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China news tagged with: political prisoners (180)

• 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

• 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.

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  • February 4, 2010 1:17 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.

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  • February 2, 2010 9:07 PM

• Perry Link: What Beijing Fears Most

  

  On the New York Review of Books blog, Perry Link writes about the 11 year sentence handed down to Liu Xiaobo and the tenacity of the Charter 08 movement:

  Friends and supporters of Liu were generally startled at the length of the sentence. Fellow writer Li Jie, for example, wrote that “I expected [the authorities] might want to play down the issue—give Liu a one-year sentence, declare that he’d already served it [because he had already been held without trial for a year], let him go home, and move on. I really did not imagine that they would be as feeble-minded as this.” Among Charter 08’s supporters, there is little doubt where the eleven-year sentence originated; such a decision could be made only by the government’s most senior leaders. But no one has a good answer for why eleven seemed the right number. (The maximum under the law was fifteen years.) One theory that has spread on the Chinese Internet is that eleven years is 4,018 days, and Charter 08 contains 4,024 Chinese characters. So: one day for each character you wrote, Mr. Liu, and we’ll waive the last six.

  If the purpose of the harsh sentence was to intimidate others, it has not worked well. Hundreds of signers of Charter 08 have endorsed an additional statement declaring that if Liu Xiaobo is guilty then we are, too. Cui Weiping, a film scholar (and translator of Vaclav Havel into Chinese), spent the days following the announcement of Liu’s sentence conducting a telephone survey of more than 100 prominent Chinese intellectuals, including both signers and non-signers of Charter 08, on how they viewed the sentence. Finding almost unanimous disgust, she collected her findings under the heading “We Give Up on Nothing” and published them in a series of twitter feeds that circulated widely in China and abroad—even to my computer in California. Until now, the authorities have not been able to stop her.

  Cui quotes Zhang Sizhi, a senior lawyer, who wonders how the once “great, glorious, and correct Communist Party” could now be so “manipulative, petty, and selfish.” Wang Lixiong, a leading writer and advocate of peace with the Tibetans, said the best way to support Liu Xiaobo is to continue to work for his cause, until “society is changed and everyone in it is free.” Liang Xiaoyan, a well-known editor, said the sentence shows that while some things in China have changed radically in the last thirty years, other things “haven’t budged, and there is not the slightest impulse [at the top] to budge them.” The eminent historian Yu Ying-shih, reached at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, noted that this was the third time in twenty years that China’s rulers have sent Liu Xiaobo to political prison, and “each time has been more glorious than the last.”

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  • February 1, 2010 2:24 PM

• “Looking Back at Those Years”: Yang Zili’s Memory Tweets

  

  Siweiluozi’s blog has translated a series of tweets by writer Yang Zili, a founding member of the New Youth Study Group who spent eight years in prison on subversion charges. On Twitter, Yang has provided an account of his arrest, trial and his time in prison. From the third installment (Read also installments One and Two.):

  13.
  My interrogator asked me, “Why did you write this article?” “That’s the way I thought,” I answered. “Don’t I have freedom of thought and freedom of speech?” He answered: “As long as its in your mind, you have freedom of thought. As soon as you speak, it becomes action!” Looking at it this way, since the constitution says nothing about “freedom to breathe,” every breath I take must be illegal.

  14.
  After our first-instance trial opened in November 2001 we waited 1-1/2 years, then in came a woman from the court and her male assistant. “You’ve gained weight,” the woman said, laughing. “Have we met?” I asked, taken aback. “I’m the presiding judge in your trial,” she answered. All throughout, Judge [Bai Jun] was kind and considerate to us. Only after the sentence was handed down did I realize that even the most humane people in the criminal justice system were still machines.

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  • January 22, 2010 11:17 AM

• China Says Missing Lawyer ‘Is Where He Should Be’

  

  The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng deepened when a Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s response to a journalist’s inquiry only raised more questions. From AP:

  …At a regular press conference Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu indicated that Gao was in custody, after he was asked whether he knew where Gao was.

  “The relevant judicial authorities have decided this case, and we should say this person, according to Chinese law, is where he should be,” Ma said.

