China Digital Times

CHINA NEWS SECTION: Law

• Lawyer in China Mob Trial Gets 1 1/2 Years on Appeal

  

  Lawyer Li Zhuang has had his sentence reduced to one and a half years on appeal. From AP:

  The lawyer for an alleged mob boss in southwest China was given a reduced 1 1/2-year prison term Tuesday during his appeal on charges that he helped his client falsely claim torture by police during interrogation, the court said.

  But the Beijing Evening News reported that Li Zhuang yelled out in the court after the punishment was announced that he only confessed during the appeal after a “relevant official” told him that doing so would get him a suspended sentence.

  The Chongqing Municipality No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court upheld Li’s conviction but reduced his original sentence by one year because he repeatedly admitted to the charges against him during the latest trial, the court said on its Web site, without referring to any kind of plea bargain.

  Also from Economic Observer:

  After hearing the court’s verdict, an enraged Li grabbed the microphone before him and announced that his earlier admissions of guilt, made during the open-hearing stages of the trial, were false.

  He said the statements he made admitting to his guilt were induced by the local public security agency and prosecutors who promised him a suspended sentence in return. He also claimed that they said the only way a second hearing would be held, is if he admitted his guilt.

  He went on to declare that “the local public security agency and prosecutors have absolutely cheated me … the local prosecutor even tried to persuade me to give up my appeal. It was a complete deception and it will be exposed to the light of day sooner or later.”

  Li appealed the country’s 160,000 lawyers to continue to struggle in defense of their rights in the handling of criminal cases.

  Read more about Li Zhuang via CDT.

  » Read more
  • February 9, 2010 12:24 PM

• China Sentences Quake Activist to 5 Years’ Jail

  

  Activist Tan Zuoren, who had been investigating the deaths of schoolchildren in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, has been sentenced to five years in prison after being tried in August. From AP:

  Attorney Pu Zhiqiang said activist Tan Zuoren was convicted of the charge Tuesday by the Chengdu Intermediate Court. Tan’s trial in August had concluded with no ruling, while police detained and threatened the man’s supporters.

  Tan’s supporters say they believe the authorities were trying to silence him for his investigation into the collapse of schools in the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck in Sichuan province in May 2008, leaving almost 90,000 dead or missing. Tan estimated at least 5,600 students were among the dead.

  The charge of inciting subversion of state power is believed linked to his quake investigation as well as essays he wrote about the 1989 student-led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square that ended in a deadly military crackdown. Beijing routinely uses such broad and vaguely defined accusations to imprison dissidents, sometimes for years.

  Pu said Tan would appeal the court’s decision.

  See also a Reuters report. ChinaGeeks has translated selected tweets about the verdict.

  Update: The BBC has posted a profile of Tan.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 9:30 PM

• Liu Xiaobo: I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement

  

  Writer Liu Xiaobo, one of the drafters of Charter 08, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on December 25, Christmas Day. On December 23, the day he was tried, Liu Xiaobo wrote a “final statement” which is being widely passed around online. CDT thanks David Kelly, Professor of China Studies, China Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney, for the translation (the original Chinese version can be found here):

  Liu Xiaobo, I have no enemies: my final statement*

  June 1989 was the major turning point in my 50 years on life’s road. Before that, I was a member of the first group of students after restoration of the college entrance examination after the Cultural Revolution (1977); my career was s smooth ride from undergraduate to grad student through to PhD. After graduation I stayed on as a lecturer at Beijing Normal University. On the podium, I was a popular teacher, well received by students. I was at the same time a public intellectual. In the 1980s I published articles and books that created an impact, was frequently invited to speak in various places, and was invited to go abroad to Europe and the US as a visiting scholar. What I required of myself was: both as a person and in my writing, I had to live with honesty, responsibility and dignity. Subsequently, because I had returned from the US to take part in the 1989 movement, I was imprisoned for “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement to crime”, loding the platform which was my passion; I was never again allowed publish or speak in public in China. Simply for expressing divergent political views and taking part in a peaceful and democratic movement, a teacher loses his podium, a writer loses the right to publish, and a public intellectual loses the chance to speak publicly, which is a sad thing, both for myself as an individual, and for China after three decades of reform and opening up.

  Thinking about it, my most dramatic experiences after June Fourth have all linked with courts; the two opportunities I had to speak in public have been provided by trials held in the People’s Intermediate Court in Beijing, one in January 1991 and one now. Although the charges on each occasion were different, they were in essence the same, both being crimes of expression.

