{"id":1576,"date":"2014-06-16T16:08:50","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T16:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=1576"},"modified":"2014-06-16T16:08:50","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T16:08:50","slug":"tienchi-martin-liao%ef%bc%9acreating-a-disturbance-in-a-public-place-causing-serious-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/tienchi-martin-liao%ef%bc%9acreating-a-disturbance-in-a-public-place-causing-serious-disorder","title":{"rendered":"Tienchi Martin-Liao\uff1a\u201cCreating a Disturbance in a Public Place, Causing Serious Disorder\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Tienchi Martin-Liao \/ May 28, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

A new period of persecution in China.<\/p>\n


\nTiananmen May 1989<\/p>\n

Student protest in Tiananmen Square, May 1989 Photo: Robert Croma via Flickr<\/p>\n

Although news articles about Nevadan rancher Cliven Bundy\u2019s confrontation with the U.S. government were blocked in China, people were still eager to read about it through proxy servers. It\u2019s inspiring to know that, even in a free country with rule of law, one has to fight to protect his own rights and freedoms. Still, the quintessence of the Chinese take on the story leans on a quote falsely-attributed to Thomas Jefferson: \u201cThe greatest danger to Chinese freedom is a government that ignores the constitution.\u201d But, unlike Bundy, since people in China are not allowed to possess weapons, when their rights are violated their only option is to submit a petition to the government in Beijing, which is a painful and thorny process.<\/p>\n

In recent months, international scholars have joined the petition army asking the Beijing regime to free detained Chinese writers and dissidents. French Sinologist Jean-Philippe B\u00e9ja, with his American colleagues Perry Link Andrew Nathan, and others, have written a letter to President Xi Jinping, asking him to release \u201cOur fellow scholars Xu Youyu, Hao Jian, and Hu Shigen, and civil rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, and writer Liu Di.\u201d Swedish and Japanese professors and scholars have also joined the petition. German sinologists will follow.<\/p>\n

The five individuals named in the letter were arrested on May 6th for gathering in a private home to discuss the \u201cJune 4 event,\u201d otherwise known as the Tiananmen Square massacre, which happened a quarter century ago. The official reason for their criminal detention is \u201cCreating a disturbance in a public place, causing serious disorder.\u201d A ridiculous accusation, a bad joke.<\/p>\n

In the letter, the co-signed also appeal for the release of the journalist Gao Yu, who has been accused of an equally absurd crime: \u201cLeaking State secrets.\u201d A freelance journalist for the Chinese program of Germany\u2019s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Gao Yu was charged with sending the Communist party\u2019s \u201cDocument No. 9\u201d\u2013\u201cCircular Concerning the Current Situation in the Ideological Sphere\u201d to Hong Kong\u2019s Mingjing Monthly. Gao Yu\u2019s son was also been held in detention as leverage against his mother. After three weeks, he was released, but is not allowed to have contact with the outside world. Deutsche Welle General Director Peter Limbourg has sharply criticized Gao Yu\u2019s detention. Gao Yu\u2019s treatment was \u201cbeneath human dignity,\u201d Limbourg said, to parade her in front of millions of television viewers as a confessed criminal. He expressed grave concern about the fate of the 70-year-old journalist and stressed her right to a fair treatment complying with the rule of law.<\/p>\n

This is the third time that Gao has been arrested and detained. In 1989 she was detained for over a year because she showed sympathy to the student protestors in Tiananmen Square. In 1993 she was sentenced to six years in prison on the same charge she received this year, \u201cleaking state secrets.\u201d After serving five years of the sentence, she was released from jail in 1999 due to health reasons. This time her friends worry that the aged journalist will not survive the ordeal.<\/p>\n

As the anniversary of June 4th approaches there is an almost daily string of arrests and detentions; lawyers, writers, and scholars in China have all been targeted. Since friends having a meal together can be suspected of treason, police are allowed intervene and arrest them. On May 13, when the writers Wen Kejian, Mo Zhixu, Liu Junning and others were dining in a restaurant in Hangzhou, 30 or more policemen broke in and took them away. After interrogation, most of them have been released, but one still remains in police custody.<\/p>\n

On the 13th and 16th of May the lawyers Liu Shihui and Tang Jingling disappeared one after the other.<\/p>\n

On May 17, the author Fan Yanqiong was watching television with her daughter at home in Fuzhou when she heard loud and heavy pounding at the door. It was several men from the security bureau. When Fan refused to go with them to the police station, they shouted at her, \u201cWhat are you up to with those guys [human rights defenders]? Look at your miserable articles; it\u2019s better for you to take them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though human rights activists like Hu Jia and many others are still at home, they know the police could break in at any time and take them into custody. Their computers, laptops, and bank books will be confiscated.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pure terror at the moment in China. No privacy, no protection of basic rights. There\u2019s a rumor that the authority has a blacklist with 137 well-known human rights activists on it. Though it\u2019s not a list of \u201cmust be arrested,\u201d it could be a list of \u201cwanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s making the government so frantic and fearsome? The anniversary of June 4th. This date is like a curse. As long as the perpetrator\u2014the Chinese Communist Party\u2014denies committing the massacre in 1989, it will be haunted by the memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cBesiege the city, back to Tiananmen\u201d is the action call initiated by Wang Dan and Wang Juntao, student leaders during the 1989 Tiananmen protests who now live abroad. With this slogan they call for a worldwide commemoration of June 4th and this year there will be events on every continent to keep the memory alive. The Beijing government is extremely nervous, and any possible gathering on the mainland related to this topic will be quickly suppressed. Gao Yu and other persons who\u2019ve been arrested are victims of the regime\u2019s senseless and excessive panic.<\/p>\n

In the coming weeks, even more human rights activists may disappear. The question is whether or not they will be released afterwards, like what happened during the Jasmine Revolution three years ago. The international community can\u2019t wait till it\u2019s too late. The appeals must continue, and the random arrests must stop. The imprisonment of the internationally renowned journalist Gao Yu, the scholar Xu Youyu, and the lawyer Pu Zhiqiang on trumped-up charges is not only a personal disaster for the victims, but also a hard blow to humanity, and an insult to universal values.<\/p>\n

From:http:\/\/www.sampsoniaway.org\/fearless-ink\/tienchi-martinliao\/2014\/05\/28\/%E2%80%9Ccreating-a-disturbance-in-a-public-place-causing-serious-disorder%E2%80%9D-2\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tienchi Martin-Liao \/ May 28, 2014 A … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,95,91],"tags":[94,114,101,108],"views":1117,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1577,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576\/revisions\/1577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}