  He gave no details. A transcript of Thursday’s news conference posted on the ministry’s Web site did not include the question on Gao or Ma’s response.

  Beijing’s Public Security Bureau referred questions Friday to the Beijing High Court. The court’s press office referred questions to its foreign affairs office, but telephone calls went unanswered.

  » Read more
  • January 21, 2010 10:31 PM

• Chinese Democracy Leader Zhou Yongjun Jailed for Fraud

  

  Activist Zhou Yongjun has been sentenced to nine years in prison on fraud charges in relation to a case that took place in Hong Kong. From The Times:

  The arrest of Zhou Yongjun aroused widespread controversy in Hong Kong, whose police handed him to their counterparts in mainland China after he tried to enter the former British colony from the United States on a false Malaysian passport.

  A court in the southwestern city of Shehong has convicted Mr Zhou, 42, of attempted fraud for a transaction attempted in Hong Kong.

  One of his lawyers, Mo Shaoping, said his client had faced a minimum sentence of ten years given the large amounts of money involved but was given a lighter sentence because he never took possession of the money.

  Mr Mo told The Times: “In our view he should not have been put on trial in China for this so-called fraud since it involved a bank in Hong Kong and the whole case was alleged to have taken place in Hong Kong.”

  Mr Zhou has denied the charges and will appeal.

  Read more about Zhou Yongjun via CDT.

  » Read more
  • January 21, 2010 2:21 PM

• Tip Reveals Detained Lawyer Alive but Location Remains a Mystery

  

  The Sydney Morning Herald has more details about the case of rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, whose whereabouts remain a mystery a year after he was detained:

  Fears that Mr Gao had been killed for speaking out about his previous mistreatment were heightened by reports last week that a policeman had told his brother he had ”gone missing” on September 25.

  The comment was widely interpreted as a euphemism for his death. But a well-placed source in the security apparatus told the Herald: ”Gao is still alive at present … he’s not missing.”

  The source said his organisation knew where Mr Gao was staying but was not free to say. He gave no indication of Mr Gao’s situation, condition or prospects.

  The Herald has come across several cases where police have falsely told relatives that detainees had been killed, apparently as a form of emotional harassment.

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  • January 20, 2010 9:33 PM

• Brother: Police Say China Lawyer ‘Went Missing’

  

  The brother of activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been told by police that Gao is missing after he “lost his way” while in detention. Gao hasn’t been heard from for almost a year and is believed to be in police detention. From AP:

  His brother, Gao Zhiyi, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday that he recently traveled to Beijing to find the police officer who took his brother away last year.

  ”He told me that Gao Zhisheng lost his way and went missing” on Sept. 25, Gao Zhiyi said.

  He said his family had no other information. ”We still don’t know anything,” he said.

  Beijing’s Public Security Bureau asked that questions about Gao be faxed Thursday and then did not immediately respond. It has never responded to past questions about Gao’s disappearance.

  » Read more
  • January 14, 2010 9:55 PM

• Writers Rally for Jailed Chinese Dissident

  

  Several well-known writers, including Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow, Edward Albee and A.M. Holmes, gathered in the snow in New York to offer tribute to imprisoned writer Liu Xiaobo before delivering a petition to the Chinese representative at the U.N. calling for Liu’s release. From CBS News:

  The writers who assembled for the protest read the passages deemed subversive by the Chinese government, as well as poems Liu wrote during a three-year term in a labor camp in the late 1990s. They also read from the verdict against Liu.

  Among the sentences deemed subversive is Liu’s assertion that “since the Communist Party of China took power, generations of CPC dictators have cared most about their own power and least about human life.”

  As snow fell and a small crowd watched, writer Honor Moore, standing on the steps of the main branch of the New York Public Library, read a portion of the verdict against Liu.

  “He wrote the documents and used the Internet to publish them in order to slander and urge other people to overthrow our country’s democratic dictatorship and our socialist system,” the verdict said. “…The published documents have been spread through links and republishing. People read them and they have a bad effect. This is the crime of a major criminal and should be severely punished according to the law.”

