Australia: The Chinese President Encounters Falun Gong During His Visit to Australia

Chinese president Hu Jintao, who just returned to China from his visit to Australia, probably didn't expect to run into Falun Gong practitioners in a park in Canberra.

"It was around 8:30 in the morning. We were practising Falun Gong by Lake Burley Griffin and were surprised to see Hu Jintao passing by," Miss Joan told a reporter. She was one of the three practitioners practising by the lake that morning. "When we finished the first exercise, I heard footsteps. I felt a group of people had walked by and there were people taking photos in the distance. So I opened my eyes and saw that 20 to 30 people had just passed by. They looked like Chinese officials. I was curious and wondered if Hu Jintao was among them. I moved closer, and there he was! He was walking at the end, with only two bodyguards beside him. Just then, a photographer came up and told me that he was from the Sydney Morning Herald. I was wearing a yellow jacket with Chinese and English words "Falun Dafa" and "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance." Two Chinese officials came to us and looked at us. I greeted them and said, "You won't see Falun Gong practitioners practising in parks in China now, right?"

A Canberra policeman said, "The Falun Gong practitioners picked the best way to express their will to Hu Jintao."

Jiang Zemin's visits abroad were in sharp contrast to this. During the four years of Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong, practitioners in China have never stopped working to stop it. The voices of support from overseas are getting louder and louder.

In April 2002, the first day of Jiang's visit to Berlin, he was received by 150 practitioners who held a march in protest. In June 2002, when Jiang visited four European countries, practitioners followed him to appeal for justice. In Iceland, over 100 practitioners had gone there to appeal, and more than 3000 local people joined them. In October 2002, when Jiang arrived at the airport in Chicago, there were over 1000 practitioners wearing their yellow or blue jackets to "welcome" him along the roads from the airport to his hotel. Banners with words like "Falun Dafa is good" "Stop the Persecution" "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance" were everywhere. There were several hundred practitioners who stayed overnight outside Jiang's hotel to protest.