This is an update to an earlier JMBzine post
I just did a bit of google searching and as it turns out Wenyi Wang has been speaking out for freedom for the persecuted practicioners of Falon Gong for some time, and has faced persecution from the tyranical totalitarian/uber-capitalist PROC regime for some time (btw, that was not a typo. One of China’s great failings is their continuation of totalitarian tactics while also adopting the evils of capitalism… which by the dictionary definition has made them a fascist state, as capitalism coupled with total state control creates a world in which all power lies in the rich)
The Epoch Times: Chinese Consulate Denies Doctor’s Passport
NEW YORK — Standing on the corner of 42nd Street and 12th Avenue, Dr. Wenyi Wang refused to eat all day in protest. Wang said that when her father died from heart problems on May 3, she knew she had to go back to her hometown in northeast China for the funeral. The problem was getting there.
The Chinese Consulate of New York, which Wang stood outside of, refused to renew her Chinese passport, making it impossible for her to return home or visit any other country besides Canada.
“The reason is simple. I have very actively criticized the Chinese regime for their persecution of Falun Gong practitioners,†said Wang, a permanent U.S. resident and physician at Mount Sinai Hospital, in an open letter to the public. . .
ClearWisdom.net: Who is Behind the Denial of Wenyi Wang’s Press Card?
Not having a press card did not stop Ms. Wang. While on a quiet walk off the beaten path, she happened upon Jiang Zemin taking a stroll. She asked him to stop killing Falun Gong practitioners.
(Jiang Zemin was the prior PROC President)
Also here’s some more coverage of today’s arrest of Wenyi. I am appalled that the Secret Service is actually prosecuting her for this, particularly for “intimidating a foreign official.” Well maybe Hu needed to be intimidated by the power of the people!
Newswire.co.nz: US Arrests Falun Gong Protestor
A Falun Gong protester who heckled Chinese President Hu Jintao on the White House lawn today is to be charged with disorderly conduct and “intimidating” a foreign official.
The US Secret Service says Wang Wenyi, who was working as a reporter for Falun Gong’s United States-based newspaper Epoch Times, shouted pro-Falun Gong slogans as Mr Hu made brief remarks before he held talks with US President George Bush. . .
Wang was a pathologist who researched claims by Falun Gong that thousands of its followers in Chinese concentration camps have been killed and had their organs harvested and sold.
The Age (Australia): Heckler embarrasses presidents
. . . “This was unfortunate and I’m sorry this happened,” Mr Bush told Mr Hu, according to Dennis Wilder, a senior official with the National Security Council.
The Secret Service charged Ms Wang with disorderly conduct under local statutes.
The US Attorney’s office was weighing federal charges of “willing intimidation or disruption of a foreign official”, said Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren.
In China, authorities blacked out television feeds as Ms Wang heckled Mr Hu. CNN International said its signal to China was interrupted twice: when Ms Wang was shouting and later, when the network reported the incident.
The websites of the state-run China Central Television and the official Xinhua news agency made no mention of the protest. Both said that Mr Bush “held a solemn ceremony to welcome” Mr Hu.
Outside the White House, hundreds of yellow-clad Falun Gong disciples, Taiwanese nationalists, and Tibetan youth group members demonstrated against Mr Hu and his Government.
The protesters denounced China’s human rights record, its missile build-up near Taiwan and its 55-year-long rule over the Himalayan Buddhist region of Tibet.
A US official said Mr Hu’s team was probably offended by the incident.
“The hardliners on Mr Hu’s team are going to ask, why did it take so long for us to pick her up. It is not a good thing,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Drudge Report.com: HU HECKLED ON SOUTH LAWN: ‘YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED’
. . . On China TV: As Hu was speaking when yells of protesters became audible, the screen went black. When the feed came back the screen once again went black when woman was again heard. During CNN International’s post-speech commentary, at mention of south lawn heckler, the screen also went black again. The CNN feed returned when the incident ended. . .
Just wait, give it a few years and CNN will do the same thing here in the US of A.
Also here’s some op-ed commentary on this…
Yahoo News/Huffington Post: President Bush Stands Up for Free Speech by Standing Up – by Bob Cesca
. . . In fact, during this morning’s event, President Bush urged President Hu to allow his people to speak freely. What a coincidence that a Chinese woman at the event would take the president up on his challenge.
“President Bush, stop him from killing! Stop persecuting the
Falun Gong! President Bush, stop him!” she shouted while CNN anchors expressed pity for… the president.CNN’s coverage: “An embarrassing moment, potentially, for the president.” Then Miles O’Brien reacted, “I should say amid the pomp and circumstance — a blemish.” A Chinese woman expressing her views to the Chinese president in the only forum possible — she certainly couldn’t do that in China — is a blemish? Yes, it was a pimple on the ass of such a wonderful event; an event which will usher in an era of more American jobs going overseas to communist controlled sweatshops. Dag. How dare she interrupt such pomp with all that annoying pus-filled free speech!
