An Appeal to President Bush

Christine Olsen

I speak to you on behalf of my dear friend Dr. Yang JianLi. He has been sentenced to imprisonment in China for five years because he entered his beloved country secretly to promote Democracy and Christianity. He was accused of joining in a workers rights movement! This dear man is another Mandela. He believes strongly in his mission for freedom. In prison he has been brutally beaten and has survived a stroke. His imprisonment has taken him from his loving wife, Christina Fu, and their 2 children in the US. His family has been sentenced to a term of terrible worry. Many appeals have been made for his release, still to no avail. He has served half of his sentence making him eligible for parole according to Chinese law.

Dr. Yang became a friend to my family while we lived in married student housing at UC Berkeley. He had already established himself in his home country as a professor at Beijing Normal University. He was taking graduate classes in Mathematics at Berkeley yet he would take time to help my daughter with her 5th grade math homework. He was pitching in to help her while my husband was finishing a critical phase for his Doctorate.

This is a man with the same hopes and dreams we all have. He dreams for freedom to raise his family and worship God and dreams to see his countrymen excel. He has become a true champion of Democracy, leading his former students and friends in peaceful opposition to oppressive practices of the Chinese government. At Tiananmen Square he jeopardized his own life for the love of these principals. He was able, by the Grace of God, to return to Berkeley to head up the Chinese Student Movement and wait for another day to champion the cause of Democracy in his homeland...And he waited, marked as an enemy of the Chinese State upon his return to the USA, and forbidden to return to his homeland or have relatives visit him for many years.

He didn't just sit on his hackles though. He went on to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard to receive another PhD and Lobbied for Human Rights. He has worked tirelessly (through the establishment of his Foundation For China in the 21st Century) speaking, to anyone who would listen, about the plight of his people. It was at one of these speaking engagements in Memphis where I last saw him 3 years ago. He expressed the burning desire he had to return to China some day soon. Knowing the danger, but knowing he had a higher calling, we prayed together that the walls would come down. He returned two and a half years ago.

Dear President Bush, I appeal to you "tear down the walls" of human rights violations and bring China a day of freedom. This can only happen by free exchange and good will on all fronts. I believe that as President Regan saw the Berlin wall fall you will see the fall of the Wall of Communism in China. This wall has hindered the human rights movement and the spreading Gospel.

I implore you to make a request for Dr. Yang JianLi’s release when you meet with President Hu Jintao this week at the APEC Summit. You could not find a more loyal ally than Dr. Yang JianLi to help your administration bring about the Free China he and his countrymen dream of for the 21st century.

I will be praying for you and for favor with President Hu Jintao.

In Christ,

Christine Olsen

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Source: "yangjianli.com".