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China Cracks Down on TwentySomethings
4 Men Jailed in China Accused of 'Subverting State Power'
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
BEIJING, May 29 — Four young friends who met on university campuses to discuss their progressive politics and posted occasional essays on the Internet were sentenced here to long prison terms on Wednesday, accused of "subverting state power."
The Beijing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Wei, 28, and Jin Haike, 26, to 10 years. Yang Zilin, 32, and Zhang Honghai, 29, received sentences of 8 years, according to human rights groups and relatives of the men.
The case has long enraged human rights advocates, in part because the group's activities were so innocuous and in part because the four men have been imprisoned for over two years without a verdict in their trial.
Calling the verdict "sickening," Mr. Yang's wife, Lu Kun, said in a telephone interview: "The all said they were innocent. They said that everything they said and wrote was within the limits of what is permitted by the Constitution."
The four were first detained on March 13, 2001, just months after they had formed the "New Youth Study Group," a small coterie of like-minded friends who met occasionally outdoors at Beijing University to discuss political change in China, according to friends. The meetings involved well under a dozen people.
While group members generally agreed that China needed a multiparty democracy, press freedom and free elections, their discussions and their Internet essays were about political theory. The group had no plans to actively foment change.
Still, in China, such groups are supposed to be registered with the state.
The verdicts amply illustrate that in this one-party Communist dictatorship, publicly raising the notion of alternative political systems still carries unpredictable risks.
But many rights advocates and China scholars considered the harsh sentences curious, given that many of the liberal ideas expressed by the men in the "New Youth Study Group" are regularly published in academic journals here and are the fodder of discussions in university classrooms.
"It is ridiculous that the Chinese government considers the peaceful expression of one's views a subversive act," Ann Cooper, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. "These four young writers have already wasted more than two years of their lives detained in legal limbo."
Before their detentions Xu Wei was a reporter for The Consumer Daily, Jin Haike was a geologist, Yang Zili was a computer entrepreneur and Zhang Honghai was a freelance writer.
The four were detained after another member of the group informed China's State Security Bureau about their activities. It is unclear why the verdict took nearly two years to decide, since the initial hearing took place in September 2001.
While China's criminal procedure code stipulates time limits to prevent such extended detentions, these limits do not apply in cases where the police claim that breaches of state security are involved. Relatives of the men have not been able to visit them in prison, seeing them only at occasional courtroom hearings leading up to the trial, said Ms. Lu. She said the prosecutors had produced no new evidence since the initial hearing nearly two years ago.
She also added that the four seemed to be in poor physical health, having lost weight while in jail. Xu Wei, who received a 10-year sentence, became very agitated in the courtroom, claiming he had been beaten and denied his right to see a lawyer.
"He said he didn't plan to go on living and lunged at the trial stand," said Ms Lu. "About five or six police officers jumped on him and dragged him away."
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
BEIJING, May 29 — Four young friends who met on university campuses to discuss their progressive politics and posted occasional essays on the Internet were sentenced here to long prison terms on Wednesday, accused of "subverting state power."
The Beijing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Wei, 28, and Jin Haike, 26, to 10 years. Yang Zilin, 32, and Zhang Honghai, 29, received sentences of 8 years, according to human rights groups and relatives of the men.
The case has long enraged human rights advocates, in part because the group's activities were so innocuous and in part because the four men have been imprisoned for over two years without a verdict in their trial.
Calling the verdict "sickening," Mr. Yang's wife, Lu Kun, said in a telephone interview: "The all said they were innocent. They said that everything they said and wrote was within the limits of what is permitted by the Constitution."
The four were first detained on March 13, 2001, just months after they had formed the "New Youth Study Group," a small coterie of like-minded friends who met occasionally outdoors at Beijing University to discuss political change in China, according to friends. The meetings involved well under a dozen people.
While group members generally agreed that China needed a multiparty democracy, press freedom and free elections, their discussions and their Internet essays were about political theory. The group had no plans to actively foment change.
Still, in China, such groups are supposed to be registered with the state.
The verdicts amply illustrate that in this one-party Communist dictatorship, publicly raising the notion of alternative political systems still carries unpredictable risks.
But many rights advocates and China scholars considered the harsh sentences curious, given that many of the liberal ideas expressed by the men in the "New Youth Study Group" are regularly published in academic journals here and are the fodder of discussions in university classrooms.
"It is ridiculous that the Chinese government considers the peaceful expression of one's views a subversive act," Ann Cooper, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. "These four young writers have already wasted more than two years of their lives detained in legal limbo."
Before their detentions Xu Wei was a reporter for The Consumer Daily, Jin Haike was a geologist, Yang Zili was a computer entrepreneur and Zhang Honghai was a freelance writer.
The four were detained after another member of the group informed China's State Security Bureau about their activities. It is unclear why the verdict took nearly two years to decide, since the initial hearing took place in September 2001.
While China's criminal procedure code stipulates time limits to prevent such extended detentions, these limits do not apply in cases where the police claim that breaches of state security are involved. Relatives of the men have not been able to visit them in prison, seeing them only at occasional courtroom hearings leading up to the trial, said Ms. Lu. She said the prosecutors had produced no new evidence since the initial hearing nearly two years ago.
She also added that the four seemed to be in poor physical health, having lost weight while in jail. Xu Wei, who received a 10-year sentence, became very agitated in the courtroom, claiming he had been beaten and denied his right to see a lawyer.
"He said he didn't plan to go on living and lunged at the trial stand," said Ms Lu. "About five or six police officers jumped on him and dragged him away."
Why so harsh?
China's government has always been a bunch of tugs and they will always be a bunch of thugs. 
? No, what aren't you using 
?
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