News from Australia

On the evening of September 29, the Chinese Embassy entertained the Chinese Olympic Team at the Manly Hotel in Manly, one of Sydney's tourist areas. The practitioners in Sydney also went there to educate the public about the facts regarding the persecution of Falun Gong, in China, by Jiang Zemin and his cohorts. In order to prevent the Chinese athletes from witnessing these activities or learning the true facts, the staff of the embassy used the PRC national flag to block their view of the Falun Gong practitioners.

At around 5:50pm, some practitioners were already awaiting the team on the lawn across from the hotel. The words " Falun Dafa is Good" and "FALUN DAFA" printed on the yellow T-shirts of the practitioners were very conspicuous. With the presence of Falun Gong practitioners, the officials of the Chinese Embassy immediately became nervous. When the Chinese athletes came to the hotel, the national flag originally used to welcome the team was then used as a tool to block the view of Falun Gong practitioners so that the athletes and the guests would not see the Falun Gong practitioners there. When some practitioners moved to the other side to avoid being blocked, the staff of the embassy also moved the flag in front of the practitioners. However, when the athletes went to take their seats on the second floor, they saw Falun Gong practitioners from the French windows of the hotel.

Some practitioners also saw Mr. Yuan Weimin, the Chairman of the Chinese National Sports Committee looking at Falun Gong practitioners from the second floor. The Chinese athletes were not afraid of seeing Falun Gong practitioners, so what made the embassy staff nervous? At that moment, one of the embassy staff members who was blocking the view of the practitioners with the national flag waved to the athletes with a small national flag in the other hand. Someone quickly ran down and said to her: "Hey, don't call to them. Don't forget that your job is to block the view of the Falun Gong practitioners from the guests. If you wave your little flag, they'll all be able to see..."

Later on, more and more practitioners showed up. We lined up neatly and started to practice. The embassy staff was still using the PRC national flag and banners to block the view of our welcoming crowd. One Asian journalist came with a video camera and wanted to shoot a film about us. But a Chinese official held him back to prevent him from taking this valuable picture.

With the beautiful music and peaceful scene of the practice, the policemen who came to stop us at the request of the embassy officials changed their attitude. Lots of passersby stopped to look at us and asked for information materials. Some impressed people who may have had a predestined relationship even started to learn on the spot. When some Western practitioners saw that some Chinese people were blocking us with flags all the time, they went to question them.

When the athletes were about to leave, the embassy staff suddenly walked to the front, maybe because of the questioning by the Western practitioners, maybe because it was useless to block the scene of more than 100 practitioners practicing en masse with only a few flags and banners, or maybe because they had received new orders... Two coaches stopped at the front gate and again the officials used the national flag and banner to block the view of the athletes. They could block the view with the national flag, but they could not stop the beautiful Falun Gong music floating through the air.

When the athletes came out of the hotel, they were led to the coach with the view blocked by the national flags and the banners. But the coach stopped on our side; it seemed that something had gone wrong. The door was opened. Some athletes got off, some got on. It was very dark inside the coach, which made the yellow T-shirt with blue words printed on it even more conspicuous under the light. Together with the music and the beautiful movements of the practice, it attracted the attention of the athletes both inside and outside the coach. Some nearby practitioners heard somebody say "Falun Gong...." The embassy staff used all means they could think of to hide the view, even with the honorable Chinese national flag.

Over the course of this year, Jiang Zemin has suffered from the fear of Falun Gong, as evil is afraid of the truth. Inside China, he cheats the people; outside, those government officials who don't know the truth blindly follow; this is what caused this ugly show of using the national flag to hide their shame. However, no matter how they hide, they cannot hide the truth from the people around the world.

During the events in the evening, a western lady passed by, saw the impressive scene of our practice, and said to our practitioners: " I am deeply moved by the spirit of Falun Gong." During the Olympics, there were a lot of Hongfa activities. Today, a lot of practitioners spent one or two hours coming here voluntarily by bus, by ferry, or by car after work. These selfless, genuine practitioners wanted to rectify Dafa and show the spirit of Falun Dafa to the public. The lady also told us that she works for an international human rights department. They have a lot of information about the severe infringement upon human rights and the persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin and his cohorts in China. She was very sorry about what that small group of people has done in China. Before she left, she kissed our practitioners on the cheeks. Tonight, many kind people who passed by gave us their kind wishes of "Good Luck!" and "Wish you success!"

There was also an unsavory incident in the evening. A practitioner had stuck a banner with "Falun Dafa" and the location of a Dafa website on his van. At one point, an embassy staff member showed his 'interest' in it and asked the practitioner to give it to him. The practitioner said: "Only if you swear honestly that you really like it, then I can give it to you. But I feel that you do not truly want it, so I can't give it to you!" But the embassy official was afraid that the athletes who would come back very soon might see this banner, so this staff member started to ask lots of nonsensical questions. After he responded to the questions, the practitioner turned around and found that the banner was gone. The practitioner reported it to the police on the spot. The policemen were shocked. They could not understand why the officials of such a big country would do this. After they heard the explanations of our practitioners, they finally understood: these officials were afraid that the Chinese athletes might see it and realize the truth that Falun Dafa has already been widely spread around the world, and is only being persecuted in China.

Sydney Practitioners.

Sept. 29, 2000