While the title may sound a little melodramatic, it's actually not.

We received confirmation today that Ms. Xiaoping Hu was officially deported to China from Canada.

While she may not have presented a textbook case of likely persecution in China to the committee that was assessing her, it is still very clear that she will face maltreatment in China. Appealing publicly to stop the persecution of Falun Gong, as well as openly quitting the Chinese Communist Party, both of which she did, virtually guarantee that.

Prior to coming to Canada, Ms. Hu was already once pressured into making a "renunciation" statement (renouncing Falun Gong in exchange for "freedom", a statement she later declared null and void), and our sincere hope is that the 6-10 office will not try to make a "reformed practitioner" poster-girl out of her.

We're not sure how many of you are familiar with this case, but in 2000, Canadian art professor of Chinese descent Kunlun Zhang went to China and was sentenced to 3 years in a forced labour camp for practicing Falun Gong. He was released in 2001 due to pressure from the Canadian government and Amnesty international, but only because he had been allegedly "transformed."

Here is an article documenting his and another "transformation."

Mr. Kunlun said that the intense brainwashing and mental torture he suffered in the camp was far more horrifying than the physical torture of electric batons he also had endured. He said that being forced to denouce his beliefs, and being pressured into thanking his torturers before a rolling video camera, gave him a feeling “worse than death.” His “transformation” continues to be used to deceive and “transform” others, and to justify the persecution and cover up gross human rights atrocities.

We do not know what will happen to Ms. Hu. We sincerely hope that the Canadian government follows her case closely, so that it can know the full effects of its decision, or better yet comes to its senses and acts to secure her freedom!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 09, 2005 at 10:49 p.m.. You can skip to the end and leave a response.