MCLC: Christmas crackdown

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: martin winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com>
Subject: Christmas crackdown
***********************************************************

In addition to the Time article below, there are several similar articles
in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-isnt-the-west-reacting-to-chin=a
s-crackdown/2011/12/25/gIQAgFI2KP_story.html

And the South China Morning Post:

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a=
0a0a0/?vgnextoid=3Dbcb2e76d3da74310VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=3DChina&
amp;s=3D=News


Martin

============================================================

Source: Time (12/26/11):
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/12/26/in-china-a-christmas-crackdow=
n-on-dissent

Human rights
In China, a Christmas Crackdown on Dissent
By Austin Ramzy

Christmas means different things around the world, but in China one of the
things it¹s come to stand for crackdown. In recent years Chinese courts
have chosen the holiday season as the time to hand down the harshest
sentences to political dissenters, possibly in the belief that their
rulings will received the least attention abroad. On Dec. 26 a court in
the southwestern city of Guiyang sentenced longtime dissident Chen Xi to
10 years in prison for ³inciting subversion of state power,² Reuters
reported 
<http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111226/wl_nm/us_china_dissident_trial>.

Chen was active in the 1989 protest movement, organizing a pro-democracy
group in Guiyang and later serving 13 years in prison after the government
crushed the Tiananmen demonstrations. Chen Xi, who is also known as Chen
Youcai, was arrested on Nov. 29, a week before the Guizhou Human Rights
Forum, a group to which he belonged, was declared illegal, according to
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/CHRDnet/222910954409129> Chinese Human
Rights Defenders, an activist group.

 
Chen¹s wife, Zhang Qunxuan, told Reuters he was convicted over the content
of 36 essays that he had published on overseas websites that were critical
of China¹s ruling Communist Party. ³To subvert you ­ can he do that?²
Zhang said, according to Reuters. ³Does he have any army? Does he have a
police force? Does he have courts? With a piece of paper and a pen, can he
subvert you? Are you so fragile?² His conviction came just three days
after a court in Sichuan province sentenced another veteran activist, Chen
Wei, to nine years in prison, also on a charge of inciting subversion.

Chen Wei is not related to Chen Xi, but he has a similar story, becoming
politically active in 1989 and spending six years in prison afterwards.
The evidence cited against Chen Wei was also essays published online, with
title such as  ³The Disease of the System and the Medicine of
Constitutional Democracy² and ³The Key to China¹s Democratization is the
Growth of a Civil Opposition,² CHRD reported
<http://chrdnet.com/2011/12/23/veteran-democracy-activist-chen-wei-gets-9-y
ears-for-speech-crime/>. One of his lawyers, Liang Xiaojun, denounced the
conviction in an interview with the rights group. ³The verdict was
predetermined, the trial was unlawful,² Liang told CHRD. ³I¹m speechless,
I really have no words to describe it.²

Chen Wei was detained on Feb. 20, part of a broad crackdown on dissent
<http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/03/29/chinas-jasmine-revolution-crac
kdown-shows-no-sign-of-easing/> that was launched in response to
annonymous online calls for a Tunisian-style ³jasmine revolution² in
China. The calls lead to no significant protests in China, but they
touched off a huge security response
<http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2052860,00.html> and dozens
of arrests. The most prominent was Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei
<http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102133
_2102331,00.html>, who was held for 81 days the spring and summer and
later charged with income tax violations.

This Christmas marks the second anniversary of the sentencing of longtime
activist Liu Xiaobo, who was given an 11-year prison term for subversion
for his role in writing Charter 08, a pro-democracy manifesto, and other
essays distributed online. If the purpose of his holiday conviction was to
prevent widespread publicity of his case, it ultimately failed. One year
later he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.