Media Credit: Bazil Manietta

International student Jin Pang did not spend her spring break tanning on a beach or visiting family like many Missouri State University students.

Pang, a business administration graduate student, instead spent it crusading across the state requesting the help of senators and representatives to free her mother who was detained by the Chinese government in July 2008 for practicing Falun Gong, a meditation-based religion frowned upon by those in power.

Her trip took her to St. Louis, Topeka, Kan., and Jefferson City, and she was able to acquire about 18 letters written by government officials petitioning to President Barack Obama and to the Honorable Governor Yikang Jiang of the Shangdong province, where her mom has been detained, to aide in the release of her mother.

“When I told them I haven’t seen my mom in eight months, they were very touched,” she said of the senators and representatives with whom she was able to meet. “Some of them were women, moms too.

“They said they don’t know how to help. I tell them to write letters.”

Pang’s mother was arrested July 29, along with her father and aunt. Pang’s dad was released 11 days later, and her aunt was sentenced to one year in a forced-labor camp shortly after. However, Pang has been out of contact with her mother since her mother’s arrest and suspects she is being detained without charge.

Her mother’s ordeal

Pang said the Chinese government tried to put her mom on trial for the second time in February, and in response, she and others made phone calls to Jiang.

Pang said her mom was eventually taken back to where she had previously been detained because there was not enough evidence for a trial.

She has found herself in tears at times, she said.

“I think about my uncles, aunts, grandmas and grandpas who were sent to forced labor camps, sentenced to jail and even tortured to death simply because of their peaceful belief in Falun Gong,” she said. “My heart is broken and bleeding.”

Alternative spring break

Pang’s spring break visits made the most headway in Jefferson City March 24 through 26 where she was able to talk with 15 to 20 senators and representatives out of the total 80 offices she visited during that time.

“We visited the offices one by one,” Pang said. “The ones we didn’t talk to were unavailable because of meetings and things, but the secretaries were very helpful and promised to forward the information on.”

She said the ones she met with sent out two letters, one to Obama to implore him to help free her mother and one to Gov. Jiang of the Shangdong province to ask for humane treatment of her mother as well as her release.

Her trips to St. Louis on March 20 and Topeka on March 27 did not yield the same immediate responses.

She said she has had no response from the St. Louis offices she visited and is in communication with those she spoke with in Topeka, but no letters have been sent.

U.S. representative response

Pang faxed about 770 signatures to Sen. Claire McCaskill’s office before Thanksgiving of last year.

She said she has received no response and that is one of the reasons she went to Jefferson City.

Pang also made a visit to Washington D.C. in late July of 2008 after her parents were first detained and spoke with the secretary of Rep. Roy Blunt.

She said Blunt sent a letter to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., in late August, but there has been no response.

Petitions

Pang also spent her spring break traveling to different cities to collect more petition signatures.

She said she stood at the front gate of the St. Louis Zoo March 21 and 22 and collected more than 1,000 signatures.

She said she also went to Southern Illinois University March 23 and collected between 300 and 400 signatures in three to four hours.

She said she is very touched by all those who have helped her.

“From the very beginning, when I did the petition, I was touched,” she said. “A lot of MSU students stopped and listened to my story and helped with my petition.

“After that, I made a lot of American friends.”

Pang first began collecting signatures on campus in early September 2008 and collected about 1,500 during the fall semester.

Legal help and tuition

Pang said the human rights lawyer she hired in September of 2008 is still working on finding her mom, despite being threatened.

“He was threatened that if he continued to look for my mom, he would get his law license taken away,” she said.

She said she is still using the same $4,000 in tuition money she was using last fall to pay him and has continued to borrow money from several friends to pay for her tuition.

She borrowed about $4,000 for the fall semester and more than $2,000 for this semester, she said.

“I am graduating in May,” she said. “I promised to repay them once I get a job.”

Current mission

Pang said she has two goals she wants to meet before Mother’s Day, May 10.

She said she wants to visit different cities and continue her petitions in addition to visiting more government officials.

She said she also wants to collect and record different Mother’s Day wishes in different languages for her mom as a gift for Mother’s Day.

“My mom can’t receive the present, but it’s from my heart so I know she’ll feel it,” she said.

As she looks back on the past year and all that has occurred, Pang said she is more positive than ever.

“I see so many people help me do this,” she said. “I am one person. My English is not very good so my capabilities are very limited. After I tell people my story, so many want to help me any way they can. I am very touched.”

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