WRITTEN QUESTION P-3067/01 by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission. Expulsion of Mr Fava Minor from the People's Republic of China.
Date: 2001-10-26
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: China, World Trade Organisation, agency abroad, entrepreneur, free movement of goods, human rights, investment abroad, removal, rule of law

C 134 E/190

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.6.2002

What will the Council do to prevent this very serious discrimination, which would undo the immense
political, moral and historical good, in terms of reconciliation between the peoples of Europe, that has
been achieved by the practice of providing compensation for survivors of the terrible and tragic events of
the second world war?

Reply

(18 February 2002)

The Council is not competent to intervene to resolve the situation described by the Honourable Member,
as it has already indicated in reply to Questions E-2155/01 and P-2437/01.

(2002/C 134 E/196)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3067/01

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(26 October 2001)

Subject: Expulsion of Mr Fava Minor from the People’s Republic of China

On Monday, 8 October 2001, Alfredo Fava Minor, general manager of Shanghai Famas & Hocks Textiles
Co. Ltd., a manufacturing company located in Jinshan (60 km from Shanghai) with 35 employees, was
stopped at Pudong airport by the Chinese authorities, forced to immediately re-embark and expelled
without explanation. The company has been left without management and facing serious financial
consequences. Mr Fava is a member of the Falun Gong movement, as well as being its representative in
Italy. This movement was outlawed in China in July 1999, since when its practitioners have been brutally
persecuted for their peaceful opposition to the demand that they should renounce their faith.

Is the Commission aware of the persecution suffered by Mr Fava Minor at the hands of the Chinese
authorities and what measures has it taken or will it take to protect the rights and interests of a Union
businessman who has invested considerable sums in the People’s Republic of China? Does it not consider
that the readiness of the Chinese authorities to flout the basis rules of law ? in the business sector as
elsewhere ? is posing serious risks to many European investors in China, particularly small and medium-
sized businessmen, about which the competent Union authorities should keep them fully informed? Lastly,
does the Commission think that China can become a member of the World Trade Organisation at a time
when further evidence is emerging of the utter inability of the country’s authorities and institutions to
comply with the minimum basic rules of that organisation, or respect the principles of the free market and
the rule of law in general?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(20 November 2001)

The Commission is not aware of the individual case referred to by the Honourable Member.

The Commission shares the Honourable Member’s concern about the treatment of Falun Gong members in
China. This is a concern which has been raised in the Union’s human rights dialogue with the Chinese
authorities, as well as with Chinese interlocutors on many other occasions.

The Commission considers that China’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) accession and the resulting
opening and liberalisation of China’s economy will set into motion a process that will reinforce China’s
evolution towards a society based on the rule of law. It is also the Commission’s view that human rights
are generally better understood and safeguarded in societies which allow for the free circulation of goods,
investments, persons and ideas.