Beijing’s Tiananmen Square is a long way from Narara, but the last 20 years of Lisa Ng and Fengying Zhang’s lives have connected the two in an unexpected way.
Ms Ng lives in Narara with her husband and in February 2014, her mother, Ms Zhang joined them after suffering years of persecution in China. Ms Zhang’s residency status is currently temporary and her daughter continues to campaign for her mother’s asylum to be permanent but the two are also campaigning for what they consider to be a greater cause.
On Wednesday, July 22 they will be asking the Central Coast community to sign a petition to bring China’s covert practice of live organ harvesting to the attention of the international community. As a practicing member of Falun Gong, Ms Zhang was arrested and held in custody many times between 1996 and her departure for Australia in 2014.
Each time she was detained, her blood was tested, often multiple times during the one period of detention. She was never told why her blood was taken or given any results from the tests. Ms Ng believes the purpose of that blood testing was tissue matching as part of the Chinese government’s alleged illegal organ harvesting practices. According to Ms Ng, Falun Gong is a Chinese spiritual practice based around Qigong exercises and following a philosophy of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.
“It is not a religion but it is based on Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism and on 5,000 years of Chinese tradition, so it is deeply rooted in Chinese culture,” Ms Ng said. Her mother was introduced to Falun Gong by a friend and, according to Ms Ng, within months of starting the exercise regime, all symptoms of previous back pain, digestive and gynecological conditions had disappeared. Before 1999, it has been estimated that there were over 100 million Falun Gong followers in China. “You could see people doing the exercises in every park in every city,” Ms Ng said.
By 1999, the communist party had decided that Falun Gong was a threat to its authority and an April 1999 demonstration resulted in the Chinese government taking a hard line and labelling the practice heretical. Ms Zhang felt so strongly about the persecution that she decided to ride her bicycle 75km from the outer suburbs of Beijing into Tiananmen Square, where she started to do her Qigong exercises.
She was arrested and taken to the local police station, then transferred to another police station near her suburban home, held for seven days and blood tested. This was the first of what Ms Ng refers to as five illegal arrests of her mother. “Her blood was taken and tested every time she was arrested and held either in a police station, detention centre or forced labour camp.
In November 2012, Ms Zhang was held in a detention centre for two months and then secretly transported to a forced labour camp in Beijing. Ms Ng said the majority of inmates in the forced labour camp were Falun Gong practitioners who, she said, were forced to work up to 18 hours a day without pay, manufacturing toys and things like Christmas decorations for export.
Throughout her mother’s periods of detention Ms Ng, studying in Australia, believed she was at risk of live organ harvesting. “My mum was my focus and due to efforts locally and internationally, she was finally released,” she said. Ms Ng said she was thankful for the assistance of Sen Deborah O’Neill, member for Robertson, Ms Lucy Wicks and former foreign affairs minister, Mr Bob Carr.
Amnesty International also assisted her campaign, she said Ms Ng said her work will not be done until her mother’s residency is permanent, but she also remains passionate about campaigning against live organ harvesting. She said the numbers of Falun Gong members who have gone missing and never found, along with Chinese statistics about rapid organ transplants are in the public domain.
If you are interested in finding out more, Ms Ng will be at Kibble Park Gosford on Wednesday, July 22 to collect signatures for a petition she intends to send to the United Nations at the end of the year. She is hopeful the submission will add to international pressure to expose and stop live organ harvesting of Chinese detainees, many of whom she believes are Falun Gong followers.
Interview, 13 July 2015
Lisa Ng, Narara
Jackie Pearson, journalist