  Twenty years on, the innocent souls of June Fourth do not yet rest in peace, and I, who had been drawn into the path of dissidence by the passions of June Fourth, after leaving the Qincheng Prison in 1991, lost in the right to speak openly in my own country, and could only do so through overseas media, and hence was monitored for many years; placed under surveillance (May 1995- January 1996); educated through labour (October 1996 – October 1999s), and now once again am thrust into the dock by enemies in the regime. But I still want to tell the regime that deprives me of my freedom, I stand by the belief I expressed twenty years ago in my “June Second hunger strike declaration”— I have no enemies, and no hatred. None of the police who have monitored, arrested and interrogated me, the prosecutors who prosecuted me, or the judges who sentence me, are my enemies. While I’m unable to accept your surveillance, arrest, prosecution or sentencing, I respect your professions and personalities, including Zhang Rongge and Pan Xueqing who act for the prosecution at present. I was aware of your respect and sincerity in your interrogation of me on 3 December.

  For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy. I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.

  As we all know, reform and opening up brought about development of the state and change in society. In my view, it began with abandoning “taking class struggle as the key link,” which had been the ruling principle of the Mao era. We committed ourselves instead to economic development and social harmony. The process of abandoning the “philosophy of struggle” was one of gradually diluting the mentality of enmity, eliminating the psychology of hatred, and pressing out the “wolf’s milk” in which our humanity had been steeped. It was this process that provided a relaxed environment for the reform and opening up at home and abroad, for the restoration of mutual love between people, and soft humane soil for the peaceful coexistence of different values and different interests, and thus provided the explosion of popular creativity and the rehabilitation of warmheartedness with incentives consistent with human nature. Externally abandoning “anti-imperialism and anti-revisionism”, and internally, abandoning “class struggle” may be called the basic premise of the continuance of China’s reform and opening up to this day. The market orientation of the economy; the cultural trend toward diversity; and the gradual change of order to the rule of law, all benefited from the dilution of this mentality of enmity. Even in the political field, where progress is slowest, dilution of the mentality of enmity also made political power ever more tolerant of diversity in society, the intensity persecution of dissidents has declined substantially, and characterization of the 1989 movement has changed from an “instigated rebellion” to a “political upheaval.”

  The dilution of the mentality of enmity made the political power gradually accept the universality of human rights. In 1998, the Chinese government promised the world it would sign the the two international human rights conventions of the UN, marking China’s recognition of universal human rights standards; in 2004, the National People’s Congress for the first time inscribed into the constitution that “the state respects and safeguards human rights”, signaling that human rights had become one of the fundamental principles of the rule of law. In the meantime, the present regime also proposed “putting people first” and “creating a harmonious society”, which signalled progress in the Party’s concept of rule.

  This macro-level progress was discernible as well in my own experiences since being arrested.

  While I insist on my innocence, and that the accusations against me are unconstitutional, in the year and more since I lost my freedom, I’ve experienced two places of detention, four pre-trial police officers, three prosecutors and two judges. In their handling of the case, there has been no lack of respect, no time overruns and no forced confessions. Their calm and rational attitude has over and again demonstrated goodwill. I was transferred on 23 June from the residential surveillance to Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Detention Center No. 1, known as “Beikan.” I saw progress in surveillance in the six months I spent there.

  I spent time in the old Beikan (Banbuqiao) in 1996, and compared with the Beikan of a decade ago, there has been great improvement in the hardware of facilities and software of management.

  In particular, Beikan’s innovative humane management based on respecting the rights and dignity of detainees, implementing more flexible management of the will be flexible to the detainees words and deeds, embodied in the Warm broadcast and Repentance, the music played before meals, and when waking up and going to sleep, gave detainees feelings of dignity and warmth, stimulating their consciousness of keeping order in their cells and opposing the warders sense of themselves as lords of the jail, detainees, providing not only a humanized living environment, but greatly improved the detainees’ environment and mindset for litigation, I had close contact with Liu Zhen, in charge of my cell. People feel warmed by his respect and care for detainees, reflected in the management of every detail, and permeating his every word and deed. Getting to know the sincere, honest, responsible, good-hearted Liu Zhen really was a piece of good luck for me in Beikan.

  Political beliefs are based on such convictions and personal experiences; I firmly believe that China’s political progress will never stop, and I’m full of optimistic expectations of freedom coming to China in the future, because no force can block the human desire for freedom. China will eventually become a country of the rule of law in which human rights are supreme. I’m also looking forward to such progress being reflected in the trial of this case, and look forward to the full court’s just verdict ——one that can stand the test of history.

