My Experiences in Germany

Bringing a message

When I learned that [Chinese dictator] Jiang Zemin was going to visit Germany, I decided to go there to bring a message to him and to the world. It was quite a hard decision for me, because I was very busy at work, and I had to take an unpaid vacation. I am a systems engineer in a U.S. telecommunications company. But I knew it was what I should do for two reasons:

(1) Millions of Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted, and at least hundreds have been tortured to death. They have been deprived of their basic right to say: "We are innocent. We are persecuted." It is against my conscience not to speak out for them.

(2) The free world should not be concerned only with doing business with China. Moral dignity and ethics should be promoted and balanced, too. I know very well that without the restraints provided by the free world, China would develop into a state run by terrorism and Nazism, and that would harm everyone in the world.

Thus, I decided to go to Germany to bring a message to Jiang and the free world: "Falun Gong is being wrongly persecuted in China. Basic human rights should be preserved along with business relationships." But I did not know that I would soon be taken by surprise at how Jiang could manipulate foreign authorities in such terrible ways.

Hotel Adlon

I arrived in Berlin on April 7, 2002. We had a permit to demonstrate in an open area outside the Hotel Adlon where Jiang was staying. However, we soon discovered that Jiang did something "clever": He had about 150 security guards come with him from China. Those guards actually gave advice (if not commands) to the German police on how to diminish our efforts. Our protest area was soon blocked tightly with police vans (tall ones, like U-haul trucks) so that people coming in and out of the hotel could not see us. The roads at the sides of our protest area, which normally people would take to the Hotel, were blocked. Using two balloons, we hung a banner that just said "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance" 30 feet in the air, but Jiang's people were irritated by it and forced German police to take our banner away. The German police could not give us a reason why such a banner was not legal, but said frankly that just because their "guests" did not like our banner they had to remove it.

Given the situation, I decided to join several other practitioners to get rooms in Hotel Adlon, hoping to give Jiang a better opportunity to see us. Actually we did not have anything prepared except coats with "Falun Gong" on them, and we wanted to give him our message in a natural and peaceful way. We successfully reserved rooms in the Hotel as tourists.

However, the next morning, on April 8, when Jiang was about to come out of the hotel, the police cleared the lobby area, and no tourist were allowed to stay there. I heard afterwards that a practitioner had shouted, "Falun Dafa is good. Jiang stop the persecution" from a remote area as Jiang walked by.

Forced out of the Hotel Adlon

In the afternoon when I returned to the Hotel, several people told me they had been followed by groups of security guards who told them not to come out of their rooms until four hours later. I said, "Nonsense! We are legal guests here too. How can they lock us up?"

So I went to the lobby to see what was going on. It appeared Jiang was going to see some local guests. I asked the attendants if I could use the Internet and was told to wait for half an hour or so because someone else was using it. I walked around the counter to the gift shops and exhibition areas (I was not wearing any clothes with "Falun Gong" on them). Groups of German police came twice to ask me to go back to my room. I said I am waiting to use the Internet and would like to see the gift shops.

The third time a Chinese policeman came with Germans. Without any explanation, he just loudly shouted at me in Chinese: "I'll beat you up, you [cursing word], if you don't leave." I laughed at him and told the Germans that the Chinese guard was rudely insulting me with dirty words. More Chinese guards came. The guards spoke German for a while, which I could not understand. In the meantime, I tried to explain to them that they should not have insulted me. Then a German guard told me I was too loud in the lobby and would be forced out. I knew it was just an excuse because they were even louder, especially the Chinese guards. But they twisted my arms and pushed me out of a back door of the hotel. It was about 4:00 p.m.

American Embassy

I was forced to stay on the cold street without a coat or passport. I called the American Embassy for advice (I am an American citizen). A person (Steve?) in the Embassy told me that I had the right to get my passport and clothes from the hotel. So I tried to get back to the hotel, but the guards refused to let me in and for most of the time refused to speak English to me (the Chinese guards recognized me). Finally, another guard, a "federal officer," told me to stay on the corner of the street and he said that he would let me get my passport at 8:00 p.m. after Jiang's event was over. He told me not to leave the corner, and said that if I left he could not help me anymore.

