Chinese dissidents posting anti suicide notes as protection against possible govt. attacks

Beijing - Chinese dissidents have started proclaiming that they will not take their own lives as they remain suspicious over whether a Tiananmen Square activist committed suicide last week or was killed by government forces.

The online declarations come in the middle of growing calls to investigate the 'mysterious death' of Li Wangyang, who was found dead in a hospital ward in Shaoyang last Wednesday,

His supporters claim that when he was found, his feet touched the ground, raising doubts about whether he had hanged himself.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Chinese dissidents have started putting up statements that they will not commit suicide, a searing sort of anti-suicide note.

The outpouring reportedly began with AIDS activist Hu Jia, then spread through Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.

"I am cautious by nature and am optimistic. I am healthy and I have a strong faith. In the past, now or in the future, whatever I encounter, any disease, political persecution or hardship, I have never and will never resort to committing suicide as a solution," economist Xia Yieliang wrote, according to a Taiwan media report.

Another message reads, 'I, Wang Lihong, have attempted to commit suicide in prison before, not because I was weak, but because I wanted to defend my own dignity. I hereby declare I will never ever attempt suicide again.'

Meanwhile, human rights groups have demanded that China investigate how Li died.

Li, 62, was convicted of spreading counterrevolutionary propaganda during the Tiananmen Square protests.