Release Immediately Gao Yu, Pu Zhiqiang and All Dissidents !
Zhang Kai
Under the CPC policy of suppressing press freedom, a lot of Chinese dissidents such as Gao Yu, a well-known journalist, Pu Zhiqiang, a human rights lawyer, Tang Jingling and Lu Ji, were arrested, detained, or sent to prison. This shows again that the CPC has fabricated many wrong cases.
In April 2015, a Beijing court convicted Gao of leaking state secrets, such as the "Document No. 9”, to Hong Kong’s Mirror Publisher. Although she denied the accusation, she was sentenced to seven years in prison. It was said that she was forced to plead guilty, as her son, Zhao Men, was under threat. The so-called “state-secrets” refer to CCP’s policy of Seven Speak-Nots, which had already been publicly carried out in university classrooms.
Gao Yu’s profession is to speak out the truth. On 3 June 1989, she was arrested for her news reports on the students’ movement. She was released in August 1990. In 1993, she was again arrested and sent to prison for six years, due to the accusation of leaking state secrets. In February 1999, she was allowed to have compassionate release. Meanwhile, she continued to contribute many articles on politics, economics, and social changes of China to Hong Kong and overseas media. She steadfastly defends freedom of speech and press, defying the oppressive regime.
Pu Zhiqiang’s profession is to defend people’s legal rights, particularly defending dissident writers and journalists. He was arrested one year ago. Recently the Beijing court charged him of “inflicting racial hatred and causing social disturbance”, due to his postings on Sina Weibo. His comments on Xinjiang and ethnic violence, including an attack on March 1, 2014, by Uighurs, the mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to Xinjiang, at the train station in Kunming, in southwestern China, that killed 31 people, are as follows: “If you say Xinjiang belongs to China, then don’t treat it as a colony, don’t act as conquerors and plunderers, striking out against any and all before and after, turning them into the enemy. This is an absurd national policy (May 7, 2014). The Kunming incident was too brutal, the attackers’ sins were grievous. If you say Xinjiang is producing terror, now I believe it, but this is effect, not cause. The deaths and injuries were utterly horrendous, the repercussions too grave. You tell me that you bear no responsibility for the savagery of the Xinjiang independents, then I’m not satisfied” (March 2, 2014). His arrest shows that people cannot enjoy freedom of speech in mainland China.
Pu actively joined the Democratic Movement of 1989 and joined the hunger strike at Tiananmen Square. He was arrested three days after he participated in a seminar on the 25th anniversary of June-Fourth Movement. This is obviously a political prosecution by the authorities. There is no rule of law at all in today’s China. Gao Yu complained that the authorities trampled on the judiciary.
In October 2014, the CPC passed the decision on the rule of law by the country, however, it was still under the control of the Party. On 23 April, addressing Japanese experts’ questions on how the Chinese Constitution fulfilled the rule of law, Wang Qishan, the secretary of Committee for Disciplinary Inspection of CPC, clearly answered that it had Chinese characteristics that the system of judiciary in China was completely under the leadership of the Party. This proves that the authorities negate the rule of law, undoubtedly leading to tremendous wrong cases. People will fight against this injustice and urge the authorities to release all dissidents in jails.
6 June 2015
Postscript:
On 8 June, the Information Office of the State Council released the White Paper of Progress of China’s Human Rights in 2014. According to Item 2 of “the Rights of the Person”, “attached more importance to protecting the rights of the accused, detainees and criminals”, dissidents like Gao Yu, Pu Zhiqiang and other dissidents should have this rights of the person and be released immediately!
10 June 2015