A memorial service for Chinese pro-democracy activist Ding Jianqiang was held in Los Angeles after he died from the New Guinea virus.
As previously reported, on December 21 last year, pro-democracy activist Ding Jianqiang died in Los Angeles after contracting the “new crown” virus. Subsequently, a large number of pro-communist social media accounts, as well as many Chinese websites and self-publishers, posted personal attacks and abusive content against Ding Jianqiang, and also attacked the U.S. medical system.
At noon on January 10, a dozen people from various anti-communist groups gathered outside the offices of the pro-democracy group, the Association for the Study of Constitutionalism for the Departed, in Pomona, Los Angeles, for a memorial service for Ding Jianqiang. At the memorial service, a number of speeches were delivered, discussing Ding’s life and death and responding to the attacks on Ding by the Chinese media.
In his speech, Chen Weiming, a friend of Ding’s and founder of Freedom Sculpture Park in Southern California, said that Ding, who was killed by the “new crown” virus imported from China, was in fact a patient suffering from severe kidney failure. After he went into exile in the United States in 2014, Ding received adequate treatment to prevent him from dying prematurely of kidney failure.
He said, “Because he came to this land of freedom, the United States, gave him, a foreigner, a Chinese who doesn’t have a U.S. green card yet, a political refugee; given the same kind of medical conditions as the president of the United States, so that he can extend this life for at least five, 10 years without any problem, that’s what the doctors told us.”
Geng Champion, a Los Angeles pro-democracy activist who attended the memorial service, had been infected with the “new crown” not long before. At the time, he posted his illness on the Internet, which led to personal attacks from many Chinese accounts, websites and self-publishers, and plunged him into a public opinion war. On Jan. 7, the station reported that he had used the performance art technique of “fraudulent death” to fight back. In his speech, he said, “I found that it was hard to prove that someone was dead in China. Now I want to prove I’m alive, and I find it hard too. I went to Baidu in China and searched ‘Is Geng Champion alive or dead’ and actually found that the fact that I was alive became the one thing that was blocked.”
In a post-event interview, participant Pan Zhigang, a member of the Chinese Democratic Party, told reporters that he and Ding Jianqiang had worked together as volunteers at the Freedom Sculpture Park. They also organized a campaign last year to urge pro-communist groups in Los Angeles to remove the Five Star Red Flag. He said the memorial service not only honors Ding, but also aims to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s “big foreign propaganda”. He said, “I think it’s even more important to tell them through a high-profile memorial that the Chinese government is so arrogant in its reporting, distorting the facts and fabricating them. memorial to tell them, to tell the people who were able to come out over the wall outside, to tell them that it wasn’t so. It’s a rebellion on our part, and a counterattack.”
Another participant, Yang Jun, the Southern California convener of the Far East Youth Freedom League, said, “In the face of the massive cyber attacks and public opinion that the Chinese government is feeding, all we can do now is stand up for the real Mr. Ding and remember the cause he pursued. “
Zhou Fenglock, founder of the U.S.-based civil rights organization Humane China, said that Ding was very involved in Humane China’s activities during his lifetime and participated in an effort to contact the family of arrested Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan. Zhou said, “Unfortunately, Ding’s death was used by the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘Five Cents’ to discredit the United States. Of course, this is because I was concerned about his condition throughout the process of his death, including when he was ill at the time. At that time he was treated until the end, and I was aware of the whole process. The treatment he received here was comprehensive.”
Xu Jie, the host of the memorial service and president of the Association for the Study of Constitutionalism for the Departed, was the “final decision maker” appointed by Ding Jianqiang before his death. According to information provided by Xu Jie, Ding Jianqiang was diagnosed with “New Guan” on December 11, 2020, and was admitted to the intensive care unit the next day, and designated Xu Jie as the “final decision maker. Since then, the hospital has kept Jie Xu informed of Ding’s condition on a daily basis. The day before Ding Jianqiang died, the hospital also informed him of his condition three times.
Recent Comments