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- 22 March 2005
Falun Gong Persecution
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Page: 14697
Mr IAN COHEN [5.12 p.m.]: Zhizhen Dai is a 38-year-old Chinese-born woman with a bachelor's degree in economics. She and her daughter, Fadu Chen, are Australian citizens living in Hurstville. They have suffered greatly. Ms Dai's husband, Mr Chengyong Chen, was a Chinese citizen. His body was found in an abandoned hut in a suburb of Guangzhou in July 2001. Ms Dai's family had been persecuted by the Chinese Government from 20 July 1999 simply because they were Falun Gong practitioners who believed in the principles of truth, compassion and tolerance.
Her husband lived in the Haizhu district of Guangzhou in Guangdong province, and was an electrician at the Guangzhou Paper Manufacturing Corporation. Because he went to Beijing many times to appeal for the cause of Falun Gong he lost his job. In November 2000, to avoid brainwashing classes, he left home and rented another place in which to live. His body was identified by his sister. It was significantly decomposed, which indicated that he had been dead for some time, so the exact time of death is unknown. He had been detained for 15 days in Guangzhou in January 2000 for appealing for Falun Gong. In July 2000 he was taken away by police for three weeks. He was also detained in Beijing for one day for unfurling a Falun Gong banner in Tiananmen Square on 31 December 2000.
Ms Dai lost contact with her husband after 10 January 2001. Mr Chengyong Chen's sister, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was sentenced to two years in a labour camp without any legal proceedings. When their father heard the tragic news of his son's death and his daughter's sentence he suffered from shock, which led to a recurrence of his illness. He was hospitalised, and recently died. Since the crackdown on Falun Gong started the police have searched Ms Dai's brother's home without a warrant and threatened him that he would lose his job and his house. Against his will, he agreed to give up his practice of Falun Gong.
In Canberra on 11 March 2002 the widow of the practitioner killed in China expressed her thanks to the Australian Government for returning his ashes. He died because he belonged to an organisation—a religious movement, a cult, whatever it may be. Mr Dai, a Chinese citizen, was beaten to death because he was seen to be some sort of threat to the Chinese Government. It is clear that these people are being persecuted in China. There has been verification of the deaths of some 375 practitioners, and of 20,000 being sentenced to periods of forced labour. Former Olympic swimmer Jan Becker, arrested in Tiananmen Square last week for unfurling a Falun Gong banner and deported, said governments throughout the world must unite to press China to end the persecution. It is quite clear that this movement, and perhaps others, suffer greatly from persecution by a centralised, totalitarian and very dictatorial government. What is it fearful of? Perhaps it has reason to be fearful, if this movement presents some sort of threat to the government.
I refer also to Ms Zhang Cuiying, an Australian artist who is also a Falun Gong practitioner. She filed a law suit in the New South Wales Supreme Court on 15 September 2004 in which she claims that former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin and his "610 Office"—which was established to eradicate Falun Gong through arbitrary incarceration, brainwashing, torture and murder—are responsible for the torture she suffered while imprisoned for her beliefs and advocacy of Falun Gong. After being detained for eight months at the No. 1 Shangmeilin Detention Centre in Shenzhen City during a visit to her Chinese homeland, she was released, thanks to the assistance of the Australian Government. Ms Zhang was nominated for the Bankstown 2004 Citizen of the Year Award.
Her case was listed for a second conference, and I spoke at a rally outside the court on 28 February. I have seen this woman's artwork, and it is exceptional. I have met these people on many occasions and I am very concerned that they are seen to be a threat to the Chinese Government for practising what is essentially a peaceful religious practice.
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