Fake Constituent Emails Actually from Chinese Agents: Rights Group

The Chinese Communist Party is sending fake emails to Western government officials as part of its persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice. That's according to a New York-based rights group, the Falun Dafa Information Center.

Erping Zhang is the Center's spokesperson. A U.S. Senator's office contacted him last month saying they'd received a strange email through their "Contact Us" webpage. The email appeared to be from him — a Falun Gong practitioner — but Zhang says he knew nothing about it.

[Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson]:
"The language is very harsh and threatening and non-Falun Gong practitioner like. So the congressional office, which has been working with us over the years, they know we are very righteous, very upfront and very good people. Once they received this fraudulent email, they immediately realized that this must be fraudulent, so they contacted us immediately and wanted to verify with us."

Was the email fraudulent? The U.S. Senator asked not to be named, but he did allow I.T. experts to trace the source of the email. It turns out that it wasn't sent from New Jersey, where Zhang lives. The I.P. address showed that it actually came from Hubei province in China.

Zhang believes the email was sent by agents of the Chinese regime as a way to extend its propaganda against Falun Gong and stop elected officials from supporting them.

[Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson]:
"Chinese authorities are apparently very concerned that the international community, especially the elected officials of the U.S. Congress, has been very vocal in supporting the human rights efforts of Falun Gong practitioners in China… That's why the Chinese regime tries to discredit Falun Gong - in an attempt to lessen the support from the international community for Falun Gong practitioners in China."

It's not an isolated case and it's not just in the U.S. Last week, at least ten government officials in Australia confirmed they received similar emails, with similar language. These emails looked like they were from people in Australia who practice Falun Gong. But when traced, it was clear these emails came from China, too.

One of the officials believes the emails were meant to make Falun Gong look bad.

[Caroline Le Couteur, Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly]:
"I cannot work out why anyone would want to do anything like this, because the email was so wrong, if you know what I mean. I supposed they were trying to discredit Falun Gong. I think if that's what they're trying to do, it's a pretty poor attempt at it."

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that has tens of millions of followers - mostly in China. But since 1999, the Communist Party has been persecuting people who practice it - sending millions to labor camps where they're often severely tortured or killed.