Outstanding Chinese Citizens Whose Chinese Nationality Was Illegally Stripped Away by the CCP

Signed petitions for the ‘End CCP’ initiative, filling up a small cart. (Provided by the Tuidang Centre)

[People News] The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) frequently pays lip service to "patriotism" and often uses "patriotism" to stir up public sentiment. Yet, it repeatedly refuses to process passport renewals or extensions for Chinese citizens living overseas who love their homeland. In this way, it illegally deprives them of their Chinese nationality, forcing them into a situation in which they have a country they cannot return to and a home they cannot go back to.

Here are the stories of three outstanding individuals whose Chinese nationality was illegally taken away by the CCP.

I. Dr Wu Weibiao: Refusal to Extend His Passport

Wu Weibiao was born in July 1975 into an ordinary farming family in Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province. He is now an internationally renowned econometrician.

Wu excelled academically from an early age. In 1992, he was admitted directly to the Mathematics Department of Fudan University through a recommendation program. In 1997, he entered the doctoral program at Nankai University without taking the entrance examination. In the same year, he went to the University of Michigan in the United States to pursue a PhD in Statistics. Before his departure, he was received by Professor Su Buqing, the former president of Fudan University and a renowned mathematician. Professor Su presented him with a handwritten inscription consisting of eight Chinese characters: "Strive for a bright future; wishing you success."

In 1998, during his second year of doctoral studies in the United States, 23-year-old Wu Weibiao began practising Falun Gong and became a believer in the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance."

Wu received his PhD at the age of 25 and was appointed an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. At 29, he received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation. At 32, he was appointed a tenured professor at the University of Chicago. At 34, he received the Koopmans Econometric Theory Prize, named after Nobel Prize-winning economist Tjalling Koopmans. At 35, he received the Econometric Theory Multa Scripsit Award. At 44, he received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. At 47, he received the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching and Mentoring Award.

He has published numerous academic papers in journals including The Annals of Probability, The Annals of Statistics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Econometric Theory, and the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.

Yet this exceptionally gifted scholar, distinguished scientist, and academic elite was placed on the CCP's "blacklist" simply because he practised Falun Gong. In 2006, when Wu went to the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago to apply for an extension of his passport, his application was refused. From that point on, he was effectively deprived of his Chinese nationality by the CCP.

In December 2006, when interviewed by a reporter from Minghui.org, Wu Weibiao said: "Because of the nature of my work, I need to travel abroad frequently to give lectures and attend academic conferences. Next year, I would like to visit Australia, France, Hungary, and several other countries for academic exchanges. However, I now hesitate to accept their invitations because the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago has refused to extend my passport."

Describing what happened, he said: "On November 20 this year, I went to the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago to apply for a passport extension. I submitted my application form and passport according to the required procedures. Under their regulations, I was supposed to be able to collect my passport four working days later. Four days later, when I presented my collection receipt, the front-desk staff could not find my passport. Later, Zhang Chuyun, the consular officer in charge of visas, came out and spoke with me privately. He told me that I could not participate in Falun Gong activities and so on. Their database showed that I was a Falun Gong practitioner. Zhang said they would give me an answer in a few days. Approximately ten days later, they decided not to extend my passport."

Wu explained: "The consulate officials' refusal to extend my passport has caused great inconvenience to my participation in academic exchanges abroad."

He also said: "Since the CCP began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, the passport extensions of many Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily refused. Scholars who invite me to attend academic conferences find this unimaginable: How could the normal functions of a government be used in this way to persecute Falun Gong?"

II. Dr Xie Weiguo: Refusal to Extend His Passport

Xie Weiguo was once described as one of Tsinghua University's "one-in-ten-thousand talents," meaning that he was an exceptionally outstanding student selected from among thousands.

Xie is originally from Hubei Province and was born in Xinjiang. In 1991, he was admitted to the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University with outstanding examination results. He won the university's First Prize for Scientific and Technological Inventions three times. During his master's studies, he received Tsinghua University's Special Scholarship and was awarded the honorary title of "Outstanding New Academic Talent among Graduate Students." On January 1, 1999, he was featured on the front page of Tsinghua University's campus newspaper as one of its distinguished personalities. He subsequently went to the United Kingdom for further studies and received a PhD from the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester in 2002. Later, he moved to Australia, where he became a senior research fellow and doctoral supervisor at the University of Queensland. Professor Xie now teaches at a university in the United States. He is an expert in computer-based electronic imaging and measurement technology, optical-fibre chemical sensors, piezoelectric sensors, and applied chemical engineering.

