, 2016. As Amnesty International reports, she was kept strapped to an iron chair and deprived of sleep for thirty days. A prosecutor investigated her claims that she had been tortured but concluded that such measures did not amount to torture.
Her case was heard on May 12, 2017, but postponed until early September 2018. Then, Chen was sentenced to three years in jail, which may be increased to five if she will not show signs of successful “re-education,” based on Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code. The article punishes “using” a xie jiao, i.e. being active in a movement banned as part of a list of “heterodox teachings.” Falun Gong is one of the groups included in the official list of the xie jiao.
Lawyers in China may be personally persecuted for defending members of xie jiao, and Chen’s Canadian daughter was informed of the verdict only in late September. She is now trying to appeal the verdict and to mobilize Canadian public opinion in support of her mother.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
