March 12, 2005

ONCE a month, Alexander Downer signs a certificate banning adherents of Falun Gong from displaying banners and making excessive noise outside the Chinese embassy in Canberra.

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The real reason is that the Chinese [...] complained about signs that read "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" and "Stop the Killing", as well as the playing of exercise music with a Chinese voice-over.

According to the group, Australia is the only democratic country to impose such restrictions on its members, or practitioners, as they prefer to call themselves - an assertion the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not challenge when it was put to it this week.

Unfortunately, the Chinese do everything to impair the dignity of Falun Gong practitioners. Amnesty International says tens of thousands are being detained in China, mostly in "re-education through labour" centers but also in prisons and mental hospitals. It reports that total alleged deaths in custody had reached about 500 by the end of 2002.

The US State Department says that several hundred reportedly have died due to torture, abuse and neglect. Falun Gong claims to have verified 1423 deaths and that the total could be as high as 10,000. Whatever the figure, it is one of the worst examples of repression of Chinese citizens since the Cultural Revolution.

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Many Australians driving past the Chinese embassy and consulates in other cities have seen the Falun Gong in action, if that is the word. It is the epitome of passive protest. They are often sitting cross-legged, meditating.

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You can draw your own conclusions why Australia finds it necessary, unlike other countries, to impose a statutory restriction on a group just because the Chinese say they are offended, as opposed to the police simply keeping an eye on members or responding to specific complaints about breaches of the law. This week the Government went further to please the Chinese by excluding Falun Gong from talks it convened in Canberra with non-government organizations on human rights in China.

These discussions are held as part of the input for the annual human rights dialogue Australia has with China. Haven't heard much about those? That is because they are held behind closed doors. Even the NGOs participate in the preliminary talks only on the condition that they do not speak about them publicly.

Falun Gong was prepared to abide by these conditions but this week it was dis-invited to the talks. Why? Because it held a protest outside the foreign affairs department to coincide with the meeting. This included displays of information about Falun Gong and a demonstration of Chinese torture methods.

A foreign affairs department spokesman said Falun Gong members had been told their attendance might have to be reconsidered but they decided to go ahead with the demonstration anyway.

"We advised them formally on Tuesday, the day before the consultations, that their invitation had been withdrawn because the protest was not consistent with the co-operative spirit of the consultations," he added.

That certainly sorts out Australian priorities. Punishing people for engaging in peaceful protest is not consistent with democratic values. These are the kinds of values we hold so dear [...].

But these values apparently are not as important as kowtowing to the Chinese. The foreign affairs spokesman said the restrictions on Falun Gong activities outside the Chinese embassy should not be interpreted "as indicating any lessening of the Government's concern for the rights of Falun Gong practitioners" and that these concerns had been raised at the last dialogue in October.

The annual dialogue is a means of quarantining human rights issues to a private meeting and is a substitute for public criticisms of China's appalling human rights record, including in the UN Human Rights Commission. As Australian ambassador to China Alan Thomas put it last year: "I don't get up with a microphone in Tiananmen Square and that is appreciated [by the Chinese Government]."

Australia argues that this approach is more effective, but the results are hard to find. Australia has raised a series of individual Falun Gong cases in the annual dialogues, including, in two consecutive years, that of the brother of an Australian citizen arrested in China for being a Falun Gong practitioner. "He still died in a labour camp," says Rubacek.

Yes, it is important to have good relations with China and not only because they buy lots of our goods. And no, we should not pretend that a country of our size is ever going to have a big influence on Chinese behaviour. But that does not mean we always have to bend over backwards further than any other country to find favour. [...]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12515306%255E7583,00.html