On September 9, Ellen Young, the current New York State Assemblywoman lost the Democratic primary election for the 22nd Assembly District. Attorney Grace Meng defeated her in a convincing victory. Meng will automatically be selected as the next Assemblywoman in the general election in November if the Republican Party fails to slot a candidate.
Recently, Young, together with John Liu, New York City council member, have been accused of assisting pro-communists in their assault on practitioners of Falun Gong amidst an upsurge of activities in Chinese communities promoting withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Many of these activities have been ongoing in the Flushing area of New York City. Thus this particular election campaign has attracted more attention than usual.
Several volunteers from the Committee for Recalling Ellen Young and John Liu held a small rally onsite. They publicly declared that Young and Liu were no longer suitable candidates since they were in collaboration with the CCP.
One of the volunteers, a woman named Angela, held a sign up high as she stood behind Young while Young was being interviewed by reporters, so that the sign would appear in every picture.
Angela said, “Young didn’t want anybody to see the sign. She kept on trying to avoid it or sneak around it. She even tried to get several policemen to help her. They only shrugged at her requests and then walked away.”
Since this past May, the CCP has been enlisting communist loyalists in the U.S. to cause disruptions at several centers for quitting the CCP in Flushing. Many of the volunteers who run these centers are Falun Gong practitioners. When some of these disruptions did not go as planned, communist loyalists instigated violence against the practitioners. Being a New York State Assemblywoman elected by the people, many questioned Young when she did not speak out against the attacks.
Falun Gong has been persecuted in China for nine years. Practitioners of Falun Gong as well as other groups have held silent protests and gatherings to oppose the persecution and injustice against them. Young has actually complained about these events. She invited pro-communists charged with assaulting a police officer to her office to be heard, but refused to admit Falun Gong supporters.
Some local residents said that when Young was traveling door-to-door across the district to obtain votes, she denounced her opponent and slandered Falun Gong.
Bian Hexiang, a Flushing resident, said that it’s going to be impossible for any elected official to side-step Falun Gong issues. Bian said he hopes Grace Meng, as the next Assemblywoman, and unlike her predecessors, won’t yield to the CCP’s pressure and will work for the greater good of the people.
Wang Jun, Chairman of the China Democratic Party World Union, also gave some advice to the elected state representatives of the 22nd Assembly District. He said that there were three problems to be faced in Flushing: traffic, public order, and the assaults on Falun Gong supporters in the streets.
The election for the primaries began at 6:00 a.m. and ended at 9:00 p.m. The exit polls were published by NY1 TV. The polls showed that Meng obtained 2,733 votes (58.79 percent) and Young only secured about 1,916 votes (41.21 percent). Two years ago Young received approximately 70 percent of the votes during the primaries.
Two years ago, Meng was forced to withdraw from the campaign due to personal matters. This time receiving support from Korean and Latin Americans, she carried through until the end and proved victorious.
