Category: English

PRESS RELEASE / FORMAL STATEMENT | September 6, 2026 | P5-EVT-2026-0904-12

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The Free China Movement (FCM) is concerned by satellite- and source-based reporting indicating renewed demolition and clearance of residential structures at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy in Serthar County, Sichuan, during 2026.

Radio Free Asia and the International Campaign for Tibet have reported continued demolition based on satellite imagery, visual evidence and Tibetan sources. FCM has not located a current public demolition order, land-use decision or planning authorization that independently establishes the reported scope, the number of affected residents or the government’s stated rationale. Public local records reviewed to date include infrastructure, hazard-control and administrative projects in and around Larung Gar, but those records do not themselves establish the reported residential-clearance program.

FCM therefore calls on the responsible authorities to publish the governing legal and planning documents, maps of affected areas, data on residents and structures affected, notice procedures, compensation arrangements, relocation terms and available appeal or review mechanisms.

Larung Gar is an internationally significant center of Tibetan Buddhist learning. Any demolition or relocation affecting a major religious community should be governed by transparent law, meaningful notice, proportionate measures, fair compensation and an effective avenue of review.

FCM does not present the reported demolition scope or governmental motive as independently established facts where primary administrative records remain unavailable. That evidentiary gap is itself a reason for greater official transparency.

FCM calls for protection of peaceful religious practice, Tibetan cultural and educational life, property and residence rights, and independent access to reliable information about developments at Larung Gar.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2026

FREE CHINA MOVEMENT CONDEMNS HONG KONG ARRESTS OVER PRINCE EDWARD REMEMBRANCE: NATIONAL SECURITY MUST NOT BECOME A LICENSE TO CRIMINALIZE MEMORY

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 5, 2026 — The Free China Movement strongly condemns the arrest of three people by Hong Kong national-security police over activities connected with the August 31 remembrance outside Prince Edward MTR station.

Hong Kong authorities say two men and one woman, aged 33 to 79, were arrested on September 3 over alleged conduct including standing outside the station with bouquets and shouting slogans that police characterize as seditious. These are allegations and have not been adjudicated in court.

“When a government becomes afraid of flowers, remembrance and peaceful words, the danger comes from a political system that has begun to treat memory itself as a security threat.”

Holding flowers, mourning, remembering a controversial event, questioning an official historical narrative and peacefully expressing political views must never by themselves become national-security crimes.

FCM Has Repeatedly Warned Against Turning National Security Into a Tool of Political Repression

The Prince Edward arrests reinforce a concern the Free China Movement has repeatedly raised: national security must protect people from genuine threats; it must never become an elastic political justification for suppressing peaceful dissent, religious belief, journalism, historical remembrance or advocacy for democracy.

FCM has challenged the use of national-security, subversion, separatism and related political charges against peaceful democratic activists and other prisoners of conscience. Its position is consistent: peacefully seeking democracy is not subversion; remembering historical injustice is not a security offense; criticizing a government is not an attack on a nation.

Genuine espionage, terrorism and violence may properly be investigated under clearly defined laws, credible evidence, due process and independent judicial review. Stretching “national security” to encompass flowers, memorial gatherings, peaceful slogans, journalism or political criticism instead risks transforming a legitimate governmental responsibility into an instrument of repression.

Democratic Governments Warned of This Danger

When the National Security Law was imposed in 2020, G7 foreign ministers expressed grave concern that it would threaten fundamental rights and freedoms in Hong Kong and urged the Mainland Chinese government to reconsider. The European Union has subsequently condemned politically motivated national-security prosecutions and the shrinking space for freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and independent civil society in Hong Kong.

Those warnings cannot simply be repeated while the boundaries of permissible expression and remembrance continue to contract. If national-security legislation can reach a person carrying flowers to remember an event authorities would prefer society to forget, democratic governments must ask where the limiting principle now lies.

FCM Calls for Immediate Action

• Disclose precisely what words and individual acts form the basis for each arrest.
• Release anyone detained solely for peaceful remembrance, mourning, holding flowers or nonviolent political expression.
• Guarantee independent legal counsel, due process, open proceedings and meaningful judicial review.
• Stop using national-security and sedition legislation to suppress peaceful political expression and contested historical memory.
• Restore the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association promised to Hong Kong under the Basic Law and international commitments.

