Triple Anniversaries in related causes

Triple Anniversaries in related causes

April 25 and 26 include three anniversaries in causes that are important to the China Support Network.

April 25, 2007 (CSN)--The CSN is now marking simultaneous anniversaries in causes including the Chinese democracy cause, the Tibetan cause, and the Falun Gong cause.

The Falun Gong Cause

In the Falun Gong cause, April 25 was the date in 1999 when over 10,000 Falun Gong adherents appeared in Beijing, staging the "Zhongnanhai appeal." (Zhongnanhai refers to the compound where the government leaders reside.) While the appeal was for the government to allow Falun Gong, this was taken by then-President Jiang Zemin to be a jarring occasion, which became the catalyst for the full-blown crackdown of persecution which ramped up in July, 1999.

Hence, the Zhongnanhai appeal of April 25, 1999 was the key event precipitating a vicious crackdown of historic proportions. To date, 3,013 people are confirmed dead, and the killing goes on to this day. In 2006, it was revealed that the Chinese government practices the wanton (and carefully timed) killing of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs, which become harvested and used in transplant surgery, for which desperate patients are charged large amounts of money. As a human rights abuse, this ranks right up there with Nazi medical experiments, performed on prisoners during World War II.

While Falun Gong faces its holocaust, U.S. news anchors apply a happy face, in essence echoing the song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," and preparations continue for the 2008 Olympics, as awarded to Beijing China. The Chinese regime has been, and continues to be, rewarded for bad behavior. And, anchormen continue to accept paychecks for corporate cheerleading to the exclusion of the public interest. While they have turned their backs to the sea of humanity including the Chinese people, others have shown more bravery.

In the past week, a doctor and professor emeritus at New York Medical College wrote an open letter urging that China be expelled from the World Medical Association. Abraham L. Halpern, MD said -- "Reports are rampant throughout the world that the organ harvesting program in China continues without interruption, notwithstanding the denials of the Chinese government and the enactment of a law that went into effect last July to regulate organ transplants in hospitals." He termed China's to be "blatantly pernicious violations of the codes of medical ethics of all the countries of the world," and noted that "Waiting until protests can be organized at the 2008 Olympics or until efforts by diplomats come to fruition will not save the lives of many innocent people during the coming months." Hence, he is urging the World Medical Association to action immediately.

The China Support Network calls upon the Chinese government to cease persecution of Falun Gong. When all Falun Gong practitioners are free, then they will not be subject to become the source of organs for transplant. CSN also calls for the cessation of the Falun Gong organ harvesting practice; but as noted, that is included in the cessation of Falun Gong persecution.

The Tibetan Cause

In the Tibetan cause, April 25 is the birthday of the Panchen Lama, the second highest figure in the Tibetan Buddhist religion. He was kidnapped in 1995 at the age of six, and became known as the world's youngest political prisoner. He has been kept hidden away by the Chinese government, and is still not free today. On Wednesday, his birthday this year will be his 18th.

The nation of Tibet was invaded by Communist China in 1950, remains under occupation like a colony, and has had 20% of its population killed off by the Communists, as well as wholesale destruction and looting of Tibetan Buddhist temples, population transfer from Chinese settlers, and the banning of all references to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet (which used to be a theocracy). In 2006, Communist China opened a new railway to Tibet -- the better to transfer Chinese settlers in the course of its cultural genocide and rape of Tibet.

The China Support Network calls upon the Chinese government to release the Panchen Lama, Tenzin Delek, and other Tibetan prisoners of conscience, and to free Tibet.

The Chinese Democracy Cause

In the Chinese Democracy cause, April 26 will mark five years of captivity for Chinese dissident Yang Jianli. With U.S. permanent residency and two Ph.Ds (from Berkeley and Harvard), Yang belongs in the Boston area, but was captured on a return visit to China. After a kangaroo trial on trumped up charges, he was sentenced to five years in prison by the Chinese government. --The five years is up; this year's April 26 should be his release date, as it is the end of his sentence.

