Press Statement: CHINA’S LONG ARM REACHES ABROAD

Falun Gong Information Centre/Germany

November 4, 2001

Massive politically based intimidation efforts against Falun Gong are under way; Interference in peaceful demonstrations in the USA, Canada, Australia and Ukraine

The wave of Jiang Zemin’s persecution against Falun Gong threatens to roll over into the West and could widen to become a potential international problem abroad. The latest example of this comes from the Ukraine. Igor Izevlin, a practitioner from the Ukraine’s capital city of Kiev held a valid demonstration permit. He was the sole demonstrator in front of the Chinese embassy, where he had erected two placards depicting Falun Gong information. According to eye witnesses at first one policeman approached him and asked him to leave. Then more police arrived, accompanied by government officials and attempted to persuade him to move his demonstration location to the parliamentary complex. The practitioners showed his valid demonstration permit and insisted on his right to remain at the present location. Towards evening an even larger contingent of police arrived, confiscated the placards and forced Igor Izevlin and some other practitioners/demonstrators who had in the meantime joined him to leave. Witnesses heard one of the civil servants exclaim, “You must consider our difficulties. The Chinese embassy puts relentless pressure on us.”

It is no secret any longer that the Chinese consular corps no longer tries to hide their attempts abroad to muzzle this peaceful meditation practice of Falun Gong. More often than not they will inundate those Western government representatives who have spoken for the practice of Falun Gong with Communist propaganda. Associated Press reported a particular incident in California: last year, former mayor of Saratoga/California, the Honorable Stan Bogosian issued a proclamation honouring Falun Gong and declared “Falun Gong Week.” A few days later a Chinese embassy envoy pressured Mr. Bogosian to withdraw his proclamation. When the former mayor refused he was urged by the Chinese representative to remain at least neutral and when then asked about his stand on Taiwan. Mr. Bogosian countered with a press conference in which he denounced the Chinese government’s “unlawful conduct.”

According to Associated Press, at least another dozen cases like this exist across the United States, such as in other parts of California, the State of Washington/Seattle, Illinois, Maryland and Michigan, where Chinese envoys attempted to exert pressure on U.S. government officials and stressed the topic of “the importance of trade relations between China and the United States.”

From intimidation to physical show of force

Several news sources relate incidents of a broadening campaign, steered from the Chinese mainland, to eradicate Falun Gong abroad. The Chinese government’s pressure always points toward the importance of economic and political relations that are supposedly at stake.

Newsday.com tells of an incident in Manhattan, where Chinese government representatives attended seminars for newly immigrated Chinese to the U.S.A. and intimidated these newcomers “to actively work against the Falun Gong movement.” During one of these events, the leading Chinese ambassador declared to the assembled Chinese immigrants that, as long as they are not yet American citizens, they are expected to abide by Chinese law, and according to Chinese law, Falun Gong is outlawed. This same article also revealed that influential organizations in Chinatown who had nothing against Falun Gong before the crackdown in 1999 have begun retaliatory acts against the movement and their community leaders are repeating acts of propaganda and accusations, patterned after the examples from Mainland China.

Various reports from the United States, Canada and Australia tell of a new, disturbing trend, namely the use of physical force against Falun Gong practitioners on the parts of Chinese embassy and diplomatic missions employees in front of those Chinese embassies. Descriptions of some of those incidents follow:

On October 5th, 2001, a member of the Chinese embassy in Canberra/Australia, who called himself a diplomat, hit a Falun Gong demonstrator in the face and curse out a group of practitioners. According to eye witnesses, the man emerged from the embassy, began to curse the practitioners and ordered them to leave. “Don’t even tell me that you are Australian citizens and that this here is Australian territory! What difference would that make?” When one of the practitioners took the man’s pictures, he lunged at her, twisted her arm and pushed another woman out of the way. When the photographer quickly handed the camera to another practitioner, the Chinese diplomat hit her hard in the face. When the practitioner called police, several embassy employees came out of the building and pulled the “diplomat” inside.

In September of 2001, a young woman Falun Gong practitioner was accosted in Chicago. She was present in front of the Chinese embassy there when three men jumped from a black Mercedes SUV, ran after her, pursued her and beat her. Another practitioner, Bill Fan, who was on a hunger strike/demonstration in front of the consulate and had taken pictures of the three men who had screamed foul epithets at the demonstrators from their car. According to several independent eyewitnesses, when the three noticed his camera, they jumped from their car, grabbed his camera and threw it on the ground. Then they slammed his face against a fence and beat him with their fists. When the police were called, they yelled at Fan “if we get caught, we will kill you,” and then they ran away.

Adam Montonaro, Falun Dafa Information Center’s spokesperson in New York alerted us to increasing incidents of underhanded dealings by Chinese members of the diplomatic corps around the world. He said,” It is embarrassing and demeaning. These actions by overseas Chinese government employees are not only totally inappropriate but in many cases are also incidents of breaking the law.”

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