Two of Tiananmen Mothers Released. Hong Kong Protesters Forcibly Removed From Secretariat

One Step Forward, One Step Back.

Two of the Three Tiananmen Mothers Have been released, probably partly due to the US making a statement, not so much China listens to the US, just they don't like their "dirty laundry" thrown around the global news circuit and the move US made did exactly that. Which is what I said ages ago, about how it is still important that other nations kick up a fuss even if it's hypocritical at times.

The other is people in Hong Kong are protesting the "reinterpretation" of the Basic law, I could explain what it means but the news stories do a good job. And last night the police came in a dragged the students out of the Secretariat, which is where our high government officials work, our equivalent to the white house. I understand they didn’t have a permit, and the government has done this before for those who don’t, which legally they can but from the news footage it was pretty heated before that happened and it’s always difficult to watch police and demonstrators clash regardless of circumstances. I was supposed to be there, but ended up concentrating on the cyber aspects of what you have been reading behind the scenes so I didn’t go, so maybe it was best. I do have a tendency of accidentally standing in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting into the middle of it unintentionally.

China is closing down hard at this moment because of Taiwan, and President Chen, a somewhat contested winner of the elections is now proclaiming that Taiwan IS and WILL BE an independent country, along with Hong Kong fighting for democratic rights, and of course because June 4th is coming up and it’s not the 15th anniversary of the crackdown. Even small things like the internet they are working towards shutting out.

I am just glad on a personal level I am in Hong Kong, because we won for a moment the battle for free speech and held of Article 23, and that China and my government can’t shut us down and arrest people for violating those laws. Moments like this makes me respect the rule of law and being in a free space all the more. And makes me realize even if I put a lot of hours into Glutter and trying to get the word out, and even if it’s not a huge effort and didn’t change the minds of my country, it did alert a lot of people, more than I could envision ever, about the “mushrooming” internet censorship.

To me, even if the Reporters Without Borders Report will probably not make it to the main stream press in a big way, from blog to NGO that’s a success. It really was the efforts of a few and then a lot of others who helped as we went along that made it happen. Must cherish small successes, as it shows, even one person behind a computer can make a small difference, and we do what we can.

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Click on the link below for the following news stories:
Hong Kong Police in Crackdown on Sit-In Protests
China releases two of three arrested members of "Tiananmen Mothers

Hong Kong Police in Crackdown on Sit-In Protests
Thu Apr 1, 2004 08:14 PM ET

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Police swooped before dawn Friday to evict dozens of protesters who had camped outside Hong Kong's government headquarters in protest over China's planned review of the city's constitution.
Beijing's review, which begins later Friday, will focus on re-interpreting clauses in the constitution on how Hong Kong's leaders and lawmakers are chosen.

The police said they forcibly removed 90 people after the protesters had staged an overnight vigil.

Local cable-TV showed rowdy scenes in which police officers carried away struggling protesters one by one and tried to stop photographers from taking pictures.

The protesters were hoping to hand Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa a letter in the morning to demand a top committee of China's parliament halt its review of Hong Kong's Basic Law constitution.

Critics say the review contradicts Beijing's pledge to maintain the city's high degree of autonomy and is aimed at stifling growing demands for greater democracy in one of Asia's top financial centers.

China releases two of three arrested members of "Tiananmen Mothers

BEIJING: Chinese authorities have released two of three women arrested for seeking justice for victims of the brutal 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square, relatives said.

Huang Jinping was released Thursday and Zhang Xianling Friday after being detained since Sunday, two family members told AFP.

The women are part of the "Tiananmen Mothers" activist group which for years has petitioned the government to reassess and take responsibility for sending troops to crush the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand people.

A relative of Huang, who declined to be identified, said: "Three uniformed state security police officers brought her home Thursday afternoon."

Zhang and her family could not be reached for comment, but the husband of the third woman arrested, Ding Zilin, said Zhang's husband had informed him that the elderly woman had been released.

Authorities gave no word on when Ding, the founder and most active member of the group, would be released, her husband Jiang Peikun said.

He said she was allowed to call him Friday to inquire about his health. Jiang recently had heart surgery.

"She could not say much. I guess the people in the detention center wouldn't let her," Jiang said. "She asked about my health. I asked her when she would come home, but she said 'Don't ask.'"

Ding told him she was still in east China's Wuxi city, which she was visiting when she was arrested.

The release of Zhang and Huang came after the United States on Wednesday called for the "immediate release" of the three women.

A US State Department spokesman also Wednesday questioned China's claim that its human rights record was improving and attacked Beijing's refusal to reassess the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests.

Huang, whose husband was killed in the Tiananmen massacre, did not appear to be physically abused but seemed to be still in shock, her relative said.

"She was in a very low mood after she got home. She refused to say anything to us after she got home. She kept saying to herself 'Why?'" the relative said.

The three women were arrested after police discovered that a videotaped testimony on their efforts to seek justice would be brought before the UN Commission of Human Rights in Geneva, the New York-based group Human Rights in China had said.

The US is proposing a resolution at the UN meeting that will express concern over China's rights record.

Chinese officials and police have expressed concern over social unrest on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen democracy protests, which began in April 1989 and culminated with the bloody crushing on June 4.

Ding and Zhang's teenage sons were shot when tanks and soldiers opened fire on unarmed protestors and bystanders.

In recent years, the Tiananmen Mothers have issued s to the government demanding a formal dialogue with bereaved families, the establishment of an independent inquiry into the crackdown and the publication of an official list of those killed.

Upon their arrests, police told Zhang's and Huang's families that the women were suspected of "harming state security". T-shirts posted to them from Hong Kong imprinted with the logo "Tiananmen Mothers" were also confiscated during the arrests.

"I hope they will release my wife soon now that they have released the other two women," Ding's husband Jiang said.

- AFP

Comments

[tom]

I'm glad you weren't arrested. That certainly would have placed you at wrong place at the wrong time.

It seems, from my outsiders perspective, that once you've earned the title "enemy of the state" in China, there's no going back, and life becomes difficult; the state makes it difficult for advocates to make any political speech.

Do you think that as time passes, and old CCP stalwarts become defunct, China will grow to endorse more basic freedoms? Or do you think that, for whatever constellation of reasons, Chinese CP leadership will maintain it's present character?

Is this sort of dicussion inappropriate in this forum?

[tom]

This question is inappropriate for online discussion.

Sorry, Yan.

[glutterbug]

No probs. Not that's it inappropiate. Just not exactly the "right" time at the moment for this blog. I think I am going to have to shut up about politics for a while, at least I feel better if I do. It makes other people around me feel better too. Do I hate living under a regime that is highly "sensitive" and over zealous? Yes. I do.

Yan