Posted on 04/20/2006 4:43:09 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
A HECKLER from the Falun Gong spiritual movement, who entered White House grounds as a reporter, interrupted a formal arrival ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao today, prompting President George W. Bush to apologise to his guest.
After being welcomed by Mr Bush, the Chinese president was just beginning his response when a woman, who had been allowed into the press section, started shouting.
She was escorted away by a uniformed US guard.
"President Hu, your days are numbered. President Bush, make him stop persecuting Falun Gong," the woman yelled.
US officials later identified her as Wang Wenyi, 47, a reporter with The Epoch Times, an English-language publication strongly supportive of the meditation movement that is banned in China.
"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.
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.
"Communist Party = Tyranny + Lies", read a yellow banner, carried by one female member of Falun Gong, which China outlawed and brutally crushed in 1999.
"Taiwan is not a part of China," read a placard hoisted by one of around 300 Taiwan activists, who reject China's claim of sovereignty over the island. Tibetans, mostly US-based students, called for independence for their homeland.
A US official said Mr Hu's team was probably offended by the incident.
"The hardliners on 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.
Mr Zahren of the Secret Service said the woman had passed through "all appropriate levels of security", including a metal detector. She was allowed into the event under a temporary press pass.
Falun Gong, which thrives overseas despite being largely stamped out in China, alleges that government persecution of the group includes a vast system of concentration camps, where doctors harvest inmates' organs for transplants.
China has vehemently denied this, but a UN investigator is examining the allegation.
In remarks at Mr Hu's arrival ceremony, Mr Bush did not mention Falun Gong, but he said he would discuss human rights.
He urged Mr Hu to allow "the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely and to worship".
I'm sure she would say to her guest "It's freedom of speech, and you deserved the criticism".(/sarcasm)
</sarcasm>
And Reagan would have apologized also.
BTW, you do know Reagan signed total amnesty. According to your rhetoric that makes him a "coward/traitor".
Dollars to donuts, I bet that W knew she was there all along, and it was his way of sticking an untraceable finger in Hu's eye.
No one really thinks that there weren't background checks done on everyone there, right?
Thank you.
And, if I may paraphrase: By their fruits you will know them.
Dane, I do realize you are a very busy jumping from thread to thread and aren't able to read them all in order to do your hard work to promote your agenda, however, if you did have the time, you would have seen I wrote to the pastor:
I understand where you would think as a Christian, George Bush would be protecting Christians all over the world but I also understand his response. Bush gets all kinds of similar attacks throughout the world when he visits other countries. This person is our guest and like it or not, China has a mutual relationship with the US. I don't think this was the time or place to protest.
Hey, I do agree with our President sometimes and I think he did the right thing here. It would be rude to allow this kind of animosity in our home (the US) uh which by the way, belongs to the citizens thereof...but that is another discussion.
Good point!!
Mexico: We need inexpensive labor.
China: We need inexpensive toys and liver transplants.
Frankly, they're doing a piss poor job of it if they are the one's in charge. They should be for lesser government as I understand it.
I'm a big boy. I've been called worse
I've read your posts, I thought you were a girl, a drama queen to be exact.
Wow, is your screen name a misnomer...
She was paid by the dems to embarrass the President. Right DU?
I read great things about you in Bill Sammon's Strategy on Tuesday night! Way to Go!
Folks who complain about our China policy really don't lay out good alternatives. Cutting off trade won't cut it. That is not a realistic option in a global economy. In fact, over time it won't work at all, unless we ban trade with all nations who themselves trade with China, or have Chinese made content in their products.
Meanwhile, the "coward" Bush is beefing up Pacific defenses, and solidifying military relationships with Japan to keep China in check, and spending a lot of money to do that. I read that in the Wall Street Journal today.
One can criticize Bush on a lot of actions and policies, and I do myself, but intemperate attacks persuade no one. It just isn't effective.
How do these hooligans get in our glorious spider hole? Don't they know that there are no "free speech zones" near our rulers? /sarc
The Chinese people deserve freedom. It's obvious Americans no longer want it and are throwing more of it away every day. It won't be long before Americans have to go to China to have a politician hear them protest.
"But now"?
GMAB.
Reagan went to China. The Chineese came here to see Reagan. But now because Bush has the Chineese to the W.H., you a "lifelong Republican" will no longer be one.
Ya know the latest bit of Democrat propaganda directed toward conservatives is the false notion that "things were good in the Republican party, but now they aren't".
And you sop it up.
Maybe if the majority of people in this country were for less government, then more RINO's would be for less government.
After scanning your home page, and your rants on this thread, I simply do not believe you.
Whole heartedly agree. So will most Freepers after their righteous indignation has subsided. Sure there are some horrible things happening in China.
Can we give the President a pass? After all the wicked doings of the so-called "Red Guards" are now over. What a horror that was- talk about Hitler's crowd of SS, these young Chinese dupes,were as bad or worse. Could it be that the Chinese President is a vast improvement on what was previously?
Your President is the leader of the free world. At that point (of the heckling) he was the number one ambassador, of what is left of the free world.
God bless and preserve him.
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