Under the Jacaranda Tree » Charter 08

Charter 08 Signatories Called for the Release of Liu Xiaobo

C.A. Yeung — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:04:57 +0000

A year ago, on 8 December 2008, Liu Xiaobo was detained on suspicion of inciting subversion of State power. Hours later, Charter 08, a document that Liu helped to draft, was released online. Charter 08, signed initially by 303 prominent Chinese citizens, calls for 19 changes to improve human rights situation in China. Since then more than eight thousand people around the world have signed the Charter.

In spite of straight censorship the Chinese ruling regime has imposed on the dissemination of information about the Charter, news continue to leak out about Chinese citizens commemorating the first anniversary of the release of the document. There are also renewed calls for support from the international community to secure the release of Liu Xiaobo.

The following is a report by Sun Wenguang, one of the original 303 Charter 08 signatories. Here Sun wrote about a seminar held in Shandong province to mark the first anniversary. The English translation is mine. Apart from calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo, the seminar also discussed an item in Charter 08, namely “the nationalisation of the Chinese military”. My co-blogger Ned Kelly asks me to add a note here for the benefit of readers who are unfamiliar with the history of the People’s Republic of China. Unlike in most countries, China’s military establishment, or the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is under the command of the Central Military Commission of the CCP. The Chinese Ministry of National Defence, which operates under the State Council, does not exercise any authority over the PLA.

【孙文广：山东各界纪念《08宪章》一周年】

Shandong Signatories met to commemorate the Anniversary of Charter 08

By Sun Wenguang

零八宪章，公布一周年前夕，山东济南、泰安、聊城、烟台、签署宪章的各界人士十余人，聚会纪念。

A group of over 10 signatories gathered a day before the first anniversary of the release of Charter 08 to commemorate the event. They were from various regions in Shandong province, including Jinan, Taian, Liaocheng and Yantai.

会上发言的有：车宏年、史若平、李世骏、孙文广、秦志刚、李红卫、鲁扬、李对龙等，他们指出：

The speakers at the Seminar were: Che Hongnian, Shi Ruoping, Li Shijun, Sun Wenguang, Qin Zhigang, Li Hongwei, Lu Yang and Li Duilong. The speakers affirmed:

零八宪章，是六四之后，一个最重要的集体创作，表达了关于人权、民主、自由、法制的诉求。08宪章签署者受到公安的调查时，纷纷表达了对08宪章的认同，没有一个人表示后悔！或撤销签署。

“Charter 08 is the most important collective declaration since June 4th 1989. It expresses a demand for human rights, democracy, freedom and rule of law. The Charter 08 signatories, even after being subjected to investigation by National Security agencies, have unanimously confirmed their support for Charter 08. No one has expressed regret or has revoked his signature.”

与会者一致要求，当局立即释放刘晓波先生！刘晓波先生组织08宪章的起草，这是是他个人的光荣记录！他为中国的民主运动，写下了光辉的一页。刘晓波先生，08年12月，被从家中带走，既无拘留证也无逮捕证，很长时间，不准律师介入！不准家属接…见，这都是程序违法！说明现在中国缺少司法正义！在中国呼吁司法正义的人，被剥夺了司法权利，呼唤自由的人，失去了自由，这既表明了08宪章的必要和及时，也表明了，在中国民主化的过程中，一批勇敢者，要付出代价！他们应该受到人们的尊重！

Those who attended the Seminar made a joint pleading for the immediate release of Mr Liu Xiaobo, the coordinator of the drafting of Charter 08. Mr Liu has made a remarkable personal achievement and has written a glorious page in the history of China’s struggle for democracy. Consequently he was taken away from home in December 2008. His arrest was illegal, because the Police failed to produce any warrant for his arrest and detention. For a very long time, Mr Liu had been denied his rights to meet with his lawyer and his family. The lack of legal justice in China becomes obvious when people who advocate the rule of law are deprived of legal rights, and when those who call for freedom are imprisoned. Mr Liu’s arrest explains why the release of Charter 08 is timely. It also reminds us of the price that many brave people have paid for the democratisation of China. These people deserve our respect.

