On the cusp of President Obama’s visit to China, eighty-year-old Parsippany resident John Shen has a message for Mr. Obama to carry to Chiana’s president Hu Jintao– to free his his daughter-in-law Luo Fang.  For the past 8 years, Ms. Luo has been imprisoned in a dark, cold jail cell in Sichuan, China for practicing the meditation exercise Falun Gong. She was arrested on February 1, 2002 along with her husband and Mr. Shen’s son, Shen Lizhi when they were caught by the Chinese police with printed materials extolling the virtues of Falun Gong on their persons. 

A month later, on March 3, 2002, Shen Lizhi was killed in jail.  Ms. Luo, who was pregnant at the time of her arrest, survived, but was later forced to have an abortion at eight months of pregnancy.  Her tormentors also injected her with nerve-damaging drugs that paralyzed her legs. For her belief, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison without a trial.

Having lost his son, Mr. Shen does not want to lose his daughter-in-law as well.  He has been going to street fairs around New Jersey gathering hundreds of signatures from New Jersey residents on a petition to free Ms. Luo.  US Representative Frelinghuysen answered his call.  On October 1, 2009, Congressman Frelinghuysen wrote to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Sichuan governor Jiang Jufeng to call for the release of Ms. Luo. 

In a few days, President Obama is going to meet with China’s President Hu. Mr. Shen hopes President Obama can help him win the freedom for his daughter-in-law, just as former president Clinton had done for the two journalists captured by North Korea.  John Shen’s fellow Falun Gong practitioners, amonth them Montain Lakes resident Henry Wang, have rallied around him to help generate awareness to the plight of his daughter-in-law.

Dozens other U.S. citizens and residents share in John Shen’s grief as their husbands, brothers, sons and daughters endure incomprehensible forms of torture and abuse such as electrocution, gang rape, force feeding, sleep deprivation, forced labor, and 24-hour surveillance in China under the communist regime for their steadfast belief in Falun Gong.   According to Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners (GMR), 21 family members of U.S. residents are currently imprisoned in China.  Ms. Li Li, GMR’s executive director says, “We are extremely concerned for their safety and health, as well as for their rights. We wish to express our deep concern as the families of American residents are being torn apart. The inhumane persecution towards Falun Gong is an affront to humanity, and as such it cannot be tolerated.  It is with a tremendous sense of urgency, we ask for help from President Obama.  What we are presenting is the most important and serious issue we will ever face in our human lives…the imminent violent death of our loved ones.”