Sydney’s University of Technology (UTS) has stood up to pressure from the
Chinese Communist Party by refusing to remove mention of a Falun Dafa meditation
club from its website. As a result, the UTS website has been blocked in China,
which is expected to lower the number of incoming Chinese students, substantially
affecting university revenue.
At a Vice Chancellor’s meeting on June 20,
UTS Vice Chancellor Ross Milbourne announced that an increase in undergraduate
student fees was largely due to the university taking a principled stand in keeping
Falun Dafa content on the site.
The incident is in line with allegations
by Chinese defector Chen Yonglin of a general pattern of petty harassment and
monitoring of Australian Falun Gong practitioners by Chinese Government agents.
Student
Representative Council President, Michelle Sparkes, says there is continuing concern
by the council about occasions of discrimination against the Falun Dafa meditation
club, because of pressure from the Chinese Government. The latest episode was
the deletion of the club and any mention of Falun Dafa from the Union website.
“[We]
were aware it was because of the political pressure to do with China’s disapproval
of the movement in China,” said Ms Sparkes.
“A staff member of
UTS union… e-mailed me pointing out that the union had been told by the university
to remove the Falun Dafa meditation society details from the websites where all
the other clubs and societies were listed,” Ms Sparkes said.
Ms Zhao
Ruoyun, a UTS lecturer in Business Studies and member of the Falun Dafa club,
said she was shocked at such intimidation, but said the UTS Union and SRC were
supportive and within a week the decision was reversed.
Ms Sparkes said:
“I think that it is in part because the UTS Union employee didn’t just
be quiet about it, he quite obviously and pointedly e-mailed to seven different
bodies with a string of letters of support.”
The SRC passed a resolution,
sent letters of condemnation to the Registrar, the university Vice Chancellor
and the local state member of parliament. Ms Sparkes says that without student
unions applying pressure and speaking up, issues such as these might not be addressed.
“[Unless]
you have a framework and infrastructure set up there to do the kind of representational
activity then who is going to take any notice? Who is going to listen?” she
said.
The Falun Dafa meditation club was founded in UTS in the beginning
of 2004. Ms Zhao said she and the other club members teach the Falun Dafa exercises
for free and also participate in various club and university activities.
The
meditation practice Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, was banned in China
in July 1999 after its estimated numbers of over 70 million exceeded Chinese Communist
Party membership. A brutal crackdown has followed, with over 2500 practitioners
confirmed dead through torture and abuse in custody.
A Chinese diplomat
who defected recently,in Sydney, has confirmed that the CCP has spread the persecution
of Falun Dafa, to overseas countries, by harrassing Falun Dafa practitioners and
pressuring, individuals, companies and nations, to ignore human rights issues
if they want to trade with China.
Posting date: 8/Jul/2005
Original
article date: 6/Jul/2005
Category: Media Report
