A Small Shop Facing the Chinese Consulate in Sydney

By a college student in Sydney, Australia

(Clearwisdom.net) I am a college student in Sydney. I am not a Falun Gong practitioner, but my mom is. In January of 2004, the Chinese Consulate in Sydney moved to a new location. My mom and several other Falun Gong practitioners rented a small shop on the opposite side of the street facing the newly relocated Chinese Consulate. They put up a banner that read "Falun Dafa Is Good" in the window facing the consulate. On a wall inside the shop, a poster saying "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" was hung up. The shop provides a place to rest for the practitioners who go to the Chinese Consulate to send forth righteous thoughts. The Chinese Consulate perceives the shop as a thorn in its side. From the very beginning, they tried their best to interfere with the practitioners. They first went to the police. The police said that they had no reason to stop the practitioners from renting the place. They then went to the real estate agency who built the building, who told them that they had sold the building. The people from the Chinese Consulate then went to the new owner of the shop, and even to the owner of the neighboring shop and asked them to not rent out the shop to the practitioners. However, the practitioners were able to rent the shop in the end. The practitioners got a copy machine for the shop. For people who need to photocopy documents for their visa applications at the consulate, the shop charges a reasonable price for the photocopying service.

The Chinese Consulate did not stop in its attempts to drive away the practitioners after they failed to keep them from renting the place. They harassed and threatened the practitioners by prying open the shop's doors and windows at night. Yet the practitioners remained unaffected. They would open the door at night when they heard a suspicious sound, and the perpetrators would become scared and run away. A male practitioner installed a safety bolt on the door of the shop.

People from the consulate used various means to threaten the practitioners. One time, practitioners put up some pictures of torture scenes to expose the persecution taking place in China. A few hours later, when a practitioner opened the door, he/she saw a brand new doll that had a "Made in China" label on it. The doll would move back and forth after being touched. The perpetrators used the doll to threaten the practitioners, making them suspect that it was a time-bomb.

Last week, a new official in charge of Falun Gong issues came to take a position in the consulate. The new official immediately started to take pictures of the shop and the practitioners while they sent forth righteous thoughts. My mom has been staying at the shop at night since the practitioners rented the shop. Two days ago, because she had some family affairs to take care of, she did not stay at the shop for the night. The next morning, when she arrived at the shop, she found that the door had been pried open and the digital lock removed. The perpetrators had taken away a computer that was in the shop, but left the cash, fax machine, and camera. It was clear that the perpetrators were there just for the computer, probably to get information from it.

An official at the Chinese Consulate--a consulate that represents a country of over a billion people--has apparently committed burglary in order to please his supervisors and have a chance to be promoted.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/8/26/82669.html

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