Iceland: Activities during a Visit by the Chinese Vice-President

The Vice president of the Chinese Government came for a public visit to Iceland between the 9th and 12th of July. This is the third summer in a row that a member of the Chinese Government has come to visit the island, starting with Jiang Zemin´s visit in summer 2002. Last year, Luo Gan visited the country and now Wang Z. Icelanders are wondering what kind of ties are being made between the two countries. Some MP´s from Iceland have also been visiting China lately, for example the Minster of Justice Bjorn Bjarnason, who went to Beijing for quite some time earlier this summer.

Icelandic Falun Gong practitioners, with the help of a veteran Swedish practitioner, held a peaceful appeal and a press conference outside the Chinese Embassy in Reykjavik on the 9th of July. Only two Icelandic practitioners were able to organise and take part in these activities, but no more seemed to be needed to catch the attention of basically all the media in Iceland. The media reported on the activities and had interviews with the most veteran Icelandic practitioner at their press conference and on other occasions from the 9th until the 12th of July, the whole time the Chinese officials public visit lasted. In fact it was an Icelandic newspaper journalist who contacted and first informed an Icelandic practitioner of this visit, which gave her and other practitioner some time to prepare.

The peaceful appeal had been scheduled for 10.00 a.m. and a press conference at 11.00 a.m. outside the Chinese Embassy on the 9th. Photographers from both of Iceland's TV channels and all three of her main newspapers were there punctually at 10.00 and asked the Icelandic practitioners to show their banner with the words: “China: Stop torturing and killing Falun Gong practitioners” in Icelandic and hold it on the pavement in front of the Embassy's entrance. Soon, an employee from the Embassy came outside asking the practitioners to leave. The photographers immediately responded and told this person that the pavement in front of the embassy´s house was a public place and that they were now in Iceland not in China. The employee then got really embarrassed and soon asked all the media people that were there in for tea, an offer that was kindly rejected.

All the media that witnessed what happened that morning at the Chinese Embassy - at least one radio station, both TV channels, and all three newspapers had pictures, footage and reports of the practitioners holding their banner plus this Chinese person who was really helpful in displaying what kind of mentality he is representing. Both TV channels made jokes about how this small group of people seemed to be such a big threat to the Embassy´s employers who even called the Icelandic police asking for protection.

The main points that practitioners gave the Icelandic media included that they were not against this particular Chinese guest, his government nor their own government, but they called for an end to the horrifying human right violations, torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners and other innocent people in China. Another important point that the Icelandic practitioners stressed was that other countries of the world needed to stay alert and resist the pressure from a big state like China, which was trying to impose distorted values on other nations as well, as well as trying to harass Falun Gong practitioners outside China. The spokesperson on behalf of Icelandic practitioners also put forward information from a German jury, which included the fact that the Icelandic government, along with the German one, did receive slanderous propaganda from the Chinese regime before the visit of Jiang Zemin in the summer 2002. This is important news for the Icelandic people, since the Icelandic Government persistently denied having had any bad information on Falun Gong before Jiang Zemin´s visit. This is indeed a highly sensitive issue in Iceland because of the blacklisting of Falun Gong practitioners that happened here at that time, resulting in detainment of many Falun Gong practitioners and the barring of several of the them from boarding Icelandic aeroplanes at many airports around the world. The incident in South Africa was also explained

The Icelandic spokesperson was asked to come to a radio talk show on the 10th of July and a popular morning TV programme on Monday morning, where she got to explain both the situation of Falun Gong in China and facts about the practise itself.

During the activities outside the Chinese Embassy in Reykjavik, many people walked up to us to express their support. Some of them even wanted to learn the practise and one person mentioned that when he had been in Denmark on holiday he had been so embarrassed to say he was Icelandic, as the ban of Falun Gong in 2002 during the Chinese State visit has indeed left a dark mark on the reputation of Iceland. An old couple said it was indeed ridiculous how the Icelandic Government could have been fooled to that extent by the Chinese Government. All media reports were also very positive, and reported in a fair way. One more opportunity has presented itself for the people of Iceland to hear the truth and Icelandic practitioners keep doing their best to let more people know the truth about Falun Dafa.