WASHINGTON - A woman accused of heckling Chinese President Hu Jintao during a White House appearance this week was charged Friday in federal court with a misdemeanor of willfully intimidating, coercing threatening and harassing a foreign official.
Wang Wenyi, 47, had obtained temporary press credentials as a reporter for a Falun Gong newspaper and positioned herself on a camera stand.
According to Secret Service translations provided in court documents, she shouted in Chinese: “Stop oppressing the Falun Gong,” as well as “Your Time is running out,” and “Anything you have done will come back to you in this lifetime.” She also shouted in heavily accented English: " President Bush, stop him from killing," and “President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong.”
She was waving a banner with the red and yellow colors used by Falun Gong, a banned religious movement in China. She kept shouting for several minutes before Secret Service agents led her off the stand.
Standing beside Bush, Hu had just begun his opening remarks when the woman started yelling in Chinese and English. Bush leaned over and whispered to Hu, “You’re OK,” indicating the Chinese leader should continue. Hu, who had paused briefly, resumed speaking even though the woman kept screaming for several minutes before she was forcibly removed.
A group of 35 to 40 supporters attended Wang’s arraignment Friday.
Wang, who is from New York, was released on the condition that she remain there and come to Washington only to consult with her attorneys or attend legal proceedings. She must also stay away from the White House.
If convicted, she could receive up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
The incident was the second in five years involving Wang and a Chinese leader. In July 2001, she confronted then- President Jiang Zemin as he made an unscheduled tour of an ancient on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Wang said she introduced herself, then urged Jiang “to stop the killing of Falun Gong practitioners in China.”
Security officials whisked Wang away, but Jiang called her back and spoke to her in Chinese, witnesses said.
“He was very agitated and told me that Falun Gong practitioners were killing themselves,” Wang said later.
Well, you see, she has done this more than once, and that’s called harrassment here. It’s not really free speech. Her cause is good, in my opinion, but shouting out at government officials won’t change their minds.
It will embarrassed them and that alone will change there mind. If some dictator put your child in prison, killed your friends and love ones and torture your family, how you think you would feel ? The president is no better in my opinion.
I agree with all you said. I feel sorry for the slaves overthere, which is basicly what they are.
But I better stop posting in this thread before I start getting all huffed up over how corrupt governments are. I have a weakness for getting caught up in this type of thing.
This is the stinking US we talking about here. Sure, not that big of deal if it happen in a communist country, but we are talking about a proof of corruption and political puppets.
When is Bush going to prison for illegal wire taps, that’s what I would like to know.
That’s a bit farfetched concerning the incident.
I find it perfectly that woman is being convicted for harrasment of a foreign government official. If she pitched a sign post with 10000 people to protest outside when the chiness guy was there no one would have convicted anyone since that enters within the rules of manifestation and that sort of stuff
but in this case she blataly harassed the foreign official in his speech. Free speech needs some ethiquette and rules otherwise everything gets out of hands. She’s being convicted not for what she said but the WAY she said it
No offence but the history involved with most of our countries, from slavery to slaughter, you should be lucky to be alive since if such a thing was ‘illegal’ back in the days, i doubt there be much of a population i.e. your parents parents… etc…
The fact that, if your white and living on american soil is the same as a dictator killing someones child and never being punished for it. After all those years of slavery and slave trading america is one to talk about the bad of dictatorship? (real word? lol) let alone start imprisoning other people and invading other people countries.
“willfully intimidating, coercing threatening and harassing a foreign official”
Now tell me anywhere what she did that warranted such a charge ? I read of NO intimidation and I heard of NO coercing threatening and harassment. These are just age old philosophy of karma and what lies to come.
Six months in jail and a $5,000 fine for this shit, Like the poor tyrant was in any danger.
Yea, like he’s so innocent, harassment is too good for him, You think that just because he has the authority and the law that it make it’s ok ? That he should never be punish for what he had done to his people ? You think he should have freedom of speech after all the censorship that he had done in his life time ? You think he deserve to speak in front of mass media while being ignore of the crimes that he had committed that he will never be punish for ?
I don’t care what anyone says, just because he’s a official doesn’t mean he should be given special privilege. If anything, they need less, far, far less.
lukus: No, you are wrong there… a man slapping a woman’s arse is sexual harassment despite not including full sex. A sexual act need not include penetration.
Nice interpretation…
However I don’t know the whole of what she said, so I can’t comment on whether threats were in there, but the other charges seem correct legalese for what she was doing.
Lol ill let you re-read what i siad and edit your post
hint* the idea is that it is sexual harrasment even though it did not involve having sex. likewise, just because they dont follow you around or touch u doesnt mean their not harrassing.
As i siad our countries, (UK, america and so on) are stained with blood. We cant really say much… If people went punished for slavery in the past as we do now, alot of us might not have been born.
If you think justice should be paid to someone of a differernt country, then one would asume you should commit suicide (including most of us) to pay for what our countries /members of our own family did in the past to fellow humans…
Clarifying: Threatening must include threats, otherwise it is threatening behaviour. So in some way the Sexual Harassment was a poor example, it requires, well, sexual harassment to have taken place, and in your example it did. Threatening requires threats, and there is no evidence of these.
That said, I can see how my point was not only badly put, but a little weak as well (took me some time to work out what I’d meant…)
Executing innocent civilians in dictatorship countries isn’t illegal also for those gorverments. But isn’t it immoral and against the spirit of a self proclaimed free and democratic society?
Capone, I can definitely understand where you’re coming from. But there’s a lot of sense in the law against coercing, threatening, intimidating, or harassing a foreign official. It’s like having someone visiting your house on business and having your younger brother walk up and blow them a raspberry.
And I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that shouting at someone repeatedly and questioning their moral character doesn’t constitute harassment.
