Written response by the Tongliao City Public Security Bureau to Ms. Gao Yulian states that her passport application was denied for her "possible harm to state security and national interest" of China. For details in English, see the attached English translation of the form below.

As China’s control over ethnic Mongolian dissidents is increasingly tightened during the extravagant celebrations of the 60^th Anniversary of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a  passport application by Ms. Gao-yulian, an ethnic Mongolian dissident, was denied by the Tongliao City Public Security Bureau of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, for her “possible harm to state security and national interests”, and communicated to the applicant in a written response by the Chinese authorities.

Ms. Gao-yulian, 54, an elementary school teacher and a breast cancer patient, was born in eastern Southern Mongolia’s former Jirim League which has been changed to a sinicized administrative unit called “Tongliao City (or Municipality)” as part of China’s quick urbanization movement in the region. As an active member of the 1981 Mongolian student movement in Southern Mongolia, she played a significant role in organizing Mongolian students and intellectuals in eastern Southern Mongolia to take action against the so-called Document No.28, an official ruling issued by the Central Government proposing to migrate 600,000 Chinese into Southern Mongolia without any consultation with the local Mongols. After 3 months of protests, the Movement was ended with their leaders and members placed under tight control and close monitoring.

In the early 1990s, Gao-yulian joined the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance (SMDA), an ethnic Mongolian organization whose objective was to obtain “real autonomy” for the Mongols through a peaceful means. In 1995 the organization was outlawed by the Chinese authorities and its leaders and members arrested and some given long prison sentences. Ms. Gao-Yulian was arrested and detained for two weeks.

Since the late 1990s, Gao-yulian has been actively advocating freedom of speech and press of the Mongols in Southern Mongolia. She volunteered to help administer a number of Internet discussion forums by Mongolian students and intellectuals including www.nutuge.com, www.ehoron.com, and www.mglzaluus.com/bbs , all three of which have been shutdown by the Chinese authorities for “posting separatism contents” and “discussing ethnic problems”. She has also been a staunch advocate and leader of Mongolian language education and usage. She has engaged in numerous charity activities to help underprivileged Mongolian children to overcome financial difficulties in their efforts to receive education in Mongolian. As an outspoken critic of China’s repressive ethnic policies in Southern Mongolia, she has written a number of articles through the Internet, expressing strongly her views. She has called on the Mongols to stand up for their legal rights. Currently she is pursuing a lawsuit against the local postal authorities who refused to deliver her mail with an address written in Mongolian, ignoring the Autonomous Law which guarantees Mongolian as an official language in the Autonomous Region.

Gao Yulian on her trip to Shiliin-gol League for helping underprivileged Mongolian children

Despite the Chinese authorities’ close monitoring and constant intimidation, Gao-yulian has never hesitated to discuss the human rights situation of Southern Mongolia to the international community. She has given telephone interviews to a number of foreign news media including the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, the New York Times and the Sound of Hope.

It has been the Chinese public security authorities’ common practice to keep confidential their internal notes for blacklisted individuals and organizations. However, lately many spying practices and monitoring activities of the public security agencies such as phone tapping, eavesdropping, and blacklisting have gradually emerged and become public knowledge in order to intimidate broader segments of the population. This is especially true in Southern Mongolia where many dissidents have been told by the Security Bureau personnel that they are closely monitored, and their conversations are recorded.

Ms. Gao-yulian has frequently been called to the Tongliao Public Security Bureau and been told that the Bureau has blacklisted her. They have regularly held special meetings to review her activities. In their detailed written response claiming that she is an individual who is not allowed to leave the country due to her “possible harm to the state security and national interest”, they also ruled that she would be given 5 years probation from July 27, 2006 through July 26, 2011.

The following is an English translation of the original notice:

Notice of Receipt of Chinese Citizen’s Application for Leaving the Country for Personal Matter

Application Type: First Application of Passport             Application No: 152300070034423 (bar code omitted)

List of Items Received for Chinese Citizen’s Application for Leaving the Country for Personal Matter

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