Ms. Shi Wei standing in front of a Chinese Embassy visa office

Ms. Shi Wei and her husband Lin Chuan, residents of Virginia, have had their passports unreasonably withheld by the Chinese Embassy because of their belief in Falun Gong.

The Lin Couple graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China and they have lived in the U.S. for twelve years. On December 30, 2003, they went to the Chinese Embassy to apply for their passport renewal. This is a routine procedure and usually only takes a few days to get it done. However, the passports have not been returned since then.

Why would the Chinese Embassy withhold their passports? Ms. Shi Wei said: "When we went to the Chinese Embassy to pick up our passports, one of the staff in the visa office couldn't find them. Ten minutes later, a staff member whose last name is Lin took us into a small room. He told us that the embassy won't grant our passport renewal because we appealed in front of the Chinese Embassy and have participated in many other Falun Gong activities."

Ms. Shi Wei then asked him: "Did we violate any law so that we can't be Chinese citizens anymore? Shouldn't Jiang Zemin be brought to justice as he has murdered so many innocent Falun Gong practitioners? He couldn't answer, and he just repeated that the higher authorities refused to renew our passports."

Two months have passed, and there is no sign that the Chinese Embassy is going to change its mind. Ms. Shi Wei thus went to the visa office of the Chinese Embassy to raise the public's awareness about the embassy's unfair actions. After learning of her and her husband's situation, many people who went to the visa office were very surprised and couldn't understand why the embassy has done this to them.