Extending the Persecution of Falun Gong to Europe: Summary and Sample List of Chinese Officials' Violations of Civil Rights, Laws and Sovereignty in Europe
The Purpose of this document Soon after Jiang Zemin first initiated the brutal persecution of Falun Gong
practitioners in China in 1999, incidents of Chinese officials threatening,
harassing, and assaulting Falun Gong practitioners in Europe began to occur.
According to reliable sources inside China, as early as October 2000, Jiang had
given the order to implement a policy to "intensify the campaign [against
Falun Gong] overseas, collect more information and prevent protests"*. In
addition to directly harassing Falun Gong practitioners, Chinese officials in
consulates and embassies around Europe have interfered with the peaceful,
legitimate, and legal activities of Falun Gong practitioners in Europe by
pressuring officials, businesses, and community organizations to withdraw
support or deny services to those who practice or support Falun Gong. These
repeated incidents have become a deeply felt matter of personal security for
many Europeans. This document provides a summary and partial list of these cases, presenting
serious reason to believe that Chinese officials are stepping beyond their
diplomatic duties to violate civil rights, laws, and sovereignty in Europe. It
is hoped that this information will serve to raise public awareness and alert
authorities in Europe to oppose these human rights abuses and protect their
country's sovereignty and their citizens' rights in correlation with the
European Human Rights Convention and each country's respective constitution. Summary and Sample List of Cases 1. Harassment and Assault During Jiang Zemin's visit to Germany in April 2002, Falun Gong
practitioners were harassed, assaulted, and evicted from their hotel rooms by
both Chinese and German secret service agents. In some cases, this happened
after practitioners exercised their freedom of expression in protesting against
the severe human rights abuses for which Jiang is responsible, but in many
instances they were harassed simply for being of Chinese decent or for wearing
yellow clothing. The following is one example: On April 11, as Jiang's car procession arrived in front of the Kempinski
Hotel in Dresden, Ms. Linghu Zhan, a 40 year-old woman, cried out "Falun
Gong is good!" Before she was able to finish the sentence, a Chinese secret
service agent grabbed her by the throat and choked her. Two German security
officers then arrived and immediately removed the woman from the scene. On March 31 2003, the painting exhibition of Chinese-Australian artist and
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Cuiying was scheduled to take place at the Art
Galleries of "Teatrul Foarte Mic" Theatre in downtown Bucharest in Romania.
Shortly after an advertisement announcing the exhibit was published in a local
newspaper, on March 27th the organizers received a phone call from a man who
introduced himself as a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest. He
requested that the event be cancelled, saying that the Chinese government does
not allow such activities. The organizers, nonetheless, decided to hold the exhibition as scheduled.
During the exhibition's opening ceremony, three representatives from the Chinese
Embassy arrived and closed it by force. They distributed false information
claiming that the exhibition was illegal and that the Romanian government was
opposed to Falun Gong, and then forced the spectators to leave. They physically
assaulted the organizers, including an Australian citizen who was videotaping
the event. A Romanian official later stated: "From the point of view of the
Romanian authorities, Ms. Zhang Cuiying is free to organize and hold a painting
exhibition in Romania...The closing of the exhibition in Bucharest was caused by
misunderstandings related to organizational matters in which the Romanian
authorities have not been involved". 2. Damage to Property In July 2000, several employees of the Chinese Embassy in France
including the Consul Wu Yongqing (the second highest ranking official after the
ambassador) came to the Parisian restaurant owned by Shoumei Wu, a Falun Gong
practitioner. They threatened Mr. Wu that if he attended a peaceful appeal in
front of the embassy on the following day, he would be personally responsible
for anything that fell upon him as a result. Despite the officials' threats, Mr.
