A new year's float representing China Forces civic leaders to grapple with international human riights concerns

By Joe Piasecki

No one's really thinking about New Year's Day in summer - that is unless you're a member of the Tournament of Roses Association, which exists solely for that very day.

In late May, Tournament members announced plans that we'd later find out had been in the works for quite some time at Pasadena City Hall, in big-business meeting rooms and halfway around the world. For the first time, the iconic Rose Parade would include a float representing the People's Republic of China, a monument to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Recalling stories published previously in this newspaper about local believers in Falun Gong, a spiritual practice based on meditation and exercise that seemed pretty harmless but in China was grounds for lengthy detention, forced labor or worse, it was clear that not everyone would be pleased. A call to the Caltech Falun Gong Club, a network of students, school employees and others who gather on campus during the weekend, confirmed that suspicion.

Club cofounder and President John Li said the first thing that came to mind were the Nazis, specifically the 1936 Summer Olympics in which Hitler had hoped to show off German power and efficiency to the world. (African-American athletes Jesse Owens and Pasadena's Mack Robinson, whose bust sits next to his brother Jackie's outside City Hall, quickly set back myths of Aryan supremacy by finishing first and second, respectively, in the 200-meter dash.)

To promote a squeaky-clean image of China during Pasadena's annual day in the international spotlight while ignoring its authoritarian regime's brutal suppression of the Falun Gong, Tibetans, Christians and others would amount to de facto acceptance of human rights abuses, said Li.

Shortly after the story first appeared in the June 7 edition of the Pasadena Weekly, Li and other activists packed City Council meetings. Not simply decrying the float, they began calling for officials to look beyond the Foothills and take a stand against human rights abuses because of Pasadena's seven-year sister city relationship with Xicheng, an administrative district of Beijing.

Local Falun Gong were later joined by the humanitarian group Reporters Without Borders, which in a letter called on the Tournament to drop the float and Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard to adopt a strong pro-human rights position.

A media frenzy soon followed, complete with comments in this newspaper from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the involvement of Buddhist and Christian organizations, and protests stealing the spotlight during the selection of the Rose Queen earlier this month.

Troubling personal stories have also emerged.

One of the first to say she was saddened by the float was Yaning (Jenny) Liu, a Caltech Falun Gong Club member who learned in mid-December that Chinese police had dragged her 64-year-old mother from her home after seizing books about Falun Gong. Liu's mother was sentenced to 30 months in a labor and re-education camp, without benefit of a public trial or a visit from Liu's father.

Jie (Angel) Li, who is no relation to John Li, told how in 2003 she had been held at a detention center at Xicheng and was forced into slave labor. She practices exercise and meditation with Liu, and had been jailed with Liu's mother in 2000.

At the protest during the Rose Queen's selection, Xufeng Lu of Alhambra broke into tears as she recounted how in 2001 jailers took her to a room and beat her until she renounced Falun Gong. "I am not so brave, so finally I was forced to recant. It is the shame of my whole life," she said.

She and other demonstrators carried banners showing nauseating images of men and women who had been brutally beaten, allegedly at the hands of Chinese authorities. Lu said authorities would use electric shocks to force confessions from some prisoners.

John Li and all three women were granted political asylum to stay in the United States. In 2006, 1,508 individuals from The People's Republic of China were granted asylum status, most frequently due to political affiliations or fears of religious persecution, said Chris Bentley, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security.

In that year and in 2005, when asylum was granted to more than 2,200 Chinese immigrants, only Colombia and Haiti produced more people whom the government felt could not return home due to fear for their lives.

According to an August report by the State Department's Bureau of East Asian Affairs, China's "reported abuses have included arbitrary and lengthy incommunicado detention, forced confessions, torture, and mistreatment of prisoners as well as severe restrictions on freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, religion, privacy, worker rights, and coercive birth limitation."

Reports by Falun Gong sources of Chinese government aggression against the practice includes even the harvesting of organs from live prisoners - a grisly allegation portrayed by activists outside Tournament House, where many symbolized their opposition to the float by carrying roses upside-down or snapped at the stem.

There are others who condemn China's authoritarian regime for behavior outside its borders. Pointing up the Chinese government's role as the world's primary investor in Sudan and seller of arms to the genocidal forces in Sudan's Darfur region, author Nat Hentoff highlighted the Weekly's coverage of the Rose Parade float controversy in a nationally syndicated column calling for more public pressure on China.

"It is so important for what's happening in Pasadena to shine the light of truth on this almost indescribable disaster and why the float on New Year's Day should be revealed for what it conceals, which is genocide," Hentoff said earlier this week.

Time to talk
As of this writing, Pasadena City Council members were preparing for a special meeting about the controversy set for Monday. Officials are expected to consider recommendations by the city's Human Relations Commission that they make a strong proclamation to Xicheng about human rights and ask Tournament members, float sponsors and activists to see what can be done to make the float less offensive and bring the Tournament to take a stronger position on human rights.

