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Press Release (ICPC-4-ENG004)
November 11, 2009

ICPC Calls on President Obama to Pay Attention to Writers Imprisoned in China

On the eve of U.S. President Barack Obamas first state visit to China, Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) has sent a letter urging him to press the Chinese government for the release of all prisoners of conscience, including several of ICPC members.

The letter, signed by ICPC President Mrs. Tienchi Martin-Liao and Executive Secretary Dr. Yu Zhang, was delivered on Tuesday. It brings the special attention to the cases of three of ICPC members imprisoned, two of whom are suffering from severe health problems.

It is the mission of the 250 members of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, more than 60 percent of whom are located inside China, to fight for the freedom of expression in China and to protect our courageous colleagues who use their pen to prod China toward a more free and democratic path of development.

Dr. Liu Xiaobo, a Beijing-based prominent writer and ICPCs Honorary President serving as its president from 2003 to 2007, has been detained since December 8 last year for suspicion of inciting subversion of state power simply for his role in drafting Charter 08, an open letter cosigned so far by more than 10,000 Chinese citizens, calling for political reforms and human rights improvements, and also for his critical writings during recent years. On October 1st of this year, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling upon the Chinese government to immediately release Liu Xiaobo.

Mr. Yang Tongyan (aka Yang Tianshui), a Nanjing-based dissident writer, has been serving a sentence of 12 years imprisonment for subverting state power since 2005 and is now suffering from several diseases, including intestinal tuberculosis, tubercular peritonitis, diabetes, and nephritis. Mr. Zhang Jianhong (aka Li Hong), a Ningbo-based prominent writer, has been suffering from neurotrauma in a prison hospital since 2007 while serving a sentence of 6 years imprisonment since 2006, and his situation has been getting worse, particularly with both of his arms paralyzed. Both of Yang and Zhang are in urgent need of medical parole in order to receive proper treatments.

The letter urges President Obama to take the following actions during his upcoming trip to China:

1) Demand that the Chinese Government release all imprisoned writers and other prisoners of conscience.

2) Issue a response to the resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives calling for the immediate release of Mr. Liu Xiaobo.

3) Call upon the Chinese authorities to grant medical parole for Mr. Yang Tianshui and Mr. Zhang Jianhong.

For the full text of the letter, please see the attachment.

The Independent Chinese PEN is among 145 member centers of the International PEN, the oldest human rights organization and international literary organization. It aims to protect Chinese writers’ freedom of speech and freedom to write worldwide and advocates for the rights of Chinese writers and journalists who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted or harassed.

For more information, contact
Dr. Yu Zhang
Executive Secretary
Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC)
Tel: +46-8-50022792
Email: [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE（ICPC-4-ENG006）
For more information contact:

Larry Siems, PEN American Center, (212)334-1660 ext. 105, [email protected]
Yu Zhang, Independent Chinese PEN Center, +46-8-50022792, [email protected]

PEN Renews Calls for Liu Xiaobo’s Release

New York City, December 7, 2009—Writers in the United States and China today renewed their appeals for the immediate and unconditional release of Liu Xiaobo, who was arrested one year ago and is facing a possible 15-year prison term, calling the continued detention of the renowned dissident writer and PEN member “a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of expression” that “only reinforces doubts about China’s commitment to the rule of law.”

Liu Xiaobo, an internationally-recognized literary critic and political activist, was taken from his home on December 8, 2008, on the eve of the release of Charter 08, a groundbreaking manifesto and petition calling for political reform, greater human rights, and an end to one-party rule in China. He was held for six and a half months under “residential surveillance” at an unknown location before he was formally arrested and charged with “inciting subversion of state power” for his participation in the charter’s creation.

His pretrial detention period has been extended three times as police have sought to build a case against him, questioning and raiding the homes of colleagues and harassing many of the original 300 signatories to Charter 08. Liu Xiaobo is still being held at Beijing Detention Center No. 1, and there has been no announcement of a trial date. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 Chinese citizens have signed the Charter 08 petition despite the pressure on the documents creators and supporters.

“In the year that Liu Xiaobo has been in prison, Chinese authorities successfully suppressed all public observations of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, stifled popular demonstrations in Xinjiang, staged elaborate celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Chinese communist rule, and orchestrated events surrounding President Obama’s visit to restrain dissident voices and restrict the free exchange of information and ideas,” said Larry Siems, Director of the Freedom to Write and International Programs of PEN American Center. “These actions speak volumes about the state of freedom of expression in China. The continuing detention of Liu Xiaobo, who has worked tirelessly within the Chinese system since the mid-1980s to win political and human rights reforms, puts a particularly poignant and compelling human face on the Chinese government’s approach and policies. We condemn his continued detention unequivocally and continue to call on authorities to release him immediately.”

Liu Xiaobo is a past president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC), a center of the international writers’ organization that is doing on the ground advocacy for the right to freedom of expression inside of China.

