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Falun Gong practitioners urge supervisors to resist outside pressure in Chinatown station naming
Summary
Multiple Falun Gong practitioners addressed the Board during public comment, asking supervisors to oppose alleged interference from the Chinese consulate and to support allowing Falun Gong participation in community events and naming discussions for Chinatown Central Subway station.
Several Falun Gong practitioners and allies used the general public-comment period to ask the Board of Supervisors to consider the group’s concerns before the city moves forward on naming San Francisco’s Central Subway Chinatown station after Rose Pak.
The comments matter because petitioners said Rose Pak had discriminated against Falun Gong practitioners, and they characterized outside pressure, including from the Chinese consulate, as a factor in local parade and naming decisions. Speakers asked the board to send a joint letter to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce urging independence from foreign-government influence and to support including Falun Gong groups in the Chinese New Year parade.
Bo Chin, who identified himself as a San Francisco resident and Falun Gong practitioner, said the practice is founded on principles he summarized as “truth, compassion, and tolerance,” and urged supervisors to consider the perspectives of Falun Gong adherents when deciding on the station name. Other speakers — including Li Yang, Hong Zhang, Chris Kitsy and others — described personal health benefits they said they experienced from practicing Falun Gong and accused the Chinese Communist Party and local consular influence of pressuring parade organizers and community institutions.
One public commenter urged the Board to "write a joint letter to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and urge them to make a simple but very important decision. Keep the foreign government's interference out of our city's decision making process and keep Falun Gong as part of our community." That appeal was voiced repeatedly in different forms by several speakers.
Speakers said Falun Gong groups have been welcomed in many U.S. parades and that only a few local events — they cited the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade and the Japantown Cherry Blossom Parade — had excluded the group. Several practitioners described successful participation in other local events, including a recent Veterans Day parade.
Board members did not take a formal vote during the public-comment period. The request to send a joint letter to parade organizers and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce was presented as a public appeal rather than as a formal board motion to be acted on at the hearing.
