Dissident Writer Interrogated for Publishing Critical Articles

The Chinese government stated categorically during the UN Universal Periodic Review of the country's human rights record just earlier this month that there is no censorship in China. But punishing a writer for criticizing government actions is censorship. — Sharon Hom, Executive Director of HRIC

Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that Zhejiang-based writer Wu Gaoxing (吴高兴) was interrogated by public security police for “defaming the reputation of state organs.”

On February 22, 2009, at 1:00 PM, public security officials from Linhai, Zhejiang, came to search Wu’s home and confiscated his computer before taking him away to the Linhai Public Security Bureau. Wu was interrogated for eight hours about three articles he recently published, and was released at 9:00 PM that evening. He was told that as punishment, he must surrender the 1,200 yuan that he earned for the articles and pay an additional fine of 3,000 yuan.

The following is a list of the three articles Wu published:

• "Put fairness first; let efficiency open the way; maintain parity" ("公平优先、效率开路、兼顾平均"), published in the October 2008 issue of Ren Yu Ren Quan, an electronic journal published by HRIC, which criticized the Chinese government for causing great disparity between the rich and the poor in China by emphasizing efficiency in the economic development over the past 20 years at the expense of social equality.
• "The stability purchased with money will inevitably collapse because of money" ("以金钱求稳定者，其稳定必因金钱而崩溃"), run in the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily in late December 2008, which criticized the Chinese government suppression of "Charter 08." ("Charter 08" is the petition calling for political reform that has been signed by more than 8,000 Chinese.)
• "Sunshine Wages Fear Sunshine" ("阳光工资怕阳光"), published in the January 2009 issue of Beijing Spring, which pointed out that in not disclosing the salary raises that officials received, the government’s slogan of "building an honest and clean government" is but an empty one.

"The Chinese government stated categorically during the UN Universal Periodic Review of the country’s human rights record just earlier this month that there is no censorship in China. But punishing a writer for criticizing government actions is censorship," said Sharon Hom, executive director of HRIC. "It undermines the 'right to criticize and make suggestions to state organs and officials' as protected in the Chinese Constitution itself."

Wu has been a vocal critic of the Chinese government since 1989. On June 7, 1989, he led a public demonstration in Taizhou, Zhejiang, to protest the government crackdown on the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square three days earlier. He was sentenced to two years in prison for the crime of "spreading counter-revolutionary propaganda." In the 1994-1996 period, he was detained more than ten times for calling for the rehabilitation of the June 4 democracy movement. Wu is a signer of "Charter 08."

Wu said that times are hard for him and he simply does not have the means to pay the fines.

• "China Rejects UN Recommendations for Substantive Reform to Advance Human Rights; HRIC Summary," February 11, 2009,
  http://hrichina.org/public/contents/128130;
• "Chinese Authorities Continue to Suppress Charter 08; Number of Signers Exceeds 7,200," January 9, 2009,
  http://hrichina.org/public/contents/107728;
• "Independent Scholars Detained: Start of 2009 Crackdown?," December 9, 2008,
  http://hrichina.org/public/contents/85186;
• "Charter 08," English translation of the Charter by HRIC, December 9, 2008, http://hrichina.org/public/contents/85717.