Hong Kong Front Organization Frames Falun Gong Practitioner
The Epoch Times
Hong Kong police show favoritism toward communist group
By Lin Yi & Xin Lin
Epoch Times Staff
HONG KONG—A communist front organization has once again harassed Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong. Practitioners there say the pro-communist group is this time attempting to drive off Taiwan practitioners who have come to help them.
Ms. Cai, a Falun Gong practitioner from Taiwan, told The Epoch Times she was falsely accused of criminal damage by members of the Youth Care Association. Hong Kong police then immediately arrested Cai without considering her side of the story.
She was held at the Tung Chung police station for six hours until Falun Gong practitioners arrived and successfully explained to authorities what had actually happened.
Information Sites
On that Saturday afternoon, Cai was taking part in an activity shared by Falun Gong practitioners around the world. After the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999, groups of Falun Gong practitioners began going to busy public places in large cities outside China to tell passersby what Falun Gong is and how people who practice it are persecuted in China.
With this outreach, practitioners say they are trying to support their fellow practitioners in China and help end the persecution by educating the general public, who will themselves act to condemn the persecution if they know of it.
Hong Kong offers practitioners a special opportunity for such efforts. Part of China but ruled under the doctrine of “one country, two systems,” this Special Administrative Region offers protections to fundamental rights not available in mainland China itself.
In Hong Kong, Falun Gong practitioners have a chance to directly educate the Chinese public without fear of the often deadly consequences their fellow practitioners across the border risk whenever they speak openly about the spiritual discipline.
According to the Hong Kong Tourism Commission, Hong Kong received 28.1 million visitors from mainland China in 2011. The Falun Gong practitioners have set up information sites at places frequented by these tourists—like the information site at Tung Chung that Cai joined.
Targeting Cai
Cai had been holding a Falun Gong banner with a fellow practitioner from Hong Kong when members of the Youth Care Association affixed their own banner to the Falun Gong banner.
When Cai separated the banners, the youth group members accused her of ripping a hole in their banner—a hole that had already been there, according to Cai. The group called the police, and six or seven police officers arrived.
The lead police officer, a man named Zhu, immediately arrested Cai without an investigation.
Cai said when she explained the situation to the policemen, they feigned belief and told her to go to the Tung Chung police station to make a statement. When she arrived, the police locked her in a cell.
A public relations officer with the Hong Kong police designated to respond to the issue did not respond to multiple phone calls from The Epoch Times.
An eyewitness, Ms. Xu, said the Youth Care Association members intentionally accused Cai because they knew she was from Taiwan. Even though a Hong Kong practitioner was closer to the ripped banner, they chose to single-out Cai, Xu said.
Ms. Li, the Hong Kong practitioner who was holding the banner with Cai, thinks the youth group members are afraid of Taiwan Falun Gong practitioners.
“The members of the Youth Care Association are afraid of Taiwan practitioners arriving in Hong Kong,” Li said. “Both of us were holding the banner, yet they targeted the Taiwan practitioner and not me. They are trying to stop Taiwan’s Falun Gong practitioners from coming here to help us.”
Communist Thugs
The Youth Care Association is a front group for the Chinese Communist Party. Front groups may be independent of the Chinese Communist Party, or they may be set up by agents of the Party. In either case, they act to isolate and attack those whom the Party considers to be enemies.
The head of the Youth Care Association is a Communist Party official in Jiangxi Province, in China, according to Hong Kong’s Next magazine.
Liang, a Falun Gong practitioner and coordinator of the Tung Chung information site, said Hong Kong practitioners have been suppressed ever since Leung Chun-ying became Hong Kong’s chief executive. Leung was elected chief executive in May.
“The so-called Youth Care Association serves as the Chinese Communist Party’s thugs in Hong Kong,” said Liang. “They know that Taiwan practitioners are coming to Hong Kong to tell people about Falun Gong, so they staged this incident.”
The Youth Care Association has been criticized by Hong Kong politicians and the press for its tactics.
For a period of 10 days in June, members of the Youth Care Association interfered with the Falun Gong practitioners’ information site at Hung Hom Train Station, hanging banners offensive to Falun Gong in place of the Falun Gong banners and playing loud recordings of communist propaganda when the practitioners attempted to do the meditative Falun Gong exercises.
In July, an individual affiliated with the Youth Care Association pulled a large knife at a Falun Gong information site, attempting to intimidate the practitioners there, according to Next magazine. When told of the incident, police did not pursue the matter.
Read the original Chinese article.
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