China | 12.01.2012
Prominent Chinese dissident tells of raids and interrogation
Hu Jia, 38, is one of the most prominent Chinese dissidents active in the country’s repressed democracy movement. He is also a campaigner for environmental protection and an advocate for rural victims of AIDS. He was imprisoned in 2008 as part of a crackdown on dissents ahead of the Beijing Olympics and served a three and a half year sentence for "inciting subversion of state power," charges to which he did not plead guilty.
Upon Hu's release from prison on June 26 last year, he was told not to accept interviews from foreign reporters. He was also banned from protesting, publishing his comments online and speaking out in any way. Sharon Hom, executive director at international NGO Human Rights in China, told Deutsche Welle that following his release, Hu was subjected to a year-long deprivation of political rights (DPR), a measure sanctioned under Chinese law.
While the actions of police may have been authorized under Chinese DPR legislation, they nonetheless "undermine rights protected by China's international human rights obligations to respect fundamental rights and freedoms," said Hom.
Hu has been subject to detention and interrogation
Mouth to be gagged
Hu spoke to Deutsche Welle on Thursday, one day after an eight-hour ordeal in which police raided his apartment and interrogated him at a district police headquarters in Beijing. He said authorities grilled him over three separate issues they took issue with.
"First of all, US Congressman Chris Smith planned to visit the blind Chinese rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng but the government refused his entry to the country. I commended his move and his care for Chen on [social media tool] Twitter," said Hu.
He appealed to the public to travel to Dongshigu village in Shangdong province, where Chen was under house arrest. Hu said this could leverage pressure on the local government to free Chen.
The second matter police wanted to speak with Hu about was a call he made to Twitter users to send postcards to a remote prison in Xinjiang, where the outspoken rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was jailed. He said there was a chance that conditions for Gao could improve if authorities knew that the public were keeping track of him.
China is gearing up for its upcoming power transition
The third issue related to Hu’s confirmation to the international community that Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo’s wife Liu Xia was currently under illegal detention by the government. "Actually I’ve published quite a lot of comments recently but the policemen only pinpointed these three issues. So we can see these dissidents’ names are the most sensitive and threatening to the government at the moment," said Hu, adding that he has been warned by police that he faces further detention if he continued to be so outspoken.
Sensitive times
Hu said he was surprised by the police raid late Wednesday: "In the past, policemen have entered my house, but on those occasions they weren’t wearing uniforms. They came in stealthily. But last night, eight uniformed policemen descended upon my house at around 8 o’clock with a police car and stayed for around one and a half hours. That means this time they based their raid on a legitimate procedure with a search warrant," said Hu. The policemen claimed they had found data on his laptop which showed his violation of DPR laws, prompting them to confiscate his and his wife’s computers for further investigation.
Chinese authorities are expected to keep a tighter lid on dissidents and rights defenders before the upcoming Communist Party National Congress and power transitions expected to take place in China later this year. However, "recent mass protests, such as a villagers’ protest in Wukan and the influential rise of microblogs and [Chinese Twitter equivalent] Weibo are pressuring the authorities to respond to demands and problems," said Hom. "They cannot continue to silence or intimidate these voices successfully."
Author: Miriam Wong
Editor: Darren Mara
文化人生 | 2012.01.11
中国知识分子的空间
中国的知识分子生活在危险中。这个国家需要他们的批判精神，但知识分子的活动空间是很有限的。说了"越轨"的话，就可能面对不愉快的后果：软禁、人身伤害 甚至拘捕。汉学教授司马涛（Thomas Zimmer）在科隆大学作的一场题为"中国-人与世界强国"的专题报告中，这样总结中国知识分子的处境：自文化大革命以来，中国知识分子的处境没有得到 质的改变。他说，尽管与30年前相比，政治环境宽松了许多，但是，"政治体制从根本上没有任何改变。我们面对的仍是那个共产党，它时不时地告诉公众，不要 想什么多党制。"
与权力走得太近
司马涛认为，中国的许多知识分子没有自觉地与权力保持距离。实际上共产党在试图拉拢学者和教授，让他们在委员会、智库和政府机构中中担任重要职务。这些知 识分子由于担心自己的乌纱帽，当然不会毫无顾忌地批评政府。而面对来自外国的批评，许多人则以爱国主义甚至民族主义相回应。
自由作家刘晓波不 过，中国也有独立的、具有批判精神和公众影响力的知识分子。司马涛特别提到了艺术家艾未未和2010年获得诺贝尔和平奖的作家刘晓波。他指出，刘晓波长期 以来就批评中国知识分子缺乏独立性："毫无疑问，他是一个真正的知识分子，一个应受到重视的知识分子，因为他不隐瞒自己。他明确地提出自己的批评，这让他 显得诚实、具有说服力。而且他愿意为此付出高昂的代价。"
刘晓波是《零八宪章》的发起人之一，这份宪章呼吁当局实施民主改革，保障公民的言论自由。2009年，刘晓波以"煽动颠覆国家政权"的罪名被判刑11年。 司马涛表示能够理解，并不是所有人都愿意像刘晓波那样付出沉重的代价，"我们要想到，鉴于这几十年发展的经验，人们有理由感到害怕。"
网络一代
司马涛认为，目前中国知识分子最新和最重要的活动空间是互联网。通过微搏可以找到庞大的读者群体。在论坛中进行着各种各样的讨论。在互联网用户和审查部门 之间正进行着一场猫捉老鼠的游戏：网络审查员删除敏感文章，用户再接再厉继续发表。网上还不断出现讽刺中共意识形态的新概念、新词。例如通过使用谐音字， 可以逃避对"敏感词"的筛检。
司马涛说，中国的年轻一代网民在交流中大量使用这样讽刺性的新词汇，"现在成长起来的年轻人，没有经历过物质匮乏、政治高压的年代。"而这些全球联网的年轻人拥有不同于前辈的自信。司马涛认为，他们将对中国社会的发展产生关键影响。
作者：Christoph Ricking 编译：叶宣
责编：李鱼
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