Hong Kong: Falun Gong Practitioners Hold a Peaceful Appeal during Liu Qi's Visit to Hong Kong

Li Qi, a member of China's Polit Bureau of the Central Committee, Secretary of Beijing's Municipal Committee of the CPC, and President of the Beijing Olympic Committee, along with Wang Qishang, Mayor of Beijing arrived at Hong Kong on the 1st of September, 2004. The following day, they attended the opening ceremony of the "Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium". During Liu Qi's stay in Hong Kong, Falun Gong practitioners held peaceful appeals at Chater Gardens and the Government House condemning Liu Qi for his part in making Beijing one of the areas where Falun Gong is most severely persecuted during his post as Mayor of Beijing and Secretary of Beijing's Municipal Committee of the CPC.

Falun Gong practitioners practice the exercises and send forth righteous thoughts outside the Government House

The security level during Liu Qi's visit to Hong Kong was strict and comparable to that of former President of China Jiang Zemin. It's believed that the high security was related to the fact that he has been sued for genocide and torture in international courts by Falun Gong practitioners in a number of countries and he is very afraid of facing Falun Gong practitioners' appeals which expose his crimes in public. It is reported that on the morning of the 2nd of September, when several Falun Gong practitioners distributed leaflets exposing the persecution conducted by Liu and the Chinese ruling party near the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, they were stopped and questioned by police officers.

It is reported that Liu Qi repeatedly endorsed the escalation of the suppression of Falun Gong in his governmental work reports during the fourth and fifth session of the 11th and the first session of the 12th Beijing Municipal People's Congress. One of the six governmental works he planned for the year 2001 was to intensify the repression of Falun Gong. In addition, when he arranged projects for the 2003 National Day, plans to suppress Falun Gong were on his list.

Therefore, in 2002, when Liu Qi visited the U.S. as Mayor of Beijing and President of the Beijing Olympic Committee, he was served with a lawsuit by two Falun Gong practitioners. In July of 2003, a court in San Francisco found Liu Qi guilty of overseeing the torture of those who practise Falun Gong. Judge Magistrate Edward M. Chen denied foreign sovereign immunity to former Beijing Mayor Liu Qi and Vice Governor of Liaoning Province, Xia Deren. This means that if Liu Qi steps onto U.S. soil, an arrest warrant will be issued.

It was reported that on the 2nd of July, 2003, Beijing Falun Gong practitioners Bian Xuzhuang and Shen Shumin who recently arrived in the U.S. related their experiences of being persecuted for practicing Falun Gong at a press conference. In their statement, they explained that because they would not succumb to pressure to renounce their belief in Falun Gong, they were targeted for persecution. After the 20th of July, 1999, they were illegally placed under surveillance, abducted by the authorities without any legal procedure and detained by the Beijing police. They related how their apartment was broken into and destroyed, the mental and physical torture they had suffered, how their rights, personal freedom and freedom of belief were deprived They expressed that former Mayor of Beijing Liu Qi bears heavy responsibility for the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing.

On the 17th of February, 2004, the World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) announced their investigation into the actions of Jia Qinglin, Liu Qi and Qiang Wei from Beijing's Municipal Government and Beijing's Municipal Committee of the CPC. The investigation report listed seventeen major criminals in the persecution of Falun Gong as targets of investigation. They are: Jia Qinglin (former Secretary of Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC), Liu Qi (Secretary of Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC and former Mayor of Beijing), Qiang Wei (Deputy Secretary of Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC), Liu Zhihua (Deputy Mayor of Beijing), Zhang Mao (Deputy Mayor of Beijing), Ji Lin (Member of Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC, Secretary of Beijing Municipal Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs), Cai Fuchao (Member of Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC, President of Beijing Municipal Publicity Department), Jiang Xiaoyu (former member of Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC, President of Beijing Municipal Publicity Department), Ma Zhenchuan (Director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security), Zhou Kaidong (former Director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Reeducation through Forced Labour), Zheng Zhenyuan (Director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Reeducation through Forced Labour), Zhang Xingrong (Commissar of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Reeducation through Forced Labour), Liu Wei (Director of Beijing Municipal "6-10 Office¹"), Zhou Jihong (Vice Director of Beijing Municipal "6-10 Office"), Xu Yongli (Vice Director of Beijing Municipal "6-10 Office"), and Wang Liming (Chief of the Investigation Division of Beijing Municipal "6-10 Office").

The investigation report pointed out that it has been verified that since the 20th of July, 1999, when former President of China Jiang Zemin began persecuting Falun Gong, the above personnel directed and orchestrated the persecution of Falun Gong in Beijing, which made Beijing one of the areas where Falun Gong has been most persecuted most severely. International human rights organisations verified that until the 17th of February, 2004, at least 24 local Falun Gong practitioners died as a result of the persecution in Beijing. Its death toll was only second to Chongqing among municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Notes:

1. "6-10 Office" - an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.