Meanwhile, unpublicized meetings have been taking place between some of the float's critics and float sponsor Avery Dennison Corp., a Pasadena-based label and office supplies manufacturer with some 10,000 employees at 20 different locations in China, including a clothing label plant opened just a week before the announcement in May.

Although he wouldn't comment, Tim Kelly, director of Fuller Seminary's De Pree Leadership Center Public Policy Institute, has been working as a mediator in "confidential meetings" between Avery Dennison and float critics, according to company spokesman Larry Dwyer.

Also an Altadena Town Council member, Kelly promotes a cooperative, "principled center" approach to politics and dispute resolution and attended at least one meeting of the Human Relations Commission about the float controversy. Dwyer said Avery contacted Kelly after reading his Oct. 14 column in the Pasadena Star-News that endorsed neither canceling the float nor letting the occasion pass without a human rights dialogue.

"Let the China float roll unimpeded," he wrote, "and at the same time seek reasonable means to express concern - such as a statement encouraging human rights progress."

"We asked him to do it, to reach out to hear what they had to say and to explain to them some of our views," said Dwyer. "It's been a very helpful dialogue."

Over the past few weeks, Li and other activists have detailed several things Avery Dennison and Tournament of Roses officials could do to change their views on the float. One idea is to ask the Dalai Lama, recently awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, to be co-grand marshal of the parade. Another is to downplay or remove Olympic slogans and logos specific to the Beijing Games.

Activists are expected to hold a press conference today outside Tournament House calling for the Rose Parade to start with a running of a Human Rights Torch Relay by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (www.humanrightstorch.org). They are also expected to announce plans for a Nov. 4 human rights march from City Hall to Tournament House.

History in the making
On Monday, all eyes at City Hall will be on Bogaard, who was involved early on in bringing the Beijing float to fruition and has made public visits this year with the Chinese consulate and the head of a Chinese-American group sponsoring the float.

In a conversation this week that dealt with the very nature of public service, Bogaard emphasized that these ties would make it possible to approach discussion about the float in a fair and balanced manner.

"I have no feeling at this point that I'm not in a position to consider the information and options with a high level of objectivity. The argument [that I should not vote, as has been voiced by some activists] goes too far, suggesting whenever a legislator has something beyond a neutral position on an issue, it suggests he or she is so predisposed toward that side of the issue that it would be inappropriate for that person to participate in the discussion," said Bogaard.

"I don't come into this issue or very many at all with no viewpoint whatsoever," the mayor continued. "Serving in public office is not a question of bringing a tabula rasa to each meeting, rather to offer a vision and a set of values and approaches as well as an open mind while continuing to learn as new information becomes available."

Bogaard did not elaborate on any gifts he might have received in his official dealings with Xicheng and other sister cities, but said that conflict of interest rules would require him to abstain only if a gift-giver would stand to gain financially from the outcome of a vote, or if he feels he could no longer make a fair decision.

The mayor confirmed that he made a trip to China with Tournament officials in 2004, but said he paid for that trip out of his own pocket. Although he also invited Xicheng officials to watch the 2005 Rose Parade, Bogaard said he had invited officials from several of Pasadena's sister cities to attend, and did not sit with any of them because he participated in the parade.

This June, Bogaard invited Consul General Zhang Yun to Pasadena and spoke in support of continued cooperative efforts with Xicheng, according to a consulate press release translated from Chinese by a Weekly staff member. Then in August, Bogaard made a public appearance at a local performance of Chinese school children promoting the 2008 Summer Games, also according to the consulate.

Both events were also attended by longtime Pasadena Sister Cities Commission China Subcommittee Chair Alan Lamson, who formerly taught English at Pasadena City College.

Sue Zhang, chair of the Roundtable of Southern California Chinese-American Organizations, said Lamson and Avery Dennison officials met with her a little more than a year ago at the company's Orange Grove Boulevard headquarters to discuss the float.

Zhang said she was asked to contact Beijing Olympics officials for permission to use slogans and logos. Zhang eventually raised $200,000 from Roundtable members to split the cost of the float with Avery, she said.

"It wasn't possible for Xicheng to co-sponsor a float on behalf of Beijing ... so the idea faltered and was revived in the last year," Lamson said prior to the Weekly's first story about the controversy in early June.

Lamson went on to say that Zhang, who also serves as president of a group affiliated with Beijing's Tsinghua University, was planning to enter a float on behalf of the Olympics. "When I heard that, I suggested to Avery that they might be an appropriate partner," he said.

Bogaard, Lamson, Zhang and Tournament President C.L. Keedy quickly defended the float as a celebration not of Chinese powers but of the Olympic Games, which fit with the theme Keedy has chosen for the parade, "Passport to the World's Celebrations."

