Renewing My Passport in an Open and Dignified Way through Persistence in Truth Clarification

By a practitioner from Japan

(Clearwisdom.net) I went to the Chinese consulate to renew my passport, but the consulate refused to process my request. I asked the official at the window, "Why don't you give me my passport?" She said, "We need to censor." When I asked why, the answer was, "You know." I did know. (Over the past two years, I had gone to the consulate every day to appeal to seek an end to the persecution of Falun Gong.) "I did nothing wrong. You should follow your own rules to renew my passport." She said, "It is impossible today. Leave your phone number and we will call you later."

Later, the consul called me and told me to meet him the next day. At the meeting, he told me to write a letter promising to cease my appeals at the consulate; otherwise, they would not renew my passport. He also later asked a family member of mine to persuade me to write that letter.

When my fellow practitioners learned of this, we had a group sharing of our understandings. One practitioner said, "As cultivators we do not pursue anything in the human world; however, officials in the consulate are also people to whom we want to offer salvation, so we must clarify the facts to them to stop them from continuing their persecution of practitioners."

So several practitioners went together to the consulate to send forth righteous thoughts, and then went into the consulate with me. The consul in charge of this issue said to me, "Your appealing outside the consulate is anti-government. If you write a letter promising that you won't come again, I will issue your passport; otherwise we will not do it."

I said, "I am not against the government. We are cultivators, and cultivation improves one's health and moral character. I used to suffer from various diseases, but since cultivating, they are all gone. Cultivating Falun Gong benefits people and the whole society, and brings happiness. I merely came to the consulate to ask you to relay the information to the Chinese government that the persecution of Falun Gong should be stopped."

His attitude was quite tough, saying that there is nothing we can discuss if you don't write the letter. He then went outside the consulate and called for the police. We told the Japanese police the purpose of our visit, that our visit was legal, and that we were not there to make trouble. Although the consul was unreasonable, we left the consulate in order not to bring inconvenience to the Japanese police.

Afterwards, we strengthened our sending forth righteous thoughts at the consulate. Moreover, we hung a new banner saying, "Return my passport," and placed exhibition boards at our daily appeal place near the consulate. The local Chinese newspaper, Epoch Times, also interviewed me. People going to the consulate for personal business would see the banner and defend me against the injustice. After the newspaper reported my story, some non-practitioners concluded, "The consulate is so mean and wicked."

Previously, the consulate had denied other practitioners' passport applications. Moreover, they had lied by denying the existence of the cases. To prove that I indeed applied for the passport and the consulate did not give me the passport, I mailed two letters to the consulate with certification requests from the post office. The certificates can serve as evidence that the consulate had my request, but did not give me my passport; in addition, they serve as legal evidence if I were to file a complaint against the consulate. After I mailed the first letter, the consul called me and said, "Stop doing this. We will work on your case, and I mean what I say." Nevertheless, he did not say when they would work on my case or when they would give me my passport. A week later, I mailed them the second letter, and the consul called me saying I could go pick up my passport.

The consulate's way of conducting business was an infringement upon my rights as a citizen. The reason Falun Gong practitioners go to the Chinese consulates to appeal every day is that Falun Gong practitioners in China suffer unprecedented brutal persecution. The consulate's efforts in holding back my passport support the Jiang Zemin regime in extending the persecution overseas.

In the face of persecution, we persisted in clarifying the facts, and thus I received my passport in an open and dignified manner.

February 22, 2004

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/23/68265.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version