China persecutes Falun Gong woman

A CHINESE woman claims she was prevented by the Chinese Embassy from leaving Ireland to attend her mother's funeral because she is a practitioner of Falun Gong.

Dai Dongxue, 35, said embassy officials in Dublin had refused to renew her Chinese passport on three occasions in the past 18 months unless she was prepared to renounce her membership of the spiritual movement, also known as Falun Dafa. The Irish Falun Dafa Association said yesterday the treatment of Ms Dongxue is further evidence of the increasing involvement of Chinese embassies abroad in the persecution of Falun Gong members.

Ms Dongxue, who has worked as a teacher at Dublin City University since arriving in Ireland in 1998, was not permitted to return to China after her mother died last October. She claimed embassy officials were not even prepared to grant her temporary travel documents on compassionate grounds. “I am currently stateless and unable to travel outside Ireland because I do not have a valid passport,” said Ms Dongxue. Her two older sisters, Xialing, 41, and Qiuxiu, 39, were also unable to attend their mother’s funeral, as they are being held in a labour camp by the Chinese authorities. Both women were sentenced to three years’ detention because of their Falun Gong membership.