Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
A Volunteer Human Rights Coalition – Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins
Communist Vietnam’s new breed of dissident – accused of promoting ‘peaceful evolution’
— BBC reports: Le Cogh Dinh said: “I have been influenced by Western ideas of democracy, freedom and human rights during my studies abroad.”
Communist China removed as top priority for U.S. spies
— Washington Times reports: “The White House National Security Council recently directed U.S. spy agencies to lower the priority placed on intelligence collection for China, amid opposition to the policy change from senior intelligence leaders who feared it would hamper efforts to obtain secrets about Beijing’s military and its cyber-attacks.”
— “The downgrading of intelligence gathering on China was challenged by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair and CIA Director Leon E. Panetta after it was first proposed in interagency memorandums in October, current and former intelligence officials said.”
Communist Vietnam jails democracy activists for subversion – sentences from 5 to 16 years in prison
— Le Cong Dinh sentenced to 5 years in prison
— Nguyen Tien Trung sentenced to 7 years in prison
— Tran Huynh Duy Thuc sentenced to 16 years in prison
— Le Thang Long sentenced to 5 years in prison
The Shen Yun Performing Arts group will be making a human rights statement through dance, music, and art at the Washington DC Kennedy Center as part of its continuing 2010 world tour throughout the United States, Canada, UK, Europe, and the world.
The upcoming Washington DC performance from January 19 through 24 will provide a show which combines such dance (traditional Chinese dance, ethnic and folk dance, story-based dance), music (a live orchestra and solo musician singers), and art of incredible costumes and backdrops for hours of spellbinding entertainment. The Shen Yun Performing Arts group has been entertaining audiences around the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The Shen Yun Performing Arts show’s focus is on entertaining its audience and giving many their first exposure to such traditional and ethnic dance and music from China.
Video of Shen Yun Performing Arts Audience Reactions
新唐人電視台 http://www.ntdtv.com
While the majority of the Shen Yun show focuses on Chinese cultural and ethnic stories, music, and dance, other more contemporary story-based performances, included as part of the Shen Yun performance, also have inspirational messages on the importance of our shared universal human rights and human dignity. As one individual told me, “this is how they express themselves on human rights – through their music and through their dance.”
The totalitarian oppression of 1.3 billion by the Communist Chinese government is hardly something any human being could ignore in any legitimate portrayal of Chinese life and culture. Portraying stories about life in Communist China, the Shen Yun Performing Arts show includes inspirational stories of how Chinese people are oppressed but find the strength to have courage to be true to themselves and their beliefs.
They include performances praising the Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) group’s goals of “truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.” The Falun Dafa have been oppressed, imprisoned, and tortured in Communist China for their beliefs. While such stories were told in dance, the message was very clear, as dancers with jackets appliqued with the Communist hammer and sickle emblem (recognized universally as representing Communism) attacked dancers representing Chinese families and those who sought freedom of expression and belief. One dance tells the story of a family divided, beaten, and a mother killed for her beliefs by Communist thugs, but whose family’s beliefs are ultimately rewarded in the afterlife. Another story tells of an activist who is beaten by Communist thugs for displaying the sign “Falun Dafa is good,” but who remains courageous. These stories mirror the real life oppression of the Chinese people in Communist China today, a story that the world must hear, and a story that the world must never forget.
While Chinese people with a wide variety of backgrounds, religions, and beliefs suffer in over 1,000 Laogai forced labor concentration camps today (holding 6.8 million), with continuing forced, coerced abortion and abandonment of its children, mistreatment of human beings, and with the oppression of freedoms for Chinese people of all beliefs, any legitimate Chinese performance on human life in China today must not fail to mention human rights.
Having seen this performance ourselves, R.E.A.L. is pleased to commend the Shen Yun Performing Arts on their artistry, talent, and their unceasing courage to honestly portray Chinese culture, Chinese life, Chinese hopes, and Chinese challenges to the world to see. We urge others to see the Shen Yun Performing Arts show for themselves, with upcoming shows in 2010 in many cities in the United States. The Shen Yun Performing Arts also plans 2010 performances in Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Czech Republic, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand.
