European Parliament Hosts Public Hearing about Falun Gong to Commemorate "April 25" Appeal

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the "April 25" peaceful appeal by Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing. On April 15th, Vice President of the European Parliament Mr Edward McMillan-Scott initiated an international public hearing about the lack of freedom of belief in China. Through their own personal experiences as well as some independent investigations,participants analysed the Chinese Communist regime's persecution of Falun Gong and appealed for an end to the persecution.

At the hearing, Vice President of the European Parliament Mr Edward McMillan-Scott condemned the Chinese Communist regime's persecution of Falun Gong, comparing it with the Nazi's persecution of Jews.

Participants from around the world all discussed, from their own angles, the "April 25" peaceful appeal by Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Ethan Gutmann, the author of Losing the New China was in Beijing on April 25th 1999. He carried out a thorough investigation and concluded that the "April 25" event was a trap set up by the Chinese Communist regime to frame Falun Gong: "In fact we talked to a middle-ranking Chinese official. He was in total agreement with the regime then. He claimed that the decision to crush Falun Gong was made far earlier than the public suppression. From this, we can see that the "April 25" event is only an excuse. If Falun Gong practitioners did anything wrong, it was that they walked into this trap. I think people then didn't know it was a trap."

A former intelligence official at China's national security bureau, Li Fengzhi, told the gathering, through a video link from the USA, that the Chinese Communist regime has never stopped persecuting religious groups. Especially against Falun Gong, the regime has used the whole state machinery, unlimited funding and above the law methods to pursue its brutal persecution. The Chinese Communist regime's national security bureau is not an organisation that protects the nation's security. It is a tool for the regime to persecute its own people.

Canadian international human rights lawyer David Matas, Chairman of Reporters Without Borders Willy Fautre, German Chinese author Zhong Weiguang and Falun Gong spokesperson Zhang Erping also spoke in the hearing, appealing to the European Union and international community to speak out together and stop the Chinese Communist regime's persecution of Falun Gong.