Italian Media: Free China Film “A Human Rights 'Bomb'”

On June 8, 2013, the Italian newspaper, La Stampa , published an article titled, “A Human Rights 'Bomb' at US China Summit,” written by reporter Paolo Mastrolilli. The article is about the documentary, Free China , which highlights the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong and the issue of organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners.

The film covers the experiences of two Falun Gong practitioners who had been jailed in Chinese forced labour camps. These camps wantonly engage in the practice of harvesting organs from living prisoners then selling them to people from overseas who travel to China as “transplant tourists.” The article reminded the world that China's human rights abuses have not been forgotten.

When Kean Wong, the producer of the film, had met Zheng Zeng, a mother, Falun Gong practitioner, and former CCP member, she told him that she had been imprisoned in a labour camp for her faith and brutally tortured. When she was no longer able to endure the pain, she agreed—under great duress—not to practise Falun Gong any more.

After Kean helped Zheng obtain asylum in Australia, she wrote an autobiography. When Kean met Michael Perlman, the director and producer of the documentary, Tibet: Beyond Fear , he told him about Zheng's story.

Mr. Perlman agreed to work on the documentary with Kean and added an additional subject, Dr. Charles Lee, a Chinese American doctor. Dr. Lee had been jailed in China for attempting to broadcast videos on China’s state-run cable TV network, videos that detailed the regime's illegal persecution of Falun Gong.

The La Stampa article went on to say that the premiere of the documentary should make Chinese President Xi Jinping feel at least a little uncomfortable. At the premiere, the two main characters in the documentary, Zheng Zeng and Dr. Charles Lee, met with the audience. Zheng talked a little bit about her experience in a Chinese forced labor camp.

“The first day that I had arrived in the labor camp, I was ordered to squat for 16 hours,” Zheng explained. “After the guards beat and tortured me, they gave me a thorough medical exam, which I thought was rather strange. Actually, the medical exam was performed in preparation for organ harvesting.”

Zeng also talked about the agony of being forced to renounce her belief in Falun Gong. “I 'surrendered,' in order to be with my daughter,” she said. however, the guards felt that I had betrayed my own conscience.”

“The night before I was to be released,” she said, “I was ordered to monitor a 19-year-old girl who had refused to be transformed. I really wanted to cry. Although I was glad to be leaving the camp, I knew that this young girl was going to be brutally tortured until the guards broke her will.”

Director Perlman is of the opinion that we should not do business with China because even the most basic of human rights are not protected there. He suggests that people sign a petition calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong.