When New York-based Epoch Times reporter and Falun Gong practitioner Wang Wenyi (
The media has been calling Wang a "heckler", when in fact, she should be called a protester. She was doing much more than merely heckling a Chinese communist dictator, she was boldly and confidently protesting the brutal treatment of Falun Gong followers inside China.
Her protest was well-received in most democratic nations of the world, and especially here in Taiwan.
In a recent article she wrote for the Epoch Times, Wang, who had gained access to the White House ceremony with a press pass from the newspaper, said her original intention had been simply to report on the event.
But when she saw US President George W. Bush shaking hands with Hu, in full view of the invited guests and live on television around the globe, she said she felt compelled by conscience to shout out her protest.
"I cried out for those who have been tortured and suffered genocidal persecution," Wang wrote, adding that her protest was a matter of life and death, as far as she was concerned. "I acted in a way consistent with the American spirit. I also acted to protect the dignity of America and humankind."
Wang said that she could not pass up an opportunity to confront Hu and Bush over alleged reports that China is removing organs from living Falun Gong practitioners and selling them -- charges which Beijing denies.
"The two national leaders who have the best chance of stopping this were right in front of me," Wang later recounted. "Where else could I have a chance like this? How could I not speak out at that moment? Hu needs to hear this, for his own sake, for the sake of Chinese people."
Indeed, Wang acted in the true spirit of democratic protest and free speech, and she should be considered as a heroine for her actions that day.
Whenever a lone individual stands up to face down a brutal dictator, in any part of the world, at any time, those who value freedom and democracy must applaud her or him. Like the lone man in Beijing who famously stood up to confront tanks in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 during the government-ordered massacre.
So let's get one thing absolutely straight: Wang was not a heckler, but a freedom fighter. Her name should be honored, not reviled.
When Wang was asked by US reporters after the incident if she felt that her outburst at the White House had compromised her status as a journalist, she replied: "No matter what kind of title I have, I consider myself to be a human being first. So humanity surpasses everything when you see people being killed."
How did China and the US react to Wang's outburst that day? Well, Bush apologized to Hu, and Hu said he accepted the apology. But outside diplomatic circles, a letter to the editor of the Washington Post championed Wang's unplanned but passionate protest.
"I was outraged to read that Wang Wenyi faces a possible prison sentence of up to six months for shouting her outrage at the Chinese President," wrote Heather Brutz of Silver Spring, Maryland. "Wang is a member of Falun Gong. China has jailed members of this religious group, put them in labor camps, and may even have harvested members' organs and sold them abroad. This persecution has come about because of Falun Gong members' peaceful protests in China. In the face of such atrocities, Wang's behavior is admirable ... Through her nonviolent actions, Wang shows a clear understanding of the ideals of democracy."
And there you have it: A lone individual stands up to a powerful tyrant, in full view of the public and the television cameras, showing the world the truth, and letting her voice become a sound heard round the world.
Dan Bloom is a writer based in Chiayi.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs