Why is my Passport Application Denied Because I want to be a Good Person?

In March 1998, I was very lucky to come upon Falun Dafa, after one of my friends brought back some Dafa books from New York during his sightseeing trip to the U.S.. After his return to Budapest, he started to actively introduce Dafa to his friends. One day, he asked us to read the materials he downloaded from the website. After taking some pages and skimming through the New Articles, I was overwhelmed by their content. I thus borrowed them from my friend and read them at home. I read thoroughly, with respect, “Essentials for Further Advancement” which was the first Dafa book I came across. I was deeply overwhelmed by the profound meaning of the universal principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance,” and moved by Master Li’s great compassion as well as the mighty righteous power in the book. At that time, I had searched for the true meaning of life for many years, but I still could not understand it. The boat of my life was drifting aimlessly. After I relocated to Hungary in 1993, all kind of things were not favourable to me and I had hard time dealing with them. Business failure, coupled with family breakdown, made me feel even more pessimistic, superstitious and fatigued. Spiritually, the suffering was beyond description and life was almost meaningless to me.

When I learned about the universal principles “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance” I was excited. Human’s lives are created for cultivation, and the real purpose of being human is returning to one’s original, true self. Since then I realised that I should treasure my life and be responsible to myself. I am no longer pessimistic or hesitating. I try my best to live by the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance” in my life. I pay no attention to my personal gain and loss, without jealousy. I always take others’ interests into consideration. When faced with conflicts, I look inward to see where I've gone wrong. As a result, I lead a happy and peaceful life.

With cultivation, my body has undergone tremendous changes. I used to be very weak since my childhood. Though I had never had serious sicknesses, I often had various sicknesses such as headaches, flu, and feeling uncomfortable all over my body. Due to low blood pressure, I often had nosebleeds in summer time. These symptoms were removed after I started to cultivate Dafa. In January 1997, after I sprained my ankle and had my ankle fixed with plaster, the sole of my foot was painful while walking. I could not walk a long distance, or wear shoes with hard soles. After practising the exercises for three or four times, the pain was gone no matter how far I walked or what kind of shoes I wore.

In the past, I could not eat something cold. In the period of twelve years since I gave birth to my child to the time I started to cultivate Dafa, I especially could not eat ice cream. Once I ate ice cream, it would distend my stomach and make me feel pain in my waist and thighs. I tried various medicines, but to no avail. After cultivating Dafa, I have never had this situation no matter whether I eat ice cream in hot weather or cold weather. Seeing the tremendous changes in my body and mind, my friends said that compared to my situation in the past, I seemed to be another person, and that since Falun Dafa is so great, they also wanted to learn Dafa and practise the exercises.

However, the Jiang group disregarded the facts that Dafa enabled more than one hundred million people to become healthy and kind-hearted individuals of high morality, and helped the Chinese government save a tremendous amount of money in medical care. On July the 20th 1999, Jiang Zemin launched a large scale brutal and bloody persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. Under the genocide policies of "beating to death is nothing and can be counted as suicide" and “defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially and eliminate them physically", tens of millions of innocent people have been arrested, sentenced to jail terms, sent to mental hospitals, or persecuted to death. Even an eight-month old baby was no exception. The persecution methods they employed are extremely nasty and brutal. To date, the confirmed death count of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners exceeds one thousand. Moreover, the “black hand” has extended its persecution overseas. Presently the passport renewal application of Falun Gong practitioners in eighteen countries is being denied and even some of their Chinese passports have been confiscated by the Chinese consulates. Furthermore, Falun Gong practitioners were even shot by gunmen hired by Jiang’s group in South Africa recently.

The following is the persecution I have suffered in Hungary as a Falun Dafa practitioner:

In early April, the Chinese Embassy called me and asked me to have an interview at the embassy on the coming Monday. When asked about the reasons for that, they said, “You know what you have done.” My daughter and I bumped into two staff members of the embassy two days ago. They walked towards me, and one of them told me my name. I felt kind of strange, and asked, “How do you know my name?” They replied, “We are from the Embassy.” I doubted it and looked around, but found one of the embassy’s cars was parked nearby. They added, “Now that we have bumped into each other here, let’s have a talk here.” I asked, “What do you want to talk about?” They asked me where and how many years I have practised Falun Gong. I answered the questions and told them the benefits I have gained from practising Falun Gong. They said, “There are many ways to keep fit, and you don’t have to practise Falun Gong. You had better quit practising Falun Gong, and focus on your business so as to lead a stable life. Did you read the flyers you distributed? Why did you mention the name of our Embassy in the flyers? You are involved in politics, and against our government.” I said, “You may not realise the facts about Dafa and the persecution Dafa practitioners have suffered. We are seeking for support and calling for an end to this persecution. Practising Falun Gong not only can keep you fit, but more importantly it can revive moral standards. Falun Gong teaches people how to become more kind-hearted and better person.” They said, “You had better not do things for Falun Gong any more otherwise you should not blame me for my unkindness to you. You should make the right judgement, and be responsible for the consequences.” Then they declared that the conversation was over.

As expected, in May 2003 my passport extension application was unreasonably denied. The following is the story.

