Twenty years ago, the world saw the people in China rise up in the cause of freedom against a Communist totalitarian government. The brutal response on June 3 and June 4, 1989 by the Communist Chinese government was to massacre those courageous Chinese human beings in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere who dared to stand for the universal, inalienable human rights of freedom. Beginning this weekend, people around the world – in Washington DC, in London, and in Hong Kong – will remember and honor those who sacrificed their lives from freedom and will demand that their lives were not lost in vain. We will continue to stand for the universal human rights of the Chinese people. We will demand that both the Communist Chinese government and world recognizes that the Chinese people are human beings and they deserve the universal human rights and dignity of all human beings. We ask you to join us in some way, either by raising public awareness with those you know, by wearing a button or a shirt that calls for freedom for the Chinese people, by joining one of the public events in solidarity with the Chinese people, or by lighting a candle in remembrance of those who dared to call for the human rights of freedom for the 1 billion Chinese people.
We will not be silent while there are an estimated 1,045 forced labor camps holding an estimated 6.8 million prisoners, and while Communist China continues its inhuman practices of organ harvesting of prisoners, the forced abortions, and the affront to the dignity of human bodies by selling and displaying human corpses. We will not be silent as bipartisan politicians and political pundits/groups continue to make Chinese human rights our last priority in a “foreign policy” regarding China. We will not accept the idea that our only relationship to the Chinese people is economic, but we do and will continue to accept the Chinese people as brothers and sisters in our human family. We ask you to pause and consider how you could live your life as a better brother or sister to the Chinese people in our human family, and demand that our political leaders recognize that without prioritizing universal human rights for all people, we have no “foreign policy” with another nation. Finally, we remind you that with the universality of our human rights, the struggle of the Chinese people for freedom is intertwined “in an inescapable network of mutuality” with everyone’s struggle for freedom. There are not “free people” and “slave people” – there is only one human race, one human family, one humanity – where the struggle for universal human rights for one group of us is a struggle for all of us.
We must not let the assault on the universal human rights and human dignities of the Chinese people continue. Their struggle is our struggle. We must not forsake our human family.
And we must never forget Tiananmen Square.
1. An Assault on the Human Dignity of Chinese Human Beings – And All Women
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I was in New York City making preparations for Responsibility for Equality And Liberty’s (R.E.A.L.) planned NYC human rights demonstrations on July 24 and July 25, and also obtaining a copy of a book on women’s rights issues. While walking through the streets of New York City, I was visually assaulted by endless street advertisements on many blocks of Manhattan showing the denuded dead body of a woman from Communist China, who had been stripped of her skin and hair, showing only her muscle and bone, and fat where flesh once held her human breasts. Such advertisements are all over New York City promoting the “Bodies – The Exhibition” exhibit, which has been around for several years touring Washington DC, Atlanta, and Las Vegas, with a “permanent” exhibit in NYC’s South Street Seaport Exhibition Center.
The New York City exhibit of dead human beings from Communist China is less than a mile away from where we respectfully remember those who died in the World Trade Center terrorist attack on 9/11.
But the dead human beings from Communist China get a different type of remembrance altogether. Their dead bodies, allegedly obtained from Communist China’s Dalian Medical School, are stripped of their skin, “plastinated” (essentially the denuded taxidermy of dead human bodies treated with silicone), and posed in different figures to show the “art” of the dead human body. (The Dalian factory, is run by “Von Hagens Plastination (Dalian) Co., Ltd., and is managed by a German scientist Dr. Gunther Von Hagens who runs the Body Worlds company to provide such dead bodies.) A year ago, ABC News reported on this exhibit promoted by a company called Premier Enterprises. ABC News reported on how such “unclaimed” Chinese bodies may be coming from executions by Communist Chinese authorities, something that Premier has disputed. ABC News’ “20/20” also reported “that the bodies did not come from the university but instead from a private, for-profit lab about 30 miles away” and according to ABC News were sold to the laboratory on the black market. Premier Enterprises has disputed this. Subsequently, the state of New York reached a settlement with Premier Enterprises; according to New York State Attorney General Cuomo, Premier “had no way of knowing the true source of their human exhibits,” and agreed to obtain such documentation in the future on the origin of such bodies.
