On this episode of China Uncensored,
you won’t believe why the CCP
kidnapped and tortured this billionaire.
Actually, if you watch this channel a lot,
you probably will.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored,
I’m your host, Chris Chappell.
Chinese police have kidnapped and detained
a Chinese-born Canadian billionaire.
Um, no.
That’s a different Chinese-born Canadian billionaire.
Apparently, this is not a great time
to be a Chinese billionaire.
Today I’m talking about Sun Qian.
She’s the co-founder of Beijing Leadman
Biochemistry Co.
She and her husband are worth
an estimated 3.5 billion yuan,
according to the Hurun report
which tracks China’s wealthy.
And her situation is a little different
from those other billionaires.
Back in February,
twenty policemen ransacked her home in Beijing
and arrested her.
According to her lawyer in China,
in detention she’s been shackled,
pepper sprayed,
and not allowed to sleep.
So what heinous crime
did Sun Qian commit?
Corruption?
Embezzlement?
Extortion?
No, no, her crime was much,
much worse.
She was meditating.
That’s right,
meditating.
Sun Qian practices Falun Gong.
Falun Gong is a meditation system
the Chinese Communist Party has been persecuting
for nearly 20 years.
As the Beijing First Procuratorate Branch
said,
Sun Qian was “using a heretical religious organization
to undermine the law.”
Which she did.
By meditating.
In the privacy of her own home.
Now, meditating may sound pretty innocent—
especially compared to all the horrible things
corrupt Chinese officials have done.
But if you’ve been watching
China Uncensored for a while,
you know that there’s nothing—
nothing—the CCP fears more
than Falun Gong and its dangerous principles
of truth, compassion, and tolerance.
Except possibly giant spiders.
What's that, Shelley?
They're not afraid of spiders?
So still just these people...
quietly standing there...
and peacefully sitting there.
I mean, they way they close their eyes
is kind of menacing.
How could you not kidnap and torture
people for doing that?
But wait, you say!
Sun Qian is a Canadian citizen!
What right do Chinese police have
to detain her for so long?
Well, even though she is a Canadian citizen,
she also has a Chinese passport,
and China doesn’t recognize dual citizenship.
It's part of the Communist Party’s attitude
that ethnically Chinese people anywhere in the world
belong to China,
regardless of citizenship.
Or international law.
Or objective reality.
And yes, that does also apply
to ethnically Chinese pandas, as well.
Speaking of international law,
isn't there any way Sun Qian's lawyer
can at least get her deported to Canada?
Well, guess what!
She doesn’t have a lawyer anymore.
He was forced to drop her as a client, because,
“Partners in his law firm told him
that if he represents Ms. Sun
or any other Falun Gong case,
they ‘will cancel his contract
to continue working with the firm.’”
That was after the local Justice Bureau
put pressure on both the law firm
and the lawyer.
In China,
justice isn’t blind;
it’s dead.
Now what I want to make clear is,
Sun Qian wasn’t doing any
Falun Gong related activities in China.
She wasn’t handing out fliers
about the practice,
protesting against the Party's persecution,
or even doing the Falun Gong
meditation exercises publicly.
After years of suffering from health issues,
in 2014 she tried the Falun Gong exercises.
She credits Falun Gong with alleviating her illnesses,
.and continued to practice.
So clearly, detaining her for meditating
in her own home in Beijing
is a bit of an overreaction.
But this is the Communist Party.
The same people who sent undercover police
to watch the 12-year-old daughter
of a Chinese human rights activist
while she was at school... in the bathroom
Yeah, I'm not sure the Party
knows the meaning of the word "overreaction."
So now, how should we,
as citizens of the free world,
respond to the Chinese regime’s
absurd torture of Sun Qian?
By keeping it as quiet as possible.
At least, that was the response
from Canada’s ambassador to China,
John McCallum.
When he was asked about Sun’s case,
he said it doesn’t help the person in detention,
“if we broadcast their situation in public,
so I think for those cases,
almost all the time,
it is better to proceed in a low-profile way.”
