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China news tagged with: huang qi (15)

• Ai Weiwei (艾未未) on Citizenship and Freedom

  

  The 1984 BBS is a private online forum that has over 7000 registered members in China. Ai Weiwei, who had just returned to his Beijing home from an international trip few days earlier, was a special guest for a one hour online chat with members of the forum from 8 to 9 pm, December 17, 2009. CDT has translated excerpts of the Q & A; the full text (in Chinese) is here.

  Songshinan (Chat host): You were just named by 《Southern Wind》 magazine as the 2009 Man of Public Interest. You deserve it.

  In 2009, you and your team found at least 5000 names of children who died during the Sichaun earthquake. Your action warmed thousands of families, moved inumerous conscientious Chinese and made them feel angry and inspired, and also cornered the stupid Sichuan government.

  In your own unique way, you have challenged the authoritarian windmill, used courage to press the cowardice of the authorities, used playfulness to highlight the authorities’ stupidity, used persistence to reveal the authorities’ crudeness, used your action to prove authorities’ falseness.

  In my heart, you are more than the man of 2009; you are the largest Grass-Mud Horse in China this year.

  Questions from forum members:

  fatherofmissingfish: Hi Old Ai. 2009 was a hard year.  There was Huang Qi, then Tan Zuoren [inprisoned]. The government repression of rights defenders has been extremely harsh. What do you think about the future of the human rights movement?

  Ai Weiwei: The government is protecting their power; citizens are defending their rights. No matter how hard defending rights is, this is the only way.

  ririxishou：Hi teacher Ai. [In Chinese, "teacher" is a term of respect] I want to ask one question.  Which dimension of change do you think is most important for today’s China: Is it immediate demands for freedom? Or raising citizen consciousness first, then talking about freedom?

  Ai Weiwei: For the question of freedom, there is no bargain, no strategy. You are either free or not free.

  Kaidijianeng: Teacher Ai, please share your thoughts on “freedom” and “citizenship” in today’s society. What are your expectations for government and for citizens?

  Ai Weiwei: Today the government’s wisdom is to play dead; citizen’s wisdom is to kick [the government's] ass, regardless if it’s playing dead or really dead.

  vahine: Grandpa Ai [In Chinese, "grandpa" is an informal term of high respect], is there any space to compromise between us and authorities? Is there still a possibility of constructive interaction?

  Ai Weiwei: I think we have a 100% bastard government, but only less then 5% of citizens demand democracy, equality and justice. So there is a lot of space.

  jencoxu: Do you still have any hope for China? Do you think the next round of reforms will be top down or bottom up?

  Ai Weiwei: I never had any hope for China. I am only resisting the hopelessness China is imposing on me.

  Zhangyang: Dearest Grandpa Ai, my question is: What factors in Chinese culture are preventing the establishment of civil society? How can we address that?

  Ai Weiwei: We always talk about Chinese culture this and Chinese culture that.  As a matter of fact, Chinese culture has no damn business here. Forget about Chinese culture; this is the shortcut to civil society.

  wtdd: How big is the possibility of organizing an opposition party, for example through Twitter?

  Ai Weiwei: The order should be, organizing people on Twitter first, then organizing a party.

  zyl1989：Are you ready for prison? Or put it this way, the government has not yet put you into a prison cell. Is it because they do not think you are threatening enough?

  Ai Weiwei: I don’t think so. It is because the prison cell is not big enough.

  pigselbow: In an intervew about the 1980s generation,  Chen Danqing [an artist] commented that you are a lefty artist. What do you think about his comment?

  Ai Weiwei: Left or right, that’s a scholar’s business. As a citizen, there is only one position: Grass-Mud Horse.

  louy0427: Master Ai, I salute you and pay my respect here.  I want to ask what kind of strength sustains you on the current road? After all, your fame and influence can open any country’s door for you. Please tell us, when more and more elites emigrate to foreign countries because they are disappointed in the ruling powerful of this land, why have you chosen a road full of danger and unknowns? After all, you are facing a ruthless government which has a powerful propaganda apparatus and violent force! Thank you!

  Ai Weiwei: If I give up the country I am in, then I have lost my reason to choose any other country. If I denied my current road, there is no other road in front of me.

  li198558: Please Mr. Ai tell us why you investigate the names of students who died in the earthquake? Tell us the truth!

  Ai Weiwei: I don’t believe the parents of these kids did not name them.

  Ricebowl: Facing such a bastard society, is Teacher Ai ever depressed? How can you keep full of energy?