The case of Yang Jianli has been closely watched and much contested by protestors and campaigners in the Chinese democracy and human rights causes. For many years, Yang was one of the highest profile prisoner cases maintained by this cause. It received Congressional resolutions calling for Yang's freedom, and high level attention from Condoleeza Rice, now the U.S. Secretary of State.

The China Support Network demands the immediate release of Yang Jianli and the immediate recognition of the legitimacy and rights of alternative political parties -- those which now exist, and those which may be formed in the future.

Xu Wenli meets with Pelosi and State Dept.

U.S. State Department and
House Speaker Pelosi host
Xu Wenli of the Chinese
Democratic Party

Xu Wenli is preparing memorable news to be made at
this year's 18th anniversary of Tiananmen's crackdown, June 4

Xu Wenli in Washington DC meetings of 4/20/2007

April 22, 2007 (CSN) -- Xu Wenli, a veteran Chinese dissident now living in exile in Rhode Island, has been responsible for the Chinese Democratic Party (also known as the China Democracy Party, or CDP) since its founding in Mainland China in 1998. He is the most high profile and senior CDP leader among dissidents in exile. Hence, it was politically significant that the U.S. State Department, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, recently hosted meetings with him last Friday in Washington DC.

At the U.S. State Department, his meeting was at the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. There, officials including Jonathan D. Farrar, Paula J. Dobriansky, and Barry F. Lowenkron received him and discussed human rights conditions in China, the U.S.-China human rights dialogue, and upcoming activism for a free China.

According to CDP, State Department officials affirmed "the United States’ continuous commitment to push for democratic reforms in China." A CDP statement characterized the discussions, on a series of issues, as "productive and constructive," adding that the meeting concluded on a note of genuine hope for future cooperation.

Mr. Xu proceeded onwards to Capitol Hill, where he was received by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). It was not their first meeting; Speaker Pelosi is believed to be enamoured of Xu as "China's Hero." The two sides discussed more specific issues related to human rights and democracy in China.

These meetings come during a preparatory time. Xu's China Democracy Party United Headquarters - Overseas Division will host its first Party Congress in June of this year to coincide with the 18th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, an occasion when ordinary Chinese people led by pro-democracy college students had taken over Tiananmen Square -- and then, on June 4, 1989, Communist China sent in 300,000 army troops, clearing the Square with live ammunition at a cost of some 3,000 innocent civilian lives.

Not long ago, CSN published an article, 'Is the Chinese Democratic Party ready to come of age?'. The party congress comes with timing that seems almost to be in answer to the questions raised in that earlier article. As it becomes ever more prepared for its role in China's future, the CDP is the strongest potential challenger for Chinese leadership, with a growing, nationwide presence in Mainland China.

The 18th anniversary of Tiananmen Square's massacre will have a different character this year. In addition to observances in Washington, Hong Kong, and at Chinese embassies and consulates around the world, there will also be the CDP Congress to occur in Providence, Rhode Island, where Xu Wenli has been a professor at Brown University.

History may remember June 4, 2007 as the occasion where a Congress passes the Declaration of China's Third Republic, a tract that is now circulated by the CDP. As for establishing a democratic republic in China, CSN will hope that the "third time is a charm." * *

---

* [Note 1 -- The China Support Network has been sitting with word of the upcoming Congress, and about its proposed "Declaration of China's Third Republic," a tract that has circulated since April 15. We were honoring a "news embargo" in which Xu's materials specified that public release would be on May 2. However, CDP itself released the news on April 21 within the news about Xu Wenli's meetings in Washington DC.

Their statement about the April 20 meetings, including reference to "hosting of the First Party Congress of the China Democracy Party this June and his vision of establishing China’s Third Republic," arrived at CSN in Chinese on April 21, and in English on April 22. A check at the CDP web site shows that this news is already public, allowing journalists to say, "So much for a poorly-kept news embargo."

