Hong Kong Government Condemned for Deporting Falun Gong Practitioners

By a Falun Gong practitioner from Taiwan

(Clearwisdom.net) Reacting to the issue of the Hong Kong government deporting Falun Gong practitioners from Taiwan leading up to July 1, the anniversary of Hong Kong returning to China's control, Shieh Jhy-wey made comments as the spokesperson of the Taiwan Executive Yuan. He said that he regretted that such a thing had happened and that it was an absolute mistake for the Hong Kong authorities to eject citizens from Taiwan who had entered Hong Kong through legal channels.

Shieh spoke at a press conference on June 27. He reiterated that Taiwan is a democratic country and is ranked highly in the world for its freedoms of religion and information. The deportation of Taiwan Falun Gong practitioners shows that Hong Kong has moved backward on its human rights and democracy issues ten years after the China take-over. This is also a warning for the people in Taiwan that Beijing is sabotaging Hong Kong's democracy and human rights even as it touts "one country, two systems."

The Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan said on the 27^th that since China has taken over Hong Kong's sovereignty, political rights, freedom of speech, judicial independence, and democratic progress in Hong Kong are all being suppressed. Hong Kong does not even dare to let Falun Gong practitioners visit. Beijing's promise that "Hong Kong will be run by people from Hong Kong and will be highly autonomous" is an empty one.

Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas stressed has that whether a government respects Falun Gong practitioners has become an index of whether the government is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has arbitrarily positioned Falun Gong practitioners as its number one "political enemy." Matas thinks that, since Falun Gong is peaceful and non-political, if any government deprives practitioners of their human rights, it is because the government wants to please the tyrannical CCP. Matas said that Hong Kong's refusal to let Falun Gong practitioners enter, and its practice of rudely deporting them when they arrive, has proved the "one country, two systems" relation between Hong Kong and China is breaking down.

Matas is one of the investigators of live organ removal from Falun Gong practitioners in China. On July 6, 2006, Matas and David Kilgour, former member of the Canadian Parliament, published their first report on their investigation on the CCP harvesting organs from living practitioners. The report shook the Canadian government and the international society. Matas and Kilgour have toured 30 countries in the US, Europe, and Asia to disclose this brutality.

Chiu Huang-Chuan (Kenneth Chiu), human rights lawyer and Vice Chair of CIPFG in Asia, said Hong Kong's refusal to let practitioners enter for "security reasons" is, in fact, persecuting Falun Gong. There isn't any evidence so far that shows Falun Gong practitioners threaten Hong Kong's public safety. Sadly, law officers and judges in Hong Kong are willing to be manipulated by Beijing.

Chiu thinks human rights violations will not be limited to Falun Gong. Everyone in Hong Kong should pay attention to this incident. If it is not taken care of properly, injustices can happen to anyone. Chiu said the deportations should remind everyone to promote the "Human Rights Torch." "The Olympics should take place in a free, democratic country that respects human rights and not a place that persecutes human rights. Everyone must refuse to let the Olympics Games, a symbol of peace, be turned into the 'Bloody Harvest Games.'"

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version