  Ask me what has been my most fortunate experience of the past two decades, and I’d say it was gaining the selfless love of my wife, Liu Xia. She cannot be present in the courtroom today, but I still want to tell you, sweetheart, that I’m confident that your love for me will be as always. Over the years, in my non-free life, our love has contained bitterness imposed by the external environment, but is boundless in afterthought. I am sentenced to a visible prison while you are waiting in an invisible one. Your love is sunlight that transcends prison walls and bars, stroking every inch of my skin, warming my every cell, letting me maintain my inner calm, magnanimous and bright, so that every minute in prison is full of meaning. But my love for you is full of guilt and regret, sometimes heavy enough hobble my steps. I am a hard stone in the wilderness, putting up with the pummeling of raging storms, and too cold for anyone to dare touch. But my love is hard, sharp, and can penetrate any obstacles. Even if I am crushed into powder, I will embrace you with the ashes.

  Given your love, sweetheart, I would face my forthcoming trial calmly, with no regrets about my choice and looking forward to tomorrow optimistically. I look forward to my country being a land of free expression, where all citizens’ speeches are treated the same; here, different values, ideas, beliefs, political views… both compete with each other and coexist peacefully; here, majority and minority opinions will be given equal guarantees, in particular, political views different from those in power will be fully respected and protected; here, all political views will be spread in the sunlight for the people to choose; all citizens will be able to express their political views without fear, and will never be politically persecuted for voicing dissent; I hope to be the last victim of China’s endless literary inquisition, and that after this no one else will ever be jailed for their speech.

  Freedom of expression is the basis of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth. To block freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, to strangle humanity and to suppress the truth.

  I do not feel guilty for following my constitutional right to freedom of expression, for fulfilling my social responsibility as a Chinese citizen. Even if accused of it, I would have no complaints. Thank you!

  Liu Xiaobo (December 23, 2009)

  Read more about Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 via CDT.

  Image source: Amnesty International – Hong Kong.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 7:26 PM

• Marc Ambinder: How The Hackers Took Google: A Theory

  

  From the Atlantic Magazine:

  Fred Chang has a theory about how hackers affiliated with the Chinese government hacked into Google and at least two dozen other major American companies. Chang is a professor of computer science at the University of Texas — so we should listen to him. But he is also the former director of research for the National Security Agency, so he has a pretty good idea of what hackers can do — and whether these things can be picked up by the government or industry.

  Chang says he has no inside or special knowledge, but here is his theory: the hack was much more of a sophisticated intelligence operation than many believed. The first step was espionage and data collection.

  The second step was the hack itself. Chang believes that the Chinese hackers figured out the identities of the system administrators for various computer networks. Then, the hackers figured out, using publicly availably Facebook data, the social networks that these systems administrators were part of.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 5:56 PM

• Caixin (财新网): The Li Zhuang Case

  

  Caixin, Hu Shuli’s new publication, has produced an English-language page compiling information about the trial of lawyer Li Zhuang. From one article on the site:

  Li Zhuang, known as the lawyer formerly representing an alleged Chongqing gang leader, shocked court observers in the capitulation of his first sentence appeal.

  On February 2, Li stated to the judge that the January trial was based on “clear facts and sound evidence,” a verbal revision of his grounds for appeal according to local news portal, Hua Long Net.

  However, Li maintains the status of his appeal, and is still pursuing a reduced sentence.

  Read more about Li Zhuang’s case through translated Chinese media reports on ESWN.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 2:03 PM

• Liu Xingchen (刘兴臣), County Police Chief: The “Three Ones” Model of Intelligence Gathering

  

  A recent translation by CDT of an internal document by a local officer of the Domestic Security Department (DSD) revealed some of the working methods and mechanisms of China’s secret police work at the ground level. That document helped illustrate how extensive the human surveillance and intelligence-gathering networks and activities are throughout the Chinese society, developed and controlled by the government security agencies.

  The following interview with a county police chief is another example that reveals critical details about government surveillance efforts. In particular, according to this Xinhua article, in a county of 400,000, there are 12,093 informants on the government payroll who are charged with gathering intelligence.

