Retired senior cadres issue bold appeal for jailed China democracy activist

(TibetanReview.net, Jan27, 2010)  Four senior Communist Party officials in their 80s and 90s known for their liberal views have issued a daring letter, urging party and government leaders in China to reconsider the verdict and sentence against prominent democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, reported AP and other news services Jan 24-25. Liu, one of the main authors of Charter 08, was sentenced to an 11-year term on Dec 25, 2009 for allegedly "inciting subversion of state power".

The letter was written by Hu Jiwei, a former chief of People's Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

He Fang, honorary member of the academic committee at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was direct when asked what the purpose of the letter he had signed was. "To reverse the verdict and to find that Liu is not guilty and to release him," AP quoted him as saying in a phone interview. "Also, to safeguard the constitution and the rights of freedom of speech."

The other signers were reported to be Li Pu, a former deputy chief of the official Xinhua News Agency, and Dai Huang, a former Xinhua senior reporter.

RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty online Jan 25 quoted the letter as saying, "if the democracy, the rule of law, and the human rights that we old comrades have struggled for our entire lives is cast aside, then our hearts will never be at peace."

The strongly worded open letter was also reported to say that if the authorities violate the Chinese Constitution, if they don't understand the party's history, cannot draw a difference between right and wrong, and manufacture unjust cases, then the image of the nation will be seriously tarnished.

A copy of the appeal appeared on the website of the independent Chinese branch of the worldwide PEN club of writers.

Charter 08 called for a “federal republic” of China with multiparty democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights. It was originally signed by 303 intellectuals, activists, and others when released online on Dec 9, 2008.

Meanwhile, AP reported Jan 25 that China had released on Jan 25 Zhao Shiying, known by his pen name of Zhao Dagong, after he was taken into custody from his home in Shenzhen on Jan 11. He was the secretary-general of the Independent Chinese PEN Center and a signatory to Charter 08.