The Case of Liu Xiaobo
On the eve of December 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, over 300 Chinese citizens signed and posted online a document titled “Charter 08,” calling for political reform and greater protection of human rights in China. Signers included leading intellectuals, lawyers, Chinese abroad, writers, farmers, and workers. Over the past months, many hundreds more people in China have signed.
Liu Xiaobo was formally arrested on June 23, 2009, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” Charter 08 contains 19 recommendations, including, among other things, a call for guarantees of human rights and respect for human dignity, direct elections of legislative bodies and administration officials, an independent judiciary, separation of powers, and the guarantee of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly.
The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court conducted the trial of prominent intellectual Liu Xiaobo on December 23, 2009 and was sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights on December 25, 2009. The indictment also cites six essays written by Liu from 2005 onward that were posted on overseas Web sites including “Guancha” (Observerchina.net) and the British Broadcasting Corporation.[i] Following are the articles on which Liu Xiaobo was indicted of “inciting subversion of state power.”
“The Chinese Communist Party’s Dictatorial Patriotism”[ii] (October 3, 2005, posted on Epoch Times’ Web site
“Can It Be That the Chinese People Are Only Suited To Accepting ‘Party-ruled Democracy’?”[iii] (January 6, 2006, posted on Observechina.net)
“Changing State Power Through Changing Society”[iv] (February 26, 2006, posted on Observechina.net)
“The Multi-faceted Dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party”[v] (March 13, 2006, originally on Observechina.net, posted on Epoch Times’ Web site)
“The Negative Effects of the Rise of the Chinese Communist Party on Democratization in the World”[vi] (May 6, 2006, posted on Epoch Times’ Web site )
“Continuing Questions with Regard to the Black Kiln Child Slave Incident”[vii] (July 16, 2007, posted on Human Rights in China’s Web site)
One of the original signers of the Charter, and a prominent intellectual and dissident, Liu Xiaobo has been arrested and sentenced, apparently for expression protected under international human rights standards that the Chinese government has recognized. Specifically, Mr. Liu’s activities are protected under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides that “[e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression,” and a similar provision in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed in 1998 and has committed to ratify. Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provide for the right to freedom of association. Articles 35 and 41 of China’s Constitution, which provide the right of citizens to free speech, free association, and to criticize their government, also should protect Mr. Liu’s activities. In addition, at least 48 members of the group that initially signed Charter 08 have reported being questioned or harassed by authorities.
Internet has been a great force to revitalize the Chinese people’s concern on Human Rights and Democracy in recent years. Chinese authorities are growing gravely nervous about internet content and internet users increasing exponentially and are determined to quell the potentiality of free flow of information online. Despite the repeated plea from his family and friends, Human right groups and formal appeal from EU and US, Chinese government has brazenly defied all the universal values and morals issuing more harsher campaign against the proponents of Human rights and Democracy in China right after the trial. Vice Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning has ordered pre-emptive strikes against perceived threats to social order in a speech given to security officials on 18 December and published on Monday 28 December 2009, just days after the key political dissident was jailed. In his speech, “Hostile forces both in and outside China were seeking to inflame growing social discontent in an effort to create instability”. “The plots at westernization and separatism by Western anti-China forces… the acts of hostile forces to cause trouble and social disruption are daily complicating” the situation in China, Yang said[viii]. Chinese authorities view “hostile forces” as those who pose a threat to the nation’s one-party communist rule.
[i] http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/dissident_liuxiaobo-12112009115924.html?encoding=traditional
[ii] http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/5/10/4/n1074197.htm
[iii] http://www.observechina.net/info/artshow.asp?ID=37696
[iv] http://www.observechina.net/info/artshow.asp?ID=38211
[v] http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/6/3/14/n1253922.htm
[vi] http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/6/5/6/n1309396.htm
[vii] http://www.renyurenquan.org/ryrq_article.adp?article_id=691
[viii] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BR0AQ20091228
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