News Pic

FREEDOM TRAIN

The "Friends of Charles Li" van stopped in Chico last Monday during its California tour so that friends of Menlo Park doctor Charles Li could raise awareness about his detainment in China. Li, an American citizen, was arrested Jan. 22 while visiting his parents in China and is being held on charges of television sabotage, which friends say are trumped-up charges pertaining to his association with the illegal Falun Gong, a meditation sect officially discouraged in China whose values Li championed in the Bay Area and abroad. Li’s fiancée Yeong Ching Foo (pictured left alongside friend Kerry Haung) spoke on KZFR’s Peace and Social Justice radio show and from the steps of City Hall, where friends delivered moving testimonials about the persecution of nonviolent Falun Gong practitioners. They also handed out Falun Gong-related CDs and pamphlets.