Germany: The Chinese Embassy Refuses Falun Gong Practitioner’s Passport Renewal

Falun Gong practitioner Yuan Mei Xian has lived in Hamburg for fifteen years. On the 8th of September, 2008, her Chinese passport was due for renewal. When she applied, the Chinese Embassy notified her saying that her old passport could not be extended and that if she wanted to apply for a new passport she would have to go to the Ministry of Public Security in China.

After waiting for more than two months, Yuan Mei Xian and her family members once again went to the Chinese Embassy on the 14th of November. The reply by a young official surnamed Pan was that he had not obtained the affirmation from within China, so at present they could not give her a passport, as for how things would be afterwards he was not at all clear.

Thereupon Mrs. Yuan and her family on the 20th of November went to the Eimsbuettel area government in Hamburg and told them that her passport had not been granted for no reason at all. She also asked for a temporary certificate of identification. The Hamburg regional government felt that the actions of the Chinese Embassy were unthinkable. Mrs Yuan’s entire family are Falun Gong practitioners and following this opportunity, they explained to the Hamburg government the true situation about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the CCP, including how more than 3000 practitioners within China had been persecuted to death and how several tens of thousands of people had been illegally sent to labour camps and also how many more people had been illegally arrested and put in prison etc.; and how there were also many Falun Gong practitioners overseas whose passports were refused for no reason and so on and so forth.

The Hamburg government allowed Yuan Mei Xian to go to the Hamburg Chinese Embassy to ask for a written document, to prove that they would not give Mrs. Yuan an extension to her passport or issue her a new passport. Consequently, Mrs. Yuan’s family once again went to the Hamburg Chinese Embassy and before going in to the Chinese Embassy, a practitioner told a policeman about her problem and asked him to be a witness when asking for the documents. The policeman expressed understanding and very straight forwardly agreed.

After going in, the official surnamed Pan was still behind the window and after the practitioner explained the reason for coming, he immediately said, “We cannot give out this sort of proof. Because there is no reply from China, perhaps there will be a reply later and perhaps there will be no reply, so I cannot say I will give one to you now or that I cannot give one to you.” The practitioner requested that the official write down his own name saying “Mr. Pan states” but was met with a refusal, the official didn’t give any of this sort of proof because he refused to give any written evidence. The on the scene policeman did not comprehend the actions and behaviour of the Chinese Embassy. A practitioner explained, within China, many orders and much of the authority to suppress Falun Gong are just verbal and there are no written documents. The policeman immediately understood and said, “They (the CCP) don’t want to leave proof.”

Mrs. Yuan and her family expressed how through this event they have seen the guilty conscience and cowardliness of the CCP and they know clearly that all persecution against Falun Gong is illegal and is unable to stand investigation, that they don’t dare to make it public and admit it, and therefore they don’t dare to produce any thing like a written document. What the Falun Gong practitioners then want to do, is to tell the kind German people and the German government about the CCP and it’s gangster regime’s evil acts and to let more people from free democratic societies to see how the CCP is extending its persecution abroad and how it is attempting to detain, refusing to extend passports and such trickery. Mrs. Yuan hopes that more people will come to understand the truth of Falun Gong, and to stop the persecution together.