President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

March 19, 2002

Dear President Bush:

My name is Danielle Wang, and I am a student at the University of Texas at Austin, the same university where your daughter is studying. I am also in my third year. College is a most precious time in everyone's life. Particularly here, in the United States, a country founded on freedom, I feel I have been given a valuable opportunity to broaden my knowledge and deepen my abilities. I greatly treasure this period of time.

I have, however, an enormous regret: I am not able to share my college experiences and feelings with my father Zhiwen Wang, because he is being held in a Chinese jail, thousands of miles away. He has never violated any rule of law. Just because he is a practitioner of Falun Gong, a good person who applied "truthfulness, compassion, tolerance" to every act and every word in his life, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

My father Zhiwen Wang was one of the four major Falun Gong contact persons who were sentenced during the 1999 Christmas Holidays. He was also one of several persons who met and talked with the Chinese Premier during the peaceful appeal on April 25th, 1999. My father was a diligent engineer at work, a good father at home, and a good person in his community, praised by relatives and neighbors alike. Everybody said that my father was indeed practicing "truthfulness, compassion, tolerance" in every moment of his life.

For 8 years my father raised me by himself. Life at that time was not perfect, but I felt that those 8 years were the happiest period in my life. I did not know the meaning of worry. If we had been in a free country, that happy time would have continued. Sadly, that time is now only a memory. Because of the persecution, my innocent father continues to suffer in jail, and I cannot go back to China to see him.

I often wondered why there was so much unfairness, evil, and terror in the world. I wondered for what reasons those evil things happened-to claim our lives? Or make us experience the feeling of being a failure? Now I have finally come to understand that, no matter what kind of evil it is, its purpose is to destroy human beings' compassionate nature. As reflected in Martin Luther King's famous saying "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," in the struggle between good and evil, every corner on the earth is a battlefield, and there are no boundaries. Any connivance with evil, any silence in the face of evil, or any succumbing to the evil marks the loss of righteousness and justice.

But I can proudly say that, facing the totalitarian terror in China, my father and millions of other Falun Gong practitioners have continued to stand firm. They may be in handcuffs, their bodies tortured, even losing their lives, yet they still hold unshakable faith in "truthfulness, compassion tolerance," a tenet that can never be taken away from them by evil forces. This is what the evil forces are so frightened of. Facing death, these practitioners do not tell life-saving lies, neither are they angry or frightened. Facing death they choose to face their persecutors with compassion. We should be in awe of their great spirituality. These people are more than worthy of the respect and concern of everyone in the world.

When informed of his 16-year jail term, my father said, " I AM NOT SCARED BECAUSE WHAT I AM DOING IS RIGHT." I am proud of my father. His body is incarcerated, but his spirit and belief can never be locked away. As his daughter, I felt shameful that, being frightened by the evil forces, I once kept silent. Chinese authorities threatened me by saying, "The more Zhiwen Wang's daughter is involved in activities in the US, the more torture he will be subjected to." Shortly after my father was sentenced, I saw him on TV. It had been 6 months since I had last seen him. During that time his hair had turned white, and his face was so thin and pallid, with teeth missing from being beaten, that my heart was broken! I cried almost to the point of blindness. However, father's words strongly encouraged me, and the dauntless spirituality and courage of millions of others who also did not bow to the evils shook me. I must stand up and speak out for justice.

Now I want to appeal to you, Mr. President, to please support justice and condemn the evil persecution of all Falun Gong practitioners. Please be an instrument for a fatal attack on the evil that is so challenging the righteousness.

My family members in China have told me that my father has developed a severe cough and suffers from extreme weight loss due to the inhumane treatment to which he has been subjected and the horrible conditions in jail. In China he will not be given any medical treatment, and I am worried that he may die before I ever see him again. I respectfully request, Mr. President, that you please help bring my father to the United States, where we can be reunited, and he can seek proper medical attention.

Thank you very much for considering my requests.