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JISHOU, CHINA — What a coincidence. Days before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited British Prime Minister David Cameron to sign trade deals worth $2.2 billion, Chinese officials released two prominent dissidents, Ai WeiWei and Hu Jia.
Cameron, pro forma, gave some lip service to preserving human rights as he signed the trade agreements worth £1.4 billion, while Wen gave the usual Chinese reply — “MYOB” — though somewhat more diplomatically than my shorter version.
Last week, Ai, an internationally known artist, was finally released on bail after being picked up in a Hong Kong airport three months ago and kept virtually incognito. He was charged officially with tax evasion, but he also has been a vocal political gadfly in China. Ai has been publicizing the names of students who died when their “tofu-construction” schools collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
The state news agency reported Ai, 54, was released because he had confessed to his crimes and because he was in poor health. Prior to his arrest, Ai, his family and his associates denied any tax evasion.
Hu, 37, was also released at the end of his a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence on Sunday, which apparently was his official release date. He had been put away for “inciting subversion” for his sharp criticism of the government’s human rights record preceding the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In an open letter published in 2007, Hu wrote:
The Olympics will be held in a country where there are no elections, no freedom of religion… where torture and discrimination are supported by a sophisticated system of secret police.
Hu and his wife documented their lives under police surveillance in a video that went viral later that year. He was tried and imprisoned in 2008.
Both men are under a form of house arrest. Hu’s house is under constant surveillance, and he cannot talk to
Continue reading Dissidents released just before Chinese premier visits the UK
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JISHOU, HUNAN — Take this news with a grain of salt, since it comes from official sources via The AP. Dissident artist Ai WeiWei, who has been detained for the last two weeks, has been charged with tax evasion, destroying evidence and bigamy.
No figures were given regarding how much tax Ai owes (if any), and his family has denied the charges, anyway.
“He has made the government unhappy by speaking up for ordinary people,” Ai’s sister Gao Ge told The Associated Press. “Now the government wants to get him back.”
Ai has been openly critical of government officials, challenging them through China’s own legal system to uphold constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and equal protection under the law. He was a public supporter of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who is serving a 11-year sentence in China for “inciting subversion of state power.” (As in co-authoring Charter ’08, a call for more democracy in China. Very subversive. Yeah.)
The government newspaper Wen Wei Po, which is published in Hong Kong, has been smearing Ai as part of the government’s efforts to discredit him. In addition to the tax evasion charge, he is being held for allegedly destroying papers about his taxes, for bigamy and for spreading pornography over the Internet.
Ai is married, but has a child from a previous relationship. Everybody in his family is cool with it, and the whole situation is public knowledge. The New Yorker‘s readers even know about it. As for the porn, well, he’s an artist. According to The AP, Ai photographed himself in the nude with a stuffed animal covering his privates. Considering Ai’s portly physique, the photo is more art than porn, but maybe China’s politicos get off on that sort of thing.
(Incidentally, the stuffed animal was a “grass mud horse,” a mythical llama-like
Continue reading Chinese authorities charge Ai WeiWei with tax evasion, bigamy
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JISHOU, HUNAN — Chinese authorities have apparently detained artist Ai WeiWei, after they prevented him from flying overseas from Hong Kong’s airport on Sunday. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Artist Ai WeiWei (AP file photo)
Following the public protests in several Middle Eastern and North African countries, China’s political bosses have been rounding up dissidents left and right, in an effort to quell any similar movements here.
Ai has had several run-ins with authorities already. He was blocked from attending the ceremony awarding Liu Xiaobo (who is in prison) the Nobel Peace Prize, one of his art studios near Shanghai was bulldozed, and in recent weeks, the cops have visited his offices and studios several times.
The artist, who designed the Olympic Bird’s Nest Stadium, had been keeping a running tally of dissident detentions on a Twitter feed that had 70,000 followers. I guess the politicos didn’t like that many people knowing what they’re up to.
The AP has the story, though The Guardian has a more detailed one.
Incidentally, the Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of the press and freedom of expression. It’s just applied
Continue reading Prominent Chinese dissident artist Ai WeiWei “disappears”
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JISHOU, HUNAN — Beijing artist Ai WeiWei is a vocal critic of China’s Communist Party. While party officials have not arrested him (yet), they seem to take special glee in making his life miserable.
On Tuesday, government officials authorized the demolition of Ai’s newly built artists’ studio in a village outside Shanghai.
The link above will take you the complete article at The New York
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JISHOU, HUNAN — Chinese dissident Liu XiaoBo received the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Friday, in absentia since he is still serving an 11-year prison sentence in China.
The Chinese government was far from happy with the international attention paid Liu, who co-authored Charter ’08, a manifesto for democratic reforms in the Middle Kingdom. Foreign TV news coverage was blacked out, major news sites like the BBC and CNN were blocked, and any mentions of the award on domestic sites were rapidly deleted by the government’s army of censors.
But netizens here are used to government censorship, and they have developed their own sly ways of getting their points across without being overt. One example is the “grass mud horse,” a mythical llama-like creature whose name in Chinese sounds much like telling someone to have sex with his mother. (Cuss words are usually censored in the media here. Well, the Chinese ones, anyway.)
Danwei.org reports that admirers of Liu have been posting tributes on Twitter to other people surnamed Liu. The tributes have a double meaning — praise of Liu XiaoBo and also the other figure sharing his family name. here are some examples. Their names are linked to Wikipedia articles about them.
From @pufei (蒲飞):
The person I most admire has the surname Liu. He has won many awards from overseas organizations. His work is popular at home and abroad. His honest face inspires a feeling of warmth. He is quite concerned with the situation of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. His name is Lau Ching-wan (刘青云)
From @VicCh:
Essay: The person I admire most — “The person I most admire has the surname Liu. He has won major international prizes, and his deeds have inspired a fighting spirit in his countrymen. Although for a time he vanished from our sight, I believe his spirit will live
Continue reading Chinese netizens evade censorship about Nobel winner Liu XiaoBo
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[Updated November 7.]
JISHOU, HUNAN — The recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Liu XiaoBo of China, is still in prison serving out an 11-year sentence for “inciting subversion.” His wife is confined — unwillingly — to her Beijing home. Liu’s brothers are under close observation. A noted Chinese artist, Ai WeiWei, has been prevented from leaving China.
Get the picture?
Liu XiaoBo
Liu’s “crime,” according to Beijing, is his involvement in writing Charter ’08. The document, signed by thousands of Chinese, calls for a multi-party political system and guarantees of human rights already included in the Chinese constitution.
That the Nobel committee selected Liu for the Peace Prize has China’s party leaders very pissed off, since it calls attention to his status as a political prisoner. Despite calls from international leaders to release him, Beijing continues to keep him in prison, and his family members in China.
It means that prize itself will not be handed out to anyone. From the BBC:
It also appears likely that the prize itself will not be handed out during the ceremony because no-one from Liu Xiaobo’s family has said they can attend, the Nobel committee secretary says.
The $1.4m (£900,000) award can be collected only by the recipient or close family members.
Last month, China sent diplomatic communications to many European nations, advising them there would be “consequences” if they attended the ceremony on Friday. Again, according to the BBC, only six nations so far have indicated they will boycott the ceremony: China, Russia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Cuba and Morocco.
[UPDATE: According to the BBC, 44 countries have indicated their representatives will attend, while 19 (China Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco ) have said they will not,
Continue reading Nobel ceremony is Friday – guess who won’t be there
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