Chinese Consulate Refuses to Extend a Chinese Medical Doctor's Passport in UK

My name is Zhao Liping. I am a Chinese medical doctor working in Edinburgh, U.K. I came to the U.K. in December 2001, and have been living and working in the here since then.

My Chinese passport expired on July 27th 2004. Because my passport was submitted to the Immigration & Nationality Directorate as an application for a working visa, it was not returned to me until late August. Afterwards, I needed the passport to open a bank account. Therefore, I didn’t go to the Chinese Consulate in Edinburgh to extend my passport until September 13th. When I was there, the clerk of the Chinese Consulate asked me to present the passport, but I didn’t have it with me. He said that he couldn’t process the extension without the passport, so that I wouldn’t have to waste time in making repeated attempts before showing the passport to him. I said I simply wanted to take the application form. On Monday of the following week, I came to the Chinese Consulate again to apply for an extension of my passport. He told me that I would need to submit a letter to explain why the extension was not filed before expiry. On September 27th, I submitted all of the requested documents. The Chinese Embassy gave me a receipt, and told me the passport would be ready for pickup on September 30th. I had to work in a clinic on that day. I got a phone call from the Chinese Embassy around one o’clock in the afternoon. I was told their equipment was out of order so that I had to wait for their further telephone advice after October 1st.

However, I have never received their phone call. On October 11th and 18th, I made two phone calls to the Chinese Embassy, trying to find out what was going on. I said, “Why can other people’s passport extensions be processed within three to five days, but mine is different from the others? Is it because I practise Falun Gong?” The clerk replied “Yes” at first, but he immediately changed his statement to “No.” He continued to say, “All of the applications have to wait for Beijing’s instructions.” I asked him which department in Beijing. He said it was subject to internal confidentiality. I asked to talk to the Consul face to face. He said the Consul was taking a business trip at first and later on he made an excuse that the Consul had no time. But he promised to pass my letter to him if I wanted.

I wrote a letter on October 30th, and asked him to pass it to the Consul. One week later I went to the Consulate again to inquire about the situation. The answer I got was to keep waiting.

I paid another visit to the Chinese Consulate on Monday January 24th this year. They returned the expired passport to me and told me to keep waiting. They tried to evade their responsibility by claiming that the authorities in Beijing had not given any instructions yet.

It has been more than three months since I submitted my passport. The Chinese authorities have deprived me of my basic rights as a Chinese citizen without any reason or explanation. My practice of Falun Gong fully complies with the Chinese Constitution, which ensures Chinese citizens the right of freedom of belief. What the Chinese Consulate has done does not conform to Chinese law or international legal regulations. Through this description of what has actually happened to me, I hope they can seriously review what they have done, and not to keep blindly following orders from Jiang’s evil group.

The following is the letter that I submitted to the Chinese Consulate in Edinburgh on October 30th 2004.

Dear Respectful Consul,

I came to the Consulate in Edinburgh to file an application for extending my Chinese passport several weeks ago. The advice I obtained was to wait for official instructions. Up to now, more than a month has passed. I know my case has subjected you to a difficult situation because I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I believe that you have a certain understanding about Falun Gong. I can understand some matters are tough to deal with in your position. However, I hope you can pay more consideration to my case.

I have practised Falun Gong for more than seven years. There has been a significant change in my mind and body during the past seven years. My marriage ended in a divorce in 1997. At that time, my daughter was ten years old and I had custody of her. She had a gastric ulcer and was receiving regular medical treatment at a children’s hospital. I also suffered from a severe sleeping disorder and had two abnormal conditions of the cardiac muscle enzyme. The western medical doctor suspected it was a virus-induced cardiac muscle inflammation. I often felt short of breath. Even though I took various kinds of Chinese medicine and western medicine the symptoms did not improve. I also resorted to Qigong therapy. It took me a lot of money to attend several different Qigong therapies, but my physical condition kept deteriorating. I had to take a lot of sick leave. My life at that time didn’t have any happiness.

