Inside the European Parliament Building in Brussels, a screening of the film “Letter from Masanjia” was attended by officials and human rights activist on Dec. 4.
To tell his story of being persecuted for practicing Falun Gong, a self-improvement spiritual practice, Sun Yi risked his life by filming inside China.
MEP Tomas Zdechovsky, one of the organizers of the screening, said that it’s very important for the EU Parliament to speak openly to Chinese authorities about human rights and religious freedom.
“Some stories, what nobody knows, are very important for European public and we can in this movie show that really the education camps and concentration camps still exist in China,” said Tomas Zdechovsky.
The screening moved many people in the audience.
“It was really a moving story and it highlighted all the negative aspects of China’s governance,” said Willy Fautre, Director and Co-founder of Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF). “And I was really surprised to see so many people attending this event … and with interesting questions as well.”
“I think as a society needs to think more about this issue because we are unbelievably happy to be born and live here in western countries, especially in Europe … and people often forget about other countries and other people who wasn’t so happy and lucky as us,” said Tereza Cejkova, PhD student of Masaryk University in Brno.
The director of the film, Leon Lee, said that many people asked him what they can do to help after watching the screening.
“Steps must be absolutely taken to try to solve the problem of repression and dictatorial regime in China, but it is also put in practice outside China on Chinese citizens that had fled persecution,” said Willy Fautre.
MEP Tomas Zdechovsky said that the European Parliament will always support human rights.
“I want to say that we’ll never stop our activities for human rights, the European Parliament is like bulldozer, and bulldozer is very difficult to stop,” said Tomas Zdechovsky.