(Clearwisdom.net) On June 18, 2005, Falun Gong practitioners in Vancouver held a press conference at the downtown campus of Simon Fraser University to expose the Chinese Communist Party's spy activities in Vancouver. The practitioners used their own experiences and those of their family members and friends as evidence. Practitioners revealed how the CCP collected information about individual practitioners and group activities, and used this information to threaten them and their family members in China. Practitioners called upon the Canadian government to make a thorough investigation and to uphold Canadian citizens' basic human rights and personal security.

A Western practitioner presided over the conference. Four practitioners delivered speeches. Canadian attorney Clive Ansley and attorney Guo Guoting from Shanghai, China also attended the press conference. Major Chinese and Western media outlets in Vancouver also attended.

A practitioner leading the press conference

A practitioner giving a speech

The press conference

Falun Gong practitioner Huang Shangjun said at the conference that on June 12, 2002, she and another practitioner changed flights in Oslo on their way to Iceland. "When we were about to board, Iceland diplomats in Norway used the excuse that Jiang Zemin was visiting Northern Europe and in order to ensure his safety, practitioners of Falun Gong were banned from entering Iceland. They therefore barred us from boarding the flight. As a consequence, we had to stay in Norway for two days. According to media reports from Iceland, it was the Chinese Communist regime that provided the Icelandic government with a blacklist that included our names."

Falun Gong practitioner Zheng Jun said, "In February 2001, my mother passed away. I tried to apply for a visa to go to China to attend my mother's funeral. My application was rejected. Later, I went to Hong Kong where I was followed. When I applied for a visa to the Mainland from Hong Kong, my request was turned down again. In March 2003, my son Trent, also a Falun Gong practitioner, went back China to visit our family members there. As soon as he stepped off the shuttle bus of the airport, he was arrested by five agents from the National Security Bureau. He was locked up in a small room for several hours. The agents told Trent that they recognized him as soon as he entered customs. They also talked about detailed information about other four practitioners in Vancouver. During the two weeks that Trent was in China, he was followed. He did not dare to receive phone calls. He sent emails to me and told me, 'They know everything about us.'"

Another Falun Gong practitioner, Susannah, said in her speech that the Chinese authorities are aware of everything about her. They even know more about her than do her family members with whom she had shared apartments. Shortly before, one of her roommates, also a Falun Gong practitioner, went back to China and was detained by the Chinese police. The questions asked by the police included issues that she had never disclosed to her family members or her roommates. The police kept harassing her family members. Although her mother is 80 years old and her sister is very ill, she is unable to return China to visit them. The police even told her family members, "Don't think that she is in Canada and that no one could touch her. Isn't Charles Li an American citizen? We have imprisoned him regardless."

Susannah said that she is a Canadian citizen, but she still has to live under the shadow of the Chinese Communist government and has been constantly threatened. She hoped that the Canadian government will ensure her safety and the safety of other practitioners.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Ying has a Ph.D. On February 29, 2000, Canada International Development Company sent her to China. She said, as soon as she arrived in China, she was followed. At midnight on March 1, two National Security agents went to her hotel room and abducted her. They covered her eyes and pushed her into a vehicle. They took her to their office, where she was interrogated for eight hours. They demanded that she write a confession statement and threatened her that they would detain her as a criminal. They said that even though Li Ying held a Canadian passport, they could still send her to jail. Later, the agents told the Chinese counterpart of the Canada International Development Company that they should not allow Li Ying to continue with the project. Li Ying said, "The Chinese authorities can recognize me so quickly, which indicates that my status and whereabouts in Canada have been monitored."

Dr. Li Ying said, "From February 6 to 8, 2005, from early morning to 3 p.m., I received harassing phone calls on every hour. The contents were all fabricated propaganda defaming Falun Gong. The Chinese spies do not only monitor individual Falun Gong practitioners in Canada, they also infiltrated into the overseas Chinese media. Some Chinese media directly broadcast the false news made by Chinese communist regime's mouthpiece, CCTV, to slander Falun Gong and instigate hatred toward Falun Gong among Chinese people in Canada."

Why would the Chinese communist regime spend so much of common people's hard-earn money to send more than 1,000 spies and informers to deal with a group of unarmed, law-abiding, peaceful and rational Falun Gong practitioners? Dr. Li Ying said, "The nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is false, vicious, and violent, which are absolutely irreconcilable with the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance that Falun Gong teaches. Therefore, the CCP carries out such genocidal suppression against Falun Gong. Orders issued by the central government to local governments are saying, 'Ruin Falun Gong practitioners' reputation, bankrupt them financially, and physically eliminate them.' Up to the present, more than 2,570 practitioners have been confirmed to have died from the persecution. We believe the real death toll is much higher than this.

"The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is completely based on lies. The reason that so many spies have been sent to Canada and other countries is to conceal the truth of the genocidal persecution and to deceive Canada and the international society. Because they knew that once the whole world learns about the truth, they would not be able to maintain their illegal suppression, and the communist regime would collapse."

At the end of the press conference, practitioners called upon the Canadian government to lodge a thorough investigation into the CCP's espionage network and its various methods of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. They also called on Canadian officials at all levels not to bow to the CCP; instead, they should take positive measures to uphold their citizens' most basic rights. Practitioners appealed to the Canadian media to uphold justice, and encouraged them to learn about the truth and to report the truth. Practitioners also called upon officials of the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver and all who are still serving the CCP's espionage network to clearly realize the current situation, forsake evilness for goodness, and break off with the CCP. In doing so, they will regain their conscience, just as Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun have done.