One day a friend loaned me a copy of Zhuan Falun [the main text of Falun Dafa practice]. I read it several times and I liked the book a lot. It teaches people how to become good people. No matter what we do, we should consider others first; will what we do hurt anyone or can others put up with it? Whenever there are problems or tribulations, we have to examine what we have failed to do well first, not to scrutinise others for imperfection. I strived to carry out Master’s teaching in my daily life and work. Step by step, I noticed that everything around me started to change. No longer did I consider God has treated me unfairly, and I also let go a lot of resentment that I used to hold on to. My life became relaxed and pleasant. All the people in my work unit said I had become a totally different person. As I kept practising, there was a dramatic change in my physical health. I didn’t have to take pills or pay a penny for medical expenses.

My daughter read Falun Gong books and practised the exercises with me. Her gastric ulcer was cured, and her schoolwork at a prestigious Beijing elementary school was outstanding. She obtained a perfect score in all subjects in the graduation examination. My daughter and I benefited from learning Falun Dafa without paying a penny. Fellow practitioners taught us the exercises free of charge. On July 20th 1999, China began to persecute Falun Dafa. Many people did not know what had happened at that time. However, I never had any doubt about Falun Dafa. I told my friends, “You know what illness you’ve got. Nobody else can partake in the suffering of your illness. Somebody said Falun Dafa is not good; however, you are not living for somebody else but yourself. It is not easy to live in this world; I would like to make good use of every single day.” As a result, I didn’t give up cultivation.

Frankly speaking, the Chinese citizens have gone through too many political campaigns. A person who is the president of the country today can be treated as a traitor tomorrow. Falun Gong has been suppressed for five years, but why does the number of practitioners keep increasing? Some people started their cultivation because they wanted to know what Falun Gong is all about in the first place. It is because the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance” promoted by Falun Gong touch people’s deepest hearts. Everyone has compassion and kindness. Everyone also wants to live in a wonderful environment, and looks forward to friendly interpersonal relationships. Therefore, Falun Gong has been practised by one hundred million people in more than sixty countries around the world, regardless of race or age.

It is very challenging for the Chinese people to make a living in a foreign country. Practitioners use money from their own pockets to prepare leaflets and other materials. They use their leisure time to explain the truth to the Chinese people deceived by TV stations and newspapers because this event has something to do with everyone. If we keep silent today towards the persecution of Falun Gong, the persecution may happen to ourselves tomorrow. In fact, it is not hard to understand if you think more carefully: Who wants to go onto the streets in a bad weather? Who wouldn’t want to enjoy delicious food and spend happy times with family members? If it were not our innermost belief, who could persevere in reflecting the true situation to the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government for five consecutive years? As a matter of fact, as soon as a Falun Gong practitioner gives up practising Falun Gong, he can regain the right to work or receive education, instead of being sentenced to prison and tortured there. In foreign countries, he can also possess a valid Chinese passport. On the other hand, everybody also has a conscience. How can we tell others that Falun Gong is harmful while Falun Gong has indeed saved us? The Chinese citizens are paying a very high price simply because they want to tell the truth.

One of my friends made an appeal to a higher government office for Falun Gong in Beijing. The receptionist didn’t take a look at her letter at all, but threw it directly into a garbage bag. Immediately after she filled in the appeal form, my friend was taken to the police station. She went on hunger strike as a protest, but was brutally beaten by electric shock batons and force-fed. When I went to see her, there were still bruises on her hands. Another practitioner was beaten to paralysis and eventually lost her life at a young age because she refused to abandon cultivation. I went to her funeral service, but was blocked by the police. The only thing that my friends and I could do was to take a taxi and go to the mortuary directly. Another practitioner, who graduated from the same school as me, was in the final year of his study at university. He was expelled from the university and sentenced to labour “re-education”. I feel extremely sorry every time when I think of them. As Falun Gong practitioners in foreign countries, what can we do for them? We hope to put this persecution to an end as soon as possible. Neither are we against our mother country, nor we are against the staff members of the Chinese Consulate. Whoever seizes political power has nothing to do with our cultivation. All that we have been doing is to try our best to help fellow practitioners who are being persecuted in China.

It has been three years since I started working in a foreign country. I miss my mother country, my parents and my relatives. I can’t go back to China without a valid Chinese passport. That will bring me a lot of mental suffering and inconvenience. I hope you can evaluate my case more carefully, and resolve the issue of my passport extension.

Thank you very much.

Zhao Liping
October 30th 2004