Wu participated in the following day's activity. Approximately two weeks later,
on the morning of August 6, Mr. Wu found that his restaurant had been broken
into. Two glass doors were broken and the restaurant was in shambles, yet the
cash register remained untouched, indicating that the vandals were not burglars. In August 2002, the fuel line was cut on the car of Roland Gottschlag, a
Falun Gong practitioner from Hanau, Germany, as it was parked outside of
his home. That day, a neighbor reportedly observed several Chinese individuals
in dark suits acting suspiciously as they walked up and down the street. When
the fuel line was inspected at a local garage, it was discovered that it had
clearly been severed by a pair of pliers. 3. Incitement of Hatred in European Communities The Chinese embassies and consulates in Europe frequently display and
distribute hate-inciting materials about Falun Gong. The Chinese embassies' web
sites in nearly every European country post hate-inciting misinformation about
Falun Gong. The following case that occurred in Belgium is typical and
similar exhibitions have been documented in France, England, Germany,
Ireland, Austria, Holland, Sweden, Italy and Russia as well: On January 8 2002, the Chinese Embassy in Brussels held an anti-Falun Gong
exhibition that included materials slandering Falun Gong, Falun Gong's founder,
and Falun Gong practitioners. The propaganda's accusations of so-called
atrocities committed by Falun Gong practitioners were based on incidents that
have been proven to be fabricated, such as the staged immolation that took place
on Tiananmen Square in 2001. Members of the European Parliament and the Belgian
government were invited to the event, as were local students, community members,
and media. Chinese Ambassador Guan Chengyuan made a speech at the beginning of
the exhibition in which he described Falun Gong as "anti-humanity" and
"endangering society," thus harming the reputation of Falun Gong
practitioners who live in Brussels, as well as placing them in a difficult
situation in their own communities. Representatives of the Chinese embassies and consulates in Europe have often
used European media outlets as a stage for slandering Falun Gong. The following
case occurred in the Republic of Macedonia, but similar cases have also
been documented in France, Belgium, Russia, England, Ireland, Germany,
Austria, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway: On October 10 2003, Dnevnik, a daily newspaper in the Republic of
Macedonia, published an interview with Chinese Ambassador Zhang Wanxue. In
the interview, the Ambassador repeatedly made defamatory remarks against Falun
Gong as well as statements declaring that allowing Macedonians to practice Falun
Gong freely "would be harmful for Macedonian-Chinese relations". Such
statements jeopardize Falun Gong practitioners' relationship with their own
government as well as their right to freedom of belief. 4. Pressuring European Government Officials to Deny/Withdraw Support or
Curb Activities On September 11 2001, Ukranian citizen Igor Izevlin and several other
Falun Gong practitioners held a peaceful appeal in front of the Chinese embassy
in Kiev. Shortly after dark, a large number of policemen arrived at the scene,
broke several posters displaying evidence of the human rights violations
suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China and arrested Mr. Izevlin. One of
the representatives of the police who arrived at the scene, told the
practitioners: "You should put yourself in our position and understand our
difficulties. The Chinese Embassy puts constant pressure on us." Mr.
Izevlin was released several hours later. In December 2001, the Chinese Embassy in Kiev sent a letter to the Ministry
of Justice of the Ukraine calling Falun Gong a "**" and
"**". It was also stated in the letter: "The Embassy of the
People's Republic of China addresses the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine with the
request...to take effective measures for the suppression of the tendency of
spreading Falun Gong in the Ukraine." Similar letters were also sent to
other ministries, including the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of
Education, which in turn led to the cancellation of a Falun Gong activity at a
medical school in Novgorod-Seversky City. Officials from the Chinese embassies have repeatedly pressured local
authorities to revoke Falun Gong practitioners' permits for conducting peaceful
appeals in front of the embassy, often falsely claiming that practitioners were
being loud or disturbing public order. The following are two examples of such
incidents: In August 2002, the Chinese embassy in Denmark sent slanderous
material and a letter to the police complaining about Falun Gong practitioners'
peaceful daily appeals in front of the embassy. As a result, practitioners were
forced to change the site of their appeal. After an appeal to the Danish
Ministry of Justice, the Falun Gong practitioners were permitted to return to
the original location in July 2003. In June 2003, during a peaceful appeal by Falun Gong practitioners in front
of the Chinese embassy in Budapest, Hungary, an official emerged from the
embassy and harassed the practitioners, while another official photographed
them. The embassy then issued a complaint with the Budapest police headquarters,
asking that the appeal in front of the embassy be cancelled. When the policed
arrived to investigate the request, one of them pointed out: "They are just
sitting here in meditation. How are these people disturbing you?" Similar incidents have all occurred in Sweden, Russia, France, Spain
and Moldova. 5. Discrimination and Pressure on European Media and Organizations to Deny
