Press Release:  For Immediate Release.
Visual Artists Guild's China Dream for China's 19th Communist Party Congress
                As China starts its 19th Communist Party Congress on Wednesday, October 18, 2017, Visual Artists Guild's China Dream is that the Communist Party Congress will begin to join the global village in implementing the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights of which China is a signator when the Peoples Republic of China signed the UN Charter in 1971.
                Wu Lihong, named by China's Peoples National Congress as an "Environmental Warrior", have already "being vacationed" by now.  After he was honored by the government in 2005, Mr. Wu later was sent to prison in 2007 when he refused to stop bringing attention to the pollution of Lake Tai, China's second largest fresh water lake.  Mr. Wu was released in 2010 but has been under surveillance since.  Visual Artists Guild honored Mr. Wu in 2013 but he was not allowed to come to the United States to accept the award.  Visual Artists Guild's China Dream is that Mr. Wu would be finally allowed to come to the United States to accept our award now that China has signed the Paris Accord and hopefully recognizes the importance of environmental pollution.
                Another of Visual Artists Guild's China Dream is that the human rights lawyers, Xie Yang 謝陽, Li Heping 李和平,Wang Quanzhang 王 全璋 and Jiang Tianyong 江天勇, who are either waiting on sentencing or trial will have all their sentences revoked.  The lawyers have defended environmentalist, political activists, underground Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, victims of land grabs, victims of forced evictions and other vulnerable groups.
              Visual Artists Guild is distressed by the information that some of the human rights lawyers have been fed drugs that caused them various health and mental problems and that the young children of Wang Quanzhang and Li Heping have been refused admissions to schools.  Such a policy of targeting children of dissidents harks back to the time of imperial China.  Even Mr. Wu's daughter was allowed to go to school after her father was imprisoned although she was watched by security personnel as a young child walking to school.
             In targeting universal values as one of the seven perils of the Communist Party, China's President Xi Jinping in his secret Document #9 has identified his fear of a more enlightened Chinese citizenry.  China's cyber security apparatus is now no longer satisfied with hiring the 50 Cents Party to comment on internet sites or delete offending words or phrases, it has gone on to make citizens as part of the cyber security as evidenced by Weibao's giving points to citizen "supervisors" to report on any violations of the government's taboo subjects.  Such frequent flyer points has brought the Chinese Communist Party's system of neighbors informing on neighbors to the 21st century.  Interestingly, while Twitter is not allowed to operate in China, China's government agencies have nevertheless embraced Twitter as their preferred cyber propaganda tool.
             The government of China during this 19th Party Congress should review China's history especially that of the fall of the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty when the Han people were only allowed a chopping knife for every ten households.  Oh, by the way, it has been declared in China a few days ago that shops are no longer allowed to sell knives until further notice.
Ann Lau
Chair, Visual Artists Guild
October 17, 2017