Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Texas Hotel tosses out Falun Gong reservations - China Jiang Visit
Houston Chronicle ^ | 10-23-02 | DALE LEZON

Posted on 10/24/2002 11:21:20 AM PDT by tallhappy

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State


Oct. 23, 2002, 12:37PM

Another hotel tosses out Falun Gong reservations

Inter-Continental denies pressure from China

By DALE LEZON

Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

Two Galleria-area hotels have canceled reservations of Falun Gong practitioners in Houston to demonstrate against

Chinese President Jiang Zemin when he visits here this week.

"I don't understand what the problem is," said Lisa Nappi, a Falun Gong practitioner from Virginia. "This is America. This is a free

land."

Practitioners from around the world have come to Houston to peacefully protest what they consider Jiang's attempt to

eliminate their belief system. They say the Chinese government pressured the hotels to cancel their reservations because Jiang does

not like Falun Gong. The hoteliers said the Chinese government did not contact them.

Late Tuesday night, several hundred practitioners had a candlelight vigil outside the Inter-Continental Hotel, hoping to rent a

conference room there. Their contract to rent the room had been canceled earlier in the day.

"We think this is discrimination against Falun Gong practitioners," said John Nania, a practitioner visiting from Minneapolis,

Minn.

Tuesday, practitioners planned a meeting in the conference room, but late in the afternoon, hotel

staff said the practitioners did not show up on time. Jiang is scheduled to stay at the

hotel, in the 2200 block of West Loop South, beginning today.

Monday, practitioners said about 50 of their reservations were canceled at the Homestead Studio Suites next door to the

Inter-Continental. A Homestead spokeswoman said the hotel had overbooked the rooms and offered the practitioners accommodations at

the company's other Houston hotels.

Nappi said she paid $3,710 to use the conference room at Inter-Continental. She booked the room several weeks ago under the name of

her nonprofit group, FGM Public Media Inc., which she said produces programs about Falun Gong and traditional Chinese culture.

But late Tuesday, a hotel representative told her the reservation was canceled.

Inter-Continental spokeswoman Pamela Gilbert said Nappi's

group did not show up until about 3 p.m. but their contract required they begin at 6 a.m. The hotel returned the money to Nappi.

Gilbert said hotel management did not know that Nappi's company was connected to Falun Gong until some members asked to

be let into the conference room for their meeting Tuesday.

Gilbert also said that some practitioners asked hotel managers several weeks ago if they could protest on the property when Jiang

arrived.

Hotel staff did not want Falun Gong to use the room, saying the hotel "reserves the right" to protect its guests from disturbances,

Gilbert said.

"Since they had requested to protest earlier, we decided not to set up the (conference) room again," Gilbert said.

Monday, Falun Gong practitioners who had reserved rooms at the Homestead Studio Suites said hotel staff told them the

reservations were canceled because there were not enough rooms.

Homestead spokeswoman Karen Burk has said management at the company's Galleria hotel overbooked the rooms to make sure as many rooms

as possible were occupied if some people did not show up.

The Chinese government banned Falun Gong in July 1999, saying the belief system is a cult that uses mind control and manipulation

while openly challenging Chinese law. Practitioners have been arrested and jailed. Some claim they were tortured. Others said

practitioners have been killed.

The alleged treatment of Falun Gong members in China has gained the sympathy of the international community and some members

of the U.S. Congress.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; falungong; jiang; texas
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 next last
To: tallhappy
Let them know we do not appreciate them acting as point man for the Chinese Communist regime.

This is silly. If you ran the hotel, what would you do if you found out that dozens of guests publicly stated their intention of disrupting the stay of one or more other guests?

Forget politics. It would be bad for business (long after the Chinese president leaves).

21 posted on 10/24/2002 11:55:47 AM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: tallhappy
Thank you for your link. I have just hung up my phone after leaving an extended and very strong message om the Hotel Manager's answering machine (I was quite smoothly transfered by the operator).
22 posted on 10/24/2002 11:57:13 AM PDT by TopQuark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

Comment #23 Removed by Moderator

To: tallhappy
Leaned on by the Bush administration, no doubt.

But "everything will be better if we just elect Republicans"...

24 posted on 10/24/2002 12:11:15 PM PDT by DAnconia55
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tallhappy
The Falun Gong are weird, but I don't see how their money is any different from anyone elses...
25 posted on 10/24/2002 12:29:58 PM PDT by Frances_Marion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: elfman2
Thank you. An enormous candlelit vigil swamping the front of my hotel doesn't exactly make it convenient for the other guests.

