OXY MORAN: Chinese blogger jailed for telling the world how badly China violates human rights

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Chinese blogger jailed for telling the world how badly China violates human rights

Imagine living in a world where every word you write can become your death warrant. This is the world in which bloggers who live in the country slated to host this summer's Olympics operate.

As its already May 15 in China, the day designated by bloggers all over the world to blog about human rights, I'd like to bring to your attention the sad story of the courageous Hu Jia. If this courageous blogger were able to blog from his oppressive Chinese jail cell, he would doubtless tell us that his current imprisonment is just one of the many atrocities that the Chinese government are perpetrating on its citizens.

Hu Jia jailed for three and a half years

Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia has been convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” and sentenced to three and a half years inprison.

After months under house arrest, Hu Jia was detained on 27 December 2007. He was formally charged on 28 January 2008 and went on trial on18 March at the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court.

"This verdict is punishment for Hu Jia’s public critiques of human rights violations in China and a warning to any other activists in China who dare to raise human rights concerns publicly,” said Amnesty International.

“It also makes a mockery of promises made by Chinese officials that human rights would improve in the run-up to the Olympics.”

Prior to his formal detention, Hu Jia had publicly expressed concerns over human rights abuses by police in Beijing, including the arrest of activists without the necessary legal procedures. This included the case of land rights activist Yang Chunlin and human rights defender Lu Gengsong, both also detained on subversion charges.

While detained, Hu has been subjected to 47 lengthy and repeated interrogations. He was denied access to his lawyer, members of his family and medical treatment, including necessary daily medication for liver disease resulting from a Hepatitis B infection. His wife, Zeng Jinyan, is still under house arrest with their newborn baby.

Amnesty International considers Hu Jia a prisoner of conscience and has demanded his immediate and unconditional release. The organization urges the International Olympic Committee and world leaders with a stake in the Olympics to publicly express their concern about his plight - and that of numerous other peaceful activists in China who have been silenced in the run-up to the Games. A failure to speak out would be a "conspiracy of silence" that will be perceived by the authorities as a tacit endorsement of such repression.

Hu started his activism as an AIDS activist in 2001. He is the co-founder of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health Education and of Loving Source, a grassroots organization dedicated to helping children from AIDS families.

Due to his activities and outspokenness, Hu Jia was repeatedly harassed and beaten by police. According to his wife Zeng Jinyan: “Not counting one time in 2002, when Hu was detained by police while interviewing AIDS village inhabitants, he will have been under various forms of imprisonment for exactly four years on 3 April 2008.”

Hu’s focus broadened and he began reporting on wider human rights violations and giving interviews to foreign media. In November 2007, he participated via webcam in a European Union parliamentary hearing in Brussels in which he stated that China had failed to fulfill its promises to improve human rights in the run-up to the Olympics.

In an article on his blog dated 10 September 2007, Hu Jia says: "Everyone should know that the country that is about to host the Olympics is one without democratic elections, freedom of religion, independent courts or independent unions. It prohibits protests and labor strikes. It is a state that carries out widespread torture, discrimination, and employs a large secret police system. It is a nation that violates human rights standards and human dignity, and is not ready to fulfil its international obligations."

In a joint press conference with UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband in Beijing on 28 February 2008, China's foreign minister Yang Jiechi said: "No one will get arrested because he said that human rights are more important than the Olympics. This is impossible."

Amnesty International believes this verdict makes a mockery of the notion that Chinese citizens are free to hold opinions and to speak their mind without retribution from the authorities, and serves as a warning to other activists in China who might dare raise human rights concerns publicly.

Source Amnesty International

So who is Hua Jia?

Heres his biography from Wiki

Hu Jia (Chinese: 胡佳; pinyin: Hú Jiā; original name 胡嘉; born July 25, 1973 in Beijing) is an activist and dissident in the People's Republic of China. His work has focused on the Chinese democracy movement, Chinese environmentalist movement, and HIV/AIDS in China. In addition to being an auxiliary member of the team to save the endangered Tibetan antelope, Hu Jia was bestowed honorary citizenship by the Paris City Council in April, 2008[1] , he is the director of June Fourth Heritage & Culture Association, he has been involved with AIDS advocacy as the executive director of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health Education and as one of the founders of the non-governmental organization Loving Source.

