Attacked by knives and spray paint, seven roadside information booths not in favor of Beijing have been vandalized in Hong Kong in over one 24 hour period; the vandals are believed to be tied to the Chinese regime.
“The goal is clear, and the action is fast,” said an insider.
From 11 a.m. on Friday, four perpetrators wearing masks vandalized Falun Gong information booths in the Hong Kong districts of Mong Kok, Hung Hom, and Wan Chai, tearing down banners, stabbing and pushing over boards on display, and fleeing the scene within minutes and without a word, a YouTube video shows, filmed by a passerby.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that involves meditative exercises and moral teachings, which was welcomed by 70 million to 100 million adherents in China in the 1990s.
Feeling threatened by its rapidly growing popularity, the Chinese regime launched a brutal persecution against the practice on July 20, 1999. Millions have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with wide-scale reports of torture while being held, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.
While Beijing claims Falun Gong is illegal, the spiritual practice has not broken any laws in China. Falun Gong practitioners have appealed for an end to the persecution, and they have exposed the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) worldwide, including in Hong Kong, over the past two decades.
However, local Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong have found it harder to freely express their beliefs in the past month.
On April 2, a Falun Gong roadside booth on Argyle Street in Mong Kok district, suffered a loss at around HK $21,000 ($2,700), as 4 banners, 2 flagpoles, and 14 display boards were spoiled, according to a Falun Gong practitioner, who tried in vain to stop the vandals.
On April 3, another three booths in the Mong Kok district and Wong Tai Sin district were sabotaged by another group of six between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Two in Mong Kok suffered a second attack since yesterday.
Police were called to the scenes and they promised a heavy patrol presence.
An Order From the Communist Party
Sarah Liang, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Falun Dafa Association, condemned the attack on Falun Gong street stands, being in line with the rule of law in Hong Kong.
Liang told The Epoch Times that the sabotage is tied to the CCP, and she considers it a sign that the regime “is reaching the end of its rope.”
Since March 6, several unattended poster displays that slandered Falun Gong and its founder, appear on the street in Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay, and Wan Chai, where a Falun Gong information booth is set up.
The posters were written in simplified Chinese characters, worded in a similar way as CCP propaganda has been written in mainland China, according to Liang.
On March 25, a woman attending the propaganda posters said to The Epoch Times that the “Communist Party in Shenzhen” issued the order to defame Falun Gong and asked her to send video recordings to mainland China every day. Yet, she denied receiving money from the party.
On Dec. 20, 2020, a man robbed printouts from a relevant booth in Tsim Sha Tsui and threw display boards into the nearby harbor.
Last year, a new national security law went into effect in Hong Kong on the eve of July 1 that was pushed through by the CCP. Public freedoms in the territory have been severely undermined, leading to the arrests or silencing of a media tycoon, pro-democracy leaders, and student protesters.
Liang believes that the information booths about the persecution of Falun Gong have been a positive sign for the city. “They bring Hong Kong people hope for the future,” she said.
From The Epoch Times
