February 19, 2002

The long "hand of the Chinese government" is behind the unprecedented decision to ban followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement from the annual Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown, practitioners said Monday.

One day after being turned away from the Wentworth Avenue parade they've been part of for two straight years, Falun Gong followers threatened a lawsuit and demanded a public apology from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the parade's organizer.

Without evidence of a political conspiracy, University of Chicago administrator Stephen Gregory said it cannot be a coincidence that practitioners of a movement branded a [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted] by the Chinese government would be turned away from Chinese New Year parades in Chicago and New York.

"The question is why would the Benevolent Association violate U.S. law and Illinois law and create this huge problem for themselves unless there was a strong incentive--some means of persuasion used to ask them to do that," said Gregory, a Falun Gong practitioner.

"The hand of the Chinese government is behind this. I suspect the Chinese consulate asked the association to do this. The Chinese government wants to convince the people of China, as well as the immigrant population here, that Falun Gong is a bad thing. They use many different methods to do this. Their propaganda is not subtle."

Chinese Consul General Ruixing Wei could not be reached for comment. Stephen Quan, president of the Chinese association, did not return phone calls.

The parade controversy surrounds a group that was banned by the Chinese government in July 1999 because of the threat that its multimillion-member following and organizational prowess pose to Communist rule.

On Sunday, Falun Gong practitioners arrived in Chinatown hoping to participate, just as they have without incident for the last two years. Instead, organizers and police told them the group had been banned and threatened to have practitioners arrested if they stepped onto the street or stood on the sidewalk carrying banners. When Quan told them his hands were tied, they walked to Chinatown Square, put up their banners and did their exercises there.

"I am upset, angry, shocked that this could happen in Chicago in this land of freedom," said Warren Tai, a director of the Mid-USA Falun Dafa Association.

Gregory added, "It feels horrible. Here in the U.S., we take for granted that, if one of us wants to take part in a parade, we sign up and take part. Here in Chicago on Wentworth Avenue, we were suddenly told we didn't have that right. It's so out of place with what we, as Americans, take for granted."

Falun Gong says more than 300 of its followers have died of torture and abuse while in custody in China. Thousands more have been sent to prisons and labor camps, even though the [group] maintains that its philosophies and practices are aimed at promoting health and good citizenship.

On Monday, Tai charged that the "persecution" has spread to Chicago. Last summer, a Falun Gong practitioner here was beaten up at one of the group's regular Saturday demonstrations in front of the Chinese consulate by three unidentified Chinese men who drove up in a Mercedes, Tai said. On Dec. 22, another follower had his car set on fire in Chinatown, apparently because Falun Gong materials were inside, he said.

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