Below are short profiles of Chinese rights defenders who have been jailed, placed under house arrest, or otherwise harassed in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Games, and after the Olympics. Human Rights Watch has urged the Chinese government to release jailed activists whose convictions were marred by the absence of due process, as well as the prisoners improperly arrested or tried in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
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Liu Xiaobo

Defender of human rights

A literary critic and former professor of literature who was jailed for 21 months following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Liu Xiaobo was detained again on December 8, 2008, just two days before the release of a pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08. Liu was one of 303 original signatories of Charter 08, which calls for the guarantee of basic rights including freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion. Charter 08 was published on December 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Over 30 signatories of Charter 08 were questioned, summoned by the police, or put under surveillance following Liu's detention. On December 23, 2008, several eminent writers, scholars, lawyers, and human rights advocates released a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao urging Liu's immediate and unconditional release. Liu's formal arrest on June 23, 2009 for "alleged agitation activities aimed at subversion of the government and overthrowing of the socialist system" prompted renewed calls for his release.

 

 

 

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch press release "China: Critic’s Arrest Signals Hardening of Political Climate" (6/24/09)
• Human Rights Watch press release "China: Nobel Laureates, China Scholars Call for Liu Xiaobo’s Release" (12/23/08)
• Human Rights Watch press release "China: Retaliation for Signatories of Rights Charter" (12/10/08)
• English translation of Charter 08 by Perry Link
• New York Times article "Chinese Dissident Charged With Subversion" (6/24/09)
• Huffington Post op-ed by Minky Worden, "Liu Xiaobo and China's Future" (6/27/09)
• FEER op-ed by Phelim Kine, "Free Liu Xiaobo" (7/13/09)

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Gao Zhisheng

Defender of human rights

Hu Jia

Defender of human rights

Hu Jia is a Beijing-based human rights activist who in August 2007, as the one-year countdown to the Beijing Games began, was one of 42 Chinese signatories of an open letter, “One World, One Dream: Universal Human Rights,” calling for greater attention to human rights in China. On September 6, 2007, he and lawyer Teng Biao published another open letter, “The Real China and the Olympics,” spelling out in greater detail specific human rights concerns in China in the context of the Beijing Games. On November 26, 2007, Hu testifies via audio link at a European Parliament hearing, expressing his desire for 2008 to be “the year of human rights in China.” One month later, on December 27, 2007, Hu was detained prior to being formally arrested on January 30, 2008. On April 3 of this year, after a trial which failed to meet minimum standards of fairness and due process, Hu was found guilty of “inciting subversion of state power” and sentenced to three and a half years in prison, as well as one additional year of deprivation of political rights. His wife and fellow activist Zeng Jinyan, as well as their baby daughter Qianci remain under police surveillance in Beijing. On October 23, 2008, the European Parliament awarded its 2008 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Hu Jia.

 

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch press release "China: Hu Jia Sakharov Prize Spotlights China’s Rights Crisis" (12/23/08)
• Human Rights Watch press release "China: Release Jailed Rights Activist Hu Jia" (10/2/08)
• Hu Jia case chronology
• European Parliament Sakharov Prize - Hu Jia bio

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Huang Qi

Defender of Internet freedom and other human rights

Huang Qi is a Chinese Internet pioneer and founder of http://www.64tianwang.com/, through which he actively investigated and publicized human rights abuses and assisted in the rescue of several trafficked girls. Originally arrested in June 2000, Huang was charged with “subversion,” tried in secret, and sentenced to five years in prison. Upon his release in June 2005, Huang initially remained confined to his parents' home, three hours from his wife and family's home in Chengdu. After the May 12, 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province, Huang published reports on the efforts by the parents of schoolchildren who had been killed to hold local authorities accountable for constructing substandard schools. Huang was detained by authorities on June 10, 2008 and formally arrested on July 18 for “illegal possession of state secrets”--a charge often leveled against critics and dissidents. Huang, who is being held at Chengdu City Detention Center, described numerous health problems (including irregular heartbeat as well as lumps in his chest and abdomen) in a meeting with his lawyer in May 2009, but has been denied medical care.

 

 

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch press release, "Banned, Censored, Harassed and Jailed " (2/5/07)
• Human Rights Watch press release, "China: Olympics Harm Key Human Rights" (8/6/08)
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders press release, "Human Rights Defender Huang Qi Formally Arrested" (7/18/08)
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders press release, "Huang Qi Reportedly Ill in Detention, Denied Access to Medical Attention" (7/28/09)

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Chen Guangcheng

Defender of human rights

Chen Guangcheng is a blind lawyer who in June 2005 filed a class-action lawsuit accusing officials in Linyi, a city in Shandong province, of seeking to enforce restrictive population control laws by subjecting thousands of people to late-term forced abortions, compulsory sterilization, midnight raids and beatings. In August 2005, local officials imprisoned Chen and his immediate family in their home and shut off all outside communication. They were detained there for seven months. On March 11, 2006, Yinan county police officers “disappeared” Chen for three months. It was not until June 11, 2006, that officials acknowledged he had been formally detained in the Yinan County Detention Center. On June 21, 2006, the Yinan County People’s Procuratorate formally arrested Chen on charges of damaging property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic. Local officials repeatedly interfered attempts by Chen’s legal team to interview witnesses and gather evidence. Chen On August 24, 2006, Chen was found guilty of these charges and sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Chen’s final appeal was rejected on January 12, 2007, by Linyi Intermediate Court.

