Exiled Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday announced he would begin a 24-hour hunger strike at 12am today to launch an international campaign to “besiege” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.
Wang, one of the best-known of the student leaders of the Tiananmen protests in the spring of 1989, said Chinese dissidents around the world had been planning the campaign for months.
The campaign begins today with simultaneous hunger strikes by three Chinese activists —Hu Jia (胡佳) in Beijing, painter Xue Mingde (薛明德) in New York and himself in Taipei, Wang said.
Volunteers will join the hunger strike relay on a daily basis until June 4, said Wang, who is a visiting professor at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu.
Campaigners will protest against Beijing at every opportunity, especially at major international events such as the the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference, the Nobel Prize ceremony and the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, he said.
There will also be seminars on political transformation and investigations into Beijing’s persecution of activists since 1989 as well as the Chinese officials responsible for the massacre, Wang said.
The campaigners will also work closely with the international community to organize public hearings on the massacre, Wang said.
Many details of the massacre remain unknown, even after 25 years, while the officials responsible for it have never been held accountable, which is why the dissidents decided to launch the new campaign, he said.
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