On December 27, 2007, Hu Jia was detained as part of crackdown on dissent during the Christmas holiday season. Reporters Without Borders said that “The political police have taken advantage of the international community’s focus on Pakistan to arrest one of the foremost representatives of the peaceful struggle for free expression in China.” The decision to take him into custody was made after peasant leaders in several Chinese provinces issued a manifesto demanding broader land rights for peasants whose property had been confiscated for development. [2]He was given 3 1/2 years in jail April 3, 2008. Hu pleaded not guilty on charges of "inciting subversion of state power" at his trial in March 2008.[3]

Biography

Hu Jia's parents were students at Tsinghua University in Beijing and Nankai University in Tianjin in 1957 when they were labeled as rightists during the Anti-Rightist Movement under Mao Zedong. They were assigned to work in remote provinces of Hebei, Gansu, and Hunan. His parents often had to live apart until 1978, when Deng Xiaoping came to power and political label held against them was dropped.

In 1996 Hu Jia graduated from the Beijing School of Economics (now Capital University of Economics and Trade, 首都经贸大学), where he majored in information engineering.

Activism

Hu Jia became interested in environmental issues while in university and participated in several environmental organizations including the Friends of Nature, led by Liang Congjie[4][5] and the 1997 Green Camp[6] university student environmental camp led by Tang Xiyang [7].In 1998 Hu Jia was involved in rescuing some wild elk that were threatened by severe flooding that year. Hu was subsequently involved in efforts to protect the Tibetan Antelope that were being slaughtered for their fur.

In July 2000, the writer Wang Lixiong introduced Hu Jia to AIDS activist Wan Yanhai. Afterwards Hu Jia became involved in AIDS prevention work and took an active part in the AIZHIBING Institute of Health Education AIDS, which Wan Yanhai had founded. As one of the founders of the AIDS NGO Loving Source, Hu Jia has been involved in helping people suffering from AIDS and AIDS orphans in Henan province. He has criticized the government over its treatment of people with AIDS.

Hu Jia has also been involved in campaigns to release political prisoners, including the Wan Yanhai in August–September 2002, the cyber-dissident Liu Di ("The Stainless Steel Rat"). He also has been involved in anti-Japanese demonstrations.

Hu Jia insists on his rights as a citizen of the People's Republic in China. When police detain him (often for planned activities and sometimes to ensure that he is not active at sensitive times such as June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989) Hu demands that the police state what provision of Chinese law he is being held under. Hu says that the security officers are generally unable to do so.

On February 16, 2006, Hu Jia was detained for 41 days. His detention was not acknowledged by the Chinese government. After his return to his apartment in Beijing, where he lives with his wife Zeng Jinyan (also an AIDS activist), Hu Jia was kept under house arrest until March 2007. Two months later, on May 18, 2007, Hu Jia and his wife were placed under house arrest again on charges of "harming state security."[8] Hu Jia has remained active via emails and blogs while under house arrests.

According to Amnesty International, Hu Jia has resigned from Loving Source to prevent the authorities from harassing the group.

Using a Web camera, Mr. Hu participated in a European parliamentary hearing in Brussels in November 2007 about human rights in China. At the hearing he said: “It is ironic that one of the people in charge of organizing the Olympic Games is the head of the Bureau of Public Security, which is responsible for so many human rights violations. It is very serious that the official promises are not being kept before the games.”[1].

On December 30, 2007, Hu Jia was arrested at his home in Beijing by the Chinese police for "subverting state authority" [9] [10]. His trial began in March 2008 on charges of "inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system", stemming from interviews he gave to the foreign media and political articles he wrote and published on the internet. The crime carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.[11] On 3 April 2008, Hu was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.[12]

Awards and Honors

Honorary citizenship in Paris, voted April 21, 2008, the same day as to the 14th Dalai Lama.[13]

References

1. ^ Paris makes Dalai Lama, Chinese dissident honorary citizens
2. ^ New York Times: "China Detains Dissident, Citing Subversion", December 30, 2007
3. ^ CNN: "Chinese civil rights activist sentenced for subversion", April 3, 2008
4. ^ Chinese Environmentalist Liang Congjie On NGO Life
5. ^ The Soul of China's Environmental NGOs a China.org article
6. ^ "Tang Xiyang Writes About 1996 Green Camp and the Loss of His Wife"
7. ^ A Section Censored from Tang Xiyang's Environmental Book "A Green World Tour"
8. ^ "Activist Couple Accused of Endangering State Security," Human Rights Watch, May 21, 2007
9. ^ China Detains Dissident, Citing Subversion - New York Times
10. ^ Outrage at human rights activist Hu Jia’s arrest in Beijing | Human Rights Tribune - www.humanrights-geneva.info
11. ^ "Trial of Chinese activist begins", BBC News, 18 March 2008.
12. ^ Al Jazeera 2008, 'China jails vocal civil activist', Al Jazeera News, 3 April. Retrieved on 3 April 2008.
13. ^ Paris makes Dalai Lama, Chinese dissident honorary citizens

Hu Jia's story and other similar violations of human rights will be featured in many blogs through out the world as on May 15 Bloggers all over the world unite to highlight human right atrocities.
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