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Tue, 26 Oct 1999 13:29:35 -0700
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 13:29:35 -0700 From: webmaster@cin.org (CIN) Subject: Chinese Freedom Fighters to Meet at Historical Summit Conference
Dear Friend and Colleague:
I am writing to cordially invite you to PRI's upcoming conference: Human
Rights in China: 50 Years Later. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an
authoritarian regime in which the communist Chinese government is the
paramount source of power. This conference will highlight what the citizens
of China have suffered in the past few decades in the areas of civil,
minority, religious and women's human rights violations. The conference will
take place on Friday and Saturday, the 19th and 20th of November, at the
Capital Hilton in Washington, DC. I hope to see you there.
Steven W. Mosher,
President
PRI's Weekly Briefing
Vol. 1 No. 22
26 October 1999
Chinese Freedom Fighters to Meet at Historical Summit Conference
Limited Seating and Accommodations Still Available
WASHINGTON, DC --- The leaders of China's pro-democracy movement will gather
for the first time since the Tiananmen Square massacre next month in
Washington, DC. The freedom fighters are coming together for a conference
with American China experts and policymakers, sponsored by the Population
Research Institute (PRI), a human rights research organization headquartered
in Front Royal, Virginia.
The conference, titled: Human Rights in China: 50 Years Later, will take
place on 19-20 November at the Capital Hilton. Chinese leaders scheduled to
speak at the conference include:
-- Wei Jingsheng, Former Political Prisoner, Columbia University ("China's
Prisoners of Conscience")
-- Wang Juntao, Former Political Prisoner, Columbia University ("China's
Democratization: Strategy and Process")
-- Shen Tong, Former Political Prisoner, Foundation for the Chinese Academy
("The Meaning of June 4")
-- Shengde Lian, Former Political Prisoner, Party for Freedom and Democracy,
("Democracy Under Communism")
Twenty years ago, Wei Jingsheng called upon the Beijing regime to
democratize, a "crime" for which he was imprisoned for most of the next two
decades. Wang Juntao, Shen Tong and Shengde Lian were at Tiananmen, where
the hopes of a generation for democracy were dashed. All joined Wei for a
time in the Laogai, the Chinese equivalent of the Soviet Gulag. Recent
efforts by dissidents in China to form an opposition political party have
resulted in widespread arrests, although Wang, Shen and Lian continue to
organize overseas.
Aside from their ongoing denial of basic political and civil rights to the
Chinese people, the Chinese Communist Party routinely violates the rights of
women, of minorities, and of religious believers. Party Secretary Jiang
Zemin, for example, recently endorsed the continuation of the often-brutal
one-child policy. China was recently labeled by the State Department as one
of the worst abusers of religious rights worldwide.
According to Steven W. Mosher, President of conference sponsor PRI, "The
Western world needs to become more aware of the human rights situation in
China. By assembling China's leading dissidents in one place we hope to
foster awareness of this situation, and build support for their efforts to
peacefully evolve China into a democratic state which respects human
rights."
To register for the conference, contact Michele Madasz: (540) 622-5252,
email: michele@pop.org <mailto:michele@pop.org> . Web site registration:
http://www.pop.org/chinaconf.html <http://www.pop.org/chinaconf.html> .
Limited seating and accommodations are still available.
Steven W. Mosher is available for radio and television interviews in both
English and Chinese languages.
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