FCM calls upon the G7, European Union, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and other democratic governments to publicly address these arrests and seek an explanation from Hong Kong authorities. Governments that previously warned against using national-security legislation against peaceful political activity should apply that principle consistently when remembrance itself becomes the object of national-security enforcement.

Silence now would weaken the force of their earlier condemnations.

“No government owns the memory of its people. Hong Kong residents have the right to remember their history, mourn their losses, ask questions and speak about their experiences without fearing that flowers or peaceful words will bring national-security police to their door.”

Media Contact

Free China Movement / 自由中国运动
Email: contact@freechina.live
Phone: +1 (571) 895-7066
Website: https://freechina.live/

About the Free China Movement

The Free China Movement advocates for freedom, democracy, human rights, constitutional government and the rule of law for the people of Mainland China. FCM documents political and religious repression, supports peaceful democratic change, and advances a future in which fundamental rights are protected by constitutional institutions rather than subordinated to one-party political power.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2026

Order No. 841 takes effect September 15; FCM calls for published implementation rules, judicial review, and safeguards against arbitrary or politically motivated restrictions on freedom of movement.

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 5, 2026 — The Free China Movement (FCM) calls on the Mainland Chinese Communist Government to ensure that revised exit-entry regulations under State Council Order No. 841, scheduled to take effect September 15, are implemented transparently and are not used to expand arbitrary restrictions on the freedom of Mainland Chinese citizens to leave and return to their own country.

Freedom of movement is a fundamental human right. No Mainland Chinese citizen should lose the ability to travel abroad because of an unpublished blacklist, an unexplained administrative decision, political or religious activity, peaceful criticism of the government, or pressure imposed on family members.

FCM’s review of Order No. 841 also underscores the importance of factual accuracy. The published regulation does not itself establish a universal new requirement that all students, doctors, university employees or private-sector workers obtain employer permission before leaving Mainland China.

Existing passport-custody and travel-approval systems, however, already apply to various categories of Communist Party, state, public-institution, state-owned-enterprise and other designated personnel, while individual institutions may impose additional internal requirements.

That distinction makes transparency even more important.

FCM Calls for Six Basic Safeguards

• Publication of implementing rules — All implementing regulations, eligibility standards and categories of persons subject to special exit controls should be publicly available.
• Written reasons for restrictions — Whenever a passport is withheld or permission to leave Mainland China is denied, the affected person should receive written notice identifying the specific legal basis.
• Independent judicial review — Every person subjected to an exit restriction should have access to meaningful appeal and independent judicial review.
• An end to political exit bans — Exit restrictions must not be imposed as punishment for peaceful political activity, religious belief, journalism, legal advocacy or criticism of the government.
• No collective punishment — Family members must not be subjected to travel restrictions or other coercive measures because of another person’s political or civic activities.
• Public accountability — Authorities should publish annual statistics identifying the number of exit restrictions imposed and their legal grounds.

Freedom of Movement Should Not Depend on Political Loyalty

A modern government should not fear the free movement of its own citizens.

Mainland China belongs to its people—not to the Chinese Communist Party, its security agencies, or any individual ruler.

The right to leave one’s country and return to it should be protected by law, not dependent upon political loyalty or administrative discretion.

The Free China Movement will monitor implementation of Order No. 841 after September 15 and document credible evidence of arbitrary or politically motivated restrictions affecting Mainland Chinese citizens.

FCM also calls on democratic governments, international human-rights organizations, journalists and researchers to monitor implementation of the new regulations and distinguish carefully between restrictions contained in the published national regulation and separate passport-control or travel-approval practices imposed by particular government bodies, institutions or employers.

Media Contact

Free China Movement / 自由中国运动
Email: contact@freechina.live
Phone: +1 (571) 895-7066
Website: https://freechina.live/

About the Free China Movement

The Free China Movement advocates for freedom, democracy, human rights, constitutional government and the rule of law for the people of Mainland China. FCM documents political and religious repression, supports peaceful democratic change, and advances a future in which fundamental rights are protected by constitutional institutions rather than subordinated to one-party political power.

Free China Movement / 自由中国运动
https://freechina.live/