  This Xinhua article is entitled: Interview with Comrade Liu Xingchen, Assistant to the County Head of
  Kailu County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Party Committee Secretary of the Public Security Bureau, Director of the Public Security Bureau. Published on August 28, 2009, excerpts translated by CDT:

  Interviewee: Comrade Liu Xingchen (刘兴臣), Assistant to the County Head of Kailu County, Party Committee Secretary of the Public Security Bureau, Bureau Chief of the Public Security Bureau.
  Interviewer: Tang Jianquan (唐建权)

  Xinhua reporter: Director Liu, Hello! Kailu County is a large county with a population of 400,000. Police activities in the countryside are especially important. The Public Security Bureau’s (PSB’s) police activities in the countryside are leading the way in our region [Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region], and [the PSB] has created a new model of carrying out police activities in the countryside; this model is being spread throughout the entire city and even throughout the entire region [Inner Mongolia]. So, please tell us, what are the characteristics and results of Kailu county’s new model of police activities; in what ways is this new model new?

  Director Liu：In order to enhance capacity at the local level, and energize the ground level, our bureau has emphasized both to build larger and more powerful as well as more advanced and higher quality local police stations. Our bureau has reported to the County government and received a lot of support from the county Party Committee and government. We established a “financed by the government, managed by the Public Security Bureau” model, in which every village in the county has one police station, hires one assistant police staff, funded by the county government with an annual budget 1.4 million RMB. And this budget number is within the annual financial budget of the county government. So we have realized every village having a police station, and every village having an assistant police staff. Until now, we have established 283 police stations at the village level, and hired 289 assistant police staff.

  … The policing model of our Bureau is innovative because of the extensiveness of its range. Every village has a police station, all together 277, and there are another six police stations in the capital town of Kailu County. So we have a very sensitive intelligence network. The 289 village assistant police staff members are all from local villages, so they have the strength of familiarity with the people, locations, and the local situation. They can timely and accurately discover all sorts of information that might destabilize the society, and can effectively maintain stability at the village level. This is also an effective solution to the problem of police manpower, and strengthening the capacity of Public Security agencies in handling the current complex situation.

  » Read more
  • February 7, 2010 11:02 PM

• Chongqing Example for Real Harmony

  

  An opinion piece in China Daily praises Bo Xilai’s anti-corruption campaign in Chongqing as an example of how to bring real harmony to Chinese society:

  A third-year student from the Southwestern University of Political Science and Law appealed to Chongqing leaders to intensify their efforts to eliminate the “dark and evil forces” and help society regain its sense of security. Many others echoed his demand. Bo was quick to reply that no development could be possible in a place where the basic moral boundary had become blurred.

  The anti-gangster campaign is essentially an effort to restore decency and the good life of the people, he said. In a place run by triads, which used to monopolize many sectors – from mining, roads and transportation to grocery supplies – the already difficult life of wage earners would become unbearable. “And to help them out is what a government is there for,” Bo said.

  But he also had his own complaints. The applause he earned from the college students did not prevent him from saying that at times he has heard “sour remarks”, criticizing him for not being nice and perhaps not handling things properly. Incidentally, some overseas reports have suggested that the Chongqing campaign is politically motivated. But Bo said: “We won’t listen to this kind of twisted reasoning.” That the local government has been able to assure people of their safety and security can be gauged from the number of support messages it got on the Internet on Monday morning. There were hundreds, with the most frequent remark being “When will Chongqing’s campaign spread nationwide?”

  » Read more
  • February 7, 2010 9:59 PM

• China Jails Man 13 Years for Running Porn Web Site

  

  From AP:

  The court in the Guangdong province city of Jiangmen handed down the sentence to Huang Yizhong and fined him 100,000 yuan ($14,600), the official Xinhua News Agency said.

  Huang pleaded guilty to charges of copying and spreading pornographic material on the Web site, which he ran since 2005 using a rented U.S. server, Xinhua said. Police caught him last July and his trial started Jan. 6.

  It said Huang downloaded more than 1,000 pornographic movies and edited them into video clips for his site. With more than 4,000 paying members, he received profits of nearly $500,000, Xinhua said.

  » Read more
  • February 7, 2010 12:03 AM

• What Are Li Zhuang and the Chongqing Government Up to?

  

  On Inside-Out China, Xujun Eberlain comments on the confusing case of lawyer Li Zhuang who has been convicted of fabricating evidence in the Chongqing corruption investigation. He first appealed his verdict, and then admitted guilt. China Daily reported:

  Li Zhuang, the former lawyer of alleged gang boss Gong Gangmo, admitted he fabricated evidence and interfered with witness testimonies to save his client in a court in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality yesterday.

  But Li’s lawyer, Chen Youxi, continued his defense, saying Li “did not mean what he said” and only made the “ironic” confession because he was deeply disappointed with the judicial system, adding he would continue to fight to prove the tainted lawyer’s innocence.