会上，大明湖暴力拆迁的受害者李红卫，用她切身体会，控诉了当局是如何侵害她的个人财产权，她多次起诉都被驳回不予受理，她切身体会到司法正义的重要，！她的上访没有人理睬，她在公共场合表达民意，结果被带到了公安机关受到了关押！她用亲身的体会，说明零八宪章的重要性！他表示完全支持零八宪章关于人权，关于自由关于民主的诉求！

During the Seminar, Ms Li Hongwei, a victim of the Daming Lake forced evictions, came forward to tell her personal story. She told the audience how her property rights were violated, how her attempts to take legal action against the violators were repeatedly dismissed in court, how her petitions were ignored, and how she was taken away and locked up by the Police when she expressed her opinion in public. Her personal story testifies to the importance of legal justice; it also testifies to the importance of Charter 08! Ms Li expressed her unconditional support for those articles in Charter 08 that advocate human rights, freedom and democracy.

参会者，很多人都表达了，支持零八宪章关于军队国家化的论述，按照世界民主国家国的惯例，军队应该效忠于国家。最近一段时间，国内很多人在议论，中国如何实现军队国家化，认为这是中国实现民主化、法制化的重要前提，也是建立宪政的重要基础。

Many Seminar participants also expressed their support for the part of Charter 08 about the nationalisation of China’s military. It is a common practice in most countries to have military forces pledging loyalty to the Nation. Many recent discussions in China have come to the conclusion that the nationalisation of the military is a prerequisite, not just for the implementation of democracy and the rule of law, but also for the establishment of a constitutional government.

关于宪政的口号，关于民主自由的口号，是共产党在上世纪四十年代反复呼喊的口号！今天应该是实现这些口号的时候了！

Back in the 1940s, the Chinese Communist Party repeatedly shouted slogans about democracy, freedom and the need for a constitutional government. Today, it is time for these slogans to become a reality.

这次座谈会，开了约三个多小时。 2009年12月7日

The Seminar was held for approximately three hours on 7 December 2009.

Posted in media censorship, Under the Tree Tagged: 08 Charter, Charter 08, China rule of law, freedom of speech, Internet censorship, Liu Xiaobo

Petition for the Release of Liu Xiaobo

C.A. Yeung — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:02:53 +0000

www.pen.org

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that a group of Chinese intellectuals have signed a petition for the release of Liu Xiaobo. I’ve also learnt today that some Tibetan community leaders are appealing to members of their communities in China and abroad to sign the petition in support of Liu. Here is a LINK to the online petition.

So far a total of 54 Chinese residents have put their names down. This include famous scholars such as Xu Youyu, Mou Yushi, Qin Hui, Zhang Ming, Cui Weiping, Ai Xiaoming, Li Datong and Fu Guoyong; a Beijing based lawyer and a legal scholar; as well as writers such as Zhang Ping, Wang Lixiong, Woeser and Liu Di.

I salute these brave Chinese people for their courage.

Posted in media censorship, Under the Tree Tagged: 08 Charter, Charter 08, freedom of speech, Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xiaobo’s First Meeting with his Lawyer

C.A. Yeung — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:09:37 +0000

Pro-democracy lawmakers and activities hold the picture of Liu Xiaobo protest outside the China's liaison office in Hong Kong Thursday, June 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Liu Xiaobo was eventually allowed to meet with his lawyer. Liu’s lawyer Shang Baojun said that the meeting took place at around 3.15pm on 26 June at the Beijing Number 1 Detention Centre. It lasted for approximately 40 minutes.

Shang found out from Liu Xiaobo that he had been detained in a house with no windows since December last year. He was not even allowed to go outside to stretch his legs. According to PRC legislation, under no circumstances should house arrests be extended beyond six months. In other words, from 8 June to 23 June, Liu Xiaobo had been illegally detained.

