给布什的公开邀请信
An Open Invitation to President Bush

Please Join Our “Olympic Freedom Run” to Clarify Your Moral Standing and Solidarity with Freedom Loving People in China

September 5, 2007 by Kai Chen

Dear President Bush:

As the 2008 Beijing Olympics fast approaches, we as freedom-loving people, realize as that time comes, we are standing at the threshold between human freedom in our future and human despotism from our past. Having learned that you had accepted an invitation from Mr. Hu Jintao to attend the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I like to extend my invitation to you to join our “Olympic Freedom Run” in Washington DC on September 30, 2007 from the Memorial of Communism’s Victims to the Lincoln Memorial.

As a former Chinese National Basketball Team player, I feel compelled by my conscience to speak out, not just to speak out against oppression, slavery and human degradation, but to speak out for human freedom, for hope, for a better tomorrow. I am speaking out not just for those innocent lives perished under the communist regime, not just for those who still suffer under the same oppressive regime of the Chinese communist government, but also for those who are suffering under all kinds of despotism, old and new, in the world.

The 1936 Berlin Olympics is the lesson we ought to heed. As the world indulged itself in the illusion of Olympic grandeur under the Nazi propaganda, millions were suffering unspeakable cruelty under the murderous Nazi regime. History should not repeat itself, and we as free people will make sure that Olympic spirit is nothing but the spirit of human freedom, not opium to induce illusions for despotism and tyranny. Any government that wants to use the Olympics for its own oppressive and reactionary policies against human freedom should be put into the spotlight and have its evil exposed. The 2008 Beijing Olympics should be an example of how the cause of human freedom is pushed forward by the Olympic movement, not pushed backward.

As an athlete with a conscience, I call upon all athletes, all coaches, all people in the athletic establishment in the world, all sports fans and all tourists who will participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics to awaken your conscience, pluck up your courage and listen to the call from the deepest recess of your soul to join our “Olympic Freedom T Shirt” global movement:

When you participate in the competition, please wear our “Olympic Freedom T Shirt”.

When you interact with the Chinese people, wear our “Olympic Freedom T Shirt”.

When you peruse the artifacts in the Forbidden City, wear our “Olympic Freedom T Shirt”.

When you walk in the gardens of the Summer Palace, wear our “Olympic Freedom T Shirt”.

When you climb the Great Wall, wear our “Olympic Freedom T Shirt”

When you stroll on the Tiananmen Square, under the stare of the giant portrait of Mao – the biggest mass murderer in human history, when you remember those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, wear our “Olympic Freedom T Shirt”.

Mr. President:

We do not advocate boycotting the Beijing Summer Olympics. We hope that you to use your presence in the 2008 Beijing Olympics to spread the message of Truth, Justice, Liberty and Dignity to all human beings on the planet earth. We want to see you use your moral conviction, your appreciation of the human yearning for the eternal values of mankind to spread the message of hope and human freedom.

I, as a Chinese athlete with a conscience, call upon the voice in your conscience; call upon your moral courage, your action and your prayer for freedom for the Chinese people, for freedom for all the people in the world. In wearing our “Olympic Freedom T Shirt” and joining our “Olympic Freedom Run”, you are expressing your solidarity and your support for the freedom-loving people in China. You are indeed building a better tomorrow for the world.

Let Freedom Ring!

Hereby I cordially extend my invitation to you to join our Washington DC “Olympic Freedom Run”.

Sincerely,

Kai Chen