In the meantime, Premier Enterprises merely has to provide a disclaimer statement that states:
— “This exhibit displays human remains of Chinese citizens or residents which were originally received by the Chinese Bureau of Police. The Chinese Bureau of Police may receive bodies from Chinese prisons. Premier cannot independently verify that the human remains you are viewing are not those of persons who were incarcerated in Chinese prisons.”
— “This exhibit displays full body cadavers as well as human body parts, organs, fetuses and embryos that come from cadavers of Chinese citizens or residents. With respect to the human parts, organs, fetuses and embryos you are viewing, Premier relies solely on the representations of its Chinese partners and cannot independently verify that they do not belong to persons executed while incarcerated in Chinese prisons.”
While many of us around America and the world are working to challenge violence against women, the image of a Chinese woman’s denuded dead body is on virtually every street corner of New York City today. But this assault on a dead woman’s human dignity goes without comment, without remark, and without objection. The endless public display of a denuded Chinese woman’s body does not merit a human rights protest in New York City. It does not merit condemnation of such images trivializing the human body of someone who was once someone’s daughter, perhaps even a sister or a mother — on nearly every street corner in Manhattan. People do not gasp, do not react horrified, do not seem nauseated, as they rush to their next business appointment, their next shopping spree, their next luncheon or dinner. Apparently they don’t give the advertisements of the denuded Chinese woman’s body a second thought, unless it is how interesting it would be to see the exhibit demeaning the dignity of other dead Chinese human beings (men, women, and fetuses).
This is not the first time advertisements for these “plastinated” Chinese corpses have appeared, and I know that others have written about and protested these in other cities. This is, however, the first time that I have heard of or saw advertisements of denuded Chinese women. While such indignities against all human beings are equal, the latest set of mass advertisements in New York City of a Chinese woman’s corpse is especially troubling given the global war against women by misogynists and misogynist ideologies around the world. The New York City advertisements result in a message that the dignity and humanity of women is expendable.
I contacted the New York City offices of an international human rights organization concerned about violence against women and other human rights issues about the advertisements. The woman that I spoke to at that NYC human rights office shared the concerns stated above about the source of the human bodies for such “plastinated” human body exhibits. Regarding the current mass advertising of the denuded Chinese woman who appears in street advertisements throughout New York City, there was confusion as to my concern. As the human rights organization representative stated to me, “well it’s not pornographic…”.
How much more obscene does it get than to take a woman’s upper body and head, remove it of all skin and hair, denude it of its identity, and flout the woman’s denuded upper body and denuded breasts openly on the street corners of the largest city in America, and one of the largest cities in the world? Yet, the response to such depravity against humanity is silence.
This shows how far we have to go in our struggle for human rights and human dignity.
2. Those Who Ask “Are Chinese People Human Beings?”
The offensive question “are Chinese people human beings?” seems to be a valid question to some people — effectively asked by their actions, their inactions, and their willingness to abandon the cause of human rights for Chinese people. Both in life and in death, too many are ready willing to view Chinese people as expendable for their security, for their business, and even for their entertainment.
Would there have been no protest to the advertisements for the “Bodies – The Exhibition” exhibit disgracing the human dignity of dead Chinese human beings – if they had been another race, ethnicity, or any of the popular religions in America? Would there have been little to no reaction to mass advertisements for an exhibit posing corpses from Nazi Germany as “art”? Would just a “disclaimer” satisfy the outrage against such a disgrace against human beings – if they were anyone other than Chinese human beings?
But once again, we see too many turning a blind eye to those Chinese people who are oppressed by Communist totalitarianism and ignoring those whose universal human rights are denied — even in death. We even see major New York news media organizations holding contests to give away the “prize” of tickets to such an exhibit.
