Danish Newspaper Reports on Jiang Regime's Persecution of a Chinese Businessman

By Signe Steffensen

26th August 2003

"A Quiet Rebel: Lyngby citizen Xuezhi Zhu and his small family are facing an insecure future"

By the 15th of September, Xuezhi Zhu's Danish work permit expires and it is far from definite that it will be extended. After this successful businessman came to Denmark a lot of things have changed. Since this time, Xuezhi Zhu has had to watch the closing of all his business activities in China, and this has made it impossible to for him to run his business in Denmark.

Since 1999 he has, like millions of other Chinese people, practised Falun Gong, a series of physical and meditative exercises to enable practitioners to become better people. Falun Gong is considered a threat by the Chinese government, and therein rests Xuezhi Zhu's economical difficulties.

Xuezhi Zhu is sure that the difficulties he has endured are solely due to his protests over China's injustice against Falun Gong adherents. But in spite of this major loss, Xuezhi Zhu still continues practising Falun Gong.

[The first part of the report was on the front page of the newspaper. It then continued on page 3.]

The Endeavour for Truth, Kindness and Tolerance: Lyngby citizen Xuezhi Zhu has lost all he owns in the course of a few years. The reason for this, in common with other Chinese people, is that he practises Falun Gong.

Xuezhi Zhu sits calmly in his little apartment in Lyngby. During the past few years, his existence has been thoroughly turned upside down. From being a successful businessman with several companies in China, he has now lost almost everything he owned.

Since 1997 he has cultivated Falun Gong. The exercises bear a strong resemblance to the slow and controlled Tai Chi exercises that are practised almost every morning in parks in the East. The goal for Falun Gong adherents is to obtain physical well being, through meditation, and at the same time develop the good side of oneself with special emphasis on Truth, Kindness and Tolerance. Falun Gong became very popular in China, and it is for this reason that Zhu's economical change has come about.

In 1999 the Chinese government banned its population from practising Falun Gong because it considered the vast number of practitioners to be a threat. At the time, Xuezhi Zhu owned quite a few successful companies in his hometown of Tianjin in China. In 2000, he initiated a joint venture aiming at exporting Danish technology products to China, together with a consultancy on the products. For this, he and his wife travelled to Copenhagen on a work permit to run the business. Zhu's private properties in China were at that time valued at about ten million Danish Crowns (about 1 million/1.35 million Euros). In 2002, all his business activities in China were seized and closed down by the National Security Bureau. Without any judicial documentation the authorities entered his premises and confiscated his business licences and all documents relating to his accounts. All his employees were dismissed and questioned about whether they practise Falun Gong. At the same time they were ordered to report any telephone calls from Xuezhi Zhu.

Closing down his three companies was a cause of great economical pressure for Xuezhi Zhu. And at the same time all his personal belongings, including his house, his car and his savings were confiscated.

"According to my business partner in China, the police told him that they had photos and videos of me in front of the Chinese embassy in Denmark, where I had participated in a series of peaceful demonstrations against the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. In spite of our protests being sensibly and peacefully carried out, I have been accused of laying siege to and attacking the Chinese embassy in Denmark. Furthermore, my family in China has been persecuted. My wife's sister, who is not a Falun Gong practitioner, was detained at the Beijing airport prior to her visit to Denmark, and her telephone has also been tapped," said Xuezhi Zhu.

Since the confiscation of his business activities in China, it has not been possible for him to continue his job in Denmark, because his business partners in China are not allowed to do business with him any more. Therefore, he has not had any contact with former customers and business associates. He knows they have been subjected to enormous pressure from the Chinese authorities.

Xuezhi Zhu has also felt the persecution in Denmark. He says, amongst other things, that a person living in the apartment above him has seen Chinese people taking photos [of him] through his windows.

When his daughter was born here in Denmark last year, she had to live for half a year as a stateless person because the Chinese embassy did not want to issue a Chinese passport in her name. Now Xuezhi Zhu has ended up in similar difficulty. Many activities that require travel over the years have left Xuezhi Zhu's passport with no more empty pages for a new visa.

"In May of this year, I applied to the embassy for a new passport but the embassy told me directly that this was out of the question unless I abandoned the practice of Falun Gong. Without a valid passport I cannot apply for an extension to my permit to stay in Denmark, or apply for a visa to other countries."

On the 15th of September Xuezhi Zhu's work permit in Denmark expires. "I feel that I have lost all of my basic rights as a human being," Xuezhi Zhu said earnestly.

He is one of many thousands of practitioners worldwide feeling the persecution by the Chinese government because they practise Falun Gong. The adherents of Falun Gong consider China's former president, Jiang Zemin, to be solely accountable for the persecution. He is presently being sued in four different countries for violating international as well as national laws concerning human rights against Falun Gong practitioners inside and outside of China.

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