The heavy-handed Chinese Consulate
Last Monday I spoke at a media conference of radio television and the print media, in support of people in Australia being free to attend the Shen Yun’s performances in the Capitol Theatre.
The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China had been threatening children and adults who attended. I also was warned but attended the performance with my wife. Business leaders and politicians were all warned not to attend.
The show has magnificent singers, dancers, a full orchestra and stage settings telling the story of 5000 years of Chinese culture. About 150 New York artists present this magnificent show. But it does not praise Mao Zedong and China’s great progress under the Communist Party. This causes the Consulate to condemn the performance and the Falun Dafa who have organised it.
The performances of Chinese culture they present are not allowed in China today. This remarkable show has been presented in the Lincoln Centre New York, The Kennedy Centre Washington DC, and some of the largest theatres in the Western World. This was the last week in Sydney before performances in Melbourne and other major cities.
While the Chinese Consulate cannot hurt us physically, they do hurt anti-communist Falun Dafa members in China. I first came upon this while I was making a film of the persecuted Christian in China in 1997.
Beverley and I travelled by train the length and breadth of China delivering Bibles to persecuted Christians. I was well known among Christians both in the Three Self Patriotic Movement Church and in the underground churches as over one and a half million copies of my three books printed in Chinese in China, had been purchased by Christians.
University students in the University of Beijing met in illegal evening meetings while I conducted Bible studies. We were followed and chased by the religious police as we sought to elude them in back streets.
Filming the persecuted Christians posed some special difficulties. But through clandestine meetings, diversionary taxi trips, and help from underground Christians we attended secret services and filmed the testimony of brave pastors who had been imprisoned for 26 years, denied human rights and tortured for their faith.
It was all true. Their bodies bore the scars. The film, “Inside the Great Wall” is a riveting documentary. It was filmed entirely on location in Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, The Great Wall, The Temple of Heaven, Beijing University, some Three Self Patriotic Movement Churches and the illegal underground churches.
Still today, other Christians remain in prison and slave labour camps making products sold in our chain stores, with wives and children left behind to face poverty.
I discovered in China that not only were Christians suffering persecution, but also members of a group that practice the physical exercises of Tai Chi and an enlightened mind known as Falun Dafa practitioners. They also have earned the wrath of the Communist Government.
Since then I have worked for their human rights as well. A sickening step in the persecution was taken when reports, later verified at the highest level, were published in the West claiming human body parts, including kidneys, eye corneas, livers, hearts and lungs were taken from many of these persecuted prisoners for sale by the Government to mainly Western wealthy people who ordered the parts. The bodies of the unwilling donors were cremated immediately.
Click here to read my Adjournment Speech on Human Organ Trafficking
I hosted a free public forum on “Balancing the Scales with China” at Parliament House. I joined with the Canadian Secretary of State The Hon. David Kilgour, Australian Human Rights Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski, International experts such as Dr Wang Juntao (Political Scientist and key Chinese pro-democracy figure), Mr David Matas, Esq. Renowned Canadian Human Rights lawyer, Senior Legal Counsel and author of the independent “Report into Allegations of Harvesting Fallun Gong Practioners in China”, Mr Erping Zhang (Executive Director of the Association for Asian Research USA), and Dr Elliott Fan (Research Fellow from Australian National University) to discuss the issues of human organ harvesting and sale.
Australia and the world are looking to China with both excitement and fear. Financial anticipation is tied to the boom of the Chinese economy, the increasing military build-up and unceasing reports of human rights abuses. But our economic ties over trade, and the sale of our iron ore, make many politicians keep their silence over human rights abuses.
At the Press Conference this week I said, “China is Australia’s biggest trading partner and their human rights record should be addressed at this time. This is an opportunity to give voice to those who are persecuted and denied the basic human rights in China. If Australia is serious about upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights we should speak up.”
The week before the Forum in Parliament House, the Chinese Embassy sent high level officials to the Parliament to pressurise the Premier and the President of the Parliament to stop the protest I had organised. Both refused to do so. I had reminded them of our 600 year right of the Westminster System of Parliamentary Democracy, that concerned citizens have the right to enter Parliament House to discuss matters of concern with their Parliamentarian.
That is not allowed in China. During our forum, Chinese men in suits videoed and photographed everyone participating by being in the audience. Thank God we are free to discuss important universal values such as human rights and to protest against the escalation of violence and fear in order to restore and protect the principles of democracy and human rights especially to our largest trading partner.
Now the Chinese Consulate is trying to stop attendance of Australian citizens and school children from an arts cultural performance. If re-elected I will legislate for all schools to be protected from interference by foreign Governments as to our curriculum and presence at such performances.
This is a time for all people concerned with the human rights of all people to stand up and speak out.
REV THE HON DR GORDON MOYES AC MLC