Give Back Our Daughter’s Right To a Nationality

Call from a Chinese couple in the UK: Give back our daughter’s right to a nationality

My name is Zhengfang Mo. I am now studying on a master’s programme in the UK, and my husband is working in a Chinese restaurant. We have a daughter called Minghui, who is two years old now. Like other kids, she often has a lovely smile on her tender face, and is full of love and hope for the world. But, unlike other kids, she has been deprived of her right to a nationality.

On July 24, 2000, my husband and I went to the Chinese Embassy in London to register our daughter. We submitted all relevant materials, including my passport. Embassy workers said my daughter would be registered as an accompanying child on my passport in three days. However, a few days later, when a friend of mine went to the embassy to get the passport on my behalf (I was not in London at the time), the embassy refused to give her the passport. She was told to inform me that the embassy invited me to talk face-to-face. Therefore, my husband and I went to the embassy again on August 24. A gentleman named Du told me that I had to write a confession on Falun Gong, which was to be sent to China’s Ministry of Public Security for approval. Before it could be approved, my daughter could not be registered. We were also told that our daughter could never get registered or get her own passport if we refused to give up Falun Gong. As this is something I would never do, I asked them to return my passport to me so that I could apply for an extension to my student visa which was soon to expire at the end of September. But I was told this had to be approved of by the Ministry of Public Security, too! Since then, three of us had to become asylum seekers.

More than one year has passed, but my daughter is still stateless. But we have never given up our efforts to win back her basic human rights to a citizenship. In September this year, I, together with my 21-month-old daughter, went on a 3000-mile around UK SOS car travel to call for urgent help for Minghui and Falun Gong practitioners in China. To our gratification, the people and local governments of all the places that we covered gave us a lot of support, care and encouragement. Moreover, we received over a hundred reply letters and signed petition letters. Particularly, our current MP has been a great help. He proposed an Early Day Motion in the Parliament, requesting the British government to help Minghui get a Chinese passport and to pay more attention to the human rights situation in China, including that of Falun Gong practitioners. By now, thanks to his efforts, 57 members of parliament have signed this motion.

At the same time, the story of our daughter received a lot of attention from the public. Many media organizations reported it. We often meet people who tell us they read about relevant reports and wish us good luck.

Falun Gong practitioners in China have been encountering much more difficult and terrible situations. I am here to ask you to extend your kind help toward the Chinese Falun Gong practitioners. You may notice that our little Minghui will not just learn from my husband and me. She will learn, from all those who have been helping her, the virtues of helping others and safeguarding justice and goodness. Personal examples are powerful. In the future, she will also become such a person. Therefore, I want to extend my heart-felt gratitude to all those who have helped and supported us. Your benevolent actions will influence people of the future, and help shape a wonderful future.

Zhengfang MO (UK Falun Gong practitioner)