http://www.sgvtribune.com/search/ci_4160013
Chinese pilot seeks political asylum in U.S.
By Fred Ortega Staff Writer - San Gabriel Valley Tribune
EL MONTE - A Chinese airline pilot is seeking political asylum in the
United States, fearing he will be imprisoned - and perhaps even killed -
for his religious beliefs if he returns to his homeland.
Sheng Yuan, 39, of Shanghai, announced during a hastily organized news
conference Wednesday that he would not be returning to China on his
regularly scheduled flight today. The conference was held at the Asian
American Association building in El Monte by local human rights activists
assisting Yuan in his plight.
Yuan, a follower of the Falun Gong religion outlawed by the Communist
Chinese government, claims he was confronted by members of Shanghai's
Pudong Airport police as he and fellow crew members prepared to take off
on China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 583 on Tuesday. The flight, bound
for Los Angeles, was already fully loaded with 300 passengers and
awaiting tower orders to begin its 11-hour, trans- Pacific trip.
"I had talked to an airport worker about the persecution of Falun Gong
practitioners in China, and the fact that over 12 million people had renounced their membership in the Communist party, and the worker had reported this conversation to the airport police," Yuan, speaking through a translator, said. He added he is an 18-year pilot who has logged 12,400 hours flying for
China Eastern, mostly on Airbus A-340s like the one he was boarding Tuesday.
After a long and heated discussion, Yuan said his three fellow flight
crew members convinced the police that they could not safely make the
long flight without him and the plane was allowed to take off. But not
before the police supervisor had written down Yuan's return date, address
and other information.
"He said he would let me go this time, but that they would talk about
my statements when I came back," Yuan said.
The police supervisor's move to allow Yuan to leave and "talk" about
what he told his co-worker when he returned was ominous, said human
rights activist Pinchao Jiang, who was jailed for three years after being
involved as a student protester in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
"After Tiananmen, the authorities started a series of countrywide
arrests despite their assurances that those involved in the protests would
not be persecuted," said Jiang, adding he was one of more than 20
students in his town of Wolong who were taken into custody. "This is the same case as in Tiananmen. Although the police said they would not detain him upon his return, just to talk, they will be much harsher and send him
to prison, as they did with us."
Calls seeking comment from the Chinese Consulate and the U.S. State
Department were not returned.
Jail may be the least of Yuan's worries, said You Fu Li, chairman of
the Falun Gong Association of West Los Angeles.
"We know of at least 3,000 Falun Gong practitioners in China that have
been persecuted to death," Li said, adding that the true number could
be much higher.
Another local Falun Gong practitioner, Daniel Wong, went a step further
by accusing Chinese authorities of deliberately killing prisoners
detained for their Falun Gong beliefs and harvesting their organs, which are
then sold to other Chinese and foreign recipients.
"Lots of hospitals in China advertise that they can find organs for
patients - hearts, livers, kidneys or corneas - within a week, and it is
very hard normally to get a match so quickly" through voluntary organ
donations, said Wong, 34, a Caltech computer technician from Pasadena.
Allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners detailed
in a July report by a Canadian lawyer and former parliament member were
vehemently denied by the Chinese Embassy in Washington in an official
statement. The U.S. State Department has since demanded the Chinese
government investigate the claims in the report.
Yuan, who also said he had heard of the alleged organ harvesting, said
he now fears for his wife and teenage daughter, who are in Shanghai.
"I have talked to my wife and she has expressed concern about her
safety and what the authorities will do to her and my daughter," Yuan said,
adding that in the past families of Falun Gong practitioners have lost
their jobs or ability to go to school.
"In the worst case, they could be detained themselves," he said.