Back to the president. You’d figure since he’s been called by God to protect and ensure the liberty of all people, he’d have the courage of his faith and convictions to do or say something. Perhaps he could’ve waved off the Secret Service agents who hauled her away. He could’ve invited her to address President Hu in a more official setting. This could’ve been his moment to put his money where his mouth is.
Wizbang: China’s President Hu Heckled at Arrival Ceremony
The incident took place immediately after Mr Bush urged President Hu to allow Chinese to “speak freely”.
The Chinese leader, unaccustomed to such public protests, stopped speaking briefly until Mr Bush lent over and reassured him. Later Mr Bush personally apologised for the incident.
So, Ms. Wang was arrested for doing what Bush recommended. And what’s with the “intimidating a foreign official” charge? How ridiculous.
Again I am no fan of George Bush and his cowardly behavior today doesn’t do much to change my opinion. Again, Bush should have been the one to condemn Hu for putting his people in concentration camps for the “crime” of choosing a spiritual path. Bush’s failure to do this made Wenyi’s action a moral imperative. God bless her for having the courage to speak truth to both of the tyrants who were on the South Lawn.
And here’s one more news story that highlights Bush’s complete lack of backbone in standing up to this tyrant…
Washington Post: Bush, Hu Produce Summit of Symbols — Protester Screams At Chinese President
Emphasis added is my own:
In private, aides said, Bush raised the case of a North Korean asylum seeker, Kim Chun Hee, who was deported back to her homeland despite Chinese obligations under U.N. refugee conventions. He asked again about a list of Chinese political prisoners that he first gave Hu during a meeting at the United Nations in September and gave a new list of six detainees he hopes will be released. But Bush did not mention the persecution of Falun Gong, even with hundreds of its followers outside the White House banging drums, holding up banners and chanting, “Stop the killing, stop the torture.”
That was not enough to satisfy Baihua Zhou, 49, a software engineer from Ohio, who was among hundreds of protesters on Pennsylvania Avenue. On her chest she wore a picture of a mutilated corpse whose organs had been sold off, representing what Falun Gong says is a campaign of abuse and murder of believers in China.
“We want to expose these crimes to the world,” she said, comparing Hu to a murderer. “If he wants to invite him to his house, President Bush has to say what is right to say, not just to please him. He has to tell him the people’s concerns.”
President Bush is a joke, but if he wants to redeem himself he can start by giving Wenyi a Presidential pardon (she now faces six months in prison for the “crime” of speaking the truth to power) and then appologizing for her for silencing her when she was saying the very things he should have been saying.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-4-20/40651.html
Here’s a statement from the news outlet that gave Wenyi a press pass. I understand I guess why they had to condemn her misuse of a press pass, but they then did a good job of explaining why Wenyi’s action was in many ways justifiable…
“. . . However, while The Epoch Times does not approve of the methods used by Dr. Wang, we think the world does need to understand what might have moved a respected medical professional such as Dr. Wang to take such unconventional actions.
The Epoch Times has reported that, based on the statements of doctors performing organ transplants in China, in the next eleven days thousands of Falun Gong practitioners will be slaughtered in China in a particularly horrifying manner: through having their organs harvested while they are still living. The only hope for saving the lives of these practitioners lies in bringing sufficient pressure to bear on the Chinese regime.
The Epoch Times broke the story on March 9 of how about 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners had been held in a civil defense facility next door to a hospital complex in the Sujiatun District of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province in northeastern China. According to sources, thousands of these practitioners had been killed through having their organs harvested while they were alive.
Our original sources for this story were two brave individuals who had fled China: a Chinese journalist who had worked for a Japanese TV station covering northeastern China, and the former wife of a surgeon who had performed organ harvesting at Sujiatun .
Subsequent investigations, made by calling doctors and staff at hospitals performing organ transplants revealed that what had happened at Sujiatun was not an aberration. Rather, it was the tip of the iceberg.
Doctors at hospitals in eight different provinces and cities readily volunteered in phone interviews in which investigators posed as patients needing organs that:
* the organs were of the highest quality because they came from living human beings;
* an organ could be procured within a day or two of a patient presenting him or herself at the hospital; and
* the organs were being taken from Falun Gong practitioners.
Tapes of these conversations are available for listening.
