Free China: The Courage to Believe

A harrowing, eye-opening documentary, filmmaker Michael Perlman's Free China examines a repressive regime from a spiritual perspective. In 1989, when students gathered at Tiananmen Square to call for democracy, former Communist party member Jennifer Zeng joined them, while Dr. Charles Lee decided to leave the country for the United States. Both became followers of Falun Gong, which provides some of the same benefits as Tai Chi. At first, China promoted this spiritual practice, but when it began to attract more adherents than the Communist Party, they cracked down on practitioners, labeling people as cult members and proceeding to incarcerate them. In 2000, they arrested Zeng, who says, “We refused to say black was white.” After a month of jail time, authorities let her go, but kept an eye on her Internet activities (Cisco would later face a lawsuit for cooperating with China's cyber-spying program), after which she was sentenced to a year of hard labor. When Lee saw what was going on, he returned to China, but his attempts to protest also landed him in one of the labor camps, where prisoners made sweaters, stuffed animals, and other items intended for export (some U.S. companies claimed the goods were made in America). Although they have denied it, camp officials also reputedly sold the organs of Falun Gong members for harvesting, a fate that Zeng and Lee would thankfully escape. After her release, Zeng sought political asylum in Australia, wrote a book, and became an activist. Once freed, Lee came to the U.S. to testify before Congress. A powerful film that exposes injustice while also counteracting China's misinformation campaign, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)