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Chen fled to the U.S. from China in May after escaping house arrestin his hometown of Dongshigu in Shandong province. He was kept avirtual prisoner in his home for 18 months, he said, following afour-year jail term for "damaging property and organizing a mob todisturb traffic." Chen discusses his next move Chen is one of a number of activists who have been imprisoned orare currently detained for campaigning for human rights orreligious freedom in Communist-led China. Bob Fu, founder of Christian human rights group ChinaAid, whohelped Chen in his quest to relocate to the U.S., led a studentprotest on the day of the 1989 crackdown. "It was a tragic massacre for simply the students exercisingpeaceful protest for demanding reform and anti-corruption andfreedom in China," he told CNN . In China, there was no mention of the date in Monday's newspapers.And, government censors appeared to have been successful indeleting mention of the anniversary on Weibo, China's Twitter-likemicro-blogging service. Some Weibo users were said to be trying to evade censorship byreferring to June 4 as "May 35th." But, even those terms werequickly deleted on what is commonly referred to as the censors'busiest day of the year. The government is particularly sensitive this year, observers say,in the lead up to the once-in-a-decade leadership transition. Inautumn, power will transfer to a new generation of politicians whowill decide the future direction for China. Current President HuJintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao are both due to step down. In the days leading up to June 4, many known pro-democracyactivists were said to have been detained as a pre-emptive measureto prevent dissent, according to Fu. "Many of my friends and fellow freedom fighters have been underhouse arrest," Fu said. "Especially in the last week or so, manywere confined under soft detention without any freedom ofmovement." Others have been held for far longer. Ahead of the anniversary, theU.S. State Department issued a statement urging the Chinesegovernment to publicly acknowledge the day and end the persecutionof those involved. "We encourage the Chinese government to release all those stillserving sentences for their participation in the demonstrations; toprovide a full public accounting of those killed, detained ormissing; and to end the continued harassment of demonstrationparticipants and their families," the statement said. It added: "We renew our call for China to protect the universalhuman rights of all its citizens; release those who have beenwrongfully detained, prosecuted, incarcerated, forciblydisappeared, or placed under house arrest; and end the ongoingharassment of human rights activists and their families." Amnesty International also issued a statement again calling for the government to holdan "open and independent inquiry into the events of 1989." The rights group paid tribute to Ya Weilin, the 73-year-old fatherof student who was shot and killed in the 1989 crackdown. Amnesty said Ya and his wife Zhang Zhenxia spent 20 yearscampaigning for the government to make amends for those killed inthe 1989 demonstration. In a note written just before his death, Ya complained of thegovernment's refusal to hear his grievances about his son's deathand so he said he would "fight with his death." Ya was later found hanged in a garage below his home. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Poly Bubble Mailers , Clasp Envelopes, and more. For more , please visit Bubble Wrap Bags today!
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