Five men who were jailed for supporting the 1989 democracy movement have called on the Chinese government for economic redress, saying they are struggling to survive because of their punishment.
The bold move comes days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on the protests, which left hundreds dead in Beijing. The movement began with student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square and spread across the country rapidly.
Harassment of dissidents has increased in the run-up to Thursday’s anniversary, with artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未), one of the best-known critics of the government, saying authorities had shut down his blog and placed him under surveillance.
In an open letter to Chinese leaders released via the US-based group Human Rights in China, the five former prisoners from Zhejiang Province said they were suffering financially because they were still labeled as “June Fourth thugs.”
“Since our imprisonment after the June 4, 1989, crackdown, we not only lost our jobs, we were also stripped of the cumulative benefits of our past labor and lost our pension rights,” wrote Wu Gaoxing, Chen Longde, Wang Donghai, Mao Guoliang and Ye Wenxiang.
“Some are now past retirement age, yet have no source of income to cover living expenses and no medical insurance; others ... have no choice but to drift from place to place doing temporary manual labor to support their families, while living apart from their wives. If we get sick, we can only wait to die, and all this just because 20 years ago we were sentenced for political reasons,” they wrote.
They ask that former prisoners receive pensions based on their work prior to the crackdown or state support, while those of working age should be able to return to their old jobs or be given compensation.
Their intervention comes as authorities clamp down on dissidents ahead of the anniversary.
Bao Tong (鮑彤), the most senior official jailed over the movement and now an outspoken critic of the government, was asked by security officials to leave Beijing last week.
On Saturday, Ai, who designed the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium, said that Sina, China’s biggest news portal, closed his blog without explanation on Friday after he refused to self-censor his posts ahead of the June 4 anniversary.
It came shortly after he posted details of altercations with state security officers who he said have started to follow him and intimidate those around him. Four plain-clothes officers interrogated his 76-year-old mother. Another associate was woken at 4am and taken for questioning for several hours.
Ai said it was absurd because he was in the US in 1989 and played no part in the protests.
The influential artist’s campaign to uncover why so many schools collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake generated wide support and he has been among the highest-profile online critics of the one-party system.
He said: “Freedom of expression is absolutely the most important thing for society. We don’t have it in China.”
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS