PRESS STATEMENT: Italian Businessman loses company in China for practising Falun Gong

EFDIC - On 8th October, Alfredo Fava Minor, General Manager of a fabrics company in Shanghai arrived at Shanghai airport from Italy as he had done numerous times before, but within an hour and a half, he was deported back to Italy. His only “ crime ” was that he participated in a rally in Rome two weeks earlier for the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China. He has since been blacklisted.

Mr Fava-Minor owns and runs a successful business in China which he founded six years ago with great courage and foresight. He is a great enthusiast of Chinese culture, has a wife of Chinese origin and employs 35 people in Shanghai. He has been awarded the honour of “Model Foreign Investor” by the local authority.

Mr Fava-Minor is a practitioner of Falun Gong, which is a peaceful movement without any political agenda but was banned by the totalitarian regime in China who does not tolerate independent groups. The persecution brought tragedy to thousands of innocent people in China who take “Truth, Compassion, Tolerance” as their spiritual goal. In the past two years
 302 practitioners are known to have died
 500 illegally held in prisons
 1000 illegally confined in mental hospitals
 20 000 illegally detained in labour camps without trial
 100 000 illegally arrested or detained

A year ago, a 28 year old mother was tortured to death in China together with her 8 month old son for practising Falun Gong. Pregnant practitioners have been forced to abort their babies so that they could be kept in labour camps - China’s persecution is no less than state terrorism.

Horrified by the wicked atrocities, Mr Fava-Minor joined others in absolutely peaceful & legal public events in Italy for the freedom of practitioners in China. One of these was a rally in front of the Italian Parliament on 25 September 2001, which was addressed by the Vice-Chairman of the Parliament. He didn’t realise that his completely legal activities in Italy and the fact that he merely exercised his basic human rights of expression and belief on his home soil of Italy would result in the loss of his company in China.

Mr Fava-Minor’s plight shows that China’s regime of terror is much closer to the people in Europe than we might have thought before; that an European citizen may lose his property even livelihood in China for exercising his freedom of expression and belief; and that an European may have to abandon his belief and conscience in order to be allowed to run his business in China.

Such wickedness and blatant abuse of human rights must end! We appeal to the leaders and public in Europe to press China to respect the most basic human rights of the European citizens, allow them access to their companies and properties in China, and compensate for the losses Mr Fava-Minor suffered as a result of the deportation!

24 October 2001

European Falun Dafa Information Centre
For further information, please contact Peter Jauhal on 00 46 (0) 7990 541 284