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The bustling shopping district of Flushing’s Main Street was the site of routine harassment of Falun Gong practitioners from May 17 through June 18.

Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that emerged in China in the 1990’s, was outlawed by the Chinese Communist Party in 1999. The legitimacy of the ban is hotly contested by practitioners abroad and stateside who see the physical and spiritual exercises as an innocent expression of truthfulness, tolerance and compassion.

According to Yan Sun, a political science professor at Queens College, Falun Gong is a fringe group that enjoys only limited acceptance among Chinese people.

“[T]he great majority of Chinese here or in China find FLG to be strange and do not identify or support them,” Sun said.

The Falun Gong’s infamous rejection of modern medicine and the subsequent deaths have only served to strengthen the current of disapproval running throughout China.

Flushing resident Judy Chen, 47, said Falun Gong exercises enabled her to kick her substance abuse. She now hands out pamphlets outside the Flushing Library at the “Quit Chinese Community Party” booth. According to Chen, many Chinese immigrants in Flushing are here illegally and remain party members.

On May 17, as the Falun Gong celebrated the 36 millionth person to withdraw from the Communist Party with an impromptu rally, a crowd of people began to hurl eggs and shout insults. Chen, who has two sons fighting in the Iraq War, sustained serious injuries when she was beaten by a protester. Her wounds have healed, but her patriotism is somewhat shaken.

“What am I doing in America?” Chen said. “They’re not local people. I have no idea who beat me up. I’m still at the booth. All we can do is silent protest in support of my friends who are so repressed in China.”

Although Sun acknowledges that Falun Gong practitioners are repressed in China, she was not shy in categorizing practitioners as those who have been left behind by the nation’s rapid growth and modernization.

“People who are usually not doing well – that type of people are attracted to it,” Sun said. “The founder himself was a retired soldier. He retired from the army, became a railway worker. He wasn’t doing that well either. Popular opinion is that he started it as a business.”

Founder Li Hongzhi now resides in New York City.

The finances behind the group are just as complicated as the finances supposedly funding the current harassers in Flushing. Baiqiao Tang, chairman of China Peace and Democracy Federation, wonders whether the Chinese who attacked the Falun Gong might be receiving financial compensation of some kind.

“Most of the Chinese are very poor,” “They don’t have enough time to fight. They’re paid.”

And Sun has her own concerns.

“Those FLG old ladies are so helpless and strange, you just want to feel pity for them,” Sun said. “In fact a friend who rode on the NJ transit with some FLG old ladies overheard them say that they got paid $80 a day for staging sit-ins at the Chinese consulate.”

The Chinese consulate’s role in Flushing violence was called into question by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong. WOIPFG released a transcript of a phone conversation from May 21 between a WOIPFG investigator and Consul General Peng Keyu of the Chinese Consulate General in New York.

“They came over after they fought with Falun Gong [practitioners], and I shook hands with them one by one to thank them. Then I said a few words [to them], encouraging words. This is what must be done. I am just telling you the truth,” Keyu reportedly said.

“I know members are insisting that there’s been widespread violence,” Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) said. “I’ve been in constant contact with law enforcement and I keep asking the precinct and the DA’s office to prosecute any type of attacks.”

Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has introduced a resolution that calls on the DA’s office to charge those who were arrested with hate crimes. In addition, he is asking the FBI to look into whether the CPP orchestrated the Flushing attacks.

Liu, who unlike Avella represents the districts in question, is dubious.

“I’m a city council member. I don’t know a whole lot about political parties in other countries,” Liu said. “But I am a die heard democrat.”

Although Liu has yet to make a formal statement, he did meet with Falun Gong practitioners earlier this month.

“I really want to tell him to watch himself,” said Tang, who is chairing a committee currently collecting signatures in order to recall both Liu and Assemblywoman Ellen Young (D-Flushing).

The issue has reached the federal government where Congressman Tom Tancredo is asking his colleagues to sign a letter, “Stop Chinese Human Rights Abuses on American Soil, Ask President Bush to Investigate Beijing’s Role in Attacks on Chinese Dissidents in the United States.”

“In China now they are more harmless, since the government bans their organized activities and FLG cannot tell routine lies over there, as people know what China is like,” Sun said. “But here, I have found little of what they say to be truthful. I am not sure if they just live in that fantasy world, or have repeated their lines so much they actually start to believe them.”

Tang is optimistic that the American people will soon be on their side.

“It doesn’t really matter how many people quit CCP,” Tang said. “We’re not God. But one day, most people will understand why we don’t like CCP.”

Sun said the Flushing Falun Gong practitioners capitalize on Americans’ ignorance.

“Just because they’re a dissident group doesn’t mean they’re heroes,” Sun said. “People make use of people’s lack of knowledge about China. Sometimes the government is unreasonable, but just because they crack down on you doesn’t mean you’re a hero.”