UK: Falun Gong Practitioner Xie Weiguo: Zhu Yongjie's Situation is Very Worrying

My fiancée Zhu Yongjie has been illegally detained in the Daxin forced labour camp in Beijing for one and a half years now. She is a young and energetic girl and a staff member of the Tsinghua Tongfang Group of Companies. It is a great violation and abuse of basic human rights for such a wonderful girl to be detained in a labour camp just because of her belief in Falun Gong. With the time passing day by day, the righteousness and evilness of human nature are contrasted more clearly. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by Jiang’s regime has reached the point of madness and is extremely evil. It is reported with clear evidence that nine hundred and fifty three Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death so far (see http://media.minghui.org/gb/death_report.html). The evilness and the brutality of the Jiang regime’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners make Yongjie’s situation very worrying.

Zhu Yongjie was secretly arrested on the 4th of November 2002, just before the 16th Chinese Communist Party Congress. For the following three months we had no idea of her whereabouts. After appeals and help by people from different corners, the detention centre where she was held was finally located. During that time, the parents of Zhu Yongjie were extremely worried, which was made worse by their enquiry about her from the Ministry of State Security and its refusal to reveal her whereabouts. They travelled thousands miles from Urumchi to Beijing to enquire about her, but the Ministry of State Security refused to see them. Two months later, they travelled to Beijing again. This time they were allowed to see Yongjie for a short time. There was no arrest warrant for the arrest of Zhu Yongjie, and her family was not informed of her arrest. Her basic human rights were brutally abused. Then the Ministry of State Security wanted to know, through Yongjie and her parents, about my activities in UK and about my family.

After her arrest, Zhu Yongjie was not allowed to receive phone calls from outside, and only allowed to receive phone calls of three to five minutes from her parents each month. Through her parents I learnt that apart from the birthday card I sent her, which she was allowed to have a quick glance at, she was not shown any other letters I wrote to her. Every time I described to people here in the UK how the Chinese labour camps treat Falun Gong practitioners, they are astonished by the human rights situation in China. They are all willing to help to improve the human rights situation in China.

The Ministry of State Security has never relaxed their grip on Zhu Yongjie’s case. They have been maintaining contact with her parents, using pretend kindness as well as threats. Because my passport is going to expire on May 13th, I need to extend my passport. Zhu Yongjie and her parents are very concerned about this. In the UK, the Chinese embassy has refused to extend the passports of four Falun Gong practitioners. The Ministry of State Security took this opportunity to call me, first through Yongjie’s parents, and then again in April this year together with her father.

From the following conversations, one can easily see how evil the Ministry of State Security is under Jiang’s control.

A Member of the Ministry of State Security: “We are fully aware of your activities in the UK. It would be totally impossible for you to extend your passport in the UK. You will have to come back to China and then we will help to extend it.” Yongjie’s parents were very frightened about this.

A Member of the Ministry of State Security said, ”As long as you don’t apply for refugee status, everything is ok. If you do, then your immediate family and relatives in China, if not all your relatives, will be affected. You and Yongjie’s parents, brothers and sisters will all be affected.” I was very astonished to hear about this.

A Member of the Ministry of State Security said, “In China it’s not like what you read on the Internet now. The new leadership does not care too much about Falun Gong. There are very few Falun Gong practitioners being sentenced to prisons and labour camps.” This is a lie which can be easily exposed. It was just published on the Internet that Li Xianghong, a teacher in the Xinjiang Technological College, was illegally sentenced to prison for eleven years; Wu Xiangwan who used to practice Falun Gong with me in Tsinghua University was recently sentenced to eight years and Zhou Bin for eleven years.

A Member of the Ministry of State Security said, “If you come back to China to extend your passport following the instructed routes of in and out, and if you don’t do illegal things, then I can guarantee your safety. I will arrange a special exit at Beijing airport, and Yongjie’s father and I will receive you at the airport, you will be safe.” Ha! Ha! He would bother to travel a long distance from Urumchi to Beijing to receive me for nothing. His motive is very obvious.

In order to convince Yongjie’s parents, this member of the Ministry of State Security told them he could put the guarantee in writing. Yongjie’s father, a humble and honest man, said: “If Xiao Xie comes back to China and has anything happen to him, I will be so ashamed that I would not want to live.” How can a word from a member of the Ministry of State Security be trusted? This guy said he has arranged this with his superior, But in China, they don’t have a final say.

Member of the Ministry of State Security said further, “We can arrange for you to see Xiao Zhu and you can marry her when you come back. We cannot release her half a year in advance, but we can release her half a month in advance.” Because Yongjie’s parents are very concerned for me, they may be confused. But behind this pretend kindness, it’s very frightening.

Outside China, kind-hearted people around the world are continuously helping to rescue the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China. More and more countries stand out and condemn the Jiang regime’s persecution. In the UK, Falun Gong practitioners have collected over twenty thousand signatures appealing for the release of Zhu Yongjie, Zhu Baolian, He Jian and other UK practitioners’ family and friends persecuted and detained in China.

In China there are many other practitioners like Zhu Yongjie who are investigated by the Ministry of State Security. Their situations are of great concern. The persecution by Jiang’s regime against Falun Gong practitioners is terrifying. Only when more people stand up for the end of this persecution,can the situation fundamentally improve.