Liu refuted the claim of a recent Xinhua press release that he had confessed to the crime of inciting subversion. During the course of interrogation, Liu had only made two admissions: (1) He was the main contributor to the drafting of Charter 08; and (2) he had published more than 20 essays via the Internet. However, Liu Xiaobo was adamant that none of these were illegal activities. Nor could they be construed as inciting subversion.

Liu apologised through his lawyer to his wife and family for the suffering that they had to endure. However he expressed no regret for his commitment to a free and democratic China. Liu also thanked his friends in China and abroad for their support. Liu hoped that his claim of full responsibility for Charter 08 would prevent others from sustaining further political persecutions.

According to Liu Xiaobo’s lawyer, a bail application had been filed on 25 June. A formal reply is expected latest by next Thursday.

Source: Canyu (via Chinese Pen)

Meanwhile, a group of more than 50 intellectuals in China has signed a petition calling for the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo and the proper implementation of freedom of speech rights as stipulated in the PRC Constitution.

Source: AP (via Google News)

Posted in media censorship, Under the Tree Tagged: 08 Charter, Charter 08, freedom of speech, Liu Xiaobo, subversion of state power

Baozuitun: a Chinese Blogger Who Challenges Censorship Boundaries

C.A. Yeung — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:34:37 +0000

I am glad to announce the return of Baozuitun 饱醉豚 (or the Gluttonous Suckling Pig). He is one of the two bloggers whose blogs at Bullog.cn were forced to close down shortly after Charter 08 was made public. The other blogger who suffered a similar fate was Ran Yunfei. The closing down of their blogs marked the beginning of another round of Internet censorship. This time the censorship was conducted under the pretence of an anti-smut campaign. In Chinese, it is known as 反低俗 (fan disu) or an anti-vulgarity campaign. The campaign led to the demise of more than a thousand PRC-based websites. Bullog.cn inevitably fell victim of this campaign. The blog portal, which was popular for its tolerance towards controversial views, was eventually shut down on 8 January 2009. Since then most of the well-known Bullog bloggers have resumed blogging. Many of them have signed up for new blogging spaces at other portals. Some, however, have gone a step further to setup their own independent websites. One of them is Baozuitun.

Baozuitun is one of the few ex-Bullog bloggers who writes under a pseudonym, and he does that for a very good reason. Baozuitun is a master of political satire. His rather daring attempts at pouring ridicule on Government authorities, as well as his readiness to push limits set by the CCP’s propaganda machine, would have definitely raised some eyebrows among the Internet censors. Behind the veil of his anonymity, however, Baozuitun was able to venture into topics which will otherwise be considered too sensitive for a PRC-based blogger. Yet, he handled these topics skilfully, with loads of dark humour and tons of political incorrectness. In short, Baozuitun is the equivalence of Ivan, Nanheyangrouchuan or MyLaowai from the English language China blogosphere. His unconventional and provocative style earned him many followers. His blog at Bullog.cn reached a record traffic of 1 million hits in less than six months before it was finally “harmonised”.

The following is an abridged translation of Baozuitun’s recent blog post titled “The Right to be Vulgar“. I am hoping that this will enable our readers to appreciate the appeal of Baozuitun’s literary style. I choose not to do a complete translation because of the length of the original article.

Baozuitun starts his article by defining what constitutes vulgarity and how Chinese people’s rights to be vulgar have been taken away from them. He says:

It is not easy to ban vulgarity because everyone does something vulgar every now and then. Even the most gracious person will need to blow his nose, go to the toilet, wipe his bum and make love …. The Internet is filled with vulgar content because people enjoy reading them. Those who run websites have to post something eye-catching as a way of attracting readers. If you don’t trust me, go ahead and replace all naked women’s photos on the Internet with those of our political leaders, or replace all online essays about rape and adultery with CCTV news. You will immediately see how this is going to affect site traffic. In short, what has been classified as vulgarity is in fact the kind of things that most people like … When you see through the deceptive nature of language use, and realise how “vulgarity” has been used to represent “content that appeals to the general public”, you will understand how the Government has deprived us of our rights to like the kind of things that we like.