  Ai Weiwei: Mixing bastardness with depression you will for sure be full of energy, this is a secret recipe from our ancestors.

  runnakedisanotherkindofbeauty: Teacher Ai, if you had 10,000 soldiers, would you rebel?

  Ai Weiwei: I would command all of them to run naked.

  Openthemouth: Please let us know your thoughts. In the current situation, the government’s political propaganda and influence has reached every cell of society, and [the government] purposely weakens citizen education. How can we effectively raise the consciousness of citizens? Facing the powerful propaganda machine, how can we maximize the voices of dissent?

  Ai Weiwei: In the lengthy life time, you just need to express yourself simultaneously with others one time, and the world will be changed.

  maoxihua: For the group who demands democracy, equality and justice but makes up less then 5% of the population, what should these people do?

  Ai Weiwei: Reach 6% ASAP.

  » Read more
  • December 20, 2009 12:09 AM

• China Quake Dissident Jailed for 3 Years

  

  Huang Qi, an activist who investigated shoddy school construction after the 5.12 Sichuan earthquake in 2008, has been sentenced to three years in jail. From Washington Post:

  Chinese dissident Huang Qi was sentenced to three years’ jail on Monday on charges of illegally possessing state secrets, his wife said, decrying the verdict as revenge for his activism after last year’s huge earthquake.

  Huang was sentenced in a court in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province where the earthquake on May 12 last year killed at least 80,000 people, including children crushed in schools that collapsed.

  The verdict was another sign that China’s ruling Communist Party is in no mood to relax political controls following last week’s visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, who pressed the government on human rights.

  Huang, a veteran human rights campaigner, was detained in June last year after offering help to parents protesting that schools felled by the quake were made vulnerable by shoddy and corrupt building practices.

  » Read more
  • November 22, 2009 9:48 PM

• US House Backs China Quake Activists

  

  From AFP:

  The US House of Representatives on Saturday threw its support behind two Chinese activists put on trial after investigating whether shoddy construction led to children’s deaths in last year’s Sichuan earthquake.

  In a nearly unanimous vote, the House approved a resolution saying it “expresses its support” for activists Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren and calling on China to guarantee their rights to free speech and fair trials.

  Huang and Tan went on separate trials in August on respective charges of possessing state secrets and subversion, although human rights groups believe they were targeted due to their activism after the Sichuan earthquake.

  Huang, the founder of a human rights website, posted parents’ demands for an investigation and spent nearly 14 months in detention before going on trial. Tan, a writer, led calls for an independent probe into school construction.

  The resolution H.RES.877 is sponsored by Congressman Wu, David [OR-1] and cosponsored by 176 bipartisan members of Congress, including nine House committee chairmen. Title: Expressing support for Chinese human rights activists Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren for engaging in peaceful expression as they seek answers and justice for the parents whose children were killed in the Sichuan earthquake of May 12, 2008. One can find the full text of the resolution on the Library of Congress’s Thomas website.

  Here is the full text of Congressman Wu’s statement on the House floor follows:

  “Mr. Speaker, it is a tragedy when any child is killed. It is an abomination when the act of asking questions about one’s child’s death leads to harassment or persecution by one’s own government.

  “We all remember when a major earthquake struck Sichuan province, China, on May 12, 2008. It was the most devastating natural disaster to hit China in more than three decades.

  “That day, I was the first personally to present condolences to the Chinese people for their loss.

  “Particularly heartbreaking were the stories of the children who were killed as their school buildings collapsed around them, and the images of parents overwhelmed with grief. In the aftermath of the earthquake, these parents started questioning why school buildings collapsed at a much higher rate than other types of buildings. They allege that poor construction and corruption among local officials and builders contributed to the school building collapses.

  “These allegations have been stonewalled, or worse, resulted in the harassment of the complainants. Chinese courts have refused to hear lawsuits brought by the parents. Local officials have even kept some complaining parents in arbitrary detention.

  “As a parent myself, I find it a tragic failure of justice to have these grievances go unaddressed—especially if a society chooses to enforce a one child policy.

  “Two human rights activists from Sichuan’s capital city of Chengdu attempted to stand up for these grieving parents and give voice to their concerns.

  “Soon after the earthquake struck, Mr. Huang Qi posted articles on his website, the Tianwang Human Rights Center, about the parents’ demands for an investigation into the school building collapses.