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch press release (7/18/06): http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/18/china13765.htm
• Chronology (March 2005 - July 2006): http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/18/china13766.htm
• Human Rights Watch report, "A Great Danger to Lawyers": New Regulatory Curbs on Lawyers Representing Protesters (Dec. 2006)
  http://hrw.org/reports/2006/china1206/5.htm
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders, "Defenders in Prison: Chen Guangcheng"
  http://crd-net.org/Article/Class9/Class48/Class62/Index.html
• HRIC press release (7/24/08), "Wife of Jailed 'Barefoot Lawyer' Chen Guangcheng Addresses Open Letter to President Hu Jintao "
  http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision%5fid=63783&item%5fid=63774

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Huang Weizhong

Defender of farmers’ rights

Huang Weizhong is a farmer from a village in the Chengxiang District, Putian City, in the Fujian Province. Huang was one of the hundreds of people forcefully evicted and given low compensation for the expropriation of farm land. In early 2005, 676 villagers from 10 different villages elected Huang as their representative to present their grievances on land acquisition procedures and demands to the provincial government for an administrative review. The local, provincial, and supreme courts all refused to admit the case for legal proceedings. In August 2005, villagers applied for a permit to demonstrate, but were refused by the Putian Public Security Bureau. Two dozen villagers gathered in front of the Bureau to appeal their permit denial; some got into disputes with security guards which temporarily blocked traffic. Huang was arrested by Putian police. On May 17, 2006, Huang was sentenced to three years in prison for “gathering crowds to disturb public order.”

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch, World Report 2007, chapter on China, http://hrw.org/englishwr2k7/docs/2007/01/11/china14867.htm
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders, "Defenders in Prison: Huang Weizhong" http://crd-net.org/Article/Class9/Class48/Class61/Index.html

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Mao Hengfeng

Defender of women’s rights and labor rights

Mao Hengfeng is a Shanghai activist who has been active in defending housing rights, opposing forced evictions, and promoting women’s reproductive rights for the past two decades. She was first arrested in 1988 when she was fired from her factory job for refusing to terminate her second pregnancy. She lost her court battle against the factory and was forced to terminate her third pregnancy. She subsequently petitioned to state authorities over her coerced abortion, as well as labor rights and housing rights. In April 2004, Shanghai police sentenced her to eighteen months in reeducation through labor. She was reportedly subjected to torture and ill-treatment there, prior to her release on September 12, 2005 after completion of her term. However, she defied orders to stop protesting about violations of her rights, leading security forces to harass and beat both her and her husband, Wu Xuewei. On January 24, 2006, she was arrested and detained yet again. While under police custody in a hotel room, Mao broke two lamps. She was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for “vandalizing public property.” Mao has reportedly been beaten and sexually harassed during her latest incarceration.

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch report, "We Could Disappear At Any Time": Retaliation and Abuses Against Chinese Petitioners (Dec. 2005) http://hrw.org/reports/2005/china1205/7.htm
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders, "Defenders in Prison: Mao Hengfeng" http://crd-net.org/Article/Class9/Class48/Class79/Index.html

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Shi Tao

Defender of media freedom

Shi Tao, a reporter and editor for the newspaper Contemporary Business News in Changsha, Hunan Province, was detained on November 24, 2004. He was subsequently formally arrested on state secrets charges stemming from the release of details of a secret Communist Party memorandum which warned of activities by democracy activists on the 15th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The prosecution charged that Shi had used his Yahoo email account to send an outline of the memorandum to an overseas web forum, using as evidence confidential account information provided by Yahoo. The Changsha Intermediate People’s Court convicted Shi of “divulging state secrets abroad” and on April 27, 2005, sentenced him to 10 years in prison, with subsequent deprivation of political rights for two years. Shi appealed the verdict, arguing that he had not been aware that the memorandum was classified and charging police with failing to adhere to legal procedures during his arrest, but the Hunan Higher People’s Court rejected the appeal on June 2, 2005. Shi is currently serving his sentence in Hunan province’s Chishan Prison, and is due for release on November 24, 2014. Yahoo has been sharply criticized for its role in Shi’s conviction. At a Congressional hearing held by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on November 6, 2007, Chairman Tom Lantos told Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan: "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies."

