German Newspaper "Leipziger Volkszeitung" Reports on Xiong Wei being Freed from a Forced Labour Camp and Returning to Germany

According to a report in the German newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung on the 7th of October, on that same day the State Court of Leipzig opened a court case regarding the first lawsuit Falun Gong practitioners filed against being called a cult. The accused was a German academic who published an article in the German media last year in which he called Falun Gong a “psychological cult.”

Leipziger Volkszeitung quoted Ms Lilge-Stodieck from the Falun Gong Information Centre: “We have not reacted to the word ‘cult’ until now, but this time the malicious slander is abominable. Falun Gong does not have a name list or collect fees. We have no interest and purpose in politics. If someone does not want to practise Falun Gong he or she can simply give up.” Lilge-Stodieck’s son is a very good example - he tried to practise Falun Gong for a while and found that Falun Gong was not what he was looking for.

Leipzig religious academic Hubert Seiwert believes, no matter how big the dispute about Falun Gong is, that Falun Gong is definitely not a cult. Teaching in Oxford, Seiwert is one of the few academics who know about Falun Gong. He told Leipziger Volkszeitung that there is not a single aspect that shows that this movement is dangerous. He said, “To make the persecution legal, the Chinese state propaganda agency determines Falun Gong as heresy and a cult. In recent years, Amnesty International and the International Human Right Association have appealed to the Chinese Government to stop the persecution.”

Leipziger Volkszeitung also reported on the persecution in China: “Although there are protests all over the world, Falun Gong practitioners in China are still being persecuted. Xiong Wei, who appeared in court in Leipzig as a witness, is one of the thousands of cases. The thirty-five year old studied economics in Berlin and went back to Beijing to work for a German company. She was arrested in 2002 for distributing leaflets. The Chinese regime sentenced her to two years of labour “re-education” without trial. Xiong Wei said, “In there they want to transform you.” She also talked about beatings, torture, being forced to stand or squat for days on end and using a toothbrush that is shared by twenty three other female prisoners.”

When talking about the support from abroad, Xiong Wei said, “I was lucky. The police did not treat me as brutally as they did the others.” This is due to the pressure from Germany. The German Government and Premier appealed for Xiong Wei’s freedom in Beijing. There were also petitions against the detainment of Xiong Wei and a large-scale activity of sending postcards to the labour camp where she was detained. As soon as Xiong Wei was released, the German Embassy dropped some diplomatic hints and Xiong Wei was able to come back to Germany last week.