Human Rights Activism, Updates

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1. Zeng Jinyan

Zeng Jinyan‘s (曾金燕) blog Liaoliao Yuan came back on March 22, after many months of hibernation:

“Liaoliao Yuan” turned into an important platform to “searching Hu Jia” and to “free Hu Jia”. But to advocate the safety and freedom of defenders of human rights is only part of my work. Under continuously increasing political pressure, to fall “silent” in the public sphere for a long time has been my basic policy. I was silent to avoid interference with my goal of practising what I advocate.

“了了园”长期以来已成为“寻找胡佳”和“释放胡佳”运动的一个重要平台。然而，提倡和保障人权捍卫者的安全自由只是我的工作的一部分。随着不断上升的政治压力，长时间在公共空间“沉默”是我的一项基本策略。沉默是为了身体力行排除干扰实现具体的工作目标。

I went to Hong Kong for half a year, I raised my daughter, focused on research, and I really like the atmosphere of science and research, and the professional support at the University of Hong Kong, but because I was so busy, I had no time to share [the experience] with all of you. Now I want to tell you that I am back, catching up on some scattered old news, and restarting the exchange on academics, life and social movements on online platforms.

赴港半年，抚养女儿，专心研究，我非常喜爱香港大学的学术研究气氛和专业支持，因为忙未能顾得上和大家分享。今天我想说，作为曾金燕，我回来了。补上一些散落各处的旧闻新事，重启基于网络平台的学术、生活和社会运动交流。

Zeng’s March-22 blogpost also contains a list of some past events and articles, and an outlook on activities planned this year.

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2. Liu Xiaobo and Family

Liu Xia‘s (刘霞) brother Liu Hui (刘晖) stood trial at the Huairou District People’s Court in a northern suburb of Beijing on Tuesday, on charges of fraud linked to a property transaction, Radio Free Asia reported, also on Tuesday. Liu Xia is the wife of Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波), who is currently imprisoned in Liaoning Province. Liu Xia attended her brother’s trial on Tuesday.

Charges on commercial or economic offenses are frequently suspected to be politically motivated.

In November 2010, Zeng Jinyan, as the manager of Beijing Loving Source, an AIDS support group, had to close down the organization’s operations under a “tax inquiry”. Such inquiries and investigations had become frequent since summer 2009.

However, the tax office in charge apparently stated in August 2012 that it saw no tax illegality in the NGO’s operations from August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2009 – the period that had apparently been under investigation.
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Related

» Liu Xia defiant, Guardian, April 23, 2013
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Pressure on Beijing Love Source seems to Ease

Beijing Love Source Information Center, the AIDS support group managed by Zeng Jinyan, apparently received a note from Beijing Chaoyang tax office this week which states that currently, the office sees no tax illegality in the NGO’s operations from August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2009 – the period that had apparently been under investigation. Ms Zeng, who is married to Chinese activist Hu Jia, had previously blogged about the investigation in November, 2010.

Huanqiu Shibao on Chen Guangcheng: “The Rise of China is the World’s Rich and Colorful Stage”

In an article of May 3, 10:22 local time, Shan Renping (单仁平) of Huanqiu Shibao (“Global Times”) describes Chen Guangcheng as a man who seemed to like his “policial super-role” (超级角色) very much. “Some Western forces” had taken “unusual ways of interfering, and Western public opinion and “some Chinese activists on the internet” had turned Chen into a human-rights brand. In fact, however, ordinary people had to cooperate with the big political powers who made their [own] arrangements.

Chen’s supporters had had a much clearer picture of that than Chen himself, and had hyped his case from an individual grassroot issue into a “microcosm” [literally: miniature, 缩影] of China as a country.

Some Western forces and their supporters in China will always need tools to struggle with China’s current political system, and “luck” and “disaster” become the matter of those who serve as tools. Everything can be distorted and labeled. Such a tool will not be lonely and may enjoy other benefits, too. Of course, if they go too far, they will pay the price.
西方一些力量和他们在中国的支持者们永远需要与中国现行政治体制做斗争的工具，“有幸”或“不幸”成为这个工具的人和事，都会变形，被标签化。做这样的工具，可以不寂寞，也会有其他利益。当然如果他们做过了头，也会付出代价。

Chen was just a very small case on Chinese society’s road ahead, and wouldn’t hurt stability in China, or the Chinese cause of human rights to develop further in a normal way. If they should experience “such a matter” again, China’s officials could be absolutely somewhat more at ease (以后遇到这样的事，中国官方完全可以更坦然些). “Some groups on the microblogs” who “warmed themselves at the fire” were on the fringe and did not represent the attitude of Chinese society.

Western public opinion was often looking for a crop in China, to inflate and exaggerate things. Chen Guangcheng and his supporters on the one hand, and Western public opinion, had benefitted each other this time, to blacken China’s ways.

Shan Renping advises the U.S. embassy to work “in accordance with its functions”, to distance itself from inappropriate activities, and to focus on garnering positive feelings among Chinese mainstream society, rather than act as a support for Chinese extremists.

Can the Chen Guangcheng case subside now? Hopefully. But there are some people inside and outside China who don’t want that. In that case, we will see some more quixotic pipedreams. The rise of China is also the world’s rich and colorful stage.
陈光诚的事情会就此平息吗？希望是。但中国国内和国外都有一些人未必愿意。那就让我们多看一些堂吉诃德式的妄想症好了。中国的崛起也是世间丰富多彩的舞台。

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Update/Related

» None of my Business – Readers’ comments, May 3, 2012

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Chen Guangcheng: Point of no Return?

