MCLC: when words are crimes

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: rowena he (rowenahe at gmail.com)
Subject: when words are crimes
***********************************************************

Source: BBC (1/19/22): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16629278

When words are crimes in China

In under a month, three men have been convicted and jailed for between
nine and 10 years each.

Their crime? Writing articles that criticise China's political system and
the Communist Party that sits at the apex of power. One more writer awaits
trial.

So who are the targets? What's so dangerous about them? And why is this
happening?

Li Tie is the latest to be jailed. The 52-year-old was sentenced to 10
years in prison on Wednesday by a court in Wuhan.

He was found guilty of the extremely serious crime of "subversion of state
power", essentially the act of undermining the Communist Party and its
right to rule.

Although "subversion" would usually imply actions that endanger the state,
the basis of his conviction, according to his family, was not what he did,
but what he wrote and said.

'Anti-government thoughts'The campaign group Chinese Human Rights
Defenders (CHRD) said Li Tie's relatives reported that the evidence
presented against him at his trial included articles he wrote criticising
the government - some published overseas - contributions he made to online
discussions, and comments he made at gatherings of friends.

CHRD said that, according to Mr Li's family, the prosecutors claimed his
words demonstrated "anti-government thoughts" and it should be presumed he
would take part in "anti-government actions".

One of the articles cited at the trial was titled Human Paradise Is Where
Humans Have Dignity, written by Li Tie in March 2008 and published online.

In it, he makes a clear reference to the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989, still
a taboo subject that many writers don't dare address openly. That is one
reason why he may have been seen as worthy of such harsh punishment.

"Nineteen years ago, gunshots. Many young people's lives were taken; they
were for democracy, against corruption. Until today, the exact number of
casualties has yet to be released.

"Listen, those gunshots still ring out in our ears. Everyone who heard
them, are you awake? Stand straight, fellow compatriots, don't fall down,"
he wrote.

In the same article, Li Tie compares today's Communist Party rule with an
earlier period of Chinese history, widely regarded as a time of cruelty
and repression.

"Speeches are restricted, the internet is blocked, websites can be shut
down, sensitive words deleted. This makes one wonder whether we have gone
back in time to the West Zhou dynasty.

"The Zhou Li emperor was corrupt, monopolised all resources. Ordinary
people were forbidden from cutting wood and hunting; people's speech was
monitored."

And he goes on: "In 841 BC, revolutions erupted. Ordinary people and
slaves took up weapons and assaulted the royal court. The Zhou emperor was
chased away and a republic was established. But has China's Zhou emperor
been chased away? Chinese people don't dare to say; can they only stare
angrily?"

Chinese artists often talks about past dynasties when they want to address
sensitive issues today. Few draw the comparisons so bluntly. But writers
more often face charges of "incitement to subversion" rather than of
'subversion' itself.

Li Tie's supporters say he has spent the past decade writing articles
calling for democracy, constitutional government and direct local
elections in China. So why, you might ask, has he been targeted now?

Nobel prize

Lie Tie was actually detained in September 2010. He was not tried until
April 2011. The verdict has just been delivered, almost a year later - a
violation of China's legal procedures, according to CHRD.

But his arrest came at a time when China was beginning its current
crackdown on internal critics.

The veteran dissident Liu Xiaobo had already been detained for writing
Charter '08, a call for constitutional democracy in China, and given an
11-year sentence for "inciting subversion".

When Liu Xiaobo was then awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for what the Nobel
Committee called his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human
rights in China", China's leaders viewed it as a hostile act, a
Western-sponsored attempt to undermine the Chinese state.

Ever since, writers, lawyers, artists and activists have been under
growing pressure. Many have found themselves detained or jailed.

In Human Paradise Is Where Humans Have Dignity, Li Tie was openly critical
of the Communist Party, writing that: "China's revolutionaries have again
established a new system of enslavement. This is sad for my country and
people. History is repeating itself."

And he talks of the need for free speech: "In China's history, so many
people have been sent to prison for what they said and wrote. Freedom of
speech is what people cry for from their hearts. It is people's dignity
and right."

Leaders 'fearful'

Since he wrote that, the crackdown in China has escalated.

The US ambassador to China, Gary Locke, told a TV interviewer this week
that "the human rights climate in China has always ebbed and flowed... but
we seem to be in a down period and it's getting worse."

Mr Locke said it was clear China's leaders were unnerved by calls on the
internet last year for Chinese people to stage their own Arab-style
"jasmine revolution", despite the fact that few people heeded the calls.

"The Chinese leaders are very fearful of something similar happening
within China. So there's been a significant crackdown on dissent,
political discussion, even the rights and the activities of lawyers who
advocate on behalf of people who have been poisoned from tainted food and
medicines."China's government says there is no crackdown. A foreign
ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said this week that the ambassador's
comments were "inconsistent with the facts".

"As to some people who have been punished by law," said Mr Liu, "it is not
because China is repressing freedom of expression or freedom of religion,
it is because they reached the bottom line of China's law and violated
China's laws and, naturally, they should be punished.

"This has nothing to do with so-called human rights," he said.

In the last month, two more long-time activists have also received
extended jail terms for publishing articles on the internet.

Chen Wei, a veteran democracy activist, was sentenced to nine years for
"inciting subversion" on 23 December. He, too, had written critically of
the Communist Party.

"We think autocratic rulers are simple and stupid," he wrote.

"But their objectives are clear. To gain the maximum benefit by whatever
means necessary. They rely on violence and lies, but without the
co-operation and submission of the people, their rule won't last for long."

And he defended Liu Xiaobo. "Liu Xiaobo's award of the Nobel Peace Prize
is an acknowledgement from the international society of all the efforts
made by Chinese dissidents, as well as criticism of the Chinese
government's detention of the dissidents.

"Liu represented the only correct path for Chinese dissidents. The reform
of the Chinese society needs more responsible, wise leaders like Liu."

Chen Xi was given a 10-year jail sentence on 26 December. A former factory
worker, he had already been jailed twice since 1989 when he supported the
Tiananmen demonstrations.

He too had criticised China's political system, writing: "Socialist
countries put the nation and the collective interest above individuals.
Personal dignity has been peeled clean by the nation. In reality,
socialism is the extreme minorities ruling autocratically over the
majority."

And he attacked the Communist Party. "The Communist Party is inferior
because it has no culture to admit it makes mistakes. Without admitting
making mistakes, there is no mechanism of checks and balances to prevent
wrongdoings. The fascism of Communism is always believing itself to be
correct."

Insecurities?

Now Zhu Yufu, a 58-year-old veteran human rights activist, has also been
charged with attempting to subvert the state and awaits trial, according
to his lawyer. Mr Zhu has been jailed twice before.

The charges are also reported to relate to a poem he wrote last year at
the time of the Arab Spring and published online. The poem makes reference
to the Tiananmen massacre, calling on people to defend their rights:

"It's time
It's time, Chinese people.
The square belongs to everyone
The feet are yours
It's time to use your feet to go to the square and make a choice."

Viewed from outside, China seems to many an increasingly powerful and
confident nation.

Inside China, that is hard to square with the way it treat writers and
activists who question the orthodoxies of Communist power. Instead,
China's crackdown seems to speak of deep-seated insecurities.

Words, it seems, can be dangerous in China, particularly to those who
write them.

And as the country prepares to change its top Communist leaders later this
year, few expect any let-up in the pressure on its writers.

Being a writer, artist, dissident or critical thinker in China today is an
increasingly hazardous occupation.