Vice-President of European Parliament Writes to Chinese Ambassador

The following letter was sent by the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Mr Edward McMillan-Scott, to the Chinese Ambassador in Belgium. For more information on te situation of Falun Gong practitioner Cao Dong, please see http://clearharmony.net/articles/200610/36225.html.

Mr Guan Chengyuan
Chinese Ambassador
Avenue de Tervuren 443-445
1150 Brussels
Belgium
Brussels, 27 October 2006

Ambassador,

MR CAO DONG
MR GAO ZHISHENG

I first wrote to you in the matter of Mr Cao Dong on 5 June 2006 and again on 16 June 2006. I have yet to receive a response.

On 21 May in Beijing I held a meeting with Mr Cao DONG, a Falun Gong practitioner, who had been ‘administratively detained’ for his religious beliefs. He had discharged his sentence and was guilty of no crime. Following this meeting, he was arrested.

I have recently learned that he is still being detained by the Chinese public authorities, has been transferred to Gansu province and is being held in the Public Security Bureau detention centre. An arrest warrant for 'producing Falun Gong material' was issued on September 29 2006. I now insist that your superiors release
him immediately: I am about to refer this matter to the United Nations in person.

On 4 June I spoke at some length on the telephone to Mr Gao Zhisheng in Beijing. As you know, he is a distinguished human rights lawyer. Your regime has arrested him and charged him with ‘subversion’. Unless he too is released forthwith I shall also refer his case personally to the United Nations, which I visit on 8 – 9 November.

Edward McMillan Scott