Written evidence from the Falun Dafa Association UK (AFP0020)
Executive Summary
The Committee posed the question,“Are autocratic regimes attempting to interfere in the domestic affairs of the UK and its partners, and if so, in what ways? How should the UK and its partners respond?”
This submission will address this with regard to the autocratic regime of China.
In China, the persecution of millions of people who practice Falun Gong is still occurring. The human rights abuses are well documented by international human rights organisations. They reveal atrocities such as organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in numbers of tens of thousands per year since the persecution began in 1999.
The Chinese Communist Party has a national policy to eradicate Falun Gong within China. It supports the policy through massive propaganda campaigns both within and without China that incite hatred in order to legitimise the continued persecution.
This submission will focus on one well-documented area where the Chinese Communist Party openly attacks the UK operations of Shen Yun, a performing arts company founded by Falun Gong practitioners. Organisations in the UK that associate with Shen Yun also become a target of the Chinese Communist Party.
It is beyond any three-thousand-word submission to document all aspects of the persecution that the Chinese Communist Party executes in the UK on people who practice Falun Gong. These are instead merely examples of the lengths the Chinese Communist Party goes to in order to control its global image and continue its human rights abuses unhindered.
Introduction
The Falun Dafa Association UK represents the people who practice Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) in the UK.
Falun Dafa is free, open to everyone and appeals to people from all walks of life. It is not a formal religion but is a traditional and ancient Buddhist faith from China which was brought to the public in 1992. It is a peaceful practice that has a physical element, teaching meditation and slow-moving exercises, as well as a moral element, teaching Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance as principles to aspire to in daily life.
In ancient China people were very spiritual. They believed in the divine and tried to live their life guided by moral principles and values. China was known as the “Land of the Divine” as they lived in harmony with heaven and earth. The “three pillars” of traditional Chinese society are Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism which taught people to value virtue for thousands of years. Falun Dafa is part of this traditional Chinese culture.
Much of this traditional Chinese culture, however, is lost in China today. In 2006, a group of leading classical Chinese artists (who practice Falun Dafa) wanted to revive their rich heritage and traditional culture through the beauty of dance and music. This is the mission of Shen Yun Performing Arts. They are people who are passionate about their art and culture and want to share its beauty with the world.
The Shen Yun performances are stunning and inspiring. Since 2006, they have become so popular that they currently have six dance companies, each with their own orchestra, touring the world and performing to sell-out audiences at the most prestigious venues.
The Falun Dafa Association UK has a limited company for the sole purpose of organising all the Shen Yun performances in the UK.
In the UK and globally, the Chinese Communist Party systematically attempts to sabotage Shen Yun using aggressive tactics. Their aim is to prevent Shen Yun from revealing the truth about the human rights atrocities the Chinese Communist Party commits against Falun Dafa and to manipulate Western opinion and organisations to serve its own agenda.
Key points
1. Falun Gong introduced to the public: Although Falun Gong is ancient, it was only introduced to the public in China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi and it spread very rapidly by word of mouth.
2. Investigation into Falun Gong: In May 1998 China’s National Sports Commission launched an investigation into Falun Gong, and commissioned medical professionals to conduct interviews of over 12,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Guangdong province. 97.9% of respondents said Falun Gong improved their health. The investigation concluded: “We’re convinced the exercises and effects of Falun Gong are excellent. It has done an extraordinary amount to improve society’s stability and ethics. This should be duly affirmed.”[i]
3. Falun Gong is widespread: In 1999, the State Sports Commission estimated that upwards of 70 million people in China were practising Falun Gong.[i] In April 1999, a New York Times article also reported 70 million Falun Gong adherents and said of the group “even by Chinese Government estimates has more members than the Communist Party.”[ii]
4. The directive to “eradicate” Falun Gong: During a July 1999 meeting of senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres the leader at that time, Jiang Zemin, announced his decision to eradicate Falun Gong. He gave the directive to “Destroy their reputations, cut them off financially, and eradicate them physically.”[iii]
5. Jiang Zemin established a department called “The 6-10 Office” to carry out his directive, it was granted authority over all police, government and courts. The national campaign was launched on 20 July 1999, it includes inciting hatred, arbitrary detention, torture and killing, all of which continues today.[i]
6. Understanding why the CCP persecutes Falun Gong: Falun Gong is a peaceful faith, rooted in traditional Chinese culture and teaches to respect the divine, and to value life and virtues. It takes truthfulness, compassion and tolerance as its core tenets. In contrast, the CCP destroyed traditional Chinese culture with the Cultural Revolution; it is not tolerant of faith but enforces atheism and requires the populace to believe there is no greater power than the CCP. It establishes control through violence, fear and deception and does not value life. Falun Gong represents the polar opposite of CCP ideology. Jiang Zemin declared that if the CCP could not defeat Falun Gong then the Party would become “a laughing stock.”[i]
7. Largest group of prisoners of conscience: According to the January 2015 Freedom House Special Report: “The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] devoted considerable resources to suppressing Falun Gong and coercing adherents into renouncing their beliefs, typically through the use of violence. Hundreds of thousands of adherents were sentenced to labor camps and prison terms making them the largest contingent of prisoners of conscience in the country.
