Sweden: Foreign Ministry Expresses Support for Falun Gong Practitioners in China

Foreign Ministry

Asia and Oceania unit

2005-08-19

Thank you for your letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated May 2nd. The letter was handed over to me, as I work with questions regarding China at the Asia section of the Foreign Ministry.

I am familiar with what you are describing and I also share your anxiety regarding the issue of Falun Gong, and how its followers are treated. As you might know, human rights issues in China are frequently brought up in discussions with our Chinese counterparts, during our many contacts, both from Sweden and from the EU. For example, every sixth months we have within the EU a special human rights dialogue with China, where we go through an extensive agenda and bring up all the areas where we feel a strong concern regarding how human rights issues are handled in China. In these as well as in other settings, we bring forth, both from Sweden and from the EU, our concern regarding how people practising Falun Gong in China are treated.

Beside the dialogue we also have sharing within seminars and education for participants from different institutions in China, aiming at improving the competence within the human rights area among different occupational groups, for example within the judicial system. We thus try in various ways to influence the situation in China, when it comes to human rights and I can assure you that this is a question that we put high on our agenda in our contacts with the Chinese authorities and members of the government.

Best regards,

Britta Kinnemark