Campaign of Hate Comes to San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO—In San Francisco’s Chinatown, simply telling someone about your beliefs can get you a sock in the jaw. After seven months of incidents, the city is starting to take notice.

In cities around the world Falun Gong practitioners routinely set up informational tables or poster boards, pass out fliers, and tell passersby about what the spiritual practice of Falun Gong is and how it has been persecuted in China.

In San Francisco’s Chinatown, Falun Gong practitioners engaging in such gentle advocacy have been the victims of repeated, violent attacks over the past seven months. 

The San Francisco police are now considering whether to classify these attacks as hate crimes.

“We take hate crimes as seriously as any place in the world,” said San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr on Thursday. “If the investigation shows that the folks were attacked based on their religion, absolutely that would be the motivation, and it would be a hate crime and charged accordingly.”

San Francisco’s mayor, Ed Lee, is also now giving these attacks his attention. On Wednesday he told an Epoch Times reporter that he is looking into the attacks and expected a briefing on them that afternoon by Chief Suhr.

Sherry Zhang, spokesperson for the Falun Gong practitioners in San Francisco, has no doubt these attacks are hate crimes. 

“The attacks are directed at practitioners who are telling people about Falun Gong,” Zhang said. “They are often wearing clothes that identify them as practitioners and they are passing out materials that tell people about their faith. Their attackers often curse Falun Gong while committing acts of violence. These are hate crimes.”

Zhang says the hate does not originate in San Francisco. She says it has been imported from Beijing.

Falun Gong involves practicing five sets of meditative exercises and living according to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. 

In July 1999 the then-head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Jiang Zemin, launched a campaign to “eradicate” Falun Gong. Jiang feared how popular Falun Gong had become—more people were practicing Falun Gong than were members of the CCP, and he feared the people of China would prefer Falun Gong’s beliefs to communist ideology.

Since Jiang launched his campaign, Chinese Consulates around the world have made it their business to try to suppress local Falun Gong practitioners.

Zhang said this is what is happening in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

“These attacks are often done by people known to be closely associated with the CCP,” Zhang said. “One of the attackers regularly shouts CCP slogans in Chinatown. I believe the Chinese Consulate is orchestrating this. There is a large Chinese population in San Francisco, and the Consulate does not want them to hear about what the regime has done to practitioners back in China.”

Day-long Insults

The attacks started on Nov. 27, 2011. At Portsmouth Square in Chinatown there is a Quitting the CCP Service Center. This Service Center is manned by Falun Gong practitioners who provide information to Chinese and explain to them why they need to renounce all connections with the CCP.

At this stand, a volunteer named Chen endured hours of insults at the hands of a Chinese man in his forties who then tried to beat him. 

“That man stayed around us all day long and hurled insults at practitioners relentlessly,” said Chen.

There were some other people who splashed water or set off smoke grenades, according to Chen. When he started videotaping the scene with his phone, the man in his forties tried but failed to snatch his mobile phone. 

The attacker then started trying to hit Chen. When Chen evaded the beating, the man grabbed a wooden stick from the ground and tried to hit Chen’s head, Chen said, but missed. 

In a subsequent review of the video, Chen identified to the police the man in his forties and the involvement of another woman who helps to hand out menus to pedestrians for a local restaurant. A police report was filed.

Reporter Beaten

This incident led to one on Dec. 18 in which an Epoch Times reporter named Ms. Tian was the victim.

Tian was familiar with the attack on Chen and spotted the woman who had been handing out restaurant menus interacting with an old man wearing red clothes.

A woman wearing a red hat spotted the reporter watching and rushed at her. 

While the woman physically pushed and dragged Tian, another woman wearing a white hat joined the assault. 

Even though the woman wearing the white hat was attacking Tian, she shouted, “I was beaten by the reporter!” As the incident developed, several passers-by stopped to help Tian, but they were also attacked. 

A woman who witnessed the whole incident told Tian, “Please write down my phone number so that you may contact me whenever you feel necessary. I witnessed how she assaulted you.” 

Two elderly passers-by also voiced their support, saying “We saw she beat you. We are not leaving. Instead, we will stay with you until the police come.” 

Upon the arrival of the police, the red-hat-wearing woman gave the officers an inaccurate statement about the incident, according to Tian.