Liberal Candidate Wendy Yuan’s View on Rights Abuses against Falun Gong

Look here and here for more on Wendy Yuan's twisted view akin to that of the CCP and find out why here.

News Release: Liberal Candidate Wendy Yuan’s View on Rights Abuses against Falun Gong in China Consistent with Chinese Communist Party Line

CIPFG Calls on Dion to Reject Yuan’s view, and to affirm that party policy is to the contrary

Vancouver – At an all candidates debate organized by Chinese Radio AM 1320 in the Vancouver-Kingsway riding on October 4, 2008, Liberal Party candidate Wendy Yuan spoke of Liberal Party policy regarding the rights abuses against Falun Gong in China.

Ms. Yuan stated: "For Falun Gong, our policy is not to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.” Aside from Ms. Yuan, all the other candidates spoke in favour of protecting the basic rights of Falun Gong practitioners.

Clive Ansley, chairman of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), is demanding that Liberal Party Leader Stephane Dion disassociate the Liberal Party from Ms. Yuan’s indefensible position which in effect holds that the torture, genocide, and mass murder of Falun Gong practitioners for the purpose of harvesting their organs is an internal Chinese issue, and that Liberal Party policy is to turn a blind eye toward these atrocities.

“Human Rights are universal and non-partisan,” said Mr. Ansley.

“It was shocking to hear from Ms. Yuan that the Liberal policy toward genocide, torture, and murder for the theft of organs is to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up of its crimes. Under International Law, Human Rights abuses and Crimes Against Humanity can never be considered the internal affairs of any sovereign state. No state is permitted, under International Law, to violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention Against Torture, or the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity. It is imperative that Stephan Dion, in the light of Ms. Yuan’s troubling statement, make absolutely clear whether the Liberal Party stands on the side of International Law or on the side of the Chinese Communist Party — the most prolific perpetrator of Crimes Against Humanity in this era.”

We have written to Dion and still await his reply,” said Lucy Zhou and Sue Zhang, Falun Dafa Association of Canada.

Background of Falun Gong

What is happening to Falun Gong in China

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice based on the principles of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance" and includes five sets of gentle exercises and meditation. It was widely accepted in China before 1999 when the persecution was started because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) feared Falun Gong’s popularity. Jiang Zemin, the CCP leader at the time, declared that the Party must defeat Falun Gong.

For the past nine years, the persecution of Falun Gong has been a crucial and essential part of the ubiquitous human rights abuses in China which are now endemic across the nation. UN Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak reaffirmed in his 2007 report that Falun Gong practitioners account for 66 % of torture victims in government custody. US State Department annual reports confirm that Falun Gong adherents constitute at least half the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in reeducation-through-labour camps, while the real number likely is much higher.

The Hon. David Kilgour, former Liberal MP and Secretary of State for Asia pacific, and Mr. David Matas, renowned human rights lawyer, concluded in their independent investigative report on the illicit harvesting of the organs of Falun Gong practitioners that "there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners" by the "the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country.”

The report stated that the widespread killing of Falun Gong practitioners for profit to provide organs for transplants is "so shocking that it represents a new form of evil on this planet.”

Aside from the organ harvesting, the Falun Dafa Information Center has documented more than 3,100 deaths of Falun Gong practitioners while undergoing torture. Many more cases of detention and death remain unreported, as the Chinese regime has imposed an information blockade and reporting these cases to outside authorities constitutes the severe “crime” of "leaking state secrets." Documentation is notoriously difficult in China and the true number of practitioners murdered by the Chinese Communist Party almost certainly reaches the tens of thousands.

Untold millions of Falun Gong practitioners have lost their jobs, housing, education, and all their basic rights, and have been incarcerated and tortured for refusing to give up their beliefs. No lawyer is allowed to defend them. Lawyer Gao Zhisheng, "the conscience of Chinese lawyers," lost his licence to practise, his law firm was shut down, and he himself was incarcerated and tortured for defending a Falun Gong practitioner and for writing to Chinese leaders calling for an end to the persecution.

Persecution affects Canadians

The persecution also affects Canadians. Currently, 13 family members of Canadians are incarcerated in China for their belief in Falun Gong. Yue Yao, wife of Canadian resident Wenyu Liu in Calgary, is one of 12 jailed practitioners with Canadian ties. In 2001 Ms. Yao was sentenced to 12 years in prison for downloading information from Falun Gong websites and printing leaflets for distribution. Mr. Jian Ma, husband of Ms. Yao Lian in Montreal, is currently serving 2.5 years in a forced labour camp for having Falun Gong-related documents at his home.