As we begin to remember the 20th year since the Communist crackdown on Chinese people fighting for freedom in Tiananmen Square, Eric C. Anderson writes for the Huffington Post that we should “welcome the pragmatism” by American politicians who choose to ignore the urgency of human rights issues of the Chinese people, and Mr. Anderson states that such positions to de-prioritize human rights “reflect a real maturation in our China policy.” Should we have welcomed the “pragmatism” of policies that ignored racial supremacism in America, that ignored apartheid in South Africa, that argued the fight against Nazism was not our problem? But when it comes to Communist oppression of human rights in China, such “pragmatism” in ignoring Chinese people’s human rights is too widely accepted.
We also see American political leaders who suggest that our negotiations with the Communist Chinese government on other issues are a more urgent priority than defending the Chinese people’s inalienable human rights and dignity. But the truths that we hold self-evident are not geo-political tactics, they are the very universal human rights that some political leaders view as our last priority in China today. This remains a bipartisan political problem.
Too many have come to accept that the 1 billion people oppressed in Communist China are somehow separate from the rest of the human family. Too many have chosen to ignore the estimated 1,045 forced labor Laogai concentration camps in Communist China. Too many have chosen to accept the working of Chinese people in sweat shops as virtual slaves to generate goods and products. Too many have ignored the 20 years now since the Chinese people called for democracy and freedom in the Tiananmen Square protests. Too many have chosen to accept the lie that the Chinese people somehow deserve their fate, and too many have gotten used to the idea that the Chinese people are second-class human beings. As I have previously written, we must reject such negligence and disrespect towards the universal human rights of Chinese people as human beings.
This negligence towards the Chinese people is a disgrace and an offense against humanity. The Chinese people are not second-class human beings; there are no second-class human beings. We are all first-class members of the human family, and we all deserve the same universal human rights and dignity.
3. The Mutuality of Universal Human Rights and Human Dignity
There are several stumbling blocks for some people in understanding the mutuality of human rights and human dignity. The difficulties lie in a failure of some to understand human beings, to understand human rights, to understand the meaning of universal human rights, and to understand the universal right to human dignity. Most of all, some struggle to grasp that the human rights and dignity of all people are intertwined, mutual rights for all human beings.
Humanity is more than just the technical components of its physical bodies. Human beings are more than their limbs, their muscles, their organs, their bones, and their blood. Human beings each have unique personalities, minds, and spirits. Religious individuals believe that human beings have souls. But whether you believe that human beings have souls or not, all of us must recognize that all human beings have unique identities as members of a family of humanity. Every human being is someone.
We also accept that all human beings have human rights of equality and liberty. In America, our Declaration of Independence recognizes these human rights for human beings as “unalienable” (as we state in modern English “inalienable”). The definition of the term inalienable is something “incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred <inalienable rights>.” We hold these truths to be self-evident.
We accept such rights for all people. We view such human rights of equality and liberty as universal, as agreed to by the world’s nations as part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. People readily state that they understand the idea of universal human rights, but it is clear from practice that many don’t quite grasp what “universal” actually means. That means that all of the people in Communist China or anywhere else in the world have the same human rights as the people in America. They have the inalienable right to liberty. They have the inalienable right to equality.
Moreover, as part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they have the right to dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares “the inherent dignity” for “all members of the human family.” Such universal human rights apply to individuals of every race, ethnicity, religion, and gender.
When we accept that all of humanity has universal human rights, we reject the concept that there are any second-class human beings. We reject the concept that there are any second-class human rights for any people.
A popular excuse for this attitude of negligence towards the Chinese people is the same argument that we have heard from racists over time. In the 1960s, those from the north in America who challenged racial supremacism in the south were told to “clean up their own act” first, before challenging the most outrageous institutions of racial supremacism in the South. Then in the 1980s, we heard the same thing when South Africa’s apartheid was challenged, and Americans were told to solve all of their own civil rights problems first before criticizing the outrageous institution of racial apartheid in South Africa. Today, we hear a similar argument by the apologists for Communist totalitarians in China. The same old argument is used – that America must solve all of its own human rights problems before challenging the outrageous anti-freedom institutions in Communist China. The argument goes further that the Communist totalitarian leaders in China have a “right” to reject the universal human rights of equality, liberty, and dignity for the Chinese people.