  “Separately, in February of this year, Mr. Tan Zuoren issued a proposal on the Internet calling for volunteers to travel to Sichuan to compile lists of students killed in the quake, to document the parents’ treatment, and to conduct an investigation of the quality of school building construction. Mr. Tan’s report criticized officials for failing to follow through on commitments to fully investigate the role that inferior construction played in the school building collapses and for failure to deal with the parents’ demands.

  “For these actions, the local Chengdu municipal government charged both Mr. Huang and Mr. Tan with endangering national security. Mr. Huang was charged with illegally possessing state secrets and Mr. Tan was charged with inciting subversion of state power.

  “After months of being held in prison—Mr. Huang for over a year—both of these men were put on trial in August of this year. There are allegations that both trials were fraught with numerous substantive and procedural violations.

  “In the case of Mr. Tan, the parents of the earthquake victims said they were detained to prevent them from attending his trial. The court reportedly rejected requests from Mr. Tan’s lawyers to call three witnesses, including the noted architectural designer Ai Weiwei, who helped design the Beijing Olympics’ Bird’s Nest Stadium and who was also investigating student deaths in the Sichuan earthquake. According to Mr. Ai, police came to his hotel and used force to prevent him and 10 others from leaving the premises until after the trial ended.

  “Mr. Huang’s trial was allegedly fraught with similar violations, including the detention of a volunteer from the Tianwang Human Rights Center to prevent him from testifying on Mr. Huang’s behalf.

  “To date, judgments have not issued in either Mr. Huang’s or Mr. Tan’s trial. The trials have been suspended or held open. Both men continue to be held in prison.

  “Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to pass House Resolution 877 to express their support for Mr. Huang and Mr. Tan’s peaceful request for answers and justice on behalf of the parents whose children were killed in the Sichuan earthquake.

  “This bipartisan resolution, with 176 cosponsors, calls on the Chinese government to adhere to its own constitutional guarantees, its own criminal procedure laws, and its own recently issued National Human Rights Action Plan to ensure that Mr. Huang, Mr. Tan, and all Chinese citizens are accorded the right to free speech and the right to criticize and make suggestions to the government, as guaranteed by their own constitution.

  “Mr. Speaker, no one who suffers the loss of a child deserves abandonment by or punishment from his or her own government.

  “Let us pass this resolution today for the thousands of parents in Sichuan who remain without answers about the death of their son or daughter, and for the two men who have courageously spoken out on their behalf.”

  » Read more
  • November 12, 2009 4:38 PM

• China Urged to Cancel Quake Trials

  

  The New York Times reports on the prosecution of two men, Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren, who were detained while investigating the collapsed schools in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake:

  The trial of one man, Huang Qi, began Wednesday but adjourned without a verdict. Mr. Huang, a well-known blogger and civil rights campaigner, is accused of possessing state secrets, which carries a sentence of five years to life. The second defendant, Tan Zuoren, a writer and also a prominent rights advocate, faces a potential five-year sentence for subversion and is to go on trial Aug. 12. The charges are broad ones the Chinese government often uses to silence people who publicly challenge the government.

  “These trials are not about a reasonable application of the law, but about silencing government critics whose work has considerable public benefit and sympathy,” Sophie Richardson, the Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group based in New York, said in a written statement released Tuesday. “The government is likely seeking to squelch those who cause it embarrassment, but in the process it is undermining domestic and international confidence in its ability to cope in a transparent way with natural disasters.”

  » Read more
  • August 5, 2009 8:16 PM

• Trial Of Chinese Dissident Ends Without Ruling

  

  From AP:

  A state secrets trial of a Chinese dissident who criticized the government’s response to a massive earthquake last year ended Wednesday after half a day, with no immediate ruling, his wife said.

  About 50 supporters and relatives of Huang Qi tried to attend his trial in Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan but were barred from entering the court by police, said Zeng Li, Huang’s wife, in a phone interview. She said her husband’s health has been deteriorating in recent months while in detention.

  Huang, 45, long one of China’s most outspoken activists, ran a human rights Web site and wrote about parents who had lost their children when badly built schools collapsed in the May 2008 quake that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.

  » Read more
  • August 5, 2009 3:48 AM

• Chinese Dissident to Plead Not Guilty

  

  From AP:

  A Chinese dissident who criticized the government’s response to a massive earthquake last year that left almost 90,000 people dead or missing will plead not guilty in a state secrets trial that opens next week, his lawyer said Thursday.

  Mo Shaoping, who will represent the activist Huang Qi, said the trial, starting next Wednesday at a court in Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan, will be closed to the public.

