MCLC: Tie Liu, 81, formally charged

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Tie Liu, 81, formally charged
Source: NYT (10/23/14): http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/world/asia/beijing-charges-writer-tie-liu.html
Beijing Formally Charges Writer Who Published Memoirs of Victims of Mao Era
By CHRIS BUCKLEY
HONG KONG — The police in Beijing have formally charged an 81-year-old writer, Tie Liu, for privately publishing the testimony of aged or dead victims of Mao Zedong’s wrath and for writing scathing essays about Mao and present-day Communist Party leaders, Mr. Tie’s wife and his lawyer said on Thursday.
Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has pursued an intense campaign against political dissent, which has led to the imprisonment of dozens of activists. But Huang Zerong, known among friends and family by his pen name, Tie Liu, appears to be the oldest activist to be charged in Mr. Xi’s campaign. He has been held in a detention centersince last month, and the formal charges will allow the police to hold him longer while they build a case.
“I had expected bad news,” Mr. Tie’s wife, Ren Hengfang, said in a telephone interview from Beijing. “But this still seems a bit abnormal.”
Ms. Ren said the police visited her on Thursday to tell her that Mr. Tie had been formally arrested on two crimes: illegal business activities and “creating a disturbance.” She and his lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, said questions the police had directed at her, Mr. Tie and others showed that the first charge was based on his work publishing the memoirs of people who, like him, were purged as “rightist” enemies of the party from 1957 on, after Mao had invited criticism, and then, stung by the depth of discontent, turned on his critics.
For years, Mr. Tie has published those memoirs, often handwritten accounts of the years the rightists endured in labor camps as political pariahs, in compilations printed in the hundreds and shared among survivors and scholars. Chinese authorities heavily censor accounts of the past, and the memoirs could never have been published officially. But for years, the police ignored Mr. Tie’s home publishing, even leafing through copies when officers made one of their regular visits, Ms. Ren said. (Like other politically outspoken citizens, Mr. Tie was under watch by the police.)
“This was for their own private use,” said Ms. Ren, referring to the recipients of the memoirs, printed cheaply with plain covers. “It wasn’t to make a profit, so the illegal-business crime doesn’t make sense. He lost money from it.”
The other charge, creating a disturbance, was prompted by essays that Mr. Tie had published on the Internet and in Chinese publications abroad criticizing Mao and other party leaders, said Ms. Ren and Mr. Liu. Mr. Liu said that when he recently visited Mr. Tie in the detention center, Mr. Tie confirmed, citing police comments in interrogations, that the accusation was based on more than a dozen of his essays.
One party leader spared criticism by Mr. Tie was Mr. Xi, the current president, who, Mr. Tie argued, could use his daunting power to take Chinain a more liberal direction. Mr. Tie’s detention last month was prompted by an essay he wrote claiming that Liu Yunshan, Mr. Xi’s subordinate in charge of ideology and propaganda, was undermining Mr. Xi’s purported liberal tendencies, the lawyer said.
On Thursday, Mr. Xi and other party leaders finished a four-day meetingthat promised citizens a fairer and more accountable legal system, but also stressed that the party would maintain control of courts and prosecutors.
Mr. Tie faces up to seven years in prison if convicted on the disturbance charge, his lawyer said. The potential penalty for the illegal-business charge depends on the volumes of publishing and earnings calculated by the court, he added. Mr. Liu said he hoped to gain his client’s release on bail, in view of his age and poor health, including high blood pressure.
by denton.2 at osu.edu on October 27, 2014
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