Practitioner from US President's Hometown Calls upon Mr. Bush to Help Rescue Her Father, who was Sentenced to 16 Years in a Chinese Prison

My name is Danielle Wang and I am a student at the University of Texas at Austin, the same university where your daughter is studying. Today, I am writing to you as a daughter who longs to be reunited with her father. His name is Zhiwen Wang and he is currently being held in a jail somewhere in China.

My father has done nothing wrong. The only reason that he was sentenced to 16 years in prison is because he practices Falun Gong and applies "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" to every act and every word in his life.

My father was one of the four major Falun Gong contact persons who were sentenced during the 1999 Christmas Holidays. He was also one of several persons who met and talked with the Chinese Premier during the peaceful appeal on April 25th, 1999. My father was a diligent engineer at work, a good father at home, and a good person in his community, praised by relatives and neighbours alike.

When informed of his 16-year jail term, my father said, "I am not afraid because what I am doing is right." I am proud of my father. His body is incarcerated and tortured, but his spirit and heart-felt belief can never be locked up.

I have been told, by my family members in China, that because of the inhumane treatment to which my father has been subjected and the generally horrible conditions in jail, my father has developed a severe cough and has lost a lot of weight. In China he will not be given any medical treatment and I am worried that he may die before I ever see him again.

As a daughter, I have tried everything that I could think of to focus some attention on his plight and that of those like him and, perhaps, to improve it. I joined an "SOS! Urgent: Rescue the Falun Gong Practitioners Persecuted in China" drive from Houston to Washington, D.C, last July to raise the awareness of the brutal persecution and the life threatening situation my father and many other Falun Gong practitioners are facing in China. I went on a hunger strike from March 12 to March 15, 2002 in front of the Chinese consulate in Houston to peacefully protest the injustice these innocent people have to endure. I have received outstanding support from the people in your hometown and across the country, but the government of China has turned a deaf ear to my plea.

Now I want to appeal to you, Mr. President, to please support justice and condemn Jiang Zemin's persecution of all Falun Gong practitioners when you meet with him at your Crawford ranch in October.

I also respectfully request, Mr. President that you please help secure an immediate release of my father and bring him to the United States, where we can be reunited and he can seek proper medical attention. Being a loving, caring father yourself, you certainly can understand a daughter's cry for help.

Thank you very much for considering my requests.