It seems evident that the U.S. State Department and Nancy Pelosi were clued in about the upcoming activity on Friday, and now CSN readers, subscribers, and members can likewise be informed.]

* * [Note 2. China scholars are aware that a 1911 revolution led to "Asia's First Republic" in China. A post-World War II conference in 1946 led to a Second Republic -- the Island of Taiwan is still governed by the Constitution of the ROC that was negotiated there in 1946. Only later, in 1949, did the Communist Party take power in China.]

* * * [Note 3. News outlets should daybook June 4 & 5 to be the CDP's Party Congress. Who: CDP; What: Party Congress; Where: Brown Univ., Providence RI (two venues); When: June 4 & 5 full days; Contact: Xu Wenli 401-863-9768 or mailto:ccc3@hotmail.com]

An inivitation to Princeton

Princeton forum on
'China's Silent Genocide'
to be held Friday afternoon

Featuring David Matas, prominent human rights lawyer and co-author of 'The Kilgour / Matas Report'

Princeton University China Studies Association To Host Forum:
Organ Harvesting and Human Rights Violation in China

WHEN: Friday, April 20, 4:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.

WHERE: Friend Center Auditorium, Room. 101 (Olden & William Sts.), Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ 08544

"Based on what we now know, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true. We believe that there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners.”
--The Kilgour / Matas Report

On July 6, 2006, international human rights attorney David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour released their investigative report titled, "Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China." The report cites 18 types of evidence regarding these allegations and concludes that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been committing nationwide, state-controlled, live organ harvesting atrocities targeting Falun Gong practitioners. Since then, thousands in the international press have reported the crime as a “silent genocide” and have urged an unhindered investigation in China.

On January 31, 2007, Messrs. Matas and Kilgour released an updated version of their report which further confirmed the allegations. The report describes a “failure of foreign laws and ethics to provide an effective barrier to transplant tourism to China” while “the market for organs in China is determined by supply and demand. The supply is local, but the demand is, in large part, foreign.”

How should we come to terms with such a genocide, and what can the US and concerned citizens do about it? How has the Chinese legal system failed to prevent the victimization of its own citizens? What do such crimes reveal about the state of medicine in China today? Princeton University China Studies is pleased to host Mr. Matas to discuss these issues. Two other special guests, Dr. Jingduan Yang and Dr. Charles Li, will present evidence of abuse targeting Falun Gong practitioners. We welcome all students, faculty, staff and local residents to join in the discussion of laws, ethics and human rights in China.

David Matas is a human rights, immigration and refugee lawyer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Mr. Matas served as a Law Clerk to the Chief Justice Supreme Court of Canada in 1968-69, and previously served as a member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. He was coordinator of the Canadian section of Amnesty International’s Legal Network from 1980 to 2001. Graduated in 1965, Mr. Matas is also a Princeton University alumnus.

Jingduan Yang, M.D. Dr. Yang practices integrative psychiatry and general health care based on a bio-social-psycho-spiritual model of medicine at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He has been invited to speak on Falun Gong, alternative and complementary medicine by Harvard University, Leigh University, Baylor College of Medicine, and many other academic institutions.

Dr. Charles Li, A U.S. citizen and Harvard-educated medical doctor, returned to China in an attempt to publicize the persecution of Falun Gong to the Chinese people. He was imprisoned in a labor camp for 3 years and repatriated in 2006. Charles is now discussing his first-hand experiences, including mental and physical torture, brainwashing, force-feeding, and slave labor, producing products for export to the US.

CSN urges Freedom First, Olympics Second

Freedom First, Olympics Second

A speech prepared for the April 8, 2007 rally
in celebrating 20 million CCP resignations

.