Since leaving China on August 12, 1999, Xie Weiguo has never returned. Not only has he been unable to return to China, but the CCP Embassy in the United Kingdom also refused to extend his passport, effectively depriving him of his Chinese nationality for as long as seven years.

Before Xie Weiguo's passport expired on May 11, 2004, he went to the CCP Embassy in London to apply for an extension. He received a collection slip indicating that he could pick up his passport on May 18. However, at 2 p.m. on May 17, an embassy staff member telephoned him and said: "You don't need to come tomorrow. You are on a special list, and approval from China is required before we can extend your passport." Xie asked: "What special list?" The reply was: "You know that yourself." Xie asked: "Could it be because I practice Falun Gong?" The other party said nothing.

The following day, Xie went to the visa section of the CCP Embassy in London to collect his passport, which had not been extended. He asked an embassy staff member: "When will I be able to get my passport extended?" The reply was: "We don't know. We have to wait for a response from China."

That wait lasted seven years. Xie's passport was never extended. He became a stateless person.

Xie said: "Over the years, not having a passport has caused tremendous inconvenience to my life and work."

In 2011, for the sake of convenience in his work and daily life, Xie had no choice but to become a British citizen.

In his article Reflections on Becoming a British Citizen, he wrote: "On the night before I was to take the oath of allegiance and become a British citizen, I tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. The land and the people I love would be even farther away from me the following day!"

After studying and working in the United Kingdom for eleven and a half years, Xie Weiguo, a descendant of the Chinese nation, was forced to become a British citizen simply because he believed in "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance" and had been illegally deprived of his Chinese nationality by the CCP.

On February 19, 2003, Xie's beloved mother passed away. His family, fearing that he would be arrested by the police if he returned to China, did not dare tell him. His younger brother informed him only after their mother had been buried.

Xie wrote: "So many times, I have met you in my dreams, Mother. Your kind and loving face is deeply etched in my memory, and I still remember the teachings you gave me in the past. But what I find so difficult to accept is that I was unable to fulfil my duty as a son during the final days of your suffering. And now, I can never see you again in this world."

On January 29, 2021, Xie's father passed away. In his article A Letter to My Father, Whom I Was Unable to Care for in His Final Years, he wrote: "I received an email from my younger brother saying that our father had just passed away that day. It was completely unexpected. Although Father's health had not been very good over the past year, when I spoke with him on the telephone four days earlier, he seemed to be in fairly good condition. Because the CCP interferes with international telephone calls to Xinjiang, calls from abroad are cut off in less than a minute, and it is impossible to get through again. My last telephone conversation with Father lasted less than a minute. I had originally thought there would still be another opportunity. What is heartbreaking is that the opportunity will never come again."

III. Dr Wang Wenyi: Her Passport Was Revoked, and Her Application for a New One Was Refused

Wang Wenyi was born in Changchun in October 1958. She graduated from Bethune Medical University in 1983 and remained there as a faculty member. In 1987, she went to the United States to study at the University of Chicago. She subsequently earned a PhD in Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience. She served as a resident physician at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, worked as a pathologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and was once editor-in-chief of the magazine Medicine and Life.

In August 2002, Wang Wenyi spent several weeks in Switzerland. As her passport was about to expire, she specifically went to the CCP Embassy in Switzerland to apply for an extension. However, simply because she was a Falun Gong practitioner, not only was her passport extension application rejected, but her passport was also revoked.

At the time, she successively approached the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant United Nations organisations in Switzerland to report the revocation of her passport. She also gave an interview to a United Nations radio station. After the incident was reported, it attracted widespread attention. Two weeks later, in order to prevent her from remaining stranded in Switzerland, the CCP Embassy was forced to issue her a temporary travel document so that she could return to the United States.

After returning to the United States, Wang Wenyi went several times to the CCP Consulate General in New York to apply for a replacement passport, but she received no response. After a long period of waiting, she finally had to telephone consular staff to inquire about her application. The response was astonishing: "The fact that we haven't issued you one after all this time is our way of telling you that your application will not be approved."

On May 3, 2005, Wang Wenyi's father suddenly passed away, and she planned to return to China immediately to attend his funeral. The following day, she went once again to the Chinese Consulate General in New York and asked Zou Xi, the staff member responsible for passport and visa matters, and a consul surnamed Sun about the status of her passport application. The answer was: "The authorities back home have not approved it."