He then goes on to analysis what he considers to be the hypocritical nature of the so-called anti-vulgarity campaign:

During another anti-smut campaign many years ago, a movie star called Chi Zhiqiang was arrested and convicted for having sex with several of his female fans. I felt sorry for Chi, because if he was one of our political leaders, his adultery affairs would be classified as state secrets. If he was as famous a writer as Lu Xun, Yu Dafu, Xu Zhimo or Hu Shi, and his adultery partners were gracious intellectuals like Wang Yingxia, Lu Xiaoman and Lin Huiyin, then his romance would even be celebrated and made into TV dramas.

In a way, this anti-smut campaign is an improvement from the last one twenty years ago. Some online articles were deleted and some websites were shut down. But at least no one is arrested.

What bothers me, however, is that the announcement made public has not included websites that the Government actually intends to close down. It is obvious that the closure of Bullog.cn has nothing to do with vulgarity. At Gettao.com, pages and pages of graciously argued viewpoints have become the target of closure. Vulgar content, however, has practically remained untouched.

Somewhere along the line, political opinion has been quietly put to a grave alongside vulgarity. This dishonest political game of deception is something that I find particularly despicable.

Some people who look at this from a different angle may argue that there is indeed an improvement, because it shows that the suppressing of “political dissent” is no longer an acceptable excuse for closing down websites. This kind of metaphorical raping and killing of opposition views online will not have the approval of the general public anymore. So there is a need to find another acceptable excuse. For me, this is analogous to saying that it is not acceptable to rape women from respectable families. But it is OK to round up a few good women with a group of prostitutes and rape them all. What kind of improvement is this?

Unlike many critics of Internet censorship in China, Baozuitun does not put blames squarely on the Chinese government. He drives to home a very perceptive argument about how government policies capitalise on the hypocritical nature of public morality. In short, he says we are ultimately responsible for the monsters we create. Internet censorship in China will not cease to exist, as long as Chinese people refuse to be honest about how they actually feel about it and what kind of society they really prefer for themselves and for their future generations. Baozuitun concludes his essay by saying:

It is of course wrong to rape prostitutes. In fact it is wrong to impose one’s sexual desire on another unwilling party. It is even more ridiculous to victimise many innocent prostitutes in order to conceal the crime of raping women from respectable families. Crime of this nature can prevail because most people in society are hypocrites. It is acceptable for people to frequent brothels, but it is not OK for them to admit that they are brothel customers. So when the Government starts to put a ban on prostitution, there will be no more brothels for them to go to visit. Why does someone deny himself of what he likes? Why does he refrain from making a stance against people who trash things that are close to his heart? Is it really so appealing to be a fake puritanical idiot?

It is every individual’s human right to be vulgar. Vulgarity is everyday necessity, just like bonking, eating, blowing noses, wiping bums, etc, etc. Of all the rights that human beings are supposed to enjoy, the right to vulgarity ranks number one. Imagine if one of our gracious ancient Chinese emperors had become so gracious that he had actually put a ban on all bonking activities, and if everyone had obeyed his order, what would have happened? I bet you that the Chinese ethnic groups would have become extinct by now. If it is not sensible to stop people from bonking each other, why will it be sensible to ban sex-related Internet content? It is OK to fuck each other while naked but it is not OK to look at naked photos. What kind of absurd logic is it? It is synonymous to permitting people to stab each other to death while making it illegal to watch martial art movies.

No one can harm another person by being vulgar. I cannot recall any incident of an ethnic group becoming extinct because there are too many prostitutes among them, or because they are too sexually active. On the contrary, if any ethnic group is stupid enough to abstain from sex or to ban sexual activities, I can say for sure that they will definitely become extinct. My reading of something vulgar at home will never make your company go bankrupt or make you impotent. No one can cast a spell and kill another person while making love with one’s own sexual partner. This kind of witchcraft is simply not in existence.

Vulgarity is a right for everyone to enjoy. It is not an excuse for a tyrant to kill.

