New 24-hour hunger strike set to start Sunday at 9PM EST

Yesterday, the good folks at the Epoch Times announced a 24-hour hunger strike, beginning at 9PM Eastern Standard Time tomorrow (Sunday, March 5). The parent organization relayed the call, and CSN founder John Patrick is in. So am I. It will be my second hunger strike.

The purposes of our strike are to express the following demands to the Chinese Communist Party:

"1. Immediately and unconditionally release all the people who have been secretly abducted and are illegally detained, including Wen Haibo, Ouyang Xiaorong, Ma Wendu, Hu Jia, Yan Zhengxue, Yang Zaixin, and Qi Zhiyong.

2. Immediately and unconditionally release all the writers, journalists and political dissidents who are illegally incarcerated, including Hu Shigen, Wang Bingzhang, He Depu, Zheng Enchong, Yang Jianli, Huang Jinqiu, Shi Tao, Zhang Lin, Yang Tianshui, Zheng Yichun, Xu Wanping, Li Zhi, Zhao Yan, Cheng Xiang (also spelled as Ching Cheong), Qin Yongmin, Luo Yongzhong, Cai Lujun, Xu Wei, Yang Zili, Jin Haike, Zhang Honghai, Yu Huafeng, Li Minying, Ye Guozhu, Cai Zhuohua, Feng Bingxian, Li Yuanlong.

3. Immediately end the illegal and atrocious seven year persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Immediately and unconditionally release all people who are illegally incarcerated for their beliefs, including Christians and Catholics. Immediately restore the rights of the human rights lawyers who were deprived of their right to practice their legal profession. These lawyers include Zheng Enchong, Gao Zhisheng, Guo Guoting, and Yang Zaixin."

For those who are unaware, a Relay Hunger Strike for Human Rights Support Group has been conducting staggered strikes for nearly a month now, at the urging of Group founder and human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng (sixth, tenth, fifth, lead, third, last, twelfth, eighth, third, second, third, eighth, eleventh, eighth, fourth, fourth, last, fourth, fifth, twelfth, fifth, second, lead, next to last, seventh, last, next to last, lead, second, last, sixth, tenth, and eighth items), who has been under constant surveillance and harassment from the Communist regime for months. In fact, the cadres detain ed Gao for two hours today (Sound of Hope via Epoch Times). Meanwhile, the regime also announced an increase in military spending of over 14% (BBC).

Now, this will be different from my last hunger strike; during that one, I only invited folks in the Greater Washington DC area to join. This time, I'm expanding the invitation to include anyone who regularly receives this post (i.e, China e-Lobby members), anyone who regularly follows this blog or the Shotgun, and well, anyone else who doesn't have a closer connection to the folks at the Epoch Times.

If you wish to join the hunger strike, you have one of two options: either e-mail me, or make your intentions known in the comments section of this post. All who wish to have their names announced will have them included in tomorrow night's post when I announce the beginning of the hunger strike. Therefore, you need to let me know by 8:30 PM Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, March 5.

If you happen to know anyone who would be interested in joining us, please feel free to e-mail them this post or the link thereto. Additionally, I hereby explicitly permit fellow bloggers to reprint the China e-Lobby version of this post to maximize publicity (I don't think I can permit Shotgun reprints).

I end this post with the same words I used to end the last hunger strike post: Gao, the epicenter of the democratic world has heard you, and it stands with you tonight.

Cross posted to the Shotgun