We have heard this type of argument over and over by those who want to deny our challenge to anti-freedom institutions in: 1960s Mississippi, 1980s South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Communist China, etc. Certainly it is true that every nation, every society, every human being can and must do more to improve in its respect for the human rights of others. Certainly it is true that we must not be hypocrites about the human rights that we demand others to respect. But the argument that we can only challenge those anti-freedom institutions once our nation, our city, our society, etc. is totally “perfect” in its record on human rights, fails to understand the very idea of what universal human rights are. Every struggle for universal human rights is connected.
Some who want to deny such universality cling to the idea that anti-freedom institutions have the “right” to deny universal human rights for people in certain parts of the world. Those who make this argument simply don’t grasp the truths that we hold self-evident that all human beings have the same inalienable, universal human rights.
Moreover, they don’t grasp that the very universality of this issue – makes every one of these struggles for human rights – the SAME struggle. They are not segmented struggles by geography, race, ethnicity, gender, etc. They are all the same struggle, because they are all the same universal human rights. Those who believe in such universal human rights cannot simply decide that such universal human rights only applies to one geographical area, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, etc. In our family of humanity, we cannot accept the idea that the universal human rights of our fellow human beings can be selectively forsaken and abandoned at our convenience.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
An assault on human dignity and human rights anywhere – is an assault everywhere. An attack on one race is an attack on your race. An attack on women in one place is an attack on women everywhere. Those anti-freedom ideologies that attack human rights in one place – are attacking human rights everywhere, including your human rights. That is what UNIVERSAL human rights are all about.
Yes, the Chinese people are human beings, just as we are all human beings. There must never be any question on this. We must never allow ourselves, our societies, our leaders, or our governments to take actions or assume policies that suggest that we can question the inalienable universal human rights and dignity of such fellow human beings.
We cannot afford to forsake the human rights of our human family – not of women, not of men, not of individual races, ethnicities, or religions. When we forsake others’ universal human rights, we forsake our own human rights.
We must not allow the Chinese people to be forsaken. We must not allow their human rights to be abandoned by racism, convenience, or ignorance. Our global family must be nothing less than the unforsaken human beings who are our brothers and sisters in humanity and in our shared universal human rights.
But we need more than words. We need action and we need change.
4. Actions We Must Take for Chinese Human Rights and Dignity
First, the American people must act on this continuing indignity towards the bodies of Chinese human beings displayed on America’s soil. We must demand more than “disclaimer” statements from those who would abuse the dignity of our fellow human beings. We must continue to demand that our local, state, and federal governments prohibit such continuing indignities against the bodies of Chinese human beings by such obscene exhibits and the mass advertising of these exhibits. Our continued acceptance of this disgrace is representative of our continued tolerance of the denial of human rights and dignity for the Chinese people. You can also let the person in charge of the NYC exhibit, Kenneth Talberth, and others know about your concerns on this issue.
Secondly, the American people must contact its political leaders and demand that human rights issues are the top priority of our foreign policy activities and negotiations with Communist China. If our government and political leaders can not understand that such inalienable human rights are their top priority, then they do not understand the truths that we hold self-evident, and it is time for them to be replaced by the American people. Without a commitment to such universal human rights, we have no security strategy, we have no economic strategy, we have no energy strategy, and we have no climactic strategy. Without such a commitment to universal human rights in China and around the world, the message to the rest of the human beings around the world is that “we don’t care about you as human beings.” That is a policy for endless failure, both in China and the rest of the world, in every avenue of human endeavors and experience. The world does not care how much you know until it knows how much you care about them as human beings, who by definition have universal human rights. The most vital and critical transnational issue for international relations will always be universal human rights. We cannot ignore the 1,045 Communist Chinese forced labor camps, we cannot ignore the endless human rights abuses against those Chinese people who seek freedom, we cannot ignore the abortions forced on Chinese women, we cannot ignore the reports of organ harvesting and body parts trafficking in Communist China, we cannot ignore the efforts to deny freedom of speech, expression, and conviction in Communist China — and still believe that we have any type of foreign policy “strategy” for China. We cannot forget the Tiananmen Square massacre of freedom fighters in China and claim that we believe in spreading freedom and democracy around the world.
