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NEW YORK
– The cement on 42nd Street is no less cold or unyielding. But it doesn’t hurt
eight-year-old Wesley Wang’s legs anymore; his little body has grown used to it
with all the sitting. It’s the thought of his father that hurts.
Wesley
hasn’t seen his dad for nearly three years. That’s how long it has been since
Wesley’s father was imprisoned incommunicado in China for his beliefs. His dad
practices Falun Gong.
“He still wakes up in the middle of
the night, screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy!’” says Wesley’s mother, Celia Wang of Queens.
“He asks when Daddy is coming home, and if he is being beaten in jail.”
“And
I can’t answer him, because I don’t know. The last we heard he had been tortured.”
If
Wesley hasn’t lived the normal life of a young boy – no playing catch with dad
or piggyback rides – it is a tragedy that’s played out similarly for millions
in China, where the practice of Falun Gong is now violently suppressed.
And
it is because of this – a persecution so severe some human rights attorneys call
it “genocide” – that Celia and Wesley gather with others every week on 42nd Street
and sit in quiet protest, opposite the Chinese Consulate.
A
Tragedy Hits Home
The demonstrations started in July 1999.
It was that month a figure named Jiang Zemin, then head of the Chinese Communist
Party, banned the Falun Gong in China, launching a campaign bent on – in Jiang’s
own words – “eradicating” the popular group. At that time an estimated 100 million
practiced Falun Gong.
As a gentle, apolitical practice similar
to Tai-chi, Falun Gong was in Jiang’s eyes “an easy target.” One that Jiang thought
would, if crushed swiftly, “demonstrate and solidify the power of the Chinese
leadership,” according to The Washington Post. Jiang, many believe, had grown
to resent the grassroots practice for its popularity.
New
York’s Falun Gong adherents sensed the gravity of what was happening and took
to the street – to 42nd Street.
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Scott
Chinn, a tall, broad-shouldered Manhattan software developer, was one of the first
demonstrators. While not Chinese, Chinn felt called to respond.
“When
I realized that many of my friends had family in China who were being tortured,
it really hit home,” Chinn says.
One such friend is Christina
Chai.
Chai’s mother, a medical technician who lives in China
and practices Falun Gong, disappeared two years ago. Family in China later learned
she was being unlawfully held in a government-run slave labor camp. And tortured.
On
top of forced labor, Chai’s mother reportedly has been stripped naked by guards
and submerged at length in feces and sewage water. She has also been shocked with
electric batons. She turned 61 this year.
“The trauma was
unimaginable,” Chai said, with softened breath.
The gatherings
on 42nd Street were a bit disorganized at first, participants recall. Makeshift
press conferences. Petitioning consulate officials. Massive exercise and meditation
demonstrations, showcasing Falun Gong’s peaceable spirit.
“Nobody
really knew what to do at first,” Lana Han, a Manhattan attorney, recalls. “We
just knew we had to be there, and tell the consulate that what was happening in
China was totally wrong.”
“And I think they knew it, too.”
More
Than Symbolic
If consular officials are supposed to represent
the people, in Scott Chinn’s mind they haven’t quite lived up to it.
“Every
time we’ve tried to talk to them, to deliver a letter – you name it – they won’t
even engage us… If we’re telling them about torture and awful things happening
in China, you’d think they would want to know and look into it, to fix it.”
But
that reluctance isn’t just about saving face, people suggest. Rather, many believe
it bespeaks of a much bigger problem: complicity.
Liam O’Neill
should know.
Police caught three consulate officials spying,
of all things, on O’Neill and several other Falun Gong activists on their property
in rural upstate New York. The consulate’s Lincoln Town Car, complete with diplomat
plates, was hard to miss on the country road. A police report identified the three
as Liu Pingjun, Xu Shaozong, and Cong Wu.
“This is serious,”
O’Neill commented, his voice rising. “And it’s not an isolated incident. That’s
why the FBI got involved.”
Consulate officials have actively
pressured local governments to withdraw support for the Falun Gong, with the Chinese
Ambassador going so far, in one case, as to suggest they legislate against the
group.
Several councilmen report receiving bundles of propaganda
materials from the consulate denouncing Falun Gong.
