UK Government 2004 Human Rights Report is Critical of China’s Human Rights Practice and Treatment of Falun Gong Practitioners

The UK Government published its 2004 Human Rights Report on the 10th of November. The Report stated, “The UK Government continues to have serious concerns about basic human rights in China…Our on-going concerns include: the extensive use of the death penalty; the use of torture; the continuing harassment of political dissidents, religious practitioners and adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement; the situation in Tibet and Xinjiang; and severe restrictions on basic freedoms of speech, association and religion.”

The Report went on to say, “We also remain concerned at reports of the mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in detention and have raised this during the dialogue. The Chinese side denies that Falun Gong practitioners are mistreated in detention, despite clear evidence to the contrary.” The report also pointed out that the so called ‘Strike Hard’ campaign “targeted certain groups such as the Falun Gong”.

Regarding “freedom of expression”, the report stated that In China “NGOs estimate that the authorities employ 30,000 technicians to track which websites people are visiting and to block off any new routes they find around the national firewall.”