By John P. Kusumi

By way of introduction, let me say that I am John Patrick Kusumi, and I am the founder of the China Support Network. Very logically, any movement--such as the Chinese democracy movement--ought to have two groups: leaders on the one hand, and supporters or followers on the other hand. I suppose that a strong and successful movement will experience success on both hands; leaders will do the right things, and supporters will do what it takes to push forward the mandate of the leaders.

In 1989, when Tiananmen Square's massacre happened, it was evident that in the heart of Beijing, students had stood in defiance of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. They stood for freedom, democracy, and human rights; and against communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs. China needs more than new leaders; China needs a new way. Perhaps that way includes hallmarks like truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. At any rate, the Chinese students of 1989 stood for a new and better future for all of China's people.

Beijing experienced a brief interval of freedom--an anomaly, recorded by the world's news cameras. As opposed to Communists keeping order, students directed the traffic in central Beijing. As opposed to printing propaganda, Chinese media started to print more accurate news--the truth of what was happening in Beijing. Freedom of the press came to China, but only for a few days, during the students' hunger strike. As I say, the brief interval was an anomaly, because all of China's history is of one dictatorship after another.

For those few days, Beijing rejected its dictator, and people did the right thing without being told what to do. Crime went down; it was said that even the thieves were on strike. There were acts of human kindness to strangers, because millions of people in Beijing collected supplies for the students, and turned out on the streets to march in support of China's free and democratic future. The march to freedom was rudely interrupted by 300,000 army troops, using tanks, guns, armored personnel carriers, and live ammunition against unsuspecting, unarmed, civilian non-combatants.

That massacre at Tiananmen, with about 3,000 untimely deaths of civilians, was a crime against humanity--reported around the world, and condemned globally. The hand of evil made its move through the work of Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng, and Yang Shankun. The hand of good was also seen--this is where we get a famous image; that of one man, an ordinary Beijinger, who stepped out into the street and stopped a line of tanks. That day, and that image, means a lot to China. I expect that it always will do so, but the current government has temporarily hidden it from the Chinese people through censorship.

That image also got Americans going. Americans relate to standing and fighting for freedom. That is when Americans got going, into my group as a prime example. Eighteen years ago, America responded and did the right thing for freedom. We came together and we supported such things as Chinese demands for human rights, and visa extensions in the U.S. Congress to protect the Chinese students who were studying in America. To be supportive of the Chinese dissidents was simply the right thing to do.

In fact, Bill Clinton won the U.S. presidency by promising a stiffer China policy. He said that he would not coddle the butchers of Beijing. Americans voted for a stronger U.S. China policy. We could see that George Bush senior did not care about human rights. From his adminstration, the message we can read is that "Death for you is fine by him." If he cared about human rights, he would have stopped the trade which gives China surplus funds with which to buy more tanks, guns, armored personnel carriers, live ammunition, and to pay for jailers at laogai slave labor camps, as well as supplies, like the electric cattle prods which the jailers use in torture at the laogai camps.

And, if George Bush cared about U.S. national security, then he would have stopped selling satellite technology to China's government. He sold that to China by granting a presidential waiver to the arms embargo, that had been recently declared by the U.S. and the EU.

So, as the next U.S. President, did Bill Clinton fix things? --No, he made things worse. Under Clinton, technology transfer went from satellite technology to nuclear technology. That was a presidential term of pandering to business interests, and building up a nuclear-armed, communist superpower--gratuitously so. The pandering and welfare for tyrants has been a feature of the foreign policies of both Bill Clinton and his successor, George W. Bush. Are ALL baby boomer Presidents given to being "closet Maoists"? --I begin to fear that it is so.

And yet somehow, we have come to the present day. Today's is an occasion where I stand before you, the Chinese pro-freedom community, and once again the China Support Network is joining you in your push for a free China. We want to invite you and your organizations into a new coalition, that we name the Freedom First, Olympics Second Coalition. It will conduct our Freedom First, Olympics Second campaign. China must be free before it is the host of the Olympic Games. That means, free China now, not in 2009, 2010, 2012, or later. Free China now, before you can have the Olympics in your country.

