Chicago Tribune: China's battle leaps borders

Consulates lean on U.S. groups to shun Falun Gong

By Rudolph Bush and Rick Hepp, Tribune staff
reporters. Tribune staff reporter Alex Rodriguez
contributed to this report

February 22, 2002

Its fingerprints may not have been on the ouster of the Falun Gong from Chicago's Chinese New Year parade, but the Chinese government has moved to keep the spiritual movement out of events elsewhere in Illinois and the rest of the nation, stoking a debate over its influence outside its borders to suppress the movement.

Last year, the Chinese consulate in Chicago persuaded Decatur's mayor to withdraw a proclamation commemorating the movement. In Flushing, N.Y., this year, Falun Gong members were barred from the Chinese New Year parade after Chinese government officials
urged parade organizers to keep them out.

Falun Gong members accused Utah's governor of bowing to Chinese embassy demands and reneging on a decision to declare Jan. 8 "Falun Gong Day" in that state.

[…]

…. movement members say their exclusion from everything from ceremonial government resolutions to parades is part of a concerted effort by Beijing to stop Falun Gong from spreading its message worldwide.

"I see that the problem is the Chinese mainland government," said Leo Huang, one of the few members of the parade's organizing group to practice and support Falun Gong. "They are trying to stop [Falun Gong] worldwide and it seems to me they are coming into the Chinese community [in America]."

An amalgam of traditional Chinese exercises and Eastern religious teachings, the Falun Gong movement began in 1992 and gradually became viewed by the Chinese government as a political threat. Membership has been loosely estimated between several million and tens of millions.

Beijing outlawed the group in 1999, labelling it an "[slanderous term used by Chinese government]" Inside China, members have been imprisoned, and in some cases sentenced to up to 3-year terms in "re-education through labour" camps.

Outside China, Beijing has waged a public relations war against the movement, using its consulates to write letters to local governments and business associations with Falun Gong activities on their agendas.

Dressed in gold robes and massed at the staging grounds at Wentworth Avenue and 24th Street, the 80 Falun Gong members were turned away from Chinatown's annual New Year's parade shortly before it began.

Tien Liu, an influential Chinatown businessman and an association member who voted against Falun Gong's involvement in the parade, said 90 percent of the association is Taiwanese, and thus pays little heed to the Chinese government.

The movement was barred from the parade because "they make trouble. They go to the United Nations and make trouble," Liu said. "They protest [in Chinatown] and we don't have business. The Chinese businessmen don't like it."

Backers of the movement say the consulate has worked to sway Chinatown residents against the Falun Gong, and most likely exerted influence on the association's decision.

"To stop support for Falun Gong is the No.1 priority of the Chinese government," Huang said.

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http://chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0202220038feb22.story