(11/20/2002áá2:45)
Attacker's Accomplice Has Ties to Chinese Consulate in Chicago
Photo taken by Bill Fang moments
before he was attacked. The attacker, Mr. Zheng, is shown crossing
the street towards Mr. Fang as his accomplice, Mr. Weng, emerges
from the backseat of the car. CHICAGO, November 20, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information Center) -- Falun Gong
practitioners conduct peaceful appeals and meditate outside Chinese embassies
and consulates every day around the world.
It's not every day they get beaten up for it.
On November 13, 2002, Mr. Jiming Zheng pled guilty to
battery in the Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago.
Mr. Zheng testified that he had beaten Falun Gong
practitioner Mr. Bill Fang on September 7 in front of the Chinese Consulate in
Chicago, and that a Mr. Yujun Weng had been his accomplice in the crime.
Police had sent Mr. Fang to the emergency room for
treatment after the incident.
Mr. Zheng was sentenced to one year of supervision, and has
been ordered by the court to stay away from Mr. Fang.
Mr. Zheng's accomplice, Mr. Weng, was arrested in the early
morning of November 5 in Chicago's Chinatown. His case will go to court on
December 5, 2002.
Ties to Chinese Consulate -- "Something Very Shady Going
On"
According to Mr. Fang, F.B.I. officials who are
investigating the case say Mr. Zheng denied all charges when he was first
arrested in June 2002. The next day, however, two Chinese men visited Mr.
Fang's apartment to offer him $2,000 to drop the case. Their offer was later
raised to $15,000. Both offers were refused.
Mr. Fang says one of the men identified himself only as
"Mr. Guo." The other man is often seen visiting the Chinese Consulate in
Chicago.
Chicago police have opened a case regarding the attempted
bribe.
"It is obvious to us that there is something very shady
going on here, and the Chinese Consulate in Chicago appears to be behind it,"
says Chicago-native and local Falun Gong practitioner Stephen Gregory, who has
been involved with the case. "After all, how does a Chinese immigrant [Mr.
Zheng] who, according to the police, has no job come to drive a new
Mercedes-Benz, be in a position to offer a $15,000 bribe and have the means to
hire Steven Weinsburg -- one of Chicago's more expensive lawyers -- as his
attorney? The defendants have known ties to the Chinese Consulate."
A Violent Attack
At the beginning of September 2001, Chicago Falun Gong
practitioners started a peaceful 10-day relay hunger strike appeal in front of
the Chicago Chinese Consulate. The appeal was in response to news that at
least five women had died in police custody in China under suspicious
circumstances, with multiple accounts identifying torture and beatings as the
cause of death.
According to eyewitnesses, at 4:40 pm on September 7, three
men driving a new black Mercedes-Benz SUV stopped in front of the Chinese
Consulate. They got in and out of the car several times while cursing at the
Falun Gong practitioners who were on hunger strike.
Seeing this, Ms. Feng Lu, one of the practitioners on
hunger strike, says she wanted to clarify the facts of the persecution to them
and explain why they were conducting a hunger strike. She walked over to their
car, handed flyers to them with information regarding the recent deaths in
China and said, "I would like to give you some materials describing the
persecution of Falun Gong. So many Chinese people were tortured to death
simply because they practiced Falun Gong. You are also Chinese, doesn't this
matter to you?"
According to Ms. Lu, the three men began shouting at her:
"Go back to China and die! I'll beat you! Don't you believe me?"
Mr. Zheng then threatened to expose himself to Ms. Lu.
Mr. Bill Fang, a practitioner of Falun Gong who witnessed
the disturbance from across the street, took out his camera to photograph the
scene. Mr. Zheng and Mr. Weng then jumped out of their vehicle and charged Mr.
Fang. They beat Mr. Fang about the head and body, causing him to feel dizzy,
have trouble breathing, and vomit.
Witnesses say the two men then grabbed Mr. Fang's camera
and threw it to the ground, exposing part of the film.
After destroying the camera, the two men rushed back to
their car and sped away. As they left, seeing that Ms. Lu was recording the
license plate number of their car, Mr. Zheng threatened her, "If you report
us, I will kill you!"
Two minutes later, policemen arrived at the scene. Mr. Fang
had multiple injuries and bruises, and was sent to the emergency room for
treatment.
Ms. Lu says she received many threatening and harassing
phone calls for many days afterwards.
U.S. Officials, Citizens and Residents Targeted
The story of Ms. Lu, Mr. Fang and their attackers is not an
isolated incident.