Bob Fu (傅希秋), a pastor and activist who runs US-based group China Aid (对华援助协会), is quoted as saying that Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚) had changed his mind and was now prepared to leave China, provided that his family would accompany him. “[Chen] understands that there is no way he could return to Dongshigu now”, Fu told AFP in a telephone interview, without revealing his sources.

Hu Jia (胡佳) and other friends of Chen had previously said that Chen wanted to stay in China, but Hu added that Chen, after having entered the US embassy, was in a difficult position, ABC News reports today. There had been no way to shelter Chen within an underground network of safe houses where Chen had stayed between his escape from his home village Dongshigu, and his second getaway within days, to the American embassy.

Hu Jia questioned by Police, Yu Jie said to have left China

Hu Jia‘s (胡佳) and Zeng Jinyan‘s (曾金燕) home was raided by police on Wednesday evening, according to the Telegraph, and Hu was summoned to questioning at a Beijing police station on Thursday morning. Details there. The same report quotes friends of dissident Chinese writer Yu Jie (余杰) – the author of a critical appraisal of Premier Wen Jiabao – as saying that Yu has fled to the United States with his family.

According to Deutsche Welle‘s (Voice of Germany) Chinese department, Yu left for the U.S., and informed Independent Pen Center chairwoman Liao Qianqi (廖天琪, I believe she lives in Germany) shortly before his departure from China. Yu is said to temporarily stay at a friend’s home in Virginia. According to the Welle report, Yu had been put under house arrest when returning from a previous stay in America, in October 2011^*). According to Deutsche Welle, news had spread that Yu had been tortured (or brutally been manhandled – the term 酷刑 or kù xíng used by the broadcaster appears to be somewhat ambiguous –  2010年10月，刘晓波获得诺贝尔和平奖后，余杰自10月14日从美国回到中国后即受到中国警方的软禁，他曾接受德国之声的采访详细叙述他的遭遇，其后，他被迫噤声，有消息传出他遭到酷刑).

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Update/Correction

^*) This quote may refer to October 2010, rather than 2011

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Constant Updates on Twitter

C. A. Yeung »
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Zeng Jinyan: Sleepless Nights

Zeng Jinyan has published some thoughts about Chen Guangcheng, Yuan Weijing and their two children, who live under house arrest in Shandong province.

Under the Jacaranda posted a translation, and a link to Zeng’s original article in Chinese.

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Related

» Hu Jia: Sort of Free, June 26, 2011
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Award Chaos: No “Quadriga” for Nobody

“Workshop Germany” (Werkstatt Deutschland), a non-profit organization based in Berlin-Charlottenburg, has an award in store for those who commit themselves successfully to innovation, renewal, and a pioneering spirit through political, economic, and cultural activities – the Quadriga. German and international artists, activists, and quite a number of  politicians, have been laureates since 2003. Of all former German chancellors who are still alive, only Helmut Schmidt has missed out on the prize so far, even though one might argue that both Schmidt and former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing would have deserved the prize for pioneering the European Currency Unit. (Maybe the workshop is waiting for a ready-for-use solution to the current Euro crisis from the two.) José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission’s president, on the other hand, got his Quadriga in 2009. God and the jury may know why.

And Vladimir Putin and the jury may know why Russia’s current prime minister (and former and possibly future president) was one of the chosen people this year. Actually, the jury was kind enough to give us their reasons: to honor Putin’s merits in German-Russian relations’ “reliability and stability”.

The Green party’s co-chairman Cem Özdemir left the jury, protesting against the choice. Several previous laureates either returned their prize, or threatened to do so, among them Former Czechoslovakian and Czech president Vaclav Havel. Most of the German press was negative, too.

Late last week, the workshop decided to cancel the 2011 award altogether. Neither Putin, nor the other laureates-to-be would receive a prize this year, even though the other choices, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa and Turkish-German author Betül Durmaz, were not contested.

Frankly, this year was the first time that I have even heard of the Quadriga prize at all. There are too many prizes to keep track of them, and the European award culture – as far as I’m aware of it, and with the possible exceptions of the Nobel Peace Prize and the EU Parliament’s Sakharov award – has started to look like the kind of “quality” prizes German agricultural associations or folk music trades habitually award within their own mishpokhe, to adorn their own commercials with them later on.

There’s no meaningful prize without a clear set of values behind it.  Business interests are no such values. They may be an honorable motivation for an award, too, but only if they are consistent with an organization’s policy.

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Related
» Article seeks Author, December 29, 2010
» Saxony’s Order of Gratitude Award to Putin, The Guardian, January 16, 2009

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Hu Jia: Sort of Free

Hu Jia has been released from jail. On Sunday, his wife Zeng Jinyan told Reuters that she did not know when Mr. Hu might be able to speak publicly, writes the New York Times, which also quotes Hu’s mother.

He returned home before dawn on Sunday, the Huffington Post quotes a tweet from Zeng. “Safe, very happy. Needs to recuperate for a period of time”, she wrote.

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Related Tag: Hu Jia

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Update / Related
» Another Dissident Released, Austin Ramzy, Global Spin (Time), June 26, 2011

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