  Last December, Gong, who is on trial for running a 34-member criminal gang, told a court that Li, his lawyer then, instructed him to fabricate evidence to prove police torture, leaving law practitioners across the country stunned.

  A separate trial to hear Li’s case was ordered immediately. Li was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Jan 8, and a week later he appealed the verdict.

  From Inside-Out China:

  However, as more complete coverage from independent media such as the Economic Observer appeared, it becomes evident that Li did not admit guilt genuinely, and that he tried to present obvious clues to that effect wherever he could. Here’s a small example: at one point, when examined by the prosecutor on how he incited Gong Gangmo, his client, to fabricate evidence of torture, Li said he leaned over an iron bar and whispered into to Gong’s ear. This is in complete contradiction to what Gong had told the court and CCTV, that Li gave him hints by “blinking his eyes.” Later, Li’s defense lawyer asked a police guard whether there was an iron bar in that room, and the witness said “no.” When it was Li Zhuang’s turn to question one witness, he asked, “Now there are two versions of how the ‘fabrication’ took place, so which is true?” Aha! He had created the 2nd version himself in order to ask this question. Though the witness evaded the question by answering “I don’t know,” Li fulfilled his purpose in revealing conflicting evidence.

  » Read more
  • February 5, 2010 3:22 PM

• Hush Money Journalism

  

  Caixin, edited by Hu Shuli, reports on media corruption and the recent mining disaster cover-up in Weixian, Hebei:

  Later last year, a dozen journalists were discovered to have taken hush money totaling 2.6 million yuan, according to a Hebei Provincial government report released January 9. Local authorities in Weixian, Hebei Province bribed journalists, including four from national media, to silence a mining accident that occurred July 14, 2008. Crowds of journalists lined up for hush money to be handed out after a local coal mine accident in Shanxi Province Nov. 3, 2008.

  As these cases show, the lure of money continues to dull the consciences of a few journalists. But as for whether only the journalists should be responsible, Professor Zhan Jiang from the Beijing Foreign Studies University said that the brunt of criticism ought to be directed at local government officials.

  Officials in areas with intense mining, such as Hebei and Shanxi, are frequently found attempting to conceal accidents from the public. Professor Zhan said local authorities in mining areas have come to rely on concealing work safety accidents through cutting information off from the public and using public funds for bribes. Zhan says this systemic corruption creates “professional blackmail journalists.”

  » Read more
  • February 4, 2010 4:28 PM

• China Stays Silent on Missing Lawyer Gao Zhisheng

  

  The whereabouts of lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who went missing one year ago, are unknown and government officials have failed to provide any details, the BBC reports:

  Mr Gao’s wife, now living in the US, said she was “certain” he was being tortured in prison and called on the US to increase its pressure on China.

  At a regular news conference on Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu refused to answer questions from journalists about Mr Gao.

  “I have made our position known many times, at least three times,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

  “China is a country of rule of law and everything is handled according to the law,” he said.

  But Mr Ma said he might “refer to competent authorities for more specifics”, said AFP.

  » Read more
  • February 4, 2010 1:17 PM

• Switzerland to Resettle Uighur Brothers from Guantanamo

  

  Switzerland has agreed to accept two Uighur brothers who have been held in legal limbo in the Guantanamo Bay detention center since 2002. From the Washington Post:

  In accepting the brothers, the Swiss government resisted diplomatic pressure from China and opposition within the Swiss parliament.

  Once the transfer is complete, five Uighurs will remain in U.S. custody. At one point, the Guantanamo Bay prison held 22 Uighurs, who are not enemies of the United States but are considered terrorists by Beijing.

  Some in Switzerland argued against accepting the brothers, saying they posed a security threat. But Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told reporters Wednesday that the government, which had access to their classified files, reached a different conclusion.

  “In the end, the final factor was not economic and diplomatic relations,” she said. “We decided to base our decision on Switzerland’s humanitarian tradition.”

  Five more Uighurs, out of an original group of 22, remain in Guantanamo. From AFP:

  Obama, who took office pledging to close down the camp, thought the Uighurs would be the easiest cases. But US lawmakers prevented efforts to free them in the United States and China has pressured other nations not to accept them.

  Uighur inmates earlier found homes in the disparate nations of Albania, Bermuda and Palau.

  Palau, an archipelago in the Pacific, has accepted six of the inmates and offered to accept all who remain. But the prisoners have hesitated, preferring a location with a Uighur community.

