By David Seale
Resident Phillip Law is planning a weekend visit to
China to see his in-laws. Problem is, the embassy of China has denied him a visa
three times in the past year because he practises Falun Gong. Mr Law, in defiance
of orders from Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer’s office, staged a protest
outside the Chinese embassy in Yarralumla yesterday. He said he wanted the embassy
to reconsider his blacklisting, despite the danger he faces when he sets foot
on Chinese soil.
"I’ll ask them to justify [their decision], and
hopefully with people’s help, I’ll get a visa to visit my wife’s parents in China,
just for a weekend, and then come back," the 40-year-old from Sydney said.
"That’s part of a normal life for anyone, and they should let me do it."
He
would not renounce his faith, and it was both impractical and culturally insulting
to fly his relatives to Australia. Falun Gong is a traditional body and mind practice
-whose tenets are truth, compassion and forbearance -and its followers are persecuted
by the Communist Party of China through imprisonment, internment in illegal labour
camps, torture, brainwashing and even execution.
Mr Law’s wife, Shirley
Xie, 27, is also a Falun Gong practitioner. She said she had spent two years and
three months in a labour camp, and another two months at a brainwashing camp.
She came to Australia after Mr Law successfully petitioned Foreign Affairs for
her rescue in 2004.
Mr Law, who has lived in Australia for 25 years,
said he had his own horrible experience with China three years ago when he was
kidnapped and interrogated for three days and nights. When he refused to denounce
his faith, he thought he’d be executed. Instead, he was deported. All this and
Mr Law won’t be swayed. He must visit his parents-in-law for the first time.
"They
might whisk me away and kill me," he said of what could happen in China,
"but I have to do what I think is right. "I’m doing nothing wrong, [the
embassy is] just punishing me, I find it totally ridiculous."
The
Chinese embassy could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
Posting
date: 13/Apr/2005
Original article date: 11/Apr/2005
Category: Media Report
