(Clearwisdom.net) Since July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used all its power and means to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, including using unscrupulous espionage methods both inside and outside of China. Recently, Chen Yonglin, a consul in charge of political affairs at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney, and Hao Fengjun, a former official at the Tianjin Police Bureau's 610 Office, publicly revealed the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They also confirmed that the Chinese government has a large number of spies overseas, targeting Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents.

I first heard about the Chinese Communist Party's espionage activities overseas a long time ago. The National Security Bureau even tried to send me to the United States to be a spy. I have a college classmate who worked for the National Security Bureau in Tianjin. He came to visit me when I was in graduate school, in 1986 or 1987. He said their bureau was looking for people to send overseas as students. I could tell he was trying to recruit me. He said in two weeks they would take care of the admission letter, a passport, and a visa, and would find me a place to stay (living with an American family) in the United States. Within a month, I could be on my way. He said the National Securities Bureau often sent people overseas, and that this would be an excellent opportunity to travel to another country.

I remember being shocked to hear how efficient the National Security Bureau was. He didn't tell me exactly what I would be doing, nor did I ask. I didn't need to ask--I knew as soon as I heard it that I would be sent to the United States as a spy. I didn't tell him a definitive yes or no. We didn't talk much after that, and that was the end of it.

This incident showed me that the Chinese government has been strategically sending spies overseas for a long time. Over the last few years, it is almost certain that they have formed a large network of spies. Chen Yonglin confirmed this point by saying that there are over 1,000 Chinese spies in Australia.

It is no secret that in many other countries and regions, such as the United States, Canada, countries in Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, there are also a large number of spies sent by the Chinese Communist Party. Since the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, the overseas spies shifted their focus to Falun Gong practitioners. At the same time, new spies have been sent overseas, spreading slander to defame Falun Gong, monitoring, and harassing practitioners. The espionage activities have become an important component of the extension of the CCP's state terrorism and the persecution of Falun Gong.

Canadian citizen Fan Ziyu said that when he worked in Tianjin, because he practiced Falun Gong, National Security Bureau agents were watching him 24 hours a day. An agent said, "As soon as you landed in China in April 2000, we've had our eye on you." It shows that the National Security Bureau agents had planned this for a long time. (For details, please visit http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/2/1/44660.html)

Wang Xiuhua, a resident of Taiwan who practices Falun Gong, was visiting Shanghai for work when she was arrested at the Shanghai Pudong Airport on January 2, 2003. She was taken away by the Shanghai National Security Bureau and detained for 28 days. In October 2003, security bureau staff in Shanghai detained Taiwan citizen Lin Xiaokai for 20 days to intimidate him. On November 2, 2003, police abducted Falun Gong practitioner Li Qian, who was applying for a visa to further her studies in the United States.

The CCP monitors Falun Gong practitioners in Australia and sends the information back to China. Australian practitioner Li Ying is such an example. During an interview with The Epoch Times, Hao Fengjun, a former 610 official from Tianjin, said, "When I worked for the 610 Office in Tianjin, I read information on Falun Gong-related activities in Australia that Li Ying participated in. I'm sure some secret forces sent from China were watching Li Ying, and sent her information to the 610 Office in Tianjin, where I worked...I just wanted to prove that everything she did in Australia was monitored by the Chinese government, the public security system in China."

In late June 2004, a shooting targeting Falun Gong practitioners occurred in South Africa, which shocked the world. The circumstances suggest that the CCP spies knew the whole itinerary and plans of the Australian practitioners.

Of course, the persecution of overseas Falun Gong practitioners by the National Security Bureau far exceeds the above examples. U.S. citizen Charles Li from Menlo Park, California was detained by the national security bureau and police at the Guangzhou Airport when he visited his family during the Chinese New Year in 2003. When former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin visited Iceland in June 2002, ethnic Chinese and Western practitioners from the United States and Canada wanted to go to Iceland to peacefully demonstrate, but they were prevented from entering Iceland. Another 50 Falun Gong practitioners from Europe arrived in Iceland but were held by the police at the Reykjavik Airport. It turned out that the CCP supplied a worldwide "blacklist" to the Icelandic government, listing Falun Gong practitioners and labeling them as terrorists. This blacklist included Falun Gong practitioners from Europe, North America, and Taiwan. Its scope, accuracy and timeliness showed that there existed substantial espionage forces controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

These incidences are but a tip of the iceberg. From another perspective, if the Chinese Communist Party is willing to spend so much manpower and material resources on the persecution of Falun Gong, it would not spare anything in collecting military, economic, or sensitive technical information from other countries, especially those that have close trade relationships with China (such as Australia), or those that the Chinese Communist Party regards as threatening (such as the United States).

The Chinese Communist Party is spending huge sums of money training and paying for many special agents and information collectors overseas to conduct espionage, in order to sabotage human rights and freedom of belief around the world. This wicked, unscrupulous act is harming the entire human race.