Speech by John Bowis MEP at a Falun Gong Press Conference in Strasbourg

I am here because I believe in Human rights, because I believe in freedom of expression and because I believe that if I disagree with a faith or political belief, the person that holds that faith or political belief has the absolute right to speak and think freely. This is the basis of a free country, the basis of a free world; it is basis of the European Court of Human Rights and whatever the details of the case, I hope the Court upholds those principles.

I am also a British Member of the European Parliament. I represent London and I know how much my colleague Roger Helmer does to support the cause of Falun Gong. In a previous life, I was in the British Parliament and got to know Falun Gong constituents in London. So they told me about Falun Gong, its origins, its practices, its way of life. What was clear was that in its early days, the Chinese authorities actually encouraged it. It was seen as something not threatening; it was seen as something healthy that contributed to the wellbeing of people. And then they got cold feet, and thought that perhaps this was leading to some self-expression that went beyond the wishes of the regime. I think that was very sad. Because China is a very big country, to be part of a country, it does not need to suppress the instincts and wishes of individuals and groups and minorities.

I have spent many years campaigning for human rights in psychiatry. I am a member and an activist within the Geneva Initiative, which has campaigned over the years for the abolition of abuses of psychiatry in the Soviet Union and in countries of likeminded eastern bloc, as we describe it, and then went on to help those countries as they brought in reforms and better mental health practice. China was one of the first of those countries to move towards reform and to reform those abuses of psychiatry. And some of the other countries, Russia and other countries in the West, took longer but now suddenly China has slipped back into this practice and we had to start campaigns again.

I was in China last year in Beijing and I was very impressed with everything I saw in China. It is booming, it is like Berlin after the Wall cam down. Everywhere there were cranes, the sign of investments, in preparation for the Olympic Games. It is clearly a self-confident country again. That made it all the more sad that it can’t solve…won’t at the moment allow freedom for all citizens throughout this great country. Later last year, I was at the World Psychiatric Association [Conference] and I saw some of your members there too because I met them demonstrating outside. The demonstration was against the abuses in China that are perpetrated against Falun Gong and indeed others. And we carried motions within the World Psychiatric Association and brought some of the messages back to one of my committees, which was a development committee. I had a hearing there and put pressure on again from the European Union to keep pressure on China. I took an academic, Robin Munro, who wrote books about this, to see Chris Patten the External Affairs Commissioner, He promises to keep up the pressure on as much as he could when dealing with the Chinese People’s Republic.

So my message to China is that you are great nation, you have a great history, you are the cradle of civilisation, and in so many ways for our world you have brought us so many benefits. And yet here is something which (is besmirching the discussion as we describe it; it) is a stain on your proud record, which is the way you are treating some of your minorities, of which Falun Gong is one we look at today. And surely, surely, you can realise that is not going to help the cause of China in the world. Our interest is to have Western Europe working along with the Chinese people wherever they are but certainly within the great Chinese republic for peace, for good will, for prosperity and for human rights, and it is our commitment that we will go on pressing for that in the months and years ahead. And I hope that before too long we will see progress reported back from you to us that this pressure is having effect and that the people who share the community with Falun Gong are able to practise their life style as they wish again. Thank you!