{"id":342,"date":"2014-05-15T00:48:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T00:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=342"},"modified":"2014-05-15T00:48:11","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T00:48:11","slug":"an-open-letter-to-xi-jinping-regarding-illegal-detention-of-chinese-scholars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/an-open-letter-to-xi-jinping-regarding-illegal-detention-of-chinese-scholars","title":{"rendered":"An Open letter to Xi Jinping regarding illegal detention of Chinese scholars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>\u00a0TIANANMEN INITIATIVE PROJECT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>\u7eaa\u5ff5&#8221;\u516d\u56db&#8221; 25\u5468\u5e74\u5021\u8bae<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>An Open letter to Xi Jinping regarding illegal detention of Chinese scholars<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>05\/13\/2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>President Xi Jinping<\/p>\n<p>Mr President:<\/p>\n<p>We have learned that our fellow scholars Xu Youyu, Hao Jian, and Hu Shigen, and civil rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and writer Liu Di, were criminally detained for \u201ccreating a disturbance in a public place, causing serious disorder\u201d. The alleged reason for their detention was that on 3 May they were among the fifteen participants in a \u201c 2014 Workshop on Beijing\u2019s June Fourth\u201d that took place in a private apartment in Beijing.<\/p>\n<p>These detentions raise many disturbing questions. For example, how can a private meeting \u201ccreate disturbance in a public place\u201d? These citizens were detained because they discussed an event that took place twenty-five years ago and that had a profound impact on the course of Chinese history. How can a discussion among scholars, lawyers and writers at someone\u2019s home be considered a \u201cdisturbance\u201d? As you have often reminded your Japanese counterparts, to be strong, a nation must confront its past. As scholars who have devoted our lives to the study of China, we are convinced that this country will only benefit from a free exchange of ideas that helps to establish historical truth.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Three days after these citizens\u2019 detention, we learned that veteran journalist Gao Yu was criminally detained for \u201cleaking State secrets.\u201d She has admitted to having sent a Party document abroad. But, since the end of the Cultural Revolution, the separation of the state and the Party in China has been a fundamental principle. How, then, can a \u201cParty document\u201d be considered a \u201cstate\u201d secret ?<\/p>\n<p>It is obvious that none of the above-mentioned citizens has committed a criminal offense. Their detention is an injustice to loyal Chinese citizens as well as a harm to the image of China at a time when it is becoming a great power. We therefore ask you respectfully to correct this mistake, and to free unconditionally the citizens who have been wrongfully detained.<\/p>\n<p>Jean-Philippe B\u00e9ja<br \/>\nSenior Research Fellow at CNRS Paris, CEFC Hong Kong<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Cheng<br \/>\nProfessor, City University, Hong Kong<\/p>\n<p>Michel Bonnin<br \/>\nProfessor, EHESS, Paris<\/p>\n<p>Jean-Pierre Cabestan<br \/>\nProfessor, Baptist University, Hong Kong<\/p>\n<p>Steven Levine<br \/>\nUniversity of Montana<\/p>\n<p>Perry Link<br \/>\nUniversity of California, Riverside<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Nathan,<br \/>\nProfessor, Columbia University, New York<\/p>\n<p>Xiao Qiang<br \/>\nBerkeley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0TIANANMEN INITIATIVE PROJECT \u7eaa\u5ff5&#8221;\u516d &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/an-open-letter-to-xi-jinping-regarding-illegal-detention-of-chinese-scholars\">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":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,95],"tags":[94,101,103],"views":4181,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342"}],"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=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}