PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Daniel Gong
(202) 827-5762
dcoffice@initiativesforchina.com
Washington, D.C.: Citizen Power Initiatives for China (CPIFC) president Dr. Yang Jianli’s selected collection of 138 speeches (2000-2020), For Us, the Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth, is now available for purchase (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1952106834). Published by Redwood Publishing, the 619-page book is forwarded by the Dalai Lama and Natan Sharansky.
“Dr. Yang Jianli’s extraordinary collection of speeches is precisely the nourishment we need for both our spirits and intellects in this time of global turmoil and doubt,” says Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. “He speaks with great moral authority born out of decades of courageous leadership and sacrifice that has taken him from the terror of Tiananmen Square to the brutality of imprisonment in solitary confinement.”
In the past three decades, Dr. Yang has spoken to audiences across the globe — at venues as varied as the United Nations Headquarters in New York City; the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway; Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.; Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Geneva, Switzerland; New Delhi, India; Brussels, Belgium; Rome, Italy; Taiwan; and many more. I have attended grassroots rallies, walked through corridors of power, traveled to remote villages, visited high schools and universities, attended NGO forums, spoken at churches, and delivered remarks to United Nations delegations.
Over the years, Dr. Yang has helped design, launch, and lead many of China’s major citizen initiatives. Before the establishment of Citizen Power Initiatives for China, Dr. Yang founded and presided over the Foundation for China in the 21st Century (1989-2002). During that time, he co-authored a constitution for a democratic China which was endorsed by the Dalai Lama, and founded the online magazine Yibao.
Under the theme of understanding, trust, and cooperative actions, in 2000 Dr. Yang created the annual Interethnic/Interfaith Leadership Conferences, which brings together democracy and human rights activists from the broadly defined ethnic, faith and regional groups including Han Chinese, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, Muslims, Buddhists, and people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. As Dr. Yang said in his opening speech at the inaugural Conference on Oct. 2, 2000, “It is the first time in history that leaders from these ethnic, religious, and regional groups have come together without coercion, to stand up together for justice, liberty and love without fear and hesitation.”
In 2010, Dr. Yang co-chaired the Committee on Internet Freedom at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Later that year, Yang spoke at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony, where he represented that year’s laureate, the imprisoned Chinese democracy leader Liu Xiaobo, who would die in the CCP regime’s custody in 2017. In March 2011 and again in March 2018, he spoke at the UN Human Rights Council, directly questioning the representatives of China on human rights issues. In December 2011, he joined the Dalai Lama and four other delegates to attend the Forum for Democracy and Human Rights in Asia, hosted by former Czech president Vaclav Havel. Dr. Yang has received numerous international human rights and democracy awards over the years.
Throughout these 138 speeches, Dr. Yang has exposed and documented the CCP’s widespread human rights abuses and continued exploitation of the Chinese people. He has explained how the CCP’s abuses of power threaten not only its own citizens, but also the rest of the world. He has called on the international community to stand up for human rights in China. He has laid out specific plans, initiatives, policies, laws and approaches that he believes will most effectively produce meaningful change in China. Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of United Nations Watch, says, “Yang Jianli’s brilliant and inspiring speeches take us on a compelling journey through his struggle to free the people of China, and are a must-read for anyone interested in the universal cause of defending democracy against tyranny. Read this book — and learn from one of the most articulate, brave and dedicated human rights dissidents of our time.”
To schedule an interview with Dr. Yang Jianli, contact Daniel Gong at (202) 827-5762 or dcoffice@initiativesforchina.com.
Testimonials
“Dr. Yang Jianli’s extraordinary collection of speeches is precisely the nourishment we need for both our spirits and intellects in this time of global turmoil and doubt. The clarity of Dr. Yang’s moral vision is compelling but it is the compassion and humility of this brave man that wins our hearts. He speaks with great moral authority born out of decades of courageous leadership and sacrifice that has taken him from the terror of Tiananmen Square to the brutality of imprisonment in solitary confinement. In his words we find wisdom and a call to be our brother’s keepers. It is fitting that this powerful collection takes its title from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address because like the Great Emancipator, himself, Dr. Yang Jianli calls forth the better angels of our nature.”
— Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett
President of Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
Former Chair of US Commission on International Religious Freedom
“Jianli Yang’s voice has been prescient and prophetic, frequently warning the world to wake up to the dangers posed by the Chinese Communist Party. His authoritative book should be read by anyone in doubt about the seriousness of the threat posed to our fundamental freedoms and human rights by the CCP and its ideology.”
— David (Lord) Alton
“Dr Yang Jianli is a truly courageous voice for truth, justice, liberty and human dignity for the peoples of China and beyond, and has shown inspirational, visionary leadership in fighting for the rights of China’s diverse ethnic and religious communities and building unity among them, as well as struggling for freedom and democracy itself. This powerful collection of his thoughts and ideas is a testimony to his tireless work and provides essential insights into the nature of the Chinese Communist Party regime, which is without doubt the major global challenge of our times. Anyone who wants to understand the fight for freedom against tyranny, truth against lies and justice against repression should read this book.”