I was cold on the street. A practitioner lent me a coat (with "Falun Gong" on it). I decided to sit on the street corner as the federal officer told me, also as a silent protest. Actually several guards watched me after that. But I guess soon the Chinese guards discovered the situation, and several German guards came to force me to move to another corner where people coming out of the hotel would not see me. I argued with them that the federal officer told me to stay here without moving, but they just pretended that they did not understand English.

My passport

At around 8:00 p.m., I asked to get my passport, but they told me to wait some more. I was not able to get into the hotel until about 11:00 p.m. The federal officer told me that I could not stay in the hotel any longer for security reasons. He said the hotel would not charge me for my room and would reserve another hotel for me and send me there.

Three guards accompanied me to my room. I packed my belongings. As I put $2 on the table as a tip, one of the guards became very polite and said "I thank you on behalf of the hotel." I felt they were so miserable as human beings, and almost told them "Look, how can you sell your soul for just $2?" But I could tell they were just forced to do their job and deep in their hearts there was kindness, so I did not want to hurt them.

When I came to the hotel's front desk, there were at least 10 guards waiting there. None of the promises the federal officer told me were kept. I was charged and was forced to go out through a garage door. I was not allowed to go out through the front door of the hotel!

No yellow allowed

As we all knew, in Germany, demonstrations by individuals with small banners are allowed and no permit is necessary. So, in many cases we waited on the roads, and as Jiang's motorcade went by, we would display banners. I did not have a banner but just had a yellow coat (with the words "Falun Gong" on it) on me. But I was not allowed to walk on the street with such a coat. I had to cover it with another coat outside, and when Jiang's cars went by I just took off my outer coat. Even with this setup, I was followed by the police and was stopped by them so that they could examine my passport several times.

We heard that Jiang had told the German president that he would not like to see Falun Gong's yellow banners and clothes during his visit. So some local policemen simply told us yellow was not allowed for security reasons.

Small town

On the fourth day, Jiang was going to visit a local park in the city of Dresden. A group of us drove there in a van. Police had already blocked several roads. Helicopters were patrolling in the sky. We walked individually outside the park on the streets. A plain-clothes policeman stopped me and asked me for identification. I gave him my driver's license. He wanted my passport, which I had left in the van. He said that it was illegal to walk around without a passport and started to search me. He discovered my yellow coat inside and said it was illegal to wear it. I asked him how it could be illegal even without being displayed in public. He would not answer, but instead tied my hands with plastic strings and forced me into a police car.

It was a small town and obviously in whatever they do the police could care less about their public image.

"Come on, have the courage ..."

I was sent to a street corner where there were a dozen guards and several police cars. I was told to stay in the police car until Jiang's visit was over. I started to explain the persecution in China to the guards and reminded them of the age of Stalin when people were persecuted by the Russian Communists. Most of the policemen were actually very supportive of us, except the plain-clothes policeman who had first tied up my hands. They said they understood but still had to do their job.

After about an hour I was released. I walked to the policeman who had tied me and told him that I would not hate him but that he had committed a wrongdoing. I told him he should never do that again. He appeared to be very embarrassed and would not say a word. I wanted to shake hands with him, but he just stood there numb. I said to him loudly "Come on, have the courage and shake hands with me." He eventually shook hands with me.

Chinese student group

The local Chinese consulate had organized a group of students to welcome Jiang outside his hotel. They came in a bus accompanied by two consulate officials. They had big Chinese national flags and shouted slogans like "Long live the motherland of China!" "Long live Chairman Jiang!"

Now I guess the police could not find a reason to ban us but at the same time allow the student group for the sake of free expression. So we formed another group with our banners. Now Jiang could not see the red without seeing the yellow, too, unless he had color filters to cover his eyes.

We could easily tell the police were in favor of the Chinese student group and intended to curtail our activities. Even though it was crowded, we tried our best to be separate from the Chinese student group and maintain our peaceful identity. We stood there and sang the song "Falun Dafa is Great." It was peaceful despite the difficulties, and our message was well heard.