Statement to the Press: Explaining the battery incident that occured across from the Chinese consulate in the afternoon of September 7, 2001

September 8, 2001

This is the City of Chicago, Illinois, not the city of Shenyang, China. This is the land of Lincoln, not the land of Jiang Zemin.

Yesterday afternoon at around 4:40 p.m., right where we are standing today, there occurred an incident of a kind common in Shenyang, the sister city of Chicago in China, and common throughout the China of Jiang Zemin. Three thugs attacked three residents of Chicago -- Carolyn Lu, Bill Fang, and Yibing Huang -- for no reason other than that they are Falun Gong practitioners. Carolyn Lu was sexually harassed, threatened with beating, and then given death threats if anyone from Falun Gong reported what happened here yesterday. Bill Fang was brutally beaten and his camera smashed. Yibing Huang was chased after she rescued the film from the smashed camera, until these thugs realized that the police were coming. At that point, they fled.

This incident was a naked attempt to intimidate and silence the practitioners of Falun Gong here in Chicago. Why did this occur yesterday? The three who were attacked yesterday are on a hunger strike that helps to let the world know about the atrocities going on today in Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang City. This hunger strike has touched the hearts of the people of Chicago, and the friends of Jiang Zemin do not want that. Almost two weeks ago, a Falun Gong practitioner sued Zhou Yongkang, the provincial governor of Sichuan province in the District court here in Chicago for crimes against humanity. The friends of Jiang Zemin do not want to have to face law suits because they fear the truth that will come out in open court, and they fear the judgment of a democratic society.

But yesterday's incident was not the first of its kind here in Chicago. On July 13, the day here in the United States that the consulate celebrated China's successful Olympic bid, three men who came out of the consulate attacked and sexually harassed Falun Gong practitioners. Although they themselves were not employees of the consulate, their actions took place while a consular official looked on, and he did nothing to stop them. These two incidents of violence are part of a widespread and systematic campaign here in Chicago and throughout the United States to harass, intimidate and silence Falun Gong practitioners. This 62 page report, "Beyond National Boundaries: China's Harassment of Falun Practitioners in the United States" tells the truth about this campaign. Unfortunately, it only documents the tip of the iceberg of what the Chinese government has been up to.

We Falun Gong practitioners here in Chicago, the practitioners in China, and in 40 other countries from around the world join together today to say that we will not be intimidated, we will never be intimidated, and we will never be silenced. We will continue telling the truth about the crimes of Jiang Zemin against Falun Gong until those crimes stop, and until Falun Gong is restored to a safe and legal environment in China.

Of course, Chicago is not Shenyang. If this had been Shenyang, Carolyn Lu would not have been sexually harassed, she would have been raped. And the death threat would very well have been carried out. The beating of Bill Fang would not have stopped until the thugs were too tired to continue beating him. And there would not have been any police to rescue Yibing Huang. The police would have hunted her down.

Today we must make clear that the crimes against humanity that take place in Jiang Zemin's China, the attempt to dominate good and kind people with thuggery, have no place here in Chicago. We call upon the Chicago police force and the F.B.I. to investigate these hate crimes, and bring the criminals to justice. We call upon Mayor Daley and the City Council of Chicago to let Shenyang know that Chicago condemns the atrocities that go on there. We call upon the people of Chicago to speak up and let our Mayor, our City council, our congressmen, our president and the Consulate of the People's Republic of China know that this thuggery has no place on the streets of Chicago, nor in a great country like China. And we call upon the Consul-general of China to condemn what happened here yesterday. If he fails to do so, then the world will know that he approves of these crimes, and welcomes the attempt to deprive Americans of their basic rights through the actions of criminals.

Thank you.