AFFIDAVIT
This is the Affidavit of Clive Ansley,
declared the 27th day of April, 2006 at the City of Courtenay, in the Province
of British Columbia, Canada.
I, Clive Ansley, of 211C – 750 Comox Road,
in the City of Courtenay, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, Barrister
& Solicitor, knowing that this Affidavit shall have the same force and effect
as if given as evidence in a Court of Law, hereby AFFIRM AS FOLLOWS:
1)
I am a native and citizen of Canada.
2) I am 64 years of age.
3)
I am a member in good standing of the Law Society of British Columbia.
4)
I have been actively involved with China and Sino-Canadian relations for
more
than forty years.
5) I speak and read Chinese.
6) I received
my undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies from the University of British Columbia
in 1966, my Master of Arts Degree in Chinese Studies from the University of British
Columbia in 1968, my undergraduate law degree (LL.B.) from the University of Windsor
in 1980, and my LL.M degree in Chinese Law from the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London, in 1981.
7) I taught Chinese Law for
six years at the University of Windsor and the University of British Columbia.
I also taught in the Law Faculty of Shanghai’s Fudan University in 1984 and still
hold the title of Advising
Professor at that institution. More recently, I
taught International Economic Law at Shanghai’s Jiaotong University and in 2003
was appointed as a Visiting Professor of Law at the Silicon Lake University in
Kunshan, China.
8) I taught Chinese History and Chinese Civilization
at the University of Windsor from 1968 to 1980.
9) I have studied the
new Chinese legal system since its inception in 1979, and have published and lectured
widely on Chinese Law.
10) I have provided written and/or viva voce
evidence as an expert witness on the Chinese legal system to a number of foreign
courts and tribunals, including the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada on
several occasions, the English Commercial Court, and the Supreme Court of Hong
Kong.
11) I have provided expert evidence in the case of Jin v. Ministry
of State Security et al to the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia
in Washington, D.C., a lawsuit brought on behalf of Falun Gong practitioners.
12)
I have also provided expert evidence for the Home Office of Great Britain in the
case of Hua JIN, a Falun Gong practitioner then facing deportation in the U.K.
13)
In 1998 I gave a top secret presentation to key members of the Department of Foreign
Affairs and International Trade on the workings of the Chinese court system, in
the only secure room of the Canadian Embassy in Beijing.
14) In June
of 2000, at the invitation of the Canadian Ambassador in Beijing, I gave a presentation
on the current state of the Chinese legal system to Madame Justice Beverley MacLachlin,
Chief Justice of Canada, and several other justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.
15)
In February of 2001, I gave a presentation at the invitation of the Canadian Consul-General
in Shanghai to the Team Canada delegation led by the Right Honourable Jean Chretien,
then Prime Minister of Canada. This presentation addressed the issue of "Dispute
Resolution in China".
16) On May 9th, 2004 I gave an address in
the Parliament of Denmark on the topic "The Abuse of Human Rights in China".
17)
On May 11th, 2004 I gave an address in the Parliament of Sweden on the topic "A
Chinese Court is not a Court".
18) On May 25th, 2004 I gave an
address in the Parliament of Norway on the topic "The Chinese Judicial System
and its Role in the Illegal Detention, Torture, and Murder of Falun Gong Members".
19) I opened the first foreign law office in Shanghai in 1984 for the
Canadian law firm of Bull, Housser & Tupper ("BHT") and managed
that office until 1989. In early 1989 I moved to the Hong Kong office of BHT and
in late 1989 moved to Taipei as resident partner of the BHT office there. In 1994
I re-opened an office for BHT in Shanghai and managed that office until February
of 2001. From May of 2001 until April of 2003, I worked in the Shanghai office
of the London firm, Holman Fenwick & Willan.
20) In the course of
the fourteen years I served as a foreign lawyer in China, I estimate that I handled
approximately 300 litigation cases involving the Chinese courts, on behalf of
foreign clients.
21) I served two terms as President of the Canadian
Business Forum in Shanghai and the Canada China Business Council, Shanghai Chapter
(2001 and 1998). The name of the organization was changed from Canadian Business
Forum to Canada China Business Council in 2001.
22) I served as Vice
President of the Canadian Business Forum in Shanghai in 1999, as Secretary of
that organization in 1997, and as a director in 1996.
23) I now practise
with my own firm in Courtenay, British Columbia (Ansley & Company). I continue
to represent western clients who are investing in or trading with China, but now
focus mostly on issues relating to human rights abuses by the Chinese Government.
24)
I am the China Country Monitor for Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada.
25)
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Falun Gong practitioner.
26) I
was resident in China from the time the persecution against the Falun Gong began
in 1999 until the end of May, 2003. I witnessed on a daily basis during that period
the unremitting vilification of Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners in all
areas of the Chinese print and television media. It was the most extreme, and
totally unjustified campaign of unmitigated hatred I have ever witnessed. Historically,
the only comparable hate campaign of which I am aware is that conducted by Adolf
Hitler against the Jews in Europe.
