The Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners by Jiang's Regime Extends Outside of China

As everyone knows, the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to serious infringements. These infringements have not only endangered the lives of Falun Gong practitioners inside China, but to varying degrees, Falun Gong practitioners overseas are also persecuted.

For the more than three years since July 1999, when Jiang's regime began to unreasonably suppress Falun Gong, the number of verified cases of practitioners being persecuted to death has reached more than 570. In China, there are currently thousands of Falun Gong practitioners still suffering brutal torture in detention centres, forced labour camps, prisons and mental hospitals. Some female practitioners have been sexually abused; several hundred practitioners have been illegally sentenced to prison or labour camp terms, and hundreds of thousands of practitioners have been forced into the brainwashing centres. Millions of practitioners' homes are under surveillance and many have been ransacked. Falun Gong publications, including audio and video materials, are routinely confiscated and burned.

Jiang's regime implemented the policy of "defame their reputation, destroy them economically, and eliminate them physically" to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. To accomplish these ends the regime has instituted the "610 Office" throughout China [the "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems]. This body has undertaken all means to carry out a carefully organised, yet insane suppression of Falun Gong, through the implementation of a program that essentially amounts to state terrorism. Furthermore, in its attempts to eradicate Falun Gong, the Jiang regime seeks to provoke general hatred toward Falun Gong through a viciously negative propaganda campaign.

Not only are Falun Gong practitioners inside China under persecution, practitioners outside of China have also suffered all manner of human rights violations. Some Chinese nationals were deprived of the right to return to China to visit relatives, while practitioners of other nationalities were denied entry and some were forcibly detained and expelled; others were illegally arrested and detained for long periods of time. Other Chinese nationals' applications were refused when applying for passport extensions or renewals, thus causing many of these Falun Gong practitioners to become stateless. Some had to apply for asylum in the countries they were visiting. But even after they were recognised as legitimate refugees under United Nations laws, some were forcibly deported to China under pressure from the Chinese authorities and were immediately detained.

When Jiang was recently visiting foreign countries, because of a blacklist provided by his regime, many Falun Gong practitioners were denied entry to the countries Jiang was visiting and therefore couldn't take part in the peaceful protests against the persecution. Most recently, under pressure from the Chinese government, Hong Kong unreasonably prosecuted, sentenced and fined Falun Gong practitioners (including practitioners of foreign nationality). Further, they are also pushing to legislate Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law, with the ulterior motive to lay the groundwork for a ban and persecution of Falun Gong in Hong Kong.

In their efforts to destroy Falun Gong's reputation overseas, Jiang's regime often uses strategic propaganda to defame Falun Gong. At the same time, it uses trade benefits to try to spread its despotic power in various countries overseas. Using money as a bribe, the regime pays lip service to the issue of human rights, and flaunts the legal banner while trampling international law. From all of the facts above, it is not difficult to see that the Jiang regime's brutal suppression of Falun Gong has not only violated the constitution of its own country, but it also violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which China has signed), as well as the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to incomplete statistics, more than sixty Falun Gong practitioners in Japan have suffered different forms of persecution. These include the following cases: eleven practitioners had their passports cancelled; twenty-eight were denied entry to China and were forcibly expelled; twenty-eight were forcibly detained after entering China, and were later expelled; twenty were illegally arrested and detained; four were sentenced to heavy prison or forced-labour camp terms; seventeen had to apply for asylum overseas. The wife of a Japanese citizen is still in detention in China. The number of cases of direct persecution is over 170.

From the above instances, it is clear that Jiang's regime has created a blacklist of Falun Gong practitioners in Japan. The blacklist is used to deny entry of Falun Gong practitioners into China, so as to prevent them from coming to peacefully appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. At the same time, it has caused Chinese Falun Gong practitioners in Japan to become refugees; they have family in China but they cannot return home; they have a country but cannot go back. This is a devastating attack on an individual. These actions have severely violated the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Article II (b), "Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group" and (c), "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part").

The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Japan provides ironclad evidence in support of the lawsuit against Jiang. In the meantime, we ask the World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong to research all the related departments, organisations and individuals who have persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in Japan, and to fully expose the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners overseas.

Feb. 18, 2003