Privileges or Services In July 2003, Hans Hirschi, a politician from Gothenburg, Sweden,
received an invitation for a meeting from the Chinese Consul General. During the
meeting, the Consul General pressured Mr. Hirschi to stop the broadcast of a
program about Falun Gong that is aired weekly on a local radio station. The
Consul hinted that continuing to air the program could threaten the relationship
between China and Sweden, naming specifically business cooperation between
Shanghai and Gothenburg. When Mr. Hirschi refused the request, the Chinese
consulate contacted the Management Section to which the local station belongs
and pressured them to terminate financial support for the station. In an
interview on TV Channel #4, the General Consul did not deny trying to stop the
Swedish Falun Gong radio program. On multiple occasions, the Chinese government has pressured government
officials and museum owners to cancel the painting exhibition of
Chinese-Australian artist and Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Cuiying: On March 17 2003, following pressure from the Chinese embassy, Cuiying's
exhibition was cancelled just hours before it was due to open at the Archive
Museum of Literature and Art in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. On October 15 2003, Cuiying's exhibition, scheduled to be held at the
Bulgarian Parliament in Sofia, was cancelled at the last minute after the
Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria, Xie Hanxin, arrived with several other
officials and asked the General Secretary of the Parliament to terminate the
exhibition. Chinese embassies and consulates have repeatedly pressured the organizers of
community events to cancel the participation of Falun Gong practitioners. In
most instances, the organizers have refused. Falun Gong practitioners were denied their application for a stand at the
Chinese Spring Festival celebrations that were to be held in Switzerland
in February 2003. The reason given by the sponsor of the event was that he
feared that granting their request might upset the Chinese Ambassador who was
scheduled to attend the festivities in person. In June 2003, a representative from the Chinese Consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland
wrote to the organizer of the "Edinburgh One World Festival"
complaining that Falun Gong practitioners had participated in the previous
year's festival and requesting that Falun Gong be omitted from this year's
program. The organizer ignored the request, saying: "We can invite whoever
we like". Similar incidents have occurred in Italy, France, Holland, Ireland,
Belgium and Denmark. 6. Blacklisting and Interference with Falun Gong Practitioners' Travel to
Other Countries Traveling to Iceland in June 2002 to take part in a peaceful appeal
for Falun Gong during the visit of China's former leader Jiang Zemin, at least
20 European practitioners found their names on a blacklist and had their
carriage to Iceland denied at several international airports. This group
included citizens from France, Germany, Norway, Denmark and the United
Kingdom. Two practitioners from Denmark were detained at the airport in
Reykjavik upon arrival, and four German practitioners were stopped at the
airport and required to sign a declaration as a condition of entry into Iceland.
Several other European practitioners of Chinese decent had their visa
applications denied in advance. These practitioners were among over 200 from at least 10 countries affected
by the blacklist, which had been supplied to the Icelandic government by Chinese
authorities and which was apparently the result of Chinese illicit actions in
Western democratic societies. Icelandic media, citizens, and civil rights groups
broadly denounced their government's actions, pointing out that the
discrimination it bred violated Iceland's own constitution. In June 2003, the
Icelandic Data Protection Authority decided that The Ministry of Justice's
distribution of information about Falun Gong to Icelandair Ltd. and to the
embassies of Iceland in the U.S.A., Norway, Denmark, United Kingdom and France
in order to hinder the arrival of Falun Gong practitioners in Iceland was
illegal. The following are two sample cases of European citizens being denied entrance
to Iceland clearly because they practice Falun Gong: Mr. Li Shao, a British citizen and university lecturer, arrived at
London Heathrow Airport on June 12 2002 to travel to Iceland. Upon arrival at
the Icelandair check-in counter, he was informed that his name was not on the
passenger list and was referred to the ticket counter where he spoke with an
official from the Icelandic Embassy. The official immediately asked Mr. Li if he
was "a member of the Falun Gong organization". Despite Mr. Li's
attempts to assert his right to freedom of belief and clarify that Falun Gong
practitioners had always acted peacefully during previous Chinese official
visits, he was refused boarding. Ms. Xie Jing, a Swiss citizen and university student from Geneva, was
unable to travel to Iceland after the Icelandic Ministry of Justice contacted
her travel agent and advised him to cancel Ms. Xie's ticket. When Ms. Xie
contacted the Icelandic Consulate in Geneva to inquire about this, she was told
that she would not be allowed entrance into Iceland because her name was on a
list concerning Falun Gong. In July 2000, Ms. Zheng Fang Mo and her husband Yi You were told by a clerk
at the Chinese Embassy in London, England that unless they stopped
practicing Falun Gong, their 6-month old daughter would not be issued a passport
and neither would a special page for her be inserted into Ms. Zheng's passport.
Furthermore, when Ms. Zheng expressed her will to suspend her daughter's
application and have her own passport returned to her, this request was denied.
