The Three Gentlemen at Tiananmen

On May 23, 1989, Lu Decheng, Yu Zhijian, and Yu Dongyue, all from the province of Hunan, (birthplace of Chairman Mao), purchased 30 eggs from a street vendor. They filled them with dye, and while Yu Zhijian prevented people from walking under it, Yu Dongyue and Lu Decheng threw the eggs at the 30 foot portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square, at the Gate of Heavenly Peace, where it has hung since the founding of the "People's" Republic in 1949.

They also put up two banners on that day. One said "5,000 Years of Autocracy Will Now Come to an End," the other, "From Now On, the Personality Cult Must Stop." Lu Decheng explained the motivations for the gesture in a 2006 interview: "Our intent was to demonstrate our complete denial of the authority of the CCP at its root - Mao. Our actions were not aimed personally at Mao. Our actions were aimed at the CCP system. The official portrait of Mao was a symbol representing the CCP and its despotic rule of China."

The protesters in the square, who at that point (a week before the army began to shoot the population) still had faith in the Party, handed the three brave young men over to the authorities. Two months later, they were convicted of the "Counter-Revolutionary Crime of Damage" and the "Crime of Propagating Incitement." Lu Decheng, a mechanic, was sentenced to 16 years, Yu Dongyue, Arts Editor of a daily newspaper, was sentenced to 20 years and Yu Zhijian, an elementary school teacher, to life.

Lu Decheng was released in 1999, after 10 years. Yu Zhijian, was released in 2000, after 11 years. Yu Dongyue, freed February 22, 2006, served 17 years, two of them in solitary confinement. He had been tortured to the point of psychosis. All three escpaed through Thailand. Yu Dongyue and Yu Zhijian were granted asylum in the U.S. Lu Decheng received asylum in Canada, but his wife and child remain in China. They were all assisted in escaping from China by the Laogai Research Foundation.

Lu Decheng, from the same 2006 interview with The Epoch Times, describes the conditions of life in Chinese prisons:

"In Chinese prisons, political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are treated with utmost cruelty. A warden once pointed at us and said, "You are lower than a robber." His words fully exposed the evil nature of the CCP. As we all know, in ancient China, the warden was just a job. But now in communist China, it's like these wardens are all being controlled by evil spirits. They are more evil than criminals, because criminals usually still value loyalty and fellowship. But those wardens there have completely lost their humanity. Yu Dongyue is an example. As early as 1992, Yu was already schizoid after long term physical and mental torture. According to Chinese law, Yu should have been allowed a medical parole. But they would not release him. More than ten years had passed before the government finally released Yu Dongyue under strong condemnation and pressure from the international world. 'You see the scars behind my ears and by my eyes? It's been over 10 years, but these scars, which are several inches long, are still there. I may seem to talk about it in an easy way, but you'll never really understand the cruelty and horror I experienced unless you suffered the same as I did.' 　　

In prisons and labor camps in China, it is very common that the prisoners are abused and tortured. The CCP calls it "a reformation of the mind from the deepest part of your soul." The governors want to reform people into evil creatures like themselves so that people would lose the ability to distinguish right and wrong. Their logic is: if there are many kind people in society, the CCP's tricks would be seen through easily, and the people would not allow it to do more evil deeds. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners also started because of this logic: when there are many people of good conscience in the country, the CCP gets nervous and frightened. That's why the governors are so paranoid and try to reform people's minds: they feel safe only when people are all as bad as themselves. As a result, abuse and torture are widely used in China. When journalists would go to a Chinese prison for an interview, the wardens would renovate the place. The prisoners kept there would all be warned and threatened, so they would be too afraid of more severe persecution to tell the truth. So the UN investigation teams and foreign journalists have hardly ever been able to see a true picture based on their visits to Chinese prisons."

The three men are known as the "Three Gentlemen at Tiananmen," because they made no attempt to resist their 1989 arrests. This year, on the 20th anniversary of the massacre, they were reunited and participated in a conference entitled "Commemorating the Unforgettable: Tiananmen 20 years on" sponsored by the Laogai Research Foundation, the Laogai Museum, and the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington D.C. They continue to speak out for freedom and against dictatorship. None of them believe that the situation in China has improved.

The huge portrait of Mao Zedong, dictator and murderer still worshipped by many and ultimate symbol of the Party dictatorship, still hangs in Tiananmen Square. But it can't hang there forever.

Sources:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-6-4/42319.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6342771.ece
http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2005/report2005-12/WJSF2ndPrize051205dedicationA171-W81.htm
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Defacing+icon+unmasking+monster/1661965/story.html
http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Tiananmen_Protestors_Granted_Political_Asylum_in_US_90527
http://www.laogai.org/Tiananmen%20Conference%20Press%20Kit.pdf
http://www.laogai.org/Tiananmen%20Conferenece%20June%202%20press%20release%20Final.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4742478.stm

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