According to zengjinyan.org, Zeng Jinyan saw Hu Jia at Beijing Municipal Prison yesterday afternoon, for about thirty minutes. Hu told her that he had a blood test last week, but didn’t know the result yet. He had used a certain antiviral drug *) for two years, and the prison physician advised him to change the drug.
Hu Jia said that living conditions at Beijing Municipal Prison were better than at Chaobai Prison, although there was no supply of hot water at the showers.
Hu Jia hasn’t started working in prison yet and is currently studying every day.
Ms Zeng also was informed that Hu Jia’s nineteenth letter had been confiscated. The prison administration asked Hu and his family people to discuss issues which were favorable for Hu Jia.
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*) apparently Heptodin; JR
October 24, 2008 at 7:05 am
[...] posted an update on her blog about a visit to her jailed husband a day earlier. Here’s a translation. Original here. [Just [...]
October 24, 2008 at 9:29 am
I take it you already know that Hu Jia has been awarded European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. It’s all over the place. My link is to CDT:
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/10/hu-jia-wins-european-rights-prize/
Now I am waiting when the Fool’s Mountain crowd get ’round to it. All those hurt feelings and stuff…
October 24, 2008 at 10:14 am
Fool’s Mountain is an interesting read. I think one or another author there will soon interpret the Sakharov prize as another tool of Western hegemony, as anyone would when feeling uncanny at confronting himself with outstanding examples of conscience and courage. I’d think that Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan are two such examples. Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art, said Susan Sontag. Well, not only upon art. People need to deplete the world in order to set up a shadow world of meanings indeed – if they can’t cope with the world as it is…
Thoughtful greetings to your side of the globe.
October 24, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Do tell me. Only what you so kindly call “interpretation”, I’d probably name differently. And we do not need to go to China Daily or Fool’s Mountain to find it. The Peking Quack will do: Right now, they are debating whether Hu Jia ‘deserves’ the prize… waffle, waffle, waffle.
http://www.pekingduck.org/2008/10/hu-jia-wins-sakharov-prize-for-freedom/
“There are only two things that are infinite: The universe, and human stupidity. And I am not sure about the universe.”
Have I misquoted?
October 24, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I’m surely feeling uneasy about punditry like this:
“marc, aside from opening the NGO, the other things you listed are really quite lightweight. Planting trees and arguing with the government. I’ve done both myself. And about the NGO: what did it achieve? Honest question.” (comment no. 16)
I guess the most honest answer one can give here is that it is the Chinese authorities which decide how much an ngo can achieve, and that it is much easier for a foreigner than for a Chinese national to argue with the government. A foreigner may lose his investment and his right to abode – in a country which he doesn’t call home after all. A Chinese national may lose his freedom, and in the worst case, his life.
To be fair and to explain why I sometimes read Richard’s blog, there are comments like no. 19, too.
Besides, I must say that the Peking Duck’s design is cool
October 24, 2008 at 2:05 pm
No need to explain; it’s same with me. There are a few good commenters there on TPD who draw me in, just as there are some on the Fool’s Mountain. They cheer me up no end – there is yet some hope for humanity.
October 24, 2008 at 2:15 pm
P.S. My favourite on that TPD post was No. 25.
October 27, 2008 at 9:30 am
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