  Huang is charged with illegally possessing state secrets, an ill-defined charge often used by Communist leaders to clamp down on dissent and imprison activists.

  “Huang Qi has denied the accusations to me,” Mo said in a phone interview. “We intend to plead not guilty, firstly because we don’t believe this is a case of state secrets and secondly because we don’t think he obtained any information illegally.”

  » Read more
  • July 30, 2009 7:12 PM

• Cui Weiping (崔卫平)： Self-initiated and Idealistic Thinking and Action

  

  On March 28, Chengdu-based environmentalist, writer and former editor of Literati magazine (文化人) magazine Tan Zuoren (谭作人) was detained on allegations of subversion of state power.

  Tan’s crime? The following is from a Reuters report:

  In town after town in Sichuan province, schools collapsed during the May 12, 2008 earthquake, in some cases as residential buildings around them stayed standing. Over 80,000 people were killed in the earthquake, but the government has never released the number of children who died.

  Tan Zuoren wrote a proposal this year, called “5.12 Student Archive”, to ask web users and people who lost their children in the quake to help set up a detailed database of the victims.

  He asked volunteers in the project to also compile any evidence of shoddy construction at the schools.

  On April 11, Cui Weiping (崔卫平), professor at the Beijing Film Academy, published a post on her Sina blog, entitled “Self-initiated and Idealistic Thinking and Action – dedicated to Mr. Tan Zuoren,” excerpts translated by CDT (thanks to Dimon Liu for the title translation) :

  » Read more
  • April 11, 2009 9:47 PM

• Chinese Rights Advocate Faces Charges

  

  From The New York Times:

  A human rights advocate who tried to help grieving parents push for an official investigation into a school that collapsed during last May’s earthquake was scheduled to be charged on Tuesday for “illegal possession of state secrets,” according to the man’s wife.

  The advocate, Huang Qi, runs an informal advocacy organization called the Tianwang Human Rights Center in the city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, in southwest China. Mr. Huang was detained on June 10 after posting an article on his center’s Web site, 64tianwang.com, relating the demands of five parents whose children had died in the collapse of Dongqi Middle School in the town of Hanwang. The parents wanted compensation, an investigation into the school’s construction, and the responsible parties to be held accountable if fault was found.

  Thousands of rooms in school buildings and dormitories collapsed across Sichuan and surrounding provinces during the May 12 earthquake. The government estimated shortly after the quake that as many as 10,000 children might have been killed in the school collapses. In many cases, school buildings collapsed while other buildings around them remained standing, raising questions about the possibility of shoddy construction.

  » Read more
  • February 2, 2009 3:34 AM

• Bloggers Take Stand Against Web Activist’s Arrest

  

  From Global Voices:

  Following his apprehension last month as he was pitching in with the earthquake relief in his native Sichuan province, web activist Huang Qi was this weekend formally arrested for “illegal possession of state secrets”.

  Volunteers at his well-known website 64Tianwang.com (English) have been actively posting all news coverage and details surrounding Huang’s case, but the campaign to have his charges dropped gained a lot more momentum when, following his formal arrest on Friday afternoon, three of China’s better-known social issue bloggers, all from Sichuan, Wang Yi, Ran Yunfei and Linghu Buchong*, joined up with two other intellectual-writers, Liao Yiwu and Li Yadong, to take the brave step of issuing a letter of protest. The letter has been posted not just on their ownblogs, but also on the more mainstream My1510, IndyMediaCN, among many others.

  » Read more
  • July 21, 2008 4:47 AM

• Group Says Chinese Internet Dissident Is Arrested

  

  From AP:

  A Chinese dissident who wrote politically sensitive articles including some criticizing the government’s handling of a devastating earthquake was formally arrested Friday on charges of allegedly possessing state secrets, a human rights group said.

  Prosecutors in the southwestern city of Chengdu approved the arrest and charges against Huang Qi, founder of the human rights Web site 64Tianwang, said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.

  The move comes as the government is tightening a clampdown on potentially embarrassing protests or complaints before the Beijing Olympics, which begin in less than a month.

  » Read more
  • July 18, 2008 8:34 AM

• China’s Silencing Season

  

  The Washington Post tells the story of activist Huang Qi who is currently in detention in Chengdu, possibly for his recent work investigating the collapse of shoddy schools in the Sichuan earthquake:

  Huang, 45, is among dozens of Chinese writers and lawyers who have been convicted, detained, placed under house arrest, tailed or otherwise harassed as part of China’s broad crackdown on dissent in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Beijing next month. At least 44 writers are in Chinese prisons in violation of their rights to free expression, more than at the beginning of the year, according to a report released Tuesday by the PEN American Center, an advocacy group.

