Pasadena Star News: Relationship in Distress [Excerpt]

December 24, 2001

PASADENA -- After hearing reports of alleged harassment, beatings and torture of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese government, some City Council members say they want committees to re-examine Pasadena's "sister city" relationship with Xicheng, China.

Three followers of the worldwide spiritual movement, also called Falun Dafa, appeared at the Dec. 17 council meeting to allege that Falun Gong followers are persecuted in China and harassed here by the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles.

The Chinese government banned the practice of Falun Gong in 1999, [...]

Not only does China imprison and torture followers on the mainland, Daniel Sanchez and others told the council, but "the long arm of the People's Republic of China extends into our country, interfering with activities and events we want to conduct," Sanchez said.

He reminded the council of the consulate's attempt in February to squelch a Falun Gong conference at the city-owned Pasadena Center.

"They tried to use your office to cancel that convention," Sanchez, a Pasadena resident, told Mayor Bill Bogaard.

After Sanchez prompted another follower to describe her alleged torture by the Chinese government, council members said they wanted the Human Relations Commission and Sister Cities Committee to hear the complaints. A couple of members questioned whether Pasadena should break ties with its sister city.

"I find it very difficult to sit here and listen to this testimony and contemplate the fact that we have a sister city relationship with(in) China, while we don't have a sister city relationship in Latin America," said Victor Gordo, the council's only Latino member.

"If our sister city relationship is based on common ideals, common beliefs -- if we pride ourselves on having a city in China that is like us -- then, like us, maybe (Xicheng) should denounce this type of activity," Gordo said. If the city decides to request that, he added, and "they don't, then I think there's an issue on our hands, whether we want to continue that relationship or not."

Pasadena's decision to forge a bond with Xicheng, also known as West District, Beijing, was contentious from the start. A divided council voted in 1998 to enter the relationship, with three members objecting due to China's record of civil rights abuses.

After the crackdown on Falun Gong in 1999, followers allege, hundreds of people have been killed by Chinese authorities.

[...] Chinese immigrant and Hacienda Heights resident Ming Jing Xue painted quite a different picture in describing her treatment by the Chinese government.

"I was detained twice for 104 days simply because of my practicing Falun Gong," a translator interpreted her as saying. "I was handcuffed for a consecutive 15 days, among which for three days I was handcuffed with another practitioner to the window, not being able to sit down and without food or being able to go to the restroom."

Sanchez, who practices Falun Gong's Tai Chi-like exercises on the Caltech campus, wants Pasadena to send a letter to Xicheng urging it to condemn the alleged persecution. He also presented the council with three reports that claimed Chinese government interference in Falun Gong activities in Southern California, California, and the United States.

He said followers have made or will make similar presentations to other city councils, including Alhambra's.

Bogaard said he would reserve judgment on Pasadena's sister city ties until the matter goes through the Sister Cities Committee.

[...]

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