As a result, Ms. Zheng has been unable to continue her studies in Dundee or
travel outside of the United Kingdom. Several European citizens from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany,
Switzerland, Norway and England who practice Falun Gong have had
their applications for visas to travel to China and Hong Kong refused by the
Chinese embassies and consulates with no legitimate reason given. 7. Phone Tapping, Threats, and Intimidation On April 1 2001, Walter Krickl, a German citizen living in Stuttgart, Germany
received an anonymous phone call from a German national. The caller said that
while at the airport he had overheard a conversation between two Chinese
nationals in which Mr. Krickl's name came up frequently. He warned Mr. Krickl
not to take the Chinese lightly and suggested that Mr. Krickl change his
identity. During a demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises in Milan, Italy, on
November 10 2001, officials from the Chinese consulate who were dining in a
nearby restaurant photographed the practitioners and recorded their
conversations with passers-by. In March 2002, a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner in Italy received two
calls from a male who told him in Chinese: "300,000 Chinese in Italy will
never spare you. Be careful of your life." Similar incidents have also been documented in Holland, Ireland and Sweden. 8. Internet Interference In August 2002, the e-mail addresses of Falun Gong practitioners in Germany
were flooded with e-mails containing slanderous material about Falun Gong and
insulting or threatening messages. The source of the e-mails could not be traced
but the messages had recognizable Chinese/German grammatical language errors.
Similar cases were documented in Sweden. Several days before April 25 and July 20 in the years 2001 and 2002, days on
which large-scale Falun Gong activities were planned, a Falun Gong practitioner
in Germany was overloaded with hundreds of e-mail messages to the point
that his e-mail account crashed. During this period, many German Falun Gong
practitioners also received emails that appeared to be from another practitioner
and which contained a virus; it was later discovered that they had actually not
been sent by that practitioner. Similar email attacks occurred at around the
same time in England, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland,
Austria, France, Italy and Spain as well. 9. Interference in Business Ventures and Employment In August 2002, the Chinese National Security Bureau seized and forcibly
closed down three companies in Tianjin involved in trade between Denmark
and China because their owner, Xuezhi Zhu, is a Falun Gong practitioner. As a
result of the Chinese government's actions, Mr. Zhu's work permit in Denmark
expired on September 15 2003 and he now faces possible deportation back to
China. Peter Skaarup, the Danish People's Party spokesman on foreign policy
submitted a request to Foreign Minister Stig Moller to investigate the Chinese
embassy's involvement in this case. In October 2001, Alfredo Fava, an Italian citizen and Falun Gong
practitioner from Milan, was arrested at Shanghai airport and subsequently
deported while on a business trip to visit his company Shanghai Famas, which he
founded in 1995. Despite promises by Chinese authorities that he could go to
China whenever he wished, Mr. Fava's visa application has recently been turned
down three times following a declaration by Gao Shumao, the Chinese general
consul in Milan, that he considers Mr. Fava to be a dangerous person because of
his participation in Falun Gong activities. On October 4 2003, Zhao Liping, a doctor of Chinese medicine and Falun Gong
practitioner was forced to resign from her post at the Chinese medical clinic in
Edinburgh, Scotland after her employer received a letter from the local
Chinese Consulate because Ms. Zhao had mentioned the health benefits of Falun
Gong to some of her patients. Conclusion This document presents only a partial list of Chinese officials' systematic
activities in extending the persecution of Falun Gong to Europe. These
activities not only violate the rights and freedoms of Falun Gong practitioners,
but also incite hatred in the community and pressure other Europeans into also
participating in this persecution, threatening the values and integrity of our
society and the rights of European officials and citizens. Similar occurrences
in the U.S. have led to a U.S. Congressional resolution in July 2002 condemning
the persecution of Falun Gong and calling for investigation into Chinese
officials' illegal activities on U.S. soil. The Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong severely jeopardizes the
lives of millions of innocent people as well as fundamental human principles as
basic as truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Lawsuits have been filed
recently in twelve European countries, charging Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese
president and the leading architect of the persecution, as well as other
high-ranking Chinese officials, with genocide, torture and crimes against
humanity. This persecution and its spread of hatred, fear and lawlessness have no place
in France, Germany, Hungary or elsewhere in Europe. In the hope that you will
uphold and protect the basic rights that allow for a free and open society, we
present this report to you. * Falun Dafa Information Center, "Jiang Zemin's Orders: Disrupt Falun
Gong Overseas", October 19, 2000, www.faluninfo.net. Download
a Word document version here. Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200402/17615.html
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