In Memory of Mr. David Kilgour

I was saddened and shocked to hear that Mr. David Kilgour, the former Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific of Canada, passed away on April 5th. I could hardly believe what I heard was true.

I first met Mr. Kilgour in 2006, when he came to Australia with Edward McMillan-Scott, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, to expose the horrific crime of the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) ‘s organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners to the Australian public.

As a victim and survivor of the CCP’s labor camp system, who was also subjected to forced blood testing in the labor camp, I accompanied him and Mr. McMillan-Scott when they gave speeches in different cities. My personal experiences could serve as supplementary evidence for what they said about the CCP’s forced organ harvesting.

On August 22, 2006, I attended a press conference in Brisbane, Australia with Kilgour, Vice President of the European Parliament Edward McMillan-Scott, Falun Gong practitioner Dai Zhizhen (also Jane Dai) and her daughter Fadu.

When I first set my eye on Mr. Kilgour at Canberra Airport, I was immediately attracted and deeply impressed by his warm smile. And he was so polite and such a gentleman! Wherever he went, he greeted and talked to everyone enthusiastically, as if everyone was his old friend. He had so much to talk about with everyone, although he just met everyone for the first time.

I don’t remember when I gave him a copy of my memoir “Witnessing History: One woman’s fight for freedom and Falun Gong”; but I do remember that after that, he often carried my book in his hand, and started to call himself my “big fan” in front of others. This made me feel flattered, and a little embarrassed sometimes. As a woman growing up in China, I was not used to this kind of open praise.

In February 2007, he went to Australia to visit his family. If I remember correctly, his daughter worked in Melbourne. It was a family trip, but he contacted me all the same. Only he asked me not to disclose his visit, as he wanted to keep this trip entirely private and only spend time with family.

When he came to Sydney from Melbourne, he and his wife invited my daughter and me to dinner in Chinatown. During the dinner, he asked me how it was going with my daughter and my life, and repeatedly asked me to let him know if we needed any help, including financial assistance. He was very sincere and kind.

We took this photo (released for the first time) after we had dinner Sydney’s China Town on February 24, 2007

This photo with Mr. and Mrs. Kilgour was taken on February 24, 2007, in Sydney’s Chinatown. I haven’t made it public until now, because that was taken during a personal trip of his.

On February 18, 2008, Mr. Kilgour and I attended the news conference of the Human Rights Torch in Israel.

On February 18, 2008, Mr. Kilgour and I testified before the Jewish religious court (Sanhedrin) about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong.

In February 2008, local Falun Gong practitioners took Mr. Kilgour and me to visit Jerusalem during our stay in Israel.

In 2008, Mr. Kilgour and I were invited to Israel to participate in the Human Rights Torch. We attended many events together, visited many experts and dignitaries, and exposed the CCP’s crime of forced organ harvesting.

In 2012, I went to Canada with Kean Wong, the producer of the documentary “Free China: The Courage to Believe”, to represent “Free China” at the Free Thinking Film Festival in Ottawa. Mr. Kilgour also participated in the screening as one of the interviewees in “Free China”.

L to R: Greg Autry, co-author of “Death by China”, Kean Wong, Jennifer Zeng, David Kilgour at the Free Thinking Film Festival in Ottawa on November 2, 2012.

As a proud Canadian, Mr. Kilgour also took us to visit the Canadian Parliament, where he had served for 27 years. He eagerly introduced everything inside the parliament to us like a tour guide, as he was so familiar with everything.

When we arrived at the venue where he and Mr. David Matas first released their historical Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, Bloody Harvest, in 2006, we all became very excited; and each of us requested to take a photo with him at the “famous” podium, which we had seen many times on TV or in news reports.

I felt so proud and excited when taking this photo on 11/3/2012 with Mr. Kilgour at the same podium, where he and David Matas released their historical Bloody Harvest, in 2006,

L to R: Greg Autry, Jennifer Zeng and David Kilgour at Canadian Parliament on 11/3/2012.

And we also had the luxury to be treated with a “parliamentary lunch” inside the parliament dining hall! And it was really quite delicious!

