Singapore: Chinese Falun Gong Practitioner's Visa Cancelled by Singapore Authorities

Ms. Zhao, a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner, had her long-term visitor's visa canceled and was forced to leave Singapore in May, 2010. Ms. Cui, also a Falun Gong practitioner, attempted to renew her long-term visitor's visa in late August. Her application was rejected on August 28th, 2010.

Like Ms. Zhao, Ms. Cui is visiting her daughter who is studying in Singapore. She has been in Singapore for about four years. Over the past two years, Ms. Cui often went to Singapore's famous tourists sites - the Esplanade Park and Mount Faber to speak with tourists from around the world about Falun Gong and the persecution. On August 13th, 2010, officer Chen from the Central Police Division led five officers and arrived at the Esplanade Park and forcibly confiscated practitioners' flyers and truth clarification displays, and took record of the practitioners' identification cards. Ms. Cui refused to cooperate, and was suspected to be an illegal immigrant, and forcibly taken to the central police division to be interrogated. She was released after nearly two days of detention. Later on, Ms. Cui went to the police division to tell the officers about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, but a Singapore immigration officer told her that her long-term social visit pass was going to be canceled when she went to renew it on August 28th, 2010.

The Singapore Central Police Division issued her a two-week temporary residence permit because her case had been submitted to the Attorney General's Chamber to be investigated. Ms. Cui then had to extend her temporary residence permit once every week with an explanatory letter from the police. On November 18th, officer Lan from the Central Police Division called her to inform her to meet him at 10 am on November 19th at his third floor office with her passport and her temporary residence permit. He then told Ms. Cui that she was given a disciplinary warning for displaying placards without a permit. After that, he drove Ms. Cui in a police vehicle to the Departure Office of the Immigration Building, and ordered her to leave Singapore before November 20th, 2010.

Ms. Cui's underage son is still studying in Singapore. Such unreasonable treatment puts Ms. Cui's life in a very difficult situation. She appealed to the immigration officials, and sought help from the US Embassy in Singapore, but it was closed at the time.

Ms. Cui is one of a number of Falun Gong practitioners who have been subjected to persecution in Singapore. Several Divine Land Marching Band members were discriminated against when they applied for extensions of their visas or renewed their permanent residence status. Ms. Zhao and Li Li, conductor of the band, had their applications rejected and were forced to leave Singapore.

Singapore officials have collected names of local Falun Gong practitioners with all means possible for a long time, and then made things difficult for the practitioners when they renewed their visas or applied for new permits or passes. Since the Chinese Communist Party started the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, the Singapore authorities have succumbed to CCP coercion and enticement, and suppressed local Falun Gong practitioners. Many Chinese practitioners who accompanied their children studying in Singapore were forced to leave Singapore and return to China after their applications to extend their visas were rejected, making them face more brutal persecution. The Singapore police brought false charges against and brought practitioners to court six times in 2001, 2004 and 2006, because the practitioners distributed information about Falun Gong and the persecution, mailed informational VCDs and spoke with people about Falun Gong. Some practitioners were sentenced to imprisonment, and some forced to leave Singapore. In recent cases, seven practitioners who have long been doing the exercises and doing truth clarfication with displays in the Esplanade Park, were arrested prior to Hu Jintao's visit to Singapore in 2009 during the APEC Summit. A subordinate court started trying the practitioners, accusing them of vandalism since November 18th.