According
to one Newsday report, the Chinese regime’s “relentless drive to beat down the
popular meditation movement” can be felt here in New York. Chinese officials have
run “seminars” in Manhattan “egging on local Chinese immigrants to oppose the
movement.”
“In one session,” Newsday reported, then consul-general
Zhang Hongxi “told his audience that immigrants who have not become U.S. citizens
were expected to obey Chinese laws, which ban Falun Gong.”
Meanwhile,
some in New York, like 56-year-old Wai Lind Lam, have felt the effects of the
consulate’s hate campaign.
When Lam took part in a Falun Gong
parade in Chinatown two years ago, a group of thugs – hired by the Consulate,
according to two witnesses – tried to light her hair on.
Before
the persecution in China, such incidents were unheard of.
Through
Rain or Snow
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When
the Falun Gong group realized the Consulate wasn’t quite listening, it started
to think bigger.
“We realized we needed to let everybody know
what was happening, the whole world,” Chinn says. “We wanted to get the word out.”
With
that, the gatherings on 42nd Street grew in size and flavor.
There
was the hunger strike; The six-day vigil; Anti-torture exhibits; Marches; Press
conferences. And even puppet shows.
Sometime in 2001 a group
of older Chinese-American women – “the aunties,” as they’re affectionately called
– committed to a daily presence outside the consulate.
“The
consulate was trying to demonize us. They were giving visitors [to the building]
hate literature and trying to turn people against us.” Qi Zhang, one of the group,
shared through an interpreter.
“People would come out of the
building and look at us differently.”
The women began preparing
informational sheets and pamphlets detailing the suppression in China and describing
Falun Gong. Most all of the materials were paid for out of their own pockets.
For
the last three years, through rain or snow or sleet or hail, the aunties have
come every day. “It hasn’t been easy,” Qi Zhang says.
Meanwhile,
beyond 42nd Street, a growing contingent of New Yorkers who do Falun Gong have
made it a priority to raise awareness.
Activities have ranged
from free classes at YMCAs and senior centers to street fairs, health expos, and
parades and marches throughout the city. The group has presented at community
boards, given presentations to NYPD, and even held health workshops for Fortune
100 companies.
Glimmers of Hope
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An ever-growing
chorus of voices seems to be recognizing the cause.
Not long
ago the New York City Council praised local Falun Gong members, issuing an official
citation “in recognition of their teachings of peace and spirituality, and for
their courage and perseverance in the face of oppression by the People’s Republic
of China.”
The citation took note of the local efforts, stating
that the group had “tirelessly contributed to community service in New York City.”
In
a short span of time recognition had grown, with the New York State Assembly issuing
a similar proclamation, and the boroughs of Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens each
declaring a “Falun Gong Week.”
Back at 42nd Street, growing
awareness has swelled the crowds over the years.. On some Saturday evenings –
the weekly gathering time – participants number in the hundreds.
Gestures
of support are more common now, too.
“I had a group of older
women stop by the other day and tell me, ‘We pray for you everyday!’” says Ben
Freed, a 42nd Street regular and student at Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
“It was really touching.”
Affirmations have come in every
shape and form, ranging from letters of support to coffee and tea.
On
one occasion the aunties opened their eyes after meditating through a downpour
to discover that somebody had left each of the group a set of brand new raingear.
And
sometimes, well, it has seemed almost like a helping hand from above.
Such
as last year, when a car lost control and crashed headlong into the Consulate.
The wreck knocked out more than windows.
“It went straight
into a big display case of anti-Falun Gong propaganda,” Noah Parker, of Queens,
recalled. “We were stunned.”
Nobody was hurt in the incident.
Members
of the group report that things are improving in China, slowly but surely.
And
even consulate employees seem to be changing. Several have privately approached
the demonstrators, wanting to learn more. Others have struck up conversation while
outside for a smoke.
For Amy Lee of Forest Hills, the winds
of change were felt when her daughter, Luo Meng, finally escaped from China to
join Lee here in the U.S. Lee had been separated from her daughter four years
earlier when Lee was arrested and imprisoned in China for practicing Falun Gong.
Little
Wesley Wang hopes that one day his father will be the one freed.
“I
miss him. I hope I get to see him soon,” Wesley shared.
Until
that day, Wesley will keep coming to 42nd Street. And others will be there, sitting
with him.
Posting date: 31/Dec/2004
Original article date: 31/Dec/2004
Category:
World News
