Those who defaced Mao's portrait

Dated 2006.02.22

The last of three protesters jailed by the Chinese authorities for defacing the portrait of Mao Zedong during the 1989 protests on Tiananmen Square has been released after serving 17 years in jail [after originally having been sentenced to life in prison]...

Asked about Yu Dongyue’s physical condition, his sister, Yu Rixia, told RFA's Mandarin service: “His health is not very good. He can not manage his own personal chores. The priority now is for him to adjust to the current situation and hope that his health can be gradually improved.”...

She said she had visited her brother several times during his imprisonment and had been shocked to see his health deteriorate but was unable to help him.

Yu Dongyue was in a solitary confinement when she made a trip to visit him in 1994, she said, adding that she was therefore unable to visit with him...

Wu said the family had kept Yu Dongyue’s release quiet following the detention of fellow Mao portrait protester Yu Zhijian [sentenced to 16 years in prison] after a visit to the family home Saturday...

[After 16 years in prison on the charge of counterrevolutionary sabotage and incitement, the third protester, Lu Decheng, was offered political asylum in Canada in April, 2006]...

The three men come from the same hometown, where Lu Decheng and Yu Zhijian were playmates as children, while Yu Zhijian and Yu Dongyue were classmates at school, Lu said.

Before they defaced the Mao portrait on May 23, 1989, all three had been active in the pro-democracy movement in the provincial capital Changsha, traveling to Beijing in mid-May that year to join thousands of demonstrators on Tiananmen Square.

Yu Dongyue, Lu, and Yu Zhijian were handed over to national security police after prolonged negotiations with the student command on the Square, a decision Lu and Yu Zhijian regard as having been made with the broader interests of the student movement in mind.