Wang Dan: Barred From Hong Kong

"...the Tiananmen Massacre is still going on, only in different ways..." - Wang Dan

It should never have been in doubt; mainland dissident Wang Dan would have no problem arriving in Hong Kong from Taiwan, where he currently lives, to attend the funeral this Saturday of local patriot Szeto Wah. Hong Kong enjoys "one country two systems"; it has the legitimate right, according to its mini-constitution, to "a high degree of autonomy" from the mainland. But no. This autonomy doesn't extend to allowing a grieving countryman to visit and pay tribute to one of Hong Kong's most beloved sons. The long arm of Beijing pulls the strings and our much vaunted "one country two systems" has been exposed as nothing but a sham.

As Wang said, "Refusing me entry again tells the world that the 'one country, two systems' formula is a total lie, as the Hong Kong government has totally given up its right to autonomy, and Beijing's will prevails in all of Hong Kong."

"Execution" - Yue Minjun

Wang has paid his dues. He did time in prison on two separate occasions for his leading role in the 1989 Tiananmen protests. As a 20-year-old student from Peking University, Wang topped the list of most wanted "counterrevolutionaries" Beijing published after the June 4th massacre. He was finally released to the U.S. in 1998 for "medical reasons" and enrolled at Harvard where he obtained a master's in East Asian history in 2001 and a PhD in 2008. His PhD thesis was a comparative study of Chinese mainland and Taiwanese politics in the 1950s. Wang continues to advocate for democratic reforms and petition Beijing to allow him to return to visit his aging parents. In 2009, he spelled out four steps Beijing should implement to "begin to turn the tragic page of Tiananmen":

"First, it should pay reparations to the Tiananmen mothers who lost their children forever.

Second, the government should allow me and other forcibly exiled Chinese citizens to return to our homeland.

Third, the government should release the remaining political prisoners who were jailed for peacefully protesting in Tiananmen Square and more recent prisoners persecuted for their efforts to encourage human rights reform.

Finally, China's leaders should address the long-term objectives shared by the Tiananmen students and the authors of Charter 08 -- establishing the rule of law, guaranteeing basic human rights and ending corruption."

China's Shame: The Nobel Boycott

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness"- Chinese proverb

On December 10th, International Human Rights Day, China will have made every effort to snuff out the light of our collective humanity. Rather than permit the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Liu Xiaobo, to attend the award ceremony in Oslo, authorities in Beijing have been pressuring countries to join them in a boycott. As of today, 18 have agreed - Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq , Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco. Add to that list of shame the U.N.'s top human rights official, Navi Pillay.

Outside The Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong

No one from Liu's family is expected to be on hand to accept the award. His wife, Liu Xia, has been under house arrest since he was named the winner in October and other family members are under pressure not to speak publicly. The last time no one was present to accept the peace medal was in 1936 when the German journalist and pacifist, Carl von Ossietzky, wasn't allowed to leave Nazi Germany. China now joins the odious ranks of the Nazis in attempting to snuff out human rights.

Many of Liu’s fellow dissidents and supporters have been warned not to attend or, as in the case of Ai Weiwei, have been physically prevented from leaving China. That hasn't stopped more than 40 exiled Chinese dissidents from traveling to the Norwegian capital in what will be an unprecedented reunion since many of them fled China 20 years ago. According to the South China Morning Post;

"Among the participants will be former Tiananmen pro-democracy activists now living in the United States, such as former student leaders Chai Ling and Feng Congde , as well as Fang Zheng , a former student whose legs were crushed by a tank as he fled Tiananmen Square in 1989. US-based astrophysicist Professor Fang Lizhi and Taiwan-based Wuer Kaixi will also attend.

Feng said the event would be the largest gathering of dissidents since the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, and the honouring of Liu would be "extremely meaningful" for the Chinese democracy movement."

In response, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said;

“We are not changing because of interference by a few clowns and we will not change our path."

Indeed, clowns come in many different shapes and sizes....