(Clearwisdom.net) Mr and Mrs.Wang in Australia are facing deportation to
China, and near certain persecution if they are in fact deported. One reason for
the initial rejection of their claim for asylum by Australia's Department of
Immigration is that "Chinese authorities are not interested in ordinary
practitioners of this movement".
This is definitely an incorrect notion. The Chinese authorities, still very much
driven by the Jiang regime, are under great pressure to wipe out Falun Gong.
Practicing privately at home is not a realistic option.
My mother-in-law, who lives in an eastern city of China's Sichuan Province, is
an example. She does not go out to appeal in public. She just does the exercises
at home privately, but the whole atmosphere of terror surrounding the Falun Gong
issue in China makes it almost impossible for her to keep up with her practice.
She can practice privately at home, but she cannot let people know that she is
still practicing at home.
She cannot talk about Falun Gong freely, even at home, for fear of exposure. She
cannot do the exercises in front of her grandchildren, for example, for they
might tell others. She has to keep the volume of the exercise music barely
audible so that her neighbors don't hear it. Others in the family have to tell
visitors that she has given up Falun Gong, again for fear of exposure and near
certain persecution if she is turned in to the police. She is nervous when doing
the exercises even with the door closed. You see, in China, members of the
public have been deceived by the massive propaganda campaign attempting to
demonize Falun Gong, and are even offered incentives for turning in
practitioners to the lawless authorities.
Can you imagine how my mother could actually enter the tranquility required of
meditation with all she has to worry about? Falun Gong practitioners follow the
principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." This is something that
should be welcomed by all nations! Why have they chosen to behave so shamefully
in China?
My mother-in-law has a history of serious, chronic illness. Her health became
much improved after beginning her practice of Falun Gong, but since the
persecution, due to the environment of fear and terror that the authorities have
created, and her reluctance to exercise at home for fear of being turned in and
tortured, her health is not as good as before.
I invited her to visit me in United States. She went to apply for a passport and
was told that she needed to provide a statement that she did not practice Falun
Gong. She did not want to do that (since Truthfulness is one of the main aspects
of Falun Gong's teaching) and therefore had to give up hope for a passport.
Immigration Authorities in Australia: Please help Mr. and Mrs. Wang! Let them
stay in Australia. Since they are well known to practice Falun Gong, they will
most certainly face persecution in China. Please do what your heart tells you is
right!
Yuhua Zhang
March 13, 2003