Sweden: Speech Forum on China’s Human Rights Held in Lund City

On May the 8th, 2004, at the invitation of Amnesty International Lundaavdelningen and the United Union Svenska FN-Foereningar, a team of speakers arrived in Lund, home of a famous university in Sweden, on the second stop on their Northern European tour to attend a speech forum, for which the venue was provided by the Skane Social Forum. The team was composed of the Executive Director of the Association for Asian Research, Erping Zhang, a renowned Canadian attorney, Mr. Clive Ansley, the Executive Director of Laogai Research Foundation, Mr. Harry Wu, and Jane Dai, together with her four-year-old daughter Fadu Chen, who lost her husband due to the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. The topics of the speeches they delivered were: China’s Human Rights Situation, especially the Freedom of Speech in China, the Re-Education-Through-Labour (RETL) System and Forced Labour Economy, the Chinese Legal System, China’s Massive Bloody Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners and the collective suppression of other beliefs, etc. Lund City Mayor, Mr. Larry Andow, attended the meeting in person, and gave an opening address. The in-depth analysis mentioned by the speakers on China’s human rights problems, coupled with Ms. Dai’s vivid recounting of her personal experience in the bloody persecution made the speech forum a striking event to the people of Lund City and had a great deal of repercussions.

Lund City Mayor was very much concerned about the issue concerning China's human rights persecution as well as this speech forum. He set aside some time to rush to the forum and gave an opening address. He said: “Foshan City in Guangzhou Province is twinned with Lund City; therefore, we have much to do with China. In recent years, many Chinese legal scholars came to study in Lund. In the talks with them, I often criticised China’s human rights issues. I felt very sorry for the persecution of human rights in China. And I asked my Chinese guests several times about the two questions that confused me and will never be accepted by me: Why is Falun Gong persecuted? Why should the family members of those who faced the death penalty pay the cost of the bullets? However, I have yet to receive any answers. This kind of things will never be accepted in any society."

A renowned Canadian legal scholar and Sinologist, Mr. Amsler, based on his working experience in China’s legal circles, delivered a speech on China's legal system. He mentioned: The Chinese government said that China’ human rights situation has been improved, and China is still working on it. Is that true? The Chinese government sends legal scholars to study overseas every year; it seems that China is really making progress. As a matter of fact, all these are not true. In China, human rights are regarded as politics. In a country without human rights, the government cannot protect your interests. China is not a country ruled by law, but ruled by men. If China’s fundamental problems are not resolved, even those with a PhD degree in law from the Oxford University can do nothing significant in China. The Chinese Communist Party’s control is penetrating the entire judicial system, and Jiang Zemin even instructs the Chinese Supreme Court how to sentence some cases over the telephone. In China courts make judgments based on politics as opposed to justice. Finally, he generally concluded his wonderful thirty minute speech by saying that, “China’s courthouses are not courthouses.”

Next, the Executive Director of the Association for Asian Research, Erping Zhang, gave a keynote speech on the “Freedom of the Media in China.” He took the persecution of Falun Gong in China for example to illustrate the Chinese government’s control over the freedom of speech and belief. He said: Why is the Chinese government so sensitive to freedom of information? Because they know that if China had increased their information transparency, China wouldn’t have been as it is now. Two years ago, the Chinese government took a big fire in an Internet café as an excuse to shut down about 2,000 Internet cafes in Beijing. Shortly afterwards all the Internet cafes around the county were shut down as well. To block Internet access to the general public, the Chinese government appropriated 80 billion Yuan to promote the so-called “Golden Shield” project to fully monitor what the general public press on their keyboards. The websites that were blocked entirely include Falun Gong’s websites and the websites of some famous western media, such as BBC, Wall Street Journal, the Voice of America, etc. In terms of the struggle for Internet freedom, the Falun Gong practitioners in China have done a remarkable job. They have broken through the blockade to spread the bloody persecution in China to the outside world.

The topic of the speech given by the Executive Director of Laogai Research Foundation, Mr. Harry Wu, was “the Re-education-through-labour (RETL) System in China.” Based on his nineteen-year experience in forced labour camps, he exposed the illegal system used by China to rule its people and increase its economic production. He said: I once visited some concentration camps, such as the one in the Auswitch, etc. After seeing the massive gas chamber used to exterminate Jews, I felt that Hitler’s I.Q. was far lower than the authoritarian Chinese government officials, because he Hitler simply wanted to employ Germany’s advanced science and technology to forcibly destroy human bodies. However, the Chinese regime has created and implemented a massive and more effective killing machine, i.e., China’s Re-education-through-labour (RETL) System. The RETL System destroys people spiritually, forces people to change their ways of thinking, and transforms them into obedient robots. So it is really terrible. This illegal system incessantly provides two things: One is transformed people, and the other, economic products. The products manufactured in forced labour camps have become part of China’s economy. Currently, Falun Gong practitioners, Catholics, dissidents, and even those who have written articles to express their dissatisfaction with the Chinese government on the Internet, are the targets for re-education in forced labour camps. He especially criticised the training programme the Swedish government has pushed ahead and sponsored by the Roul Wallenberg Institute for Chinese judges, prosecutors and other people in judicial circles. He added: Perhaps you might be ignorance of the practical situation in China, and perhaps you are really too kind. However, this training programme is like the scenario that you want to transform a carnivorous tiger into an herbivorous animal, so it is bound to be in vain.

A delegate of the Amnesty International Lundavdelning’s China Working Group reported their work in helping Falun Gong practitioners by introducing the latest situation of Falun Gong practitioner Yu Changquing, who used to be a professor. She said: Professor Yu Changquing was arrested on July 1st 1999. In 2002, through a ridiculous trial, he was sentenced by the Chinese authorities to seventeen years in prison on charges of engaging in illegal activities. But the so-called illegal activities refer to the fact that he had been engaged in the publication of Falun Gong books. As we all know, the official announcement of the illegality of Falun Gong was on July 22nd. Before that, Falun Gong was still legal. But Professor Yu was arrested in earlier July. All what happened to him was indeed ridiculous. At present, this elderly man in his 70s is still in prison. His health condition is bad, so we have tried hard to rescue him. Such suppression against Falun Gong practitioners is by no means acceptable.

The moderator then introduced the last speaker of this forum, Ms. Jane Dai and her daughter, who are a witness to the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, and lost her husband in the persecution. When this young mother was walking slowly to the podium, hand in hand with her daughter Fadu, and with her husband Cheng Chengyong’s portrait, many participant’s eyes were brimming with tears. Jane Dai recounted how her entire family had benefited from practicing Falun Gong and how her husband was murdered while appealing to the authorities in Beijing for upholding his belief. Ms. Dai burst into tears, and the audience openly grieved with her. Nevertheless, Jane Dai did not feel depressed for her family tragedy. After her husband was murdered, she has traveled all over the world with her daughter to urge the ending of the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. In order to awaken the world’s benevolence and avoid more children suffering from the pain of losing their fathers like Fadu, as well as to stop the persecution, Jane and her daughter have traveled to forty countries. Finally she appealed to all of the people attending the forum: “In China, there are thousands upon thousands of families like mine, and thousands upon thousands of children like Fadu. But they are ignored by others, and they have no place to appeal for justice. They are unable to live a normal life like other children. I hope that you are able to reach out your helping hands to them, and stop the persecution altogether.”

The effects on the people in Lund City from this forum were strong. They expressed that they did know that the human right problem and the bloody persecution against Falun Gong in China were serious, but they didn’t know that they were as serious as the speakers revealed and that they would tell more people about this situation.