Legal News

Chinese Dissident Blogger Stands Trial for Subversion

By Dan Slater

On December 27, Chinese security agents dragged Hu Jia and his wife him from their apartment complex, called Freedom city. Hu, a prominent blogger and human rights activist, had been disseminating information about peasant protests, dissidents and other issues often censored in the Chinese media. At different times, Hu and his wife, also a blogger, were under house arrest. During one confinement, Hu videotaped state security officers loitering outside his apartment in a short documentary he titled “Prisoners in Freedom City.”

Today, Hu (pictured) stood trial on subversion charges in a three-hour proceeding that centered on whether his public criticism of the ruling Communist Party represented a threat to the state. According to reports, Hu, 34, has publicly condemned the Party for failing to fulfill its promises to improve its rights record before the Olympics. A verdict is possible within a week. Here’s the NYT report.

Earlier this month we posted on one of Hu’s blogger friends, Teng Biao, a law professor and alleged “activist Beijing lawyer,” who, following Hu’s arrest, went missing on March 7. After two days in custody, Teng was released, but refused to discuss his detention, saying the authorities had cautioned him against speaking out.

Hu’s lawyer, Li Fangping, said that prosecutors presented as evidence six unspecified essays written by Hu and two interviews he conducted with foreign radio outlets. (Here’s one of those interviews, from Radio Free Asia.) “We believe his articles are expressing peaceful views that do not concern state security but that represent criticism of the current system,” said Li, who was detained in 2006 in connection with his representation of Chen Guangcheng, a peasants right activist.

Hu’s short trial coincided with a news conference held by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Asked about Hu’s case, Wen denied that the government was trying to silence dissent. “As for critics’ view that China is trying to increase its efforts to arrest dissidents ahead of the Olympic Games, I think all these accusations are unfounded,” Wen said. Meanwhile, a study done by the Dui Hua Foundation, a nonprofit group based in San Francisco, shows that the number of Chinese arrested in 2007 on suspicion of political crimes, like subversion, rose to the highest level in eight years.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 18, 2008 (boomark / email).