In essence, I stand on a different side of history--apart from communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs. The dictators say that to hold a smooth Olympics, that there must be a crackdown against Falun Gong. That crackdown is a heinous atrocity and it is why the Olympic Games should be boycotted by people of conscience. Those who truly value the Olympic spirit will not want it mixed with a crackdown, a holocaust, and a case of genocide. The International Olympic Committee, in its choice of host city, has shown a craven indifference to human rights. From the IOC, the message we can read is that "Death for you is fine by them."

Again, I stand on a different side of history. I say that to hold a smooth Olympics, that it is necessary to free China now. To sweep away the dictators. To have Freedom First, Olympics Second. Today, I also have my congratulations for you. You recently made 20 million people quit from the CCP. That is in the spirit to free China now, and I invite you to join my CSN group in the coalition: Freedom First, Olympics Second!

April is also a special month due to the anniversary of an event in China that was the beginning of the Tiananmen Square uprising. On April 15, it is the 18th anniversary of the death of Hu Yaobang. On April 17 in 1989, this prompted the students to march to Tiananmen Square from their universities in Beijing. Seven weeks of a pro-democracy uprising ensued.

The 18th anniversary is special in a different way than a 15th or a 20th anniversary. An 18-year interval denotes the passing of one full generation – the interval for a newly born child to be newly recognized as an adult. There is a new generation of younger adults who do not remember the occasion of Tiananmen Square. For those of us who do know the events of that day, it is time to begin anew with an effort of education.

We should explain to the public once again what was witnessed at Tiananmen Square; what it meant to the Chinese nation, and how it corrupted Chinese politics; how the Tiananmen Mothers lack closure up to the present day; and, the fact that justice remains to be served. In civilized societies, we should underscore that murderers belong in prisons, not in world leadership.

The injustice of Tiananmen Square, cheerfully countenanced by leading Western politicos, left in place a leadership of murderers – the Chinese government that remains in place to this day. To correct injustice is a large part of the pro-freedom movement now underway. The injustice of Tiananmen Square is all the more reason why people should quit the CCP (and, I am very pleased to celebrate, welcome, thank, and salute the 20 million people who have now done so), and it is all the more reason why our new campaign and our coalition should insist—

Freedom First, Olympics Second!

Thank you very much! I urge us onwards to success!

Free Tibet Campaign Notes 'Olympic Failure' on China

London - IOC President, Jacques Rogge, claimed last weekend that next year's Beijing Olympic Games "will contribute to the evolution of China" and that "the 20,000 journalists who come to the Games will show China as it is. It speaks for itself that that will accelerate the social revolution." Rogge's comments fly in the face of widely reported incidents of intimidation of both domestic and foreign journalists reporting in China.

New regulations introduced supposedly to allow foreign journalists to report freely from China in the run up to the 2008 Games are being ignored widely by local officials. A BBC film crew was recently expelled from Zhushan in Hunan province after attempting to report on riots that had taken place there. Chinese reporters working for foreign newspapers remain imprisoned for reporting on issues deemed sensitive by the Chinese authorities; and foreign journalists wanting to report from Tibet and Xinjiang are still required to apply for special permits, despite a pledge made by Olympics Press Chief, Sun Weijia, at a press briefing in September last year that "they [foreign journalists] can travel anywhere in China. There will be no restrictions."

"Rogge's comments represent a total failure by the IOC to hold China to the pledge it made to allow full media freedoms during the Games." said Matt Whitticase of Free Tibet Campaign. "How can Chinese and foreign journalists 'show China as it is' when it is so difficult for them just to obtain permission to travel to places like Tibet? If Rogge is sincere in his opinion that the Games will benefit the evolution of Chinese society, he must demand immediately that China lifts all restrictions on foreign and domestic journalists in their coverage of China in the run up to the Games."

Note: This tract was a press release from the Free Tibet Campaign in London, 4/5/07.