United States: A Practitioner's Enquiry about the Persecution of Falun Gong at the New York "World Leadership Forum" Draws Audience Support

United Nations representatives assembled in New York City for meetings in late September. The "2004 World Leadership Forum" conducted by the "Foreign Policy Association" launched a three-day conference, attended by several hundred strategy experts. Also in attendance were foreign ministers and diplomats from several countries. Falun Gong practitioners participated with enquiries and received support and applause from the audience.

This year, among the many meeting topics, the one that received the most attention was "The Rise of China," held on the morning of September 22. There were no empty seats in the session. The introduction was given by moderator and speaker, Ambassador Julia Zhang Bloch, former US ambassador to Nepal and President of the U.S. China Education Trust. Other speakers were: Ambassador James Sasser, former US ambassador to the People's Republic of China; Dr. Yasheng Huang, Associate Professor of International Management, MIT Sloan School of Management; Adam Segal, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, and the Honourable Mark Steven Kirk, U.S. House of Representatives.

After all the speakers finished, the panel was open for questions. Attorney Theresa Chu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Taiwan and lead attorney for the legal team for the "Global Public Trial of Jiang Zemin" effort, posed the question, "In 2004, the US State Department's International Religious Freedom Annual Report stated that China is still considered a problem country. On the street corners of New York, we can see many people protesting Jiang Zemin's persecution of seventy million Falun Gong practitioners during the past five years. At present, Jiang is named in lawsuits in nine countries. I sincerely ask the highly educated Chinese representatives who spoke today and all the China experts to talk to us about how to improve the human rights situation in China and give constructive suggestions."

The enquiry received supportive applause from the audience. After a period of silence, the former ambassador to China repeated his statement that we must exert constant pressure on China. Afterwards, Dr. Yasheng Huang said that he'd like to express his opinion about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. He said that the decision was made by the government leader who was in power at that time; he personally thinks that the decision was a very stupid one, and that it has been very unproductive. He went a step further to say that he knows some human rights workers are helping Falun Gong to initiate more lawsuits and he felt that this was very encouraging.

During the two-day long discussions, Falun Gong practitioner and attorney Theresa Chu had the opportunity to brief Spain's Foreign Minister, H.E. Miguel Angel Moratinos Cuyaube, about the global lawsuit against Jiang, as well as the pending lawsuit against Jiang in Spain. The Foreign Minister indicated that he would pay attention to this matter. Furthermore, Attorney Chu discussed the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners with the United Nations European Committee Representatives. The lead European representative stated that he had seen the Falun Gong practitioners' anti-torture exhibits on New York's street corners and had already learned about the lawsuits against Jiang. He accepted a special edition of the report on the Global Lawsuits against Jiang from Attorney Chu .

Many conference attendees asked Attorney Chu about the persecution of Falun Gong after the meeting was over. After learning about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, the conference participants were very angry and saddened, and expressed their respect for the human rights work done by Falun Gong practitioners outside of mainland China. They also expressed their wishes that the persecution will come to an end quickly. When asked about whether the new leader would end the persecution, there was a feeling of uncertainty. Attorney Chu said, "Regardless of how the new leader looks at the issue, the legal team is certain that the trials to bring Jiang to justice will continue. He and those government officials who supported him in committing such a monstrous crime must be held responsible for their acts of genocide."