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.
And in Chinatown Sunday, where the controversial movement has both loyal practitioners and vocal critics, organizers of the Chinese New Year parade through the streets of Chinatown insisted that they barred 80 Falun Gong members solely to keep politics out of the event, not because of any pressure from the city’s Chinese consul.
“The very idea that the [Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association] which is fervently anti-Communist, was a willing participant with the Chinese consulate is like the joke of the century,” said Elaine Sit, legal adviser for the association, the parade’s organizer.
Officials with the Chinese consulate denied playing any role in what happened Sunday.
Nevertheless, 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, labeling it an “evil cult.” Inside China, members have been imprisoned, and in some cases sentenced to up to 3-year terms in “re-education through labor” 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.
Shishun Shen, a spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, denied that the consulate was involved in the association’s decision but called the group’s exclusion from the parade “a positive development. Falun Gong is not welcome in the Chinese community.”
Beijing has tried to engender that sentiment across the U.S. Earlier this month in Flushing, N.Y., a spokesman for the Chinese consulate in New York had a letter published in a local Chinese newspaper that urged the parade’s organizing committee to “think seriously” about its decision to allow Falun Gong to participate.
“It’s not wise [for] the sponsors to allow the Falun Gong to participate in this parade. It is for legitimate organizations,” said the consulate spokesman, Tang Win. Shortly afterward, the group’s parade application was denied.
Terry Howley, Decatur’s mayor, backed off plans to declare the week of Jan. 21, 2001, as Falun Dafa Week–Falun Dafa is another name for Falun Gong–after the Chinese government mailed him a large packet that described the movement as an evil cult that incites suicide among its members.
Howley decided against the proclamation, telling the Chicago consulate and Decatur residents in a letter that “in light of your correspondence, I believe it is in the best interests of the city that official proclamations … will only occur for events and organizations represented in the community.”