— Benedict Rogers
Co-founder and Chief Executive, Hong Kong Watch
“Yang Jianli has dedicated his life to the freedom and rights of Chinese people. Yet he speaks for the freedom and rights of all of us, everywhere. Morally and intellectually, he is one of the most impressive people in the world. Also, he’s got guts.”
— Jay Nordlinger
Senior Editor of National Review
“Yang Jianli’s brilliant and inspiring speeches take us on a compelling journey through his struggle to free the people of China, and are a must-read for anyone interested in the universal cause of defending democracy against tyranny. Read this book — and learn from one of the most articulate, brave and dedicated human rights dissidents of our time.”
— Hillel Neuer
Executive Director of United Nations Watch
“This is necessary reading. The words of Dr. Yang Jianli provide a clarity and reason as the world crisis concerning totalitarian China becomes greater each day. Here lies hope for the people who live under CCP oppression or, as is the case of Taiwan, are threatened by it.”
— Dr. Orlando Gutierrez Boronat
Cuban American author and democracy advocate
“As the Communist Party of China has rapidly become the greatest threat to all of humanity, For Us, The Living is a most timely and vital source of history, vision, and hope that this evil menace can be defeated so that those living under the CCP’s oppression will no longer be slaves. An eyewitness to China’s history, Dr. Yang Jianli was first dubbed a counter revolutionary by his own father, a local Party official, for questioning whether communism was a system that could truly help the Chinese people. He started his activism at age 12 trying to protect Chinese farmers from the CCP’s tyranny and as a graduate student participated in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. Despite 5 years of jail in China and numerous death threats, Yang has never stopped being an activist for the freedom of his homeland and a voice for all those who have suffered whether Tibetans or Uyghurs from the CCP’s tyranny. He has been a source of inspiration and hope to so many, myself included, and anyone who believes that no one should be a slave, should read this book and take action before it is too late.”
— Suzanne Scholte
Seoul Peace Prize Laureate
“Over decades, Yang Jianli has maintained moral clarity in his tireless advocacy for freedom, democracy and human rights in China. These documents offer information and inspiration on how to deal with the greatest challenge facing the international community today.”
— Dr. Aaron Rhodes
President of Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe
former Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
“Dr. Jianli Yang is a courageous visionary and voice in the pursuit of justice. “For Us, The Living”- a compelling compendium of speeches and essays- is a testament to his inspired vision and values- of speaking truth to power; and is at one and the same time an elegy to the fallen heroes of the struggle for freedom, and a roadmap for how this quest for freedom can be realized. “For Us, The Living” is as timely as it is necessary.”
— Prof. Irwin Cotler
Lawyer, law professor, Founder and Chair of the Raul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights
Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Canadian MP
“When I think about Yang Jianli, my friend, collaborator, and former client – who I’ve now known for almost a quarter century – there are many words that immediately come to mind: brilliant, compassionate, courageous, indefatigable, and a committed Christian. But these only scratch the surface. More than anyone else, it was Yang who changed the course of my life and inspired me to become an international human rights lawyer, after we met as graduate students at Harvard University and planned the protests against Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s visit to campus in Fall 1997. Later, I served as Yang’s pro bono counsel when he served five years as a political prisoner in China. And when he came home, we worked together to advocate on behalf of numerous persecuted Chinese dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia, Gao Zhisheng, and Chen Kegui. But Yang’s remarkable volume For Us, The Living does something truly extraordinary. In a single book, he brings into focus through his own work the narrative arc the Chinese’s people’s struggle, against all odds, to persevere and achieve something they and the world deserve – a peaceful and democratic China, whose government respects the fundamental human rights of all its diverse ethnic and religious peoples, whose cause has always been Yang’s own. It also shows, importantly, that as hard as the Chinese Communist Party might try, with more than 1.4 billion Chinese, it will either need to fulfill its people’s yearning for freedom or find itself swept away by the tide of history.”
— Jared Genser
International Human Rights Lawyer
“The speeches and essays you find in this book will inspire commitment to the work of justice, an everlasting struggle calling all those who can see a fairer future and are not afraid to help bring it in. As activist scholars, and all those who follow in the footsteps of the Tiananmen Square generation, encounter the words and work of Dr. Yang Jianli, they will be encouraged to mirror his courageous commitment.”
— The Reverend Gordon J.
Lecturer (ret.) of philosophy and ethics at Mt. Ida College in Newton, Massachusetts
and a pastor and theologian for the Episcopal and Lutheran churches in the U.S.
“Dr. YANG Jianli’s courageous witness to human rights and his eloquent words show “a better way to build justice and peace into the fabric of our lives” not only in China but in all the countries of the world. He is an inspiration to all who work for freedom and human dignity, and he gives us hope to continue fighting for justice in the face of overwhelming odds.”
— Rev. Dr. David A. Killian
Episcopal priest and Yang Jianli’s former pastor