Category Archives: Headlines

Ding Jiaxi: Autocracy Must Perish — A Statement on Court

2023-04-09

Counting from the 1911 Revolution (Hsinhai Revolution), more than 110 years have passed. After several generations of sacrifices, the Chinese people are still living in a state of political oppression, economic control, and ideological enslavement. The dictator and his privileged interest group have constantly made use of high-tech means to strengthen their autocratic rule. But the civilization is propelling the course of history with a powerful force; a battle between democracy and autocracy is unfolding; their lifelong autocracy and long-term delusion of one-party dictatorship are coming to an end, and China’s social transformation is approaching day by day. Continue reading

XU Zhiyong: A Beautiful China – A Statement on Court

I want to have a dream, a beautiful China, with beauty and liberty, fairness and happiness. It will be a democratic China. The world will still be the world of all people over the world. It will not be a land ruled by one clan or one party, but really a country by the people, with its power from the votes, not from the guns. Continue reading

An Open Letter to Wang Zheng, Director of Zhejiang Prison Administration, on the protection of Lü Gengsong’s human rights and interests

Dear Director Wang Zheng,

Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC), PEN America, and PEN International are writing to you to draw your attention to the case of Mr. Lü Gengsong, a member of ICPC.  Mr. Lü is serving his sentence in Huzhou Changhu Prison, which is under your administration. Mr. Lü is 67 years old and is serving an 11-year prison sentence. It is reported that he has been repeatedly abused by a prison officer in various ways, his legal rights have been seriously violated, and his physical and mental health is worrying. For this reason, we ask your bureau to investigate and deal with it and ensure Mr. Lü ‘s basic rights and humane treatment in accordance with the law.

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She Is Not Alone – A Joint Statement

She Is Not Alone
– A Joint Statement

The undersigned PEN centers and individuals are expressing our solidarity with Ms. Geling Yan, a prominent American-Chinese author residing in Berlin, for her struggle to restore her credit against Chinese state power. As shown in her open letter attached, Chinese authorities have suppressed her freedoms of expression and of the press in China, and been extending their long-arm censorship beyond through China’s expanding economic and political powers. We are calling the writers, journalists, publishers, distributors and media of conscience to support Ms. Yan’s One-Person-against-A-State struggle Continue reading

Where There Is Life, There Is Hope – Briefings on the Ninth Congress of ICPC and Its Administration Changes

Where There Is Life, There Is Hope

– Briefings on the Ninth Congress of ICPC and Its Administration Changes

From April 29 to May 13, 2020, the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) held online the ninth congress of its Membership Assembly. 82 of its 153 voting members signed up to attend the congress. The membership assembly held four plenary sessions, approved the work and financial reports submitted by the Board of Directors, and elected the new Board according to its Charter. Among 11 candidates, nine were elected as the directors. They are Mr. ZHAO Shiying, Mr. LI Hai, Mr. ZHAO Changqing, Ms. LI Jianhong, Mr. XU Yonghai. Ms. LIU Di, Mr. LIU Zhengqing, Mr. Song TAN and Mr. PEI Yiran. Mr. DU Daobin and Mr. SUN Honglu were elected as alternate directors. Eight of them are based in China mainland though the human rights situation there have been getting worse with 13 of their colleagues of ICPC members still imprisoned, including Mr. ZHANG Guiqi (aka LU Yang), the 12th candidate who have been detained for suspision of “inciting subversion” by the police in Shandong Province since May 1 before the ICPC election. Continue reading

Nearly 1,000 Writers and Linguists Sign Open Letter Demanding China Release Tibetan Language Advocate

Today marks four years since Tashi Wangchuk was secretly detained for his work advocating for Tibetan language rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2020

(New York, NY) – PEN America released an open letter signed by nearly 1,000 writers, linguists, translators, and language rights advocates calling for the immediate release of Tashi Wangchuk. Exactly four years ago today, on January 27, 2016, Chinese officials secretly detained Wangchuk for his activism on Tibetan language rights. In 2018, after a one-day trial, he was sentenced to five years in prison on false charges of “inciting separatism.” PEN America has long led a global campaign for Wangchuk’s release.