  While much has been written about the political stakes involved, less well known is the personal toll that opposing the official Chinese government line these days can take. Huang’s friends are often harassed and sometimes detained; his wife, Zeng Li, has been forced to change apartments frequently after police pressed landlords to evict her; frequent beatings when he was in prison left Huang with brain injuries that now spark bouts of violent anger and other health problems. The stress eventually became too much for Zeng; she separated from Huang in 2006.

  A New York Times article has more details about Mr. Huang’s work in the earthquake zone:

  Mr. Huang knew the terrain of Sichuan well and did his best to help. He accepted interviews with the foreign press. He and his volunteers rented a truck and handed out bottled water, instant noodles and crackers to refugees. In June, he helped reporters from a British television channel contact parents whose children had been killed in schools destroyed by the earthquake. And he began acting as a clearinghouse of information for reporters.

  Mr. Huang kept in touch with the five fathers whose children had died at Dongqi Middle School. They joined a group of experts to investigate the wreckage for clues as to why the building crumbled. Mr. Huang posted a short article on his Web site saying that, according to the experts, the school was structurally unsafe.

  It was one of his last postings before his detention.

  » Read more
  • July 11, 2008 8:08 PM

• Prominent Chinese Internet Dissident Detained For Allegedly Possessing State Secrets

  

  From AP:

  A Chinese dissident who criticized authorities has been detained on charges of allegedly possessing state secrets, his mother and a human rights organization said Tuesday.

  Huang Qi, founder of the human rights Web site 64Tianwang, was detained in the southwestern city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, his 74-year-old mother Pu Wenqing said.

  “They didn’t say when he would be freed, first they have to do an investigation,” she said.

  Pu said she is unable to talk to Huang, and was informed by the police of the arrest on Monday. Possession of state secrets is an ill-defined term often used to clamp down on dissent.

  Read also Rights Activist Huang Qi Detained on Suspicion of Holding State Secrets from Human
  Rights in China.

  » Read more
  • June 17, 2008 6:56 AM

• Chinese Dissident Huang Qi Said Missing

  

  From AP:

  A Chinese dissident who posted essays on the Internet that criticized communist authorities has disappeared and may have been abducted by the security services, an advocacy group said Friday.

  Huang Qi, founder of the human rights Web site 64Tianwang, was forced to get into a car by three unknown men on Tuesday evening in the southwestern city of Chengdu, Reporters Without Borders said Friday.

  The Paris-based group said two other activists, whom it didn’t further identify, were abducted with Huang.

  The group, known by its French initials, RSF, said it believed Huang may have been taken away by police or agents of the State Security Ministry because of articles he has posted criticizing the government’s response to the May 12 earthquake that devastated a wide swathe of Sichuan province, of which Chengdu is the capital.

  Read also Human Rights in China Condemns the Detention of Huang Qi by Police in Chengdu by Human Rights in China.

  » Read more
  • June 14, 2008 8:11 PM

• One inch forward, one foot back – Megan Shank

  

  From the Global Journalist:

  Recently released Internet dissident Huang Qi emerged from a five-year incarceration to witness that the Chinese Web had also suffered. Huang, first detained in 2000, angered officials with his Web site, which tracked down people missing after the 1989 pro-democracy movement. From 2000 to 2005, the party enforced surveillance of Web sites, chat rooms and e-mail, and it implemented new real-name registration requirements for Web logs, Internet bulletin boards, instant messaging services and online video games. It remains to be seen whether the tenacity of people like Huang — who upon his release to house arrest this July told Radio Free Asia that he plans to resume his site — can overcome the growing obstacles set up and policed by the party and supported by organizations with economic interests. An old Chinese idiom best captures the march of Internet freedom: advance one inch, retreat one foot.

  » Read more
  • January 11, 2006 10:29 AM

• RFA: Freed Chinese Dissident Vows To Resume Tiananmen Web Site

  

  From Radio Free Asia:

  Chinese cyber-dissident Huang Qi, just freed after serving a five-year jail term for subversion, says he wants to resume his Web site dedicated to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

  “I will do my best to resume the Tianwang Web site,” Huang told RFA’s Mandarin service after his release from prison in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. “When it was first created it was for very few people. But I now realize that there are many like-minded people.”

  » Read more
  • June 8, 2005 9:25 AM

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