State Dept. Daily Press Briefing for July 18
Press Release: US State Department [Excerpt]
(7/22/2003  22:56)

QUESTION: I have three questions. I will ask them one by one.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay. (Laughter.) That's at least more honest than saying I have a follow-up. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Okay, first is Charles Lee.

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah.

QUESTION: This morning we got some -- I got a phone call actually from his fiancée in the States. And I just want to confirm with you what was your news update on his case.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay. A U.S. Consular Officer spoke by telephone on July 16th with Chuck Lee. He's the American citizen who's imprisoned in China on charges pertaining to the attempted sabotage of broadcast equipment. This was the eighth conversation with Mr. Lee within the past ten weeks, either by telephone or in person.

Mr. Lee complained of mistreatment on the part of prison authorities. He also reported being forced to attend anti-Falun Gong group study sessions.

We have protested his treatment to appropriate prison authorities. At Mr. Lee's request, the United States Embassy and the Consul General in Shanghai have also raised Mr. Lee's case with senior officials at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with Jiangsu provincial authorities on several occasions, both formally and informally.

And the U.S. Embassy and the Consulate General in Shanghai will continue to monitor his case closely and raise issues related to his imprisonment and to his health with appropriate Chinese officials.

QUESTION: With regard to his right now hunger strike, are there in protest of this kind of mistreatment? And they also confiscated all his letter written to the U.S. Consulate officials in Shanghai.

MR. BOUCHER: I don't have any -- I don't know those details one way or the other, whether they're true or not. I can't confirm them.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. BOUCHER: I just don't have that information. But we certainly have been in touch with him directly over the telephone, as well as sometimes in person.

QUESTION: Tomorrow -- actually, by the end of tomorrow -- the persecution of Falun Gong will enter its fifth year. Given this massive scale of persecution to this many people, actually lots of resources were consumed or were used, spent, in this massive persecution. Since the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister is in town, do you think the State Department would bring up this issue and tell the Chinese that given this --

MR. BOUCHER: There are always many issues on the U.S.-China agenda, and this is an issue that has been important to us that we have been raising with the Embassy and the Consulate General have been raising in China. We just talked a few moments ago some other issues that are of concern to us.

The talks today are principally about North Korea. That's the purpose of the visit. That's what we're working here in these particular discussions. So I don't know whether any of these other issues, whether it will be possible to address them, but they are issues that we address on a regular basis with Chinese authorities.

QUESTION: Okay, the third question is we heard that actually every delegation from China will bring up this Falun Gong issue and is particularly with regard to the lawsuit, the genocide lawsuit filed by Falun Gong people here in the United States against the former Chinese president. Well, if you're asked this question, will the State Department respond in any way?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes.

QUESTION: In what way?

MR. BOUCHER: Let me check and get you the actual -- the kind of response we use on that. It's a legal matter. I think in most cases we leave it to the courts.

Okay, sir.

QUESTION: You mentioned something about Mr. Lee's health. Do you have any reason to believe that he is in ill health?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, as I said, he has complained of mistreatment. I know there have been these reports that he's on a hunger strike, so his health has been a matter of concern to us.

Okay, let's proceed back.
(7/22/2003  22:56)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
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