Some arts reviewers have been critical of Shen Yun’s inclusion of such story-based dances and music, which are the vast minority of their three hour show on Chinese cultural dance and music. One arts reviewer has been critical that contemporary Chinese songs were “peppered with words like ‘oppression’ and ‘injustice.'” I ask such critics, would they have also been critical of a Jewish performing arts group in the 1930s that included stories about the oppression of Jews under Hitler? When did free people start dismissing the performing arts when they point out oppression and injustice?
Such criticism by some of the limited and graceful inclusion of human rights topics in the Shen Yun performances is appalling. What type of artistic expression demands that we can talk about oppression and injustice against all people in every form of entertainment, unless it happens to about oppression and injustice towards the 1.3 billion people in Communist China, one fifth of the world’s population?
One can only imagine if arts reviewers had criticized more specific and more directed human rights messages in entertainment such as Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” “Schindler’s List,” the music of the American civil rights movement,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” and “To Kill A Mockingbird,” among many examples In fact, history has shown that human rights issues continue to find their way into every form of media – theater, movies, music, and television. The Shen Yun Performing Arts cultural dance and music performance demonstrates that there are no national boundaries to this growing trend of representing human rights in entertainment as part of human expression.
In every form of human expression, from dance to YouTube videos, from music to poems, from books to blogs, from Twitters to protests in the streets, the march for human freedom and human rights presses on.
The choice is not whether love, human rights, and human freedom will ultimately win over hate, supremacism, and totalitarianism. The only real choice is the one we will make as to what we will be doing when the great wave of human rights movements are sweeping the world.
As those who are oppressed sing with hope and fearlessness for their beliefs, will we listen?
The Shen Yun Performing Arts group is counting on your conscience to hear their message.
The Shen Yun web page for the upcoming Washington DC performance, also urges “For all press, advertising, sponsorship, and ticketing inquiries related to these performances, please call 202-449-9480, or email dc_tickets@ntdtv.com”
Human Rights Activists Celebrate a Night of Chinese Culture of Freedom
On January 2, 2010, R.E.A.L. supporters and other human rights activists from the Voice of the Copts, Pakistan Christian Congress, and Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) attended the Shen Yun Performing Arts show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Epoch Times reported on this and on our comments at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music.
I accompanied Falun Gong’s Lisa Tao and others from the Washington DC area to the Shen Yun performance in Philadelphia. At R.E.A.L.’s December 10, 2009 press conference at the National Press Club on Human Rights Day, Lisa Tao and Jin Pang told of the torture of their families in Communist China because of their beliefs. Lisa told of her father was “tortured to death” by the Communist Chinese government, and of her own torture. Lisa told the press and the audience on December 10 how “I was also frequently beaten, and many times I was close to being beaten to death.” Jin Pang told of the imprisonment and torture of her mother and her aunt. Her mother and aunt were part of 10,000 Falun Gong supporters arrested during the Beijing Olympics. During the DC press conference, Lisa told of estimates that the Communist government has killed 80 million people, and she told of the countless others tortured, imprisoned, and abused by the Chinese Communist government.
But like during our protest of the 60th anniversary of the Communist Chinese government at the PRC embassy on September 30 (October 1 Beijing time), Lisa does not tire or get discouraged. She glows from the power of hope, love, and freedom that her beliefs have taught her. It is something that the Communists could never take away from her. She found extraordinary strength in her faith and in her belief in human freedom.
On our trip together to see the Shen Yun performance in Philadelphia on a bitterly cold January night, she does not notice the chill, as we stopped together to get a fish sandwich at a nearby McDonalds. (Meantime, I am bundled with layers of clothing and a heavy sweater.)
Quietly, just like Lisa Tao regularly protests at the PRC embassy without publicity or the press, Lisa Tao is also waging a daily battle for human freedom in Communist China. That night Lisa shared with me her efforts that day alone in helping Chinese people to find the courage to stand up and defy the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). From the United States, Lisa calls people in Communist China on the telephone and tells them about Falun Dafa and also encourages them to stand up against the CCP. She is part of a “Quit CCP” movement of Chinese people who publicly renounce their support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
That day alone, Lisa Tao convinced 10 new people to publicly Quit the CCP. Her efforts won’t be recorded in any local news media. But she has the quiet confidence and satisfaction of someone who is living the courage of her convictions.
