On Wednesday, the protester who disrupted the White House lawn ceremony for Hu will appear in court to answer charges that her outburst amounted to a threat, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Wenyi Wang, a doctor who lives in New York and a member of Falun Gong, a religious sect that is suppressed in China, disrupted the ceremony when she repeatedly shouted such slogans as "President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong."

Later, when they were in the Oval Office together, Bush apologized to Hu.

China will watch this case very carefully, and it has already urged the U.S. to punish her. Bush, as Hu's host at the White House, was right to apologize for the rude interruption, but he should not apologize for America. Here in America, justice is not stamped, "Made in China." In America, we value protest and free speech.

There is an old Chinese proverb: "Follow the local custom when you go to a foreign place." Instead, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, told reporters that such demonstrations threaten relations between the two nations.

China doesn't recognize protest. In February, just weeks ahead of Hu's visit to Washington, China freed a man who had spent nearly 17 years in jail for throwing paint on a portrait of Mao Zedong during pro-democracy protests in 1989.

Bush did the right thing when he raised China's poor record on human rights rights during his meetings with Hu, but his words will lose credibility if Wenyi Wang is sent to jail for her one-woman protest on the White House lawn.

In this country, it is not a crime to criticize the president of the United States. It might help persuade China to improve its record on human rights if it is also not a crime in the U.S. to criticize the leader of another country.

Hu should get another lesson on democracy on Wednesday when Wang appears in court.

http://www.masslive.com/editorials/r...720.xml&coll=1

from a republican paper... so if she does go to jail then what??
Gumby Reviewed by Gumby on . OBL is the real crusader It pretty much sums it up..... Jonah Goldberg: Radical Islam -- globalization for losers April 27, 2006 OSAMA BIN LADEN'S ratings are falling. His latest pronouncement was a yawn. His scripts could use a rewrite. "Infidels" this, "crusaders" that. Blah, blah, blah. We've heard it all before. However, one new wrinkle in Bin Laden's diatribe deserves more attention, as it illuminates the nature of the West's struggle against radical Islam. "I call on the mujahedin and their Rating: 5