A Chinese defector told US lawmakers on Thursday of a global campaign against members of the Falun Gong spiritual group being waged by the Chinese Communist Party through China's embassies and consulates, calling the party a "government terrorist organization."
Chen Yonglin (陳用林) told a congressional panel probing China's human-rights record that his job for the past four years at the Chinese consulate in Sydney was to spy on and persecute followers of Falun Gong, which China banned in 1999 after branding it an "evil cult."
``The war against Falun Gong is one of the main tasks of the Chinese missions overseas,'' Chen said in testimony to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations.
He presented documents naming six diplomats who worked for a Chinese government agency whose "sole task is to monitor and persecute the Falun Gong."
In June 1999, the Chinese Foreign Ministry set up the Office of the Falun Gong Issue in Beijing, and the Sydney branch was established in February 2001, Chen said. The name was changed to the Department of External Security Affairs last July and its duties expanded to deal with other restive elements among China's numerous ethnic groups that were beginning to agitate abroad, he said.
"To my knowledge, similar groups have been established in the Chinese missions in the United States and all other countries where the Falun Gong is active," Chen said.
"I know that there are over 1,000 Chinese secret agents and informants in Australia and the number in the United States should not be less," he said.
Chen said Beijing viewed the US and Australia as main Falun Gong bases abroad and Chinese diplomats there were required to denounce the group, distribute anti-sect brochures and pressure businesses, schools and media to shun the group.
Chen, 37, said he was told in 2003 by a top official from a team set up in the foreign ministry to fight Falun Gong that there were 60,000 followers in China, half in prison camps and half under tight government control.
The Chinese embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment. However, on July 11, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said "lies created" by Chen did not merit an official response.
Chen, his wife and their daughter were granted permanent residence in Australia on July 8.
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