Fears over the whereabouts of a Beijing-based
member of the Falungong spiritual movement grew Sunday after she was
reportedly arrested by mainland Chinese State security.
I am an ordinary Australian with no Chinese background or connection. Yet I
have had some experience of Falun Gong.
Last Friday, Quebec Court of Appeal overturned a decision of the lower court and reinstated Falun Gong practitioners’ prosecution for Contempt of Court Charges.
Most of the 100 practitioners are between 50 and 70 years of age. Among them there are cadres, teachers, doctors, college students, engineers, self-employed business owners, workers and housewives.
“How many people have indeed benefited from the development of science?” Ismail Serageldin, the director of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, wrote an article to pose this question.
Foreign Minister Phil Goff added New Zealand’s voice to a growing international chorus urging the Hong Kong government to reject the mainland-sponsored law when it comes up before the legislature on 9 July.
Tang Yiwen, younger sister of Australian citizen Lisa, has been illegally detained at the Chatou Labor Camp in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province for over two years. Upon completing her term, this young and beautiful teacher was not released.
We cannot change others
We can only look within
and change ourselves
In June 2003, practitioners participated in the local ‘World Environment Day’, an annual event on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, to promote Falun Dafa. Practitioners from Brisbane and the Gold Coast travelled hundreds of kilometres to attend the day’s activities.
A Hong Kong University poll has found 53.3 per cent of the
people are opposed to the new security law [Article 23] and only 16.4 per cent support
it.
“We urge (the government) to make every effort to ensure that civil
liberties are not lessened by the proposed legislation,” said a
statement from Chris Gallus, assistant minister to Australian Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer.
“Tang has stood up for freedom of belief and expression. These are the very principles on which Australian society is supposed to be founded. To forcibly return him to the tender mercies of a totalitarian state is indefensible”.