The Chinese Embassy in Britain has invalidated its prior stamp of approval to add a seven-month-old baby to her mother's Chinese passport, and also has refused to grant the baby a separate Chinese passport. The reason behind the decision is that the baby's parents are both Falun Gong practitioners. When they went back to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong at the end of 1999, they were forcefully sent back to Britain.

The baby's name is You Minghui, and both of her parents are Chinese citizens studying in Britain. According to Chinese law, a baby born abroad to Chinese parents is automatically considered a Chinese citizen. The baby can either be added to the mother's passport or apply to have a separate passport at the nearest Chinese embassy. This is a right granted automatically to every Chinese citizen, and guaranteed by numerous international laws and treaties. According to these international laws and treaties, a country cannot revoke the citizenship of its own citizens living overseas without cause and force them to become refugees without a country.

You Minghui is just an innocent baby born less than eight months ago. Her own country refuses to grant her citizenship and she is now officially classified as a refugee. What is even harder to understand is that on August 1, the Chinese embassy to Britain initially did add the baby to the mother's passport with an official stamp of approval. However, another stamp was added later to invalidate the previous approval. It is obvious that the second decision was not made by the Chinese Embassy in Britain. Mr. Du, who is in charge of the passport service at the embassy, had previously talked to the parents of the baby, Mr. You and Mrs. Mer Zhengfang. He made it clear that it was up to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to determine the baby's citizenship status. He said that because Mr. You and Mrs. Mer were Falun Gong practitioners and went back to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, they were required to submit a written statement declaring their stand on Falun Gong. After reading their statement, the Ministry of Public Security would decide what to do.

On August 24, Mr. You and Mrs. Mer mailed a written statement to the Chinese embassy and asked the embassy to forward it to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. They declared that Falun Dafa is the true law of the universe, that this is their personal belief system, and that they have done nothing wrong by being Falun Gong practitioners. They also stated that they would never give up practicing Falun Gong. On September 14, the Chinese embassy mailed back Mrs. Mer's passport, which displayed two official stamps: the first added the baby to the passport, the second invalidated the first one.

The Chinese Embassy in Britain has never done anything like this before. Even babies born to well known Chinese dissidents living in exile have always been granted Chinese passports. In Britain, taking away someone's passport is a serious matter, and it has high potential of escalating into an international diplomatic issue between the two countries. This behavior of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security surprised and angered many Britons. British society places a lot of emphasis on protecting the rights of minors. The audacity with which the Chinese government openly stripped an inalienable right from one of its own citizens-- especially from a defenseless baby born in Britain-- was received with disbelief. The British government is under pressure from its own citizens to respond to this matter, and they are examining very closely how the Chinese government has spread its persecution of Falun Gong to English soil.

At the present time, a large number of Chinese citizens who are staying in Britain illegally are claiming to be Falun Gong practitioners and have applied for political asylum. They are already causing a serious strain on the British social and welfare systems, and the open persecution of British Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese government only adds fuel to the fire. The persecution of Falun Gong is no longer a Chinese problem, but is increasingly turning into an international crisis. The Falun Gong issue is rapidly becoming a more and more sensitive topic of discussion between the Chinese and British governments.

We ask the British government to act, not just out of common decency and morality, but also in Britain's own best national interests, and urge Jiang Zemin to stop the persecution on Falun Gong.