NY Locals Call for Freedom in China as Olympics End

SHOWING SUPPORT: City Council Member Tony Avella speaks out against the Chinese communist regime’s oppressive nature, stressing the importance of speaking out against its atrocities. (JOSHUA PHILIPP/THE EPOCH TIMES)

NEW YORK—With the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, activists, artists, and journalists stood on the steps of City Hall for a press conference on Monday, August 25th. Held by Reporters Without Borders and The Visual Artists Guild, eight individuals who had been arrested in China, as well as various representatives, gave an overview of the Olympics and the state of the communist regime.

Throughout the course of the Beijing Olympics, 55 individuals from around the world have been arrested and deported for either supporting or observing pro-Tibet protests in Beijing since August 6. John Walker, a member of Students for a Free Tibet who attended the event, was arrested in Beijing for displaying a Tibetan flag on a roadside in Beijing.

“The way the system works there, there’s absolutely no due process,” said Walker whose flag display landed him a ten-day sentence that was later removed due to foreign influence. “I learned that the Chinese government is now, more than ever, actively working to suppress the Tibetan culture and deny them the right to govern themselves.”

Walker said that his arrest for displaying a Tibetan flag opened his eyes to the degree of oppression that Tibetans and others face under the Chinese communist regime. “As far as Tibetans go, they’re detained for practically any kind of support for their nation,” said Walker. “The punishment they suffer is way worse. It can be years detained, they can disappear indefinitely, and there’s even been reports of death and torture.”

As the Olympic games end, memories of deported reporters, arrested human rights activists, poor sportsmanship, and “free speech zones” used to weed out Chinese dissidents, still linger in the minds of many.

Speaking at the conference, City Council Member Tony Avella expressed his view of the regime in light of the Olympics. “We are finishing up the Olympic Games, and despite the fact that China didn’t allow the press into certain areas, didn’t allow the press to interview people who wanted to speak out, we should provide the spirit of democracy and freedom in that country,” said Avella. “The fact that they continue to persecute people for speaking out on their own liberties or their own political viewpoints is an absolute disgrace.”

“We here in the United States, whenever these type of situations occur throughout the world, must speak out,” Avella added.

Having witnessed the oppressive nature of the communist regime first hand, Annie Honguian Li told the story of her mother, a Falun Gong practitioner, who is currently being held in one of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brainwashing centers, the Lanzhou City Legal Training School.

Chinese police in the Urumqi, Qinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, arrested both her mother and her aunt for their belief in Falun Gong.

“The police ransacked my aunt’s home, fined them 1,000 Chinese dollars, and tapped their telephones,” said Li who mentioned that since her mother’s arrest she has not been able to contact her.

Ari Hoffnung, President of the Riverdale Jewish Community, and grandson of a holocaust survivor,  compared atrocities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with those of the Soviet Union. He went on to express his wish that the Olympics will help spawn a call for freedom in China.

“May the closing of the 2008 Olympics mark the beginning of a new grassroots movement that will demand and ultimately win the religious freedom and human rights the people of China deserve,” Hoffnung said.

Making reference to history, Hoffnung gave a reminder that regardless of how strong a regime appears to be, with enough people working together, it can collapse overnight. “Today, the communist government in China may seem undefeatable,” said Hoffnung. “The plight of Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and other religious minorities may seem hopeless. The fate of human rights prisoners may seem bleak. The money flowing to the genocidal government in Sudan may seem endless. History, however, has taught us that even the strongest empire is not indestructible when people of conscience work together.”