China Formally Detains Sichuan Activist For ‘Subversion’ After Tiananmen Memorial Visit

Share on Google+

2015-04-07
image (9)Activist Chen Yunfei leads a protest against alleged pollution at a petrochemical plant in Pengzhou, in Sichuan province, March 6, 2015. Photo courtesy of an RFA listener

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have formally detained a prominent rights activist on subversion charges after he visited the grave of a victim of the 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, his lawyer said.

Chen Yunfei, 47, a former 1989 Tiananmen activist who has campaigned vigorously for human rights protections and against environmental pollution in the past two decades, was initially detained on March 25 near Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu.

He has been charged with “incitement to subvert state power” and “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” his lawyer Ran Tong told RFA, who said the charges are contradictory, if applied to a single individual.

“This just shows that they just detained him in a big hurry, and now they can’t find excuses,” Ran said. “The charge of picking quarrels and stirring up trouble implies that you are deliberately disturbing public order, but not that you have an aim.”

“Incitement to subvert state power has a clear motive implied; that you are trying to overthrow the political system,” he said.

Ran, who recently visited Chen in a police-run detention center, said the charges are a form of official retaliation for Chen’s years of activism.

“How can a regular person overthrow state power? Only someone as high-ranking as [former security czar] Zhou Yongkang would be able to do that,” Ran said.

“President Xi… told us that we should have curbs on official power, and Chen Yunfei was responding to his call,” he said.

“We are talking about a single individual trying to instigate some sort of monitoring of officialdom, and someone in officialdom taking offense at this,” Ran said.

“Why do they pin such big charges on him? Are citizens forbidden to speak out? This is incomprehensible,” he said.

 
For detail please visit here