  » Read more
  • February 3, 2010 9:59 PM

• China Charges Tainted Milk Scandal Activist (Updated)

  

  As we hear about more melamine contamination in dairy products, an activist who advocated on behalf of victims of the 2008 milk contamination scandal has been indicted. From The Telegraph:

  Mr Zhao, who used to work for China’s Food Quality and Safety Authority, was incensed after his son became sick through drinking milk laced with melamine, an industrial chemical that gives young children kidney stones. Around 300,000 infants were poisoned and at least six died.

  In a small, one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Beijing, Mr Zhao started up a website to share information about the symptoms with other victims. Within days, more than 4,000 families signed up and soon the online forums were crammed with discussions about compensation and legal action.

  He quickly became the de facto spokesman and lobbyist for all the victims, organising a trip to Shijiazhuang to see milk company executives go on trial.

  In his indictment, the Chinese police accused Mr Zhao of “viciously spinning” the news of the crisis on the internet and “inciting and assembling people to go to the courtroom in Shijiazhuang [for the trial]“.

  Update: Four people have also been arrested for their role in the most recent melamine scare. AFP reports:

  Three of those arrested in Shaanxi were officials with Lekang Dairy Co, China National Radio said. The company had been blacklisted for involvement in the 2008 scandal, Xinhua said.

  The suspects were identified as Lekang Dairy general manager Zhang Wenxue and the company’s vice general managers Zhu Shuming and Tong Tianhu. The fourth suspect was Ma Shuanglin, a milk powder dealer.

  Ma sold Lekang 10 tonnes of “expired” milk powder in September and October of 2009, China National Radio said.

  It said Ma had purchased the milk powder in April 2008, months before the initial scandal erupted.

  » Read more
  • February 3, 2010 1:44 PM

• Chinese Activist Claims Victory in Airport Sit-In

  

  

  From CBSNews:

  After camping out at Japan’s busiest international airport for almost three months, a Chinese human rights activist is ending his extraordinary protest with a claim of victory.

  “I will be going home sometime before the Chinese New Year, (February 14) and can’t wait to see my 90-year-old mother,” Feng Zhenghu, 55, told CBS News over the phone. “I have achieved my goal of showing everyone that we have to fight for our legal rights.”

  Feng has been an unusual fixture at Narita Airport’s Terminal 1 since Nov. 4. He refused to leave the airport in Japan to draw worldwide attention to his own government’s refusal to allow him back home. Authorities had denied him entry to Shanghai eight times since June. All he wanted to do was go back home.

  

  Feng, an economist-turned-lawyer who has a long history of supporting pro-democracy movements, has said he infuriated Shanghai officials by exposing their corruption and wrongdoing in his writings.

  Following three recent meetings with officials from the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, Feng now plans to clear immigration at Narita on Wednesday and stay with relatives in Japan for a few days before flying back to Shanghai.

  “Returning home is my right as a Chinese citizen – I never negotiated that,” he emphasizes. “I am doing this as a gesture of good faith in response to the sincerity of the embassy officials.”

  Image source: AFP.

  More news of Feng Zhenghu, via Google News.

  Please click here and here to read translations of Feng Zhenghu’s tweets and blog posts on China Digital Times.

  » Read more
  • February 2, 2010 10:49 PM

• China’s Defiance on Rights Stirs Fears for Dissident

  

  The New York Times reports on the disappearance of activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng and the climate for human rights activists in China now:

  Emboldened by China’s newfound economic prowess but insecure about its standing at home, the Chinese Communist Party has been tightening Internet censorship, cracking down on legal rights defenders and brushing aside foreign leaders who seek to influence the outcome of individual cases.

  In December, the authorities executed Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen, on drug trafficking charges despite Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s personal plea to President Hu Jintao that Mr. Shaikh was mentally ill.

  During President Obama’s state visit to China in November, the plight of a pro-democracy advocate, Liu Xiaobo, was reportedly at the top of his list of concerns. A few weeks later, on Dec. 25, Mr. Liu was given an unexpectedly harsh 11-year sentence for publishing an online petition that sought expanded liberties.

  John Kamm, a veteran American human rights campaigner, said that during three decades working in China he had rarely seen such a hard line toward dissidents — and unbridled defiance against pressure from abroad.

  » Read more
  • February 2, 2010 9:07 PM

CDT BOOKSHELF

China Digital Times is run by the Berkeley China Internet Project | Copyright © China Digital Times | Powered by WordPress.