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".
Really? Have you read the latest stuff on Beslan? Putin is dragging his feet on an investigation to protect officials who did nothing to stop the rebel Chechens from taking over the school.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. That's a wise goombah piece of advice.
The judges wanted to let you know that yours has qualified as the "Dumbest Post of the Day." A list of the fabulous prizes is forthcoming.
This doesn't make any sense. Jack Daniels, is that you?
I'd hardly call Hu Jintao a tyrant. His people are enjoying an increasing standard of living each year, and more rights like property rights then they had in the past.
People complain about the lack of democracy, but in most places democracy gives leaders like Hillary Clinton, and then people are left in poverty.
I'm not quite sure why you are so outspoken in defending the Chinese communists here.
You aren't being objective in any way.
China was once far more evil, but weak. Now it is less evil, but less weak. The sum of the two is a subject of dispute, but what is more in dispute, is what the sum of the two factors will be in the future. If only we knew!
Freedom of the press is now gone in Russia. How would you know the level of Putin thuggery inside Russia?
BTW, internationally there isn't a thug Putin doesn't like.
I don't need to say more. Let your own words show your poverty.
I'm not "defending" anything. I recognize, as has every president since Nixon, that we have to deal with the Chinese. You want belligerence, and that doesn't work with your largest trading partner.
The President did the right thing in apologising to the head of another Nation.Being Diplomatic is part of his job.
My guess is that the charges will be quietly dropped in a couple of weeks....and it will just fade away.
Between the forming peasant revolt in the small villages and farms of China...and the growing middle class...Communism will be dead in CHina in 10 years anyway.
redrock
Please don't say anymore. Many will be eternally grateful.
just wow, the level of commie asskissing is amazing
I look at it like this. For China to become powerful it will have to keep putting in the institutions of free markets. Strong property rights, intellectual property and so on. With property rights comes other, real human rights.
A China that is free market, free trade and so on, is mainly going to be interested in international stability and keeping trade routes open.
If on the other hand China stops the reforms, then it won't gain the strength to be a superpower.
Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, "protected people," are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur'an's command that they "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, is part of the law that global jihadists are laboring to impose everywhere, ultimately on the entire human race. "
Dhimmi Watch
R. J. Rummel has a very good blog on the problem with Islamofascists; Iran—The Leader of Islamist Terrorism
After reading that check out this site; Jihad Watch
Then convince me that moderate Islam is in control as I'm having some doubts about it.
1)The person broke the law.
2)Illegal immigrants break the law.
3)A bank robber robs a bank and gets caught.
4)All should be punished.
See....I'm consistent.
redrock
Waffen SS
KGB
Stasi
You are a statist bootlicker
Maybe, communism in China will be dead in 10 years or maybe it won't. Maybe our current foreign policy toward China will work or maybe it won't.
But yes, all should understand that our foreign policy toward China is based on the assumption that the middle class in China is increasing and that a government can't control the freedoms of 1.4 billion people forever.
So, economically we feed China.
Then convince me that moderate Islam is in control as I'm having some doubts about it.
A 'moderate' is one who has run out of ammunition.
She's with a News agency. At least she's trying to get the truth out. Good for her. I just regret that Bush apologized to Hu.
'Nuff said.
redrock
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