THE ACTIONS OF THE FORMER HONG KONG CHIEF EXECUTIVE HAVE SPURRED CONCERN FROM HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES.
BY EVA FU/ THE EPOCH TIMES
Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, said the Helsinki park episode marks “part of a larger trend of Chinese Communist Party officials and affiliates attempting to intimidate, surveil, and silence Falun Gong practitioners outside of China.”
“That a senior Chinese official would personally confront peaceful meditators in a European democracy highlights how high a priority suppressing Falun Gong remains for Beijing,” he said in a statement, noting that several of Leung’s comments “also illustrate how deceived by CCP propaganda Chinese officials are themselves.”
Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying threatened a group of Falun Gong practitioners in Finland as they collected signatures to oppose ongoing human rights abuses in China, heightening concern from the persecuted spiritual group that its members are still at risk even after escaping the country.
“Once we have your names, we can immediately look you up once we are back, one by one,” Leung said in a recording reviewed by The Epoch Times.
The incident took place on Aug. 13 in Helsinki’s Sibelius Park, a popular tourist attraction. A Falun Gong information booth there has drawn thousands of people in the past few months.
Leung, Hong Kong’s chief executive from 2012 to 2017, is now vice chairman of China’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Leung presides over a powerful apparatus tasked with influence and intelligence operations abroad to advance Beijing’s agenda inside and outside of China.
On Aug. 13, the information booth featured two blue banners calling attention to the persecution of Falun Gong in China. In front of the booth, a man and a woman were demonstrating meditative exercises. Next to them was a table covered with a blue cloth. Several other practitioners were talking with passersby and inviting them to sign petitions to end torture and forced organ harvesting in China.
Leung walked up to the booth with his wife, Regina Leung Tong Ching-yee, and two other men.
One Falun Gong practitioner, who asked for anonymity over safety concerns, said he greeted Leung by saying, “Welcome to Helsinki.”
Leung proceeded to accost them with questions and dismissed the persecution as nonexistent, according to the practitioners and recordings shared with The Epoch Times.
The couple brought out their phones to film people’s faces, an act that the practitioners found intimidating. Some fled China not long ago or still have relatives in country. With its advanced facial recognition technology and comprehensive police database, the communist regime can use photos and videos to trace dissidents and harass their family members, something common for Chinese dissidents.
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline and meditation practice with moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has engaged in a nationwide campaign to eliminate the spiritual practice by any means necessary, including via arbitrary arrest, torture, forced labor, and brainwashing, tactics that have been well-documented by human rights groups and the U.S. State Department.
Multiple Falun Gong practitioners present during the Aug. 13 encounter had escaped China after enduring years of harassment, surveillance, and other forms of abuse.
The man who welcomed Leung was one of them. For refusing to give up his belief, he lost his job and was forced to go into hiding for eight years. Police officers intimidated his family only months ago following another harassment incident at the park.
Leung’s political position and history of hostility toward Falun Gong worries human rights watchers.
Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, said the Helsinki park episode marks “part of a larger trend of Chinese Communist Party officials and affiliates attempting to intimidate, surveil, and silence Falun Gong practitioners outside of China.”
“That a senior Chinese official would personally confront peaceful meditators in a European democracy highlights how high a priority suppressing Falun Gong remains for Beijing,” he said in a statement, noting that several of Leung’s comments “also illustrate how deceived by CCP propaganda Chinese officials are themselves.”
The practitioners reported the incident to the police, who arrived shortly after Leung and his wife departed. The officers assured the practitioners that their booth is protected under Finnish law and said they would monitor the area to mitigate any interference.
The practitioner who initially greeted Leung said he did not expect what followed.
“He said he could ‘look us up,’“ he told The Epoch Times. ”What’s the purpose of that?”
He said there have been two other instances in the past year in which Beijing supporters have intimidated them or tried to sabotage the site.
In September 2024, two men pulled down banners at the booth and warned two people present that they must “behave” if they want to be safe in Finland.
In January, two different men insulted the same practitioner for his faith and tried to grab his phone.
“We’ve already reported this to the Chinese Embassy,” one of the men said, in a recording shared with The Epoch Times.
The confrontation on Aug. 13 was the latest reminder of Beijing’s relentless suppression, the practitioner said.
“We are outside of China, but it doesn’t feel all that safe,” he said. “The Chinese Communist Party is still trying to persecute us.”
Browde said he is worried about the depth of Chinese influence over other countries, pointing to recent incidents in which Falun Gong practitioners in Serbia and Russiawere detained and prosecuted before visits to those countries by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In July, Russia sentenced one woman detained since 2024 to four years in prison.
“As the Chinese regime intensifies its global campaigns of intimidation and coercion, it’s vital that democracies take action to protect vulnerable communities like Falun Gong and Finnish citizens practicing this faith,” Browde said. He urged Finnish authorities to publicly condemn Leung’s behavior and investigate Chinese surveillance and harassment of the spiritual group in the country.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO WATCH Persecuted but Not Forsaken | America’s Hope (Nov. 17)
(https://www.ntd.com/persecuted-but-not-forsaken-americas-hope-nov-17_954888.html)
Source: https://www.ntd.com/persecuted-but-not-forsaken-americas-hope-nov-17_954888.html
Editor’s Note: Dear readers, do you know that Falun Dafa, originally from China, is currently practiced by people in over 100 countries? But in China, since Jul. 20, 1999, Falun Gong is defamed, slandered and persecuted due to the Chinese Communist Party’s fear of Falun Gong’s rapidly growing popularity. Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology.
To learn more about the persecution Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to in China, visit http://faluninfo.net/.
For more information about the practice or to download Zhuan Falun, visit: www.falundafa.org. All books, exercise music, resources, and instructions are available completely free of charge.
Why Jiang Zemin and CCP Persecute Falun Gong?
http://thetruthaboutfalungong.blogspot.sg/p/epoch-times-nine-commentaries-on.html
[VIDEO] Why Jiang Zemin and CCP Persecute Falun Gong?
http://thetruthaboutfalungong.blogspot.com/p/video-why-jiang-zemin-ccp-persecute.html