You see, outside pressure
won’t help Sun.
And it could even jeopardize
all of the potential sweet deals
between Canada and China.
Like that one where a Chinese company
can buy a Canadian company
that handles military contracts
without a security review.
Or that free trade agreement.
Or that extradition treaty,
which should be sounding completely psychotic
right about now.
So you can see why some people
in the Canadian government
might want to, you know,
“proceed in a low-profile way.”
But all the evidence suggests that if the
goal
is to actually get Sun Qian released,
then lots and lots of media attention
is exactly what’s needed right now.
According to her former lawyer,
in the early days of her detention,
she was kept in a small darkened room,
and that only stopped
“after the Canadian embassy became involved.”
And in another case of
a Canadian Falun Gong practitioner
being detained in China,
it was the Canadian public outcry
that helped stop him from being tortured.
And after his case started to be
a diplomatic embarrassment to China and Canada,
he was released from a labor camp
and sent back to Canada.
Fortunately, there is a group
of Canadian Members of Parliament
who are publicly calling for Sun Qian’s release.
MP Peter Kent said,
“We think that the Canadian government
should be far more forceful
in representing this Canadian citizen.”
But there’s one Canadian
who’s willing to stand up
to the Chinese Communist Party
even more:
Miss World Canada,
and friend of the show,
Anastasia Lin.
This week,
she gave a speech at United Nations
Human Rights Council in Geneva
calling for Sun’s release.
And what was China’s response
to a beauty queen being the only one man enough
to call them out for torturing a Canadian citizen?
They said, Falun Gong is not a religion
but an evil cult
and also an anti-China organization...
The Government of China has arranged help
for those tricked into practicing Falun Gong.”
Ohhh, right, I get it.
Sun Qian—
a woman who built
a multi-million dollar company from scratch—
is actually really dumb!
She was tricked into thinking her health improved
when practicing Falun Gong.
But, you see,
what’s actually improving her health
is being chained to a chair
and pepper sprayed in the face
until the can is empty,
and then sitting in her pepper-sprayed clothes
for 10 days.
It's all right here in the Communist Party's
best-selling book,
“10 Steps to Perfect Health,
With Chinese Characteristics.”
Let’s see, Step 1:
Admit that you’re not
as healthy as you look.
Or feel.
Or doctors tell you you are.
Step 2:
Ask the Chinese police for help.
And...
It looks like steps 3 through 10
are all just various torture methods.
Makes sense.
No wonder this book is
a mandatory bestseller in China.
Of course Anastasia Lin
is also taking a risk by speaking out.
She’s guilty of the same thing Sun is:
Being a Chinese-born Canadian citizen
who practices Falun Gong.
Though really,
Anastasia’s situation is even worse.
She’s gotten so much publicity.
That really doesn’t protect her
from the Chinese Communist Party.
I mean, imagine if they
tried to do something to her?
Why, there’d be an insane public outcry,
which—according to the Canadian ambassador—
would only make things worse for her,
somehow.
And in a way,
Anastasia Lin and Sun Qian
are even more of a problem
for the Communist Party than other
Falun Gong practitioners.
Because as you saw earlier,
the Party wants to pretend that
people who practice Falun Gong
are just dumb,
misled sheeple.
Old people who don't know any better.
Surely no one educated or successful,
like a Chinese billionaire
or an international beauty queen,
would ever practice Falun Gong.
So Sun Qian is in trouble.
And I bet you’d like to help me
put pressure on both the Chinese Communist Party
and the Canadian government
to rescue her.
Anastasia Lin has started
this online petition.
It demands that Canadian Prime Minister,
Justin Trudeau
to do everything he can
to bring Sun Qian home.
C’mon, Trudeau.
Stop hugging those pandas.
You're just going to have to send them
back to China, anyway.
I signed the petition,
and I hope you do, too.
So click the link below
or at the end of this video—
and sign your name
to rescue Sun Qian.
Thanks for watching
this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again,
I’m your host, Chris Chappell.
See you next time.