Jailed human rights activist Xu Zhiyong has called on the Chinese people to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen massacre that ended weeks of pro-democracy protests with a day of fasting, in an impassioned plea from his prison cell to citizens to continue fighting for freedom and democracy. .
“I have fasted one day on June 4 every year for the past decade, inside and outside prison,” Xu said in a letter from prison posted on the Weiquanwang rights website and the activist’s Twitter account. American Teng Biao. .
“Others have also fasted over the years, but in silence.”
Public mourning for the victims and discussion of the events of the spring and summer of 1989 are forbiddenand references to June 4, 1989, blocked, filtered or removed by the great firewall of government censorship on the Internet.
Xu Guang, a former student leader in the 1989 protest movement at Hangzhou University, stood trial in April in the eastern province of Zhejiang for “stirring up fights and stirring up trouble,” a charge often used to attack peaceful critics. of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. , after him refused to eat and drink in detention to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre.
According to Xu Zhiyong, fasting on the anniversary of the massacre should become widespread, despite the risks.
“Fasting is not just personal, it should awaken people, rebuild national character and create a new national spirit,” Xu wrote.
“We should make it a public matter and work together to wake up the (Chinese) people.”
Xu also seemed to warn of possible reprisals against himself after his letter.
“I might go quiet for a while after this,” he said. “When I disappear into the dark, please continue to work hard as citizens and fight for universal suffrage and free speech.”
Xu said he remains optimistic that such a move will work.
“In the face of this darkness, I firmly believe that the dawn will come,” he said, adding that the June 4 fast “connects people to the past and commemorates the sacrifices of our ancestors.”
Teng said that he and Xu Zhiyong were in high school when the 1989 democracy movement was at its height, and they found it inspiring.
“June 4, 1989 was an extremely important and profoundly influential event in Chinese politics,” he said. “It still has a profound impact on China, even though 34 years have passed.”
“It will never be a thing of the past.”
Teng compared Xu’s call for an anniversary fast on Sunday to the actions of Mahatma Gandhi.
“Fasting is a very powerful action,” he said. “The way Xu Zhiyong sees it, we must always remember this day, or this tragedy in history is likely to repeat itself.”
He described Xu as “my best friend” and said he is worried about his health in prison.
“The way the Chinese prison guards treat you is inhumane; there are many ways to threaten and abuse prisoners,” he said.
Luo Shengchun, wife of jailed human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, who was sentenced at the same time as Xu, said she believes her husband will refuse to eat in prison on June 4, as the couple had fasted together for many years while they were still together.
“He’ll probably keep him going… he even did it while he was under residential surveillance at a designated location, and the policemen watching him didn’t understand why he didn’t eat anything on June 4,” Luo said.
“This is the only thing we can all do together to commemorate June 4, 1989,” he said.
In April, the Linshu County People’s Court in eastern Shandong province sentenced Xu to 14 years in prison and Ding, a human rights lawyer, to 12 years, after convicting them of “subversion of state power”, a charge often used to attack critics of the government, after they attended a meeting of dissidents in 2019.
Ding and Xu, the founder of the “New Citizens Movement” campaign for government transparency, were detained after attending a dinner with prominent activists in December 2019 in Xiamen, southeast China.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Paul Eckert.