  After reading one of Liu’s poems, Doctorow, the author of “Ragtime” and other books, criticized the Chinese government for its “sorry record of artist intimidation.”

  Read and listen to the introduction from K. Anthony Appiah. Watch a slideshow of the event from Flickr:
  

  » Read more
  • December 31, 2009 1:17 PM

• Video: Human Rights in Beijing Winter

  

  This video, set to the strains of Auld Lang Syne, pays tribute to political prisoners and human rights activists in China, and is being actively circulated among Chinese Twitterers.

  » Read more
  • December 30, 2009 11:43 PM

• Liu Xiaobo Sentenced to Eleven Years (Updated with Photos)

  

  Dissident Liu Xiaobo has been sentenced to 11 years on charges of subversion, AP reports:

  The sentencing of Liu Xiaobo comes despite international appeals for his release, which China sternly rejected as interference in its internal affairs.

  Liu was the co-author of an unusually direct appeal for political liberalization in China called Charter 08. He was detained just before it was released last December. More than 300 people, including some of China’s top intellectuals, signed it.

  The verdict was issued at the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing after a two-hour trial Wednesday where prosecutors accused Liu of ‘’serious” crimes.

  ”All I can tell you now is 11 years,” the defendant’s wife, Liu Xia, told The Associated Press. Diplomats said they were told by Liu’s lawyers that he had been deprived of his political rights for a further two years.

  See also a Reuters report and this news on the web, via

  The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department has issued an order to all Chinese search engines to block search results for the term “11 years.” But some netizens have just opened a Baidu forum under the keyword “11 years” here. Almost all comments are in support of Liu Xiaobo.

  
  
  

  On Chinese Google, “Liu Xiaobo” and “Case of Liu Xiaobo” are among top ten fastest rising search terms.

  

  Updates:  On Twitter, thousands of Twitterers put yellow ribbons on their profiles to show support for Liu Xiaobo. CDT translated a few tweets as examples:

  @aiww: The sentence is only on Liu Xiaobo, but the slap slams across every Chinese person’s face. Ai Weiwei

  这刑是加在晓波身上，可耳贴子是煽在每一个中国人的脸上。

  @leungmantao: I was going to stay away from blogs and micro-blogs, but I really can’t help it today.

  From now on, “Merry Christmas” is a coded greeting among Chinese, it means: Remember Liu Xiaobo.

  本想遠離微博和博客，但今天忍不住了。從此之後，「聖誕快樂」是中國人的一句暗語，它的意思是記住曉波。

  @cuiweiping: Thirty years ago, Wei Jingsheng was sentenced to 15 years. Thirty years later, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years.  We spent thirty years in exchange for  four years of progress.

  30年前魏京生判了15年，30年后刘晓波判了11年，我们用30年的时间，换来4年的进步。

  @ye_du: According to sister Gao Yu, Charter 08 has 4024 characters. 4024 divided by 11 comes to 365. So Xiaobo is jailed one day for each Chinese character of Charter 08.

  高瑜大姐刚刚和我说，她刚计算出：零八宪章4024个字，除以11正好等于365，为了宪章，晓波要一个字坐一天监狱。

  @zhangfacai: I have finished reading the indictment. I could not tell if it was indicting Xiaobo or f**king indicting themselves.

  看完审判书了，也他妈不知道是审判刘晓波还是审判他们自己。

  @mashaofang: He is already sentenced, so let me tell something true.  Last November, inside  Beijing Wansheng Bookstore, Xiaobo, Liu Xia [wife of Liu Xiaobo] and Professor He Weifang talked about Charter 08.  I said, the cost will be someone going to jail.  I do not want Xiaobo to go to jail again.  Xiaobo said, if the cost for peacefully signing onto a Charter is imprisonment, I will do this without hesitation.  His wife said: He is not afraid.  I support him firmly!

