Sep 06, 2006

Ms. Ng Chye Huay (L) and Mr. Erh Boon Tiong held a protest across from the Chinese Embassy in Singapore on July 20. (The Epoch Times)

As summer winds down for those of us in the U.S., the fate of two Falun Gong practitioners in Singapore rests with a judge who so far has shown he is unsympathetic to their cause. Erh Boon Tiong, a computer engineer and Ng Chye Huay, a homemaker, are on trial for displaying a banner across from the Chinese Embassy in Singapore. Police claim the words on the banner: "7.20 Stop persecution of Falun Gong in China" were insulting and could cause harassment of embassy workers and passersby. In fact, the words commemorate July 20, 1999, the day the Chinese government made it illegal to practice Falun Gong.

This is not the first time that Singapore has displayed its hostility to Falun Gong practitioners who sought to expose the persecution they suffer at the hands of China's communist regime. In January 2004, Cheng Lu Jin and Ng Chye Huay were charged with unlawful assembly and handing out VCDs without a license. The two women served more than a year in jail. [Note: the charge was "assembly without permit" and both practitioners were released after seven days they were sent to the prison after their families paid the fines.]

Indeed, small Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to pressure from China. They seem to curry favor with the Chinese government by harassing, arresting and otherwise curtailing the rights of Falun Gong practitioners acting lawfully in their countries.

Cambodia, which benefits from China's largesse, arrested and deported Li Guojun and his wife Zhang Xinyi in August 2002, despite the fact that they were under United Nations protection. China was a strong supporter of the Khmer Rouge regime that left an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians dead in the late 1970s and continues to enjoy a close relationship with the impoverished nation.

The practice of Falun Gong is not illegal outside of China, although similarly troubling instances have taken place in Thailand, France, Iceland, Germany and elsewhere since 1999. Each nation has demonstrated a willingness to bend its laws or international law to mollify the Chinese.

Chinese citizens increasingly are seeking to break free of the CCP's tyranny, witness the 13 million Chinese who have renounced the Party since The Epoch Times newspaper published the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party two years ago. For the sake of their citizenry and their national sovereignty, we urge Singapore and other free nations to take a step back from the precipice of China's corrupt and crumbling dictatorship.

Alan Adler is Executive Director of Friends of Falun Gong, USA, a non-profit, human rights organization established to support the freedom of belief of Falun Gong practitioners.

http://theepochtimes.com/news/6-9-6/45679.html

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Category: Falun Dafa in the Media