World Human Rights Day: U.S. Embassy in Beijing Calls on Chinese to “Speak Up”

On December 9, 2012, the U.S. Embassy in China issued an official Weibo posting urging people in mainland China to “speak up and stand up. (From the U.S. Embassy in Beijing Weibo)

On the occasion of World Human Rights Day, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities, like a great enemy, closely monitored dissidents, human rights activists, and human rights lawyers. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing has made a public appeal to Chinese people to “boldly stand up” and “boldly speak out.

December 10 is World Human Rights Day, but it is a “sensitive day” for the Chinese totalitarian regime.

On the eve of World Human Rights Day, a number of 709 human rights lawyers, Wang Quanzhang, Li Heping, Yu Wensheng and their families in mainland China were closely monitored by the Chinese authorities, with national security guards in front of their homes to watch over them and prevent them from going out.

The day before World Human Rights Day, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing posted an article on its official microblog on December 9, saying that speaking out and participating in peaceful protests are the most basic rights of citizens in a free society and that these rights should be protected, not suppressed.

The article also informs that on December 10, World Human Rights Day, the U.S. State Department will “host a panel of experts to discuss challenges to freedom of expression around the world,” who will share their views on the critical role of citizen participation in holding governments and institutions accountable, and answer questions from live viewers.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing calls on Chinese nationals to join the panel at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time on October 10 and to interact with the panelists and ask questions via Facebook Live.

The article was accompanied by a photo of a Hong Kong “anti-sending China” march in which Hong Kong people held up their hands with five fingers and one pinky, expressing their demands for “five demands, one without the other.

On the right side of the photo, the article also writes six big characters, calling on Chinese people to “speak up and stand up”.