German Parliament Condemns the Chinese Communist Regime’s Forced Labour System

On May 10th, 2007, the German parliament passed a historic resolution condemning the Chinese Communist regime for its forced labour system. In the parliament, all parties unanimously and strongly condemned the Chinese regime’s inhuman forced labour system and called on the German government to seriously investigate the allegations that the regime is harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.

Last March, the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU and Christian Social Union (CSU as well as the opposition parties, including the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Green Party, jointly submitted a resolution condemning the Chinese Communist regime’s forced labour system to the German Federal Parliament. The resolution demanded that the German government call on the Chinese Communist regime to close forced labour camps provide a detailed list of the forced labour camps across the country and the information regarding those who were persecuted to death in forced labour camps and urge German enterprises to boycott products made in Chinese forced labour camps.

In a session on May 10th, 2007, Mr. Thilo Hoppe, member of the German Parliament’s Human Rights Committee and the Green party, called on the German government to seriously investigate the allegations made by Canadian independent investigators on the Chinese regime’s harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. He said, “The investigation report by Canada's former Secretary of State (Asia Pacific) David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas is very convincing. Though the content of the report may not be proven any time soon, we’d like to call on the German government to seriously investigate the allegations against the Chinese Communist regime.” He also reminded the German government, “When training our medical staff, we should be careful. As there is a cooperative relationship between Germany and China, we should not become an accomplice to the atrocious perpetrator without knowing it. It is by no means acceptable.”

Before the German Parliament passed the resolution, officials from the Chinese Embassy in Germany talked to some German Members of Parliament in person and threatened that if the resolution was passed, the bilateral relations between the two countries would be seriously damaged.

Mr. Holger Haibach, MP with Germany's ruling Christian Democrats and spokesman of the Parliament's Human Rights Committee said, “The Chinese Embassy in Germany sent its officials to protest and threaten that if the resolution was passed, it will result in grave consequences. But we were not affected and we have done what we are supposed to do.”

Mr. Florian Toncar, spokesman for the FDP and member of the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee stated, “Chinese officials may express their opinions, but it is impossible for the Chinese diplomats to influence German parliamentarians who were elected by our citizens when we cast our votes. We voted to pass the resolution overwhelmingly.”