My Story of Being Monitored, Pressured, and Harassed by Chinese Communist Party Spies

Chen Yonglin, former Chinese Consulate diplomat from Sydney, courageously disassociated himself from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on May 26th, several weeks before he was due to return to China. He took this brave step because of his dissatisfaction with the CCP's persecution of innocent people, including Falun Gong. He also exposed that China has one thousands spies and informants in Australia. Since then, the media throughout the world have regularly exposed the ugly behaviour of the CCP's spies outside of China. Many of these exposés have occurred during Falun Gong practitioners' activities worldwide. Examples include spies operating during France's Quitting CCP Month, which have been reported to the Federal Security Bureau. Some CCP spies have filmed activities in Perth, a remote city in Australia. These incident show that the monitoring, harassment and persecution of Falun Gong and dissidents overseas are incontestable facts, and also prove the CCP's evil nature.

I want everyone to know what I have experienced. This is a real story from one of the CCP's victims. I have been monitored and harassed by staff from the Chinese Embassy outside of China over the past several years.

I began to practise Falun Gong in China in 1994. At the time I was studying for a master's degree at a university in China. In early 1997, I went to South Korea to complete my doctorate degree. At that time, Falun Gong was introduced as a qigong method in Seoul, the capital of Korea. A Korean citizen had learnt Falun Gong during a visit to China in 1996 and had taught it to others in Korea. From 1997, I became the first Chinese student to teach Falun Gong at Seoul National University. People from everywhere came to learn Falun Gong until 1999. By that time there were a few hundred Korean practitioners. Korean people naturally understand the concept of cultivation practice that Falun Gong teaches because they have it in their traditional cultural background. Therefore, it did not take them long to understand the value of cultivating "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." At that time one could find the peaceful and harmonious practitioners of Falun Gong in many parks in Korea.

On July 20th, 1999, the CCP suddenly banned Falun Gong. When the unprecedented suppression, slandering and framing of Falun Gong by the Chinese media began, South Korea's media followed along and did the same disservice.

I immediately began to tell the truth of Falun Gong to the media. In order to get in touch with people who did not know the truth as soon as possible, we sent out lots of materials containing the true facts about Falun Gong to all the mainstream media reporters, especially those who had already reported on Falun Gong.

Most nights there was no time to sleep as I urgently translated the Chinese information into Korean. The next day, Korean practitioners would polish the articles and we would email them to the reporters. In early August 1999, KBS TV station decided to interview Falun Gong practitioners. Therefore, we practised the exercises as a group in Nanshan Park. We also publicly demonstrated the exercises and introduced Falun Gong. We showed them how peaceful Falun Gong was and that its practitioners followed "Truthfulness- Compassion-Forbearance." We wanted them to see that Falun Gong was nothing like the lies the CCP was publicising.

Once reporters got to know us, they slowly began to report the true situation of Falun Gong and demanded just treatment of Korean Falun Gong practitioners in China. They also began to understand that the media in a communist country is controlled by its despotic regime, and its purpose is to suppress people. Also, having experienced the division of south and north Korea for half a century and having known the atrocities committed by the Communist North Korea with its military-dominant system, most Korean people living in a democratic environment instinctively empathise with the suffering of people suppressed by a communist government.

Unfortunately, the South Korean government, deceived by the CCP, began a public opinion offencive against Falun Gong and cast a dark cloud over the entire Korean populace. They classified Falun Gong as a dangerous group, and began to listen in on practitioners' phones calls and monitor us. Some phoned Falun Gong practitioners to find out their whereabouts. Because I dared to expose the false media propaganda and disclose the CCP's lies, I was put on the CCP's blacklist. Chinese Embassy staff tried to intimidate and harass me during Falun Gong activities. The Chinese Embassy often put pressure on the Korean government, police departments and associated organisations concerning Falun Gong. Fearing public exposure of the inhumane persecution, the Chinese Embassy pressured these groups to cancel and disallow all public Falun Gong activities. Every Falun Gong coordinator's phone was tapped. They even used global positioning systems to monitor our cell phones.

On September 4th, 1999, in a radio broadcast entitled, "Do you want to know if Falun Gong is a mysterious qigong or a new religion?" by SBS radio, the producer interviewed practitioners on the condition that Falun Gong would not be labelled as a cult, but the producer actually edited the entire program, and broadcasted a falsified report about Falun Gong to the entire Korean society. However, many people still considered us good simply because we were suppressed by the communist party. Many people called us after the broadcast to ask us questions about Falun Gong. They wanted to know more about the practice, and many began to practise Falun Gong.

Because of the continued harassment by the Chinese Embassy I had to change my cell phone number several times. During every peaceful parade and Falun Gong activity, there were secret agents wearing sunglasses there from the Chinese Embassy. They took pictures of or videotaped each practitioner, especially those from China.

