OTTAWA—On June 6, Chen Yonglin, a former Chinese consulate staff stationed in Sydney, Australia, revealed during a press conference at the Ottawa Parliament how Beijing manipulates western politicians to persecute Falun Gong and others who support freedom from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Chen gave the example of an Australian politician. This politician had sex with a girl under 16 years old in China in China and was detained. He wrote a statement and was then released secretly. Under threat of his crime being exposed, the politician always speaks highly of the Chinese Communist regime on TV and at other important meetings. “Important figures, Australians or Canadians, are all under strict watch when they visit China. Beijing can easily set up a trap to frame anyone if necessary,” said Chen.
Chen said there are two ways the CCP uses to infiltrate the western governments. One is to bribe the government officials, for instance, by treating them to travel in China for free. The other is giving out fellowships to Canadian students to study in China. The scholarships are not given out to the general public, but to the politician’s children so they can study in China for free and with allowances. “Without any competition, this application is unethical; the scholarships are a form of bribery,” Chen says.
The Falun Gong Issue is a Priority
Chen said the CCP classifies people overseas into five groups and then tries to persecute them. These groups are Falun Gong, democratic activists, Taiwan, Tibet human right activists and Xinjiang human right activists. In recent years, the CCP has intensified the suppression. “The CCP’s foreign policies are extensions of their domestic policies. It targets those who are perceived threats to the CCP’s power overseas. The CCP now focuses mostly on Falun Gong because they have the biggest following and steadfast belief,” says Chen, “Sixty percent of the CCP’s effort (finance and manpower) is spent on suppressing Falun Gong, 20 to 30 percent on Taiwan, and five to ten percent on other issues.”
Decades of Work to Control Overseas Chinese
Chen said, “The CCP’s foreign policy is to thoroughly control the Chinese population overseas. For decades, the CCP has worked really hard on it and has achieved great success. The CCP has built a system with a pyramid structure. The system controls overseas Chinese in the name of solidarity.” There are groups like this in every country, including Australia and Europe. These groups all have names using the terms association, federation or congress of Chinese, etc. Others, like the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification or associations of professionals, are all groups set up by the CCP to control overseas Chinese.
