(Clearwisdom.net, July 16)

(From a Chinese language FDI report) On June 23, Liang Guanjun, Hua Junxiong and other leaders of New York's pro-communist Chinese associations led a group of people to assault Falun Gong practitioners who were distributing truth-clarification flyers outside of the Yidong restaurant. Following the incident, the former Consular-General of the Chinese Consulate in New York City, Zhang Hongxi, who was at the restaurant that night, twisted the facts and attacked Falun Gong maliciously when he was interviewed by the Chinese World Journal. Because of this, one of the victims of the assault, Mr. Xu Kangang, a spokesperson of the Falun Dafa Information Center, wrote the following letter to the Chinese World Journal to expose Zhang Hongxi's habitual lies.

Editor-in-Chief and News Editor of the World Journal,

After reading your interview with Zhang Hongxi in the World Journal's June 12 edition, I felt strongly that Zhang was lying to your newspaper. In particular, when he answered questions related to Falun Gong, he distorted the truth and lied.

At the beginning of the interview, Zhang Hongxi mentioned the New Jersey Sino-America Trade meeting. He claimed that Falun Gong had sent a warning to the participating American companies and asked them not to attend the meeting, but the American companies were not intimidated, and so on. The fact is, after learning that Zhang was invited to the meeting, New Jersey Falun Gong practitioners took the initiative to write to the organizer to inform him that Zhang had a record of persecuting Falun Gong and viciously violating human rights. They were concerned that such a person, who was totally against the founding principles of this country, was invited to visit New Jersey. Judging from your newspaper's report, Zhang evaded the fact that he had helped Jiang Zemin's gang to persecute Falun Gong in other countries. Instead, he distorted the truth and claimed that our letter was intended to "intimidate" American companies. Therefore, he did not tell the truth. Here, in reference to this, I would like to present the letter that I sent to the organizer of the meeting. (http://chinese.faluninfo.net/fdi/big5/2003/7/13/30780.htmüj

In addition, in regard to the incident that occurred on June 23 (not June 25, as reported) on East Broadway Street where Liang Guanjun and others assaulted several of our Falun Gong practitioners, Zhang Hongxi again displayed his dishonesty. At that time, Falun Gong practitioners were distributing flyers to passers-by, providing information about the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. They didn't interfere with the meeting that took place on the second floor. Our action is one that is protected by the American Constitution. The reason the police arrived at the scene was because Liang and others came out and assaulted our Falun Gong practitioners when Zhang Hongxi and Wang Yingfan arrived (my wife called the police). The reason for the police breaking up the crowd was to prevent Liang and others from becoming more aggressive. As the chief of New York's Fifth Precinct said, "In America, the responsibility of a policeman is to protect the constitutional rights of citizens from being obstructed." The founding principles of the U.S. are freedom and justice.

In the interview, Zhang Hongxi answered questions regarding Falun Gong in several hundred words. Except for one or two statistics he quoted, pretty much everything he said from the beginning to the end was a lie. Even our video camera was an issue in the article. Think about it, under the coercion of the Chinese Consulate, over the past four years Liang and others have been challenging and harassing Falun Gong practitioners' activities in Chinatown. It is only natural and logical for Falun Gong practitioners to carry cameras or video cameras to record criminal acts against them when necessary. In regard to Zhang Hongxi's reply, it only makes me feel that he has been lying habitually.

I sincerely hope that you can publish this in your newspaper and our letter to the organizer of New Jersey Sino-America Trade Meeting, in order to correct mistakes and clarify misunderstandings. Thank you very much.

Yours respectfully,

Xu Kangang