The Chinese Embassy’s Pressure on the Danish Asian Cultural Festival Incites Condemnation

On October 3rd, the Falun Dafa Information Centre made the following statement: “Falun Gong has spread across the world for ten years, with over 100 million practitioners throughout the world, upholding the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and revealing the peaceful truth of Falun Gong to citizens worldwide. However, China has initiated an unlawful crackdown on Falun Gong since 1999. For the past three years, Jiang’s regime has been unceasingly moving its persecution against Falun Gong to an international level. The following report from the Danish Asian Cultural Festival indicates that Jiang’s regime put pressure on local governments through the Chinese Embassy, forcing those blind to the truth to take part in the persecution of Falun Gong. All of this has exposed the true nature of Jiang’s regime.”

Information from Denmark on October 2nd:

To welcome the Asia Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM), authorised by the Denmark Foreign Affairs Ministry, a quasi-governmental organization, the "Danish Cultural Centre of Development" (DCCD), organized a cultural festival entitled "Asian Comments". The purpose of this event was to introduce Asian culture to the Danish people before the ASEM summit through a series of traditional Asian performances. As early as June, the Denmark Falun Dafa Association had received an invitation to join the event from the Kenhavns Internationale Teater (KIT), an organization that belongs to the DCCD and was in charge of the event operation.

Just when practitioners were busy making the preparations, the Denmark Falun Dafa Association unexpectedly received a note from KIT cancelling the invitation. The reason given was that some Chinese organizations opposed Falun Gong’s participation in the event. They threatened that if Falun Gong attended the event, all other Chinese participants would withdraw. Through private conversations, the persons in charge admitted that some of the Chinese organisations had received pressure from the Chinese government; if they performed on the same stage as Falun Gong practitioners, they would encounter a lot of trouble from the Chinese Embassy.

On September 19th 2002, Danish newspaper Politiken published a report, entitled "Censorship at Danish Festival", about the exclusion of Falun Gong. “Falun Gong is banned in China, because the system caused nervousness in case its millions of practitioners became a threat to [Jiang’s] power. And the Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen was unhappy that the movement originally was participating at the festival, even though they just wanted to perform a [traditional] Chinese dance.”

"The Chinese embassy was very interested (in it). They said that they did not like Falun Gong's participation," says Olaf Gerlach, leader of the Danish Centre for Culture and Development (DCCD) that arranges the festival in collaboration with Copenhagen municipality and the Foreign Ministry. According to the report, though Olaf Gerlach denied that the exclusion of Falun Gong from the festival had something to do with pressure from the Chinese Embassy, he said that a possible reason is that they were unwilling to have any political message in the festival [editor – Falun Gong is not political. Chinese dictator Jiang is using the guise of politics to persecute Falun Gong and further his political power].

But Falun Gong in Denmark emphasizes that the movement was aware that it was a cultural festival. “Denmark is a country where human rights are respected and people value freedom and democracy. Obviously, the Chinese Embassy's pressure is contradictory to the ethical principles that local people respect. Falun Gong has no involvement in politics. Nor does our participation in the cultural festival have any political purpose. The essence of ancient Chinese culture is displayed in the cultivation of Falun Gong. We hope that our participation in the festival can offer people a more comprehensive understanding of the beauty of Chinese culture as well as the truth of Falun Gong. Any reason other than the introduction of Asian culture [to the festival] should not become an excuse for the exclusion of any group. No matter how people’s beliefs vary, they should have the same rights. We sincerely hope that we can work hard together with the organization in charge to preserve the pure purpose of this cultural festival.” That day, after understanding the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese government, the director of DCCD promised to actively look for a resolution to the problem.

The exclusion is met with political frowns. "It is reprehensible and very non-Danish, if the Chinese authorities have taken part in the censorship of a Danish cultural festival," says Peter Skaarup, the legal spokesman of The Danish Peoples Party, who has asked the Foreign Minister for a statement of the Chinese authorities' role in the case. Also the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of Justice, Anne Baastrup, (The Socialist Peoples Party) thinks that it is, "Very unpleasant if Danish citizens are under pressure from the Chinese State".

It has not been possible to get a comment from the Foreign Minister Per Stig Moler (The Conservatives). Nobody at the Chinese embassy wanted to speak about the case yesterday.

There has been no final resolution to the exclusion of Falun Gong from the Asian Cultural Festival. Nevertheless, Falun Gong was given a permit by the organization in charge to perform at the King’s New Square. On Saturday of September 21st, that is, the last day of the three-day cultural festival as well as the climax of the festival, tens of Falun Gong practitioners from different parts of Europe arrived at the King’s New Square in their elegant clothes. Accompanied by the music of “Falun Dafa Hao,” [Falun Dafa is good] the elegant performance of Falun Gong practitioners and the harmonious atmosphere attracted numerous visitors. Chinese traditional dance and Falun Gong’s five sets of exercises were alternatively performed. The police officer standing aside on duty said to the practitioners, “Your performance is very peaceful and harmonious.” Many viewers marvelled, “Falun Dafa is very beautiful.”

Translated from Chinese Clear Harmony at
http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200210/12902.html