President, State Department Asked to Investigate Flushing Hate Crimes

Falun Gong practitioner Wenyi Wang stands in front of the U.S. State Department headquarters. (Epoch Times)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Falun Gong practitioners met with representatives of the U.S. State Department on Friday, requesting that the U.S. government investigate and expel Chinese Consul General of New York Peng Keyu. A recording made public implicates Peng in recently inciting verbal and physical violence against practitioners of the peaceful spiritual practice, Falun Gong, in Flushing, New York City.

“Beijing has turned Chinese communities in the U.S. into its own backyard,” reads petition letters given to the representatives, addressed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George Bush. “The U.S. government should investigate who is behind the violence in Flushing, and expel Peng.”

Falun Gong practitioners met representatives from the China and Mongolia Desk and Asian Pacific Office of the State Department, who said they would investigate the incidents in Flushing. Evidence of the attacks was presented to the representatives, including photos, video footage, and eye witness accounts from people attacked.

Since May 17, mobs have threatened and sometimes violently attacked Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing. The Chinese Consulate of New York and local communist-friendly media played on the patriotic sentiment in the Chinese community after the large earthquake in Sichuan, China—inciting anger against Falun Gong practitioners with false claims that they were disrupting earthquake relief efforts.

Twelve from the mobs have been arrested, while no practitioners have been arrested. Flushing residents have also reported that they were offered money to publicly slander Falun Gong.

The practitioners’ petition asks for a full investigation of all of those involved in organizing and inciting the mob attacks in Flushing. Those implicated are expected to face criminal charges and/or deportation.

Dr. Wenyi Wang, one of those given death threats by the mob, shared her story.

“On May 19, 2008, two assailants beat me several times on my shoulder, arms, hands, and hit my camera,” said Wang, an Epoch Times reporter and Falun Gong practitioner. “One of the assailants even waved a shining and sharp metal object, while they hit me, and the assailant and others screamed, ‘Kill her! … I’m not kidding, I will kill you … You are all animals.’”

And the harassment and death threats didn’t end with that one incident.

“At 10:50 a.m. of the same day, I needed to pick up my car from the parking lot across from the Flushing library. More than 80 or 100 more thugs followed me around. One guy even jumped in between me and police, yelling out … ‘You and your family can no longer live in the Chinese community or come to Flushing. We will go after you and humiliate you wherever you go.’” 

Wang said she has experienced such open threats in public five times and has been surrounded by a mob of more than 200 people.