The Quit CCP movement states that over 66 million Chinese have left the CCP since December 2004. Public individual statements are posted on the Quit CCP campaign web site. Every day, Lisa Tao and freedom fighters around the world seek to extend a hand to other Chinese people who are lifting themselves up out of oppression.
The march for freedom – for human beings around the world – is just getting started. But every day, there are new members joining that march and taking up the cause.
We share their commitment to universal human rights, and to being Responsible for Equality And Liberty.
Love Wins.
U.S.: Human Rights Activist Says Shen Yun an Eye Opener — R.E.A.L’s Jeffrey Imm at Philadelphia, PA Shen Yun Performance
ChinaAid’s Response to Google’s Stand for Internet Freedom
— “ChinaAid urges other American and Western companies join with Google in standing up against China media censorship, to preserve the basic human right to freedom of speech.”
Google is reporting on cyber attacks on Chinese human rights activists and attacks on U.S. and European supporters of human rights for the Chinese people. BBC is reporting that Google is considering ending its operations in Communist China. Google states “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn.”
The New York Times has also reported on this issue, mentioning how searches on phrases such as “Tiananmen Square massacre,” “Dalai Lama,” and other similar searches have come up blank, as well as blocks on YouTube online videos. In addition, the NYT quotes Wenqi Gao, a spokesman for the Communist Chinese Consulate in New York, who told the Times: “I want to reaffirm that China is committed to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of foreign companies in our country.”
Chinese supporters of Google have sent and laid flowers near the entrance to Google’s China office in Beijing with notes such as “Thank you for holding values over profits!” The NY Times reports that the Google announcement is being censored in news throughout Communist China. The Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time report is providing continuing coverage on this issue.
However, computer industry analysts are writing columns suggesting that Google may not leave Communist China, anticipating that “Google would be willing to settle for a more liberalized version of the censorship it already imposes on Google.cn.”
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has an online petition for your signature supporting Google’s call for ending censorship on Google.cn and asking them to stand by their decision on “a new approach to China.” We urge you to sign this petition to show Google how we feel at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/flowerch/petition.html
Google Blog reports following statements by David Drummond, Google Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer” — “A New Approach to China”
— “Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.”
— “First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.”
— “Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.”
— “Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.”
— “We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks can read this U.S. government report (PDF), Nart Villeneuve’s blog and this presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.”
— “We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.”
— “We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.””
— “These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”
— “The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.”
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The New York Times also reported that “many people in Silicon Valley were surprised by Google’s stance. ‘I don’t think anybody is going to run away from China,’ said Joe Schoendorf, a partner at Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with a major presence in China. ‘Google has Microsoft on the ropes, and China is arguably the world’s most important market outside of the U.S. You don’t walk away from that on principle.’ ”
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Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) urges you to let Google know that you agree with their goals for “a new approach to China,” by signing our online petition, and by contacting Google and letting you know that you support their efforts. Their press office email is press@google.com and their telephone number is 1-650-930-3555.
Google also provides a list of its executive management at:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/execs.html
The U.S. State Department has a statement on the Google China issue, which reads:
— “We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions. We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy. I will be giving an address next week on the centrality of internet freedom in the 21st century, and we will have further comment on this matter as the facts become clear.”
Media Reports:
Wall Street Journal’s “China Real Time Report” Continuing Coverage on Communist China-Google News
BBC: Google ‘may pull out of China after Gmail cyber attack’
— BBC reports: “Google said the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were the primary target of the attack, which occurred in December.”
BBC: Chinese surprise at Google pull-out threat
Guardian: Google challenge to China over censorship
Washington Post: China faces backlash from ‘netizens’ if Google leaves
NY Times: Google’s Threat Echoed Everywhere, Except China
— NY Times reports: “Google’s declaration that it would stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in the country ricocheted around the world Wednesday. But in China itself, the news was heavily censored.”
NY Times: Google, Citing Attack, Threatens to Exit China
Washington Post: Google threatens to leave China after attacks on activists’ e-mail
— Washington Post reports: ” ‘It’s clear that this attack was so pervasive and so essential to the core of Google’s intellectual property that only in such a situation would they contemplate pulling the plug on their entire business model in China,’ said James Mulvenon, a China cyber expert with Defense Group Inc.”
