The cause of Jian-liJay Nordlinger Dec. 12, 2003 I'd like to provide a quick update on Jian-li Yang — or Yang Jian-li, to use his last name first — the brave Chinese democracy activist and scholar who is now kept in some dungeon, even while President Bush and his people get cozy with his persecutors. The website devoted to Jian-li's cause is here . Some days ago, his wife, Christina Fu, sent all of us a note saying, "Dear friends, my husband asked me — through his lawyer — to give his deep gratitude and respect to all of you who have been so supportive and so generously lending your help to him and our family. He wished he could express his heartfelt thanks to you directly and individually, especially at this time of Thanksgiving. And he gives his thanks to God for keeping him safe and strong." And a worker in this cause sent the following yesterday: "These last few days have been very successful in raising Dr. Yang Jianli's case to Premier Wen Jiabao. . . . To recap, we had a letter from eight U.S. senators to President Bush asking him to raise the case to Premier Wen, a letter from 32 members of Congress to Premier Wen himself asking for the release of Yang Jianli, and letters from over 100 Harvard faculty asking the premier to release Yang. [Jian-li is associated with Harvard.] "Behind the scenes, we are aware of several instances where senior U.S. officials and others raised Dr. Yang's case directly to Premier Wen in the context of their concerns about China's failure to live up to their human-rights commitments." "Finally, Christina Fu was on C-SPAN's Washington Journal," etc., etc. Christina is an exemplary person — possessing rare intelligence, courage, and grace — and her interview may be seen here (with the right equipment, I suppose). Things seem to be cookin', a bit. -------------------------- |