The cooperation my office received from the State Department and our embassy in Beijing was excellent.
Practitioners say it is simply a way for people to improve their spiritual and physical health.
Lin, who has been in the United States about seven years, works at UAB's Center for AIDS Research. His wife, whom he married last February, has a doctorate from Georgia Tech and works in Atlanta for Siemens Corp. When they were detained in China, Lin and Xiaohua Du had just flown to the southern city of Fuzhou to be with Lin's dying father. Both are Chinese citizens, and friends, relatives and colleagues feared they would be kept in China or even be prosecuted because of their Falun Gong beliefs. They contacted the news media, circulated petitions, contacted the State Department, Bachus and other federal lawmakers, and presented a letter to the Chinese embassy in Washington.