In May 2003, since I wanted to renew my residence status, I needed to renew my passport and apply for a new version before it expired. On May the 26th I submitted my application along with the required materials. As other Chinese people, I got a receipt indicating that the new passport could be issued on June the 19th (see the photo below.) One thing I didn’t pay much attention to on the spot was that others’ passports were returned to the applicants after they were checked, and the clerk only kept the duplicates of the passports as well as the applications. However, my passport was kept by the clerk on the spot. Moreover, the receipt I got didn’t indicate the date that I could claim my new passport until I asked for it.

When I went to claim my passport on the date indicated, they said that there were some problems with my application, and asked me to wait. They talked to me in a room next door afterwards. I asked them what had happened, but a clerk surnamed Ma said, “Your passport renewal application is denied.” “Why” I asked. He said, “You practise Falun Gong. Why bother to ask this question!” He sounded as if it is reasonable not to grant passport renewal applications for those who practise Falun Gong. I said, “Falun Gong is very good! What is wrong with wanting to be a kind-hearted person by following the qualities of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance? After all, what is the connection between my passport and Falun Gong?” He replied that it has already been decided by the government.

I said, “The decision is against the facts. It was entirely based on libels and fabricated lies, and the persecution is illegal!” He said, “You should not say that because I majored in law.” I said, “Given that, you should know that the persecution of Falun Gong is absolutely without legal basis.” He kept quiet and then argued irrationally, “Now that it is a fixed policy, you should not say that it is the persecution.” When asked when my passport renewal application could be approved, he said, “If you write something to me, we’ll approve your application.” Upon hearing that, I knew what he wanted me to write. I thus said with a smile, “You see how wonderful I am now. Practising Falun Gong makes my body and mind become healthy. Is it possible for me to give up practising Falun Gong?” And then they asked me to go home and think it over. At that moment, Consul Peng entered the room and asked for the result of the talk. I thus asked, “If you want to deny my passport renewal application, please give me the reasons in writing or return to me my old passport.” They said, “We are not authorised to return your passport to you. It must be agreed by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As to giving you the reasons in writing, it is not stipulated in the working code." They then asked me to go home.

After leaving the Embassy, I felt it was ridiculous to confiscate my passport and deny my application just because I want to cultivate myself to become a kind-hearted person. Why is it so difficult to be a kind-hearted person? Is it a disguised form of persecution? Therefore I came back to claim my passport again. Consul Peng talked to me this time, so I told him why I practise Falun Dafa and the facts about the physical and spiritual benefits I have gained. I said, “I did not break any law, so the Embassy should not detain my passport”. The consul asked, “Do you know what kind of institution the Chinese Embassy is? He emphasised word-for-word, “the Chinese Embassy is an extension of the Chinese Government”. He seemed to tell me that the Embassy was carrying out the Jiang group’s policy, and it had nothing to be blamed for. Then he became irritable and said, “You often led a group of people to make trouble here. It’s outrageous! You are against the government, and it is damaging our national stability and unity.” I replied calmly with a smile, “Consul, you have witnessed that our appeal is always peaceful and rational without any violence. Nonetheless, so many kind-hearted people have been persecuted to death. We were calling for an end to the persecution. What did you mean by ‘against the government’? The persecution of Falun Gong is based on Jiang Zemin’s personal will. Can he represent the Chinese Government”?

The consul went irrational and began to speak ill of Dafa, defame Master Li, and repeat the lies and libels fabricated by the media to defame Dafa. On one hand, I sent forth righteous thoughts, and on the other, I stopped him from saying that. I asked him if he had read our leaflets which contain information about the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. The consul was so unhappy that he stood up to say that he has something else to deal with. I said, “I must submit my passport to the immigration agency tomorrow. Otherwise, I will have trouble with my residence status.” The consul told me, “Unless you write a repentance statement to give up practising Falun Gong, there will be no way for you to get your passport back.” I said, “So when shall I be back again?” The consul replied, “Just wait for our notification.”

In the middle of July, the Embassy notified me to have a talk with them. At the beginning, the consul especially expressed his concern about my life. And then he asked me, for my children’s sake, not to get myself into trouble because of the passport issue. In the meantime, he also mentioned that my daughter held a dependents visa so her residence status was related to mine, and that losing my residence status might affect my daughter’s right of education and make her unable to go back to China, etc. In fact, they fully understood the situation we might encounter without my passport. For one thing, it would affect our residence status, and make us unable to live and work normally. He wanted to know my final decision. I stared at him resolutely and shook my head, indicating that I would never give up practising Dafa. He seemed to be kind of disappointed, and said, “I think you are involved too much to change your mind overnight. But as long as you promise not to practise the exercises in front of the Embassy, we will not stop you practising it at any other places.” He also mentioned that they might return my passport to me, but was unable to approve my extension application. In addition, he told me that I had several more months to decide on writing a repentance statement, and that as soon as I signed the repentance statement, my passport would be extended.

In this way, they confiscated my passport at will, without any legal procedure. No wonder the Jiang group’s orders to persecute Falun Gong is always dealt with confidentially or destroyed right away. They are wary about the evil deeds they have committed.

Many governments insisting on justice and thousands upon thousands of kind-hearted people in the world are moved by the magnificence of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.” In the meantime, since Falun Dafa practitioners are suffering brutal persecution, overseas practitioners have, through various means, exposed this evil persecution. They insist on peaceful appeals and call for various governments and kind-hearted people to help us put an end to this genocide in China. Falun Dafa is good! “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance” are good! Stop the persecution immediately! We speak the from the bottom of our hearts.