During the winter of 1999, we practised the exercises and held a peaceful parade and a display to expose the persecution in Songmiao Park despite heavy snow. One Korean practitioner told me that two Chinese people were filming the display and asked me to clarify the truth to them in Chinese. I walked over to them, and asked in Chinese with a smile, "Do you want to know the truth of Falun Gong? Are you tourists?" Then I told them the truth. The older person said he was from Heilongjiang. At that moment, another person wearing dark glasses filmed me. I knew that he was from the Chinese Embassy. Therefore, I pushed the lens away, but he continued to follow me around and film me. Both were secret agents from the Chinese Embassy. From that time on, they always came to our activities and filmed everything. Once I asked him: "Why do you film us?" He said he reported to China, and this was his "assignment."

In October of 2000, during the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), which was held in South Korea, China's Prime Minister visited Korea. The Korean security department and police released opinions through the media, claiming that Falun Gong practitioners might protest and make trouble during the ASEM. They wanted to incite the public by assigning guilt first, and then monitor Falun Gong. In fact, the behind-the-scenes manipulator of this strategy was the CCP. It was a persecution caused by the Chinese government forcing the Korean government to do it.

Therefore, on October 11th, 2000, we held a press conference in Seoul, organised by the Falun Dafa Association. At that time, we were not familiar with press conferences. The reporters taught us how to hold a press conference. We publicly announced to the government and media that Falun Gong practitioners would not create problems during the ASEM meeting. We also expressed our intention to request Jiang to immediately stop persecuting Falun Gong. Thus, the CCP's plot to frame Falun Gong outside of China failed. It did not achieve the purpose of inciting hatred towards Falun Gong. Instead we gained the sympathy of the Korean police who took extra steps to ensure our safety during the meeting.

In 2002, I moved to Japan for employment reasons. In October 2002, to let more Koreans in Japan know the truth of Falun Gong, I published an article introducing Falun Gong and its persecution by the CCP in a Korean language magazine. The article consisted of an entire page with contact numbers for workshops.

One day I received a phone call from a young woman with a Korean dialect suggesting she was from Yanbian in China. She was cursing like crazy. I said, "Why do you hold such hatred against Falun Gong? Would you behave like this if your relatives died in the persecution?" She said, "Why don't you stop practising if you are persecuted?" I repeatedly explained that we do not mind whether we practise at home or outside, but you will still be arrested if you practise at home in China. She could not convince me to stop practising, so she hysterically continued to shout. While on the phone, she was talking to a man and said, "I can't convince him, you speak to him." That man said, "Do you have evidence?" I said yes. He could not debate my rationality, so he tried a vicious intimidation tactic. He asked where I lived and threatened me that he would come and look for me. I said, "Please come, we can talk face to face, and I will share with you all the persecution information I have available to me." He felt he would be at a disadvantage if he came to my place. He asked me to come to Xinsu Subway Station near where he lived and threatened that he would torture me to death. I asked, "Can you give me your telephone number? I will come, but how can I look for you without your phone number?" He was afraid of disclosing his phone number, so he shouted with a hoarse voice, "I will kill you." He was fuming and hung up. He called me two more times and simply repeated, "I will kill you." I told him, even if he kills me, he can't change my belief I told him to remember the heavenly principle that good is rewarded with good and evil is met with evil.

In April 2004, I came to the United States. Because the town where I lived is relatively small, many people did not know Falun Gong. Therefore, I became the contact person, and my name appeared on the website. I talked to practitioners in Korea and Japan on the phone as usual.

In the beginning, I did not feel the threat and harassment by the CCP spies as I did in South Korea and Japan. However, in early 2005, at 3 a.m. in the morning, the ringing of the phone woke me up. I picked it up and a man asked, "Are you so-and-so? Do you practise Falun Gong? I said yes." Listening to his voice, I could distinguish that his accent was not Korean, the accent was trained. I realised he was from the Chinese Embassy.

I said to myself, he has been monitoring me all along, and obtained my contact phone number. If they come for me, what can they get? This is to monitor and follow me? He asked me how I contacted other Korean practitioners in America, how does Korea stay in contact with Americans, and about the contact methods between American Koreans and so on. He also mentioned the names of practitioners in other states. I thought, he must be a spy. Why would someone who says they wish to learn Falun Gong ask such questions? In fact, during the conversation he hinted that he knew many details about me.

In every country I have lived in I have run into the CCP's spies. We cannot deny the fact that many CCP spies are around us outside of China. They watch and harass Falun Gong practitioners, trying to make us give up our belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." They want the world to be evil. They fear the sun. They are deeply afraid that their identity as a member of the evil, and their gloomy words and deeds, will be exposed. Therefore, revealing their identity is the best way to stop their wrongdoing. They are also poisoned by the CCP. No matter how special their occupation, they also need to understand the truth.