Council debates rarely echo with international politics. But a failed motion in Cumberland, Sydney, has done just that—thanks to a group that claims to speak for Chinese Australians, but whose loyalties may lie farther afield.

The “Fuqing” [Fu-ching] Association—named after the relatively small Chinese city of Fuqing—has branches across multiple countries, and appears to be mostly active when it comes to showing support for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) leadership overseas.

On July 30, the Sydney-based group, which claims to represent 10,000 Chinese-Australians, mobilised to oppose a motion being considered by Cumberland City Council in Sydney’s multicultural west.

The motion was aimed at officially recognising “World Falun Dafa Day” as part of the council’s annual cultural program.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice first taught in China in 1992 and based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

With five sets of health-benefiting exercises and moral-guiding teachings, Falun Gong grew rapidly with an estimated 70 million to 100 million people taking it up by 1999.

Perceiving its popularity as a threat, the CCP started a sweeping persecution to eliminate the faith group on July 20, 1999, which continues to this day and has seen the CCP carry out severe human rights abuses, forced organ harvesting, and more recently, transnational repression.

The proposed motion (Item No: C07/25-155) before the Council recommended recognising May 13—the birthday of Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Dafa—as World Falun Dafa Day, a designation already widely observed in Western democracies such as Canada and the United States to acknowledge the practice’s contributions to the community, including free meditation classes and cultural performances.

The motion did not garner enough support this time around, but The Epoch Times understands councillors will continue to engage with the Falun Dafa community to understand more about the practice.

Some members of the council commented that they had to handle several requests to recognise specific celebrations for different ethnic groups.

After the vote, however, members of the Fuqing Association took photos in front of the council building to celebrate.

Transnational Repression on the Council Floor? How This Pro-Beijing Group Tried to Sink Freedom of Belief

2,000 Years On: The Tradition That Continues to Roar Right on Our Doorsteps

US Man Linked to Police Killings Sentenced to 3 Years’ Jail

Australian Postal Service Flags Another Price Increase, This Time for Stamps