Home > News Archive > Hu Jintao greeted by protests in New York

Hu Jintao greeted by protests in New York

By Sarah Matheson | NTD News

Pro-Tibet activists protest the presence of Chinese President Hu Jintao at the UN Summit on Climate Change in New York, at 50th Street from Lexington Avenue near the UN on 23 September 2009 in New York City.Tibet Sun/Ben Hider/US

As the world’s leaders gathered at the UN Summit on Climate Change in New York yesterday, the presence of Chinese leader Hu Jintao drew protests.

Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan activist from India said, “I am here to protest Hu Jintao’s visit to United Nations. Today he is sitting with all the world leaders and he is claiming that there is so much development in China, but what he’s really doing is he’s destroying the natural ecosystem in occupied countries like Tibet, East Turkistan and Inner Mongolia.”

These groups were prepared to stay for hours to get their message across — a message of freedom and peace.

“I am really excited, and also encouraged that, we are not alone. There are so many people, even Chinese themselves — the Chinese who are demanding democracy. There are Chinese who are persecuted for their religious beliefs, or Chinese Falun Gong. And then the Taiwanese who say that they want to maintain the independence of Taiwan. Then there are the Sri Lankans, the East Turkistan Uyghur people, and the Burmese, who are… all of us are somehow direct victims of Chinese policies.”

Scores of Falun Gong practitioners were there, calling for Hu Jintao to put an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. One practitioner, Muluan Luo, says her husband went to Tsinghua University with Hu.

“I came today specifically to tell Hu Jintao, you better quickly stop persecuting Falun Gong, because I’m a Falun Gong practitioner,” Muluan said.

Falun Gong practitioners are severely persecuted in China. The Falun Dafa information centre has documented more than 63,000 accounts of Falun Gong practitioners being tortured under the Chinese regime.

Copyright © 2009 New Tang Dynasty Television

Published in NTDTV