Statement from Practitioner Visiting UK who was Recently Unjustly Prosecuted in Hong Kong (Lau Wai Hing)

Since the persecution of Falun Gong in China, my telephone at home and mobile have been tapped. My husband who is not a Falun Gong practitioner travelled to Mainland China last year. He was checked by the Custom officials in Shanghai. They checked every single book that he purchased. It was only after the tourist guide intervened the checking that he was allowed to pass the Custom. The privacy of me and my family members has been attacked.

In November 2000 I went to Macao to join activities celebrating the 2nd anniversary of Macao’s handover to China. After the ferry that I took landed Macao, I was immediately stopped and sent to a room. My ID card was photocopied before they deported me back to HK. I refused to leave. Three policewomen used force carrying me onto the ferry to HK. It is obvious that my name had been on a “black list”. They have taken away my freedom of travel.

In March this year, head of China’s ruling party Jiang Zemin ordered to “shoot on sight” anyone caught distributing Falun Gong materials on the street. Four Swiss practitioners initially planned to go to China to make an appeal against this order but their visas to Beijing were rejected. As appealing in China became impossible, they made a peaceful hunger strike appeal outside the Peoples’ Republic of China Liaison Office in Hong Kong. Myself, together with 11 other Hong Kong practitioners (one New Zealand citizen), joined them. Sixteen of us made a small-scale appeal on the wide pavement. It is through our rights to freedom of speech, gathering and appeal that we are entitled to do this according to the Basic Law.

However, under pressure from the Liaison Office, about 70-80 policemen and policewomen were sent to the site. They asked us to leave but we did not move. Soon after, they started to arrest us. We held each other’s hands and sat quietly. Two policewomen tried to drag me away from the site but failed. A male senior officer standing by them shouted, “Use force!” Then four policewomen jumped on me. They pushed down my head, strangled my neck, and pressed the acupuncture points behind my ears. One of them forcefully twisted my left hand and arm. I was in great pain. I shouted, “help!” before he released my arm.

During this incident, on the surface it looked as if the police did not beat us up but they forcefully strangled us and applied painful pressure to sensitive and important acupuncture points. This led to many practitioners who were injured feeling dizzy, sick, with pains all over their bodies. Then we were forced to police vans and sent to a police station. We were detained there for 26 hours. They asked us to show our IDs. We refused because we did not want to be “blacklisted”. Then they forced us into a small room to have our bodies searched. After that we were forced to get in to a van by nearly 100 policemen/women and sent to detention centres before we were charged for 7 “wrongdoings” such as obstruction of the pavement, attacking police officers and resisting public order, etc.

Since the trial began on 17 June, for 26 days, the judge was biased and helped the police. He also insulted our solicitor, saying, “stand up and fight like a real man”. In the end, the Judge believed the prosecutor’s words and gave a guilty verdict to us. I was charged to pay HK$1,300. Since the verdict is wrong and unreasonable, I have refused to pay the fine. My solicitor told me that I could be in prison for between 2 weeks and a month. If a nice anonymous person had not paid the fine for us, I would be in prison now and unable to be here appealing for your help.

This trial and verdict with political persecution have caused serious damage to the HK’s “one country two systems”. They have also caused depression of the freedom and rights of citizens in Hong Kong, which was agreed by the Chinese authorities before the Chinese Central government took over Hong Kong. In theory, Hong Kong’s independent system should be maintained for another 45 years but the pressure from Jiang Zemin’s regime has been causing damages in Hong Kong’s tradition of freedom and legal justice. Political pressure has been causing the collapse of “one country two systems”. Hong Kong’s legal system has been replaced by dictatorship. The whole world is watching: only 5 years after the “Handover”, Jiang Zemin’s regime has broken the promise of 50 years of “one country two systems” made by Deng Xiao Ping on behalf of China. The British Government has the moral responsibility to monitor and protest against this promise breaking.

Finally, I, on behalf of British overseas passport holders in HK, strongly urge the British Government to take immediate action to cancel this “political accusation” to guarantee that the democracy, freedom and legal system in Hong Kong remains unchanged.