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".
Bush has half the world pissed off at him as it is.
Your plan seems to be to piss off the other half too.
You were speaking of rationality, I believe?
This president has done more than any politician in the world to eradicate Radical Islam. And you sit there behind you little computer keyboard and complain that this president took his shoes off.
Pathetic.
And cowards, to boot.
See post 112. Extremism in the pursuit of liberty makes for predictable election defeat. And the freaks wonder why nobody takes them seriously as a voting block.
See, montag, Bush is president of ALL the American people. After 9/11, he went out of his way to make American Muslims feel that haters like you weren't representative of the American public.
He's done a pretty good job of that, too.
$
Well ... here you have the remaining Bush base ... personality cultists.
I supported Reagan because he was conservative. And even when he sold out, his rhetoric didn't insult my limited intelligence.
Bush is continuing the policy begun by Nixon, and continued by every president afterwards. Ronald Reagan even went to China.
True supporters of Ronald Reagan don't bash President Bush.
They probably think that Bush should have "punched" Hu in the nose.
(BTW, you're return-the-hyperbole punch-in-the-nose response about Bush and Fox last week was priceless.) :)
The capture of the Reagan moniker game seems just so well, useless. Apples and oranges, different issues, different challenges, different limitations. Yes, Bush tends to be inarticulate in set speeches, and Reagan was the master in his prime. (Neither were/are that great in press conferences.) And that matters. But such is life. JMO.
No I despise Communist Dictators of any nationality. What about you? There are many good Chinese in China. Ones who in order to even worship GOD with friends and family risk their very lives doing so.
Bush is continuing the policy begun by Nixon, and continued by every president afterwards. Ronald Reagan even went to China.
I think Bush's relationship with China is far beyond what Nixon, or Reagan would have ever done or allowed without first having seen substancial concessions. I would expect Carter and Slick Willie to pander to them. Remember this? http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a376698f33527.htm Yes the conditions still exist in China as they did when that thread was posted. Where's the outrage?
OH BTW I almost forgot. Great spin and diversion tactic taking my post to you saying the woman was a Medical Doctor in China likely with legit press pass and making it look like I hate Chinese. :>}
So Dennis Wilder is the source of the President's quote?
Interesting;
I understand they enjoyed a delicious kidney pie for lunch.
Bush has been the strongest on Taiwan.
Why is Bush so right-on sharp, often spontaneously, then gives his critics credibility when he's so seemingly stupid when something like this comes along?
Today we invited two medical professionals; one is Dr. Wang Wenyi, who earned her medical doctor's degree from the Department of Pharmacology, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. She was also a medical doctor in China. Now she is the chief editor of Medical Life , a journal published in North America.
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