United Kingdom: Press Conference Outside South Africa House after Jiang Extends his State Terrorism to South Africa

The shooting of a Falun Gong practitioner in South Africa on June 28th prompted practitioners the world over to immediately raise their concerns that this was the latest and most disturbing example of the exportation of the persecution of Falun Gong outside of China. To raise their concerns with the public, the media and the South African authorities, practitioners in the UK went to South Africa House on the 1st of July where they held a press conference and handed out information to the public.

Speeches were given by Lord Thurlow, a representative of the Falun Gong Association and the Vice-Chairman of European Friends of Falun Gong. They put the shooting in South Africa in the context of an ongoing campaign of persecution outside of China which has included violence, harassment, phone-taps, interference in emails, death threats and wrongful arrests though serious disruption of political, democratic and diplomatic processes. The speakers also detailed the evidence surrounding the shooting which points at the involvement of the Jiang regime.

South Africa House is on the edge of the capital’s famous Trafalgar Square. As the speeches were given at the end of the working day. Many people on their way home from work and many tourists took leaflets and listened. The large number of people waiting at the bus stop across the road could hear the speeches broadcast over a megaphone.

Asked what he would like the South African Government to do, a local practitioner called Edward commented, “I hope they thoroughly investigate this incident. I think they will find this is related to the visit of the Chinese Officials.” As Lord Thurlow pointed out in his speech at the press conference, it cannot not be coincidence that the victim of the shooting was involved with filing a lawsuit against two visiting Chinese dignitaries, that he knew no-one in South Africa, and that he was the only person in the car wearing anything to identify him as a Falun Gong practitioner and the only one shot.

Despite the horrific nature of the event, Edward does not think it will affect practitioners’ determination to file future lawsuits against those who have instigated the persecution in China. “Practitioners in China step forward to appeal under the pressure of the persecution. Practitioners around the world have the same determination to expose the persecution. I think that this incident will only serve to expose the overseas persecution, and to show people how desperate they are to cover up what has been going on in China.”

Speech by the Vice-Chairman of European Friends of Falun Gong
Appealing opposite the Chinese Embassy