To most Canadians, human rights in China is just a vague idea about people in a foreign land. For Michelle (Tianxiao) Zhang, it’s three family members she has lost and an orphaned niece she can do little to help.
Ms. Zhang joined supporters and Members of Parliament at a press conference and concurrent rally on Parliament Hill Thursday, the eve of Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s visit to China.
Ms. Zhang joined supporters and Members of Parliament at a press conference and concurrent rally on Parliament Hill Thursday, the eve of Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s visit to China.
While NDP MP Don Davies spoke at the press conference inside Parliament, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler issued a statement of support and Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj addressed the rally of about 150 people on the lawn of Parliament Hill.
They came with a message: don’t forget human rights while pursuing business in the Middle Kingdom.
Mr. Cannon arrives in China this weekend to boost ties with the country, something critics allege the Conservatives have not done enough of. But human rights groups around the world have applauded the Conservative government’s principled stance in dealing with China.
Those on Parliament Hill Thursday are worried the Conservatives could go too far in the other direction.
“Minister Cannon, we are here today to ask you not to ignore the atrocities happening under the communist regime in China,” Li Xun, president of Falun Dafa Association of Canada, said at the news conference. Falun Gong is also known as Falun Dafa.
“For ten years nearly every human rights organization in the world has reported on the persecution, torture, and death of Falun Gong practitioners…Over 3,200 identified practitioners have lost their lives, though the true death toll of the decade-long persecutory campaign is certainly much higher.”
Mr. Li referred to 13 known cases of Canadians with relatives in China subject to persecution, including Ms. Zhang’s case.
‘Heaven Umbrella’ made by forced labour
At the press conference, Ms. Zhang said her sister Yunhe has been missing since police abducted her in February 2002.
“She was held at Dashan Detention Center of Qingdao for at least six months before she was transferred away. But police denied that they had ever had her. Seven years have passed and nobody has heard from her.”
Ms. Zhang believes Yunhe is already dead, killed in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) illicit organ trade.
Yunhe’s husband, Zou Songtao, died at the Wangcun Labour Camp of Zibo City in November 2000 after two months there. He was 28 years old.
Mr. Zou had been detained several times earlier. In April 2000, he suffered a violent beating by police. “He later recalled that his head was swollen to twice as big and was bleeding like an open faucet.”
Ms. Zhang’s then three-year-old niece has been orphaned as a result.
Ms. Zhang’s mother gave up the practice for fear of persecution. “She died in August 2001 from distress of her daughter’s family tragedy.”
Ms. Zhang said her father, who does not practise Falun Gong, has had his phone tapped. Such stories, she said, have been told by millions of other Chinese families over the past 10 years.
Among them is Shen Yue of Montreal, whose mother and stepfather practise Falun Gong in China.
“In 2000, my mother was detained in prison. During that several months, she and many of her fellow practitioners suffered all kinds of torture, sexual harassments, and abuse,” he said at the press conference.
One time a guard saw his mother doing the Falun Gong exercises in her prison cell. She beat his mother with a bamboo stick until she was too tired to continue, he said. “The policewomen also used the electric baton very often to strike my mother.”
In 2007, his mother and stepfather were again taken by police. They were sentenced to five years in prison.
Mr. Shen said the cruel nature of the CCP has created a society without justice or humanity. “They use all the media to defame Falun Gong practitioners. The brainwashing make people to alienate practitioners, and then, some of them feel free to torture practitioners.”
Toronto practitioner Rocy Huang spoke of her experience. She was arrested four times, detained thrice, and “tortured by policemen and other prisoners instructed by the policemen.”
She was also forced to make umbrellas of the famous “Heaven Umbrella” brand name in China.
“I must finish 50 umbrellas each day. That means 15-16 hours non-stop intensive labour. If I could not finish the quota or with any quality problem, they would beat and hurt me violently with objects like needles, scissors, or slap my face, pinch my body. There was a lady who could not endure the torture and swallowed a scissors. But they just beat her very hard because the scissors were missing. In their eyes, the scissors are more valuable than life.”
Ensure ‘blood isn’t left on our hands’
MP Don Davies called on Minister Cannon to raise human rights during his trip to China. He said Falun Gong practitioners just want to follow their beliefs in a “peaceful and civil manner,” a desire he was there to support.
“The previous Liberal government consistently failed to raise human rights with China and they placed excessive emphasis on trade issues. The current government has an opportunity to change that.”
Mr. Davies had raised the issue of human rights in China in the House of Commons in April. He asked Minister Cannon to have a productive but principled stance when dealing with China.
At the rally MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj said that while China has opened itself for investment and trade, the Chinese people still don’t enjoy security within their own country.
“There’s a fear of persecution. There’s a fear of their own government. And that’s an issue that needs to be addressed, and we certainly hope that that is an issue that our minister will address on our behalves.”
Mr. Wrzesnewskyj said it was essential the regime allow third-party arms-length investigations into its penal system to reassure Canadians that documented atrocities have ceased.
“Only if we’re able to push this forward in our discussion with the Chinese authorities will we step away from those negotiations and discussions knowing that when we shake hands with Chinese authorities that blood isn’t left on our hand,” he said.
On Thursday, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj also re-introduced his private members bill, Bill C-381, that aims to amend the Criminal Code to stop Canadians from getting organ transplants in countries known to get their organs from illegal sources.
In his remarks in the House of Commons he referred to a 2007 report detailing evidence that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners had been killed by the Chinese regime in the process of removing their organs for lucrative transplant operations.
The persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999. The report by former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas said “the source of 41,500 transplants [in China] for the six year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained…The allegation of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners provides an answer.”
Liberal MP and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler issued a statement adding his support to Falun Gong.
“It is shocking that this exercise in meditation—a spiritual movement dedicated to values of truth, compassion and tolerance, the ancient values of the great Chinese civilization—has been declared illegal. This widespread violation of human rights must come to an end,” he said.
“While Chinese-Canadian relations should be encouraged and trade is a form of constructive engagement, Minister Cannon cannot proceed as if this is business as usual. The protection and promotion of human rights must be a priority on the Canadian agenda, an expression of who we are and what we do,” said Mr. Cotler.
