Hujia&jinyan’s spirit

Beijing Should Release Hu Jia and Drop Charges of Subversion(New York, February 26, 200 - The Chinese authorities should release leading human rights activist Hu Jia and drop charges of subversion against him, Human Rights Watch said today. The case of Hu Jia, who will as of February 27 have been detained for two months, has become emblematic of Beijing’s broad attempt to suppress dissent ahead of the Olympic Games.

“The longer Hu Jia is in detention, the worse China’s image will be,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “With fewer than six months to go before the Olympics, the Chinese government has everything to gain and nothing to lose by releasing him.”

Human Rights Watch is concerned that Hu is being prosecuted simply for exercising his rights to freedom of opinion and expression as guaranteed by the Chinese constitution and international human rights law. The crime of “incitement to subvert state power” as defined under Chinese law criminalizes criticism of the government and the Communist Party of China in violation of human rights law. [continues...]

From TIME China Blog

Human Rights watch in New York have issued a call for Beijing to release activist Hu Jia, whose case we have followed closely. “The case of Hu Jia, who will as of February 27 have been detained for two months, has become emblematic of Beijing’s broad attempt to suppress dissent ahead of the Olympic Games,” the organization wrote.
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From THE AGE (AU)

With less than 200 days to go until the Olympics, China is preparing to dazzle the world with the most glittering spectacle ever seen.

This is the biggest “coming out” party of all. Now Beijing anxiously waits to see if its giant sporting gamble will reap the geo-political laurels it seeks.

Fifteen years after its failure to win the 2000 Games, which went to Sydney largely because of concerns over China’s human rights record, the planet’s most populous nation has transformed itself, overtaking Britain to become the world’s fourth largest economy after the US, Japan and Germany.

China has embarked upon a buying spree to secure energy and resources on every continent, including Aus tralia, unrivalled in scope since the US became the world’s dominant power.

… After losing the bid for the 2000 Games in 1993, China reluctantly changed tack in its campaign for the 2008 Olympic Games and pledged that the Olympics would improve human rights in China.

Now, with less than six months to go before the Games, a slew of detentions have cast doubt on that claim.

Last week, the trial began of a land rights activist, Yang Chunlin, accused of staining China’s inter national image because he has opposed the Olympics. [continues...]

RSF China 26 February 2008

Government urged to heed appeals for release of Hu Jia, who begins third month in detention

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for the release of human rights activist Hu Jia, who will tomorrow begin his third month of detention by the Beijing public security bureau on a charge of inciting subversion of state authority, while his wife, Zeng Jinyan, and their baby girl, now three and a half months old, continue to be closely watched by the political police.

“Hu Jia’s arrest and indictment just a few months before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games was a blatant provocation that prompted a series of protests in China and abroad”, the press freedom organisation said.

“The Beijing authorities continue for the time being to turn a deaf ear to the calls for his release, but we hope the government will be forced to intercede on his behalf, as it already did for Ching Cheong and Yu Huafeng”, Reporters Without Borders added. “The release of all journalists and cyber-dissidents before the start of the Games is one of our demands”.

More than one thousand Internet users have already signed the petition for Hu’s release on the Reporters Without Borders website: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25197 [continues...]

Reporters without borders - Article

After imprisoned human rights activist Hu Jia was formally charged on 29 January, police stepped up surveillance of the home he shares with his wife in a Beijing apartment building. The police took over an apartment (No. 552) near the couple’s apartment (No. 542) and three security cameras were installed in the grounds of the complex. Between four and eight policemen continue to be stationed permanently at the entrance to the building.

Hu received a visit from his lawyer Li Jinsong in prison on 4 February. The lawyer said Hu showed no sign of being mistreated. His three cell-mates are non-political detainees.

Hu’s parents and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, were able to visit him on 10 February, but Zeng was not allowed to take their baby daughter. Several prison guards monitored the meeting. Zeng said Jia appeared “tired and stressed.” The prison has given him the medicine he needs.

