China

Free Tibet Activists to Rally at Alameda City Hall on Oct. 1st

 Free Tibet Activists to Rally at Alameda City Hall on Oct. 1st  Benny Lee's China  No Responses »
Sep 302013
 
 
MEDIA ADVISORY                                                                                                 Photo Opportunity
 
DATE               September 30, 2013
 
Contact:
Tenzin Gyaltsen, 510-384-2566
Tenzing Dolma, 510-254-1420
Giovanni Vassallo, 415-264-3264
Alarm, Protests, & Candlelight Vigil at Alameda City Hall for the City Raising the Flag of the People’s Republic of China
 
WHO:            San Francisco Team Tibet
 
WHAT:       Daytime Rally & Protest of the Raising Red Flag of China
                        Evening Candlelight Vigil for Tibet
                       
WHERE:        2263 Santa Clara Ave, Alameda City Hall
                                   
WHEN:     Daytime:                                   October 1, 2013, 10 AM- 5 PM
                      Evening Candlelight Vigil:    October 1, 2013, 7-9 PM
                       
WHY:             
We the People of the Bay Area and Alameda support Human Rights and do not want Alameda to be tainted by the political event, namely, to raise the Flag of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 2013, which is China’s National Day, at Alameda City Hall.  China’s illegally occupied Tibet in 1949/50 and over one million Tibetans have died resisting the Chinese flag.  Tibetans deserve liberty and justice and wish to stop living under the Chinese police state, which severely oppresses Chinese, Uighurs, and the Tibetan people.  We demand more transparency and accountability to democracy so that Alamedans & the public know about this flag-raising endorsement of China’s dark human rights record. Recently, 122 Tibetans lost their lives by self-immolation to urge the public to help Free Tibet and Return the Dalai Lama home to Tibet. The public should  know the true meaning of the raising of the Flag of the People’s Republic of China.

Pawo Shichung, Tibetan father of 2, Self-Immolates to Death Today

 Pawo Shichung, Tibetan father of 2, Self-Immolates to Death Today  Benny Lee's China  No Responses »
Sep 282013
 

pawoPawo Shichung lit himself of fire and died today, Sept. 28th.  He was 41 years old, married, and the father of two teenage daughters.

Schichung attended a prayer function, went home, lit some butter lamps in front of a portrait of the Dalai Lama (this constitutes a crime in China) and then set himself on fire.  He walked onto the road, to make the motives of his protest clear.  His body was rescued by Tibetans, but then forcibly taken away by the Chinese police.  Had the Tibetans tried to keep the body to give his family, they would have been arrested.

Schichung lived in the Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. The region is part of the Tibetan cultural and historical region of Amdo and it’s where many of the Tibetan self-immolations have taken place.

With this, Schichung becomes the 128th Tibetan known to self-immolate calling for Tibetan freedom and for the return to Tibet of the Dalai Lama.  Self-immolation as a form of protest has a long history in Buddhist culture.
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Free “Disappeared” Human Rights Defender Cao Shunli

 Free “Disappeared” Human Rights Defender Cao Shunli  Benny Lee's China  No Responses »
Sep 262013
 
Cao Shunli

Cao Shunli

On September 13th, Cao Shunli was about to board a flight to Geneva to testify about human rights violations in China, when she was questioned and barred from taking the flight.

She has not been heard of since, and she’s thus suspected of being the victim of a “forced disappearance” by the Chinese government.  As you read this, she is likely to be enduring torture and/or cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. It won’t be the first time.

After participating in a street protest in 2009, Cao Shunli was arrested without charges, tortured during a week in a police station and then sent to a “re-education camp” for another year of mistreatment. She was never allowed to see a lawyer.

In re-education camps, prisoners must spend the whole say – save for meal breaks – sitting down, with their backs straight and arms next to their sides, listening to lectures on how to be proper Chinese citizens. At night, they have to work for free. They are not even allowed a break when they sleep, they are forced to do so straight, on their backs, with their mouths facing upwards (like corpses). Their only hope of being freed is being convincing enough in their “confessions” to convince the authorities that they have been rehabilitated into mindless, servile citizens.

Cao Shunli spent a year in the camp before being freed, but was arrested soon after and sent to another one for another year.  She continued her human rights activism after being freed, and in October 2012 she was arrested for requesting public disclosure of China’s “National Human Rights Action Plan.”

Please e-mail the Chinese Embassy in Washington (chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn) to ask for her freedom.

Benny LeeThis post comes to you thanks to San Leandro Council Member Benny Lee

Alameda will NOT Raise Chinese Flag on October 1st.

 Alameda will NOT Raise Chinese Flag on October 1st.  City Hall, Politics  2 Responses »
Sep 262013
 

alamedacityhallSan Leandro City Council member Benny Lee argued that San Leandro should raise the flag of the People’s Republic of China at City Hall because other cities like “Alameda do it”.

It turns out that that is not true.

Tibetan activists all over the world have been writing to Alameda Mayor Marie Gilmore asking that they don’t fly the PRC flag on October 1st.  One activist got the following response from Assistant City Manager Alexander Nguyen:

Please be informed that the City of Alameda, California, has not, does not, and will not raise a foreign national flag on City Hall’s flagstaff.

The flag-raising ceremony scheduled next week is sponsored by our local Sister City Association and the Alameda Wuxi Friendship Committee, who use their own portable flagpoles.

This event is not a formal City Hall event; the Mayor and City Council do not sponsor it; they do not vote on it; they do not fund it.

Sincerely,

Alexander Nguyen
Assistant City Manager

So it would appear that Mr. Lee was, to put it politely, less than truthful.

 

 

Free Anti-Corruption Campaigner Liu Ping!

 Free Anti-Corruption Campaigner Liu Ping!  Benny Lee's China  No Responses »
Sep 262013
 
Liu Ping

Liu Ping

Liu Ping, an anti-corruption activist in Xinyu, Jiangxi Province, has been imprisoned since May of this year.

She is a former independent candidates for the People’s Congress in Xinyu.  She was arrested on May 9, 2013 for calling for public disclosure of officials’ assets as well as for the release of the rights defenders who had been previously detained on similar grounds. She has been indicted with two other activists on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place” and “using a cult to damage enforcement of the law”.  She is is currently being held at the Xinyu Municipal Detention Center.

Please e-mail the Chinese Embassy in Washington (chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn) to ask for her freedom. Make sure to mention that you heard about her case because of San Leandro Councilmember Benny Lee.

Benny LeeThis post comes to you thanks to San Leandro Council Member Benny Lee

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