During our stay in Canada, he also invited us to his house for dinner. His beautiful and lovely wife prepared a family dinner that made us feel at home. Every moment I spent in his house, I could feel what a happy family it was; and this in turn made me both happy and special.

In 2014, Mr. Kilgour went to Los Angeles for an event. I was lucky to have the opportunity to treat him and Greg Autry to a meal and then watch Shen Yun together.

In March 2014, watching Shen Yun performance with Mr. Kilgour and Greg Autry.

In 2018, when I was preparing my application materials for an EB-1 visa (Extraordinary Ability Green Card) in the United States, I asked Mr. Kilgour whether he would be able to write me a letter of recommendation to support my case. He agreed without any hesitation. With his letter, as well as letters from some other VIPs, I obtained an EB-1 visa fairly quickly.

On June 17, 2019, the independent “China Tribunal” chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC was going to hand down its final judgment on the CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China. Both Mr. Kilgour and I flew to London to attend this important event. So we met again right before the event was about to start.

Meeting Mr. Kilgour at the China Tribunal in London on 6/17/2019.

Taking a photo with David Matas and David Kilgour at China Tribunal in London on 6/17/2019.

L to R: David Matas, Enver Tohti Bughda, Uyghur former surgeon, who removed organs from a prisoner, Ethan Gutmann, award-winning China analyst and human-rights investigator, author of The Slaughter, Jennifer Zeng and David Kilgour at China Tribunal in London on 6/17/2019.

L to R: Ethan Gutmann, Jennifer Zeng, David Matas and David Kilgour at BBC headquarters in London on 6/18/2019.

On the following day, we went to BBC headquarters for an interview, together with Mr. Matas and Ethan Gutmann. After that, the four of us took a group photo under that famous slogan on the wall: “If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. “

All four of us felt that this sentence was so perfectly appropriate if we used it to describe our endless effort to try to expose the CCP’s forced organ harvesting.

After that, we had coffee nearby with a BBC reporter and learned how difficult it was to get a show about the CCP’s crime of organ harvesting on BBC: Apart from pressure from the CCP, there were also various political struggles, the BBC itself weighing the pros and cons, and so on.

After all, not everyone in the world could think or behave as simple as the four of us, who believed that since this crime is so horrendous and “yet to be seen on this planet” , it should be exposed, no matter what.

That was my last time together with Mr. Kilgour. If I had known this earlier, I would have taken more photos with him.

During the pandemic last year, when everything became “virtual’, I attended an online event held by the “Anti-Communist Action Team” in Washington, together with Mr. Kilgour, to expose the crime of forced harvesting by the CCP.

As a matter of fact, we planned to attend a similar online forum again on April 27th -and that would be only 20 days away. But alas! He suddenly left us…

It was such a shock to me. I wasn’t prepared at all for his sudden departure. So I don’t really know what to say and write except to list all my encounters with him here in such a “boring” way.

When I recall all the times together with him, every moment was so precious. Although what we talked about and exposed was the most heinous of crimes, the time with him felt as warm and as pleasant as a spring breeze. He was as warm as a loving father, and as understanding and reliable as a good friend. He was such a VIP himself, but he always spared no effort to present himself as a “big fan” of me, as if I were the most important person in the world.

Tears fill my eyes while I write about this. I know, only someone with a heart as big and as compassionate as his could treat another human being as he had treated me.

And that is how he was, and who he was. He not only treated me like that, but also treated everyone he met the same way. Whenever he was with somebody, he made him or her feel how important and amazing he or she was. His warm and gentle smile always warmed the heart of others.

Perhaps for many people, he was a great politician and a human rights fighter. However, in my mind, he was like a loving father, a close friend, a rare gentleman, and a fellow human being with such an extraordinarily kind heart.

I’m sure he’s now looking at us somewhere from heaven with the same warm smile as he always had. And everything he did will go down in history forever.

4/7/2022*

Ps: After writing this article, I saw someone like my post on Facebook. My heart suddenly ached, as I remember how Mr. Kilgour always liked my posts on Facebook. A few days ago, he was still liking my posts…

Perhaps he did mean it when he said that he was my ‘“big fan”, as I suddenly realized that he even liked my posts in Chinese. I had thought to myself, “ Oh, dear me, you even like my posts in Chinese?”