Speech Given by Vice Chairman of Friends of Falun Gong at a Press Conference in London

The following statement is from activities in London to commemorate eight years of persecution against Falun Gong. The statement is from John Dee, Vice Chairman of Friends of Falun Gong, and was read at a press conference opposite the Chinese Embassy on Saturday July 21st.Friends of Falun Gong is a non-governmental organisation of people who do not practise Falun Gong but are actively seeking to end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Today marks the 8th anniversary of the start of the Chinese government’s evil persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

The Chinese government, led by the power-crazed CCP, has tortured to death at least 3000 practitioners in that time, but there must be many more thousands whose fate is unaccounted for, such is the secrecy with which the CCP conducts its business. We know for certain that thousands more are being kept against their will and tortured in prisons and labour camps across China, and the lives of friends and relatives of practitioners are also made intolerably difficult.

More recent attempts to influence foreign governments into mistreating Falun Gong practitioners in return for economic favours have come to the attention of the world, and have drawn widespread condemnation. More sinister is the revelation in the last year that the Chinese government has for many years been involved in the harvesting of practitioners’ body parts for sale abroad, a practice which has dragged the CCP’s reputation even further into the gutter than ever before.

At a time when China is trying to improve its international standing, only a year or so before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, now would be the perfect opportunity for the CCP to say enough is enough. The party has lost about 23 million members over the last two years, people from all walks of life who have renounced their membership chiefly because they have learnt in detail how the CCP has harassed and bullied its own citizens into toeing the party line since its inception in 1949. Their continued persecution of Falun Gong will only serve to increase this mass exodus, and the party will eventually be forced to cave in to the power of their real enemies, truth and freedom. The CCP is an apple which is rapidly rotting from within.

We therefore call upon the Chinese government to show more respect for human dignity and the right of everyone to practise whatever religion or set of beliefs they choose. It can only help the cultural, political and economic development of countries including China to allow people the right to live with this dignity and in an environment conducive to peace and happiness. At a time when the world’s glare is fixed firmly on China, we urge it to end its persecution of Falun Gong immediately, to end its ‘bloody harvest’ of human organs and to release prisoners of conscience being held against their will.

European Friends of Falun Gong