Please follow THIS LINK to visit Baozuitun’s new blog.

Posted in media censorship, Under the Tree Tagged: 08 Charter, anti-smut campaign, anti-vulgarity campaign, Baozuitun, Bullog, Charter 08, freedom of speech, Ran Yunfei, 反低俗

Bullog is Harmonised? 牛博给河蟹了

C.A. Yeung — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:54:13 +0000

I have been trying to log on to Bullog for the whole day without much success. At first I thought it was just a technical glitch. Thanks to a tip from Austin Ramzy at the Time China Blog, I now realise that the PRC Net Nanny may have finally moved in and shut down the entire site. When I started googling about it, I realised that the news was already all over the Chinese language blogosphere. I understand from some of the Chinese bloggers at Douban 豆瓣, another popular portal, that Bullog’s owner Luo Yonghao remains calm about the situation.

Luo is obviously not inexperienced in dealing with this kind of trauma inflicted by China’s notorious censorship regime, as we can see from the following summary of major events since the inauguration of the site:

31 July 2006 Bullog officially inaugurated

8 August 2007 Bullog launched a blog called “I don’t support the Beijing Olympics”

18 August 2007 The blog “I don’t support the Beijing Olympics” was banned

19 October 2007 (During the 17^th CCP National Congress) Bullog was forcibly shutdown

19 April 2008 Bullog’s traffic exceeded 1 million hits for the first time

In May 2008 Bullog managed to gather more than 1 million Yuan donations for the Sichuan earthquake victims. Luo Yonghao personally delivered the money to the affected areas

14 June 2008 A popular blog Shengren Benzun (The Honourable Saint 圣人本尊) was shutdown

24 November 2008 Famous blogger Qian Liexian’s blog (钱列宪博客) was shutdown

17 December 2008 Nine Bullog bloggers were forbidden from accessing their blogs

24 December 2008 Bullog lost two of its most popular bloggers: Ran Yunfei 冉云飞 and Baozuitun 饱醉豚. For more details please check HERE

Today (9 January 2009) afternoon, Bullog’s domestic server has been shut down. International access has also been denied.

Posted in media censorship, Under the Tree Tagged: 08 Charter, Bullog, Charter 08, freedom of speech, Luo Yonghao, Qian Liexian, Ran Yunfei, 和谐，河蟹

Liu Xiaobo Met with His Wife

C.A. Yeung — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:27:29 +0000

Liu Xiaobo’s wife Liu Xia 刘霞 was granted a short visit to her husband in custody on 1 January 2009, according to Liu’s lawyer Mo Shaoping 莫少平 in an interview with Radio Free Asia. Liu has been detained since 12 December 2008 in connection with his role in the drafting, signing and disseminating of Charter 08. The following is my translation of relevant sections in the RFA report:

Liu Xiaobo’s lawyer Mo Shaoping told our reporter on 1 January that Liu Xia was summoned for questioning earlier on the same day at around 8.30 in the morning. When she arrived there, she was immediately escorted to the residential venue where Liu Xiaobo was detained for surveillance. They were granted a short meeting. The detaining of Liu Xiaobo at a separate residential venue for surveillance and the delay in informing family members about the detention are against the law, according to Mo Shaoping, who says:

“Liu Xia said that all of a sudden at 8.30 in the morning she was asked to go to the local police office for a chat. Public security there accompanied her to go to see Liu Xiaobo. She said that his physical condition was fine. Liu Xia could not recall the exact location of the venue, as she was taken there by public security officers. Liu Xiaobo’s status is now formally declared as under residential surveillance. It is probably in connection with the Charter 08 incident. According to law, residential surveillance should be conducted at one’s residence. Only someone without a resident permit in this city will be assigned a place of detention. It is therefore against the law to take Liu Xiaobo away from home for residential surveillance. The fact that there is a delay in informing Liu Xiaobo’s family of his detention is, strictly speaking, also against the law.”

