Reflecting the Shadow of the Chinese Government: Bangkok Marriott Suddenly Cancels Falun Gong Class

(Clearwisdom.net) On November 23, 2003, during this year's second Nationwide Health Activities Conference, Falun Dafa practitioners in Thailand joined seventy thousand people at the health conference held at the Royal Garden Square in Bangkok, to explain the positive health effects of Falun Dafa. Soon afterwards, Falun Dafa practitioners scheduled a free exercise class in the Fitness Center of the Bangkok Marriott Resort & Spa at Royal Gardens Riverside. However, the class was suddenly canceled. A Clearwisdom journalist interviewed two Falun Dafa practitioners in Thailand, and spoke with the Fitness Center employees of Marriott Resort & Spa in Bangkok.

There Was Verbal Permission to Continue the Class

Dr. Paitoon, a Falun Dafa practitioner in Thailand, told the Clearwisdom journalist, "The Marriott hotel fitness center manager personally invited me to teach the Falun Dafa exercises there during the nationwide health conference."

Dr. Paitoon said, "At first, we agreed to try this class every Saturday for three weeks, from November 1 through November 22. I told the fitness center manager that I would like to continue the class, to make it ongoing after November 22, and he said that this would be fine."

Hotel Desk Manager Admits There Was Pressure from Chinese Embassy

On Monday, November 24, the second day following the health conference, Dr. Paitoon suddenly received a phone call from the hotel desk manager, Ms. Nathalie Paqub, and was told that the free Falun Gong class could not be continued. When Dr. Paitoon asked whether the Chinese Embassy had pressured the hotel to cancel it, Ms. Paqub said yes.

Hotel General Manager Denies Pressure from Chinese Embassy

On November 25, Dr. Paitoon called the hotel to find more information. He spoke with the hotel general manager's secretary, who relayed the conversation back and forth between Dr. Paitoon and the hotel's general manager. The reason given for the cancellation was that the exercise class did not have enough students, and therefore did not meet the requirements of the hotel. Dr. Paitoon countered that the fitness center had never mentioned this rule to him before, and he asked why the desk manager had told him there was pressure from Chinese Embassy. The hotel general manager relayed a reply that the fitness center manager had misunderstood the rules and that the desk manager was misinformed.

Mr. Zhong, a representative of the Falun Dafa Association in Thailand, said when interviewed, that Falun Dafa volunteers teach the exercises to help people obtain better health. They never mention the persecution in China when teaching the exercises in the fitness center, so the hotel had no reasonable grounds for canceling their classes.

Hotel Employee Indicated Chinese Government Pressure

The fitness center manager was not there when we tried to interview her, so the journalist had a talk with an employee of the fitness center, "Teddy," who seemed a little nervous when he realized he was being interviewed by a journalist from America. He seemed to have been influenced by the Chinese Government, but when the journalist asked Teddy specifically whether the Chinese Government had influenced him, he quickly denied it.

Teddy said, "If you do not want... How do I put it... because what happened in China (the persecution), we had to... "

He continued, "Falun Gong is good... Our guests come from all over the world... Chinese guests do not like Falun Gong... Someone complained... There is not too much interest in Falun Gong at the fitness center... Some Thai people do not like Falun Gong either."

When the journalist asked what kinds of feedback the hotel had received about the Falun Gong classes, he said, "I don't know. It was not that good, but not that bad. My boss and another fitness center patron had had a discussion about it."

The journalist asked why he thought some Thai people did not like Falun Gong, and Teddy answered that the Chinese media had influenced them, especially CCTV-4 television.

China's Media Reaches Across the Border

According to China Abstract [the publication of a non profit organization, the Jamestown Foundation], before 1985, most of the Chinese media were based in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and hardly any were from Mainland China. However, the situation changed after the wave of immigration from Mainland China in the late 1980s. Chinese immigrants were pouring into America as well, which was cause for concern in the Chinese media, and this initiated the attack on the Chinese language media in America. In fact, over the past ten years, China has sought to gain control over the Chinese language media market in the U.S.

China Abstract stated that it is difficult to estimate CCTV-4's total audience. In the first place, its signal is not coded, so any satellite dish can receive it. Secondly, it is now broadcast via cable channels in many major cities, which means that CCTV-4 is successfully sending its skewed news and propaganda into the households of most Chinese residents. Many CCTV-4 broadcasts are even anti-American, and contradict the media news reports from the free world.

The Tourist Industry is Politically Sensitive

Teddy stammered, "In case... we are in the tourist industry... very sensitive..."

The journalist noticed that Teddy was speaking in almost all broken sentences, which made it seem like he was trying to invent excuses.

On July 24, 1999, according to a pre-scheduled plan, a Falun Dafa practitioners' experience sharing conference was about to be held in the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. The persecution of Falun Gong, which was initiated single-handedly by former Chairman Jiang Zemin, had begun four days earlier, on July 20, 1999. On July 23, 1999, the manager of the Fairmont Hotel told Falun Dafa practitioners that they had received a series of anonymous phone calls, threatening to burn down the hotel if the conference were allowed to proceed. The hotel allowed the Falun Dafa practitioners to have their conference as scheduled, but they had to fortify security precautions.

Mary Kay Event Serves as a Reference

During the conversation in Bangkok, the journalist asked whether the employees of the Marriott Resort & Spa were aware of the incident involving Mary Kay cosmetics sales associates in China, and said that U.S. Congresspersons have written letters to the corporate officers of Mary Kay at their world headquarters, requesting that they correct the mistake they had made in China. The Mary Kay incident shows that China is pressuring foreign companies to cooperate with the persecution of Falun Gong. In doing so, they are forcing foreign corporations to abandon their moral ground, and thus, to become additional victims of this political persecution.

The journalist suggested that Teddy inform his boss about the Mary Kay incident.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/27/61364.html

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