Press Releases and Media Reports
TV and Radio | Publications | Press Releases
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Radio Free Asia: Fifth Anniversary of "4.25"
2004-04-28Extremely nervous about the upcoming 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre on June 4th, 1989, the Chinese government has no alternative but to give priority to the 5th anniversary of Falun Gong's "4.25" Peaceful Appeal. Falun Gong practitioners in all parts of Europe as well as human rights groups plan to hold various activities during this weekend. Falun Gong has spread widely in Europe. This report is based on a broadcast from Tian Yi, a reporter in Germany for Radio Free Asia. -
Report from Spanish Newspaper San Fernando Información: "Persecuted and Tortured in Communist China"
2004-04-27“My husband was murdered, the sister of my husband is detained in a forced labour camp, and the father of my husband also died. I was left alone with a baby of 15 months. My husband was murdered because he went to Beijing to deliver a letter, in which said that his whole family had obtained enormous benefits from practising Falun Gong, that Falun Gong is good. He was arrested, tortured and murdered when he was only 34 years old..." -
Radio France Internationale: The Zhongnanhai Appeal is a Historical Necessity
2004-04-26"The majority of people thought that the suppression of Falun Gong was caused by the appeal of the Falun Gong practitioners who gathered at Zhongnanhai in 1999 and that this shocked Beijing. However, from a large amount of investigations, it has been discovered that the incident of the Zhongnanhai appeal was a historical necessity." -
Radio Free Asia: A German-Based International Human Rights Association Submits a Five-Point Resolution to the European Parliament
2004-04-26A Human Rights Association based in Germany has been paying close attention to China's human rights problems. At their annual general meeting last year, they passed a resolution asking the German government to express concern over China's crackdown on Falun Gong and to help release the imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner Xiong Wei. Last weekend they passed a five-point resolution based on last year's resolution and submitted it to the European Parliament. -
FDIC: Worldwide Activities Mark April 25th, Call for End to Half-decade of Persecution
2004-04-25Practitioners of Falun Gong will mark April 25 this Sunday with activities around the world, renewing the call for Beijing to end a five-year campaign of suppression that legal experts have come to term genocide. -
Swedish Daily: “People Who are Locked up in Labour Camps in China are Suffering”
2004-04-25On April 16th 2004, the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Sweden. An article written by two Swedish citizens was published in the “Swedish Daily” in which the current conditions and forced illegal enslavement of people in labour camps in China is exposed. -
EFGIC: Legal Action in UK against Chinese Officials for Torture of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, Genocide and Crimes against Humanity
2004-04-24LONDON (EFGIC) – Falun Gong practitioners in the UK are initiating a criminal action against Jiang Zemin, former president of China, for his personal responsibility, from 1999 onwards, in the persecution of the 100 million adherents of the ancient Chinese system of moral discipline, Falun Gong, which is centred on Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. The action concerns the torture of a male UK resident, who has now been granted asylum here. -
Press Release: Dictator Jiang Zemin on Trial in London
2004-04-24On Saturday 24th April, a symbolic trial of Jiang Zemin will be held outside the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand and on Sunday 25th at the Chinese Embassy in Portland Place, London. The 25th of April has a special significance, as it is the 5th Anniversary of the original peaceful appeal to the Chinese Government in 1999 by Falun Gong practitioners. This symbolic trial exposes the crimes committed by Jiang, and demonstrates the reality of using legal means to bring him to justice. -
Swedish Media Report: Chinese Foreign Minister Defends the Death Penalty
2004-04-24On April 16th, 2004, an article was published by a Swedish Daily newspaper regarding the meeting between the Chinese and Swedish Foreign Ministers. It states that at the meeting between the Chinese foreign Minister Mr. Zhaoxing Li and the Swedish foreign Minister Mrs Laila Freivalds in Stockholm, they failed to reach unanimity on the issue of the death penalty. -
EFGIC: Chinese Official Served With Lawsuit While Visiting United States
2004-04-24LONDON (EFGIC) – Bo Xilai, the Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, was served with a lawsuit today during his visit to the United States. The complaint, brought by Li Weixun and others, alleges such serious human rights abuses as torture, genocide and other crimes against humanity carried out while persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in China. -
EFGIC: Deaths of 25 Falun Gong Practitioners Verified in March
2004-04-22LONDON (EFGIC) – The deaths of 25 more Falun Gong practitioners in China as a result of state-run persecution were verified in March, according to reliable sources. One of those killed in March was Daqing City-resident Mr. Li Yuanguang, 34. He died weighing less than one hundred pounds after prolonged torture, leaving behind his wife and a family bankrupted by police extortions. -
Finnish Falun Gong Practitioner Interviewed by a Local Broadcasting Station in New York
2004-04-20'Seventy million people are being persecuted, and brutally so. About 100 000 practitioners have been put in jail: women, people any age…There are over 800 documented cases of people who have been tortured to death, but it talks for itself: the real number is much higher. They also try to force the practitioners to give up their belief, to sign statements; they send them to brain washing classes and forced labour camps. It is a very, very sad situation.' -
Statement by the Falun Gong Association of the Czech Republic
2004-04-16"Every step made by the Czech Government can become a historic moment when the Government leans either toward the defence of human rights or toward “quiet acquiescence” with the abuse. Actually, human rights and trade with China are tightly connected and that is why we think that upholding human rights is a necessary prerequisite to a successful realisation of all projects with China which we may wish to commit ourselves to undertake." -
Rundschau, A Weekly Journal Published in Bayerwald/Böhmerwald: Catching a Glimpse of the Far East
2004-04-16"Ming Teng-Schwägerl practices Falun Gong, which has been confirmed scientifically to have positive effects on health and inner harmony...She said that, “Since November last year alone, sixty-four Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death. These were all innocent people.” One of the reasons for the brutal persecution in the People’s Republic is the jealousy of the communist leader, as the meditation movement quickly grew to a number that exceeded the communist party membership." -
Falun Gong Information Centre Germany: Xiong Wei - Released From Detention But Not Yet Free!
2004-04-15Commenting on the report of a special correspondent at the UNHRC for freedom of Religion and Belief, China’s claims concerning Xiong Wei are as follows: "In its work, the Beijing women's labour re-education facility strictly abides by the principles that inmates should be re-educated, guided by persuasion and thus reformed. The management methods that it applies are legal, civilised and scientific and no form of corporal punishment or ill-treatment is ever used against those undergoing labour re-education."