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Falun Gong activist charged but defiant

Wenyi Wang, 47, the woman accused of heckling Chinese President Hu Jintao during a ceremony Thursday at the White House, walks outside of court in Washington on Friday (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Karlyn Barker and Lena H. Sun Washington Post
Wenyi Wang, 47, the woman accused of heckling Chinese President Hu Jintao during a ceremony Thursday at the White House, walks outside of court in Washington on Friday (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

WASHINGTON – The protester who disrupted a White House ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao remained defiant Friday, even after prosecutors charged her with a federal crime punishable by up to six months in jail.

“It’s not a crime but an act of civil disobedience,” Wenyi Wang declared after she emerged from a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, drawing cheers from nearly three dozen fellow activists from Falun Gong, a religious sect that is suppressed in China.

Wang, 47, a doctor who lives in New York, got onto the White House lawn Thursday morning as a credentialed journalist for a newspaper associated with Falun Gong. She was arrested by the Secret Service after she began yelling from a media platform. The outburst interrupted Hu’s remarks at the ceremony, attended by President Bush and other leaders, and created an embarrassing situation for the White House.

A judge released Wang on personal recognizance Friday.

Thursday’s disturbance lasted more than two minutes as Wang unfurled a yellow protest banner and shouted at Hu, and then Bush, in Chinese and English. The Secret Service said that she said things including, “Stop oppressing the Falun Gong,” “Your time is running out” and “Anything you have done will come back to you in this lifetime.” She also exclaimed: “President Bush, stop him from killing! President Bush stop him from persecuting Falun Gong!”

Prosecutors maintained that the yelling at Hu was threatening and constituted a crime – willfully intimidating, coercing, threatening and harassing a foreign official. Wang’s attorney characterized it as free speech. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson turned down a defense request to dismiss the case and set a follow-up hearing for May 3.

Chinese officials had warned the United States of the potential for protests during Hu’s visit. And Wang herself had caused a commotion at least once before: She confronted former Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Malta nearly five years ago with complaints about the treatment of Falun Gong, according to press reports.

The White House had issued Wang a one-day press pass to cover the ceremony after she presented credentials as a reporter for the Epoch Times. Many of the newspaper’s staff members, like Wang, are Falun Gong practitioners, according to the newspaper.

Terri Wu, spokeswoman for the Epoch Times, said that Wang has been working for the newspaper for six years, specializing in medical issues. The newspaper issued a statement saying that it did not know that Wang was planning the protest. The statement apologized to Bush and the White House – but not to Hu.