INTRODUCTION

  The Falun Gong Association (UK) welcomes the publication of the 2004 Human Rights Annual Report by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the comments on China's human rights abuses.

  We congratulate the FCO for its comprehensive coverage of a wide range of human rights abuses in China and associated issues and developments in that country. We thank the FCO for raising in the report its concerns about the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

  We put forward the following comments and suggestions on a number of specific aspects of the report.

INFORMATION ON THE SCALES OF ABUSES IN CHINA

  We are pleased to see that FCO has cited various forms of statistics to illustrate the extent of certain serious abuses including the re-education through Labour system and the death penalty. Such information convey the sense of gravity and urgency clearly and directly. We would be pleased to see that this information is extended, particularly to indicate the abuses against the Falun Gong practitioners, who are, according to our information so far, the largest and most severely persecuted group in China today.

  For the five years since the persecution started, the Falun Gong Information Centre has been receiving an average of over 10 reports of abuses a day. Based on information in independent publications (eg, the Economist), the number of practitioners sentenced to labour camps without trial is estimated to be 100,000. In the camps Falun Gong inmates are at the mercy of the staff instructed to obtain signed recantation of belief by any means including torture. There has been a heavy death roll from torture and ill-treatment, ranging from 1,157 verified deaths (as of 10 December 2004) to estimates of several thousands. In the months of September and October 2004 alone, the Falun Gong Information Centre received reports of 68 individual death cases. Hundreds of healthy individuals have been abused in mental hospitals. Practitioners are sacked from employment, expelled from universities and driven from their homes into homelessness. Women are subjected to sexual abuses, rapes and forced abortions. Moreover, up to 100 million Falun Gong practitioners have been deprived of their basic freedoms of belief, expression and association.

FALUN GONG AS AN INDIVIDUAL OBJECTIVE FOR FCO'S CHINA HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY

  The Report has listed a number of objects for human rights improvement in China. Considering the vast scale and diverse range of abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China, resolving the issue will have major and wide-ranging impact on human rights in China. Thus, it would be appropriate to take the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners as an individual objective of HMG in dealing with human rights in China.

HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE

  Human Rights improvements in China require both gradual changes at grass-root level and also effective response to outbreak of serious abuses, such as the massive human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners in China. The Dialogue is helpful for the former but not as suitable for the other.

  The FCO China Team staff and Human Rights Team staff have made substantial efforts and secured as much as could have been secured from the UK-China Dialogues in terms of the first type of improvement. We believe that for effectiveness in dealing with outbreaks of serious abuses in China, the second type, the Dialogue need to be accompanied by top-level representations and public criticism. This is because the Dialogue by-passes the top leaders of both countries and the private nature of the Dialogues also means that issues raised are invisible to the media and the public, two powerful forces for change.

  The international and UK responses in the SARS incident and national security legislation in HK are recent successful examples for public criticism.

PUBLIC AND SUMMIT-LEVEL REPRESENTATION

  We much appreciate the efforts by the FCO, particularly the Minister responsible for China and Hong Kong affairs, to raise the issue of the human rights of Falun Gong, both in private meetings and in public forums. It would be most helpful for resolving this serious situation in China if the Prime Minister could add his voice, particularly when meeting Chinese leaders and in public forums to refer specifically to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and the absence of credible evidence for the official allegations of crimes.

  Successive UK Foreign Office Ministers have made direct, public and powerful statements at the UN Human Rights meetings in Geneva. We believe that this can be usefully supplemented by the tabling of critical Motions on the grave abuses in China including the physical abuse of Falun Gong practitioners.

BBC AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

  The freedom of expression and the freedom of the press is crucial to the protection of human rights and the serious lack of this freedom in China lies at the root of most of the serious and persistent abuses. The relevant cases highlighted in the section "Setbacks over the last year" point to the deterioration in this vital area. In this context, the issue of the BBC world service and website blockage is one of major importance. Continued and enhanced efforts on the BBC issue would be effective for focusing attention on media freedom and will help not only BBC but also Chinese journalists, media and others and help to bring about wide ranging improvement in human rights in China.

  The Chinese regime has in the past years pressed international companies and governments to take off air the broadcast of NTD TV, a New York based Chinese-language satellite TV company, which broadcasts in America, Europe and Asia, including China. We hope that the UK government will press China to stop this and other abuses that limit the freedoms of press and expression.

HONG KONG

  We congratulate the FCO, and particularly the Minister responsible for China and Hong Kong, for his and FCO's timely and excellent responses on the developments in constitutional reform and the national security legislation in Hong Kong, which have major implications for the "one country, two systems" principle for the territory. The FCO's reference on the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong is particularly noted and appreciated.

CONCLUSIONS

  We hope that HMG will adopt as an individual objective of its China human rights policy to end the abuse of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

  Future FCO Human Rights Reports would benefit from extended information on the scale of abuses in China.

  While the official representations in private meetings at all levels are of great importance, these require in our view to be accompanied by public criticism by Ministers to have significant effects on discouraging major human rights abuses.