“Arresting Liu Xiaobo on the eve of Human Rights Day last year was a direct hit on the faces of those who had been expecting the current Chinese regime to improve its human rights record in some way after Beijing Olympic Games,” commented Yu Zhang, ICPC’s Executive Secretary and Writers in Prison Committee Coordinator. “A year later, in the absence of strong international protests, the situation has become even worse. The authorities recently extended Liu’s detention and continue to reject the medical parole applications of two of our PEN colleagues who have been seriously ill in prison. We therefore call on
the international community to press even more strongly for their release.”

Five other PEN members are currently jailed in the country, including Shi Tao, Du Daobin and Zhang Lin, who spent four and a half years in prison before his early release on August 12, 2009. Zhang was detained again by the Public Security Bureau of Bangbu City in Anhui Province on December 3 for speaking with foreign media on behalf of his other PEN colleagues in prison.

Yang Tongyan (pen name Yang Tianshui) and Zhang Jianhong, two other ICPC members serving long prison sentences, are both suffering from serious ailments. Yang has been hospitalized in Nanjing Prison in Jiangsu Province with a fever, and is suffering from tuberculous intestinal inflammation. Zhang is suffering from muscular dystrophy, a condition that has led to partial paralysis and continues to worsen despite his transfer to the General Hospital of Zhejiang Prison in Hangzhou City. Both have been imprisoned on subversion charges.

It is cowardly for China to throw its intellectuals and writers into jail, said Tienchi Martin-Liao, ICPCs President. In order to protect their right to freedom of expression, our brave colleagues are willing to risk their physical freedom. But the authorities cannot put all people who want to express their own thoughts into prison. We are too many.

PEN American Center and the Independent Chinese PEN Center are among the 145 worldwide centers of International PEN, an organization that works to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere, to fight for freedom of expression, and represent the conscience of world literature. For more information on PENs work, please visit www.pen.org and www.chinesepen.org.

不久前听一位朋友讲起，最近国内有句流行语——“不说真话你会死啊？”

这句话真让人拍案叫绝，大可以收进当代《世说新语》。

本来，像“不干嘛干嘛你会死啊”这种说法，意思都是劝人改掉某种不良习惯。例如劝烟瘾大的人少抽烟——“不抽烟你会死啊？”，劝爱撒谎的人别老撒谎——“不撒谎你会死啊？”可如今这句话却正好反了过来，它是叫你改掉一种好习惯，叫你克服一种发自内心的正义冲动。刘亚洲在一篇文章里写道，中国的历史，就是一部改善从恶的历史。这句刚出炉的流行语提供了新例证。

“不说真话你会死啊？”这句话，那意思自然是对说真话的人泼冷水；不过再读之下，你又会觉得那未尝没有愤世嫉俗的成份，未尝没有反讽的意味。但毕竟，这句话不是对说真话的鼓励倡导。至少，它是对不说真话的一种辩护。

常见人把共产专制下讲真话比作安徒生童话《皇帝的新衣》。不过中国早已演过了《皇帝的新衣》，如今正上演的是续集。不只是小孩子，还有千千万万的成年人都喊出过皇帝没有穿衣服，一阵枪响，大家被迫闭上了嘴，然后皇帝继续光着身子巡视万民，就像什么都没发生过一样。不消说，众人的沉默起初是出于被迫，但时间久了，事情就会起变化。正义感是需要表达的，否则就会萎缩。被迫的谨慎在时间的侵蚀下有时竟会在无形中转变成一种习惯性的冷漠。一旦人们习惯于不说真话，他们就可能对那些仍然说真话的人感到不舒服，因为你的存在扰乱了他们苟且的安宁。还有一些人则已然屈服于暴政，你还在鼓励他打破沉默说真话呢，他却反过来劝你不要再说真话了；而他们这样说，据说都是为你好。他们的逻辑是，因为当局可恶而又强大，你说真话不会起任何作用，只会给自己和亲友招来麻烦，所以最明智的办法是不要说真话。你说你忍不下这口气，如鲠在喉，不吐不快。他就说，不说真话有什么大不了的，不说真话你会死啊？

说真话是否很重要？当然很重要。不错，我们常常为了自己的利益而不说真话。这不足为奇。令人称奇的是，我们竟然也常常为了说真话而不顾自己的利益。可见，人的说真话的冲动，是人的最本质的特性。是的，不说真话不会死，但是，不准人说真话就是不准人是人。从根本上看，说真话是和我们的福祉密切相关的。

《零八宪章》发布一周年了。迄今为止，签名人数已经过万。《零八宪章》签名已经成为六四以来最具规模也最具影响的运动，而且它还在持续发展。然而，想想八九期间千百万人的热情投入以及六四之后海内外华人的同仇敌忾，我们就该知道，还有许许多多和我们持有相同理念的人没有签名。没有签名的原因无非是恐惧和悲观：签名有什么用？除了可能招来麻烦；如果签名没有用，那又何必去签？