Upon The Epoch Times publishing the news of this organ harvesting, we learned that the Chinese regime quickly transferred the remaining practitioners out of the facility at Sujiatun and devised a cover-up. . . “
JMB – I know you feel strongly about this, but I wanted to share another perspective that you hopefully wont see as completely insensitive. I happen to agree with Wang’s position if that makes a difference. On the protestors getting hauled away thing — I’m not sure how I feel about that. I am not a fan of the way China does things and think Mr. Hu is pretty much scum. But then at the same time I have to consider that there is a time and a place for protests (hear me out). This is not to say that freedom of speech can only be used in very particular circumstances. But, it’s no new consideration that one person’s freedoms can only go so far before they are invading someone else’s. Think of silly things like noise ordinances. The people in the apartment under mine I guess have the right to be loud and smoke cigarettes. But I also have the right sleep at night without someone else filling my apartment with noise and smoke. So they make laws about this. Heckling (as I’ve seen several news stories describe it) a leader in the middle of an address, to me, might just be going too far into someone else’s “freedom territory,†so to speak. There is something to civil disobedience. It has won many battles. I am not against civil disobedience in the least, as long as you aren’t infringing on someone’s freedom. But there are many who considered the talk today at the White House an important one. Would it be 100% fair to them to allow Wang to continue into total disruption? Or would it have turned into a blatant infringement on the rights of Mr. Hu (who really cares? Not me, but it’s a legal thing). I don’t really know. Anyway – hero? yes; bad person? no; should have been left completely alone and allowed to continue? no.
I will say this: I’m not sure I blame Bush so much for refusing to step in when the Secret Service nabbed the protestor. Doing that would have been setting a pretty big precedent, and I’m not totally sure he had a way of knowing that some form of violence might not ensue (circumstances haven’t been made completely clear to me). BUT, nevertheless, I DO blame him for not standing up for what Wang was standing up for himself, in his own diplomatic way. There is no excuse for that. It is his duty. He should take this incident as a big hint. And no, he shouldn’t have apologized for the incident either.
Anyway, this line of thinking carries over a bit to my graduation complaint. Sorry for the lengthy comment.
Wenyi Wang’s arrest is especially sad, given Bush’s statements regarding freedom for the Chinese people. He said to Wu, “China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely and to worship.†Then, on the heels of that statement, Wenyi Wang is arrested for fighting for those freedoms, by using one of them…
http://www.cafepress.com/FreeWenyiWang
I certainly can see why Bush would have to have her removed from the event (I agree that it would make a bad precedent to allow folks to disrupt White House events), but I’m not sure the wisdom of adding the extra charges of “intimidating a foreign official,” and I certainly think Bush went to far in making a big show of appologzing to President Hu.
Probably my own feelings about it would be very similiar to the statement that her newspaper issued about her arrest (this was linked to in the first comment on this blog post). Wenyi violated journalist ethics by her action, but arguably the cause was of such a grievious nature that her action was justified.
I’ll give you another example. A couple of years I participated in a civil disobedience action at the state capitol. All of us who were advocating for the life of the accused (I don’t want to go into a long story, but there was some unique legal facts on this case that made it an exception situation) had tried numerous times to meet with Governor Henry, but he refused to meet with us. So what we did was that we let the Capitol Police know what we were going to do, asked to see the Governor in person, and then we respectfully and non-violently “crossed the line” at the Governor’s office by walking past the front desk where we were met by an officer who cited us for “interfering with state business.”
Obviously, I normally don’t support interfering with state business, but I felt in such a case that sometimes it is appropriate to cross the line beyond what might normally be legal or civil behavior.
Anyway I feel that Wenyi’s case was of a similiar nature.
Dr. Wang is the lead researcher for Epoch Times NY’s conveniently timed “Sujiatun Auschwitz” allegation that has since being discredited:
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=April&x=20060416141157uhyggep0.5443231&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
Given Dr. Wang’s profession as a pathologist, and New York’s recent string of grisly illegal cadaver organ harvesting cases, it’s not hard to see how she put two and two together and rehashed the 1970’s era anti-communist tall tale of people sentenced to vivisection.
The brave doctor was right all along…The report showing evidence that the Falun Gong have been butchered for their organs is out-they take the corenas, the two kidneys, then the liver, etc… A full copy of the report can be viewed at: http://investigation.redirectme.net/
Media Advisory, July 7, 2006
David Kilgour and David Matas respond to the Chinese government
statement
—————-
See more coverage on this topic:
http://ahdu88.blogspot.com/2006/07/2008-beijing-olympics-why-bother.html
http://ahdu88.blogspot.com/2006/07/canadian-report-confirms-chinas.html
—————-
The Government of China released a statement in response to our report titled *Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China* dated July 6, 2006. The statement can be found at http://www.chinaembassycanada.org . We have these reactions to this statement:
1. The statement of the Government of China was released the same day as our Report. The statement of the Government of China dismisses our Report out of hand. We view this reaction is unconsidered. It means that the Government of China has engaged in no investigations to determine whether or not what the report contains is true.