8. “Many were detained and punished for simply possessing spiritual texts in the privacy of their own homes, or for taking actions like printing homemade leaflets to inform others about abuses against fellow believers.”[iv]
9. It should be noted that despite the violence of the persecution, Falun Gong practitioners' response has always been non-violent.
10. The persecution continues: Freedom of religion watchdog, the Union of Catholic Asian News reported that in 2018 freedom of religion in China worsened as the “persecution of Uyghurs, Christians and Falun Gong stepped up.”[v]
11. Amnesty International states in their 2017-2018 report on China, “Falun Gong practitioners continued to be subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, unfair trials and torture and other ill-treatment.”[vi]
12. How severe is the persecution of Falun Gong? Since 2006, evidence from independent researchers have reported that Falun Gong prisoners of conscience have been killed in vast numbers in order to provide organs for the burgeoning organ transplantation industry run by the Chinese state. [vii]
13. In December 2018, the British Medical Journal reported “Forced harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience in China has been ‘substantial,’ says an interim judgment of an independent people’s tribunal set up to determine whether the country’s transplantation practices breached international criminal law.
14. “The former English judge Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the tribunal’s chair, said after a three day evidence gathering session, ‘We, the tribunal members, are all certain, unanimously, beyond reasonable doubt, that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practised for a substantial period of time, involving a very substantial number of victims . . . by state organised or approved organisations or individuals.’” [viii]
15. How is the persecution of Falun Gong related to Shen Yun Performing Arts? A Shen Yun performance consists of about 20 programme pieces. Each piece tells a story or highlights one aspect of China; from the creation myth, different dynasties and ethnic groups to contemporary China. Usually one or two contemporary pieces portrays a true story of Falun Gong in China today. Although the persecution of Falun Gong is horrific the Shen Yun portrayals are always uplifting and celebrate values such as faith, overcoming adversity, compassion, courage or hope.
16. The CCP, however, does not want people to know the truth about its human rights atrocities so it tries to suppress Shen Yun performances.
17. Global tactics against Shen Yun. The CCP has tried many ways to sabotage Shen Yun shows. The website “Who’s Afraid of Shen Yun” documents 70 incidents in 25 countries. The tactics range from cyber-attacks against Shen Yun’s ticketing website, to hiring local thugs to slash Shen Yun’s bus tyres, to full-page inserts in major newspapers slandering Shen Yun, to coercing or threatening venues, to mobilizing online commenters to post negative reviews about Shen Yun. They even organise people to pose as Falun Gong practitioners to send letters to theatres with nonsensical content in order to give the venues a negative image of Shen Yun and Falun Gong. [ix]
18. In the UK, the first Shen Yun performance was at the Southbank Centre in 2008. We were informed by the venue that they were contacted and there would be a group protesting the show. There wasn't any protest in the end, it was just a threat. All the performances were completely sold out and received excellent audience feedback (95% rated the show positively with 91% saying they would recommend the show). Despite the overwhelming success of the show, the venue however, have not booked the show again and provided no explanation.
19. Shen Yun is a popular and well-loved show, over the years there have been hundreds of positive articles and reviews written about Shen Yun. One article by the Telegraph in 2008 which was critical of the show still appears at the top of Google searches even now, ten years later. This rare negative article is promoted on many Chinese anti-Shen Yun websites so the Google search rating is artificially boosted.
20. Every year we have 24-hour security on the Shen Yun tour coaches. A few times we have found Chinese men attempting to approach the vehicles but were chased away. Other Shen Yun tour coaches have had their tyres slashed as recently as 2016.[ix][x]
21. In 2011 and 2012, the London Coliseum management informed us that they were contacted by the Chinese Embassy in London and experienced pressure to not allow Shen Yun to perform. Even though the performances were a success at the Coliseum with exceptional audience feedback, the venue has not booked the show since then and provided no reasonable explanation.
22. In 2014 the Birmingham ICC venue manager, Lisa Thompson, informed us that she received a phone call pressuring her to cancel the Shen Yun performances, the caller even threatened her family if she did not cancel the show.
23. In January 2017 the Telegraph printed an insert by China Daily, the official English mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. The inserts are paid ads that look like normal articles. The article title calls Shen Yun “A Blasphemy That Masquerades as Art” and appears as a regular article written by the newspaper. Therefore, while it attacks Shen Yun and Falun Gong with disinformation and propaganda, it appears to be written by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, or the Telegraph, to name just a few of the papers who carried this paid insert by the Chinese Communist Party.
24. In 2018 three different UK venues informed us about contact they received from the Chinese Embassy, as in most cases a full disclosure of the contact was not revealed since venues find such contact very unusual and difficult.
