THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100323
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 35 lines
Hours before Virginia Wesleyan College welcomed China's ambassador to the United States on Wednesday, students scrawled chalk protests on the sidewalk outside the dining hall where the ambassador would eat and speak.
A message began: In China people were executed in 1995 for . . .
Many reasons followed.
James T. Brooks, 20, a member of Amnesty International, has not been to China, but he had chalk and an Amnesty International booklet on human rights abuses in the world's most populous country.
He and other students spelled out protests gleaned from the booklet.
One read: The main source of ORGAN transplants in China are involuntarly (sic) taken from Executed Prisoners.
``An official from an oppressive regime is coming to our campus,'' Brooks said, ``and we're going to honor him with a meal.''
Elisabeth Tyndall, 21, helped Brooks chalk the slogans on the concrete.
Neither student remembered the ambassador's name.
``I'm not sure,'' said Brooks. ``He's a Chinese official.''
``I have it on a piece of paper,'' Tyndall said, ``but I haven't memorized it.''
The chalk messages were there for all who might look down.
Including Li Daoya, China's ambassador to the United States. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
On a campus sidewalk Wednesday, Virginia Wesleyan College students
chalked messages decrying China's civil rights record.
KEYWORDS: PROTEST by CNB