Third, the American public needs to start letting those pundits and politicians who think that we don’t need to make human rights in China a priority aware of what we think about their actions. Contact them and share your concerns with them. When you see such articles appearing in widely read Internet blogs like the Huffington Post, make certain that you take the time to register and comment your opposition to those who view the universal human rights of the Chinese people as our last priority. Contact the Huffington Post and let them know what you think about their publication of such articles, as Eric C. Anderson’s “Finally, a Pragmatic Approach to China,” published on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Ask America’s federal government “United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission” why a person like Eric C. Anderson who views the human rights of the Chinese people as Americans’ last priority – is listed as an honored speaker on a U.S. government website that is funded by American tax dollars. The American public also needs to contact political organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and ask them why Norman Ornstein was scheduled to have cocktails at the Communist China embassy, and why the AEI is not willing to address such issues. Ask why the best that the AEI can come up with on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre is that “Though the demonstrators’ hopes for a democratic society have not yet been realized, China has undergone significant changes since 1989.” Really, AEI? What has “significantly” changed? Has the Communist Chinese government closed the Laogai forced labor camps? Has it ended its silence about the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre? Has it secured basic human rights of equality and liberty for the Chinese people? But when AEI members are listed as having cocktails with the Communist Chinese government, one must wonder what AEI views as such “significant changes.” Maybe some political groups and pundits believe that our fellow human beings can settle for just “significant changes” without universal human rights. But you can let them know that you expect more for your fellow human beings.
Let’s make certain that those pundits, political groups, and politicians that do not view universal human rights for 1 billion Chinese people as our top priority in dealing with China – understand who and what we declare as free human beings. Send them a copy of the American Declaration of Independence that describes humanity’s “unalienable” human rights of equality and liberty. Send them a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that describes the shared commitment of nations of the world to such universal human rights. Maybe it is time that such pundits and political groups start to understand we believe in the declarations that we make as Americans and as human beings. (A link to these documents is also on R.E.A.L.’s website under “Rights Documents” at RealCourage.org.)
5. Light a Candle of Remembrance of Those Who Died in Tiananmen Square
Finally, right now is the time for each of us as individuals to personally demonstrate our solidarity with those Chinese people in America and around the world who are continuing to fight for freedom in Communist China. We need to make or renew such a personal commitment today. We must never forget what happened on June 4, 1989 in Tiananmen Square.
I have seen so many times people do not feel empowered to do anything about those denying universal human rights to people around the world. Then something dramatic will happen in the world, and people will believe for a moment that there is a chance for change. In fact, we don’t need anything more dramatic than our commitment and love for our fellow human beings. But I remember a dramatic day when the imagination of free people was suddenly drawn to the plight of the Chinese people oppressed by Communist totalitarianism. I remember May 30, 1989 when the courageous Chinese people created a “goddess of democracy” and called for freedom in China. I also remember June 4, 1989 when the Communist government killed those Chinese human beings who protested for freedom in Tiananmen Square in China’s Beijing. To those of you who are too young to remember, the summer of 1989 was a brief moment of history when the Chinese people decided that they had had “enough,” and defied the Communist government in calling for governmental reform and democracy. Many of them rallied a central square in China’s Beijing known as Tiananmen Square. I urge you to read about this, learn about this, watch films about this, and never forget those brave Chinese people who dared to defy Communist totalitarianism. Never forget those brave Chinese people who defied their army and tanks. They will always be an image of courage personified for those who love freedom around the world. Let the world know that YOU REMEMBER.
