‘Millions of Families Torn Apart’: Calls for Canberra to Demand CCP Release Prisoners of Conscience

Falun Gong practitioners protest CCP Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit in Canberra, Australia, on March 20, 2024. Rebecca Zhu/The Epoch Times

Australian citizen Li Liu couldn’t remember the last time her family was together.

In 1999, Ms. Liu’s mother, Yuhua Liu, was arrested when she went to Beijing to appeal for her right to freedom of spiritual belief.

Police officers captured the 60-year-old woman, beat her with an electric shock baton, and restrained her on the tiger bench for three days.

The tiger bench is a torture method, historically used in China, where a person is tied in a sitting position with their legs straight in front of them, feet resting on another bench. Bricks are then tied to the knees to put downward pressure until they break.

This practice has been widely applied to practitioners of the peaceful meditation discipline Falun Gong, which has endured a 25-year persecution at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

A Family Under Oppression

A year later, Ms. Liu’s auntie, Chunxia Liu, became a target. After being illegally laid off and put into a brainwashing centre, Chunxia eventually managed to escape and became a homeless person to avoid capture.

In 2002, Chunxia was arrested again and sentenced to five years in prison, despite not having committed any crime. Because Chunxia refused to wear the prison uniform, the guards stripped her naked and forced her to stand outside, enduring the harshness of Shaanxi’s winter.

Meanwhile, Ms. Liu’s husband, Jia Ye, was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in 2008. To escape the persecution, he was forced into homelessness for six years. Ms. Liu’s son, who turns 25 years old this year, has not seen his father since he was three years old.

During this time, Ms. Liu’s father suffered chronic insomnia as a result of the trauma engulfing his family. He often has nightmares about his family members getting arrested, and would be startled at the mere sound of door-knocking or a telephone ringing. In February 2010, he passed away suddenly.

Liu Li, whose family members in China were arrested for their spiritual belief, speaks at a rally held by Falun Gong practitioners in Canberra, Australia, on March 27, 2024. The Epoch Times

“For the past 25 years, my extended family has never been reunited,” Ms. Liu said in a speech in front of the Australian Parliament in Canberra in late March.

“The best years of their lives are spent in prison.

“Millions of families have been torn apart in this persecution, just like ours.

“Today I can stand on this free land of Australia, speaking for those who cannot speak.”

Canberra Urged to Act

Ms. Liu, who fled China in 2012, is among seven Australian citizens trying to garner support to rescue their loved ones from the brutal oppression of Falun Gong practitioners by the CCP.

In Canberra, Ms. Liu was joined by about 100 other Falun Gong adherents in a rally in front of Parliament House.

They called on the Australian government to demand that Beijing end the persecution, and to set free all prisoners of conscience, particularly relatives of citizens and residents.

About 100 Falun Gong practitioners gather in front of Parliament House to raise awareness about the persecution in China in Canberra, Australia, on March 27, 2024. The Epoch Times

Falun Gong has deep roots in China’s ancient history. The practice is centred on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

In the 1990s, it quickly gained popularity in China within years due to its physical and mental health benefits.

Believing the popularity of the practice to threaten his power and the atheistic ideology of the CCP, then-Party leader Jiang Zemin on July 20, 1999, ordered the practice to be eradicated.

The communist regime also used its massive propaganda machine to publish material defaming the practice, and used financial and diplomatic incentives to pressure overseas institutions, media outlets, and governments to follow the party line.

A Difference in Rhetoric

While the Australian government has sought to resume trade relations with China, Labor has assured that this would not deter the government from raising human rights concerns with Beijing.

Yet on March 20, Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s department was unable to confirm if the issue was brought up with Beijing’s visiting foreign minister, Wang Yi, despite stating that the issues of Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong were brought up.

When asked for comment, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said:

“The Australian government is deeply concerned that religious and other minorities in China, including Falun Gong practitioners, continue to be targeted on the basis of their beliefs, and have raised these concerns with China,” a spokesperson wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.

“The foreign minister expressed the Australian government’s concerns about freedom of expression, religion, and belief in China with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during the Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue on 20 March 2024.”

Professor Lucy Zhao is a lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney, and also president of the Falun Dafa Association of Australia.

She said she was “deeply concerned” that Falun Gong was not brought up with the CCP representative.

“If the persecution of Falun Gong is not addressed and resolved, there can be no real solution to genuinely improve human rights in China,” she said.

“We hope the Australian Parliament can pass a motion to openly urge the Chinese authorities to immediately stop the persecution of Falun Gong and request the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, particularly the family members of Australian citizens and residents.”

Cheng Lei’s Release Sparks Hope

Meanwhile, another Australian citizen, Zhuang Wei, whose husband was subject to illegal detainment and torture in China, said the release of Australian journalist Cheng Lei gave her hope.

She said her husband, a Falun Gong adherent, was “dragged to the police station and forced to have his blood taken for blood tests,” which made her fear that “he would suddenly have his organs harvested one day and I would never be able to see him again.”

“However, when I saw that the Australian government and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong were actively rescuing Cheng Lei with the belief that ‘Australians want every mother to be reunited with her family,’ my heart was lit up with hope,” Ms. Wei said in her speech at the rally.

“When Minister Wong welcomed Cheng Lei, who had been held by the Chinese communist regime for three years, to her family at Melbourne Airport, and when Cheng Lei’s child jumped at her, I hoped that my child wouldn’t have to wait so long to embrace her father.”