At about 2:00PM on October 28, Chicago Falun Gong practitioners in yellow T-shirts gathered at the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to practice exercises and make a silent protest. The atmosphere was peaceful and harmonious as it embodied the perseverance of Falun Gong.

At the same time, there occurred another scene. About 6-7 middle-aged scholarly-like men and women, wearing sunglasses and obviously coming from China, were distributing English materials to passers-by and people in vehicles. The materials stated "Falun Gong is X religion" and were printed by the Chinese consulate. Falun Gong practitioners tried to dissuade and stop them from continuing. But they refused to withdraw. The two sides unavoidably had an argument. These few people contradicted themselves in words and actions. They carried anti-Falun Gong materials, but they said that they did not oppose Falun Gong. Moreover, some of their relatives also practice Falun Gong. They only opposed practicing Falun Gong exercises in front of the consulate, claiming that such an act would ruin the image of our country. They also said that China could not follow the suit of Yugoslavia and Romania, and China needs stability. Their words were really absurd. When the two sides reached a deadlock, the police arrived and ordered these "unexpected guests" to distribute their materials at the other end of the street, and that they could not pass this boundary.

It was clear that a video camera was behind the shutter of the second floor at the Chinese Consulate during the whole incident.

It was a very harrowing action like those that occurred during China's "Great Cultural Revolution," when one group of ordinary people was instigated to go against another group of ordinary people. The timing and density of the recent series of interference in the US and Canada were closely related to Jiang Zemin's recently declared policy of "intensifying the struggle overseas" against Falun Gong practitioners. In San Francisco, Falun Gong practitioners were assaulted and robbed. Some practitioners found their car tires were flat, cassette recorders smashed, and tapes destroyed, after finishing their exercises. Now police are investigating these issues.

What we want is the basic right to live. After having practitioners killed, shouldn't we be allowed to call for justice! In addition, we cultivate Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance). Facing misunderstandings, we will not retaliate while being beaten or sworn at. However, we will definitely not yield to the evil forces.

Reported on November 1, 2000