Jiang Zemin's Political Tentacles Reach San Diego

On Wednesday, August 29, 2001, a public event was publicized in the paper. People were invited to join the Ambassador from China, Yang Jiechi, to celebrate China's hosting of the 2008 Olympics. Seven practitioners went to the restaurant with the intention of giving the Ambassador a letter asking him to remind his government about the murderous crackdown on Falun Gong. The letter was entitled: "Stop the violence against peaceful Falun Gong practitioners! Stop spreading hatred against Falun Gong! Stop destroying the lives of good people!" One practitioner also brought Chrysanthemums, the traditional flower of mourning, for the Ambassador.

After the practitioners were seated at the restaurant and had already been set up with service and tea, a man wearing a red star [some type of insignia to represent he was from Mainland China and held authority], whom we believed to be security, approached us practitioners aggressively demanding to know if we were with Falun Gong. Since we felt this interrogation was an unwarranted violation of our privacy, we had nothing to tell him. This hostile individual started taking our pictures. One of the practitioners took his photo too, went up to him and asked him who he was and why he was taking our pictures. He admitted he was a reporter for the China Daily News. The practitioner asked for his business card, which he gave her. Clearly, he was Daming Li, indeed only a staff reporter for the China Daily News. It was puzzling that he felt it was his duty to masquerade as security staff for the Ambassador.

Soon, the owner, instigated by the reporter appeared at our table looking flustered. He stammered and made up an alibi that he needed the table and chairs where we were seated, claimed this was a private event and asked us to leave. Not wanting to create a commotion or compromise our intention of delivering the letter to the Ambassador we left the restaurant and went out to the parking lot to wait. Soon a Sergeant from the San Diego Police Department approached and told us that the owner had indicated to him that the event was a private party and that we had to leave the premises. He advised us that if we did not, we could be arrested. He told us we could go to the sidewalk and if we walked around there, we could display our placards. We had no placards or signs just the letter and flowers. The Sergeant could see we meant no harm and offered to go tell the Ambassador or an assistant that we wanted to deliver a letter to him. While we were discussing the matter with the police, the Ambassador arrived. Many people prominent in the Chinese community were present. Acting as if they had to "protect" the Ambassador, they formed a wall of people four or five feet deep so the Ambassador would not see us. We never got to deliver our letter or the flowers and so we left shortly thereafter.

Evidently, the reporter and the restaurant owner do not know that the California law applies to our situation in the form of the Unruh Civil Rights Act. Section 51 of the California Civil Code guarantees equal rights in business establishments. The law states, "All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, or national origin are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever." People cannot be barred arbitrarily from a public accommodation.

The next day articles started appearing in several Chinese papers about us. The slant of the articles was that we were intent on causing serious trouble and so threatening that the Chinese community had to "form a human chain" to protect the Ambassador and other really laughable and untruthful allegations. The photo the China Daily News printed, supposedly to prove the point of how threatening we were, showed three of us in the parking lot relaxed and smiling. The article in the xx Party paper, however, said we were Falun Gong "fighters," never smiled and that we were anything but truthful, benevolent or tolerant. The reporter even went so far as to say we "threatened" him. He also alleged we were intent on serving the Ambassador with a lawsuit. Of course we know the Ambassador has diplomatic immunity and never considered any such action. We did consider initiating a lawsuit against the reporter or his paper or against the restaurant owner for slander, for defamation and for discrimination under the Unruh Act! These lying articles printed in the Chinese language papers about the Ambassador's visit, however, are but a drop in the bucket compared to the torrents of lies pouring out each day to conceal the death toll from torture (now well over 270 Falun Gong practitioners have died in police custody), the inhuman persecution of thousands upon thousands of practitioners and the complete deprivation of human rights of Falun Gong, Tibetan monks, Christians and other spiritually-minded people under the atheistic regime of Jiang Zemin.