Zhang Lin’s older daughter, Ru Li, successfully reunited with family in New York

Posted on 2013-09-14 by wrchina

WRIC reported:

With the success of Zhang Lin’s two daughter escaping China, they arrived in San Francisco on September 7. They were greeted with warm greetings by Women’s Rights without Frontiers (WRWF) President Reggie Littlejohn. One of the daughters, Anni will be staying with Reggie Littlejohn and her family for a while. Her older sister Ru Li will be in New York visiting her two aunts. Ru Li was greeted by Women’s rights in China (WRIC) Zhang Jing in JFK on September 11^th at 9:30 p.m.

Originally the Committee U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) Ann Noonan was scheduled to go to the airport but due to unseen circumstances, she was not able to go. They have arranged to meet the following day.

Jing Zhang witness a joyous moment when Ru Li’s two aunts embraced Ru Li. Her two aunts’ eyes were red and filled with tears of joy. The scene was so moving that it will touch anybody that witness this reunion.

Since the sisters’ arrival, they have been adjusting to life in the United States. The search for an escape for these two girls ends here. However, the rescue continues with Mr. Yao Cheng. Yao Cheng sacrificed his freedom to help the two young girls to finally escape the torment in China and give back their freedom. This incident has been occurring since April and along with Yao Cheng, there were also individuals that tried to fight for Anni’s rights to an education. These individuals has been detain at least 3 times. They are all now in criminal detention. Women’s Rights in China continue the effort to urge the Chinese authorities to release Yao Cheng as well as the other supporters in Anhui.

A couple who performed over 600 illegal ultrasound procedures

Posted on 2013-09-09 by wrchina

Zhejiang News Sept. 6 2013

A couple who performed over 600 illegal ultrasound procedures had been arrested by police in Jiangbei District of the City of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

The couple was originally from Shangyin County, Anhui Province and operated under assumed names of Liu Lin (husband) and Li Li (wife). Liu was responsible for posting advertisements for ultrasound fetal gender determinations and ferrying the pregnant women on his motorcycle. Li stayed in their apartment to perform the procedures. If the ultrasound revealed the pregnancy to be a boy, the fee would be 800 yuan. It would be 500 for a girl.

Li had received medical training in her home province. She started to act as a gynecologist without a license in Ningbo in 2007. “It was simple work. Just identify the gender of the fetus. If it was a girl, just ask if they wanted to abort it.” She had been sentenced to a year (suspended for 18 months) for a botched birth in which a baby died from lack of oxygen and illegal medical practice.

During her suspended sentence, Li and her husband bought a portable ultrasound machine on the internet for 20,000 yuan to perform fetal gender identification. Liu said to the police, “There is a market for our work. And it’s not as risky as a traveling doctor. There’s no risk to endanger human life.”

Many migrant workers in the coastal city of Ningbo, especially those from Anhui knew that Liu provided gender identification without hassle. “At first I was puzzled. They were already tried and sentenced once. Why do this again?” said Policeman Luo. But the interrogation made their motivation obvious. Li and Liu had made more than half a million yuan through their illegal business that only required a 20,000 yuan machine. The punishment was very light. Police had no means to prosecute the practice of illegal ultrasound and had to refer the cases to the Bureau of Commerce or the Birth Control Committee, which would fine the offenders as punishment. Lou revealed that “many people from Li’s home county, Shangyin, had learned to do this as a profession. They’ve turned this into an industry.”

After Liu and Li’s arrest, they were extradited to Shangyin and their case referred to the Shangyin Birth Planning Commission.

Chinese dissident’s, Zhang Lin, daughters escape from China

Posted on 2013-09-08 by wrchina

Translated by: Wendy Mei and Anna Li

WRIC Chen LiQun reports：

Women’s Rights in China(WRIC) in conjunction with Women’s Rights Without Frontiers (WRWF) and the Committee of US International Broadcasting (CUSIB) are three organizations responsible for human intervention and positive planning. Zhang Lin’s two daughters, Zhang An Ni and her sister, Zhang Ru Li, finally escaped out of China. As of yesterday (September 7), they safely landed in California.

This year in March and April, internet users and lawyers from all around the country and a total of couple hundreds people helped voiced solidarity for An Ni. An Ni was forced out of school and detained for 20 hours. Finally, the police forcefully cleared the scene and arrested more than a dozen of activists and put them into detention, dozens of people were also beaten and harassed. A few months later, Zhang was detained again afterward. Meanwhile, 10 years old daughter An Ni suffers the threat of being sent to the orphanage. Since her parents were divorced, she lived with her father who entered jail again, An Ni faced extreme difficulties of living and learning. The Women Right’s organization, whose headquarter is in New York, has been concerned about An Ni’s schooling problem. Founder of WRIC, Zhang Jing, decided to help safeguard the rights of the girls, from mid-June she contacted CUSIB founder ANN Noonan and WRWF founder Reggie Littlejohn, who are also concern about democracy and human right’s issues in China. With all their efforts, An Ni Zhang came to America for education with Reggie Littlejohn as her guardian. Three of them worked separately. First, they got the custody rights from Zhang Lin and his ex-wife, this solved the problem of minor child custody and other legal issue. Secondly, contact all forces, including several members of Congress to help write a letter to relelated departments to petition.School starts in early September, Annie was finally allowed to come to United States accompanied by her sister. Both of them got their visa.