27) For greater clarity, I wish to
specify that this campaign of hatred was for a long period of time carried on
China Central Television ("CCTV") on virtually every "newscast"
of that station; however the campaign also extended to all other areas of television
programming, such as interactive programs on which guest viewers discussed "issues
of the day" with program hosts, young people’s programs, and "cultural"
presentations.
28) CCTV and other television outlets controlled by it,
as well as their counterparts in the print media, when reporting criminal convictions
and executions during this period, routinely and casually identified alleged criminals
as "Falun Gong Practitioners" or "followers of Li Hongzhi, the
leader of this allegedly ‘(CCP Slaming Term Omitted)’ ".
29) Without
exception, according to my memory, the identification of convicted criminals as
Falun Gong elements, was never documented or supported in any way.
30)
To simply cite one example among many I remember, on one occasion someone had
put rat poison into the ingredients used by a well known noodle restaurant in
Nanjing. I am now relying strictly on my memory, but I believe that approximately
forty customers of the restaurant died as a result.
31) Nothing in
the reports of the arrest of the accused person or the announcement of his trial
contained any reference to Falun Gong. But when his execution was announced by
the television and print media, the announcement included a short statement that
the man was an adherent of Falun Gong and that it was the influence on him of
the evil writings of Li Hongzhi which had motivated him to murder all these innocent
people.
32) It was my observation at the time that such claims were
alarmingly effective in stirring widespread hatred against Falun Gong. But no
evidence was ever offered in support of the claims.
33) There is not
a single passage in any of the writings of Li Hongzhi which could by any stretch
of meaning, be interpreted as supporting the commission of murder or any other
criminal offences.
34) During this time period I also saw reports on
CCTV, and other channels controlled by CCTV, concerning a mother who had allegedly
murdered her children. Once more I heard the claims that she was a Falun Gong
practitioner and that her horrible crime was the direct result of internalising
the teachings of Li Hongzhi.
35) Again, at the risk of redundancy,
I reiterate that there is no passage in anything written by Li Hongzhi which could
possibly support the killing of children by parents. And, as was always the case
in these reports, no evidence of any kind was ever tendered in support of the
allegations concerning Falun Gong affiliations.
36) I was particularly
alarmed to observe during these years in China that "vilification campaigns"
in the Chinese media were notably more successful amongst my friends and colleagues
than were other propaganda campaigns.
37) Most of the people with whom
I lived and worked enjoyed repeating the cliché that only one thing printed
by the People’s Daily is ever correct and that one thing is the date. Educated
Chinese have long been aware that almost everything in the government controlled
press is fictional and that the Central Propaganda Department essentially creates
the news. Ordinary Chinese do not believe government pronouncements on Aids, on
SARS, on annual production figures, on the genuineness of government claims to
have made democratic reforms, on claims that the legal system is developing, or
that human rights are improving.
38) Yet the same people who routinely
rejected most government publications as being replete with lies seem to be easily
stirred to hatred against Falun Gong, against Christians, against Tibetans, against
the U.S., against Japan, despite the obvious similarities among all these government
instigated hate campaigns.
39) Since returning to Canada at the end
of May, 2003, I have made inquiries to determine if the "evil teachings of
Li Hongzhi" have led to the commission of crimes by Falun Gong practitioners
in countries other than China. To the best of my knowledge, if one is to accept
the claims in the Chinese television and print media of a link between Falun Gong
and serious crime, Li’s writings seem to have this pernicious effect in China,
but not in a single other country where the practice has become widespread.
40)
Today, the practice of Falun Gong has spread to all parts of North America, all
parts of Europe, Australia, much of South America, and much of Africa. But according
to my inquiries, only three Falun Gong practitioners have ever been charged or
convicted of any offence outside China:
a) Two were convicted
in Singapore of passing out literature in public without a permit; and
b) Wang
Wenyi was charged last week in Washington with threatening and/or intimidating
a foreign official, as a result of her having shouted out, at a Washington Press
Rally for George Bush and Hu Jintao, her demand that the killing of Falun Gong
practitioners in China must stop.
41) But the mass poisonings,
tortures, infanticides, and rapes by Falun Gong members continue to occur only
in broadcasts of CCTV and its controlled channels in China.
42) In all
the years over which I watched this systematic campaign of hatred and vitriol
against Falun Gong on Chinese television, I can say without fear of contradiction
that there was never, ever, a single instance where any spokesman for Falun Gong,
(or indeed anyone with a view differing in any respect from the official government
line pushed on a daily basis by CCTV and its affiliates) was ever afforded the
opportunity for rebuttal or nuanced comment of any kind. This is, of course, standard
fare on Chinese television. Only one view of any issue is ever presented and that
is the view of the Chinese Communist Party.
43) The argument that allowing
these Chinese Communist Party owned channels direct access to Canadian viewers
will promote cultural diversity and will culturally enrich Canadian society is
errant nonsense and borders on the obscene.
44) These applicant channels
are purely and simply propaganda tools of the Chinese Communist Party. They are
owned and/or controlled by elements which have always fought "tooth and nail"
against freedom of information in China. They are the same elements which are
directly involved with shutting down all access by Chinese citizens to western
news sources of any kind. All content of these channels is determined by the Central
Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Only one viewpoint will
be allowed in any content these channels will broadcast to Canadians in the event
that they are granted licences by CRTC. The claim that the applicant channels
will encourage "diversity" is simply laughable.
