NEW YORK: Followers and supporters of the Falun Gong qigong movement yesterday stepped up their appeal to free Teng Chunyan, a US resident whose imprisonment has been raised with Beijing by the Bush administration.
Teng, a New York-based doctor who practised and taught traditional Chinese medicine, was convicted last year of passing state secrets to foreigners and sentenced to three years in a labour camp.
Although China says she was imprisoned for spying, rights activists say she was targeted because of her participation in the movement that is banned on the mainland.
``We are calling on the government of the United States of America to demand of China's leadership Dr Teng's safe return,'' Alan Adler, the executive director of Friends of Falun Gong, said in New York.
Mr Adler said Teng, a faculty member at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York, had been abused and tortured in custody. He added that her incarceration was ``outrageous''.
Chinese consulate officials in New York were not available for comment.
Teng, who also taught at the New York College for Wholistic Health, is one of several US-linked academics detained in China whose cases have been raised by Washington with Beijing. Over the past several weeks, three of the detainees have been released.
US President George W Bush is scheduled to go to China in October and some China watchers say they expect the cases of detained academics raised by Washington to be settled before the trip.