Articles

In this article (Chinese only), Shanghainese rights activist Feng Zhenghu (冯正虎) narrates how he sent a letter to CPC Secretary-General and PRC President Xi Jinping (习近平) in December 2012, with a complaint on how he spent 268 days in illegal detention in 2012, and what happened as a result.

In this article (Chinese only), rights defender and house church leader Xu Yonghai (徐永海) describes how at least five members of his Beijing-based house church were taken by the police on forced “travel” to the south of China. And at least five other members, including Xu himself, have been put under house arrest. Xu quotes Beijing dissident artist Yan Zhengxue (严正学) in describing the heavily-guarded city during the 18th Party Congress currently under way: “The repairmen, street cleaners, and street vendors of yore are now all sporting red armbands. Also on patrol are the grandpa reconnaissance units and bound-feet women security guards....”

On August 17, 2012, domestic security police disrupted a gathering of the Beijing Christian house church Divine Love Group of the Beijing Christian House Church. Xu Yonghai (徐永海), the head of Divine Love Group, was taken into a police vehicle for questioning, and an elder sister was prevented from attending the gathering. Xu writes of their experience in this article (Chinese only).

Wuhan dissident Qin Yongmin (秦永敏) and Wang Xifeng (王喜凤) were married in May 2012. However, authorities have persisted in refusing to issue a marriage certificate to the couple. In this article (Chinese only), Qin and Wang explain how they have had to terminate their pregnancy in order to avoid being accused of violating official family planning policy.

The 16 members of the Defenders of Lin Zhao’s Legacy have been announced as the recipients of the Fifth annual Promoting Progress in China Award from the Australia-based Qi’s Cultural Foundation. In their nomination for the Defenders of Lin Zhao’s Legacy, Hu Jie (胡杰), Ai Xiaoming (艾晓明), and Ai Weiwei (艾未未) write, “The Defenders of Lin Zhao’s Legacy have meticulously worked to preserve the legacy and spirit of Lin Zhao and her life over the past 30 years through thick and thin, allowing a strong voice criticizing China's authoritarian regime to be able to passed on to the people....”

This short article (Chinese only) describes Shanghai petitioner Wang Kouma’s determination to continue to fight his case despite being categorized as one of the five types of people accused by a Chinese expert of being used by the United States to interfere with China’s rise. The five types of people were listed in the July 31, 2012 People’s Daily article “What Are Real Challenges for China?” by Yuan Peng, head of the American Institute of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Liu Fanbi (刘凡必), a victim of financial fraud, was sentenced to five years on a trumped-up charge after he offended a procuratorate officer while trying to retrieve his losses that the authorities had confiscated from the criminals. Liu began petitioning to authorities at different government levels after his release. In March 2010, the local procuratorate office issued a written promise that it would return the money to Liu within one month. It has not done so to date. In this account (Chinese only), Liu equates his fate to that of an ant.

In this timeline, Guangdong-based legal activist Guo Feixiong (郭飞雄) (a.k.a. Yang Maodong [杨茂东]) chronicles the events that led up to the detention and release of several democracy activists who have become known as the "five gentlemen of Guangzhou who held placards."

Veteran dissident Qin Yongmin (秦永敏) was administratively detained for 10 days during the 2012 NPC/CPPCC Sessions by the Qingshan District Public Security Bureau in Wuhan, Hubei; he was then illegally detained an additional five days. Qin was illegally deprived of his right to meet with his family or contact those outside while he was detained. In this article on his experience, Qin writes that he has been detained 17 times since the beginning of 2012, resulting in a significant loss of property and severe physical and mental exhaustion.

[Qin Yongmin and Hu Shigen] Xu Yonghai (徐永海), a Beijing rights defender, describes the ordeal of two democracy activists who appealed for aid on behalf of Wang Guoqi, a Beijing democracy activist (who was imprisoned for 12 years) who was hospitalized: Qin Yongmin, from Wuhan, who also served 12 years in prison, was administratively detained for ten days, and Hu Shigen, from Beijing, who was imprisoned for 16 years, was struck by an unidentified motorcycle. Xu says that, as a Christian, he would use the love that comes from God to forgive the perpetrators and pray for Qin and Hu.

An essay by a member of the Guizhou Human Rights Symposium on Chen Xi’s (陈西) arrest and charge of endangering national security for publishing essays online supporting human rights. Mi states that as freedom of expression is protected by the China’s Constitution, and that what the authorities did to Chen once again shows that a citizen’s exercise of the rights enshrined in the Constitution can be viewed as criminal in China.

This appeal (CH), by Zhang Shanguang (张善光) of the Hunan Citizens online forum, to the Shaoyang government to provide redress and social benefits to Li Wangyang (李旺阳), who was imprisoned for 21 years for political reasons. The appeal gives the account of Li Wangyang, a worker-leader in the 1989 Democracy Movement, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for “counterrevolutionary propaganda,”and to another 10 years in 2001 on the for “subversion of