  人已被判，我就说个真事。去年11月，北京万圣书店内，晓波师，刘霞师母，还有卫方老师。当时说到宪章的事，我说，这可能会被抓的，我不想晓波师再坐牢，晓波师说，若是和平宪章签署都要坐牢，我就坚决去坐。师母说：他已无畏，我坚决支持！

  @my1989: I just received a response from the signature group of Charter 08: Thank you for your support. Greetings to the veteran of the Square. Fighting for tomorrow. I am also a veteran from the Square.

  收到宪章签名小组回执：谢谢支持。向老兵问候！为明天奋斗！ 签名整理小组 也是老兵

  

  

  » Read more
  • December 24, 2009 7:54 PM

• Jonathan Mirsky: Words on Trial in Beijing

  

  In the New York Times, Jonathan Mirksy writes about the arrest of Liu Xiaobo and freedom of expression in China:

  Beijing does not engage in arguments. It simply bullies to discourage others. Zhang Zhixin, a young Chinese woman, was executed in 1975 for “opposing the Great Helmsman Chairman Mao, opposing Mao Zedong thought, opposing the revolutionary proletarian line and piling offense upon offense.” To ensure that Ms. Zhang could not cry out at her execution, her vocal cords were cut.

  Mr. Liu’s indictment came on International Human Rights Day. But there’s nothing unique here. Recently, for example, a Chinese official explained why the government bans Wikipedia: “The strength of a small number of evil-doers will make Wikipedia into a platform spreading bad information and threatening state security and social stability.”

  On a nationwide scale, there is the constant official inspection of the Chinese Internet for taboo words like Tiananmen, Taiwan, Dalai Lama — and democracy. Use of such words can bring a knock on the door and arrest.

  » Read more
  • December 18, 2009 1:53 PM

• China Warns West from Taking up Dissident Case

  

  As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explained that the Obama administration is taking an approach of “principled pragmatism” in dealing with human rights issues in China and elsewhere, the Chinese government has rejected calls from the EU and the U.S. for the release of Liu Xiaobo. Watch Clinton’s remarks, via CNN:

  And from Reuters:

  The European Union urged China on Monday to release [Liu Xiaobo] unconditionally, while the United States pressed Beijing to respect the rights of all Chinese citizens who peacefully express their desire for “internationally recognized freedoms.

  But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said such calls amounted to interfering in the country’s judiciary.

  “These accusations are unacceptable. China is a country of rule of law. The fundamental rights of Chinese citizens are guaranteed by the law,” she told a regular news conference.

  “I want to stress that Chinese judicial bodies handle cases independently. Outsiders have no right to interfere. We oppose any external forces using this case to meddle in China’s internal affairs or judicial sovereignty.”

  Jiang’s comments underscored that her government is unlikely to heed international pressure growing Liu, who could face trial as soon as next week. Chinese courts come under Communist Party control and rarely reject prosecution accusations, especially in politically sensitive cases.

  » Read more
  • December 15, 2009 10:57 PM

• China Indicts Prominent Dissident

  

  The New York Times has more details on the indictment of activist Liu Xiaobo, co-author of Charter 08, on charges of subversion:

  The authorities disclosed the decision to prosecute Mr. Liu — a step that almost invariably ends in imprisonment — exactly one year and a day after the manifesto, Charter 08, was published. Other Charter 08 signers said in interviews that the government was using Mr. Liu’s case to send a strong message to Chinese intellectuals that it would not tolerate organized, independent efforts to foster democracy.

  “The government is trying to tell us to stop trying to push for human rights and democracy in China,” said Xu Youyu, a Charter 08 signer and a philosophy professor who recently retired from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Secondly, he has been the biggest threat inside of China, and they want to get rid of him.”

  Mr. Liu’s supporters had hoped that Chinese leaders would be persuaded to release Mr. Liu, who has been detained for more than a year, when President Obama visited China last month. During the visit, United States officials gave Chinese leaders a list of “cases of concern” that included Mr. Liu and 11 other political and religious activists who are imprisoned or facing charges, according to Nicholas Bequelin, an Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York.

  Mr. Xu said: “I think the message to the outside world is, it doesn’t really matter to the government how this case is viewed by the international community. It can do whatever it wants.”

  Read more about Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 from CDT.

  » Read more
  • December 11, 2009 9:58 PM

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