Two Chinese Artists Still in Forced Labor Camp

By Gisela Sommer

Epoch Times Staff Jan 16, 2009

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Chinese paramilitary policemen patrol past the Beijing Olympics countdown clock on the edge of Tiananmen Square in Beijing on April 29, 2008. Leading up to the Olympics the Chinese regime cracked down on groups deemed dissidents. (Teh Eng Koon/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

According to an eyewitness account on clearwisdom.net, two well-known artists from Beijing who were arrested before the Olympic Games because they practice Falun Gong are still in prison.

Wang Mingyue, a famous oil painter, and Jin Xiaohui, a photographer, were arrested in Beijing on July 8 and 9, 2008 under the Chinese regime’s policy of "safeguarding the Olympic Games." They are said to be now imprisoned in the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp in Beijing.

Both were practitioners of Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa). The practice was once among the most popular meditation disciplines in China, yet was banned by the communist regime in China due to the large number of people who were practicing it. The regime accompanied its ban with a massive propaganda campaign, arrests, and torture of those who practice.

Recent reports have shown evidence that the regime now uses practitioners of Falun Gong as living sources for organ transplants.

Wang Mingyue is an internationally acclaimed painter. His works have been displayed in many exhibitions, both in China and abroad. In 2000, he was invited to paint the portrait of Britain’s former Prime Minister, the late Sir Edward Heath.

Mr. Wang was in very good physical condition before his arrest, the report says, but now, according to a witness from the labor camp, he has lost a great deal of weight.

Wang Mingyue and Jin Xiaohui are said to be good friends.

The Chinese communist regime accelerated its persecution of numerous groups in the days leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games. Among the groups who were cracked down on were Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, House Christians, and human rights activists.

Human Rights organizations around the world are increasingly alarmed over the abuse, torture and deaths during detention of Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of the Chinese police and regime officials.

Falun Gong advocates non-violence, kindness, and being honest. The Chinese Communist Party is an atheist system which advocates social struggle. Similar to the reasons why the regime persecutes religious groups such as Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and Muslim Uighurs, the regime sees Falun Gong’s emphasis on moral values as a threat to its own power.