Germany: Recalling Falun Gong Practitioners' Peaceful Protests During Hu Jintao’s Visit to Germany

Berlin Falun Gong practitioners were in front of Schloss Charlottenburg on November 11th 2005.

While looking at some photos from the media taken of Falun Gong practitioners' protest during Hu Jintao's visit to Germany, it seemed as if their voices are still lingering in my ears:

"Falun Gong is good!"

"Stop the persecution of Falun Gong!"

They gave me the feeling that I was personally on the scene again and that I couldn’t take my eyes away from the photos.

During the first ten days of November 2005, Hu Jintao’s group could hear such voices wherever they went in Germany. Falun Gong practitioners were calling him everywhere and hoping that he could make a correct choice during this historic and crucial time.

Never before have I realised the cruelty of the persecution.

On November 11th, it was in a back street opposite the China Centre in Berlin. Having found the address they had applied for beforehand, Falun Gong practitioners discovered that the place was not just opposite the China Centre and they were required to stay thirty metres away from the main road. Facing the situation, they peacefully laid out exhibition boards about Falun Gong popularity around the world and the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong and then they started demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises. While policemen were reading the exhibition boards, they were asking practitioners questions as well. Later on, two high ranking officers came. After reading the exhibition boards including pictures of the torture, they said to practitioners, “Never before have we expected that the persecution is so cruel and we are going to read Nine Commentaries later.” With the time going by, practitioners were allowed to move forward five metres which ensured that people in the China Centre could see the banners.

Hu Jintao, together with his group, were about to leave the China Centre when Falun Gong practitioners started calling “Falun Dafa is good.”

Several practitioners on the spot all mentioned afterwards that it seemed as if the moment they had been expecting for so long was taking place. Everybody was fulfilling a remote promise with only one thing in mind: that Hu Jintao, together with his group, could hear the truth.

On the same evening, the President of Germany was hosting Hu Jintao together with his group and celebrities from all circles of the country. Falun Gong practitioners from all over Europe, Human Rights organisations and crowds came to welcome Hu. When the delegation arrived, all the groups sent out different welcomes.

During the banquet, Falun Gong practitioners practised the exercises. At the same time, Falun Gong practitioners read an open letter to the Chinese students who came to welcome Hu, telling them that the red flags in their hands were dyed by the blood of 80,000,000 Chinese people who were wrongly murdered, hoping they would consider the fact that 5,500,000 people had withdrawn from the CCP and that they should read the “Nine Commentaries” carefully so that they could see the true colours of the CCP. After that, a western practitioner gave some Chinese students the “Nine Commentaries”, which they accepted.

November 13th was the day when Hu arrived in Düsseldorf, an important industrial city in Germany. Having participated in a parade against the persecution for three and a half hours, more than 200 Falun Gong practitioners from Europe first came to the hotel where Hu Jintao was invited to have a dinner and then the hotel “Hilton” where Hu took a rest, continuously protesting the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP. On grassland which was not far from the Hilton were several Falun Gong practitioners practising the exercises quietly and waiting the whole night through.

A few policemen on duty were watching nearby. Some practitioners took the opportunity of chatting with them about Falun Gong, and how and why the CCP is persecuting Falun Gong. The policemen who understood the fact were so cooperative that they allowed practitioners to stand at the very front of the grassland chanting when Hu was having his breakfast.

On the morning of the 14th, Falun Gong practitioners were told that Hu Jintao and his group were having breakfast. A policeman informed practitioners of Hu’s movements.

More than an hour later, at the time of Hu’s departure for Spain, the Chinese delegation kept putting pressure on the German authorities. Under the pressure, a high ranking official came over to negotiate with Falun Gong practitioners and asking practitioners to move back to a place where the delegation could not hear the sound of the chanting. The practitioners and the police on the spot all thought that the activity held was legal, because it had been applied for and approved beforehand. The police said that it was their legal right and there was no reason to ask practitioners to move back. The practitioners kept explaining the facts to the official. The official told the practitioners that he already knew the truth and Falun Gong was always peaceful in their activities. If he had been able to make a decision, he would rather have asked practitioners to stand in the front even further but Chinese side kept on putting pressure on them. Since his boss ordered him to do it like this, he had to obey. Finally, he thought it over and decided that practitioners should move back five metres as a symbol so that he could report to his boss after finishing the task..

Just like the open letter to Hu Jintao, at the end of which the German Falun Gong Association states: “Today, November 10th 2005 - the day sixteen years ago when people from east and west Germany were cheering the fall of the Berlin Wall - you have come to Germany for a visit. The Berlin Wall was pushed over like dominoes. The whole East Europe and the Communist Camp of the Soviet Union disintegrated quickly in a few months. Now, a book of “Nine Commentaries on Communist Party” has resulted in the great tide of quitting the Party. 5,500,000 people have withdrawn from the CCP. The fall of the CCP is imperative under the situation. You are not the one who started the persecution of Falun Gong and you don’t need to shoulder Jiang’s responsibility. We hope that you would obey the moral and undertake the providence, stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately. The time Gods and people have given to you is limited.”