NY Comptroller Candidate Ignored Hate Crimes Incited by Chinese Consulate

[Zenon Dolnyckyj, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
They began to hit and kick and punch both of us. The guy I was pulling out ended up with a bloody ears and I was kicked in the back of the legs and kneed in the ribs and punched and kicked in the back…That was kind of unsettling, that was really, really unsettling."

Zenon Dolnykyj was just one of many people attacked in Flushing, New York in the summer of 2008.

[Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson]:
What happened in Flushing... we have a group of volunteers, U.S. citizens and FG practitioners routinely handing out fliers in the community – talking about what FG is about, as well as about relentless persecution in China.

The people attacked were practitioners of the Falun Gong meditation practice, which is brutally persecuted in China. The Falun Dafa Information Center--which monitors human rights abuses against Falun Gong--says evidence shows that the Chinese Communist Party reached out to crush Falun Gong in New York as well.

[Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson]:
"While doing that, some villains, incited by the Chinese Consul-general, to physically assault these citizens."

An undercover interview last summer showed that the Chinese consulate was behind the attacks.

[Audio recording of Peng Keyu, Chinese Consul General]:
"They came over after they fought with Falun Gong [practitioners], and I shook hands with them one by one to thank them."

[Zenon Dolnyckyj, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
"I have been able to identify and I am very clear that these people were sent by the Chinese government—whether they admitted it at times, or just through questioning them, it became very obvious."

But what perhaps most surprised Falun Gong practitioners was the response they got when they went to their local city council member--John Liu--for help. John Liu is now running for one of New York City's most important public offices: city comptroller, the position responsible for the city's multi-billion dollar budget.

[Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson]:
"John Liu, as a city councilman in the district of Flushing, instead of meeting with victims—practitioners of Falun Gong—who are US citizens, he chose to meet with the villains who assaulted FG practitioners, and those villains happened to be those criminals who were arrested by the cops. It's quite disturbing."

One of the people Liu met with was this man, Qiu Wei, who was arrested and charged with second-degree assault.

Eventually, after NTDTV and other media reported on Liu's meeting with attackers, Liu agreed to meet with the victims, too.

Erping Zhang and Zenon Dolnyckyj were both at that meeting.

[Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson]:
"Under the pressure of publicity, he met with us and we showed him a video."

Mr. Zhang showed councilmember Liu clips from this video that clearly shows one of the attacks.

[Erping Zhang, Falun Dafa Information Center Spokesperson]:
"Well, I specifically asked him to condemn the violence and he refused. He said he wasn’t sure, in the face of the facts and the video clips. He insisted he wasn’t sure on all the information he has. So that’s just total denial of the facts and the video clips."

[Zenon Dolnyckyj, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
"His intention to meet with us was to create a show of doing his job, while in concrete action and substance, he was showing very clearly where his allegiance were. Not in the safety of the citizens of the American people in his constituency, but with the interest of the CCP—who have spent countless amounts of resources attacking and vilifying FG in China, and through their embassies and consulates around the world. That was crystal clear."

Later that summer, when a Sikh student at Richmond High School in Queens was assaulted in a racially motivated hate crime, John Liu spoke at a press conference specifically to condemn the attack. But Mr. Dolnyckyj says Liu has a double standard for hate crimes when it comes to supporting Falun Gong--a group the Chinese Communist Party wants to suppress.

[Zenon Dolnyckyj, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
"And I asked him, I said, 'If that mob was screaming, "Kill the Jews, down with the Jews," would you be taking the same position right now?' He didn't answer my question, he was evasive. He couldn't answer a simple, basic question like that."

And now John Liu--the city councilmember responsible for Flushing--is running for city comptroller--one of the top three elected offices in New York City.

[Zenon Dolnyckyj, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
"I can't understand how somebody who helps to protect and further the interests actively for a communist regime, against the rights of citizens in a country, has a place of power in a public office—that's scary, that's scary to me."

Runoff elections next Tuesday, September 29 will help determine John Liu's political future.

Matt Gnaizda, NTD News, New York.