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.
