(Minghui.org) Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, released a statement on behalf of the European Union (EU) on December 10, 2024, Human Rights Day. The statement reads, “On Human Rights Day, the European Union reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the universal respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights for everyone, everywhere. This year’s theme, Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now, underscores the necessity of safeguarding rights and freedoms for a just, resilient, and sustainable future — leaving no one behind.
“The EU will continue to promote and protect human rights for everyone, everywhere — Your Rights, Your Future, Right Now and Always.”
Statement from Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission (Website screenshot)
Urging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to Release Detained Falun Gong Practitioners
In addition, the EU also posted a bilingual press release in Chinese and English on its official website from the EU Delegation in China, condemning the CCP’s large-scale human rights persecution and urging the CCP to immediately and unconditionally release illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners.
Statement of the EU Delegation in China (Website screenshot)
The statement reads, “However, serious concerns persist regarding civil, cultural, economic, social and political rights. We urge China to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights for everyone, including persons belonging to ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities.
“The EU is particularly concerned about the systemic and severe restrictions on the exercise of fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of religion or belief, ...
“We call for comprehensive investigations into reported cases of arbitrary detention, torture, and other forms of -, as well as harassment targeting human rights defenders and their families. Detained individuals should be granted the right to select their own legal representation, receive medical care, and maintain contact with their families.”
Statement of the EU Delegation in China (Website screenshot)
“The EU urges China to abolish the practice of Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), assessed as a form of enforced disappearance by the UN Special Procedures. Torture and other degrading treatments, including as means of obtaining coerced and public confessions, are equivalent to criminal offences and should be eradicated completely.”
The EU continues to be concerned about, and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Falun Gong practitioners Xu Na, Ding Yuande and others.
EU-China Human Rights Dialogue Concerned about the Safety of Falun Gong Practitioners
On June 16, 2024, the 39th EU-China Human Rights Dialogue was held in Chongqing. On June 17, the EU issued a statement reiterating that the human rights situation in China is very serious and worrying.
At the meeting, the EU specifically mentioned reports of the CCP’s suppression of human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists, urging the CCP to investigate and stop its human rights violations.
The EU also expressed concern about cases of illegal detention, forced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment. In addition, it once again urged the CCP to stop persecuting human rights, focusing on individuals who have been deprived of their freedom for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief, including Falun Gong practitioners Xu Na and Ding Yuande.
The CCP’s Persecution of Artist Xu Na
Xu Na, a Falun Gong practitioner in Beijing and an independent painter and poet, was persecuted by the CCP for publishing street photos of Beijing during the pandemic. On July 19, 2020, she was arrested at home by the Domestic Security Brigade of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Domestic Security Brigade of the Shunyi District Public Security Bureau, and the Shunyi District Airport Police Station. The next day, the police illegally searched her home and took away her personal belongings including computers, mobile phones, and cameras. Thirteen other people were also seized that day, including Falun Gong practitioners Li Zongze, Li Lixin, Zheng Yujie, Zheng Yanmei, Deng Jingjing, Zhang Renfei, Liu Qiang, Meng Qingxia, Li Jiaxuan, and Jiao Mengjiao.
On January 14, 2022, the Dongcheng District Court of Beijing sentenced 11 Falun Gong practitioners, including Xu Na and Li Zongze, and extorted fines from each: Xu Na was illegally sentenced to eight years in prison and fined 20,000 yuan (US $2,740). Practitioners Li Zongze, Li Lixin, Zheng Yujie, and Zheng Yanmei were all sentenced to five years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan (US $1,370). Practitioners Deng Jingjing, Zhang Renfei, Liu Qiang, and Meng Qingxia were all sentenced to four years in prison and fined 8,000 yuan (US $1,096). Practitioners Li Jiaxuan and Jiao Mengjiao were sentenced to two years in prison and fined 4,000 yuan (US $548).
Xu Na, an independent artist who practices Falun Gong
The practitioners, including Xu Na, appealed the verdicts. On May 18, 2023, the Beijing Second Intermediate Court, without a public trial, upheld the original verdicts.
On September 20, 2023, Xu Na was transferred from the Beijing Dongcheng District Detention Center to the Tianhe Prison Dispatch Office. That November, she was transferred to the Third Ward of the Beijing Women’s Prison. Later, she suddenly disappeared from the Third Ward and her current whereabouts are unknown.
Her husband, Falun Gong practitioner Yu Zhou, died in custody after being arrested by the CCP in 2008 for his belief. It has been 16 years, but the cause of his death is still unknown.
Farmers Ding Yuande and Ma Ruimei Persecuted
Falun Gong practitioner Ding Yuande of Yanjiazhuang Village, Kouguan Town, Wulian County, Rizhao City, was arrested with his wife Ma Ruimei in the early morning of May 12, 2023. Officers from the Donggang District Public Security Bureau, Wulian County Public Security Bureau, Kouguan Town Police Station and other public security, procuratorial and judicial personnel, about twelve in all, arrived in plainclothes cars to avoid detection prior to the arrest. Ding Yuande has been detained in the Rizhao City Detention Center since June 13.
Falun Gong practitioner Ding Yuande and his wife Ma Ruimei
Ever since Mr. Ding Yuande was illegally detained, his son Ding Lebin, who lives in Germany, has been actively calling on the international community to help rescue his parents. On June 14, two police officers intimidated and threatened Ms. Ma Ruimei at her home, and threatened to sentence her husband, citing international calls for the release of Mr. Ding – including letters from the public and from politicians to former Rizhao Municipal Party Committee Secretary Zhang Hui and other direct perpetrators of the persecution.
On November 28, 2023, the Wulian County Court tried Mr. Ding, and on December 15, sentenced him to three years in prison and extorted 15,000 yuan (US $2,055) in fines.
On January 29, 2024, the Rizhao Intermediate Court in Shandong Province, irregardless of the illegal acts of the Wulian County Court and the Rizhao Public Security Procuratorate, denied Mr. Ding Yuande’s appeal, without holding a trial, and upheld the Wulian County Court’s illegal verdict.
Ever since Mr. Ding Yuande’s 82-year-old mother learned that her son was arrested and persecuted, and especially after he was sentenced, she has been distraught and in tears. She died suddenly on December 26, 2023.
Ms. Ma Ruimei is still under strict surveillance and wiretapping at home. On March 20, 2024, the Rizhao City authorities transferred Mr. Ding Yuande from the Rizhao City Detention Center to the Shandong Province Prison, where he continues to be imprisoned.
Mr. Ding Yuande’s son Ding Lebin immediately appealed to the international community for rescue after learning that his parents were arrested. On January 18, 2024, the European Parliament passed an urgent resolution, “The ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China, notably the case of Mr. Ding Yuande.” The European Parliament urged the CCP to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Ding Yuande and all illegally-detained Falun Gong practitioners. This is the first time in the history of the European Union that the European Parliament has focused on and condemned the CCP’s human rights persecution of an ordinary Chinese peasant family.
Resolution of the European Parliament of January 18, 2024
In addition, the resolution calls on the EU and its member states to publicly condemn China’s abuse of organ transplantation [specifically, the harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience] and to use the EU’s global human rights sanctions system and corresponding national sanctions systems to sanction all individuals and entities involved in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and overseas. It emphasizes that EU measures should include visa denials, assets freezes, expulsion from EU territory, criminal prosecutions (including criminal prosecutions based on extraterritorial jurisdiction) and criminal charges based on international law.
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