— “Congressional sources said the other companies include Adobe and possibly Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical. Industry sources said the attacks were even broader, affecting 34 firms.”
BBC: UK officials ‘to debrief Google on China cyber attack’
WSJ: Flowers for Google in China
WSJ: Google’s Watershed Moment in China
USA Today: Google stops short of fingering China for cyberattacks
VOA: Internet Censorship at Center of Google Dispute with China
CNET News: Google’s challenge in China
Guardian: Google blazes a trail with China rift
Guardian: US asks China to explain Google hacking claims
Guardian: Google pulls out of China: what the bloggers are saying
Mirror: Google admits Chinese human rights activists’ Gmail accounts were hacked
PC World: Google Hack Raises Serious Concerns, US Says
Google / Adobe Report Internal Attack from China
WSJ: Google China Employees in Limbo
PC World: Google Pulling Out of China? Don’t Bet On It
WSJ: Testing the Google.cn Filters
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has an online petition for your signature supporting Google’s call for ending censorship on Google.cn and asking them to stand by their decision on “a new approach to China.” R.E.A.L. has posted on this subject at our blog at https://www.realcourage.org
We urge you to sign this petition to show Google how we feel at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/flowerch/petition.html
R.E.A.L.’s petition reads:
We, the members of the world community who stand for our universal human rights of liberty and freedom, support Google corporate management in its calls to end Internet censorship in Communist China. We urge Google corporate management to stand by its call for “a new approach to China.” We support Google corporate management’s position that “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn.”
Our universal human rights of freedom, liberty, and equality apply to every part of the world, including Communist China. We support Google corporate management’s decision to defend such universal human rights, and we urge all Google corporate management to stand firm to this statement.
Like those in Beijing today who have supported Google’s statement by leaving flowers at Google’s Beijing office, we too extend our “flowers for Google” by supporting their position to be responsible for equality and liberty in China today. We urge other corporations to learn from Google’s statement and recognize that their customers do view our universal human rights as a human priority.
Universal human rights are all of our rights, and all of our responsibility.
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Show Google that corporate responsibility on universal human rights (everywhere – in any language) is the type of responsibility that we share and that we appreciate.
North Korea under human rights pressure
— UPI: “North Korea’s military warned on Wednesday that South Korea would face retaliation if it didn’t stop activists from sending propaganda leaflets critical of human rights conditions in the communist country.”
— “The North’s People’s Armed Forces ‘will never tolerate even the slightest act’ of undermining ‘our leadership’s absolute authority,’ the military said in a statement.”
— “It also demanded that South Korea immediately punish the activists engaged in sending leaflets across the border and disband their organizations. ‘The separatists at home and abroad will never be able to flee from a stern punishment by the nation for challenging history,’ said the statement carried by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.”
— “A group of South Korean activists floated balloons toward North Korea containing some 8,000 leaflets denouncing human rights abuses in the Stalinist country and calling for the release of a U.S. Christian missionary who crossed into the North as a protest against its human rights abuses.”
— ” ‘We urge an immediate release of all inmates in concentration camps in the North,” said the leaflets scattered by huge helium balloons. The North is believed to hold 150,000 to 200,000 people in political prison camps.”
— “Robert Park, a 28-year-old Korean-American from Arizona, slipped into the North in late December to call on the regime to release political prisoners, shut concentration camps and improve human rights conditions, according to his colleagues. The North has said it has detained an American for illegal entry, an apparent reference to Park.”
— “The United States is seeking information about Park through the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which represents Washington’s interests. But the North has rejected requests for access to him.”
— Canadian Press: NKorea’s military warns SKorea to stop sending leaflets across divided border
— Canadian Press also reports: “A separate group of South Korean activists unsuccessfully tried Tuesday to send thousands of leaflets by balloon to the North to let residents know about a U.S. Christian missionary believed detained in the communist country. The balloons, however, burst before crossing the border amid strong winds blowing from North Korea.”
— NDTV: Anti-North Korea Balloon Campaign
— AFP: N.Korea warns S.Korea over cross-border leaflets