I remember June 4, 1989. I will remember it all of my life. Like many others, I was compelled to do something about this horrific tragedy in China. The Chinese protestors for freedom in Tiananmen Square were killed just because they dared to call for the very freedoms inherent in the universal human rights that every one of us has as human beings. I had to leave my job and go to the Communist Chinese embassy in Washington DC. Such a martyring of those struggling for freedom was unacceptable. Many others shared this human outrage. No one had to tell us what to do. We didn’t need a web site and directions. We didn’t need an email listing of who to contact. We just needed to be responsible as human beings and do something ourselves.
We protested, we shouted, we prayed, and we rallied in front of the Communist Chinese embassy. People came from diverse professions, various political parties, and many identity groups. Our shared organization was the family of humanity. We huddled together on the Washington DC street corner by the embassy, listening for news from those who had radios. We stood there until it was dark and we stood there – defiant – responsible for equality and liberty – not because the people killed in Tiananmen Square were Chinese – but simply because they were fellow human beings.
Of all the things to remember about June 4, 1989 – one other thing that we must never forget is that, at least for a moment, Americans and others around the world who love freedom came together and cared. But the painful, protracted lesson that followed was that a political approach to defending human rights is riddled with compromise. President George H.W. Bush’s muted response to the June 4 massacre was followed by renewing Communist China’s Most Favored Nation status, and the political approach to looking at Communist China exclusively through an economic lens has been continued by subsequent political leaders up to today. When the Chinese people reached out their hands for freedom, where were our political leaders? Where was the courage of our convictions? Where are our political leaders on this today? And where is the courage of our convictions on universal human rights for the Chinese people now?
We must LEARN from this. Universal human rights are not our political leaders’ responsibility; they will only do what we demand they do and what we hold them accountable for doing. Universal human rights are our personal, individual responsibility. We are the ones that must take the leadership to be responsible for our inalienable, universal human rights of equality and liberty.
For too long, too many have looked the other way, week after week, month after month, and year after year. The struggle for universal human rights for the Chinese people was forgotten by too many, and certainly by too many Americans. We should be ashamed of ourselves as a people and as a nation. What would our founding fathers, our leaders of human rights, who gave their lives for our freedoms think of us today, as so many of our public and our leaders ignore the oppression of 1 billion people by Communism in China? We should be ashamed that people around the world can walk the streets of New York City, and see the current obscene display of a denuded Chinese woman’s dead body on many street corners. It is a disgrace. We need to do something about it. We need to demand more from our leaders, but first we demand more from ourselves. We owe those Chinese people who can hear us and who will listen to us – an apology. We must apologize to those who believed in the universal human rights that we declared, when we have failed to show the courage of our convictions on this to the 1 billion in China. As an American citizen and as a fellow human being, I extend my apology to the Chinese people on our failure to consistently act in defending their universal human rights.
Now we must show up and do something about it – not just with our letters and our protests to our politicians and to political organizations. Not just with our demand to use economic measures to demand human rights and human dignity for the Chinese people, and not just with educational efforts to inform our fellow human beings on this issue.
We must show up in person and publicly in solidarity with those courageous Chinese fellow human beings who are willing to speak out today in defense of freedom, equality, and liberty for the people of China. We have this opportunity now. We can express our solidarity with Chinese Americans and Chinese refugees in America over the next week in remembering the June 4 massacre in Tiananmen Square. I urge you to wear a shirt or a button that highlights the cause of Chinese universal human rights over this next week. Raise the awareness of this issue with your fellow human beings and make them aware of the suffering of their fellow human beings in China that continues today.
Furthermore, we have an opportunity now to demonstrate our solidarity at events remembering those who gave their lives calling for freedom and human rights for the Chinese people. There are several public events. One such event is for Saturday night May 30 at the Washington Monument. I know that such public events are inconvenient for many of you that live away from Washington DC, and for others I am aware that we are all busy and some cannot afford to travel to public events. I would respectfully ask you to reflect for a moment, however, what would have happened to us, if we did not have those who stood publicly for our freedom and universal human rights? For those who can, we truly need you to be part of a public event with the Chinese people remembering Tiananmen Square.
