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Friday, June 22, 2007

Chinese Embassy is behind Overseas Chinese Student Associations, Says Ex-Embassy Staff

A former staff of Chinese Embassy in France tells SOH about the influence of Chinese Embassy on overseas Chinese organizations

Sound of Hope via Epoch Times: France—On June 21, Sound of Hope (SOH) interviewed Ms. Chen Ying, a former staff of the Chinese Embassy in France. Chen revealed how the Chinese communist regime manipulates the overseas student associations and turns them into spy agencies.

"The education section in the Embassy is responsible for overseas student-related work. Many student associations and some scholar associations were established under the direction of the Embassy's education section. Those organizations are actually the communist regime's organizations," said Chen.

According to Chen, in France, those organizations include the Chinese Scholar & Student Union of France (Union Des Chercheurs et des Etudiants Chinois En France—UCECF), The Association of Chinese Scientists and Engineers of France (Association des Scientifiques et des IngĂ©nieurs Chinois en France—ASICEF), The Association of Chinese Jurists and Economists of France (Association des Juristes et des Economistes Chinois en France, — AJECF), to name a few.

"Those associations were established and developed under the direction of the Embassy's education section." said Chen.

Besides these organizations, there are also other associations directly organized by the Embassy education section. Although students participate in these associations, these organizations are in fact branches of the communist regime, only they take on the form of a student organization, Chen said.

"The Chairmen of those student associations are normally government funded students. The regime supplies money for them to study abroad; there are many requirements and restrictions in place for them." said Chen.

"The Chairmen are appointed by the embassy, normally funded by the Overseas Student Service Centre, or Committee of Overseas Student Foundation. They have to sign a contract. The embassy believes those students are more reliable and have 'party spirit' to some degree. They need to follow the regime's requirements. The regime specifies how they [should] behave to comply with regime's standard of how overseas students should be."

Whenever there is an important activity, the diplomats from the Embassy education section would contact the leader of the student association to arrange activities to cooperate with the Embassy's deployment.

"In general, the order is passed down level by level, from the central regime to the embassy, then to the education section, then to those leaders of the student association, then to the rest of the student members," said Chen.

As an example, Chen explained how the Chinese Embassy in France carried out the policy of persecuting Falun Gong when the regime started the persecution in 1999.

"As I recall, when I was still in the Embassy, the persecution had just started. The regime was busy arresting Falun Gong practitioners in the mainland. The central regime passed down many policies particularly targeting diplomats and overseas students. The embassy immediately called meetings with embassy staff and student leaders, told them to stay away from Falun Gong, and organized them to watch video tapes defaming Falun Gong. All student leaders were made to make their attitude clear towards Falun Gong and to criticize Falun Gong."

"Those students actually became the regime's stick, a tool. This is something not very convenient for diplomats to do, but the student association could do it and (since it) has some influence on the society, so many important projects would be done by those students. After accomplishing the task, they (students) would receive benefits...they are seduced by interests." said Chen.

"Inside the communist regime's system, one could be fully controlled but still be unaware of it," Chen said.

"Since the regime funds you to study abroad, they control you financially. Besides, students as such need to report to the Embassy in ten days after arriving at a foreign country. At the surface, it seems like they are caring for the students, but in reality, it is monitoring and control."

Please lookout for SOH's follow up report.

Click here to read the original article in Chinese

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