Finland: “Communism and Human Rights in China” Seminar Focuses on the Persecution Against Falun Gong

On June 14th 2005, a seminar entitled “Communism and Human Rights in China” was held in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. China experts from different countries expressed their views on both the current state and the future of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Their message to the Finnish Government and public was that the human rights situation in China is getting worse. They especially mentioned the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, which represents the most serious human rights crime in Chinese history. The major media outlets, like the Finnish News Agency and a newspaper called Helsingin Sanomat attended the seminar and a related press conference.

Well-known Chinese human rights activist Mr. Wei Jingsheng told the newspaper Uutislehti 100 that many European politicians think that the human rights situation in China is getting better. “Actually it is not getting better. Quite the opposite, it’s getting worse,” he stated.

According to Huvudstadsbladet, a Swedish newspaper in Finland, the CCP seems to be losing its power, since more than 2.2 million people have withdrawn from the Party. Since the Epoch Times series of articles called “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” was published, a major wave of withdrawals from the CCP has began in the world. An editor of The Epoch Times, Ms. Annette Guo, who also spoke in the seminar, said that 90 per cent of the party quitters are from Mainland China.

Professor Nieh Sen, from the Catholic University of America, said in the seminar that he has been very sad about the terrible human rights situation in China, which seems to just get worse. But now when people have started to openly condemn the atrocities of the CCP and resign, he feels some optimism. “People have started to wake up from the nightmare of Communism”, Professor Nieh Sen said.

In the past six years the CCP has used the most brutal and evil methods to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. One hundred million people have been the direct target of this brutal oppression, excluding their family members, friends, co-workers, schoolmates etc. So the number of people being affected extends far more than the number mentioned, said Professor Nieh Sen.