2. The statement of the Government of China begins with the phrase
“In order to extricate itself from an awkward position after its lie about “Sujiatun Concentration Camp” has been laid bare, Falun Gong has shifted…”
This phrase is incorrect in a number of different ways. First, it suggests that our Report is a Falun Gong report. Yet, it is not. We are not Falun Gong practitioners. We did this report as volunteers and were not paid for this report by Falun Gong or anyone. Our report represents our own judgment. We have not acted on the instructions of Falun Gong or anyone else in coming to the conclusions we did.
3. The assertions about Sujiatun Concentration Camp to which the Chinese statement refers originated from the ex-wife of a surgeon at Sujiatun Hospital. This person is not a Falun Gong practitioner. This person has not changed or shifted her story at any time. David Kilgour interviewed her. An excerpt of the interview can be found at Appendix 13 of our report.
4. It is our own opinion, expressed in our report, that this woman was not lying. We concluded that she was credible.
5. In our report we did not rely on this witness alone to come to our conclusions. In our report, this is what we said about the testimony of this witness:
“The testimony of the wife of the surgeon allegedly complicit in Falun Gong organ harvesting seemed credible to us, partly because of its extreme detail. However, that detail also posed a problem for us, because it provided a good deal of information which it was impossible to
corroborate independently. We were reluctant to base our findings on sole source information. So, in the end, we relied on the testimony of this witness only where it was corroborative and consistent with other evidence, rather than as sole source information.”
Our report is not a shift from what this witness says, but rather an expansion, with a larger focus than just Sujiatun Hospital.
6. The Chinese statement then says:
“It is obvious that their purpose is to smear China’s image.” We reply that we have no wish to smear China’s image. Our sole concerns are respect for the truth and human rights.
7. The Chinese statement then says: “China has consistently abided by the relevant guiding principles of the World Health Organization endorsed in 1991, prohibiting the sale of human organs and stipulating that donors’ written consent must be obtained beforehand and donors are entitled to refuse the donation at last minute.”
This statement that China made is denied by the facts. The China International Transplantation Network Assistance Centre Website until April of this year set out a price list for transplants. The price list was removed from the website in April, but is still archived. To see the web site now, go to http://en.zoukiishoku.com . To see the archived site, go to
http://archive.edoors.com/render.php?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fen.zoukiishoku.com%2Flist%2Fcost.htm+&x=16&y=11
.
As well, many individuals can attest to paying for organ transplants in China.
8. The statement that China has consistently abided by the principle stipulating that donors’ written consent must be obtained beforehand is also belied by the facts. Human Rights Watch has reported that consent is obtained from executed prisoners in only a minority of cases. The
organization writes that even in this minority of cases “the abusive circumstances of detention and incarceration in China, from the time a person is first accused of a capital offense until
the moment of his or her execution, are such as to render absurd any notion of “free and voluntary consent.”
*Organ Procurement and Judicial Execution in China*, August 1994
9. The China statement goes on to say:
“China has issued a regulation on human organ transplants, explicitly banning the sale of organs and introducing a set of medical standards for organ transplants in an effort to guarantee medical safety and the health of patients. The regulation requires medical institution which is qualified for practising human organ transplant to register at provincial level health department. Unregistered medical institutions are forbidden to practice human organ transplant. If the government finds any registered institution violating the regulation, it will cancel the registration and punish the people responsible.”
We acknowledge that this is so, and wrote about it in our Report. We also noted that this legislation came into force only a few days ago on July 1st. It is not an answer to our findings about what happened before that date. Moreover, in China, there is a huge gap between enacting legislation and enforcing it.
10. The Government of China then writes:
“It is very clear that Falun Gong’s rumour has ulterior political motives.”
None of our findings are based on rumour. Every finding we make is sourced and independently verifiable.
11. The China statement then says:
“Therefore, the so called “independent investigation report” made by a few Canadians based on rumours and false allegations is groundless and biased. We do believe that lies are always lame, and will never become the truth even if being repeated 1000 times. We hope that the Canadian people will not be deceived by the disguise of the Falun Gong, and more people will be aware of the nature of “Falun Gong” as an evil cult.”
This conclusion is an attack both on us and Falun Gong. The Report has to be judged on its merits. Attacking its authors is not an appropriate response.
Secondly calling the Falun Gong an evil cult exemplifies the vilification heaped on the Falun Gong. It is this sort of slander which, in China, depersonalizes and dehumanizes the Falun Gong and makes possible the violation of their basic human rights.
Calling a group of innocent civilians an “evil cult” is a form of incitement to hatred, unacceptable in Canada. It is an abuse of their diplomatic presence in China for China to engage in this form of incitement.
For more information, please contact:
David Kilgour: (613) 747-7854 David Matas: (204) 944-1831