Australians Call for End of 23 Year Faith Group Persecution

July 10, 2022

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It is time for Australian society to wake up and call out a communist regime that persecutes people for their faith.

This is what Paul Folley, general manager of Australia TFP (Tradition, Family, and Property), said when addressing the 23-year anniversary of the start of the Chinese communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong at a rally in Sydney on July 8.

Folley is calling on all Australians to stand up and stop the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s atrocities, which have lasted for more than two decades.

“We still treat this regime as a normal routine, albeit a difficult one, and a business partner,” he said.

“I’m ashamed to say that this continues today, and it’s even being done by the Australian Government.”

“It’s time, high tide, long past time that we ended this counter.”

“It’s time for Australia to wake up. It’s time for our consciences as a society to wake up, because our attitude to what’s happening in China, to the persecution of Falun Gong and others, reflects our attitude to each other as Australians. It reflects our own humanity.”

Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, was first introduced to the public in China in 1992 and grew in popularity due to its slow-movement exercises and moral teachings centred around the principles of “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.”

The practice had about 70 million to 100 million adherents by the end of that decade, according to official estimates.

Taking the popularity as a threat, Jiang Zemin, the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), started a nationwide campaign to eradicate the practice and its adherents on July 20, 1999.

Since then, numerous Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested, detained, tortured, and even had their organs harvested alive for not renouncing their faith.

The persecution has continued in China based on an extermination policy of “defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically.” According to Minghui, a website that keeps track of the persecution, in the first half of 2022 alone, 92 Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted by the CCP and passed away, including 37 men and 55 women, the oldest being 89 years old.

Emeritus Professor of Law: Forced Organ Harvesting is Disgraceful

David Flint AM, emeritus professor of law and former chairman of the Australian Press Council denounced the CCP’s crime of forced organ harvesting and called on governments to take a strong stance against such an atrocity.

“This is what the Communist Party is doing to their own people. They’re healthier people,” Flint said.

“This is disgraceful practice.”

“Yet there are people, politicians, who seem to support the communist government purchase of some of our best assets, and they will not deal with this terrible thing that’s happening in China.”

“Governments around the world should not just sit back and even have conferences with dictators from Beijing. They should insist that as a condition of further activities in relation to the communist government: In Beijing, they must stop this terrible persecution.”

State Politician: Falun Gong’s Values Promoted Morality

Hon Fred Nile MLC sent a letter of support for the rally, saying that Falun Gong’s principles of “truthfulness, kindness, and forbearance” promoted morality in a society increasingly aware of a spiritual vacuum.

Silvana Nero, Nile’s wife, read the letter on his behalf at the rally.

Nile appreciated the Falun Dafa Association of Australia and Falun Gong practitioners for their tireless efforts to expose the ongoing persecution.

“The right to freedom of speech and religion is a God-given right,” Nile wrote. “If God wants us to have those freedoms, then no man has the right to remove them.”

The MLC said he has been condemning the CCP for its persecution of Falun Gong in the past two decades.

“As long as I have a platform, I will continue to do so,” he wrote.

Although Falun Gong practitioners are the direct victims of this persecution, in reality, the entire Chinese society has become the victim, Dr Lucy Zhao, the president of the Australian Falun Dafa Association told The Epoch Times.

“In suppressing Falun Gong, the CCP is promoting falsehood, evil, and struggle (the opposite of truthfulness, compassion, forbearance),” Zhao said.

“As a result, social morality is rapidly declining, officials are corrupt, and falsehood, evil, and struggle are prevalent.”

She cited two recent examples, the chained woman incident from China and the Tangshan beating incident as the tip of the iceberg of the moral decline in China’s society.

“In such a society, people have no sense of security, no freedom, no faith, and everyone looks to money. For money, anything bad can be done,” she said.

“People have no trust in each other, and finally, there is no hope for this society.”

The president said that only by stopping the persecution of Falun Gong and encouraging people to behave according to “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance” will China recover, prosper, and have a future.

Chinese Activist: Falun Gong Practitioners Awaken the World with Courage

Nathan Hsu, a pro-democracy activist, praised the courage of Falun Gong practitioners facing brutal persecution by the CCP.

“For 23 years, Falun Gong practitioners have not backed down in the face of brutal persecution and repression by the Chinese Communist Party. In overseas, Falun Gong practitioners have created a series of media outlets such as The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty TV, which have been constantly exposing the persecution of Chinese people by the CCP,” Hsu said.

“Falun Gong practitioners have shown fearless courage in spreading the truth and making tremendous efforts to awaken the sleeping Chinese people, while at the same time pushing China forward towards freedom and democracy.”

The activist cited a series of human rights concerns committed by the CCP including the treatment of house Christians, dissidents, human rights lawyers in China; the concentration camps in Xinjiang, and the controversial National Security Law passed in Hong Kong,.”

“In the past three years, the CCP virus has affected all mankind and millions of people have died from it. The CCP has committed heinous crimes against humanity in its 100 years of rule,” Hsu said.

“Only when the CCP is dismantled will the persecution stop, and people will have freedom of speech and freedom of belief.”

Law Expert: Perseverance Will Win

Australian barrister Sophie York, an international humanitarian law instructor and lecturer at The University of Sydney, said that the perseverance of Falun Gong practitioners will be rewarded with victory at the end of the day.

“Today is filled with sorrow, yes,” York wrote in a letter of support.

“But determination, most of all!” “Your perseverance will win, eventually.”

York also mentioned that given that China is now passing legislation to ban criticism, (which it calls ‘insults’), it is noble and brave of all here today to gather and speak out.

“All who speak out may take comfort from the fact that only insecure, brittle persons and regimes ban assessment and criticism,” she wrote.

“As all sportspeople, and all high-achievers in any field of endeavour, know: well-founded critique is what leads to improvement and success. Removal of it, leads to failure.”

The law expert ended the letter with best wishes to Falun Gong practitioners:

“You have my support, and the support of countless civilised people, all over the world. Never give up!!”

In the evening, Falun Gong practitioners held a candlelight memorial service to commemorate the deaths of Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted to death in China.