Yesterday, David Matas and I wrote to Foreign Minister Cannon about the fact that Chinese Diplomat Liu should be declared Persona Non Grata in Canada . The key points of our letter are:

• Liu Shaohua, first secretary of the education section in the embassy
in Ottawa, rallied Chinese students to suppress peaceful protests during President Hu Jintao's recent visit. His efforts led to threats and intimidation against Falun Gong practitioners and others by the
students.

• Foreign diplomats can be expelled for any reason, or no reason. The
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, in Article 9, says: "The receiving State may at any time and without having to explain its decision, notify the sending State that the head of the mission or any member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non grata or that any other member of the staff of the mission is not acceptable."

• The question Lui’s behaviour poses is not what the Government of
Canada can do, but rather what the Government of Canada should do. In our view, there is more than enough evidence to justify expulsion of Liu.

• Repressing democratic protest in Canada is an abuse of legitimate
embassy functions. The Government of Canada allows foreign diplomatic officials into Canada in order to conduct diplomatic and consular functions. Repressing peaceful protest in Canada has nothing to do with these functions.

• The Government of Canada will not do anything to others it would not
want inflicted on its own diplomats. Yet, how long would the Government of China allow a Canadian official to stay in Beijing who tried doing something similar there to what Liu has done in Canada? The answer is ‘not long’.

• The embassies and consulates of non-democratic states should not take advantage of democratic freedoms to attempt to expand their repression abroad. Canada is a democracy and China unfortunately is not. Canada has freedoms which do not exist in China. The party-state of China should not be abusing Canadian freedoms to undermine Canadian democracy.

• For the embassy and consulates of China across Canada to abuse
democratic freedoms to attempt to repress peaceful protest is more than just disrespect for the values of the host country. Because democracy and human rights are universal standards, this sort of misbehaviour shows disregard for universal values, values, at least in principle, the Government of China has itself accepted.

Context

Falun Gong practitioners today comprise about two-thirds of the torture victims and half of the people in detention in forced labour camps across China. According to research that David Matas and I have done, set out in our book Bloody Harvest, practitioners have been killed in the thousands since 2001 so that their organs could be trafficked to both Chinese nationals and foreigners.
From the numerous pieces of evidence we examined, we did not form our conclusion from any single one, but rather from their cumulative effect. Each is verifiable in itself and most are incontestable. In combination, they constitute a damning overall picture of guilt in a country which lacks even the pretense of the rule of law or respect for human dignity. Our revised report is accessible in 18 languages from www.david-kilgour.com .

Unfortunately, for Falun Gong, matters have in fact become worse. Since we began our work, the number of prisoners sentenced to death and then executed across China has decreased quite dramatically, but the number of transplants, after a slight decline, then increased back to earlier levels. Since the only other substantial source of organs for transplants in China besides Falun Gong practitioners is prisoners sentenced to death, a decrease of sourcing from that population means an increase of sourcing from Falun Gong practitioners.

Organ pillaging from Falun Gong practitioners has worsened since our work began, but the substantial movement in policy and practice inside and outside China encourages us to a degree. The willingness to change is there. We all need to continue to press Beijing for changes until the inhuman trafficking ends.


Meetings at embassy before Hu visit

Secret recordings of the Chinese embassy in Ottawa giving briefings to Chinese students on the eve of Hu’s visit were obtained by The Epoch Times. English transcripts of the two audio recordings were released last Friday. They revealed efforts by the embassy in Ottawa to organize and fund a large-scale, three-day rally in Ottawa intended to “counteract” expected protests by human rights groups.

In one transcript, Liu tells Chinese students plans for the rallies. In the second tape, Liu passes the meeting over to organizer Yuan Pinghua.

Look here for the PDF file of Liu’s transcript and here for the PDF file of Yuan’s transcript


Among the Beijing party-state’s sensitivities are any criticisms of human rights abuses in China or show of support for groups Beijing has targeted, in particular Falun Gong. Speaking to a crowd of between 40 and 50 students in Canada on Chinese state-scholarships, Liu says they have “no excuse” to avoid participating in the rallies as it is a “political struggle” to protect “the reputation of our motherland.”

Liu goes on to describe the embassy's behind-the-scenes role directing the rallies, including details of compensation given to participants.

Liu also advises the students that the conversation is a secret and that they should not to tell anyone outside that circle what was discussed. Yuan says that revealing the discussion would put the embassy in a “deathtrap.”

Accordingly, we urge the Canadian government to express their concerns to the Head of Mission from China and to expel the Chinese diplomat Liu.


ANNEX A

Recording Transcript - Some Excerpts of English Translation Liu Shaohua, First Secretary of the Education Section at the Ottawa Chinese Embassy Delivered June 18, 2010 at the Chinese Embassy to state-sponsored Chinese students Recording obtained, transcribed, and translated by The Epoch Times
[Voice of Liu Shaohua, calling out names).

“Ok, all here. OK, I will keep it short. for coming to the embassy at such a busy time and in hot weather...Now according to what we have learned Falun Gong, Tibetan separatists, Uyghur separatists, and democracy people have sent many people here from the United States and Vancouver... To put it bluntly, given that you are funded [by the Chinese government] you need to put in more effort than self-supported students this time...You also have a greater responsibility. It’s not only you. I can happily tell you here that we now have mobilized over 100 people from Montreal, and all the state-sponsored students in Toronto will come especially for this... Everyone here today is a student sent overseas by the state, by work units . . . [appears to correct himself] by the [China] Scholarship Council,are paid by the[China]Scholarship Council, that is, paid by the [Chinese] Ministry of Education...’

‘The Canadian [government] side did not cooperate at all, and there was furor inside China. This time, we negotiated sternly, but they only guaranteed some parts. Some parts cannot be guaranteed, because this country is particular about so-called freedom. We say, “If your Prime Minister Harper visits China, and China wants to hold some protests, how would you feel?” Of course Canadians won’t protest, but we’re just making the point. But they do not care. They say, “We are a free country.” So we are still negotiating. Falun Gong has already occupied three locations. They have western anti-china forces to support them from behind the scenes. We all know this. They also take money or something.’

‘This time, for you, all the expenses, all will be paid by us. You do not talk about it outside, do not talk about it to anyone. Except to people in this circle. Other students who pay their own tuition, in fact we will also cover [their expenses], because you are working quite hard. For our country this is little money. In my view, this is a struggle, a political struggle.”