Paris, October 17, 2002

Dear Sir,

The President of the Republic has indeed received your correspondence relating to the situation of the [practitioners] of the Falun Gong movement, and has asked that I respond to you.

France and her European partners have been attentively following this case since 1999. They are concerned with the numerous allegations of torture surrounding it.

The commitment of the European Union in favour of improvement of the human rights situation in China is constant. France was one of the countries that initiated the Euro-Sino dialogue on human rights, launched in 1997. The issues of freedoms of expression and assembly, freedom of conscience, and torture or administrative detention, are raised with the Chinese authorities in this manner every six months.

In addition, France seizes each high-level bilateral meeting to address the issue of human rights, as during the recent visit to France by the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr. Zhu Rongji, on the 26-28 of September.

I wish you all the best, Sir.