APEC nations to help release her father, illegally detained in a labour camp
for 8 years.
MEDIA EVENT
Press conference: Free Wang Zhiwen
Sunday, 2 September, 1:00 pm
Mechanic’s School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
SYDNEY (FDI) 26-year-old Danielle (Xiaodan) Wang wants nothing more than to
see her father, Zhiwen Wang, again. Eight years ago he was sentenced to a 16-year
prison sentence in China because he practiced the spiritual discipline, Falun
Gong.
The last time Danielle saw her father? face, it was being broadcast on CNN International
News as he and three others were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
The little news that has filtered out of China to Danielle and her family in
the past eight years has been vague and disconnected. Sometimes news comes through
that her father was forced to sit on a small bench for seven days straight without
food, water, or sleep. They heard that he had been continually tortured to renounce
his spiritual belief in Falun Gong.
Danielle has flown to Australia from her home in Texas, U.S.A. to ask APEC nations
to speak out for the release of her father and the tens of thousands of other
Falun Gong practitioners like him who are illegally imprisoned in China today.
Her Sydney press conference falls on Father? Day, September 2 August.
Since her father? sentencing in 1999, she has been working tirelessly to appeal
for help from the U.S. government and sympathetic supporters.
"The turning point was the realisation that if I kept my silence and don’t
call for help for my Dad, then there’s never going to be a chance that his story
will be known, says Danielle about her rescue efforts.
Also available for interview: Two Australians whose family members are still
detained in China for their spiritual belief in Falun Gong.
