By The TimesLedger
In the end, the officials responsible for the Lunar New Year celebration and parade did the right thing but just barely. The parade organizers, most of them from mainland China, allowed the members of the Falun Gong religious movement to march in this year’s parade through Flushing.
The organization has endured bitter persecution at the hands of China’s dictators. They were allowed to march as long they promised not to hand out fliers or do their trademark slow-motion exercises.
We are pleased that this organization could take part in this very important celebration of Asian culture. But we remain baffled by the opposition to their participation. In particular, we are dismayed to see Michael Chu, the publisher of the Asian American Times. Does he not understand that the Falun Gong has suffered at the hands of a dictatorship that has absolute contempt for freedom of speech and freedom of the press? We wonder: does his paper accept ads from the communist Chinese government?