To those who cannot attend a public event, I urge you at least on Saturday night, May 30, along with those who will be lighting candles at the Washington Monument at 8 PM – to take a moment, stop and light a candle for freedom. As those who had the courage on May 30, 1989 to lift up a “goddess of democracy” in defiance to Communist totalitarians in China, lift up a candle and remember their courage for freedom. Remember for a moment that our universal human rights of equality and liberty are all of our responsibility. On Thursday, June 4, also take a moment and remember those who died in China knowing that as human beings they had such inalienable human rights for freedom, and also remember those that stopped their lives around the world remembering those martyrs for freedom — then and now. We can change the world, if we choose to.
Love does win.
For details of what you can do in our common cause, see RealCourage.org.
——————————–
Public activities events the week of May 30 through June 4, 2009:
— Condolence Book for Victims of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 June 4th
— List of Washington DC events with directions and logistical details
Washington DC, USA:
— Saturday night, May 30, 7-9 PM: a candlelight vigil at the Washington Monument in Washington DC sponsored by the Remember64.org group (see also event program). Nearby subway stop: Smithsonian.
— Tuesday, June 2 (9 AM-2 PM), the Laogai Foundation has a panel discussion at the National Endowment for Democracy, Suite 800, 1025 F Street NW, Washington DC 20004 (also see press kit). Nearby subway stop: Metro Center.
— Thursday, June 4 (10:30 AM), Laogai Foundation has a press conference on Capitol Hill at the Rayburn House Office Building Foyer, 50 Independence Avenue SW, Washington DC 20004. (also see press kit). Nearby subway stop: Federal Center SW.
— Wednesday night, June 3 – there is a candlelight vigil at the Victims of Communism memorial starting at 7 PM. The Victims of Communism memorial is in Washington DC – at the intersection of Massachusetts Ave., NW, and New Jersey Ave., NW. Nearby subway stop: Union Station.
— Thursday, June 4th, 2009, 10 AM – 2 PM, Initiatives for China, 20th Tiananmen Commemoration on the Capitol Hill West Lawn – Information and Media Contact: Jim Geheran, Initiatives for China Director, Washington Office, 202-290-1423. Nearby subway stop: Federal Center SW.
— Thursday afternoon, June 4 – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) rally from 1-5 PM at the China Embassy at 3505 International Place, NW, Washington, DC 20008. The rally will take place in a ‘park’ walkway across the street for the embassy. Nearby subway stop: Van Ness-UDC. (Our original rally was scheduled from 1-3, and we are extending it two hours until 5 PM, in the event other human rights groups can join us).
Thursday evening, June 4, 2009 – 7-9 PM – Tiananmen Leaders Invite International Community to Join in a Solemn Assembly
— “The solemn assembly will be held in Washington, DC on June 4, 2009 at the National Presbyterian Church from 7-9 p.m.”
— “Media Contact: Katherine Cason (267) 210-8278 or Katherine@ChinaAid.org, Washington, D.C. Contact: Jenny McCloy (202) 213-0506 or Jenny@ChinaAid.org, Website: www.ChinaAid.org and www.MonitorChina.org, Fax: (432) 686-8355″
London, UK:
— Thursday, June 4 – 10 AM – 12 PM – Amnesty International UK – Outside the Chinese Embassy, 49-51 Portland Place, London W1B 1JL – Contact Kristyan Benedict
Hong Kong:
— Sunday, May 31 – 3 PM – Demonstration to Commemorate the 20th Anniversary of June 4 —
Starting from the football fields in Victoria Park to the HKSAR Government Headquarters
— Thursday, June 4 – 8 PM – Candlelight Vigil for the 20th Anniversary of June 4 — The football fields in Victoria Park
——————————–