UK: Making Peaceful Appeals Outside the Chinese Embassy, Chinese Consulate and UK Foreign Office

Since the sham trial in Hong Kong began, practitioners in the UK have been appealing outside the UK Foreign Office on working days, in addition to the continuous 24 hours peaceful appeal activities (over 60 days already) outside the Chinese Embassy in London. On Wednesday August 8th Manchester practitioners gathered and held a peaceful appeal outside the Manchester Chinese Consulate. They later held a press conference at 1-30 pm in relation to happenings in Hong Kong. One practitioner travelled for 4 hours to deliver a banner she had made at short notice denouncing the Hong Kong trial.

Outside the Chinese Embassy in London, many people passing by asked for materials and signed petition forms to support Falun Gong practitioners. Some of them sat quietly with practitioners. A traffic warden said to practitioners: “Well done! You have showed how peaceful you are. Your banners are also very beautiful.” A woman told practitioners when we did Fa Zheng Nian she felt the powerful and effective energy. A policeman on duty outside the Chinese Embassy said, “You are here and have gained respect because you are very cooperative to us.”

Because the special relationship between Hong Kong and the UK, staff at the UK Foreign Office are very concerned about the sham trial. They asked for information. One day, a man came out of the Foreign Office and talked to the practitioners after he asked for information. He said that he had been a policeman in Hong Kong for 6 years. When he was there, the Hong Kong police were completely independent. They were responsible solely for the law. As long as individuals did not do anything against the law, they could do anything they like and the police would never intervene. He said he was very concerned about the situation in Hong Kong now. He was also very sympathetic to the Falun Gong practitioners involved in the case. A policeman who was on duty outside the Foreign Office came to the site and said, “Although not many of you are here it is very good. You have taken people’s attention.” More interestingly, one day after work some staff from the Treasury came out from their building that is located on the other side of the road. After they saw practitioners were exercising, they copied practitioners’ movements and started exercising.