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Front Page Magazine Report: Red Star Over San Francisco (Clearwisdom.net) On March 1, 2006, Front Page magazine published an
article entitled "Red Star Over San Francisco". The article said that
although San Francisco, California, boasts its own Human Rights Commission and
bills itself as a bastion of tolerance, diversity and inclusion, it didn't quite
work out that way when Falun Gong practitioners wanted to showcase their
heritage in the 2006 Chinese New Year parade. The article stated that Falun Gong practitioners found themselves being
called derogatory names in the San Francisco Chronicle and banned from the
parade. That led some observers to compare the San Francisco experience to what
happens in the People's Republic of China, where Falun Gong practitioners are
persecuted to death. Falun Gong was founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. In the spirit of Buddhism and
Taoism, practitioners follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and
Forbearance. By the late 1990s, the ruling Communist Party estimated Falun Gong followers
at between 70 and 100 million, more members then the Party itself. In April
1999, following the advice of Chinese authorities, some 10,000 Falun Gong
members went to appeal an injustice at the Beijing Appeals Bureau, which is near
the Zhongnanhai secure complex that houses Chinese leaders. It was the largest
gathering since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Though peaceful, the
numbers alarmed the Party enough to begin harassing practitioners of Falun Gong.
On July 22, 1999, the regime outlawed the group as an [Jiang's slanderous
term deleted] and accused it of "spreading fallacies, hoodwinking
people, inciting and creating disturbances and jeopardizing social
stability." The article also stated that Amnesty International issued a report on the
persecution of Falun Gong and Congress has passed a resolution criticizing
Beijing's crackdown, which targets Falun Gong practitioners in many countries.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has documented attacks on Falun
Gong practitioners in South Africa, Hong Kong, and Australia, as well as the
United States. One recent example involved four Asian men recently breaking into the
suburban Atlanta home of Falun Gong practitioner Peter Yuan Li. They bound him
with duct tape, beat him up and stole two laptop computers. A lawsuit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia charges a "campaign
of terror" against followers of Falun Gong. Five Canadian residents are
suing Chen Zhili, China's former education minister, whom they claim made key
decisions and had control over those who carried out torture and persecution. The article mentioned that in San Francisco, the only official concerned
about the persecution campaign is Supervisor Chris Daly. In 2001, he authored a
resolution condemning the persecution of Falun Gong. It failed to pass, falling
to opposition spearheaded by Rose Pak, a former journalist known as the
"dragon lady of Chinatown" and reportedly San Francisco's most
powerful person outside of elected office. Pak accompanied then-mayor Willie
Brown on junkets to Beijing, where Communist Party bosses accorded them red
carpet treatment. Pak is on record as making many derogatory comments about
Falun Gong. Falun Gong marched in the Chinese New Year Parade in 2004 but San Francisco's
Chinese Chamber of Commerce (CCC), which runs the event, excluded them in 2005
on the grounds that some members had handed out political tracts. By some
accounts, however, the motive for the exclusion was the business interests in
the PRC by some Chamber members. Supervisor Daly protested the exclusion by
allowing two Falun Gong members to ride in his car during the parade. In the run-up to this year's parade, Daly floated another resolution
condemning the persecution of Falun Gong. The Chinese consulate issued a
statement warning the Supervisors against any decision that would harm relations
between China and the United States. The resolution passed 9-2 in a watered-down
version that failed to mention the People's Republic of China and took no
position on the parade dispute. The city of San Francisco provides $77,000 in funding for the parade, along
with police support and other services. Daly and a few others argued that Falun
Gong practitioners should be able to participate in an event their tax dollars
supported. Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit and lodged a complaint with
San Francisco's Human Rights Commission. Daly held a hearing on the matter,
charging that the Chamber was playing along with a propaganda campaign of the
Chinese government that sought to justify the persecution of Falun Gong by
demonizing the group. The Chamber did just that, in a way particularly suited
for San Francisco, with a quarter-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle
attacking Falun Gong. When the Chinese Chamber of Commerce also ran a full-page ad in the Chronicle
stating it rejected the Falun Gong's assertion that "because they are
Chinese, they have the right to be in the Chinese New Year Parade," Chris
Daly accused Rose Pak of pushing China's political agenda. The article said San Francisco police agreed to let some Falun Gong
supporters hold banners on the sidewalk along the parade route from Chinatown to
Union Square. But some Falun Gong practitioners said they were not allowed into
the Chinatown district. The parade ushered in the Year of the Dog, but the way
it played out was more like the Year of the Chicken. Posting date: 3/6/2006 |