The Chinese Law Prof Blog published the following information about “residential surveillance” in a blog post titled “Legal analysis of Liu Xiaobo’s detention“:

“Residential surveillance” (监视居住): Decision issued from PSB (not police station), read to suspect, suspect required to sign or otherwise acknowledge. Under this status, suspect cannot leave residence or designated dwelling without permission, meet with anyone other than his lawyer, is required to appear when summoned for questioning, and is prohibited from tampering with witnesses or destroying evidence. Surveillance period cannot exceed six months. No formal notification to family is required.

In theory, “residential surveillance” should take place at one’s residence (thus meaning there is little need for family to be notified). However, in practice police have often stretched the provisions of the law and applicable regulations and held suspects in guest houses or other locations. (This is illegal when the suspect has a residence that could otherwise be used for this purpose.) According to a SPC interpretation, “residential surveillance” under such circumstances constitutes “deprivation of liberty” and, therefore, the length of time spent under such surveillance must be counted as “time served” in any eventual sentence. However, the lack of requirement for notification appears to be a major loophole.

Posted in media censorship, Under the Tree Tagged: 08 Charter, Charter 08, China Law, China rule of law, Liu Xiaobo, residential surveillance

More Charter 08 Casualties: Bullog Purged, Ran Yunfei Suspended

C.A. Yeung — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:23:22 +0000

Bullog 牛博网, a progressive blog portal, becomes the next victim of a purge that has swept across the blogosphere in China since the release of Charter 08. As a result, Bullog lost two of its most popular bloggers: Ran Yunfei 冉云飞 and Baozuitun 饱醉豚 (literally translated as the Gluttonous Suckling Pig). It is believed that both bloggers were suspended for publishing articles about the Charter. Ran Yunfei is also among the first group of 303 signatories.

It is regrettable how Luo Yonghao 罗永浩, the owner of Bullog, once considered a very “bull” (Chinese Internet jargon for “cool”) blogger himself, had to succumb to pressure from the CCP censors in order to protect his site from closure. Luo exercises self-censorship for very good reasons, of course, particularly when Bullog is the home of some best names in the Chinese language blogosphere – Chai Jing 柴静, Han Han 韩寒, Lian Yue 连岳, Wang Xiaoshan 王小山, Zhao Mu 赵牧 – just to name a few. This is not the first time Bullog is at the mercy of the butcher. In October 2007, Bullog was temporarily suspended. Permission to reopen was eventually granted after Luo had agreed to be vigilant about the content of his site.

For Ran Yunfei, this is the second time this year his blog has been forced to close down. Earlier in February, Ran’s blog at Tianya 天涯社区 was “harmonized” (被和谐了) as well.

The 43-year-old Sichuan based writer/editor of the Tujia minority group 土家族 is no stranger to Chinese authorities. In August 2007, Ran Yunfei joined 39 activists to issue an open letter to Chinese and world leaders. This was the first time intellectuals in China openly called for an improvement in China’s human rights policies ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games. In March this year, shortly after the 3.14 Incident in Lhasa, Ran joined a group of 29 Chinese human rights activists and issued a 12-point petition to urge Beijing to open direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama. When fellow Sichuan writer Huang Qi 黄琦 was arrested in July this year after he had openly questioned the handling of earthquake relief funds, Ran Yunfei, together with three other Sichuan bloggers, published an open letter canvassing for the immediate release of Huang. Apart from signing Charter 08, Ran also published an article advocating the release of Liu Xiaobo 刘晓波. The English translation of his articles was published in the Guardian.

I have also translated a Radio Free Asia interview with Ran Yunfei. During the interview, Ran made some very good points about freedom of speech and freedom of access to information.

As I was writing this post, I received an email tip off to let me know that Ran Yunfei has started a new blog at de-sci.org 德赛公园. The full migration may take a few more days to complete.

Posted in media censorship, Under the Tree Tagged: 08 Charter, Bullog, Charter 08, freedom of speech, Huang Qi, Liu Xiaobo, Ran Yunfei, 和谐, 河蟹