URGENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS CONFERENCE

WHAT:  Press Conference to call for the immediate release of Poet Zhu Yufu who was taken away

               by China's Public Security Bureau police Beijing time September 17, 2018 at 10:30a..m.

             新聞發布會呼籲中國立 即釋放朱虞夫

WHEN:  Press Conference Monday, September 17, 2018  4:00 p.m.

WHERE:   Consulate of the Peoples Republic of China

                  434 Shatto Place, Los Angeles, Ca. 90020

CONTACT and Information: Ann Lau, Chair, Visual Artists Guild 310-433-0697

Zhu Yufu is the recipient of Visual Artists Guild's 2013 Champion of Freedom of Speech Award.

Statement by Julie Zhu, the daughter of Zhu Yufu, 朱虞夫女兒聲明在下

    "September 17, 2018, 10:30 a.m. Beijing Time, my father, Zhu Yufu, the Chinese Democracy activist, poet and artist Zhu Yufu, was taken home by Hangzhou's Public Security Bureau.

    My father, recently participated in the WeChat group "Conscience Art Auction". His painting and calligraphy work received 7,000 yuan.  My father donated all his proceeds to the families of those prisoners of conscience in China.  My father was warned in advance not to attend the auction.  The Security Bureau said,"You yourself do not even have enough to eat, how can you donate to others?" My father said, "It is true that I have no food, but the families of other victims are worse than mine."  The Security Bureau said, "If you persist, the consequences will be at your own hands."

    However, my father insisted on participating in the auction. The next day, he was taken away five Public Security Bureau police.  His house was ransacked and he is suspected of the crime of "subversion of state power."

    My father is a veteran pro-democracy activist and joined the democratic movement in 1979. In June 1998, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power." In 2007, he was sentenced to two years in prison for "obstructing public service." In 2012, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power" and deprived of political rights for three years.

    In March this year, 2018, he was released from prison. During his imprisonment, my father suffered many illnesses. His life is very difficult and have been constantly harassed by the Public Security Bureau police who visited his house many times. 

    My father though he himself suffers many difficulties, he still pays attention to the families of those prisoners of conscience.

    My father's generosity of spirit and his charitable donations resulted in his current repression from the Hangzhou's Public Security Bureau should cause great indignation and concern from all people around the world.

    Within China and within the international community, I am sure people will condemn this inhuman act and call on China to immediately release my father, Zhu Yufu.

朱虞夫女兒朱利 陳 述

北京時間九月十七日上午十點半，我的父親中國民主黨人、藝術家朱虞夫先生被抄家同時被杭州國保帶走。

我父親朱虞夫日前參加微信群“良心藝術品拍賣會”，他的一幅字畫作品“諸葛亮前後出師表長卷”拍得七千元人民幣，並將拍賣所得全部捐獻給良心 犯家屬，因此遭到打壓。事前朱虞夫曾經接獲有關部門警告，禁止他參加拍賣會。國保說：你已經連飯都吃不上了，怎麼還有錢捐給別人。我爸爸說： 我確實是沒飯吃，但是其他民主人士的家族比我更困難。國保說：如果你要堅持的話，後果自負。然而父親繼續堅持拍賣。第二天就被5個國保抄家並 帶走。這次被抄家和羈押的罪名是“涉嫌顛覆國家政權”。

朱虞夫先生是資深異議人士，1979年投身民主運動。 1998年6月因組建中國民主黨被以“煽動顛覆國家政權罪”判刑七年，2007年被以“妨礙公務罪”判刑兩年，2012年再次被以“煽動顛覆國家政權罪” 判刑七年，剝奪政治權利三年，今年三月剛剛刑滿出獄。長期監獄生涯，朱虞夫多種疾病纏身，出獄以後，沒有醫療保險，生活困頓。但是他仍然以極 大的熱情和愛心關注良心犯家屬。國保曾多次上門，進行無理騷擾。

朱虞夫先生因慈善捐款再次遭受有關當局打壓，已引起全國和世界各地異議人士的極大憤慨和關注，也一定會遭到國際社會的強烈譴責。

Dear Friend,
              Entering 2018, we wish you a wonderful New Year. 
             We will continue working with you in helping to bring attention to the many people whom we see as giving the world a spark for hopefulness and love.
             2017 can be remembered as the year when China's president Xi Jinping consolidates his China dream beyond the imagination of the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. 
            Thought police are in all China's internet surveillance with the requirement of real name registration.  WeChat, the all-in-one messaging calling app is being used by China as a national id that will make any user responsible for its own group chat as the government of China continuously censor speech and expression in pushing for their catch all phrase of "maintaining security".  Western corporations became collaborators in censorship when Apple removed VPN apps that allow Chinese in China to bypass China's Great Firewall.
            The death of Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo in July brought to the world attention that any long term imprisonment by China may in fact be a death sentence.  Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Christmas day 2009; detained in 2008, he had less than two years left in his sentence.  Yang Tongyan, 杨同彦 a writer and member of PEN, died in November after being released for medical parole in August for a brain tumor.  Yang was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2006 and was only a few months towards the end of his sentence. In 2014, attorney Cao Shunli 曹順利 died after she was detained in 2013 as she was leaving for Geneva for a review on China's human rights record. This pattern of causing the resultant death of detainees or prisoners in China is alarming.  Currently, Visual Artists Guild is concerned that Huang Qi, 黃琦,a human rights activist who started an early web site "64 Tianwang" since 1998 and imprisoned twice before, is now in danger of dying while in custody.  The 8 years sentence in December of blogger Wu Gan 吳 淦 is certain to result in his health deterioration in the future.
            While the world may celebrate China's commitment to the Paris climate accord, few recognizes that in a totalitarian government, the authorities can set their goal for peak emission by 2030 with no regard to how it will impact ordinary citizens. Minister of Environment Protection Li Ganjie's 李干杰; order to stop coal use by three million housholds in 28 cities around Beijing resulted in the destruction of coal stoves of those homes when replacements were mostly not ready during the depth of Beijng's deadly winter. Within the same policy of pollution control, China started to expel its low-end population "低端人口" when a fire broke out in late November in Beijing where 19 people died.  The forced eviction and demolition of homes for migrant workers on Beijing is part of the government plan to limit population in Beijing in co-ordination with president Xi Jinping's plan for a "beautiful China" 美好生活as announced during the 19th Congress in October.
            Perhaps the most Orwellian nightmare China's government is doing is the collection of biometric DNA of the people in Xinjiang province where 11 million Uighur Muslims live.  With pressure from China, Egypt and other countries have forced the return of Uighur students back to China where they have disappeared.  One would wonder whether such data could be used for China's organ trade.
            Self-immolation in Tibet continues with seven this year.  We must convince the Tibetans that ending one's life will not help to end the repression.  Each and everyone of their life is necessary to continue to preserve Tibetan culture and language for the future.
            Bringing attention to China's human rights violations will help to give those in China fighting for their rights a ray of hope that the world is watching.  China's government may proclaim beautiful policy to the world but the facts of such policy actions will belie the government's declarations.  The Chinese Communists Party should review their own disastrous history to truly understand why they continue to fail their people despite such flowery policy such as the Great Leap Forward when over 40 millions died of the biggest man made famine in human history.
Ann Lau
Chair, Visual Artists Guild