VOA, author Hai Tao, September 5, 2007
As leaders of twenty-one Asian and regional nations meet in Sydney for the APEC Summit meeting this week, a group of Chinese dissidents and rights defenders held an award ceremony to honor outstanding Mainland Chinese and overseas democracy activists and rights defenders.
Chinese leader Hu Jintao arrived in Sydney on Tuesday night. According to reports he would attend a banquet in the Sydney government building hosted by the governor of New South Wales. Not far from there in the Parliament House, a group of overseas Chinese and non-Chinese hosted the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation's 2007 award ceremony. The Chinese government expressed dissatisfaction, and formally protested with the Australians requesting this activity "targeting the Chinese government" be cancelled. The Australian government and the organizers to the pressure from the Chinese government, and held the award ceremony as planned.
Eight awards were presented, each recipient received a certificate of merit and award money of more than $1000 U.S. Among those awarded were Beijing professor Ding Zilin representing the group Tiananmen Mother in receiving the "Brilliant Humanitarian award; Chinese author Liu Xiaobo received the "Courageous Conscience" award; former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia Pacific David Kilgour and human rights attorney David Matas received the "Defender's of Justice" award; founder of the Chinese Freedom and Democracy Party and sentenced to twenty years in prison, Beijing Languages College instructor Hu Shigen received the "Democracy Fighter" award; Heilongjiang Province farmers Yang Chunlin and Wang Guilin received the "Citizens Fight against Tyranny" award; Liu Chengjun, who broke through Chinese media censorship was awarded the "Leave Marks to History" award; those Chinese citizens who in Beijing in 1989 resisted violent suppression and received life or death and are still serving their sentences received the "June Fourth Resist Tyranny Fighter" award; Hunan Modern Business editor Shi Tao and Boxun News domestic reporter Jie Mu shared the "Media Freedom" award.
