Reports of the harassment of family members of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) practitioners by the Public Security Bureau from January to November 2002 are scarce among sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

According to Clear Harmony, the Website of the Falun Dafa in Europe, the Public Security Bureau removed a women from a plane bound for Copenhagen where she was travelling on business (22 Nov. 2002). The woman, a non-practitioner and the sister-in-law of a Falun Gong practitioner residing in Denmark, was detained and questioned for several hours before being placed under house arrest (ibid.). According to the Website, the woman was ordered to "report to the local police station before and after work" (ibid.). In another case, Clear Harmony also reported that a non-practitioner married to a Falun Gong practitioner was "forcefully" taken into custody by the Xinji Public Security Bureau and the Xinji City 610 Office and subjected to "torture" and beatings "in an attempt to acquire information" regarding his wife's activities (ibid. 19 Nov. 2002). According to the Website, the husband is still in custody and the woman has left her home with her young son (ibid.).

Further reports of harassment of the families of Falun Gong practitioners by the Public Security Bureau were not found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

More numerous are reports of the harassment of family members of Falun Gong practitioners by 610 Offices (Falun Dafa Clearwisdom 2 Oct. 2002; ibid. 22 Nov. 2002; Clear Harmony 18 Nov. 2002; ibid. 19 Nov. 2002). These reports are all published by Falun Gong information and resource centres which report on the specific cases of individuals, several of which are based on "eye witness accounts" (Falun Dafa Clearwisdom 2 Oct. 2002; ibid. 22 Nov. 2002).

According to the Falun Dafa Information Centre,

The term "610" is an alias for the "Supervising team in charge of the dealing with Falun Gong," and has been described by human rights advocates as the central control structure for "state-run terrorism" in China today (n.d.).

According to the reports, individuals from 610 Offices have harassed the elderly parents of a Falun Gong practitioner to discover the practitioner's whereabouts and threatened to hold the practitioner's son in an attempt to "trap" her (Falun Dafa Clearwisdom 2 Oct. 2002). In another case, the 610 Office threatened a non-practitioner husband, saying he would be laid off from his work if he did not sign a "guarantee letter" on his wife's behalf stating that she would not go to Beijing to appeal the "persecution" of the Falun Gong (ibid. 22 Nov. 2002).

According to Clear Harmony, the Xiantao City 610 Office "hired unemployed hoodlums" to "monitor, follow and tap the telephones of practitioners" (18 Nov. 2002). The article reported that the 610 Office

... also threatened the related work units and practitioner relatives with high-pressure tactics and [made] use of the implication policy to massively search and arrest Dafa practitioners who were forced to live in exile to avoid further persecution (ibid.).

The article goes on to explain that:

Ancient Chinese feudal society upheld an "implication law," which meant that if one person violated the law, all of his family members and friends would be punished. The punishment ranged from exile to the execution of entire families (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Clear Harmony: Falun Dafa in Europe. 22 November 2002. "Jiang Regime's Persecution Against European Citizens (Part 11) - Denmark Residents' Family Harrassed: Case 3-1: 'Non-Practitioner' Sister-in-Law Suffers Persecution in China." http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200211/8368.html [Accessed 22 Nov. 2002]

_____. 19 November 2002. "Husband of a Falun Dafa Practitioner from Xinji City Tortured by the Local '610 Office.'" http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200211/8320.html [Accessed 22 Nov. 2002]

_____. 18 November 2002. "The '610 Office' in Xiantao City Sends Many Dafa Practitioners to Brainwashing Classes and Labour Camps." http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200211/8295.html [Accessed 22 Nov. 2002]

Falun Dafa Clearwisdom. 7 November 2002. "A Practitioner's Husband: I Will Not Represent My Wife to Write a 'Guarantee Letter.'" www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/11/22/28964p.html [Accessed 22 Nov. 2002]

_____. 2 October 2002. "Qiu Shuqin, A Falun Dafa Practitioner and Student of Qinghua University and His Family Are Harassed Constantly by Authorities." www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/10/17/27638p.html [Accessed 22 Nov. 2002]

Falun Dafa Information Center. n.d. "Abolish the 610 Office-Stop State Terrorism in China." http://www.faluninfo.net/610/index.asp7 [Accessed 27 Nov. 2002]

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB Databases

LEXIS/NEXIS

World News Connection (WNC)

Internet sites, including:

Amnesty International

European Falun Gong Information Center

Falun Dafa Australia Information Centre

FalunDafa.org

Freedom House, Center for Religious Freedom

Friends of Falun Gong

Human Rights in China

Human Rights Watch

People's Daily

Times of Asia

The World News Network