As security barricades are erected around parts of Washington and streets near the DC Convention Center are closed down protesters for freedom in China continue to raise their voice to Communist China leader Hu Jintao, who is attending a nuclear summit there.
The Washington Post reports:
— In fact, the morning’s heaviest traffic might have been the well before dawn when the thousands of police, federal agents and uniformed military personnel arrived to man the barricades. Scores of them stared across 11th Street at a dozen supporters of Falun Gong, a spiritual sect banned in China, who stood behind barricades holding banners in Chinese.”
DC protests also reported by AFP:
— “More than 100 Tibetans chanted angry slogans in a square and a park on the edge of Washington’s Chinatown, both a stone’s throw from the Washington Convention Center where President Barack Obama is hosting the leaders from 46 nations, including China’s President Hu Jintao.”
Earlier AFP report also stated:
— “In two corners of the park, Falun Gong practitioners went through the gentle motions of their meditative art, which has gained a following of 100 million in China.”
— “‘The Chinese government persecutes anything that is outside its control. If they feel threatened, they go after you, and with more than 100 million people practicing Falun Gong, they’ve become paranoid and have been doing things to practitioners, like harvesting their organs when they are still alive,’ said Dr Wenyi Wang.”
— “‘The international community has to realize that everyone has a responsibility to stop the persecution of the Falun Gong by the Chinese,’ she said.”
— “‘But a lot of people, especially in the United States and Europe, only engage China economically and turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses,’ Wang said, adding that even the Chinese have an expression that says ‘what goes around, comes around.'”
— “Lisa Tao told AFP in heavily accented English that she had come to join the protesters because ‘thousands of Falun Gong have been tortured to death and we want to send a message to Hu Jintao to stop persecuting people.”
— “‘We don’t know if he will change but we have to keep up the pressure. So we keep protesting, wherever he goes,’ she said.”
FOX News also reports on
— Quiet Protests at Nuclear Security Summit
— “Spiritual group Falun Gong, outlawed in China, protests Chinese crackdowns on the group while outside the Nuclear Security Summit. ”
April 12, 2010 Protests Against PRC Leader Hu Jintao Calling for China Freedom
April 12, 2010 Demonstration with Tibet and China Freedom Activists (Photo: AFP)
Security checkpoint near the Washington DC Convention Center (WTOP Photo/Neal Augenstein)
