{"id":2157,"date":"2014-07-15T14:14:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T14:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=2157"},"modified":"2014-07-16T18:55:35","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T18:55:35","slug":"tienchi-martin-liao%ef%bc%9aa-grim-harbinger-for-the-democratic-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/tienchi-martin-liao%ef%bc%9aa-grim-harbinger-for-the-democratic-movement","title":{"rendered":"Tienchi Martin-Liao\uff1aA Grim Harbinger for the Democratic Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14px;color: #444444;line-height: 1.7\">by Tienchi Martin-Liao \/ September 25, 2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Classic charges, plus new offenses, facilitate a wave of arrests designed to smother free speech in China.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/07\/Charles_Xue_Confession1-e1379431359953.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2159\" alt=\"Charles_Xue_Confession1-e1379431359953\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/07\/Charles_Xue_Confession1-e1379431359953.png\" width=\"200\" height=\"122\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Charles Xue Confession<br \/>\nChinese American businessman and blogger Charles Xue confesses to soliciting prostitutes on State TV. Photo: TheGuardian via YouTube.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInciting subversion of state power\u201d is the most frequently used <!--more-->charge against dissidents in China. Liu Xiaobo, Li Bifeng, Chen Wei, Yang Tongyan, and many others, have all been sentenced to 10 or more years in prison for this crime, and the verdict is always the same. The revised criminal law of 1997 changed the notorious \u201ccounter-revolutionary crime\u201d into this new term and embedded it in Article 105, Paragraph 2. Under this paragraph it reads:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA person who incites to subvert the state\u2019s political power or to overthrow the socialist system by starting a rumor, slander or any other means shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, public surveillance, or deprivation of political rights; ringleaders or the persons whose crimes are severe shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since its implementation, the authority has used this accusation to suppress freedom of speech. Anyone who has written critical articles, satirical political texts, or even subtle poems can be persecuted under this law. Journalists, writers, and artists are especially endangered.<\/p>\n<p>Other accusations, like \u201cendangering national security\u201d (Hailaite Niyazi, 15 years) or \u201cinciting separatism\u201d are often used against Uyghurs (Nurmuhemmet Yasin,10 years) and \u201csplitting the country, leaking state secrets\u201d is only applied to minorities (Memetjan Abdulla, life). For his part, the blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng received a peculiar accusation: \u201cIntentional destruction of property and mob to disturb traffic order.\u201d Everyone knows that Chen displeased local officials when he criticized their implementation of forced abortions and sterilization of women in a nearby village. However, in the eyes of the villagers and the western world Chen is a hero and a courageous human rights defender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEconomic crime \u201d or tax fraud, is also used to accuse dissident intellectuals, such as the artist Ai Weiwei, or religious people, who print and disseminate bibles.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sampsoniaway.org\/fearless-ink\/2013\/09\/25\/a-grim-harbinger-for-the-democratic-movement\/\" target=\"_blank\">For detail please visit here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Tienchi Martin-Liao \/ September 25, 2 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/tienchi-martin-liao%ef%bc%9aa-grim-harbinger-for-the-democratic-movement\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[35,110,91],"tags":[37,614,1343,616,1348,615],"views":1100,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157"}],"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=2157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2161,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions\/2161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}