Support for Charter 08 Grows; Supporters Detained (Updated)
AP reports that activist Liu Xiaobo is still being detained after participating in Charter 08, a document calling for political reforms and respect for human rights that has been signed by thousands of Chinese citizens. Chinese Human Rights Defenders has reported that several other Charter participants have also been detained around China. (It appears that the CHRD website has been hacked.) From AP:
More than three dozen others who signed the “Charter 08″ statement have been harassed by police, according to the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
[...] Liu has been held since Dec. 8, possibly because police considered him a ringleader in organizing the charter, said lawyer Mo Shaoping, who is representing Liu and has defended many activists in the past. Mo said he has not gotten any updates on him since police detained him.
[...] Police appear to be gathering evidence against several individuals whom authorities believe to be the charter’s organizers, according to several people who were summoned for questioning, the rights group said.
The Age reports that more than 3600 people in China have now signed the document:
Charter 08 began with 303 core signatories, mainly writers and academics. Support has broadened to include soldiers, serving officials, workers, unemployed people, students and many overseas Chinese.
Dozens and probably hundreds of charter signatories have been arrested, interrogated and harassed, while heavy censorship continues to block mainland Chinese from easily accessing the document.
A blogger with the internet name NAKUL said he signed the charter on Sunday and was visited by two policemen the following morning. “The police have never been so efficient,” he quipped.
This map, created by Chinese Human Rights Defenders, shows known Charter 08-related detentions:
Update: The Washington Post has published an editorial in support of Charter 08:
CHINA’S Communist regime spent much of this year selling itself to the world as a rising power that offers an alternative to the democratic capitalism of the West. Its symbol is the Beijing Olympics, for which stadiums were built, crowds orchestrated and events staged with brutish efficiency — even as political dissidents and unsightly poor people were jailed or exiled from Beijing. But Olympics China is not the only forward-looking vision of the country, as a group of more than 300 intellectuals, journalists, rural activists and artists made clear last week. Their manifesto, Charter 2008, sketches a free and democratic China where human rights, democracy and the rule of law are paramount. While it might seem less formidable than the Bird’s Nest Stadium, our long-run bet is on the charter.
POSTED COMMENTS: 4 Responses
[...] apparently the CHRD site has been hacked; I am not able to access it or link to it. Thanks to Sophie Beach at China Digital Times, we are still able to view the [...]
我完全支持自由、人权，也反对把刘晓波抓起来。但是看着这个所谓宪章，以及签名的一些所谓学者、教授，以及一些平常喜欢自称公共知识分子的人，我有一个疑问：这些“公共知识分子”，公共确实很公共，但到底有多少知识呢？
就举一个例子吧。这个声明要求中国实行联邦制。世界上民主国家很多，并不是所有国家都是联邦制的。你们怎么就知道联邦制是最好的呢，是最适合中国的呢？你们作过研究吗？我想你们大概不知道，联邦制（以及与之相关的地方分权，decentralization), 是当前国际政治经济学界的一个研究热点（财政联邦制也曾经是经济学界的一个热点话题），分析很多，有说好的，也有说不好的。我不想说联邦制一定不好，但是你们这些“学者”、“教授”在鼓吹联邦制的时候，到底对这些国际学界的真正研究成果读过多少呢？什么？你们想读，不知道从哪里读起？这是个很好的问题。这样吧，UCLA 有一个很优秀的政治学教授，Daniel Treisman，有一本比较新的书，叫The Architecture of Government: Rethinking Political Decentralization， 2007年由Cambridge University Press 出版，可以从这本书开始读。
再说了，你们说要自由民主，这些都没任何问题，但你们居然把民主的具体形式都定好了，这个方式民主吗？民主的具体形式还是应该在国家民主化的时候，有全国民众决定，而不是你们决定，对不对？
还有这个签名也有问题。我稍微看了一眼，签名里面有什么乔治（美国）的。美国叫George 只怕有几十万吧。这个签名有意义吗？还有什么民主党的，是美国民主党吗？美国人？这个签名要中国国籍才有意义吧？什么国籍的、化名的，等等，都可以签，是不是为了增加人数？要是想增加人数，那还不如学学法轮功的退党签名，据说他们已经搞了几千万中共党员退党了（反正是不是中共党员，都可以退党，一人还可以多次退党），哪里是你们这个几千人可以比的。
总之啊，你们搞这个声明的初衷也许不错，但是这个所谓“宪章”，怎么看怎么让我想起以前某些逃到美国的一些人搞的所谓的中国民主宪法，一看，其实就是美国宪法的中文翻译。所以说，你们这些干时髦的，还是多正经读点书，再开始讨论政治吧。不是说赶时髦就一定不好，但是东施效颦就不太好了。
我自己认为那个宣言有关财产的部分，尤其是国营企业的部分，不太好。 不知联邦制好不好。 像你说的一样，有些事情应该是由中国人民决定的，而不应该由一小束知识分子决定的。 但是写一个这样的宣言也是个好的初步，以后可以改善。 只要宣言引起讨论，就好。
讨论？这么多年了，中国的这帮所谓自由主义“知识分子”除了会跟着别人屁股后面喊喊口号，写写标语，还会干嘛？他们所尊崇的老前辈胡适不早说了吗？要多研究些问题，少谈些主义。这帮不学无术的，除了会写一些半通不通的杂文、博客，都研究出了些什么问题？居然还个个自称什么学者、公共知识分子。