Press Release: Chinese Consulate in Austria Exerts Pressure

August 31st 2004

VIENNA - Yong Wang has lived on a permanent residency status in Austria for more than ten years. He attained a Business Administration Degree in Vienna, is employed as a software developer, and married a native Austrian last year, with whom he had a baby. Unfortunately, the thirty-two year old Austrian of Chinese descent has serious problems: At the beginning of July, he applied for a passport extension at the Chinese Consulate in Vienna, which was refused. He was informed verbally that this decision was made because he is a Falun Gong adherent, but a written refusal was not granted.

In the interim, the Wangs, who reside in Neustadt, a suburb of Vienna, asked for help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice. The Society for Threatened Peoples International also sent an appeal letter to the Embassy, but as of now to no avail. Nothing was accomplished by the media either. As the passport expiration date is September 10th, the Austrian authorities are in the process of expediting citizenship proceedings.

On Monday, a rare complaint was launched, based on the UN Torture Convention, by the Vienna District Attorney’s Office. The legal representatives of the “International Society for Human Rights” and “The Society for Threatened Peoples International” charge in this complaint the visiting Communist Party politician, Jia Qingling, for being one of the most infamous architects in the persecution and fight against Falun Gong. Jia Qinglin is the former Secretary of the Beijing Party Committee, as well as a member of the prominent Politburo of the Communist Party Central Committee.