USA/FILE: Three Chinese dissidents, indentified by their compatriots and jailed, reunite ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

Record ID: 572335

  • Title: USA/FILE: Three Chinese dissidents, indentified by their compatriots and jailed, reunite ahead of Tiananmen anniversary
  • Date: 5th June 2009
  • Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JUNE 2, 2009) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) YU ZHIJIAN SAYING: "Because at that point, the democratic movement had culminated into the final [stage of] martial law. At that time, the strategy should be changed. We tried to contribute to the democratic movement as we best could."
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: History
  • Reuters ID: LVA5OYSSAVCWKZNXOS0MBDG2IY6X
  • Story Text: Three Chinese dissidents who spent much of the past 20 years behind bars for defacing Mao Zedong's portrait at Tiananmen Square say the students who led that movement have failed to continue the struggle.
    Three Chinese dissidents who spent much of the past 20 years behind bars for marring Mao Zedong's portrait at Tiananmen Square said in Washington on Tuesday (June 2, 2009) that the students who led that movement have failed to continue the struggle.
    Heralded as the "three heroes of Tiananmen" by the Chinese dissident circle, the young men pelted dye-filled eggs onto the ultimate symbol of Communist rule on May 23, 1989.
    They desecrated an icon of the Communist Party at the very spot where Mao declared the People's Republic of China, but their act also ruffled student protesters who were distrustful of the outsiders from Hunan and informed on them to police.
    After a long periods of imprisonment and upended lives, the three childhood friends reunited at the Laogai Museum in Washington on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the protests. The men stood beside a replica of the dye-splattered portrait in an exhibit commemorating the event.
    Tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square before dawn on June 4, 1989 to crush weeks of student and worker protests. On Thursday, Chinese police filled the square to prevent a spontaneous commemoration of the crackdown.
    Twenty years ago, Lu Decheng, a bus driver, Yu Zhijian, a middle school teacher, and Yu Dongyue, an arts editor of Liuyang Daily, founded the "Hunan Petition Group" in their hometown.
    Just before martial law was imposed, they boarded a train to Beijing, where they hoisted banners and defiled the portrait of Mao.
    "Our act provoked people to rethink the legality of the Communist dictatorship," Yu Zhijian said.
    But some student protesters criticized the three for agitating the non-violent character of the Chinese democratic movement, and so they turned them over to police. The student activists who informed on the three feared the Chinese government would respond forcefully to the protest, which is exactly what happened a week later.
    The Chinese government has never released a death toll at Tiananmen. Thousands of people were arrested and human rights groups estimate 30 to 50 remain in prison.
    In the past 20 years, there has been much hand-ringing in the Chinese democracy movment and some still wonder whether identifying Lu Decheng, Yu Zhijian and Yu Dongyue to was justified.
    The three men were charged for "counterrevolutionary sabotage" and "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement" in August 1989. Yu Dongyue, Lu, and Yu Zhijian were sentenced to 20 years, 16 years and life imprisonment respectively.
    In 1998, Lu and Yu Zhijian were paroled, but Yu Dongyue was not released until February 2006.
    At their Washington meeting, Yu Zhijian said Yu Dongyue was subjected to long periods of solitary confinement and torture, including frequent beatings with electric batons, forced drinking of his urine, and sleep deprivation.
    Yu Dongyue was unable to recognize his childhood friends when they visited him in jail. He mumbled unintelligible words in an interview.
    Yu Zhijian said he endured long beatings and that a prison guard broke his front teeth. In 2008, he fled with his wife and baby, as did Yu Dongyue with his young sister, from China to a U.N. refugee camp in Thailand. They were granted refugee status by the United States and arrived in the United States on May 14.
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