Victim:

Dr. Li Qing, female, PhD student in Chemistry at Stanford University, California, USA

Location:

Chinese Consulate, San Francisco, USA

Dr. Li Qing at Stanford University

Description:

My name is Li Qing, and I am a student of Stanford University.

On the afternoon of April 19, 2001, a consul from the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco came to the International Student Center of Stanford University to help Chinese students extend their passports. As my passport would expire in three months, I, along with six other Chinese students had all the application materials ready and handed them to the consul. After the consol received our passports, he asked the Chinese Students and Scholars Association president to sign a statement against Falun Gong on behalf of all the Chinese students at Stanford University. He also asked him to organize activities against Falun Gong among Chinese students. The president knows that Falun Gong is good, so he did not want to sign the letter, but the consul continued to persuade him to sign, offering financial support to their organization in return. Seeing this, I talked to the consul and told him that I am a Falun Gong practitioner, and benefit greatly from practicing. After a while, the consul left in a hurry without any result.

Two weeks later, the consul notified me to pick up my passport at the Consulate. After I arrived, he returned my passport and the application fee. I found no stamp of extension on the passport and no explanation for the refusal. I asked for the reason. The answer I got was, "You go in for activities that defy the government"

My passport was to expire in mid-July 2001, and my research group was going to Germany for an academic conference in August. I had already bought the airline ticket and was only waiting for the extension of my passport so that I could apply for a visa at the German Consulate. After contacting the Chinese Consulate many times without conclusion, my department had to cancel my trip to Germany.

Several months after that, people from the National Security Bureau had a talk with my relatives in China, in an attempt to have my relatives pressure me to give up Falun Gong.