Last Moments of Yudi’s life in Hospital
May 30, 2011, Washington, D.C.
By: Laura Butera, Initiatives for China
On June 4, 2011 Madame Xu Liping, widow of one of the first victims of the June 4 Movement in Tiananmen Square will join in the June 4 commemoration rally that will take place at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the U.N. Headquarters in New York.
She was inspired to take this step after seeing drafts of an open letter to U.N. Secretary General regarding the Chinese government’s serious and on-going human rights violations, written by Yang Jianli and Han Lianchao of Initiatives for China. Her husband, Yu Di, was a member of the Chinese Communist Party, a university graduate with several awards for his research, a military veteran, and an engineer at the Beijing Solar Energy Research Institute. He was on the Square at 2:00 a.m. on June 4, 1989, when Chinese military troops confronted students and unarmed civilians and opened fire. Yu Di was shot multiple times and incurred injuries in his lungs, liver, kidneys, and spine. In an effort to save his life, he was taken to Peking Union Medical College hospital and operated on four times. Yu Di died in the hospital several weeks later on June 30, leaving his widow Xu Liping and his young son.
Madame Xu has finally left China after 22 years to come to the United States. She will speak out publicly for the very first time about her husband’s involvement in the Democracy Movement, his time on Tiananmen Square, and the final few weeks of his life. She will challenge us with questions of the denial of basic freedoms to Chinese citizens – “Is mere appealing, a reason for death? Is mere difference of political opinion a reason to be forever silenced? Is investigating the truth, a reason to be imprisoned?”
Come to the Plaza on June 4 to hear this courageous woman whose voice will no longer be silenced.
See the letter which inspired her to take action.
SIGN ON – Submit your signature at letterUN2011@gmail.com
Click here to read the full text of the appeal and letter
Tiananmen Square Commemoration Rally
June 4, 1989 – June 4, 2011
Saturday June 4, 2011
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (12:00 – 4:00 pm)
E. 47th Street btwn 1st & 2nd Avenue