Jiang’s Regime Persecutes a Dafa Practitioner in the Netherlands

The author of this article is Qing Deng, a 27-year-old lady who graduated from the Mathematics Department of Beijing Normal University in 1996. In the same year, she came to the Netherlands to study her Masters degree. In September 2001, she graduated from Eindhoven University of Technology with a doctoral degree. She is now working in Eindhoven as a computer engineer.

In September 2002, my Chinese passport was stolen whilst I was travelling in Denmark. I went to the Chinese Consulate in The Hague to apply for a new passport. I was told that my passport would be ready in two to three weeks and I assumed that they had not recognised me as a Falun Gong practitioner, otherwise they would have refused me immediately. However, after three weeks, a Chinese official told me that if I wanted to get my passport back I had to write a statement in which I announce that I have abandoned Falun Gong.

It is necessary for me to briefly describe how I started to practise Falun Gong. Before I practised Falun Gong, I suffered from almost constant migraines for more than a year. Enormous pains in my head made me feel terrible. Because my illnesses slowed me down so much, I almost had to abandon my study, which is something I really enjoy. The situation was getting worse and worse, and I felt that I was approaching death. I had been to different types of hospital to see different doctors. I tried both modern western medicine and Chinese traditional medicine. No doctor could find the cause of my headache and they had no way to reduce my suffering.

I started to practise Falun Gong in July 1998. My headaches soon disappeared and they no longer interfered with my life or my study. Along with practising the exercises and cultivating my mind-nature, I became more and more healthy. In the last four and a half years, I have not been ill once and, therefore, I never needed to take any medicine or see a doctor. I finished my studies smoothly within four years. I could never have imagined this type of success four years earlier when I had almost quit my study because of health problems. The enormous improvements in my body affected my deeply and I know for sure that Falun Gong saved my life.

After practising Falun Gong, I felt such great improvements in both body and mind that I wanted to introduce Falun Gong to my former boy friend, Xu Fan, who was studying in Mexico at that time. He also graduated from Beijing Normal University. In August 1999, we got married in China. Afterwards, he stayed in China.

Like other Falun Gong practitioners in China, Xu Fan was brutally persecuted because he practised Falun Gong. In November 1999, he was detained for a few days because he appealed for Falun Gong in Beijing. In June 2000, he was fired by his work unit because he practised the Falun Gong exercises publicly in a park. At the end of 2000, he was caught in Beijing because policemen found Falun Gong materials in his bag. From 1 January 2001 till 1 May 2002, he was illegally detained in Tuanhe Labour Camp, which is close to Beijing. It is only now that I have learned the full story about how my husband was mentally and physically tortured during the time he was imprisoned, because he did not want to talk about it and bring back any bad memories. After he was released, the Chinese Government denied his right to a passport, and he could not come to the Netherlands to be with me. When I think of his suffering, my heart is almost broken.

Today, in order to force me to give up practising Falun Gong, the Chinese Embassy confiscated my passport. What the Chinese Embassy is doing is inhumane. Looking from another aspect, Chinese citizens have the freedom of belief, which is guaranteed by the Chinese Basic Law. What is the Chinese Embassy’s excuse for interfering with citizens’ right to believe, particularly when they are outside of China?

Without a valid passport, extending my visa to stay in the Netherlands is extremely difficult. Because no one is sure about the details of my visa, my boss is worried that he might have to sack me. In China, there are tens of thousands of people who have lost their jobs because they practise Falun Gong. I could never have imagined that similar persecution would happen to me because I am so far away from China.

The fact that the Chinese Embassy refused to give me a passport deeply hurt me and my husband. The last time we saw each other was September 2000. The persecution against us by the Jiang Regime has made it impossible for us to meet each other in the near future. Because of this illegal persecution by Jiang Zemin’s Regime, my marriage is almost destroyed.

I appeal to all kind-hearted people to offer help. Let us stop this persecution together.