Australia and New Zealand: Hired “Welcomers” Fail to Block Falun Gong Protests During Chinese Leader’s Visit (Photos)
Minghui.org
November 26, 2014 | By Minghui correspondents Mu Wenqing and Hua Qing in Australia
(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners in Australia and New Zealand managed to display banners calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong for the viewing eyes of Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the G-20 Summit in Brisbane.
They did so despite intensive interference from the “welcome groups” composed of overseas Chinese students and members of overseas Chinese organizations who were hired by the Chinese Embassy and Consulates in six cities Xi visited.
The welcome groups attempted to block, and even attack, Falun Gong practitioners to prevent Xi and his entourage from seeing the Falun Gong banners.
In the process, the practitioners received a lot of help from the local police. Many of the Chinese students and members of Chinese organizations, after learning the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, left or chose to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations.
Australian Police Protect Falun Gong Protestors’ Rights
When Xi arrived in Brisbane, the Chinese Consulate hired local Chinese students for 100 Australian dollars per person per day to stop Falun Gong practitioners from protesting. They occupied the public space that the Falun Gong group had already obtained a permit to use. The police moved the students to across the street and banned them from getting near the Falun Gong protestors.
To stop the Chinese students from making trouble, the police checked their ID and recorded the information.
In Canberra, the Chinese Consulate organized 500 to 700 Chinese students and members of pro-communist Chinese societies from Sydney to silence the Falun Gong protestors. The Canberra police confirmed this number.
Falun Gong practitioners put up banners outside the Hyatt Hotel where Xi stayed on November 16. The Chinese Consulate mobilized 200 Chinese students to get in front of Falun Gong practitioners. The students blocked the practitioners’ banners with their bodies and red flags. When the police could not get the students to leave on their own, the police went ahead and removed the students’ flags and revealed the practitioners’ banners.
When Xi’s motorcade approached, the students attacked the practitioners, attempting to take away their banners. The police stopped the students and threw their flags away, so the students could no longer use them to block the practitioners.
Across the street, the same thing happened. The Chinese students blocked the practitioners with a large banner. A police officer grabbed the students’ banner and threw it on the lawn.
Near the Hyatt Hotel, the Chinese students knocked the practitioners’ banner to the ground. Then, as Xi’s motorcade approached, a police officer quickly took the practitioners’ banner and hung it up high at the very front so that Xi’s motorcade could see it.
The next day, several men from the Chinese Consulate ordered the students to again block the practitioners’ banners with their red flags. A student illegally parked his car on the street and fixed the flags on the car to block the practitioners. When he ignored police orders for him to move the car, an officer gave him a ticket for AUD 1300.
Falun Gong practitioners stayed outside the Hyatt Hotel overnight on the 17th waiting to see Xi before he left on the 18th. An officer told some practitioners, “We know that you are the most peaceful protesting group. If they still cause you trouble tomorrow morning, come directly to us and we will take care of it.”
In Auckland and Wellington, the police helped the practitioner find a place where Xi’s motorcade would pass by so that the practitioners could display their banners. When the Chinese students came, the police asked them to stay on the other side of the street. Seven officers were stationed there to protect the Falun Gong practitioners.
Outside of Skycity Hotel, a Chinese student backed up his car attempting to hit a Falun Gong practitioner. A hotel security guard shouted at the driver and prevented a tragedy.
Falun Gong Practitioners Get Their Message to Xi Despite Interference from Pro-Communist Groups
The practitioners in Canberra set up banners at more than 20 places where they believed Xi’s motorcade might drive by. On the 17th, Xi went in and out of the Hyatt Hotel three times and the practitioners managed to display the banners where he could see them many times.
The Chinese Consulate hired thousands of Chinese students and members of local pro-communist Chinese organizations in order to stop the practitioners from protesting in Sydney. On the 19th, a group of pro-communist Chinese with red flags attacked the practitioners on George Street and snatched away their banners. One of them threw a female practitioner on the street, where she almost got hit by a bus.
Not dissuaded by the violence, the practitioners waited for Xi and his entourage at all possible exits outside of Century Hotel. When Xi left on the 19th, his motorcade didn’t use a hotel exit, but the underpass. When his motorcade resurfaced, they were still met by the practitioners and their banners many times on his way.
The Truth Behind the “Welcome Groups”
While Xi was in Australia, members of Australia Hai’nan Association assaulted Falun Gong practitioners in Chinatown and destroyed their booth. The Association hired Chinese students to hand out fliers that slandered Falun Gong to passersby. A practitioner talked to these students. The students said that the Association paid them ten AUD per hour to hand out fliers. After the students learned real situation with regard to the persecution of Falun Gong, they stopped coming to distribute fliers.
Li Yuanhua, a Sydney resident and former professor of Capital Normal University in China, believed that the Chinese Consulate hired people not to welcome Xi and his delegate, but to prohibit Falun Gong practitioners from appealing to the Chinese leader.
“Xi knew where the welcome groups were, but for this many days his motorcade never once drove by them,” said Li. Li believed that some of the students and the Chinese people truly wanted to see Xi, but when they realized why they were actually hired, they did not show up the next day.
A Chinese student at the protest scene told a practitioner, “The Chinese Consulate told us that Falun Gong protestors are anti-Chinese government and hence we must block their banners and drive them away. That was our mission.”
Many Chinese students who have been influenced by the CCP’s hate propaganda had an opportunity to talk with Falun Gong practitioners. After they understood how the Party has ruthlessly persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, several of them decided to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.