China Dissident Says She Was Blacklisted For Concert
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- You could call musician Fengshi Yang a dissident.
She's an American now. She's from China and came here to go to the University of Chicago in 1986.
And in sympathy with the hundreds of Tiananmen Square demonstrators who were killed or wounded in 1989, she started an annual concert.
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Now, she says, China has barred her from going back home.
"I was listed. Blacklisted. I have not gone back to my homeland."
Not for 16 years.
She spoke to Newsradio 780's Steve Miller as China's President Hu Jintao prepared to visit Chicago on Thursday.
She says people who visit China's cities are seeing a showcase.
"So they think, wow, that's amazing. It's beautiful. It's so quick development. But they need to understand how much ordinary Chinese suffered, endured and sacrificed under this so-called fast, magnificent development."
Yang says she wants to make it clear that she is pro-Chinese.
"I'm just not pro-Communist Party," she says.