Zeng has received permission to leave the apartment three times in the past two weeks. On two of these occasions, she took the baby to see a doctor. Each time she went out, neighbours said they saw policemen enter the apartment.

On 11 February, Zeng recovered several items previously confiscated by the police, including her mobile phone.

Telegraph -By David Eimer in BeijingChina has been accused of committing new human rights abuses ahead of this August’s Beijing Olympics, while spending vast amounts on hi-tech surveillance and security systems. The crackdown is making a mockery of China’s promise to the International Olympic Committee in 2001 that it would improve its dismal human rights record and allow greater media freedom if it were allowed to host the Games.

“The human rights situation in China has worsened over the past six months,” said Sharon Hom, the executive director of the US-based organisation Human Rights in China. “We’re seeing increased restrictions on freedom of expression and the detention and harassment of human rights activists.”[continues...]

Reporters without Borders have published their China 2008 Annual Report. 

An icy blast blew on press freedom in China ahead of the 17th Communist Party Congress in Beijing in October. Journalists were forced to put out official propaganda, while cyber-censors stalked the Net. Despite the introduction of more favourable rules in January, nearly 180 foreign press correspondents were arrested or harassed in 2007.

Reporters Without Borders representatives met for the first time Chinese officials in Beijing at the start of the year, including the deputy information minister. The authorities said they were ready to reconsider the cases of journalists and Internet-users currently in prison, including Zhao Yan, who worked for the New York Times and was sentenced to three years in prison on the basis of false accusations. But they did not keep their promises. Zhao Yan was released in September having served his full sentence. And all the other promises came to nothing. At the end of the year, the authorities refused to grant visas to five representatives of Reporters Without Borders who wanted to travel to Beijing.

The assurance given by a Chinese official in 2001 that, “We will guarantee total press freedom”, when Beijing was lobbying for the 2008 Olympics, was never kept. It was a year of disillusionment in 2007. Many observers had expected more tolerance to be shown to the press along with greater freedom of expression, as the authorities had pledged. But the government and in particular the political police and the propaganda department did everything possible to prevent the liberal press, Internet-users and dissidents from expressing themselves. Foreign correspondents experienced great difficulties in working despite new rules giving them greater freedom of movement until October 2008. [continues...]

From Mail&Guardian

The Olympic Games have their anthem, their rings, their heroes and their sponsors. And now, with the Beijing 2008 Games, they have their prisoners.

The Chinese government is not just building fine stadiums, it is also arresting those who dare to condemn the countless human rights violations taking place in China. The political police are getting ready for the Olympics in their own way, bringing charges of subversion against those who remind people of the promises the government made in 2001 to improve respect for basic freedoms. And so it was that a few days before New Year’s Eve, 30 police officers arrested leading human rights activist Hu Jia at his Beijing home.[continues...]

From AOL

BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Kyodo) - One of China’s most prominent civil rights activists — who has been under close house arrest since late December — said Thursday the restrictions on her movements have eased slightly, but she is still a prisoner in her own home.

Zeng Jinyan told Kyodo News she has been able to visit her husband at a detention center — fellow rights activist Hu Jia who was arrested at the same time on charges of inciting subversion — and she is now allowed to make phone calls on her mobile phone.

But she said it is still difficult for her to go out and she is barred from using the Internet. [continues...]

From USNews

BEIJING—Qianci may well be the youngest political prisoner in the world. The 3-month-old girl and her 24-year-old mother are surrounded 24 hours a day, seven days a week by some two dozen members of China’s state security apparatus. Since December 27, they have not been permitted to leave their small apartment in eastern Beijing, and visitors are brusquely turned away by the plainclothes police who guard the building. Connections to the outside world—mobile phones and the Internet—have been cut off. The young mother and daughter hardly seem like a threat to the state. Their offense? Qianci and Zeng Jinyan are daughter and wife of Hu Jia, a leading activist on behalf of dissidents, human-rights lawyers, and abused farmers. [continues...]