45) Since
returning to Canada at the end of May, 2003, I have had extensive contact with
Falun Gong practitioners in Canada, the USA, and Europe. At the same time, I have
continued to follow developments in China relating to the persecution of Falun
Gong adherents there, a persecution which has now reached the proportions of full
blown genocide.
46) There are to date almost three thousand documented
cases of Falun Gong practitioners murdered by Chinese police and prison guards
while in custody. Documentation is extraordinarily difficult and the actual number
no doubt runs to the tens of thousands.
47) Literally hundreds of thousands
of Falun Gong practitioners have simply vanished over the past six years after
having been taken into custody. Their relatives have never heard from them again.
But these hundreds of thousands have not been included in the roughly three thousand
cases of murder cited in paragraph 46, because no one has ever been able to document
them.
48) Now, over the past few weeks, evidence has emerged about the
existence of "death camps" throughout China where Falun Gong practitioners
are killed, their organs harvested for sale in the international and domestic
organ trades, and their carcasses then cremated in giant crematoria. The parallels
with Nazi Germany are obvious.
49) If the evidence is ultimately borne
out, as now appears likely for several reasons, another parallel with Nazi Germany
will become obvious. In order for the Nazis to achieve at least the passive acquiescence
of the German people, the Nazis had to first succeed in rendering the Jews an
"un-people". They had to be seen as totally evil, untrustworthy, undeserving
of the rights of citizens. Indeed, they were deprived of their citizenship. Today,
in China, Falun Gong practitioners are formally denied all constitutional rights
as citizens. They have no right to legal counsel if charged with a crime, and
they have no access to any court to enforce any rights they may claim. On top
of this, they are routinely, but without supporting evidence of any kind, accused
of murder, rape, theft, and almost every other serious crime.
50) Today,
the Chinese government has warned all employers that any Falun Gong practitioners
in their employ must be terminated and no others may be hired. The personal property
of Falun Gong practitioners is seized by simple government fiat and Falun Gong
practitioners are deprived of any means for earning a living.
51) I
was resident in China for much of the time during which Falun Gong adherents have
been subject to illegal incarceration, torture, and murder without a semblance
of legal process.
52) I have studied the systematic campaign against
and demonizing of the Falun Gong movement by the Chinese media for most of the
second half of the 1990’s and the years since, and I am intimately acquainted
with the details of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
53)
The decision taken in 1999 by then President Jiang Zemin to move against the Falun
Gong was explicitly a decision to completely eradicate all members of the movement.
This does not necessarily mean execution. The goal is to achieve a total elimination
of Falun Gong practitioners from Chinese society. Some of those tortured in slave
labour camps, escaping actual murder, repudiate their beliefs and appear on Chinese
television and in the print media with testimony to the effect that they were
deceived by this "evil cult" and that they are grateful to the Chinese
Communist Party for suppressing the movement.
54) Professor Kunlun ZHANG
is an example of this. He was a Canadian citizen and a Falun Gong practitioner
in Canada. When he travelled to China, he was arrested because the Chinese authorities
were fully aware of his Falun Gong affiliations and he was incarcerated in a slave
labour camp, tortured, forced to renounce his beliefs, and then forced to appear
on China Central Television both to renounce his beliefs and to thank his torturers
for helping him to see the error of his beliefs. He was rescued from China, ironically,
by the Canadian Government.
55) That CCTV, having played such a central
role in the victimization and persecution of this Canadian citizen should now
be afforded the opportunity to broadcast such hatred against Canadian citizens,
directly to Canadian citizens, in Canada, is repugnant in the extreme.
56)
I am also aware that the top leadership of the Chinese government has issued directives
to the police and prosecutors throughout China instructing them to "use whatever
means necessary" to suppress the Falun Gong Movement. These are code words
universally understood amongst Chinese security forces and prosecutors as a licence
to commit murder and torture.
57) To make the position still more clear,
the Chinese Government has decreed that when any Falun Gong member dies during
interrogation, there is to be no punishment for the interrogators.
58)
Moreover, the Chinese Government has effectively stripped all Falun Gong members
of their constitutional rights, and specifically their rights to defend themselves
in court proceedings. All lawyers throughout China have been strictly forbidden
to defend any Falun Gong members or to represent them as plaintiffs in litigation
seeking redress for their unlawful incarceration and torture.
59) The
main weapon used against Falun Gong throughout the entire campaign to totally
destroy the movement has at all times been the Chinese television and print media.
It is totally controlled by the Chinese government, whereas in Canada private
outlets compete with Canadian Crown Corporations and any victim of media attack
has a right of rebuttal. The present application is in my view clearly a move
by the Chinese government to directly access Chinese Canadians in order to peddle
their uncontradicted world view and to evade Canadian regulatory controls in the
process.
Affirmed at the City of Courtenay on April 27th, 2006
Clive M.Ansley
Barrister & Solicitor
Posting date: 27/Sep/2006
Original
article date: 27/April/2006
Category: World News