25. In the UK we do not know how many venues have been contacted and coerced. We do know that some venues we approach already have a preconceived negative view about Falun Gong based on disinformation. They refer to Shen Yun as “the Falun Gong show” in a negative tone which is typical propaganda the Chinese Communist Party spreads. Many key venues will not even speak with us despite the massive commercial success of the show. It is true that many of the artists practice Falun Gong, but the show’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture in the most beautiful way. The performance weaves different aspects of Chinese history, including myths, legends, ethnic dances, classical instrumental solos into a stunning tapestry that inspires people to see the true beauty of traditional Chinese culture.
26. UK partners provide more evidence of wrongdoing. In January 2019, just weeks before Shen Yun was to perform in Madrid, Spain, the performances were canceled by the venue. An undercover reporter exposed that it was the Chinese Ambassador to Spain, Lu Fan, who made a personal visit and put pressure on the venue “by using the CCP’s control of the large Chinese market as an enticement”. The performances were canceled under the pretext of technical difficulties.[xi]
27. It was reported that the theatre’s general manager went on a trip to China on 14-15 January this year. [xi]
28. In 2017, CCP front-groups staged a protest in front of the Liceu Theater in Barcelona while Shen Yun was performing inside. Around 25 to 30 Chinese nationals carried banners and shouted slogans that defamed Shen Yun and Falun Gong. Falun Gong adherents in Spain launched a defamation lawsuit against the CCP front-group as their conduct constituted hate speech. [xi]
29. In 2018, Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reported “Simply because Shen Yun’s programme depicts how the Chinese regime suppresses the spiritual group Falun Gong, Chinese diplomats have met with Holland’s foreign affairs minister, requesting that Shen Yun’s performances be canceled.” [xii]
30. In Denmark a staff member of the Royal Danish Theater met with the Chinese Embassy and said “They [the embassy] ended the meeting by asking if we had a dialogue with Shen Yun, and requested that we shouldn’t allow them to rent our facilities.”
31. Conclusion: The CCP is indeed aggressively trying to control people and organisations in the UK and its partners when it does not suit their narrative and political agenda. As evidenced in this submission, something as benign as a performance falls in their cross-hairs where they will go to great length to suppress. The CCP does not tolerate any public criticism, even when that criticism is based on fact. It uses threats, propaganda, coercion and enticement to control and manipulate towards its own end and exports incitement to hatred of a peaceful people into the UK.
32. The CCP uses its influence in the UK and partner countries to control and undermine the values of democracy, open markets and freedom of belief. If we allow them to influence our society unhindered then we are allowing them to supplant our values with their own.
Recommendations
The Falun Dafa Association UK makes the following recommendations to Her Majesty’s Government:
33. Speak out publicly against the CCP’s unacceptable human rights records and their persecution of prisoners of conscience and demand that they be freed.
34. Diplomatic immunity should not be extended to countries that export their incitement to hatred into the UK.
35. Speak out publicly against China when they try to undermine our freedoms and our values.
March 2019
Footnotes
[i] “Run up to the persecution: Timeline,” Falun Dafa Information Center - http://en.faluninfo.eu/background/pers_timeline
[ii] “Noteriety Now for Movement's Leader,” by Joseph Kahn, New York Times, 27 April 1999 - http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/27/world/notoriety-now-for-movement-s-leader.html
[iii] “Anything for Power: The Real Story of China's Jiang Zemin – Chapter 16,” by The Epoch Times, 26 September 2016 - http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1026925-anything-for-power-the-real-story-of-chinas-jiang-zemin-chapter-16/full/
[iv] “The Politburo's Predicament: Confronting the Limitations of Chinese Communist Party Repression,” Feedom House, January 2015 - https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/12222014_FH_ChinaReport2014_FINAL.pdf
[v] "Freedom of religion in China 'worsened in 2018'", 8 February 2019 - https://www.ucanews.com/news/freedom-of-religion-in-china-worsened-in-2018/84470
[vi] "CHINA 2017/2018", Amnesty International report,
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/china/report-china/
[vii] “Bloody Harvest: Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China,” by David Matas and David Kilgour, 31 January 2007 - http://organharvestinvestigation.net/report0701/report20070131-eng.pdf
[viii] "China harvested organs from political prisoners on substantial scale, says tribunal", The BMJ, 11 December 2018 - https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5250
[ix] "Who's afraid of Shen Yun?" http://leeshailemish.com/on-shen-yun/
[x] “Challenges we face” - https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/spirituality/challenges-we-face
[xi] “Chinese Embassy Pressured Theater to Cancel Shen Yun Performances in Spain, Investigation Reveals”, Epoch Times, 29 January 2019 - https://www.theepochtimes.com/undercover-phone-call-reveals-chinese-embassy-pressure-to-cancel-shen-yun-in-spain_2779209.html
[xii] “Despite Beijing’s Attempts to Thwart Shen Yun’s Tours in Europe and Beyond, Performing Arts Company Flourishes”, Epoch Times, 10 October 2018 - https://www.theepochtimes.com/despite-beijings-attempts-to-thwart-shen-yuns-tours-in-europe-and-beyond-performing-arts-company-flourishes_2685875.html
