"Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Like at a
vigil, net users in China laid flowers and lit candles to show their
support for Google, which threatened yesterday to pull out of the
mainland if censorship and espionage did not stop against dissidents
who use the net to communicate with the outside world. [...]"
In a show of support we also would like to deliver flowers to Google when we have 50 comments.
Dear Friend,
Please tell a friend.
If you live in Southern California, please join us for this
New Year's Day protest to bring
attention to the continued human rights violations in China.
Please join us in sending a message to the government
official representatives from Shanghai who are accompanying the
Shanghai Expo Rose float at the Rose Parade.
Ann Lau
* * * * *
WHAT: Bring Attention to the Human Rights
Violations in China
- Protest the Pasadena Rose Parade's
Shanghai Expo Rose Float
WHEN: New
Year's Day, Friday, January 1, 2010,
9:00 a.m.
WHERE:
Meet in front of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church
2660
E
Orange
Grove
Blvd.,
Pasadena,
Ca.
91107
There will be a banner on the Church building calling
for the release of Bishop Jia Zhiguo and Bishop Su Zhimin
(Corner
of
N
Sierra
Madre
Blvd.
and
E.
Orange Grove Blvd)
This is towards the end of the parade route before the
floats enter Victory Park.
CONTACT:
Ann Lau
310-539-0234, 310-433-0697
James
Zheng
626-227-4575
SUPPORTING
ORGANIZATIONS: To
be confirmed
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Shanghai Expo Rose Parade float is one of the floats participating
in the 121st Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade in the City of
Pasadena in California on New Year's Day.
There will be more than 100 people from China sitting on the float or
walking alongside the Shanghai Expo float.
China has continued to put internet writers, bloggers, reporters in
jail for their writings and truthful reportings.
The Christmas Day sentence of Liu Xiaobo to 11 years follows the 3
years sentence of Huang Qi who was tried for helping earthquake victims
who lost their children from "tofu" schools.
We will be there to bring attention to some of the more than 700
prisoners of conscience in China: Liu Xiaobo, Huang Qi, Sun Lin, Qi
Chonghuai, Hu Jia, Yang Chunlin, Chen
Guangcheng, Shi Tao, Bishop Jia Zhiguo and Bishop Su Zhimin.
We want to send a message to the Chinese
officials who are accompanying the float to know that people around the
world are aware of what the government of China is doing to its
people. The government of the Peoples Republic of China's propaganda
of "harmony" is in fact violated by the government itself.
####
Please join us in
either Los Angeles or New York and tell a friend
WHAT: Protest the 11-year prison sentence imposed on Liu Xiaobo
by
the
government
of the Peoples Republic of China
LOS ANGELES:
WHEN: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:00 p.m.
WHERE:
Consulate
of
the Peoples Republic of China, 434
Shatto
Place,
Los Angeles, Ca. 90020
CONTACT:
Ann
Lau
310-539-0234, James
Zheng
626-227-4575
NEW
YORK CITY:
WHEN: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 2:00 p.m.
WHERE:
Consulate
of
the
Peoples Republic of China, 42nd
Street
&
12th Avenue, New York, NY 10036
CONTACT:
Ann
Noonan
646-251-6069, Jonathan Cao 917-292-7348
**SUPPORTING
ORGANIZATIONS
TO
BE
CONFIRMED**
Background: Liu Xiaobo was
sentenced to 11 years in prison for calling for political reform in
China through a manifesto called Charter 08. He has already been in
detention in China for a year, and his 2-hour trial ended on Christmas
Day with a guilty verdict.
“We
continue to call on the government of China to release him
immediately,” US embassy official Gregory May told reporters outside
the courthouse following sentencing. “Persecution of individuals for
the peaceful expression of political views is inconsistent with
internationally recognized norms of human rights.”
In
2008, while human rights supporters throughout the world prepared to
celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the International Declaration of
Human Rights, Liu Xiaobo, one of China's most prominent human rights
activists was arrested in his home in Beijing. His crime was drafting
a document, Charter 08, which calls for political reform in China. His
telephone and internet lines were cut, and his personal papers, books
and computers were seized.
Charter
08
reiterates
many
of the rights as set forth in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. It calls for democratic reform in
China and it calls for change in 19 areas, including a new
constitution, an independent judiciary, freedom of assembly, election
of public officials and stronger guarantees for personal freedoms. It
expresses a sense of urgency for the future and destiny of China. The
document
has
more
than 8,000 signatories including intellectuals and
human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, dissidents, artists and
rural leaders in China.
Charter 08 was based on Charter 77,
a human rights manifesto which challenged Soviet rule and was
originally signed by about two hundred writers and intellectuals in
Czechoslovakia in 1977. One of the signers of Charter 77 was playwright
Vaclav Havel who later became the first President of democratic
Czechoslovakia after the 1989 "velvet revolution". Charter
77
serves
as
an example of how Czechoslovakian dissidents who signed
the Charter 77 petition changed history when they stand up for what
they believe.
