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China Releases Prominent Activists
July 5, 2011
By: Carlos Aramayo | Printer Friendly

On June 22, BBC News reported that the internationally renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was freed by the Chinese authorities after being detained since April 2011.  Ai, a critic of the Chinese system, was taken into custody on April 3, and held in an unknown location incommunicado. Ai is now reportedly forbidden from leaving Beijing without permission and is not allowed to use Twitter, a micro-blogging service which he previously used prolifically. In addition, the Chinese government barred him from discussing his case publicly. Chinese authorities say Ai confessed to tax evasion offences, however, lawyers point out that no formal charges have been brought against the artist. Ai is currently the most high-profile target of the government's nationwide crackdown on bloggers, lawyers and activists aimed at derailing potential democratic uprisings like those in the Middle East and North Africa.

Once Ai was released, the Chinese foreign ministry repeated allegations reported earlier by state media that a company linked to Ai had evaded a "huge amount" of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents. According to the Guardian, the Beijing local taxation bureau informed Ai that he owed around 5 million yuan in unpaid taxes and that he would be fined approximately 7 million yuan. On June 27, Chinese tax bureau officials reportedly delivered the notice to Ai and asked him to sign it in acknowledgment, however, he refused.  On June 26, prominent dissident Hu Jia was released from jail after three and a half years. Hu was imprisoned for his activism on behalf of issues pertaining to the environment and AIDS. His freedom had been repeatedly denied despite being diagnosed with hepatitis-B infection, Reuters reported.

Hu’s release appeared to be part of the Chinese government’s effort to push back on international condemnation that followed Ai’s incarceration. According to the Guardian, the Chinese police guarded entrances to Hu's apartment compound and patrolled the surrounding streets. In addition, Zeng Jinyan, Hu’s wife, was unreachable by phone or the internet. On June 24, Zeng told CNN that the Chinese authorities started 24-hour surveillance on her several days before Hu's expected return. In an interview last December, Zeng predicted a virtual prisoner's life in their housing complex, called Freedom City. "As long as there's no democracy or the rule of law in China, our situation won't change at all," Zeng stated.

Hu was an early adopter of using blogs to spread his message, a method of protest that has become both ubiquitous and difficult for the Chinese authorities to control. The accusation that he had subverted state power was based in part on a caustic essay posted on his blog in which he detailed the torture of two people who protested the illegal seizure of their Beijing home. That essay broadly criticized the ruling Communist Party’s human rights record.

“Hu spread malicious rumors and committed libel in an attempt to subvert the state’s political power and socialist system,” stated the April 2008 court verdict against him, as quoted by the state-run Xinhua news service.

Activists welcomed both releases, but said the international community should not take the developments as signs of softening in the government's attitude toward its critics. Hu was freed only after he had completed his sentence for sedition. Ai was never formally indicted and was mysteriously released under a form of bail that restricts suspects' movements to their home city for one year.

Since late 2010, the Chinese government has engaged in a sweeping crackdown on activists. The crackdown intensified in early 2011, when the regime was jarred by popular protests against authoritarian regimes spreading across the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab movement prompted anonymous online calls for similar “Jasmine Revolution” protests in China.

For previous news on China, please see:
China Creates New Internet Regulatory Office

Sources:
BBC News – Ai Weiwei: Associates of Chinese artist 'also free'

CNN – Outspoken Chinese activists silent after release

Guardian UK – Ai Weiwei 'landed with £1m bill' from Chinese tax office

Reuters – Prominent China dissident Hu Jia freed from