TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A protest was staged outside the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. on Thursday (Jan. 27) to bring attention to human rights abuses in China ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics due to begin next month.
The event, “Protest for Freedom,” included about 30 Chinese democracy activists, who demanded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) release dissident Guo Feixiong (郭飛雄) and called on the international community to boycott the Olympics, according to a report by Radio Free Asia. U.S. Republican Congressman Chris Smith, who has long championed human rights in China, also spoke at the event.
“Today we will hear the voices of the voiceless,” Smith said.
“The voices on behalf of Guo Feixiong – the courageous lawyer who has been imprisoned by the Chinese communists, and who was detained and denied a humanitarian request to allow him to visit his wife Zhang Qing (張青) to bid her farewell as she was dying of cancer,” he went on.
“There was not even a scintilla of humanitarianism in the government to allow that visit,” he said.
Renowned human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠) stood beside placards showing the faces of Guo and his wife Zhang and led the crowd to raise their voices so the embassy staff could hear their calls.
"Grieve for Zhang Qing, Free Feixiong," the crowd chanted. “Evil CCP, stop the persecution… boycott the Olympics, don’t be an accomplice.”
Smith spoke about China’s ongoing persecution of religious minorities, honoring dissident Bob Fu (傅希秋), who could not attend due to illness.
“Bob Fu has spoken out for all faiths, including the Christians who have been repressed and increasingly, whether it be the underground church or even the Three Self Patriotic Church,” he said.
“All of the Christians are under the boot of Xi Jinping (習近平) who is trying to crush all faith, especially now with the genocide we’re seeing with the Uyghurs,” he added.
Smith said the Olympics had now become “tarnished, trashed, and torn” and that Beijing was hosting the “Genocide Games.” He implored American companies sponsoring the event to find their moral conscience.
“We call out sponsors like Coca-Cola, which virtue signals when it comes to common sense laws designed to curb voter fraud in Georgia but then turns a blind eye to the harvesting of organs of Uyghurs and Falun Gong practitioners,” he said.
Smith also condemned the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for enabling the CCP’s evil to go unchecked. Smith said he and Republican Senator Marco Rubio had sent a letter to the organization in 2018 requesting they move the event elsewhere, but to no avail.
Smith then lead the crowd in a prayer for Xi.
“We pray the sinners will repent. We also pray that if Xi Jinping doesn't give up his evil ways, he will one day be held accountable for every life he ends and every torture he inflicts," Smith said.