In written testimony to the Human Relations Commission (published Aug. 14 in the Star-News beneath Hentoff's syndicated piece), Bogaard supported the float as an opportunity to continue dialogue with China and pointed out that past Rose Parade floats have celebrated Olympics occurring in Athens, Mexico City and Los Angeles.

Bogaard recently offered some praise for the commission's findings, but said he has not reached any specific new conclusions about the issue. "It is a thoughtful report that takes into account a number of issues and considerations which are good and appropriate to have in mind as we go forward," he said.

When it comes to the council possibly hosting a meeting of float supporters and critics, "The use of public resources for engaging in international diplomacy is a little bit of a question," he said. But, "What I or other council members might do as individuals is another issue. I wouldn't be in public office if I didn't have an interest in dealing with the tough issues of the day."

Owner of a Jackson Hewitt Tax Service franchise and a Tournament volunteer since 1975, Keedy has said the controversy surrounding the float came as a surprise to him.

Since the Beijing float became controversial, Tournament members and Avery Dennison officials have not publicly changed their position that the float is a celebration of the Olympic Games that falls outside the sphere of political debate.

The ‘Genocide Olympics'
The way John Li sees it, the Olympics - awarded to Beijing years ago only after it promised to improve human rights - is all about politics. He often refers to the 2008 Summer Games as the Genocide Olympics and to the coming float as the Beijing Float of Shame.

"A Rose Parade float cynically used as a propaganda tool for the Chinese regime would forever taint not only the image of the Rose Parade but the image of the city of Pasadena as well," he said.

Li, 46, was born 80 miles east of Beijing in a city called Tianjin. Ironically, Zhang hails from the same town, and in 1996 served as president of a Los Angeles association of Tianjin natives while Li was its vice president.

Li, coincidentally, also attended a grammar school there with float supporter and former Monterey Park Mayor Lily Lee Chen, who has equated attacks on the float, which she described in a letter to the Weekly as a vehicle for a message of peace, with an assault against all of China.

Before he discovered Falun Gong in late 1996, Li was a Chinese national doing graduate work at the University of Missouri and then Caltech, where he now a works as a lab technician. Li got the chance to come to America after working as a researcher for China's Atomic Energy Institute and served as president of Caltech's Chinese Student Association.

At the time, Li was skeptical of Falun Gong, which until its ranks swelled in 1999 was legal in China. He was also suffering from an extended illness. While researching the then-growing practice to argue with a fellow student against its merits, he was taken by its core values of "truthfulness, compassion and tolerance," began to practice it and saw his health improve. He helped to found the Falun Gong club soon after that.

When Chinese officials cracked down on the practice in 1999 (also the year Pasadena began a relationship with Xicheng) and began mass detentions and alleged torture of Falun Gong, people familiar to Li who had nothing to do with the practice were approached by government officials about his involvement, he said.

‘The greatest freedom'
Although she does not practice Falun Gong and has not lived in mainland China since the age of 3, Ann Lau is the Beijing float's other most active opponent. President of the Los Angeles-based Visual Artists Guild, Lau organized, among other events, the Oct. 16 protest during the Rose Queen selection.

During the previous week's naming of the Royal Court, a smiling Lau, who stands all of 5 feet tall, was escorted off Tournament House grounds by plainclothes Pasadena police Lt. Rick Aversano. At the close of the ceremony, she had shouted to Keedy for a response to the letter from Reporters Without Borders. Few among the crowd seemed to notice as her voice was drowned out by the sounds of the Pasadena City College marching band. She is still waiting for a direct response from Keedy.

The Visual Artists Guild, she said, began in 1985 to protect the rights of artists, but following coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 developed into a human rights organization. According to its Web site, sculptor and group founder Tom Van Sant was so moved by the incident that he created a replica

of the "Goddess of Democracy" statue (modeled after the Statue of Liberty in New York) raised by students there but destroyed by the Chinese government.

Lau, a mother of two whose background is in computer science, took over in 1990. Her family had fled to Taiwan from China during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Because starving immigrants were flooding in from the mainland at the time, the family immigrated to the United States in the 1960s, where her well-educated parents (and she and her sister on weekends) took a job in Salinas washing and bunching together green onions in a barn. For each bunch of onions they banded together, the family would receive one cent.

It was American ignorance of famine and other deplorable conditions in China at that time that inspired her work today. "I believe that freedom of information is important for the very survival of individuals," she said.

Chuanhai Wang, husband of former Falun Gong prisoner Xufeng Lu, revels in that newfound freedom. Although the former academic, who was granted political asylum in May, now works for low wages at an import/export business, Wang savors every instance of being able to exercise his beliefs, as he feels all of Pasadena should: "The American people gave us this freedom. You have the greatest freedom."

10-25-07

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