Falun Gong Members Protest Outside Chinese Consulate
LOS ANGELES — About 40 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate Friday to protest a member’s incarceration in Beijing.
Teng Chunyan, 37, is on trial on charges of “gathering intelligence for an overseas organization.”
Several other members of the movement, which has been banned in China since July 1999, have been detained there.
Protester Cindy Lee said that even though the Chinese government “just signed a United Nations human rights treaty, they are still violating basic human rights.”
Protesters wanted to let the Chinese government know “that all the practitioners and people of the world are watching them,” John Li said.
A spokesman for the consulate, Xue Bing, said it considers Falun Gong a cult.
“I won’t do dialogue with them,” Bing said. “Our position is clear. No matter who you are, whoever breaks the law is punished.”
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