She Thought It Was Safe to Speak in AustraliaThen She Was Detained in China

What began as a family visit to help care for a newborn in Australia has ended with detention in China—raising fears about surveillance of Falun Gong practitioners beyond China’s borders.“One day she was helping me with my baby, making plans to come back and see us … the next, she was in detention. It happened so fast,” Sarah Xu said of her mother Hu Chunyuan, in a statement.“My mother was extremely careful in China and has never been arrested before,” Sarah said. “When she came to Australia, she thought it was safe to openly talk to a local [Falun Gong] practitioner she met in Brisbane. Now I believe the local practitioner was being monitored, and my mother was included.”Hu arrived in Australia in April 2025 to help Sarah Xu—who is here on a working visa—to care for her new baby daughter. She headed back to China in October 2025 a few months later.Hu Chunyuan (left) with her grandchild in Queensland, Australia. Courtesy of Falun Dafa Association, QueenslandThe family’s original plans were for Hu return to their current home in regional Warwick, Queensland in January before the Chinese New Year.But on Jan. 8, Chinese police in Changchun City arrested Sarah’s mother, accusing her of distributing information on the spiritual practice.Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began a nationwide persecution against practitioners, which has seen millions arbitrarily detained, tortured, subjected to forced labor, and even killed for their organs to fuel the regime’s lucrative transplantation industry.According to a statement from the Falun Dafa Association in Queensland, Chinese police raided Hu’s home, leaving it in disarray. They barred family members from seeing her and coerced Sarah’s father into paying 2,000 yuan (A$409.30) for “health checks.”She was originally sentenced to 15 days detention on Jan. 23, but was instead moved to criminal detention at the Nanguan District Supervision Centre.The police have not provided any formal documentation or proof of her alleged crimes.Hu Chunyuan (Left) with her daughter Sarah Xu in Queensland, Australia. Courtesy of the Falun Dafa Association, QueenslandThe incident comes after the Australian Federal Police charged three Chinese nationals for conducting foreign interference on behalf of Beijing’s Public Security Bureau.The individuals were tasked with posing as potential members of the Guan Yin Citta religious group and to infiltrate the organisation.“You can slip in, climb as high as you can,” a Beijing officer allegedly told “Thomas Tyler,” a 37-year-old now standing trial.“Are you serious?” she replied, who later said, “I’ll give it a proper go and see if I can sneak in.” ASIO Says Multiple Regimes Harassing Local AustraliansThe Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), responsible for detecting and countering foreign interference in Australia, responded to inquiries from The Epoch Times.It referred to comments by Mike Burgess, its director‑general in his 2025 Annual Threat Assessment:“Multiple foreign regimes continually attempt to monitor, harass, intimidate, and coerce cooperation from Australians and those who call Australia home.“This includes trying to strong-arm people to report on other members of their diaspora community, threatening perceived dissidents and their family members with violence, and coercing people in Australia to return to the country of their birth to face questioning or charges—or possibly worse,” Burgess said.Calls for RedressSarah is calling on the Australian government and international community to pressure the CCP for her mother’s release.“My mother came here to love and care for her grandchild,” Sarah said. “She should be free to practice her beliefs and be with her family. Please help us get her released.”William Luo, the president of Falun Dafa Association in Queensland, said he is gravely concerned for Hu’s welfare.“She is detained in a region of China where persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is especially severe, and her family fears for her safety,” Luo said.Not An Isolated Case Hu’s case is not isolated as other Falun Gong connected families have also experienced transnational repression.In 2024, Jiang Yongqin, whose family are in Melbourne, was secretly sentenced to five years in prison in China for refusing to renounce Falun Gong.Jiang, a 57-year-old, used to work at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University but was fired from her teaching position.In 2022, when Jiang refused to tell the password to her hard drive, she experienced brutal torture including sexual assault while in prison, according to Falun Dafa Information center.Authorities deployed a “torture toolbox,” with reports that primitive tools like toothpicks, medicine bottles, wires, and aphrodisiacs were used against Jiang.In another case, the father of Huang Doudou and Huang Guoguo, Australian citizens with a large YouTube following with over 100,000 subscribers, was sentenced to four years in prison.Huang Zhisong, was reading the Falun Gong texts at home in June 2022, when more than 20 local police officers burst in and seized eight practitioners.The sisters wrote to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jo Haylen, the New South Wales MP for Summer Hill at the time, calling for help from the federal government.