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch report, "Race to the Bottom": Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship (Aug. 2006) http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/11.htm#_Toc142395840
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders, "Defenders in Prison: Shi Tao" http://crd-net.org/Article/Class9/Class48/Class64/Index.html
• Committee to Protect Journalists, "Shi Tao: International Press Freedom Award 2005" http://www.cpj.org/awards05/shi_tao.html

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Tsering Woeser

Defender of Tibetans’ rights

Tsering Woeser, also known as Woeser, is a former editor of the journal Tibetan Literature (Xizang Wenxue) in Lhasa. She is the author of 10 volumes, including one book of collected poems, a prose volume Notes on Tibet (2003), and two books on the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution which are not distributed in China. She was removed from her position at the Tibet Cultural Association in Lhasa in 2004 after China’s United Front Department and its Publications Bureau determined that her writings contained “political errors” due to the positive references in Notes on Tibet to the exiled Tibetan leader. Woeser has reportedly has been unable to apply for a passport since then. In February 2005, Oeser established her first blog through www.tibetcult.net and subsequently wrote another blog hosted by www.daqi.com. Both blogs were shut down by the Chinese authorities in July 2006. In August 2006, Woeser made a third attempt at electronic discussion via http://woeser.bokee.com. On September 21, Woeser took part from Beijing in a live broadcast on the U.S.-based broadcasting service VOA to discuss rare photographs she had recently published of the Cultural Revolution in Tibet. Her new blog was removed by authorities in late September. Woeser and her husband, author Wang Lixiong, were placed under house arrest soon after the beginning of protests in Tibet on March 10, 2008.

For further information on Tsering Woeser, please see:

• Woeser, "Justice Denied for Tibetans" [op-ed], Wall Street Journal, 4/27/09
• Andrew Jacobs, "A Tibetan Blogger, Always Under Close Watch, Struggles for Visibility," New York Times, 4/25/09
• Human Rights Watch press release, "China: Tibetan Intellectual's Blogs Shuttered," 10/9/06
• Radio Free Asia (RFA), "Tibetan Writer Under House Arrest in Beijing," 3/21/08

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For information on Tenzin Delek, a jailed Tibetan monk, please see:

• Human Rights Watch report, Trials of a Tibetan Monk: The Case of Tenzin Delek (February 2004)

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Yang Chunlin

Defender of land rights

Yang Chunlin, a land rights activist from Heilongjiang province, was arrested in July 2007 for his involvement in a petition against illegal land seizures by officials and writing essays denouncing official wrongdoings. Yang, who had collected more than 10,000 signatures for his petition, titled “We want human rights, not the Olympics,” was charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” His trial on February 19 lasted less than a day, and failed to meet minimum standards of due process. Procedural violations throughout Yang’s case included serious allegations of torture and the court’s refusal to investigate them, denial by the police of access to his defense lawyers until many weeks after his initial arrest, unsubstantiated claims by the police that the case involved “state secrets,” inadequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defense, police intimidation against relatives, and threats made against the defense lawyers. Such procedural flaws are violations of international law. On March 24, 2008, Yang was sentenced to five years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” This verdict flatly contradicted the assertion made by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on February 28 during a visit by British Foreign Secretary David Milibank, and reported by Reuters: “People in China enjoy extensive freedom of speech. No one will get arrested because he said that human rights are more important than the Olympics. This is impossible.”

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch, "China Olympic Activist Deprived of Due Process" (2/19/08) http://china.hrw.org/press/news_release/china_olympic_activist_deprived_of_due_process
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders, "Yang Chunlin Sentenced to Five Years in Prison" (3/26/08) http://crd-net.org/Article/Class9/Class48/Class61/Index.html
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders, "Olympics Prisoner Yang Chunlin Tortured" (3/31/08) http://crd-net.org/Article/Class9/Class15/200804/20080401150913_8255.html

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Ye Guozhu

Defender of housing rights

Ye Guozhu, a 53 year-old housing rights activist, is serving a four-year prison sentence for seeking to organize protests against forced evictions ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2003 Ye Guozhu was forcibly evicted from his home in Beijing—like thousands of other residents of the capital—to make way for Olympic Games construction projects. Soon after seeking permission in August 2004 to hold a march for other evictees in September of that year, during the annual meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee, he was arrested on "suspicion of disturbing social order." On December 18, 2004, Ye was sentenced to four years in prison. Ye Guozhu has reportedly been tortured during his detention. In October 2003 his younger brother, Ye Guoqiang, attempted suicide to protest the forced eviction of their family from their Beijing home. After jumping into the Jinshui River near Tiananmen Square, he was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for disturbing social order.

For further information, please see:

• Human Rights Watch press release, "China: Release Housing Rights Activist" (9/28/04) http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/09/28/china9400.htm
• Human Rights Watch report, Demolished: Forced Evictions and The Tenants' Rights Movement In China (March 2004) http://hrw.org/reports/2005/china1205/7.htm
• Human Rights Watch report, "We Could Disappear At Any Time": Retaliation and Abuses Against Chinese Petitioners (Dec. 2005) http://hrw.org/reports/2005/china1205/7.htm
• Chinese Human Rights Defenders, "Defenders in Prison: Ye Guozhu" http://crd-net.org/Article/Class9/Class48/Class80/200705/20070531231431_4506.html

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Photo credit: "Olympic Prisoners" thumbnail image (top right): This photo is a close-up of the hands of Yang Wan Ying, holding a photograph of his son, Yang Shi Liang, jailed for over a decade while waiting for his death sentence to be carried out. Yang Shi Liang has claimed that his confession was made under torture. © 2007 Ian Teh / Panos Pictures

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