Pictured Yao Cheng (right) with the lawyer accompanying Lily and Annie on August 2013 to visit Zhang Lin in the detention center.

We solved the issued of An Ni’s life, learning and visa, but the major problem is how to prevent the Chinese police and security from blocking An Ni to get out of China. Women’s Rights in China volunteer Yao Cheng, Zhang’s friend, also played a key role. From the sisters’ departure from Anhui to Nanjing and the transfer to Shanghai instead of going straight to United States, on each step of the operation, Sun Lin’s (activist), Hu Jia’s and others’ performance was outstanding; they did their best on their part of the operation. Even if Yao Cheng’s important documents were confiscated by police in a hotel, two sisters’ passports were already been safely transferred.

An Ni’s mother take the role of Yao Cheng later, she obeyed Jing Zhang’s instructions. From filling in the application to going on the plane, a total of three days, the United States Consulate officials personally escort them to enter the consular formalities, then escorted to the airport, until a safe takeoff.

After the rescue of the sisters, An Ni’s enrollment rights issue ended. Yao Chang exchanged his freedom for the freedom of the children’s new life. He paid a heavy price but it is valuable and significant. the entire rescue process shows the glory of humanity, on the other hand, this will become an example of Chinese citizens’ movement. Under fair, reasonable, and legitimate premise, gather forces, sincere cooperation, good practical work, strongly protest, not giving up, trying to help the descendants of human rights and democratic freedoms of people with minimal social costs, maximize social benefits, change the unjust social system.

Jing Zhang who has been working for three months for the freedom of Annie said “A ten year old girl was deprived of the right of education and detained because her father is dissidents was inhuman, one of the most absurd scandal. How can Annie have her “Chinese dream” which is now impressed by this “Chinese nightmare.” She became the youngest Chinese exile who didn’t have the care of her parents who are exiles.”

Jing Zhang said “Reggie Littlejohn and her husband welcome An Ni with open arms and was really enthusiastic. Before they pick up the sisters from the airport, they had prepared very spacious room for each of them and health insurance. After some rest and familiarity of the environment, the sisters went to the restaurant and they helped them buy pajamas, clothes and daily necessities. Due to the language barrier, Reggie Littlejohn called Jing Zhang to help with simple translation. On the phone Reggie Littlejohn said: “ The girls says they are not hungry, you have to tell them they must eat something. I saw that when they were looking at the menu they were staring at the price. Tell them don’t mind the price, hand gesture is fine for communication.”

On the behalf of Women’s rights in China, Zhang Jing thanks all the people in China and America who had help An Ni. An Ni is now safe, we wish her to grow up happily and healthy in this land of freedom, United States. Meanwhile, WRIC will continue to focus on women’s rights. Yao Cheng and Zhang Lin continue to solidarity with the Chinese government.

Asia Freedom Radio Reports:

http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/ml-09072013224415.html

Swiss TV Interview WRIC Volunteer Yao Cheng

Posted on 2013-09-01 by wrchina

On August 28, 2013, Switzerland Television channel’s reporters went to Hefei City, Anhui province, to have an exclusive interview with rescue volunteer, Yao Cheng (Tan Chunsheng) on women’s rights and another interview with a child bride working in Putian, Fujian on children’s rights.

During the interview, Yao Cheng said “Over a span of six years, Women Rights In China has organized more than a dozen mainland tracing activities, for more than twenty abducted or abandoned people to help them find their loved ones. They have also provided support for thousands of children and families, especially in recent years by helping to trace Putian child brides, monasteries to rescue abandoned babies, and assisting a number of television, magazines and other foreign media interviews. Precisely because of this, we have received the local government’s suppression.

To the Switzerland Television channel, Yao Cheng expressed the next step is to increase the Putian child bride tracings force, in no time, some child bride’s parents will gradually pass away, the desire to find their loved ones will also become slim. The monastery girl situation has become increasingly bad, this year in June, the seven ministries of the Chinese government jointly issued a document that does not allow private and institutional care for orphans, the temple girls may be forced to be sent to the orphanage, the children will lose their homes a second time.

First, the entire gathering activities in Hefei suburb, and later to Yao Cheng residence, was a complete success, but in the crew’s cab ride process, the cab actually got into an accident of three collision cases with unknown cars, but fortunately no one was injured.

However, a month after early September, Yao Cheng, in line with the United States WRIC and other NGO organizations helped the An Ni sisters come to America to study operation, was brought from Shanghai to Anhui in custody, criminal arrest and still in prison. As early as April 2013, the right to participate in solidarity with Anne waving school site was arrested Hefei police officers detained dozens of people (see solidarity Annie rights related to school reports).

However, a month after early September, Yao Cheng coordinate with the United States and other NGO organizations to help Annie WRIC sisters came to America to study action was brought from Shanghai to Anhui Anhui police custody, criminal arrest is still in prison. As early as in April 2013, the right to participate in solidarity with Anne waving school site was arrested Hefei police officers detained dozens of people (see solidarity Annie rights related to school reports).