Victim:

Xu Dong, residing in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Location:

Chinese Consulate, Toronto, Canada

Canceled passport of Mr. Xu Dong

Description:

I am a Chinese passport holder and a landed immigrant in Canada. I went to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto to extend my passport on December 27, 2002. That day, an official in the Chinese Consulate asked me to return to pick up my passport one week later.

On January 7, 2004, I went to the consulate to get my passport. Two officers met me and asked me, "Are you Falun Gong practitioner?" I replied, "Yes." I asked them how they knew that I am a Falun Gong practitioner. They said that they have their own network to find such things out. I understood that I had been blacklisted. One official argued that Falun Gong practitioners’ petitioning is having a negative effect on China’s global reputation, and I responded by stating that without the persecution of Falun Gong in China, there would be no practitioners petitioning in front of the consulate.

One official told me they had refused to extend my passport based solely on the fact that I am a Falun Gong practitioner. They mentioned that they must follow the policies of the Chinese authorities, preventing passport renewal for Falun Gong practitioners. I insisted that holding a valid passport is my right as a Chinese citizen, and that what they were doing was unfair to me and to all Falun Gong practitioners with Chinese passports. The officials nonetheless continued to reject me. In the end, they returned my passport to me and let me go. When I examined the returned passport, I discovered that it had been stamped with a mark of "cancelled" on one page.

After I went back home, I mailed two registered letters to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, to ask for an official document regarding the rejection of my passport renewal, but there has no response from the Consulate thus far.

At the same time, I went to the local office of a local Canadian member of parliament (MP) for help. The secretary at the office interviewed me. After she understood my case and situation, she twice faxed a letter of inquiry about my case to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, in name of the MP’s office. There continued to be no reply from the Consulate.

This situation has significantly affected my family life and my work in Canada. I cannot go to any country outside of Canada for business, travel or to visit friends.