China Rights Activist Beaten at Cemetery

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

Last Saturday was tomb-sweeping day, when the Chinese traditionally honor the dead. Sun Wenguang, a 75-year-old retired university professor, was one of many to visit the cemetery.

Apparently, though, he chose the wrong death to commemorate. He came to remember Zhao Ziyang, a former Communist party prime minister and general secretary who lost his position in the party and his freedom after sympathizing with student-led, pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Mr. Zhao, who died in 2005, is viewed by some pro-democracy advocates as a martyr.

As he entered the cemetery in Jinan, a city about 300 miles south of Beijing, Mr. Sun said, four or five men attacked him and beat him severely. He is now in a Jinan hospital with three broken ribs and injuries to his spine, head, back, arms and legs, according to China Human Rights Defenders, a Hong Kong-based human rights group. The group said the attack on Mr. Sun was part of a concerted effort by the Chinese government to head off any efforts to memorialize the deaths of hundreds of Tiananmen Square protestors on June 4, the 20th anniversary of the government’s crackdown.

“Chinese authorities are staging a campaign of terror to intimidate and suppress expressions of commemoration for the 1989 Tiananmen massacre,” the group said in a statement. The attack on Mr. Sun “is part of the overall campaign,” it said.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/world/asia/08china.html?ref=global-home

[bertman]

1. I am SO GLAD that these are the guys who are keeping our economy from tanking by

buying our bonds.

Pretty soon they'll own so much of our Treasury that they'll be able to get President Obama to send out four- and five-man teams to beat the shit out of any 75-year old in America who tries to remind us that we are a nation of laws.

Ain't globalism wonderful?

[derby378]

2. So much for those beautiful Olympics ceremonies in Beijing

As Julie Brown once said, "When life hands you lemons, you're encouraged to make lemonade, but you can't make lemonade out of a dead dog no matter how hard you try."