Hannah Lee is a poised and elegantly dressed Chinese immigrant and Falun Gong practitioner from Queens, New York. She glows as she talks, in a Beijing coffee shop, about the photo. To her, Li is undergoing enlightenment, as the Buddha did thousands of years ago. Given such zeal, Li's ability to deliver could prove critical. It is China's ban that has brought Hannah Lee and many other overseas practitioners back to China.
Recent detainees say many have experienced multiple stints in detention.
Chanting Li Hongzhi's poems and displaying the Falun Gong banner with hundreds of local practitioners in the police station gave her a feeling of powerful fellowship. And the chance to proselytize about the benefits of Falun Gong to police, prison guards and fellow prisoners gave her a sense of purpose. Policemen don't know we're good people unless we get arrested. Because Zhao holds an American passport, she was deported at the end of her eight days. But she believes even those without foreign passports have a duty to court arrest by practising Falun Gong in public.