Jiang is a totalitarian scumbag. These people are cultist whack jobs.

26 posted on 10/24/2002 12:35:28 PM PDT by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: DAnconia55
I wonder if our Secret Service has ever hinted to any foreign countries that we wouldn't really appreciate anti-American protestors staging protests adjacent to the place where our President is staying.
27 posted on 10/24/2002 12:37:35 PM PDT by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
Have there been any reported incidents of hotels cancelling anti-WTO/anti-American-war protesters reservations?
28 posted on 10/24/2002 12:47:43 PM PDT by weegee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: I_Publius
That cult is worse than the Heaven's Gate group over in Cali.

I don't understand. I was under the impression this practice was about the individual and introspection. Why are you comparing them to a suicide cult. They didn't all poison the subway with sarin, possibly a radical branch. What else have you read or heard to make you so intolerant?
29 posted on 10/24/2002 12:50:53 PM PDT by BabsC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: weegee
Have there been any reported incidents of hotels cancelling anti-WTO/anti-American-war protesters reservations?

I'm not sure dumpsters and cardboard boxes qualify as "hotels."

30 posted on 10/24/2002 12:53:50 PM PDT by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: tallhappy
I don't know much about the Falun Gong, but I have been driving by these demostrators for two days now. They have been very well behaved as far as I have seen. I have not witnessed any screaming and yelling or lewd behavior. I have seen some of them politely talking to policemen on the street. There was some music playing loud at one point yesterday afternoon, but the police were standing right there ignoring it. This morning I drove in at 6:30am and they were all just sitting there with their signs. I have seen far worse stuff from the liberals.
31 posted on 10/24/2002 12:56:28 PM PDT by txjeep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Constitutionalist Conservative
This is silly. If you ran the hotel, what would you do if you found out that dozens of guests publicly stated their intention of disrupting the stay of one or more other guests?

They didn't say this.

They protest a fair amount and never do that.

You are making things up.

32 posted on 10/24/2002 1:16:54 PM PDT by tallhappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: wideawake
Thank you. An enormous candlelit vigil swamping the front of my hotel doesn't exactly make it convenient for the other guests.

You are simply inventing things. There is no indication there would be any inconvenience for any other guest.

Probably less so than the Jiang visit itself. That would be more inconvenient.

33 posted on 10/24/2002 1:18:49 PM PDT by tallhappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: txjeep
Re 31.

Falun Gong are extremely considerate, polite and peaceful in all their demonstrations. They even clean up everything after themselves.

Your comments just reinforce this impression.

34 posted on 10/24/2002 1:21:32 PM PDT by tallhappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: tallhappy
The article says hundreds were gathered outside the hotel for a candlelit vigil. I don't know if you travel on business often, but the last thing I'd want to do is wade through a huge crowd of New Age weirdos after a long, uncomfortable flight.

And no American business should take a dime of Red Chinese money.

35 posted on 10/24/2002 1:32:42 PM PDT by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: tallhappy
They didn't say this.

They protest a fair amount and never do that.

Not in those exact words -- but the fact of their protest at the hotel, no matter how peacefully, is disruptive to the other guests (not just Jiang). Remember -- I'm asking you to look at this from the perspective of the hotel's owner.

You are making things up.

You're such a meanie for saying that.

36 posted on 10/24/2002 1:35:42 PM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Constitutionalist Conservative
The article says hundreds were gathered outside the hotel for a candlelit vigil.

That can occur by people without booking a room.

It's still a free country.

And how was their conference room going to bother other guests?

And, if this is a problem, a visiting head of state will make more problems for guests than people hanging around with candles.

Jeez, that's less hassle than 99% of conventioneers you'll get.

You guys are full of it.

37 posted on 10/24/2002 1:47:15 PM PDT by tallhappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Constitutionalist Conservative
see 37.

Your arguments are stretching it and don't hold water.

38 posted on 10/24/2002 1:47:42 PM PDT by tallhappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
Note to Falun Gong: Avoid Sonic and K-Mart as alternate protest sites.
39 posted on 10/24/2002 2:10:12 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: tallhappy
Somebody forget to tell the Intercontinental Ziang's a lame duck, so they debased themselves for nothing. He's probably on his way to Zurich to make a deposit into his numbered bank account.
40 posted on 10/24/2002 2:17:14 PM PDT by Man of the Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson