首届中国论坛 陈光诚获颁自由奖

choi

VOA Chinese, Nov 6, 2015.
www.voachinese.com/content/chen- ... 151106/3041602.html

Quote:

"首届中国论坛(The China Forum)于11月5日在华盛顿国会图书馆开幕。这场为期两天的论坛 * * * 5日晚上，盲人维权人士陈光诚被授予 杜鲁门－里根自由奖(The Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom)。

In accepting the award, "陈光诚 * * * 用英语说：'杜鲁门－里根自由奖激励我们所有人集中我们的努力，用我们的爱心、头脑和双手来关心那些生活在暴政下的人们。只有每一个地方都废除了暴政，我们才有真正的自由。谢谢！'

Note:
(a) "China Forum" is part of many names throughout the world.
(b) "The China Forum" is inaugural (meaning the first). But the organization behind the award, as well as the award itself, is more than two decades old. See Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi ... Memorial_Foundation
("a non-profit educational organization in [DC], established [in 1994]as a result of an Act of Congress in 1993 with the purpose to commemorate 'the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust.' Its name is derived from the Victims of Communism Memorial [qv; dedicated by pres George W Bush in 2007] * * * The Foundation annually presents its Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom")
(i) The foundation's website states, "1999 saw [first] medals awarded to Soviet dissident Elena Bonner, Bulgarian Prime Minister Philip Dimitrov, Lithuanian statesman Vytautas Landsbergis, and longtime labor union leader Lane Kirkland." The 2003 recipient was Vaclav Havel (1st president of Check Republic: Feb 1993-Feb 2003). Pope John Paul II was the 2005 awardee.
(ii) Here is the list of awardees.

Recipients of the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.  Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, undated
http://victimsofcommunism.org/initiative/truman-reagan/
(Dr Jianli Yang and Harry Wu were among 2013 and 2010 recipients, respectively)
(iii) Oddly, two and only two activists (Guillermo Fariñas Hernández of Cuba and Alexandr Podrabinek of Russia) received their awards in June 2015). See the list in (b)(ii). Where Chen Guangchen is fit in is unclear to me, despite my research. He did receive The Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom last night, but the Foundation does not have this information in its website.