By Shaoshao Chen, Genevieve Long and Sonya Bryskine, Epoch Times Staff, May 27, 2008-

NEW YORK—Mobs supporting the regime of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continued to physically and verbally assault Falun Gong adherents in New York's Flushing Chinatown Monday.

The attacks flared up after propaganda was spread through the Chinese community and by Chinese-language media companies that incited nationalistic rage aimed at Falun Gong adherents. A recorded phone conversation points to Chinese consulate's part in strongly encouraging, if not actually instigating, the attacks.

"The mobs used the recent Sichuan earthquake as an excuse to slander the spiritual practice," said Seth Holehouse a Falun Gong practitioner who came to New York from Columbus, Ohio. Falun Gong has been persecuted in China for the last nine years.

"They say that Falun Gong is celebrating the deaths in the Sichuan earthquake ... that is absolutely not true. I feel sad that the overseas Chinese are so deceived by the propaganda," said Holehouse.

"Falun Gong practitioners are only saying that the Communist regime has been persecuting Falun Gong. They hurt their own people and have deceived their own people. Anyone who understands the CCP would withdraw from it."

Protesters Arrested

According to an official statement from the New York Police Department, at least six arrests have been made during the week of assaults. Charges for arrests have included assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. None of those arrested are Falun Gong practitioners.

Consul General Keyu Peng, the head of the Chinese diplomatic mission in New York, admitted over the phone to an investigator that the consulate is involved in instigating a series of attacks that started on May 17 in Flushing.

According to a New York City police officer on the scene last week who did not want to be identified, on one day alone a 500-person crowd of Chinese gathered.

"They were hiding behind the buildings and stores and throwing things at the Falun Gong people," said the police officer who was at the scene on May 20.

Property Destruction and Death Threats

During the Memorial Day weekend, hundreds of people continued to gather in angry mobs on Flushing's Main Street, Kissena Boulevard, and 41st Avenue. One group began to shout at and threaten a young African American female Falun Gong practitioner, who was led away by police for her safety.

On Sunday, a Falun Gong practitioner, whose name is withheld for safety reasons, had her camera destroyed when it was hurled to the ground by a middle-aged woman from the mob. The mob also chanted death threats towards Falun Gong practitioners.

On Monday, three Epoch Times journalists were also threatened by a mob while talking to a man running a Sichuan Earthquake relief donation table.

The journalists' lives were threatened by a crowd of approximately 100 Chinese who shouted "Kill, kill," while pointing at them. The mob also followed them for approximately half a block after police were called to the scene by a concerned bystander.

"I was scared and I thought they were going to hurt you [journalists]," said the American woman who called police to the scene. The woman, who did not give her name, said she was shopping and had "never seen anything like this in Flushing."

Monday's crowd had scattered outbursts of fighting and yelling, including a large mob of about 200 that gathered in front of the local Macy's store with red Chinese flags.

- Source: Hostile Mobs Prey on Falun Gong Adherents in New York