Across the United States, what began in July, 1999 as a
series of isolated incidents of intimidation, harassment and illegal activity
on the part of Chinese officials and those working under their direction, has
been uncovered as a targeted campaign against officials, citizens and
residents who practice or support Falun Gong in the U.S. and other countries.
Under the orders from China's former Communist Party
leader, Jiang Zemin, to "strengthen the campaign overseas," Chinese officials
have employed economic ties at the national, state and city level, political
pressure, and illicit means in an attempt to slander Falun Gong and undermine
support for the practice in the U.S. As reported in a Wall Street Journal
article on Feb. 21, 2002: "The Chinese government...has [urged] local U.S.
officials to shun or even persecute [Falun Gong] right here in America. The
approach...tends to combine gross disinformation with scare tactics and, in
some cases, slyly implied diplomatic and commercial pressure."
There have also been dozens of cases across the U.S. of
citizens and residents being intimidated, harassed and physically attacked by
Chinese consulate officials or those working for them.
On October 22, 2000 in San Francisco's China Garden Park,
for example, Mr. Sheng Mei was physically attacked by a mob of thugs while
distributing Falun Gong literature. The assailants punched him repeatedly and
shouted allegations about Falun Gong practitioners identical to those
published in various Chinese government-controlled newspapers. The attack on
Mr. Mei was part of a larger assault involving a group of 30-40 thugs believed
to be hired by Chinese Consulate personnel.
Further Ties to the Chinese Consulate
"We know that Mr. Zheng's accomplice, Mr. Weng, stayed at
the office of the former "Chen Pao" newspaper until the early hours of the
morning before he was arrested," stated Mr. Gregory. "This office is where the
Chinese American Association of Greater Chicago is located. The Association is
actually a small circle of people affiliated with the Chinese Consulate." Mr. Gregory explains, "The Chinese Consulate has held a
number of what they call 'denouncing Falun Gong' meetings in this
association's name, which are basically meetings where they get together and
figure out ways to discredit and persecute those who practice Falun Gong here
in Chicago. The officers of the Chinese Consulate often show up here. In fact,
we know of at least one occasion when the Vice General Consul Wei-Lian Shen
chaired such a meeting."
Mr. Gregory concludes, "The connection between the Chinese
consulate and these two men is not lost on us, nor anyone else looking into
this case."
Indeed, there are very strong ties between Chinese
consulates and Chinese community associations throughout the country.
Consulate officials have utilized these ties to rally the associations, and
members of the Chinese community overall, against Falun Gong. On September 6,
2001, New York City's Newsday newspaper ran an article exposing this
activity: "[Chinese] Government officials have appeared at 'seminars' in
Manhattan to decry [Falun Gong], egging on local Chinese immigrants to oppose
the movement. In one session, the consul-general told his audience that
immigrants who have not become U.S. citizens were expected to obey Chinese
laws, which ban Falun Gong. Further poisoning the atmosphere for local Falun
Gong practitioners, powerful organizations in Chinatown -- which had expressed
no concern about Falun Gong before the government crackdown started in July
1999 -- began holding countermarches against the group, their charges echoing
the government's virulent accusations."
Mr. Gregory says it makes him sad that things have come to
this. "In China," Mr. Gregory explains, "Jiang's regime can use the police to
carry out the persecution of Falun Gong. That's not really possible overseas,
especially in free countries like the United States. So, they use these thugs
instead. It is really a shame that some Chinese officials and policies have
fallen so low under Jiang's dictatorship."
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Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about),
is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the
universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." It is a practice
that was taught in private for thousands of years before being made public in
1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture,
but it is distinct and separate from other practices such as the religions of
Buddhism and Taoism. Since its introduction in 1992, it quickly spread by word
of mouth throughout China, and is now practiced in over
50 countries.
With government estimates of as many as
100 million practicing Falun Gong, China's President Jiang Zemin outlawed
the peaceful practice in July 1999 (report),
fearful of anything touching the hearts and minds of more citizens than the
Communist Party. Unable to crush the spirit of millions who had experienced
improved health and positive life changes from Falun Gong, Jiang's regime has
intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the
practice while quietly imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who
practice it.
The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details of
515 deaths (reports
/
sources) since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999.
Government officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll
is well over 1,600, while expert sources estimate that figure to be much
higher.
Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than
100,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps, typically without trial.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
Contacts: Gail Rachlin 212-706-7026, Levi Browde 914-720-0963, Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, or Feng Yuan 646-523-5676.
Fax: 646-792-3916 Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/
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