我这里要说的是，签名有用。我们需要不断地发声。如果你怀疑发声有什么用，想想不发声会是怎么样就清楚了。就像这次冯正虎事件，如果我们都不支持不呐喊，对当局也不抗议不批判；连同各国的媒体也都不采访不报道，那又将是怎样的局面啊？不要担心我们的声音太微弱，发声永远胜过不发声，而且是大大地胜过不发声；就如同任何一个正数，无论它多么小，都比零大无穷倍。鲍勃。肯尼迪曾说过：“一个人每次为一个理念而挺身而出，或为改进他人生活而努力，或向不公出击，他传递出的希望仅产生很小的波纹，而千百万不同能量产生的波纹互相交叉，就能汇聚成洪流，并可冲垮阻挡我们的最坚实的墻。”

适逢《北京之春》出刊200期，我引用了上面这段话，与读者、作者和杂志社同仁共勉。◆
－－－－－－
原载《北京之春》2010年1月号，总第200期。

For Press Release
December 10, 2009

ICPC Strongly Protests Beijing’s Recent Moves to Severely Punish Liu Xiaobo

Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC) has issued a Human Rights Day statement today to express its outrage against Beijing authorities for their recent moves toward the criminal prosecution and severe sentence for Dr. Liu Xiaobo, its Honorary President, calling on international and domestic communities to urge Chinese regime to correct such an injustice and release Dr. Liu immediately and unconditionally.

The statement goes as follow:

ICPC is outraged to have learnt that the Beijing Public Security Bureau submitted its Prosecution Recommendation of Dr. Liu Xiaobo’s case to the Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate last week, in which it was alleged under suspicion for the offence of “inciting subversion of state power” that “Liu Xiaobo had drafted Charter 08 together with others, clamouring to overthrow the socialist system, as his major crimes” to be prosecuted for a severe sentence. ICPC strongly protests this move and calls on international and domestic communities once again to urge Chinese regime to correct such an injustice as it is based on the abuse of evil laws as literary inquisition to flagrantly violate of the freedom of expression, and release Liu Xiaobo immediately and unconditionally.

Dr. Liu Xiaobo, an internationally-recognized literary critic and political commentator as well as ICPC’s former and Honorary President, has always upheld the principles of peace and rationality for China’s human rights improvement and democratization advancement through his writings unceasingly. He was taken away from his home raided by the Beijing police on December 8, 2008, on the eve of Human Rights Day, for his initiating and drafting Charter 08. He had been held for six and a half months under “residential surveillance” abused illegally by the police at an unknown location before he was formally arrested on June 23. He has been held until now after the police extended deadline for investigation thrice. It is particular outraged that Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate has obviously abused Articles 126 and 127 of “Criminal Procedure Law of People’s Republic of China” to have approved the extensions for investigation by taking Dr. Liu Xiaobo as a suspect at least in “the grave and complex cases that involve various quarters and for which it is difficult to obtain evidence” and “who may be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of ten years at least” , and so attempting to prosecute him toward a severe sentence for crimes of opinion.

It is well known that Charter 08 is a manifesto calling for bold reforms promoting democracy and human rights in China. Its pacific temper, rationality and constructiveness have earned more and more approval in China and abroad. More than 10,000 Chinese citizens have signed Charter 08. It is once again a bad case of literary inquisition that the Prosecution Recommendation by Beijing Public Security Bureau take this document as the main evidence to charge Liu Xiaobo with “inciting subversion of state power”, which is a typical example of that he who would hang his dog gives out first that it is mad.

ICPC issued an awarding statement on Human Rights Day last years that commented , “The offence of inciting subversion of state power defined by Article 105 (2) of Criminal Law of People’s Republic of China, is a major evil law in China that has created the contemporary literary inquisition. Since China revised its Criminal Law in 1997 when renaming the offence of counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement to that of inciting subversion of state power, the contemporary literary inquisition has neither disappeared with the abolition of counter-revolutionary offences, nor restrained due to the Chinese governments signature of UNs International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights a year later, but the doors of prisons have been opened even wider as this evil law has made even easier abuse of severe sentences. Hundreds of people have been imprisoned and sentenced for the offence of inciting subversion of state power. Dr. Liu Xiaobo, who participated in drafting this statement just a few days before his detention has been held for suspicion of the same offence and who is now facing the prosecution toward a severe sentence, is obviously the most recent victim of this evil law, but also one of the warriors who has been challenging the contemporary literary inquisition. ICPC reaffirms this stand and calls on international and domestic communities to press Chinese authorities for immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Liu Xiaobo, for abolishing this evil law to release ICPC members Shi Tao, Yang Tianshui, Li Hong, Du Daobin, Zhang Lin and other writers imprisoned ASAP, thus terminating the contemporary literary inquisition.

The Independent Chinese PEN is among 145 member centers of the International PEN, the oldest human rights organization and international literary organization. It aims to protect Chinese writers’ freedom of speech and freedom to write worldwise and advocates for the rights of Chinese writers and journalists who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted or harassed. For more information on ICPC’s work, please visit https://www.chinesepen.org/old-posts.