Wang Wenyi subsequently wrote a letter to the CCP Consulate General in New York, stating:

"When my mother heard that I could not return, she cried sadly on the other end of the telephone. Several relatives and friends who were present also began to weep. I, too, shed tears—not only because I could not see my father, who had endured so much throughout his life, one last time, but also because I genuinely felt sorrow for those who reviewed my passport application and made the decision to reject it. People may not realize that when they act against heavenly principles and human morality, deliberately obstructing and harming others, they are simultaneously harming themselves."

To protest the CCP's inhumane persecution and mourn her beloved father, Wang Wenyi staged a one-day hunger strike and silent sit-in outside the Chinese Consulate General on May 20.

The stories of these three overseas Falun Gong practitioners whose Chinese nationality was illegally taken away by the CCP are merely a microcosm of the experiences of countless overseas Falun Gong practitioners over the past 26 years, who have been left in the predicament of having a country they cannot return to and a home they cannot go back to because of the CCP's persecution.

For Chinese citizens living overseas, a passport is a document that allows them to enter and leave China and serves as proof of their nationality and identity in foreign countries.

Every citizen holding Chinese nationality has the right to apply for, renew, and extend a passport. The CCP government also has an obligation to issue, renew, and extend passports for Chinese citizens. This is common knowledge, a basic human right, and an internationally accepted practice.

Deprivation of nationality refers to a state cancelling a person's existing citizenship through legal procedures. It is a form of involuntary loss of nationality. Also known as denationalization, it is an extremely serious legal act. Countries generally approach such measures with great caution and do not implement them lightly.

However, the CCP turns all the resources and powers under its control into instruments for controlling and persecuting the Chinese people.

Since the CCP launched its persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, it has not only persecuted Falun Gong practitioners inside China by every conceivable means, at any cost, and without regard for the consequences, but has also extended this persecution overseas. It has instructed its embassies and consulates abroad to illegally deprive overseas Falun Gong practitioners of their Chinese nationality by refusing to renew or extend their passports. This has created enormous difficulties for their studies, daily lives, and work overseas, forcing many of them to take up foreign citizenship.

This conduct not only gravely violates natural law and basic human decency, but also seriously contravenes internationally recognized human rights standards. It constitutes a severe infringement of the fundamental human rights of Falun Gong practitioners and has caused enormous damage to the CCP's reputation both domestically and internationally.

The CCP knows perfectly well that such actions have neither a theoretical basis nor a legal basis. Whenever Falun Gong practitioners ask staff at CCP embassies and consulates abroad why their passport renewals or extensions have been refused, they are often told: "You know that yourself" or "You know perfectly well in your heart."

"You know that yourself." "You know perfectly well in your heart." What normal country would arbitrarily deprive one of its citizens of nationality on such grounds?

During the 27 years of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, how many outstanding sons and daughters of China have been barred from returning to their homeland under such fabricated and groundless accusations? The number is impossible to calculate.

After 27 years of persecuting Falun Gong, what stage has the CCP now reached?

On September 15, 2026, the CCP's revised Regulations on the Administration of Entry and Exit officially came into effect. The result is that Chinese citizens inside the country face difficulties leaving China, while Chinese citizens overseas face difficulties returning home.

Recently, Fang Wei, a veteran Chinese-American media commentator, uploaded a screenshot showing a comment from an internet user named "Bailey": "The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco began refusing passport renewals two weeks ago, telling applicants that they must return to China to renew their passports." Fang Wei asked: "Is that really true?" The internet user replied: "Absolutely true. Even applications submitted through agencies for a fee have been rejected. The agency said that several applications had been rejected at the same time. They have been doing this work for many years and have never encountered anything like it."

Fang Wei pointed out that Chinese people go to consulates for essentially two purposes: to apply for visas or to renew their passports. Now, neither is possible. He remarked: "The CCP under Xi has taken things to such an extreme that I can hardly find words to describe it—is it cutting itself off from its own people?"

Fang Wei put it well.

After 27 years of persecuting Falun Gong, the CCP has reached a point of provoking universal indignation, facing difficulties both at home and abroad, and having completely lost the people's support. It is now barely maintaining its rule through nothing but high-pressure repression and deception.

The CCP began by harming others and will ultimately bring harm upon itself.

—The Dajiyuan △