Initiatives for China/Citizen Power for China
July 19, 2016 Washington, D.C.
Dr. Yang Jianli, Ms. Liu Xiaodong, Mr. Fang Zheng, Mr. Zhou Fengsuo. San Francisco International Airport, July 19, 2016
On the afternoon of July 19, Liu Xiaodong, the pregnant wife of China’s prominent dissident Zhao Changqing’s, along with their 4 year old son, Zhao Yaokun, arrived at San Francisco International Airport from Bangkok, Thailand. She was, escorted by Dr.Yang Jianli, president of Initiatives for China/ Citizen Power for China (IFC/CPFC).
Her husband, Zhao Changqing has been one of China’s leading human rights and democracy defender since the 1989 Tiananmen Students Movement. As a former student leader in Tiananmen Square and a prominent political “prisoner of conscience,” he has been imprisoned five times in 27 years. Released just a week ago, he is living in China under heavy surveillance.
Ms. Liu Xiaodong and her boy with Dr. Yang Jianli on their way to the United States. July 19, 2016
Escaping China’s “persecution by association,” of prisoners’ relatives, Zhao’s wife and son left China this May and went to Bangkok, Thailand, with the help of IFC/CPFC. But these days, under President Xi’s brutal aggression, even Thailand is not a safe place for Chinese dissidents and their families. Three cases of abduction of dissidents by China’s security agents took place in Thailand in 2015 alone.
Several human rights organizations, including IFC/CPFC, Freedom Now led by the famous international human rights lawyer Jared Genser”, Humanitarian China led by Zhou Fengsuo and Ge Xun, ChinaAid led by Rev. Bob Fu, acted concertedly in an urgent effort to secure a humanitarian parole from the US government for Liu Xiaodong and her son to leave Thailand and come to America as refugees. Thanks to US generosity，the humanitarian parole was granted on July 14, 2016. Dr. YANG arrived in Bangkok from DC on July 16 and assisted Ms. Liu Xiaodong with all the required paper work. He escorted pregnant Ms. Liu and her 4 year old son all the way to the San Francisco Bay Area where they were welcome by Zhou Fengsuo, Ge Xun, Fang Zheng and many other members of Chines human rights community.
Humanitarian China will help Ms. Liu and her son settle down in the San Francisco Bay Area and provide all kinds of assistance for her labor. Mr. Zhao Changqing and his wife will be expecting their second child around August 23.