PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONLINE COMMEMORATION: ANNUAL AWARD & TIANANMEN COMMEMORATION 31st ANNIVERSARY

WHAT: The Visual Artists Guild will be streaming live on Youtube and Facebook for its 31st Annual Commemoration of the Tiananmen Massacre

WHEN: Sunday, May 31st, 2020, 2 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
WHERE: Online via Visual Artists Guild Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmt032_hMve6vSp0qdC6-TA )

CONTACT: Ann Lau 310-433-0697
                  Catherine Bauknight (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
                  www.visual-artists-guild.org

Every year since the Tiananmen Massacre on June 4th 1989, when thousands of student protesters were murdered, the Visual Artists Guild has been commemorating their sacrifice. It has been a celebration of free speech. While the Chinese government has successfully erased this atrocity from the public consciousness, outside of China it is known thousands of peaceful protesters were murdered by the People's Liberation Army. They were executed for exercising their right to free speech.

Since Tiananmen our team of volunteer activists at the Visual Artists Guild has put together live commemorations attempting to continue this dialogue regarding the freedom of speech.  The 1989 Tiananmen Massacre started a period that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of Eastern Europe Communist Dictatorships. Due to the Wuhan virus, the 31st anniversary will be done completely online. This pandemic finds us in a tragic situation largely due to another cover up by the CCP, and we will be honoring the Wuhan virus whistleblowers.

We will be honoring these outstanding champions of free speech and human rights:

Dr. Li Wenliang- Original whistleblower censured for reporting the virus who then died.

Zeng Yingchun and Zhen Yan- Doctors who submitted an article to The Lancet, a British Medical journal calling for international help with Wuhan hospital, and since disappeared.

Ai Fen- Doctor who sent initial information to Dr. Li Wenliang and others, who disappeared; has since reappeared.

Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua-All three citizen journalists who went to Wuhan to report the facts. All three have disappeared. Li Zehua has reappeared.

Zhang Zhan- Chinese citizen journalist in detention since live-streaming on the Wuhan virus from Wuhan a story critical of the government’s response to the crisis.

Matan Evenoff- Youth that became an internet sensation speaking truth to power about Hong Kong human rights.

THE VISUAL ARTISTS GUILD IS A NONPARTISAN NONPROFIT PROMOTING THE RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH AND EXPRESSION WORLDWIDE

URGENT ACTION

Please sign the following petition
  The US Must Demand Hong Kong Dismiss all Charges against the Democracy Activists 15
   Please click here for the link to sign 
    http://chng.it/bMKWD2NS99

To President Donald Trump, All Senators, All House Representatives:

On April 18, fifteen prominent pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have been arrested.  They are accused of organizing and participating in "unlawful assemblies" last year.

For years, the Beijing government has been slowly encroaching on Hong Kong's freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and of demonstration as enshrined in Hong Kong's mini Constitution, the Basic Law.

The Basic Law is the result of the 1984 signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration setting forth Britain's transfer of authority on Hong Kong to the Hong Kong Special Administration Region under China with the principle of "One Country, Two Systems". 

Further, the Basic Law provides that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and international labour conventions as applied to Hong Kong shall remain in force.

Article 22 of the Basic Law states that “no department of the Central People's Government and no province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government may interfere in the affairs which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region administers on its own in accordance with this Law.” 

Yet, on April 17, 2020, Luo Huining, China’s appointed representative for Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, summarily declared that Beijing is not subject to such restrictions as stated in Article 22 and that it is entitled to supervise affairs in Hong Kong with the "correct" implementation of the Basic Law.

Luo's declaration clearly sets the arguments for Beijing to justify the arrest of the pro-democracy activists the following day.

We the undersigned ask our elected officials to demand that the officials of Hong Kong Special Administration Region under Beijing immediately dismiss all charges against the fifteen individuals listed below.

Mindful of Beijing's years of blatant violations of international norms and as well as Beijing's coverup of the Wuhan coronavirus, now called COVID-19, resulting in this current world pandemic, we further ask our elected officials to sanction Beijing until Beijing adheres to acceptable global behavior.

List of arrested activists:
Martin Lee Chu-ming (李柱銘)
Jimmy Chee-Ying Lai (黎智英) 
Margaret Ngoi-yee Ng (吳靄儀)
Albert Chun-yan Ho (何俊仁)
Kwok-hung Leung (梁國雄)
Nok-hin Au (歐諾軒)
Cyd Sau-lan Ho (何秀蘭)
Cheuk-yan Lee (李卓人)
Sum Yeung (楊森)
Richard Yiu-Cheong Tsoi (蔡耀昌)
Chung-kai Sin (單仲偕)
Avery Man-yuen Ng (吳文遠)
Figo Ho-wun Chan (陳晧桓)
Raphael Ho-ming Wong (黃浩銘)
Yiu-chung Leung (梁耀忠)

Facing the China Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic

Dear Friend,
             I hope to find you well.
             As China's Wuhan coronavirus spread all over the world, we need to seriously face this pandemic together.
             California has already instituted a stay at home order (https://covid19.ca.gov/img/EssentialCriticalInfrastructureWorkers.pdf)
             Those who go out for essentials are asked to stay six feet distance from others.
                 The reason being that: ( https://apple.news/ATWmOdE4STTmvJCBdURGDTQ )
                  * The droplets can stay in the air for hours.
                  * The virus can be on surfaces up to days.
                  * Those who are carriers of the virus may not have symptoms.

             As I follow the progression of the China Wuhan virus since Radio Free Asia first reported it on January 2, I have followed some of the practices that those who survived the illness have observed.
                  * Wash your hands. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PmVJQUCm4E )
                  * Keep hydrated.  Chinese people all drink hot or warm water according to Chinese medicine.
                  * Get sunshine for vitamin D for a healthy immune system.
                  * Do deep breathing exercise.  Diamond Princess cruise survivor practiced deep breathing to expand the lungs.
                           At point 20 of this video, the patient explains his lung got cleared (  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2E1t3yMXgE )
                           This is the breathing exercise he uses  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p329t40gk78  )
                  * Use of inhaled hormones.
                            Dr. Ai Fan who watched her colleagues fall one after another at the Wuhan hospital indicated that the reason she did not get the virus could be the fact that "I have asthma, and using some inhaled hormones may inhibit the deposition of these viruses in the lungs." 

Signing letter to the Consul General