Chinese Dissident Chen Wei condemned to 9 years in prison for his writings

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." - Elie Wiesel

Chen Wei: 9 years in prison for his writings

Two years ago today it was Liu Xiaobo sentenced to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and today it is Chen Wei condemned to 9 years under the same charge. On March 25, 2011 Liu Xianbin was sentenced to 10 years in prison under the same charge. Today, the BBC reported that Chen Wei told the court he was not guilty and "that democracy will prevail."

All of these activists and many more are being imprisoned for exercising their freedom of expression and are prisoners of conscience. In addition, Chinese dissident Mao Hengfeng has suffered brutal beatings and torture for her human rights activism.

China: Harsh sentence for activist Chen Wei condemned

by Amnesty International

The nine-year jail sentence handed down to activist Chen Wei for writing critical articles about the Communist Party is unacceptable, Amnesty International said today, and urged Chinese authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally.

Chen Wei was sentenced for “inciting subversion of state power”. His lawyer, Zheng Jianwei, said the trial lasted less than two hours and added that his family said he would not appeal.

“Chen Wei is being punished for peacefully expressing his ideas,” said Catherine Baber, Deputy Asia-Pacific Director for Amnesty International.

“I wish we could say we were surprised by this sentence, but we have seen the Chinese government use this vague charge of “incitement” over and over to silence its critics and suppress discussion of human rights and political change,” she added.

According to the indictment, seen by Amnesty International, Chen Wei’s charge stems from essays he allegedly posted online and “sent to overseas organizations,” including New York-based human rights group, Human Rights in China.

“This is the toughest sentence given to anyone who was arrested and charged during the so-called Jasmine crackdown, when the government rounded up activists out of fear for potential demonstrations inspired by the Middle East and North Africa,” Catherine Baber said.

“We think the government is punishing Chen Wei for his many years of activism and trying to send a strong message to any would-be critics.”

Chen Wei, 42, was one of more than 130 activists detained after the U.S.-based news site, Boxun, reported an anonymous appeal for people to stage protests across China last February.

The online call to protest, inspired by the uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa and the “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia, led to one of the harshest crackdowns on dissent in China in recent years.

Government critics, bloggers, artists, “netizens” and other activists were detained, the vast majority of whom have been released without charges or on bail.

Authorities in Suining City, Sichuan Province, detained Chen Wei on 20 February and formally arrested him on 28 March. Since then, he has been held at the Suining City Detention Centre. His case was sent back twice to prosecutors because of a lack of evidence.

Zheng Jianwei said he was only able to meet with his client twice. Another lawyer reportedly met with Chen Wei once. The activist has only been allowed to communicate with his family in writing.

Chen Wei served as one of the leaders of the 1989 student democracy movement, for which he was imprisoned until January 1991. In May 1992, authorities arrested him again, this time for commemorating the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and for organizing a political party. They sentenced him to five years for “counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement.”

Chinese law does not define the meaning of “subversion,” nor does the law or related regulations or interpretations adequately define what it means to incite others to subvert state power.

Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese government to release other activists who have been held on the vague charge of "inciting subversion of state power," including:

• "Netizen" Liang Haiyi, reportedly taken away by police on 19 February in the northern city of Harbin for sharing videos and information about the "Jasmine Revolution" on the Internet. Liang Haiyi, perhaps the first person to be arrested as part of the Jasmine crackdown, is reportedly being held on suspicion of "inciting subversion" and could be tried at any time.
  

• Veteran activist Chen Youcai, also known as Chen Xi, who was detained 29 November for being a member of the Guizhou Human Rights Forum, which authorities declared was an illegal organization. Chen Xi could stand trial at any time and, like Chen Wei, could face a harsh sentence due to his long work as a rights advocate.
  

• Human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, who was sent back to prison last week after “violating” his probation, according to reports in China’s state media. Authorities charged him with “inciting subversion” in December 2006 and sentenced him to a three–year suspended prison sentence. He was initially held under house arrest and then subjected to enforced disappearance repeatedly over nearly three years.
  

• Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo, who was awarded the prize in absentia on 10 December 2010. Liu Xiaobo was sentenced in 2009 to 11 years in prison for his role in drafting Charter 08, and other writings which called for democratic reforms. His wife, artist Liu Xia, is under illegal house arrest. She has not been charged with any crime and Amnesty International has called for authorities to immediately restore her freedom.