“We are deeply concerned that Tashi’s arrest and trial have been marked by a lack of due process, including the fact that Tashi was reportedly tortured prior to his trial,” the letter reads. “We believe that the right of everyone to learn, teach and develop their native language must be protected. As such, we call upon the government of the People’s Republic of China to release Tashi Wangchuk, and to honor its own domestic and international obligations to uphold ethnic minorities’ rights to learn and develop their own spoken and written languages.”

“The freedom to write is meaningless without the freedom to speak one’s own language, and PEN America vehemently supports linguistic and cultural rights,” said author Jennifer Egan, PEN America’s president. “Tashi has been unjustly arrested and detained for advocating on behalf of Tibetan speakers throughout China who wish to communicate freely and understand each other. We demand his immediate release, and we demand that his calls for linguistic freedom be satisfied.”

Chinese officials used Wangchuk’s participation in a New York Times documentary and article to charge him with “inciting separatism” in 2016. Wangchuk, who has denied ever calling for separatism, has long been a peaceful advocate for Tibetan language rights, and has advocated for the use of the Tibetan language in both government offices and in education. Chinese officials have severely curtailed the ability of schools and public institutions to teach the Tibetan language and have instituted harsh assimilation tactics that infringe on Tibetans’ linguistic rights.

“Tashi’s continued imprisonment and harsh treatment at the hands of Chinese authorities is a stain on China’s government and its unfulfilled promises of securing the linguistic rights of minority groups,” said James Tager, deputy director of free expression research and policy at PEN America, which organized the open letter. “Tashi’s peaceful advocacy for the Tibetan language is, at its core, advocacy for a universal human impulse: the right to use and celebrate one’s mother tongue. For that, he has been treated like a criminal. Tashi has never had a fair trial, and every day he is imprisoned is a day he is unjustly deprived of due process and his freedom.”

Prior to his arrest, Tashi had attempted to sue the Chinese government to restore the use of the Tibetan language in Yushu prefecture, a predominantly Tibetan populated area outside the official Tibetan Autonomous Region. While that earned him an international reputation, it led to reprisals from the Chinese government, including his eventual imprisonment. Tashi was held for months without his family being notified, and his right to access a lawyer reportedly remains severely curtailed.

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Michel Anne-Frederic DeGraff, Linguistics Society of America:
“The Chinese government’s effort to label Tashi’s linguistic advocacy as ‘separatism’ is something that strikes at the heart of linguistic study. Simply put, advocacy for one’s native language is no crime. On the contrary, it’s a basic human right. As linguists, we also know that teaching children in their native language is fundamentally a matter of educational best practice, as it provides them with the best tools for effective literacy and for quality education in all subject matters. The LSA is proud to have signed the petition for Tashi’s release, not only because of the moral urgency of calling for his release, but because we recognize the clear benefits of the sort of native-language education that Tashi was advocating. We do hope that Tashi will be freed and that he will be able to continue helping his community.”

Paula M. Krebs, Modern Language Association:
“As members of the MLA community, we understand that preserving a language is vital to preserving a culture. And we recognize that freedom of expression is fundamental to the pursuit of education and equality for all people. The continued imprisonment of Tashi Wangchuk has broad implications for the increasing suppression of these basic rights in China and for free expression worldwide. To put it simply: linguistic rights are human rights.”

Catrina Wessels, PEN Afrikaans:
“PEN Afrikaans unreservedly joins the call for Tashi Wangchuk’s release. We believe strongly that linguistic diversity should be preserved and that peaceful language advocacy, conducted entirely within the parameters of local and international laws, should be celebrated, not punished.”

Source: https://pen.org/press-release/nearly-1000-writers-and-linguists-sign-open-letter-demanding-china-release-tibetan-language-advocate/

Chinese Rights Lawyer Jiang Tianyong Allowed Home Visit, Still ‘Not Free’

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan have allowed prominent human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong to return to his parents’ home, three days after his release at the end of a two-year jail term. Continue reading

Chinese activist Liu Feiyue given five years’ jail for ‘inciting subversion’

Xi Jinping takes a public oath of allegiance to the Constitution in the Great Hall of the People 13th National People’s Congress, Beijing, China Liu Feiyue is one of many Chinese human rights activists who have been swept up in Xi Jinping’s crackdown on dissent. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Flawed trial shows how Beijing abuses the judicial system to silence dissent, says Amnesty International

The founder of a prominent Chinese civil and human rights website has been sentenced to five years in prison for inciting state subversion, according to human rights organisations. Continue reading