• Sichuan-based activist Liu Xianbin, who was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison for his role in promoting democratic reform, including his support of the Charter 08 petition movement.

• Beijing-based activist Hu Jia, who was released from prison in June after serving three and a half years for "inciting subversion" but now lives in conditions equivalent to house arrest along with his wife, Zeng Jinyan, and young daughter.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/news/china-amnesty-international-condemns-harsh-sentence-activist-chen-wei-2011-12-23

The solidarity of the shaken: China, Cuba and Mao Hengfeng

“The solidarity of the shaken can say ‘no’ to the measures of mobilization that make the state of war permanent. … The solidarity of the shaken is built up in persecution and uncertainty: that is its front line, quiet, without fanfare or sensation even there where this aspect of the ruling Force seeks to seize it.” - Jan Patočka

Chinese human rights defender Mao Hengfeng is a torture victim.

Over the past four Sundays Cuban women have been brutally beaten by agents of the communist regime. Some have had bones broken. The practice is not unique to Cuba. Communists in China like their counterparts in Havana beat down women who peacefully disagree with them and detain them for further mistreatment. As human rights defenders outraged at what is taking place in Cuba we should also raise our voices in solidarity for women in China defending human rights who are also suffering brutal treatment. Please take action for Mao Hengfeng who was beaten, detained, tortured and returned home unconscious in a wheel chair.

Human Rights Watch has a brief description of Hengfeng's background as an activist on a page profiling prominent human rights defenders in China:

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.

Amnesty International on their blog Human Rights Now describes the latest outrage committed against this activist, that sounds all too familiar to activists working on Cuba:

Mao’s most recent arrest was a result of her protest in front of the Beijing municipal intermediate court expressing support for human rights activist and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo. On March 4, 2010, Mao was sentenced to 18 months in Re-education Through Labor.

While in detention, Mao suffered torture and abuse at the hands of the guards, the police, and even other inmates who were instructed to beat her. Her health deteriorated so dramatically that she was released on medical parole on February 22, 2011, but detained again a mere two days later.

While Mao Hengfeng was in transit to Shanghai City Prison Hospital on February 24, she was continuously beaten in the police car until she lost consciousness. During her time in the prison hospital, she was not allowed to communicate with her family, shower or bathe. If she moved without permission, she was beaten.

On July 28, 2011, the prison hospital released Mao Hengfeng while she was unconscious in a wheelchair. Her family had not received any advance notice about her release. In previous cases, Shanghai detainees have been returned to their homes shortly before dying so that the police and authorities can “wash their hands” of culpability for the deaths of the detainees.

Bearing this in mind, Mao’s husband Wu Xuewei requested that the Shanghai authorities send her to a nearby motel. When her family then attempted to transfer her to a public hospital, ten police officers guarding the motel prohibited her from leaving.

By July 31, Mao’s condition had ameliorated slightly, and she asked her husband to take her to church. When the police officers discovered her absence, they followed her to the church and aggressively attempted to beat her. Although members of the congregation intervened, the police warned Mao she could be detained again and that next time, she could die in detention.

In the past seven years, Mao has been tortured so often and with such severity that at one point she partially lost feeling on the left half of her body, and while at another time she lost sight and hearing for 24 hours. Shortly before the two-day medical parole in February, a doctor found signs of bleeding in her brain from a CT scan. On the day before authorities decided to end Mao Hengfeng’s detention, she kept slipping in and out of consciousness, unable to eat or drink water.

Mao Hengfeng shows bruises from previous beatings while in custody.

Amnesty International has organized a campaign calling on an investigation into the torture of Mao Hengfeng in China. In Czechoslovakia, then dissident Vaclav Havel, wrote important essays on the power of the powerless and living in truth where the word solidarity arose within the context of anti-political politics:

When Jan Patocka wrote about Charter 77, he used the term 'solidarity of the shaken'. He was thinking of those who dared resist impersonal power and to confront it with the only thing at their disposal, their own humanity. Does not the perspective of a better future depend on something like an international community of the shaken which, ignoring state boundaries, political systems, and power blocs, standing outside the high game of traditional politics, aspiring to no titles and appointments, will seek to make a real political force out of a phenomenon so ridiculed by the technicians of power—the phenomenon of human conscience?

Let us who know how these kind of regime's operate demonstrate our support for this woman and other Chinese human rights defenders and in doing so join with action the international community of the shaken and break down the walls of isolation that these regimes depend on to maintain power and control. Listen to her speak out about her plight in 2010 in the video below.